Tag: Goals

Internal Customers

Posted on by Carl Weber

Customer Service Word CloudA few weeks ago, I was teaching a customer service class. One of the exercises split the group into small teams and they were asked to identify all of their customers. The lists grew, and the flip charts filled.

As I walked from group to group, I began to notice something. All of the lists were outwardly focused. I stayed quiet, but kept walking around the room. The lists continued and so did the focus outside of their organization.

Focusing on the outside customer is not a bad thing. We all need the customers outside of our organization. However, once the teams got up to present their lists to the rest of the room, they realized that there was an entire customer base they had missed. They missed their internal customers.

The teams went back to their lists. The lists rapidly grew and so did the realization. These various organizations or departments didn’t exist by themselves. Each team had an array of departments, individuals, or people that they provide customer service within their own operation. Some realized that a majority of their work is providing service to internal customers.

One team in particular had an interesting observation.

“We wonder if our continued focus outside, and essentially ignoring our internal customers, is a major reason why our external customers are not completely satisfied.”

That observation hit home with all of the teams. As we set customer service goals later in the session, each team began with goals to increase their internal customers’ satisfaction first, before tackling the other customers.

As I drove home from this session, I began to make my list of internal customers. The list included my co-workers, other departments, my wife, my kids, my family, and my friends. As I set goals for my external customer’s satisfaction, I also wrote down a few goals for my internal customers.

We all have internal customers. Do we focus on them? Spend a few minutes today making a list of your internal customers. A little focus internally may be just what we need to be better externally.

What is YOUR Legacy?

Posted on by Carl Weber

Sometimes people get right to the point. After about the third sip of a cappuccino with a friend in a local coffee shop, they asked me this question.

“What is your legacy?”

Still trying to sip some of the foam from the cup… “What?”

“You know, what is it that you hope to leave behind? What are you building? What impact to you hope to have beyond yourself and how will it remain?

The question challenged me. The question made me wonder about how we live our lives. My mind started to wander towards goals. Goals are great, but far too often, goals have a starting point and an endpoint. Once the goal is accomplished, we reach the destination and we stop.

A legacy is something you are building. Building something and arriving at a destination are not the same thing. A legacy challenges us to build our entire lives. A destination is simply a place we came to and stopped.

These thoughts wandered further towards the concept of retirement. For many retirement is a destination. Once you have enough resources, you arrive at your destination…and stop. You stop working, stop connecting, and stop building.

Legacy is calling. It is calling us to keep creating, keep contributing, and keep building. Legacy says there is still more to be done. Legacy shatters the myth that all of our accumulated experience and knowledge is no longer needed. Legacy reminds us that we are valuable, and the world needs us.

One simple question remains. 

What is YOUR Legacy?

What is YOUR Number?

Posted on by Carl Weber

Earlier this year we talked about yearly goal setting as a way to bring focus to our lives, and give us something to aim our lives toward.

As part of our collective journey, I set my goals for 2012 as well.  One of these goals was to run a few races.  I had been talking about running races again for a few years and not actually racing.

I was falling into a trap as described by Derek Sivers on Ted.com where talking about your goals may not always help  you achieve them.

I did go against that advice a little and shared the race goal with a friend.  I decided to share it because this person is a runner as well and I knew they would encourage me, and hold me accountable for my periodic whining.  For other goals, I did take his advice because I have a tendency to talk about goals more than actually achieve them…

The Friday before the race, this person checked in with me with one simple question.

“What is YOUR Number?”

For all non-runners out there, here is what this question means:

“What is your total time goal for the race?”

Setting a time goal (or having a number) is a way to quantify the goal.  Having a number helped me stay on task to accomplish this goal well, and it made me train harder to make sure I could actually run that fast.  That number made ordinary runs (either outside or on the treadmill) mean something.  Each run was part of a larger goal.

Whatever your goals are for 2012, I hope the process of goal setting has helped.  For the more broad goals, are there ways to set specific accomplishments to help you achieve them?  In other words, What is YOUR Number?  You can decide whether or not to share it, but establishing that number may make the difference.