One Encounter, One Opportunity. Make service meaningful. Be Your customer's hero.

Category Archives for Service Mindset

Make Your Organization Into A Mindset-Generating Machine | Ep 122

The way you influence your team’s belief in themselves and the work they do has a profound impact on how they serve (and whether they stay!). You’ll be surprised at the subtle ways that their mindset can be impacted by simple, passing comments.

The holidays provide an opportunity to connect to the aspects of service that are truly meaningful to you. How to go beyond just the transactional job requirements of service and access your natural motivation to serve REGARDLESS of what you’re getting out of it.

A dialogue style “interview” with service coach and culture-shifter Neal Woodson where we cover topics like compassion, service cultures, dealing with difficult humans, and how to help professionals feel empowered to serve to their highest potential.

Purpose is better looked at as a feeling (not an objective…or even a reason), so we look at how to connect with the most visceral (AKA: meaningful) drivers of the work you do so you can create maximum impact, happiness and fulfillment.

Fellow service superhero, Molly Bruttomesso of Wunderkind, discusses organizational culture, professional growth, and true customer support – and how that all gets bolstered by honoring each team members’ individuality.

Activation of your very best qualities before service or a big moment you want to feel super prepared for

Good service outcomes are unreliable and it’s painful when we invest a lot of love into a service scenario that doesn’t bear fruit. How do we let go of outcomes without losing our service spark?

Your service role will become elevated when you remember to simply pull away from those stories that diminish your worth and notice the abundance of evidence of how valuable you are.

Ken Starr discusses his book Religious Liberty in Crisis: Exercising Your Faith in an Age of Uncertainty, calling us to champion a diversity of belief systems in our society.

Conversation with Ron Kaufman exploring how organizations can humanize their service game, help their customers feel truly seen, and get on the vanguard of our inevitable service-driven future.

We continue to explore the learnability of service and the (perhaps unexpected) methods you can you to develop the service mindset.

Service is natural and yet every aspect of it is learnable. Understand the mindset that assures success, growth and fulfillment in service.

My quest to understand the state of mind that leads to a love of service is fed by questions like this… What does it consist of? Where does draw its energy from? How can it be acquired by others? What makes it resilient? What disrupts it? What kinds of mental conditioning prevent someone’s receptivity to it? […]

Why are beautifully-recovered service experiences often considered the best ones? Because service isn’t technical, it’s emotional. Learn how to recover well and use disasters to build customer loyalty and happiness in surprising ways.

Mindful Sales is Service At The Same Time

Originally published here for the Institute of Organizational Mindfulness. Having worked in the restaurant industry for most of my professional life, I’ve taken for granted how unusual it is. Even though its product has a certain universality to it (facilitating some of the most fundamental human needs like food, comfort, and social connection), there are […]

When You’re Selling Transformation, You’re Serving

Originally published here for the Institute of Organizational Mindfulness. Many that find success and fulfillment in the sales role probably know that they are doing a lot more than selling. On its own, the word “sales” mainly implies a simple monetary exchange: provide a product/service to a customer in exchange for money. What makes that […]

Good service requires the people serving to feel valued, engaged and, well, like dignified human beings. And to always have opportunities to practice service on each other. This is a very important discussion with service coach and author Neal Woodson. Service professionals looking to bring more mindfulness and inspiration to their work and leaders that want to elevate their team’s culture and effectiveness are sure to gain a lot from his wisdom.

Tap into the the wisdom, humanity and academic rigor of Andy Lee, founder of the legendary mindfulness program at Aetna Health. Now on a mission to help organizations weave mindfulness into its culture, we discuss the challenges and profound possibility of these practices to transform the workplace.

About the service skills you most need but aren’t taught. Ones I’ve gathered from years of learning and travel and my upcoming course that will distill them into practices and principles that any service-oriented person can use.

I speak with Albert Bitton about his project that provides healthy meals to overworked medical professionals across about a dozen of New York’s crowded hospitals. Our conversation was a deeply inspiring look at how one service industry can provide something so important to another.

In this new podcast series I’m getting field reports from amazing minds in the world(s) of service about lockdown living and the challenges and opportunities it offers service-minded people. I talk to cocktail bar industry leader Dushan Zaric about self-awareness, growth and transformation, and the power and strength found in setting a positive example.

See how easy it is to dismiss or condemn people’s tendency to be preoccupied with their own “nonsense” – especially as you become more aware and present throughout your mindful service journey. But the way forward is compassion and understanding – no matter how preoccupied people are, how much that is disrupting what you need from them, and no matter how rude they are being in the process.

When You Really Serve, Every Skill Implemented is Universal

The resulting experience of each meditation doesn’t matter nearly as much as your mindset around your experiences. Meditation is not a state you reach, but an attitude you maintain.

What if we could live a life where every moment is meaningful and every action, big or small, sweet or sour, is in service of something infinitely crucial? All it takes is a simple shift of mindset into a Yogic one.

What’s the most important factor determining the success and satisfaction you get from serving? You. This episode details meditation and mindfulness techniques you can use to start your day, prime yourself for service, and refresh yourself during the chaos of the work day.

Strategies for managing situations where you are confronted with people that are not making it easy to be served. And mindsets for managing the most important person in that equation: you.

True service comes from the inside out. Within you is a still, wise, and infinitely broad awareness that can anchor you in the most chaotic of situations. Learn to access this “Buddha self” and remain tethered to it regardless of what the rest of your mind is doing.

Service (and all activities in life) is not so much about what you’re doing, but the intention behind it. And that intention can be positive without feeling artificial, strained or anything but authentic. Learn an internal practice that you can apply to the simplest activities that will totally transform your quality of life and relationships.

Witness the power of compassion as a skill, not some kind of pious state that only the saintly are gifted with – learn the awareness practices that make you better at negotiation, handling challenging people and finding satisfaction in any work you do that involves other people.

Needs don’t need to be cured like they’re some kind of disease or exploited in some sort of relationship of exchange. Learn to navigate them as a powerful vehicle for you to truly connect to the people you serve.

It’s the podcast’s 50th episode anniversary so I am discussing principles to take your service mindset to the next level – and it involves a starting from an open, unbiased perspective. The Zen principle of “The Beginner’s Mind” involves a sort of “wise innocence” that allows maximum readiness, learning and growth from any given moment without abandoning all the knowledge and skill you’ve developed over the years.

Understand what power truly is and how service is the perfect place to cultivate it. However, really tapping into its transformative power requires more humility than we are usually willing.

Yoga & meditation are not just meant to be an isolated, but a practice you bring into everything – including, especially, any kind of work. I discuss an ancient practice that allows you to meet any challenge with enthusiasm, inspiration and wisdom.

Industry-leader Dushan Zaric discusses the responsibility we have to serve with care and presence; powerful insights forged from a life of passion, deep self-exploration and hardship.

I discuss my present situation and share stories and cases that reveal how you’re always growing and evolving…even (sometimes especially) when you’re “going backwards” .

Mastering Something Means Mastering Your Need For Instant Gratification | Ep. 12

How to master skills, which then shape us into people that are even more awesome. Reveals the value of sticking with something especially when it gets boring and repetitive.

The Importance of an Abundance Mindset (Not Just On Thanksgiving) | Ep. 08

How to serve anything well through generosity – having a sense of endless resources and an enthusiasm for sharing them.

Next Level Conscientiousness: Engineering Unique Moments | Ep. 05

Service principles that put mindfulness to work; service mindsets that can provide you with success in every area of life.

Taking The Higher Ground With Skill, Strength & Compassion | Ep. 04

Stealthily sweet techniques for dealing with difficult people and situations without being confrontational.

Servers With Attitude: When & Why We Love Them | Ep. 02

A look at the phenomenon of “snarky server” restaurants and bars. What attracts people to them and, more importantly, what is repelling them from somewhere full of friendly accommodating staff.

I used to think I took the art of service seriously…until I encountered tea ceremony. Both the Chinese & Japanese ways of tea have changed my life in different ways. Each have different priorities, and this article will focus on the Japanese tradition to reveal an aspect of service that I think no one trying […]

My first love affair with service and restaurants was with bartending just as it was becoming a highly respected craft in the Western world. However, the eastern approach revealed how much we were missing. How the Japanese Way of Tea and the one-pointed path of the Shokunin is just beginning to reveal the possibilities of serving as true hospitality people.