Sound Wisdom Blog

Eileen Rockwell 12/6/21 Eileen Rockwell 12/6/21

Delayed Gratification by Jim Stovall

There is not one simple overriding key to success. Instead, there are a number of keys that make success possible. However, one of the most significant concepts among the keys to success is that of delayed gratification. Olympian Peter Vidmar said, “Don’t sacrifice what you want most for what you want now.” Few things in life that are worthwhile come easily or are attained quickly.

I’ve long believed that there’s no shortcut to anywhere worth going. One of the most significant indicators of future success came to light through research done on preschool children that became known as The Marshmallow Test. In this research, a preschool-aged child was taken into a small room and told to sit at a table. On the table in front of them was one marshmallow. The only instructions given to the child was that they could eat the marshmallow now, or if they waited five minutes, the researcher would come back and give them a second marshmallow. That simple test proved to be an amazingly accurate indicator of how children would succeed throughout their education and career.

Many of our ancestors grew up in an agrarian society. They lived on farms and daily observed the cycle of planting and harvesting. Farmers worked all year and basically had one payday after they harvested their crops. People who are willing to plow, plant, fertilize, and cultivate their fields in hopes of a good crop later in the year understand delayed gratification.

Higher education offers many lessons in delayed gratification. Obviously, students are studying today putting in effort and energy that will pay off years down the road in the form of a degree. College students are often faced with the dilemma of enjoying a night out with friends now or studying for a test that will potentially result in a good grade later. Success in life comes when we can strike a balance between smelling the rose today and planting roses that will be enjoyed in the future.  

The recipe for failure is quite simply short-term, bad decisions repeated regularly. If you eat poorly today and neglect to exercise, it will have little, if any, effect on your long-term health. However, if you make it a regular, ongoing habit, it can literally kill you. The difficulty arises that if you eat well and exercise today, you won’t experience positive results as quickly as tomorrow. Success is cumulative.

The regular, systematic investments in your retirement plan or investment portfolio will seem insignificant at the moment but will make you wealthy in the future.

As you go through your day today, make choices that will bring you success in the future.

Today’s the day!

Jim Stovall is the president of Narrative Television Network as well as a published author of many books, including The Gift of Giving, co-authored with Don Green, the executive director of the Napoleon Hill Foundation. He is also a columnist and motivational speaker. Follow him on Twitter (@stovallauthor) or Facebook (@jimstovallauthor).

Eileen Rockwell 10/25/21 Eileen Rockwell 10/25/21

Accountable Leaders Live in the Mindset of Abundance by Sam Silverstein

There is something special that happens when you give—and give freely. If you operate from the position that you are looking for opportunities to give without remorse, without feeling coerced, if you truly give from your heart, something opens up inside of you, and new possibilities present themselves in support of the generosity you have initiated.

Do you begin with the assumption that there is enough for everybody? That a rising tide lifts all boats? That giving makes more of a positive impact on the world you live in than taking? That when you look for, and find, something you can give to a person, or to a team, to an organization, everybody benefits? That the best way to support a relationship is to find something you can give to the other person in that relationship? Accountable leaders do. They are committed to the concept of “It’s all of us,” which means, among other things, “There is enough for all of us.”

This is the Accountable Mindset of Abundance. It is the expression of the much-discussed principle that you get what you focus on giving. Many people refer to this idea as the Law of Attraction. I prefer to think of it as a basic principle of human fulfillment. I believe abundance and possibility is our “factory setting”—we just lose sight of that sometimes. But we can always hit the reset button.

There is something special that happens when you give—and give freely. If you operate from the position that you are looking for opportunities to give without remorse, without feeling coerced, if you truly give from your heart, something opens up inside of you, and new possibilities present themselves in support of the generosity you have initiated.

As you might expect, this Mindset shows up in the act of giving. People who live in a Gratitude Mindset make a point of sharing freely of their time, their talents, and their treasures—meaning all their available resources.

It is worth mentioning here that giving from a Mindset of Abundance does not mean making a decision to give because you already have a lot and you are willing to share what you think you will not be needing. It is making a decision to give because you know much has been given to you, because you believe the source of those gifts is limitless, and because you believe that what you have been given was given to you conditionally, not simply as a result of your efforts or your merit. It was given to you on loan, with the understanding that you would take good care of the resources and pass them on to someone else. Another word for this Mindset is stewardship. If you believe in Abundance, you believe that we come to this world empty-handed, we leave it empty-handed, and in the period in between those two events, it is our job to be a good steward of the resources we have been entrusted with. You do not worry about running out. If someone needs something, and you feel you can make both of your lives better by giving it, you give it.

The opposite of this Abundance Mindset is the operating assumption that there is not enough for everyone, and that we are justified in grabbing what little is available for our own benefit. This is the toxic Mindset of Scarcity. It produces fear, lack, and conflict. It undermines and eventually destroys, not just working relationships, but all relationships. It also runs counter to the goal of helping people to reach their full potential by elevating them. When I am in a Scarcity Mindset, I am hoarding resources for myself rather than looking for ways to give them to you.

The accountable leader chooses Abundance over Scarcity!

Sam Silverstein is dedicated to empowering people to live accountable lives, transform the way they do business, and create a more accountable world. He helps companies create an organizational culture that prioritizes and inspires accountability. His latest book is The Theory of Accountability: Building a Truly Accountable, High-Performance, High-Growth Life for Yourself and Your Organization. You can follow Sam on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

Eileen Rockwell 10/18/21 Eileen Rockwell 10/18/21

Enthusiasm by Napoleon Hill

ENTHUSIASM is a state of mind that inspires and arouses one to put action into the task at hand. It does more than this—it is contagious, and vitally affects not only the enthusiast, but all with whom he comes in contact.

Enthusiasm bears the same relationship to a human being that steam does to the locomotive—it is the vital moving force that impels action. The greatest leaders of men are those who know how to inspire enthusiasm in their followers.

Enthusiasm is not merely a figure of speech; it is a vital force that you can harness and use with profit. Without it, you would resemble an electric battery without electricity.

Enthusiasm is not merely a figure of speech; it is a vital force that you can harness and use with profit. Without it, you would resemble an electric battery without electricity.

“Enthusiasm is the vital moving force that impels action.”

Enthusiasm is the vital force with which you recharge your body and develop a dynamic personality. Some people are blessed with natural enthusiasm, while others must acquire it. The procedure through which it may be developed is simple. It begins by the doing of the work or rendering of the service that one likes best. If you should be so situated that you cannot conveniently engage in the work that you like best, for the time being, then you can proceed along another line very effectively by adopting a definite chief aim that contemplates your engaging in that particular work at some future time.

Happiness, the final object of all human effort, is a state of mind that can be maintained only through the hope of future achievement. Happiness lies always in the future and never in the past. The happy person is the one who dreams of heights of achievement that are yet unattained. The home you intend to own, the money you intend to earn and place in the bank, the trip you intend to take when you can afford it, the position in life you intend to fill when you have prepared yourself, and the preparation itself—these are the things that produce happiness. Likewise, these are the materials out of which your definite chief aim is formed; these are the things over which you may become enthusiastic, no matter what your present station in life may be.

Napoleon Hill was born in 1883 in a one-room cabin on the Pound River in Wise County, Virginia. He began his writing career at age 13 as a mountain reporter for small-town newspapers and went on to become America’s most beloved motivational author. Dr. Hill's work stands as a monument to individual achievement and is the cornerstone of modern motivation. Now you can preorder his illuminating memoirs, Master Mind, from Sound Wisdom and read previously unpublished, unpublicized details about his life, marriages, businesses, and experience teaching the seventeen principles of success by which the world’s most prosperous entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and cultural icons live.

Eileen Rockwell 10/11/21 Eileen Rockwell 10/11/21

Patience and Procrastination by Jim Stovall

Patience is a significant element of success, and procrastination is a significant element of failure.

To an outside observer, patience and procrastination can look the same. The difference between patience and procrastination can be determined by whether you’re waiting on something or something is waiting on you.

Patience is a significant element of success, and procrastination is a significant element of failure.

If you drive by a farm during the springtime and there appears to be no activity underway, it may be because the farmer has already planted and is patiently waiting for the next phase of his activity, or it could mean the farmer is procrastinating and avoiding the task of planting, which could endanger or ruin his crop.

“The difference between patience and procrastination can be determined by whether you’re waiting on something or something is waiting on you.”

I meet many aspiring entrepreneurs at speaking engagements, movie premieres, and book signings. When I inquire about their current project or next opportunity, they will often use platitudes such as, “I’m waiting for my ship to come in,” or “I’m waiting to get all my ducks in a row.” In reality, they never sent a ship out, and they’ve been waiting so long, their pier collapsed; and not only are their ducks not in a row, but they flew off or died of old age a long time ago.

If you have a dream, a goal, or an ambition, it requires some activity today. I have written almost 1,000 weekly columns that are read by countless people around the world in newspapers, magazines, and online publications. I hope each column contains some useful advice or powerful principle, but without exception, every column—including this one—ends with the phrase “Today’s the day!”

It doesn’t matter what you know now if you don’t do something today. Maybe it’s only a matter of studying something or meeting a key person, but you need to be doing something today. There will be days when your activity will involve patiently waiting for something you have done to develop or emerge into reality.

If you have called an influential person to make a key contact, you may be patiently waiting for the person to call you back, or you may be afraid to make the call, so you are simply procrastinating. Patience is productive. Procrastination is useless.

“Patience is productive. Procrastination is useless.”

Patience involves celebrating the task you have done while waiting for the seed you have planted to grow. Procrastination involves avoiding what you know needs to be done, which makes a mockery of your passion, your goals, and your destiny.

As you go through your day today, utilize patience and reject procrastination.

Today’s the day!

Jim Stovall is the president of Narrative Television Network as well as a published author of many books. He is also a columnist and motivational speaker. Follow him on Twitter (@stovallauthor) or Facebook (@jimstovallauthor). This and other motivational pieces by Jim can be found in Wisdom for Winners Volume Three, an official publication of the Napoleon Hill Foundation. You can listen to the audiobook here on Audible

Eileen Rockwell 10/4/21 Eileen Rockwell 10/4/21

How to Get What You Want by Earl Nightingale

A very wise man once said, “If you can tell me what you want, I can tell you how to get it.” He was a wise man because he knew that the problem with people is not their ability to achieve what they want. The great majority of people who are dissatisfied with their lives, who feel the world is passing them by and that they are not getting anywhere, are not suffering from a lack of ability—far from it. They are suffering from not having decided where they want to go.

William James, the father of American psychology, put it this way: “If you would be rich, you will be rich; if you would be good, you will be good; if you would be learned, you will be learned. Wish, then, for one thing exclusively and not for a hundred other incompatible things just as strongly.”

So the secret to achievement is to decide on one thing you want very much. Yes, there are lots of other things you want too, but one thing at a time. Write down all the things you want and then pick the one, just one, that you want more than the rest. Stick with that one thing until it is achieved; then go on to the next item on your agenda. A man following this course can accomplish more in five years than the average man accomplishes in forty. This is because the average man never seems to make the one decision that would give direction and purpose to his life.

“Decide on one thing you want very much.”

A gentleman by the name of Edward Bulwer Lytton put it this way: “The man who seeks one, and but one, thing in life may hope to achieve it; but he who seeks all things wherever he goes, only reaps, from the hopes which he sows, a harvest of barren regrets.” This is the whole point. Seek one thing, not two or more…one thing at a time.

The next question: “How do I know I have the ability to achieve what I want?” The answer is that we do not seriously want things we don’t have the ability to achieve. We all seem to have a built-in governor that keeps us from wanting things beyond our capabilities. That is why one man sets his heart on becoming a lawyer while another applies for a job with the forest service or in an automobile factory. The wide spectrum of occupations and accomplishments shows us the diversity of human desires. Seeing a man working atop the dizzying heights of the steel skeleton of a skyscraper, you have probably said to yourself, “I wouldn’t do that for all the money in the world.” But he enjoys the work and will do it for so much an hour.

Have no doubt that you can accomplish your goal. It is deciding on the goal that can be the most crucial decision of your life. It has been written, “Providence has nothing good or high in store for one who does not resolutely aim at something high or good. A purpose is the eternal condition of success.”

This is an excerpt from Earl Nightingale’s Successful Living in a Changing World, an official Nightingale-Conant publication. Known as the “Dean of Personal Development,” Earl Nightingale grew up in California during the Great Depression. Because his family was very poor, Nightingale educated himself in his local library. His main focus: what makes people turn out the way they do in terms of their wealth, their career achievements, and their happiness. After beginning his career in the US Marines during World War II, he was hired as a radio announcer. He eventually became a popular daily broadcaster for CBS. Through his interest in both personal development and audio, he partnered with Lloyd Conant to form the Nightingale-Conant Corporation, the world’s largest producer of audio programs. Sign up to receive free samples from Sound Wisdom’s Nightingale-Conant Collection here.

Eileen Rockwell 9/27/21 Eileen Rockwell 9/27/21

How to Handle Difficult Customers by Shep Hyken

Not long ago I covered six ways to handle angry customers. Often an angry customer and a difficult customer are the same. But that’s not always true. Sometimes difficult customers aren’t angry. They are just tough and demanding. That said, the techniques I cover in both of these posts can work, with a little tweak or variation depending on the situation. So, after you read this, I urge you to go back and read the original article. This is a follow-up with another half dozen techniques to manage angry and/or difficult customers.

So, here are six ways to handle difficult customers:

Avoid acting indifferent toward your customer. Customers want your attention, and they want to feel as if the relationship you have with them is important. Indifference is apathy. That will never make a customer happy.
Ask the right questions. These are the appropriate questions that give you the answers to understand the situation. But be careful about interrupting with questions. That can frustrate the customer. There may be a time you need to interrupt, but just go about it the right way. Cutting the customer off could end up escalating the anger or problem, when it’s your intention to do the opposite.
Empathize! This has become a very popular word. Customers want you to empathize and understand their situation. The old expression about putting yourself in the customer’s shoes comes to mind. Saying something like, “I know how you feel. I would feel the same way if that happened to me,” could help customers know you’re on their side.
Don’t tell the customer he or she is wrong. This isn’t about who is right or who is wrong. This is about getting the customer to say, “Thanks for taking great care of me.” You’re not going to get there if you’re accusing the customer of being wrong. Remember one of my favorite sayings: The customer is not always right! But when they are wrong, let them be wrong with dignity and respect.
Don’t blame others inside your company. Never make anyone in your organization look bad. When a problem comes your way, you own it, regardless of who is at fault.
Focus on a positive outcome. Instead of focusing on what you can’t do, focus on what you can do. Customers want to know they are talking to someone who can solve their problems.

So, there are six more tips on how to handle difficult and angry customers. In any given situation, one or more of these tactics may come in handy. Remember, you’re trying to get the customer to come back. As you interact with them, ask yourself, “Is what I’m doing right now going to make my customer come back the next time they need what we sell?”

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling business author. His latest book, I’ll Be Back: How to Get Customers to Come Back Again and Again, is available now from Sound Wisdom. For information, contact 314-692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs, go to www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken. This post originally appeared here on Shep Hyken’s Customer Service Blog.

Eileen Rockwell 9/20/21 Eileen Rockwell 9/20/21

Mastering Accountability by Sam Silverstein

Accountability is not a way of doing. It is a way of thinking. Plenty of leaders talk about “holding people accountable” for certain narrowly defined outcomes: getting a report done on time, hitting a performance target, taking out the trash, whatever. What they do not grasp is that these are transactional commitments. They are items people can put onto their to-do list and then check off. When we focus on the to-do list items, we overlook the relationship.

We can only inspire accountability. We can never bring it into existence by demanding it. This is the Principle of Accountability. And the only way to master accountability is to change the way we think.

Accountability is not a way of doing. It is a way of thinking. Plenty of leaders talk about “holding people accountable” for certain narrowly defined outcomes: getting a report done on time, hitting a performance target, taking out the trash, whatever. What they do not grasp is that these are transactional commitments. They are items people can put onto their to-do list and then check off. When we focus on the to-do list items, we overlook the relationship.

“When we focus on the to-do list items, we overlook the relationship.”

The real challenge for all of us is to begin approaching accountability as a way of thinking, and specifically a way of thinking about the people in our lives. Accountability is all about keeping commitments to people—and the commitments that matter most are not tactical, but relational. These are commitments like the commitment to tell the truth, the commitment to stand by people when all hell breaks loose, and the commitment to help individuals achieve their potential and be their best.

How do you master accountability? By fixating less on the to-do list…and thinking more about the long-term relational commitments you make to people. What are they? How committed are you to them? And how do they drive the decisions you make? It is following through these relational commitments, day after day after day, that builds powerful bonds, creates enduring loyalty, and inspires people to want to be accountable to you, the team, and the organization.

To find out just how accountable you are right now and what you need to do next to master accountability in your world, visit AmIAccountable.com and take a free sixty-second personal accountability quiz.

Eileen Rockwell 9/13/21 Eileen Rockwell 9/13/21

Small Details and Big Results by Jim Stovall

Rarely do we ever make a 100% improvement. We, instead, make one hundred 1% improvements. It’s the small details that produce tiny margins that can make all the difference. If you think about why you do business with the companies and individuals you choose to spend your money with, many times you will realize that their products and services may be no different than their competitors, but you chose them because of some small gesture or minor convenience they offer that made all the difference to you.

The concept of going the extra mile is among the many transformational thoughts that have become the enduring legacy of the author Napoleon Hill. If you watch a horse race, oftentimes the difference between first place, second place, and the other horses in the field is such a slim margin that they have to utilize a photo finish to determine which horse won, as well as which horses finished out of the money. While the difference may be fractions of an inch, the result can be dramatically different.

The first-place horse in one of the Triple Crown races receives millions of dollars in prize money, endorsements, and future payouts, while other horses in the field—who ran almost as fast over an entire mile—may leave the track with almost nothing to show for their efforts.  

“Real competition begins when most people are ready to quit.”

Shortly after Muhammed Ali became the heavyweight champion of the world, he was asked how many push-ups he did each day. He responded, “I don’t start counting till it hurts.” Ali understood that the real competition begins when most people are ready to quit. My late great friend and mentor, legendary coach John Wooden—during his unparalleled run of winning ten championships in twelve years—taught his teams that while it may appear that basketball games are won or lost on last-second shots, in reality any basket made or missed throughout the entire game could have made all the difference.

In your personal or professional life, think about the small and insignificant things that can make all the difference to those around you.

I consult with several real estate firms, and I find the real estate industry to be a great proving ground for success principles because everyone has access to the same listings at the same price. However, with this totally level playing field, some real estate professionals make millions of dollars per year while others are working for less than minimum wage. The difference is not the property or the price. It is the service, the attitude, and the small details that make all the difference. 

As you go through your day today, you can win big victories if you pay attention to small details. 

Today’s the day!

Jim Stovall is the president of Narrative Television Network as well as a published author of many books, including the Wisdom for Winners series. His most recent book, a collaboration with the Napoleon Hill Foundation, is Dear Napoleon: The Living Legacy of Napoleon Hill and Think and Grow Rich, which collects the stories of real people whose lives have been altered by the work and wisdom of Napoleon Hill. Jim Stovall is also a columnist and motivational speaker. Follow him on Twitter (@stovallauthor) or Facebook (@jimstovallauthor).

Eileen Rockwell 9/6/21 Eileen Rockwell 9/6/21

Definiteness of Purpose by Napoleon Hill

Desire is the factor that determines that your definite purpose in life shall be. No one can select your dominating desire for you, but once you select it yourself, it becomes your definite chief aim and occupies the spotlight of your mind until it is satisfied by transformation into reality, unless you permit it to be pushed aside by conflicting desires.

To emphasize the principle that I am here trying to make clear, I believe it not unreasonable to suggest that to be sure of successful achievement, one’s definite chief aim in life should be backed up with a burning desire for its achievement. I have noticed that boys and girls who enter college and pay their way through by working seem to get more out of their schooling than do those whose expenses are paid for them. The secret of this may be found in the fact that those who are willing to work their way through are blessed with a burning desire for education, and such a desire, if the object of desire is within reason, is practically sure of realization.

These are the steps leading from desire to fulfillment: First the burning desire, then the crystallization of that desire into a definite purpose, then sufficient appropriate action to achieve that purpose. Remember that these three steps are always necessary to insure success.

A definite purpose is something that you must create for yourself. No one else will create it for you, and it will not create itself. What are you going to do about it? and when? and how?

When you come to select your definite chief aim, just keep in mind the fact that you cannot aim too high.

If your aim in life is vague, your achievements will also be vague, and it might well be added, very meager. Know what you want, when you want it, why you want it, and HOW you intend to get it.

Eileen Rockwell 8/30/21 Eileen Rockwell 8/30/21

Customer Service versus Customer Experience…What’s the Difference? by Shep Hyken

“Customer service is not a department that deals with problems and complaints. It’s a philosophy to be embraced by every employee.”

Some say that customer service is what happens when the customer experience goes wrong.

That’s part of it, but it’s not the whole picture. If you’ve followed my work, you know that customer service is not a department that deals with problems and complaints. It’s a philosophy to be embraced by every employee, from the CEO or owner to the most recently hired. It’s how you interact with people, both your internal and external customers.

It is one of the most common questions I’m asked in interviews: What’s the difference between customer service and customer experience (also known as CX)?

While I’ve written about this before, my original article about customer experience was more about how to create a more interactive experience. The example I used was how Home Shopping Network (HSN) incorporated gamification into the customer experience. It offered games and puzzles on its website. The prize for winning the game or solving the puzzle was in the form of discounts. That’s a great—and even fun—experience, but there is much more to it than that.

First, a little history. I remember the term “customer experience” being used as a fancy phrase to describe customer service. Many years ago, that’s all it was. Some smart person was trying to give a facelift to the term “customer service.” Not long after that, however, other smart people started using the term “customer experience” to describe every interaction with a company. That included customer service and much more.

This is where it confuses some people. Customer service is part of customer experience, but customer experience goes to a much broader level. Some of the obvious experiences include navigating a website, reading promotional emails and text messages, watching the brand’s videos, and much more. Even opening a package is part of the customer experience. Think about how cool it is to unbox an iPhone or iPad. Back in the day, Steve Jobs was very specific about how he wanted the unboxing of the company’s products to be an amazing CX.

“Customer service is not a department that deals with problems and complaints. It’s a philosophy to be embraced by every employee.”

Some say that customer service is what happens when the customer experience goes wrong.

The customer support department deals with questions, problems, and complaints. Of course, their customer service skills must be at the highest level when dealing with unhappy customers and solving problems.

So, a short definition of customer service is all of the interactions that customers have with the people in the company. We can even broaden that to digital interactions, which now include chatbots, interactive experiences on a website, and more. Just to emphasize, these interactions include, but go beyond, the interactions for customer support.

Customer experience includes customer service—and everything else a customer might experience when doing business with you.

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling business author. His latest book, I’ll Be Back: How to Get Customers to Come Back Again and Again is available for preorder at www.IllBeBackBook.com. For information, contact 314-692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs, go to www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken. This post originally appeared here on Shep Hyken’s Customer Service Blog.

Eileen Rockwell 8/23/21 Eileen Rockwell 8/23/21

Building an Accountable Workplace Culture by Sam Silverstein

One of the most common questions I hear from leaders is: How do we build an accountable workplace culture?

The answer is simple…but it is not easy. In fact, the answer to this question gives us a textbook example of why simple principles often take immense amounts of time, energy, and effort to implement. The simple answer is as follows.

Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash

One of the most common questions I hear from leaders is: How do we build an accountable workplace culture?

To build an accountable workplace culture, you first design it. How do you design your workplace culture? Through your values. Your values are the house rules. Values must be consciously chosen and they must be authentic to your organization. They should not be cut and pasted from some other organization’s values. They should be yours.  Your values must say to everyone in the organization, “This is how we do it here.” Everyone in leadership must model the values that leadership chooses to live and evangelize.

In every decision, leadership must live the values. If one of your values is Trust, then it does not matter what you produce, it does not matter what your title is, it does not matter where you sit on the org chart: you cannot make a decision that undermines the value of Trust. Period. That has to start at the top.

Everyone must live the values. That is a condition of employment. You live and model the values with every decision, and you teach the values to each and every individual. And when people come into the organization, they see the values in action. If they choose to buy into those values and protect them, they get to stay on. If they do not buy into and protect those values, they have to leave.

You are continuously modeling, teaching, and protecting the values in every discussion, every meeting, and every communication, regardless of the platform on which that communication takes place. Whenever you protect the values, you protect the workplace culture. Typically, you protect the workplace culture through living the values in your relationships with people, so they are inspired to live the culture…and you protect it by noticing when people are not living the values. At that point, you as the leader must make an effort to coach them up to a point where they can and will live the values. If that effort fails, then you have to let them go somewhere else, somewhere their behavior will be accepted.

“You either have a culture by design…or a culture by default.”

Sometimes it takes courage to defend the culture, but the alternative is disaster. When you allow people who are refusing to live the values to stay in your organization because you are afraid of being unable to hire other people, or because you do not like starting uncomfortable conversations, or because you believe that people will not like you if you defend the culture, or for whatever reason, then you no longer have a culture by design; you have a culture by default, and you have sent a message to everyone in your organization that “anything goes here and we no longer believe those values. All you have to do is (fill in the blank): be pretty, produce, be related to the right person, have tenure, whatever, and you do not have to live the values.” That is not the way to go.

Once you identify the values that support your culture, it is important to celebrate when they’re put in action every chance you get: with teams, with individuals, for little victories, for big victories. An accountable workplace culture is precious. As the leader, you need to deliver positive reinforcement every time there is success, big or small, so that everyone in the organization will be motivated to continue and repeat that success.

When you protect the workplace culture, you make a better place to work for everyone. This is what attracts the best people and creates the desire within those people to stay. Building an accountable workplace culture takes effort—but the quality of that culture will always show up on the bottom line.

Eileen Rockwell 8/16/21 Eileen Rockwell 8/16/21

Just Say “No” by Jim Stovall

Unless we learn how to say “no” to the things that are wrong for us in our personal and professional lives, we won’t be able to say “yes” to the right things. Our lives are a constant struggle between the elements of time and money. Typically, we start out as young adults and have very little money but a lot of flexible time. Then, based on our efforts, later in life we often find ourselves with a lot of money and far less free time.

Wealth and money bring choices in our lives. We can buy products that we hope will make our lives better and more convenient, or we can buy services that replace our efforts, resulting in us having more free time. Unfortunately, too often, we value our money more than our time. This is an unwise calculation because we can always acquire more money, but we are all allotted a finite amount of time each day, and we are allotted a finite number of days here on earth. 

If someone calls you on the phone or barges into your office unannounced, interrupting your workflow and wasting your time, you often overlook this as a normal part of your professional life. If that same person reached into your wallet and took twenty dollars of your money, you would stop them and make them give you your money back. While it’s prudent and proper to protect your money in this example, it’s far more important and productive to protect your time.

Oprah Winfrey provided me with a great time management lesson that has had an impact on both my personal and professional life. Years ago, when I started having a bit of success as an author, speaker, movie producer, and columnist, I began receiving invitations to speak at events, make appearances, and do book signings. Some of these offers made sense for me within the context of my professional goals, and others did not. I found myself creating excuses in the form of scheduling conflicts to turn down the offers that did not make sense for me. 

When someone called to ask if I could be at their event on Tuesday the 27th, I might reply, “Oh, I’m sorry I have another event that night.” In my mind, I was saying, “No, thank you.” Oprah helped me to understand that in the mind of the person inviting me to be a part of their event, they heard my excuse as, “I would agree to do it, but I’m already booked for that date and time.” I found myself being trapped into doing events I really didn’t want to do because promoters were willing to move the date and time of their event to avoid my conflict. Oprah gave me the simple, straightforward, and profound answer to any request that doesn’t fit my goals and objectives. Instead of coming up with elaborate conflicts and excuses, I have found it much better to simply respond by saying, “I’m sorry, that’s not going to work for me.”

This simple but straightforward response can save you a lot of time and avoid potential embarrassment as you strive to fill your calendar with activities that move you toward your personal and professional goals. 

As you go through your day today, manage your money and protect your time.

Today’s the day!

Eileen Rockwell 8/9/21 Eileen Rockwell 8/9/21

How’s the World Treating You? by Earl Nightingale

We live in a world of words. We have a word for everything, and some of these names and labels mean a great deal to us. Words such as “love,” “happiness,” “success,” “achievement,” “joy,” and “ability” describe conditions all of us want, but there is one word that controls them all. That is, there is one word that describes a condition that will bring us all of these things or keep us from getting any one of them.

If your youngster asked what this word is, could you tell him? If, from all of the many thousands of words in the language, you were asked to select the one that would influence your life more than any other, could you pick the right word? I call it the “magic word,” and it is “ATTITUDE!” Once we are grown and on our own, this word actually controls our environment, our entire world.

If you are curious about what kind of an attitude you have, a simple test will tell you what it has been up to this point in your life. Just answer this question with a “yes” or “no”: “Do you feel the world is treating you well?” If your attitude toward the world is good, you will obtain good results. If your attitude is excellent, excellent will be your results. If your attitude is negative, little that is positive awaits you. And if your attitude is just so-so, you will live in a world that is not particularly bad, nor particularly good, just so-so.

Our environment, which is another way of saying how the world treats us, is nothing more than a reflection—a mirror, actually—of our own attitude.

One of the most pitiful aspects of society is the really large percentage of people who lead dismal, narrow, darkened lives, crying out against what appears to be a cruel world, which they believe has singled them out for a lifetime of trouble, misery, and bad luck. Those who find themselves in such a prison of discontent should face the fact that they have very probably built their prison with their own hands. And unless they change, their cell will continue to grow smaller and darker.

The world doesn’t care whether we change or not. Adopting a good, healthy attitude toward life doesn’t affect life and the people with whom we come in contact nearly as much as it affects us. As it says in the Bible: “As ye sow, so shall ye reap.”

It would be impossible even to estimate the number of jobs that have been lost, the number of promotions missed, the number of sales not made, the number of marriages ruined by poor attitudes. But you can number in the millions the jobs that are held but hated, the marriages that are tolerated but unhappy, all because of people who are waiting for others, or the world, to change toward them, instead of being big enough and wise enough to realize that we only get back what we put out.

In 30 days, you can change your world and your environment by taking this simple test. For 30 days, treat every person you meet, without a single exception, as the most important person on earth. You will find that they will begin treating you the same way. You see, every person, as far as he or she is concerned, is the most important person on earth. How does the world look at you? Exactly as you look at the world.

his is an excerpt from Earl Nightingale’s Successful Living in a Changing World, an official Nightingale-Conant publication. Known as the “Dean of Personal Development,” Earl Nightingale grew up in California during the Great Depression. Because his family was very poor, Nightingale educated himself in his local library. His main focus: what makes people turn out the way they do in terms of their wealth, their career achievements, and their happiness. After beginning his career in the US Marines during World War II, he was hired as a radio announcer. He eventually became a popular daily broadcaster for CBS. Through his interest in both personal development and audio, he partnered with Lloyd Conant to form the Nightingale-Conant Corporation, the world’s largest producer of audio programs. Sign up to receive free samples from Sound Wisdom’s Nightingale-Conant Collection here.

Eileen Rockwell 8/2/21 Eileen Rockwell 8/2/21

Stay Grounded in the Grind by Alyson Van Hooser

I don’t believe anybody’s true purpose in life is to serve themselves. Instead, I think our purpose is rooted in serving others. We begin a life well lived, full of meaning, contentment, and no regrets when we use our gifts and calling to achieve success through serving others.

But if we’re not careful, we’ll get wrapped up in “achieving” our purpose—or “doing our job”—and completely lose sight of the object of our purpose—other people.

But if we’re not careful, we’ll get wrapped up in “achieving” our purpose—or “doing our job”—and completely lose sight of the object of our purpose—other people.

The Grind Plays Like This

It usually plays out like this…

We figure out our gifts and line them up with opportunities to serve. For example, I do that through speaking, training, and writing. You may do that through sharing products or services to help others achieve their goals, or teaching others about what you know, or using your gifts to help in someone else’s business, whatever your job or hustle may be…

Then, in order to make sure we do those things well, we make to-do lists of everything we must do. Productivity, right? We start tracking all our daily tasks, steps to accomplish the goal. We make sure we are getting our job done. And in the pursuit of productivity, we miss our purpose. Our priorities get out of balance.

“In the pursuit of productivity, we miss our purpose.”

How do you stay grounded to your purpose in the midst of the daily grind at work? Here are three ways.

As you plan your day or week, add these three action items to your to-do list so at week’s end, you’ve done more than work to take care of yourself…instead, your cup will be filled by pouring into others.

1. Celebrate Someone

Celebrating is all about reinforcing who and what is most important. For the person on the receiving end, it feels good to have someone reinforce that they are important. For you, it focuses your mind on selfless actions, which creates a much more meaningful existence.

There’s always a reason to celebrate—holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries, of course. But there are also national holidays like National Pizza Day—who wouldn’t love being surprised with free food?! You can celebrate summer break, a professional achievement, or simply just because.

2. Serve Someone

Everyone has hard things they’re dealing with in their life. Pick someone—a co-worker, customer, friend, family member—someone you can serve. Then think of a way to serve them. Clean their house, play with their kids so they can go out, mow their yard, make them dinner, plan something fun for them to do, etc.     

Serving others is not about what’s convenient for you. Serving others is about giving them a leg up when they’re struggling. Whether you know them personally or not, whom can you help this week?

3. Strengthen Someone

Empowering others is key to everyone living out their calling. How can you use your words, actions, time, and other resources to strengthen someone else this week? Maybe you make time to stop by someone’s desk to speak life and encouragement into them. It could mean you choose to say “yes” to the person who has asked you to mentor them—it’s your turn to strengthen them with your knowledge. It could be a handwritten note that simply says, “I believe in you.” How can you empower someone to live up to their full potential? Something as simple as that may help someone else turn a corner into a better, brighter future.

Grinding for the Greater Good

When we realize this life is not about “me” but about “us,” helping another to crush their personal goals, we all arrive in a better place. Keep your intentions pure, focus on serving others, and then the grind will be better balanced because you’re serving the greater good.

Alyson Van Hooser is a leadership keynote speaker and trainer on millennials, Gen Z, and women in business. With the grit that only comes from tough experiences, Alyson has learned a thing or two about personal and professional success. From her management experience with Walmart, as an elected city council member, bank manager—all before the age of 30—Alyson has wisdom well beyond her years! She is the author of Level Up: Elevate Your Game & Crush Your Goals. Connect with Alyson on LinkedIn and Instagram. This article originally appeared here on the Van Hooser Associates Leadership Blog and has been edited for inclusion on the Sound Wisdom Blog.

Eileen Rockwell 7/26/21 Eileen Rockwell 7/26/21

Companies’ Responses to COVID Provide Insights into Handling a Crisis by Shep Hyken

During tough times of any type, certain businesses struggle. The first reaction of many is to tighten expenses and reduce employees. Some go out of business. Then there are certain industries that may not be impacted. For example, during the pandemic, grocery stores flourished. Certain online retailers, like Amazon, had a banner year. And there are companies that you think would have been impacted, but somehow they did well—and continue to do so.

One of our readers asked me the following question: What is your advice for a company that is struggling during COVID-19?

I know, we’re all tired of hearing about COVID-19 and the pandemic. However, there is light at the end of this very dark tunnel. We are seeing business in most industries returning to pre-pandemic levels. Still, some companies are still struggling. While some industries and companies flourished throughout the last year, many were forced to a level of flexibility that included major changes, just to barely survive and keep their doors open.

With that said, the answer I’m about to give applies not only to the last year and COVID-19, but also any time a business experiences negative national and world events, including economic downturns, terrorism, and yes, even global pandemics.

So, consider all of that as I share an answer to the original question, which was advice for businesses struggling during COVID-19.

Start by getting a team together to strategize and share ideas. The conversation should begin with a discussion about the companies you believe had success throughout the pandemic. Again, this could be any major downturn in business due to outside and unforeseen circumstances. What did they do, if anything, that was different than they had done before the pandemic? What do you like—or not like—about the changes they made?

Then determine if any of these changes can work for your company. It doesn’t have to be exactly the same. Let this list serve as a catalyst to jumpstart creativity to come up with a list of ideas that might work for you. Then once you’ve created this list, don’t just look at it. Work it! Make it happen. The adoption of ideas from the success of others outside of your industry can make you more competitive inside your own industry.

This is a very short answer to a very big question. And it’s not the only answer. So if you have another answer, we would all love to hear from you. Feel free to share!

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling business author. His latest book, I’ll Be Back: How to Get Customers to Come Back Again and Again is available for preorder at www.IllBeBackBook.com. For information, contact 314-692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs, go to www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken. This post originally appeared here on Shep Hyken’s Customer Service Blog.

Eileen Rockwell 7/19/21 Eileen Rockwell 7/19/21

Accountability Is Impossible Without the Truth by Sam Silverstein

If you are a leader, you are either fulfilling your personal commitment to tell someone who is counting on you the truth, or you aren’t fulfilling that commitment. If you aren’t, then accountability within the relationship and the organization you lead is impossible, because you’ve already failed to be accountable to your team coming out of the gate.

For a leader, there is no such thing as “kind of” telling the truth.

That’s the high standard that leaders of teams and organizations must meet: they’re either telling the truth or they aren’t. It’s kind of like the old joke about having a baby: you’re either pregnant or you’re not. There’s no such thing as being “a little” pregnant. It’s an absolute state. And so is being a leader who expects—and shares—the truth.

You can depend on a culture where truth is consistently present. You cannot depend on a person who passes along, or accepts, less than the truth. Accountability and lying can never exist in the same space.

“Accountability and lying can never exist in the same space.”

People who seek truth want only truth and do not want anything else around them. They don’t want “BS.” They are not afraid of being told the truth. They love the truth, even when it hurts, and they don’t want to associate with anything that is not the truth or with people who accept less than the truth.

What happens to people who don’t want to hear the truth? What happens when they would rather have their egos stroked than deal with the reality of their situation? What happens to their organization? I’ll tell you. The viewpoint of the entire organization becomes distorted. The viewpoint of the company’s people becomes distorted. The viewpoint of what their people can accomplish becomes distorted. There is a false picture of where they are, both individually and organizationally. This false picture leads to bad decisions, and those bad decisions lead to an ever-growing wave of less-than-favorable outcomes. It’s a downward cycle.

When people consistently don’t want to hear the truth, they lead themselves and the people around them in the wrong direction. This is the ultimate recipe for failure.

The truth produces something. It produces a freedom. We have all heard the expression, “The truth will set you free.” This concept originates in the New Testament—it’s in the Gospel of John, chapter 8, verse 32. But what does it mean, this idea that the truth will set you free?

Free from what? What kind of freedom is it, and what will that freedom allow you to do? What happens if you do not have that freedom?

“Truth frees you by allowing you to be you.”

The reality is that truth frees you by allowing you to be you. When the standard by which you live your life is the truth that guides you, when you make your decisions based on this standard, you move closer to the person you are supposed to be. And you become more consistent in both your actions and your results. When you build your life around truth, you are free to move forward because you know how to make decisions, you know what your decisions are based on, and you know that the decisions you make, when they are based on the standard of truth, will always be the best decision you could have made.

That is true freedom, for leaders and for everyone else.

For more on this important topic, see Sam Silverstein’s book No Matter What: The 10 Commitments of Accountability. Sam is dedicated to empowering people to live accountable lives, transform the way they do business, and create a more accountable world. He helps companies create an organizational culture that prioritizes and inspires accountability. You can follow Sam on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. This post originally appeared here on The Accountability Blog.

Eileen Rockwell 7/12/21 Eileen Rockwell 7/12/21

The Most Important Thing by Earl Nightingale

Ask yourself: “What’s the most important thing on earth as far as a human being is concerned?” I think it is truth. Truth is knowledge, and truth is honesty. To the extent that a person has knowledge and honesty, they are rich. Mirabeau once said: “If honesty did not exist, we ought to invent it as the best means of getting rich.” Shakespeare wrote: “To be honest as the world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.” Both of them were right.

To be ignorant is to be poor. It does not have to do with money, necessarily, although one seldom finds a person with knowledge who is not getting along well in the world. They may not be wealthy in the conventional sense, but they have enough for their needs, and they’re enormously wealthy in many important ways. A person will enjoy life, the world, and people to the extent that they move away from ignorance and toward knowledge. Perhaps just as important, or even more so, the degree to which a person has truth and knowledge will determine their degree of freedom as an individual. Every human being has to be born ignorant and, for a time, live in ignorance. But if they remain ignorant, that is their own fault. The fight against ignorance waged by everyone during his or her lifetime must be an individual, personal thing. No one can give us truth. Another person can point out the truth and urge us to strive to make it our own, but it is far too great a thing to be received passively. It must be searched for actively if it is to have significance. We can be inspired to search for truth, but unless we find it for ourselves it will do us little good.

“The spirit of truth and the spirit of freedom—they are the pillars of society.” —Henrik Ibsen

A strong man cannot make a weak man strong. But a weak man can make himself strong by following a planned course of action for a given time, and of course, a strong man can make himself stronger.

To my way of thinking, each of us has the opportunity for freedom and the wealth that comes with knowledge and understanding. If we decide to stop before we have reached our riches, we should blame no one but ourselves. I believe a man is poor to the extent that he is ignorant, because the riches and the freedom he seeks—if he is truly seeking them—are all around him. They are under his feet and perched on his shoulder; they are in public library and the corner bookstore. Truth and the riches it brings surround us every day of our lives. If we do not see them, we are poor indeed. Horace Mann put it this way: “Keep one thing forever in view—the truth; and if you do this, though it may seem to lead you away from the opinions of men, it will assuredly conduct you to the throne of God.”

Eileen Rockwell 7/5/21 Eileen Rockwell 7/5/21

Freedom and Success by Jim Stovall

Freedom is an often-misunderstood word. We all grasp the concept of being able to do what we want to do and when we want to do it, but our ideas of freedom often get confused when we think of other people’s liberty, particularly when it relates to those with whom we disagree. The great American patriot Thomas Paine, said, “He who would make his own liberty secure must guard even his own enemy from oppression.”

For over 20 years, my column has been read each week by people around the world. The readers of the Winners’ Wisdom columns represent a multitude of nationalities, faiths, creeds, and cultures.

If you have been a reader of mine for any length of time, you know that I believe that our success is greatly a product of our own attitude, effort, and ingenuity; however, this belief presumes that you live in a free and open society.

In the two decades I have been writing Winners’ Wisdom, technology has changed the world. In the mid-1990s, most of the readers of my weekly columns accessed my message via a print publication such as a magazine or newspaper. Today because of the Internet, a diverse group of people around the globe read this weekly offering via the Internet. Many of these new online readers live in countries where they face resistance and oppression toward their success, freedom, and happiness.

If you and I believe in liberty and enjoy our own freedom to succeed or fail on our own terms, we must not only tolerate those with whom we disagree, but we must be willing to fight for their rights as well as our own. I believe a true patriot and lover of liberty should be able to readily identify and articulate several beliefs, positions, and practices they disagree with personally but would defend vigorously.

I’m a voracious reader and find that I gain more enlightenment and deeper learning when reading books written by authors with whom I disagree. In many cases, I find that our areas of disagreement aren’t as deep as I thought they were, and as I begin to understand the motives behind other people’s mission and message, I find a lot of common ground. There is a phrase generally attributed to Native American wisdom that says, “Don’t judge a man unless you have walked a mile in his moccasins.”

Many times, issues boil down to right versus wrong; in which case, we must stand up for what is right. But sometimes that which we think is wrong is merely a different perspective.

As you go through your day today, celebrate your own freedom by protecting the freedom of others.

Today’s the day!

Eileen Rockwell 6/28/21 Eileen Rockwell 6/28/21

Transforming the Diversity Conversation…the Accountable Thing to Do by Sam Silverstein

Viewing people differently because of race, religion, gender, sexuality, physical attributes, ability, or personal style choices means you will always miss out on seeing their true potential. When leaders do this and/or enable others to do this, they not only make the workplace feel unsafe; they rob the people they lead of a more promising future…and they rob their organization of talent, ideas, and a better-looking bottom line. A leader can never lead a person to their true potential if that leader sees only superficial differences and false limitations.

Most leaders miss a huge opportunity when they talk about diversity.

In the wake of multiple high-profile news stories about diversity and inclusion, and any number of hastily assembled “damage control” initiatives from companies at the center of those stories, I wonder if it’s time to reframe our national workplace conversation on diversity.

Here’s a start: If you’re a leader, you are already accountable to each member of your team to fulfill your organization’s commitment to provide employees with a safe place to work—not just physically safe, but emotionally safe as well. That’s non-negotiable, and yes, your commitment to diversity is part of that commitment.

If you have any doubts about what you’ve just read, try looking at the question this way: Is there any way any member of your team will be able to contribute to your organization at an optimum level if they don’t feel safe at work? Of course not. As the leader, you cannot mandate creativity, teamwork, customer service, and accountability. You can only create a safe place that allows those elements to flourish naturally and to their very highest potential. Employees will always want to go to a safe place; it’s simple human nature to seek out the feeling of safety. Whenever your people look forward to going to work because they feel safe as they pursue the organization’s mission, you have created a powerful competitive advantage. Whenever they don’t, you haven’t. It’s that simple.

Some leaders will say, “But, Sam, this isn’t the home. This is the workplace.” My response would be, “Do you want the very best out of your people, or do you want half or three-quarters of what they can do?”

I would follow up with this question: “How safe do you imagine someone feels at work when they see evidence, reinforced day in and day out, that they fall into the category of ‘second class—not because of their performance, but because of who someone else thinks they are?” The answer is: Not very safe at all.

Which brings us back to the diversity conversation. Most leaders miss a huge opportunity when they talk about diversity…which means most organizations miss that opportunity.

Here’s what I mean by that. Most company leaders wait until there is a major problem, some kind of triggering incident, to start talking about diversity and making it a priority. That’s essentially reactive! Why not be proactive? Why wait for a crisis?

The typical reactive approach we see from top management has a troubling ripple effect. It leads to a predictable “do-I-really-have-to” attitude towards diversity initiatives in general. Because diversity only shows up as a meaningful priority when there’s a potential problem, people tend to think (and, yes, say out loud) things like, “Too bad I have to go to diversity training tomorrow”—as though the training session were some kind of a distraction from their real job.

That’s how most people think of diversity training: as part of a public relations initiative. And unfortunately, all too often, that’s just what it is!

Here’s my point: getting a clearer sense of what it takes to make everyone in the workplace feel safe can’t be just a PR stunt. It has to be how you do business. It must be what you believe.

Understanding what makes our people feel safe must be part of our leadership strategy for our teams and for the organization as a whole. Why? Because diversity training affords us as leaders the opportunity to better understand more people.

If we can better understand more people, we can connect with more people.

If we can connect with more people, we have the ability to serve more people.

The more people we truly understand and connect with and figure out how to serve, the more people we can make meaningful commitments to.

And you know what else? When we build deeper relationships with our people, when we have an understanding of how best to serve them at a high level, and we make personal commitments to them, then we are naturally going to be more accountable to them…and in the process we will be creating an environment where they’re inspired to be accountable to us.

Which is what we really want!

So here’s what this all adds up to: Diversity, when approached properly, as an ongoing priority, isn’t a distraction from our real job. It’s one of the keys to building an accountable organization. For every single one of us, starting at the top, diversity is part of our real job, every single day! Not only that: It’s a major competitive advantage, waiting to be claimed…and we need to start treating it that way.

Eileen Rockwell 6/21/21 Eileen Rockwell 6/21/21

The Most Important Measurement in Business by Shep Hyken

It’s important to know how customers feel about the experience they just had. We should always be looking at those experiences and finding ways to make them better. Feedback and ratings will help drive that effort. But in the end, knowing what percentage of customers come back, how often they come back, and how much they buy when they do come back, is a metric to pay close attention to.

This is the first of a number of lessons I’ll be sharing from my newest book, I’ll Be Back: How to Get Customers to Come Back Again and Again. A few years back I wrote about the idea of measuring customer satisfaction versus customer behavior. We’re revisiting that topic with a fresh point of view.

Today’s lesson is about the exciting topic of measurement and data. Okay, maybe not that exciting, but how about very important? You know it is! Business management guru Peter Drucker said, “You can’t manage what you don’t measure.”

So, what should we be measuring? What’s the best metric? Why do our customers come back? There are a number of ways organizations measure customer satisfaction. By the way, I don’t like that word, satisfaction. The word satisfactory implies everything is okay, average, or fine. If you asked someone to rate you as either poor, satisfactory, or excellent, you can see that satisfactory is in the middle. Again, just average. But, back to the point. Call it customer satisfaction, customer happiness, or anything you want. The important idea to remember is that we’re looking at ratings.

As an example, two very popular measurements are NPS (Net Promoter Score) and CSAT (Customer Satisfaction). Both give you an idea of how happy the customer is. But, you need to know more. When you ask marketing and customer service experts what they monitor, you’ll likely hear about similar satisfaction or happiness measurements. You’ll also hear them talk about sales numbers, profit, revenue, and other indications that the company is doing well—or not so well.

But another measurement I suggest companies pay close attention to, in addition to those just mentioned, is this one: Does the customer come back?

That’s not a rating. That’s behavior! Big difference. Your customers can rate you five out of five stars and give you glowing reviews. But what if they don’t come back? The ratings and reviews were nice, but the opportunity to do more business vanishes if they don’t return.

If getting your customers to come back, again and again, is important to you, and you know it is, you’ll love the book. Just go to www.IllBeBackBook.com.

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling business author. His latest book, I’ll Be Back: How to Get Customers to Come Back Again and Again is available for preorder at www.IllBeBackBook.com. For information, contact 314-692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs, go to www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken. This post originally appeared here on Shep Hyken’s Customer Service Blog.

Sound Wisdom Blog

“Enthusiasm is the vital moving force that impels action.”

“The difference between patience and procrastination can be determined by whether you’re waiting on something or something is waiting on you.”

“Patience is productive. Procrastination is useless.”

“Decide on one thing you want very much.”

“When we focus on the to-do list items, we overlook the relationship.”

“Real competition begins when most people are ready to quit.”

“Customer service is not a department that deals with problems and complaints. It’s a philosophy to be embraced by every employee.”

“You either have a culture by design…or a culture by default.”

“Accountability and lying can never exist in the same space.”

“Truth frees you by allowing you to be you.”

“The spirit of truth and the spirit of freedom—they are the pillars of society.” —Henrik Ibsen

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