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"If you want to be successful follow through with what you say you are going to do. If you want to be fulfilled bring a great spirit to the process of doing what you said you were going to do."
There is a restaurant in Seattle that is one of the oldest coffee shops in the city. They have a counter which is considered preferential seating even though the leather booths are far more comfortable. When seated at the counter you are treated to an extraordinary display. One of the short order cooks brings such a great spirit of vitality, aliveness, and humor it makes eating breakfast an adventure. He treats each person as if they are his best friend. You feel like you are sitting at the counter in your kitchen watching your favorite relative prepare the food while sitting around laughing and talking.
The man to whom I refer was not trained by an employee handbook to be that way. It is just who he is. He is fully and enjoyably engaged in what he is doing. He not only practices the E Factor, he is the E factor.
Let me contrast that experience with a very popular office supply store operating in hundreds of cities. The one in my home town has an employee stationed within about ten feet of the entrance. As you walk into the store you are shocked by someone saying (in an overly rehearsed manner), "Hello. Welcome to ____. How may I help you today?"
The words are fine. The timing is not. The spirit is rote and uncaring. The content of their training program was probably very good. However, the context in which the employee is using the information, when driven by the autoprotective consciousness, lacks meaning, purpose, and a caring spirit.
As mentioned earlier, two sources of motivation give rise to two different states of consciousness. When people are operating "authentically" they will read the energy of the person entering the store. Based upon their observation they will intend to be helpful and bring a caring spirit to the subsequent interaction.
During our on-site facilitation program, we place special emphasis on helping employees cultivate the kind of mindset that causes a beneficial shift in how both internal and external customers are treated.
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