Which came first the chicken or the egg?

I don't have that answer, but I do have a similar question.

Which comes first the customer or the employee?

Tom Peter's has a recent post titled ???????? (that is really the title) about this question with some thought-provoking comments that I suggest you take a few minutes to read.

Whether we have a staff or not we must take care of those that take care of our customers. I've been around the business world and have had the joy and the tears of working for people who care about their employees. As many of you know, I worked in the corporate world before starting my own business. During my time there, the management went from individual offices to cubicle nation. My cube face the entrance so whenever my boss, Mr. L (I'll protect his identity) went to his office (he ranked non-cubicle space) he would have to pass by my cube and 3 fellow colleague's cubes before reaching his cocoon.

Well, Mr. L would walk by every morning without acknowledging my existence, which I would usually shrug off as his vagrant disregard for women in the business world. But one morning after Mr. L's pass by, my neighboring colleague, Mr. B., came into my cube. Mr. B was well known and respected in the industry and the company and was someone I looked to for guidance and business advice. He was a calm and levelheaded guy, but this morning he was visually frustrated and down. He told me he had started to track (he was very analytical) how many times Mr. L would acknowledge him as he walked by his cube.

Twenty-Seven Days

Twenty-seven days had passed without a single "hello" from Mr. L. I could not believe what I was hearing. How could a manger walk by the people who worked with him for twenty-seven days and not stop once? I could rationalize Mr. L's on-going dismissal of my existence, but not Mr. B's. We, Mr. B and I, talked for a long while about this and never really came to any resolution, but Mr. B continued to track the non-communicating manager.

What would you do in this situation? What do you do to keep your employees happy? Do you think the customer or the employee comes first?

I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Image by Cyklista Dalibor at Creative Commons

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Last evening I had the special pleasure of listening to four barred owls in my backyard talking to each other - varying their calls, tones and gurgles. Each would take a turn, hooting out "who cooks for you." I stood silently at the open window and listened for quite some time until they moved deeper into the woods and their sounds faded in the distance. I walked away from the window and realized I had an enormous smile on my face and my soul felt soft and at peace.

It also got me thinking....

As a entrepreneur I am guilty of what I consider "over complicating my business." I want that new product and service to be perfect before I release it to potential customers. I go over everything, time and again, to make sure every "t" is crossed and every "i" is dotted and all the while my yet unreleased product hasn't been shared with those who would really use it and smile.

Done Is Good

A friend and fellow entrepreneur Chris Reagan of Get Ahead Pro taught me "Done is Good". He explained how we biz owners can continually tweak and adjust our efforts, projects, communications forever. At some point we need to stop, be confident in what we have and let it fly.

He is right. I know my customers and my audience will let me know if any additional adjustments are needed. I will listen to their questions and comments and learn. If I'm spending all my time perfecting then I'm not sharing and my customers are not benefiting. If those owls decided to stay deep in the woods I would not have heard their beauty. They released their calls and shared with me replenishing my soul and thus, my business.

If there is anything I can leave you with in this post it is to not over perfect - people want your products and services so, let them fly.

Cheryl - thanks for your comments to last weeks post. I too love the smell of clothes dried outside.