How Can I Get 1% Better Today?
The answer: BE EXTRAORDINARY.
Ask “How and Who Can I Help Today”
It was a beautiful day when I stopped into a Rock Bottom Restaurant for a quick lunch. The place was jammed. I didn’t have much time, so I was happy to grab the one stool they had available at the bar. A few minutes after I sat down, a young man carrying a tray full of dirty dishes hurried on his way to the kitchen. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed me, stopped, came back, and said, “Sir, have you been helped?” “No, I haven’t,” I said. “And I’m in a bit of a hurry. But all I really want is a salad and maybe a couple of rolls.” “I can get you that, sir. What would you like to drink?” “I’ll have Diet Coke, please.” “Oh, I’m sorry, sir, we have Pepsi products. Would that be all right?” “Ah, no thanks,” I said with a smile. “I’ll just have water with lemon, please.”“Great, I’ll be back.” He disappeared.
Moments later he returned with the salad, the rolls, and the water. I thanked him, and he was quickly gone again, leaving me to enjoy my meal, a satisfied customer. Suddenly, there was a blur of activity off to my left, the “wind of enthusiasm” blew behind me, and then, over my right shoulder stretched the “long arm of service” delivering a twenty-ounce bottle, frosty on the outside, cold on the inside, of—you guessed it—Diet Coke! “Wow!” I said. “Thank you!” “You’re welcome,” he said with a smile, and hurried off again. My first thought was Hire this man! Talk about going the extra mile! He was clearly not your average employee. And the more I thought about the outstanding thing he’d just done, the more I wanted to talk to him. So as soon as I could get his attention, I waved him over. “Excuse me, I thought you didn’t sell Coke,” I said. “That’s right, sir, we don’t.” “Well, where did this come from?” “The grocery store is around the corner.” I was taken aback. “Who paid for it?” I asked. “I did, sir;
just a dollar.” By then I was thinking profound and professional thoughts like Cool! But what I said was, “Come on, you’ve been awfully busy. How did you have time to go get it?” Smiling and seemingly growing taller before my eyes, he said, “I didn’t, sir. I sent my manager!”
It was the lunch rush. Carrying a full tray, he was already busy, with plenty to do. But instead of using these facts as reasons—or excuses—to continue on to the kitchen, he noticed a customer who, though not in his section, looked like he needed some attention, so he decided to do what he could to help. I don’t know what was in his mind at that moment, of course, but faced with a similar situation, many people would have asked questions like these:
· “Why do I have to do everything around here?”
· “When is management going to provide us with more products?”
· “Why are we always so short-staffed?”
· “When are the customers going to learn to read the menu?”
So many times in life we ask the question why when we really need to look at the problem and ask HOW Can I help?!
Caleb Kelly
Source: QBQ “The Question Behind the Question” by John G. Miller