The Excellence Reflex

The Excellence Reflex

As you traverse the carpark enroute to the front door of your business premises, you spot a soggy piece of junk mail on the ground, blown from an adjacent letterbox by an overnight storm.

Now what? You keep walking … well it is all wet and soggy and … well, yuk! Besides, we employ contractors to clean and keep our premises and grounds tidy.

Or? Without a second thought, you stoop down, pick up the saturated flyer, and make a slight detour to the nearest rubbish bin.

Some other scenarios: you’re finalising a report to a client; adding the garnish to a guest's meal in your restaurant; putting the final touches to a customer’s renovated house; closing up a customer's vehicle or piece of equipment after repair; you notice an outdated poster on your shop window or some redundant information on your company website; you spot a fellow staff member not wearing the company uniform according to company policy; the painting on the reception area wall is slightly askew.

What do you do? What’s your attitude when attending to such scenarios? She’ll be right? It will do? Near enough is OK? … or, I pay attention to detail, I go the extra mile to get it right?

Your answer depends on whether or not you possess an ’excellence reflex.’

The term ‘excellence reflex’ was coined by Danny Meyer, CEO of the Union Square Hospitality Group, and founder and co-owner of eight of the finest restaurants and eateries in New York city, and the world-wide franchise Shake Shack.

As he says in his business classic ‘Setting the Table’

??????????? “People duck as a natural reflex when something is hurled at them. Similarly, the excellence reflex is a natural reaction to fix something that isn’t right, or to improve ? something that could be better. The excellence reflex is rooted in instinct and upbringing, and then constantly honed through awareness, caring, and practice. The overarching concern to do the right thing well, is something we can’t train for. Either it’s there or it isn’t. So we need to train how to hire for it.” ?– Danny Meyer, CEO, Union Square Hospitality Group

When employing staff, he seeks out those with the following emotional intelligence:

  • Optimistic warmth - genuine kindness, thoughtfulness, and a sense that the glass is always at least half full
  • Intelligence - insatiable curiosity to learn for the sake of learning
  • Work ethic - a natural tendency to do something as well as it can possibly be done
  • Empathy - an awareness of, care for, and connection to how others feel, and a deep understanding of how your actions impact the feelings of others
  • Self-Awareness and Integrity - an understanding of what makes you tick and a natural inclination to be accountable for doing the right thing with honesty and sound judgment

As customer demands continue to rise at an accelerating pace, business owners and managers need to apply additional vigilance ensuring the people you employ have the excellence reflex ingrained in their service DNA.

Excellence is a value, and as with all values, it is a non-negotiable standard of behaviour ... never to be compromised for either convenience or short-term gain.

And remember ... Excellence was never achieved by tolerating mediocrity!

Michael Jenkins

Commercial Real Estate Agent. Commercial Realty Bunbury WA. Commercial Real Estate Agents.

6 个月

Spot on Mr Harvs…

Mark shaw

Customer Experience Cultures- Keynote Speaker, Coach, mentor, trainer.

6 个月

That's so true, Graham. I've long believed that recruitment has to be the number one management/leadership activity to nail against a clear set of values, traits, and dispositions. At Adventure World, we identified those traits/characteristics as "Attentive, Warm, and Engaging," the AWE in AWEsome. (Credit to Chris Smoje for that one) Too many managers spend 3% of their time in recruitment mode and 97% trying to manage mediocrity, average performance or worse. When you nail recruitment, returns on every other management/leadership activity are exponentially higher, and life as a manager/leader is much more enjoyable.

Daryl Brough

Taking time out

6 个月

This is 100% true Graham. We have been in Perth for the past few weeks for family reasons , so we are out of our own territory and familiar surroundings. From where we are staying in our caravan, in a caravan park, to eating out more than normal, to visiting tourist places just because we have time, to different shopping centres, cafes and the list goes on. We have noticed that there is a massive “I don’t care” attitude about people present their business, how they present themselves, how they are treating customers. One significant issue we have experienced is business owners and or employees are not listening to the customer nor willing to really help. I get tired of hearing, “well since Covid, we haven’t been able to get staff or keep staff or get good staff”. I think it’s a cop out and used as an excuse. I would so love to be a consultant and go into a business and provide a report on how they are portraying themselves to the public. That’s without even considering marketing, websites, adverting etc. The physical presentation it the key to address first. What you are doing Graham is awesome and in the past, have definately benefited from your training. Well done

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