Life perspectives can be funny, positive, hopeful, joyful, robust, and settling. They too can be sad, unsettling, narrow, and ill-informed.

A lesson learned early in life was from my Gramma E. It was all about nurturing and caring about others. Always putting other people first by listening and sincere caring so she could understand what was important and necessary for positive emotional and productive responses. She never pretended to know everything. She always listened and understood the other person in order to nurture and motivate appropriately. I have tried emulating her and, while my personality is much like hers, I don’t hold a candle to her light.

 In business, we usually relegate that discipline to marketing. Unfortunately, even then practitioners can become arrogant and begin to make creative decisions or product decisions based on what they believe to be true. It’s about them. It’s about their self-importance and self-view of their intelligence and “knowing the audience better than the audience knows itself.”

 It also transcends to other areas in an organization. People become so obsessed with their own importance that they lose sight of the bigger picture and ultimately destroy their careers, the career of others, and at times, the entire organization.

Focus where focus belongs…on the audience you serve. Listen to them (all the time). Know them. Understand them. Nurture them. Talk to them with respect. Provide the products or services they need, not what you think they need.

My Gramma, while only 5’2” and 90 lbs. and so soft-spoken, was larger than life itself. She was a giant. She held all the power in both her personal life and work life (she was the Executive Assistant to the Administrator of a large healthcare provider). Not because she was loud, boastful, or thought she knew it all but just the opposite. She held all the cards because she listened and acted out of sincere knowledge – not self-claimed knowledge. The funny thing was she didn’t do it to build herself up but to build others up.

Remember, IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU! A lesson we all need to embrace.

Hold yourself accountable. Listen and care. Be informed. Be intelligent. Be effective.

Want to talk about listening to, learning from, and respecting your customer?

Contact me:

Christopher Wise

[email protected]

Until next time, stay wise!