Jumping out of Airplanes

Steven Slater became a folk hero overnight last week when he jumped ship on his airline attendant job and career by popping open the emergency exit slide on his JetBlue plane, grabbing two beers and sliding into the spotlight as an employee who was “mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.” After…

Details
Tips

Are You Delivering Happiness?

Recently I had the opportunity to do the closing keynote address for Merit Direct’s private user conference. Once a year this company gets its customers together and provides two and half days of learning, playing eating, dancing and even… karaoke. They pull together a roster of industry experts to teach and stimulate lively conversation among…

Details
Tips

The Surprising Truth about Motivation

One topic that came up on our last survey and comes up on any survey I’ve ever done to people who lead people who take care of customers is Motivation. You ask me how to motivate yourself and how to motivate your people as well. (And then of course there’s always motivating those customers to…

Details
Tips

Are You Deviant?

What do Michael Jordon, Miley Cyrus, Rosa Parks, Tony Hsieh (CEO of Zappos), Lady Gaga and families with healthy children in West Bengal India all have in common? Positive Deviance. They’ve all done or are doing something that puts them at the far right end of the “bell curve” of normal distribution. They are “deviant.”…

Details
Tips