Serving Others: A winning strategy
The first sales school I ever attended was in Nashville, Tn, and the job was selling Bibles door to door. That’s a great way to learn humility by the way.
They taught us a technique called “the Friendly Act.” It went like this; when a person answered the door and was rude, you’d turn to leave, and then ask “is there anyway I can get a drink of water from you?”
IF they got you the water, a remarkable change took place in their attitude. They became noticeably more friendly.
It’s how God wired us up as humans; it’s almost impossible to do something kind for a person and not feel kinder toward them.
Try it. The next time you are angry with someone, do something physically nice (it must be an action, not just a thought). You’ll note a change in your attitude.
Joshua Becker writes that many people view life as a pyramid with those at the bottom serving those on top. The ones on bottom assume that joy and happiness is obtained by being served. But life is actually more fulfilling down below.
Becker says that real joy is found not in being served, but in choosing to serve. Is he right?
I have a friend who runs a ministry to homeless people in Atlanta. Often when feeding them meals, he has the homeless serving food to each other. He explained to me that many of these guys had never learned the art and joy of serving others. My observation was that those serving did in fact gain satisfaction from the act of service.
So, how does that apply to us in business?
John Maxwell in his book “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership talks about positional leadership. This is the leadership role that happens when you are given a supervisory job or position. It does indeed come with leadership responsibilities, but many wrongly assume that simply having the title makes them a great leader. All of us have seen examples of this.
Maxwell suggests that while the title may be a starting place, its nowhere near the desired finish. Almost all of his suggestions about becoming a great leader have to do with serving and caring about others.
Jim Collins in “Good to Great” says the common characteristic of leaders that took their organizations from being good to great, was humility. Yep, that’s right, humility.
The older I get, the more I realize the importance of relationships in business. In fact, sans meaningful relationships, business success is almost impossible.
Meaningful relationships are never built on a “what can I get out of this” attitude. No one likes being used.
Want better employees in your company? Build good relationships by serving them. Want to improve your company’s brand? Serve the market.
Build meaningful relationships, not by seeing what you can get out of it, but by what you put into them. Zig Ziglar said that you can have almost everything you want in this life, IF, you’ll help enough other people get what they want.
Try it and see, success will follow.
Eddie Mayfield