How to Make Your Customer a Hero

Everybody wants to be a hero! We all want to be the shining star that our family, friends, peers, industry, and customers look up to!

However, to be that hero, a business leader must take a counterintuitive step backwards and become a supporting character.

Our customers do not want to hire a hero, they want to be the hero!

The best thing we can do for our businesses and careers is to make the customer the hero. In doing so, we will accelerate our business and career and, in a round about way, become heroes ourselves!

What does this supporting character look like? Well, Luke Skywalker would never have succeeded without Yoda by his side to equip and guide him. James Bond would have died in his first movie if Q had not outfitted him with state of the art gear. This theme repeats over and over again in movies, comic books and in real life!

No great leader has ever risen to the top without being supported and guided along the way by a cast of supporting characters. We all have teachers, mentors, coaches, and advocates in our personal and professional journeys that have shaped us into who we are today. This applies to world leaders, business people, innovators, athletes and entrepreneurs. It applies to Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Michael Jordan, and to you, me and our customers!

So, how do you become the supporting character and make your customer the hero?

How To Build Respect In Your Organization

In a recent keynote speech, Bill Hybels stated that the performance of a disrespected worker drops by 50% until the issue of disrespect is resolved. Scarier than this is that 25% of the disrespected workers pass this disrespect on to customers!

That is something to consider!

How many times in the last month have you been treated or seen someone treated poorly by the staff of a retail establishment? Now it really makes you wonder what goes on behind the scenes at these places. How many business leaders are disrespectful to their employees and are indirectly disrespecting their customers, the very lifeblood of their business!

There are way too many examples of disrespect in today’s world! From presidents of countries down to minimum wage employees at fast food establishments. Disrespect in our culture is way to common place! In fact, a business can begin to differentiate itself just by having respectful leaders and employees!

What can leaders do to repair, build, or maintain respect in their work place and start differentiating their business?

Why An “Echo Chamber” Culture Will Destroy Your Business

If everyone in your business is always in agreement with you and no one challenges your decisions or ideas then you are running an “echo chamber” organization (this is also commonly referred to as a “Yes-Man” organization). This type of organization is called an echo chamber because everything the leader says, the organization echoes back to them. There are no original thoughts, dissenting ideas or challenging statements.

This is a very dangerous environment to operate in as a leader. If no one is there to challenge your ideas and direction, you will eventually lead your organization into one of your blind spots (news flash: each of us has blind spots) and over a cliff. You won’t have anyone to warn you until it is too late!