Business

Being Remarkable At Work And Life

By day, I’m an account manager for a technology and software company. It pays the bills, provides another level of purpose to my life, and offers one more laboratory to practice workplay philosophy. After working primarily in the non-profit sector for the past ten years, life in the corporate world has been interesting. There are some surprising differences and even more surprising similarities. The fact is that organizations, regardless of whether they are non-profit or corporate in structure, share characteristics at their core. I have an upcoming series brewing on this subject…when I manage to finish the current series on reflection (and who knows when that will occur). Hopefully, this serves as a preface to any upcoming posts (like this one) that tie together my experiences in account management and customer/client relations with the workplay philosophy.

When it comes to account management and working with clients, there’s always a baseline level of service you can provide. The specifics may differ, but generally it all boils down to being responsive and being respectful. It really is as simple as that. However, let’s go beyond these baseline expectations and enter the more meaningful space of being remarkable. The challenge of being remarkable is that it’s different for everyone. Every client desires something that is unique to them and their business mission. What one person expects as customary service may WOW someone else. But hey, if being remarkable was easy everyone would be there…which is why so few make it to the party.

Today’s challenge is to ask yourself: What does being remarkable look like when I serve this particular client or customer? And you can apply this same question to other areas of work. As a manager, what can you do to be remarkable in service to each of your employees? As a trainer, what can you do to be remarkable in service to each of your students? As a professional, what can you do to be remarkable in your own field?

I use the idea of remarkable for a reason. It’s built on Seth Godin’s idea (or at least he’s the one who made it remarkable for me) that if you want folks to talk about you, you have to give them something to talk about. In our case, we want to be remarkably kick-ass awesome. So, being remarkable means understanding what a client’s baseline expectations are and brainstorm all the different ways that might WOW them.

If it’s important to you, then it’s worth being remarkable.

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• February 21, 2007 -- More Ways To Cultivate Remarkable Customer Service (1)
• July 10, 2005 -- Please Don’t Leave…I’m Commanding You (1)
• August 29, 2008 -- Faith And The Bankrupt Leader (1)
• June 9, 2008 -- Hidden Talents Part 1: Talent, Retention, And The New Realities (3)
• April 9, 2008 -- When Bad Systems Happen To Good People (4)