His name is Danny, and he owns “Danny’s Fashion Shoppe, bespoke tailors, Hong Kong.” His store is tiny, tucked into one of the many arcades that line Kowloon’s streets. The walls are stacked high with bolts of cloth, interrupted three or four times by mirrors.
ADVERTISEMENT |
I used to get my suits made there. Every time I passed through Hong Kong, I’d lay over long enough to be fitted for new duds. Danny always did a great job at a fair price. I left there feeling better about my purchase and about myself. Custom-made things do that. They mean that someone has listened to you, done what is important to you, and conformed to your individual tastes.
But beyond the obvious benefits to the owner and purchaser of a custom-made suit, there are the not-so obvious benefits for the person who creates a custom-made product. Now, it’s also obvious that I’m not taking up your time to write about suits and my experience with a tailor on the other side of the world. Recently I wrote about my old Ford pickup and the idiosyncrasies of getting it started and keeping it running. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend you do.
So the subject at hand is tailor-made acts of inspiration and motivation. I’ve already established that one-size-fits-only-one and that blanket acts of motivation are, as a general rule, highly inefficient. Our efforts at motivation are often only somewhat effective—kind of like a suit off the rack, which can look pretty good, can be made of quality material, and can be customized somewhat to massage the details and make it fit better.
I like Danny. Here’s why—and here’s how those important things apply to our jobs as leaders and managers.
Pay attention
Danny paid attention to me (that’s him in the middle of the picture on the right). When we first met he was thorough. He found out what I liked and what I didn’t like. He offered advice about what worked well on me and what didn’t. He did what he could to make sure I had his undivided attention.
Do you know what your associates like and don’t like, what fits and what doesn’t? We can’t motivate well unless we know what motivates them well.
Your presence and participation is vital, not just incidental, organizational, or academic
Leaders aren’t divorced from the workplace. Even when you’re not physically there, your influence is. The values you hold, reinforce, and reward resonate throughout the company. Your handiwork can be seen long after you’re out of the picture. Never underestimate your power of persuasion and influence. Never take for granted the effect you have on others.
Challenge (and maybe scrap altogether) your prejudices and presumptions
Danny learned over time what worked for me, but he made no assumptions. He wasn’t guilty, as many leaders are, of immaculate perception, the fantasy that their beliefs, presumptions, assumptions, and perceptions are infallible and divine. No indeed. Danny learned that he needed to learn who I am and what I like. Never assume. Never presume.
Listen to what you learn and do something about it
I wouldn’t be writing these accolades of a tailor I knew years ago if he’d made suits of a material, color, fabric, or fit that I didn’t like. In contrast, I knew a store manager who held a weekly meeting with the department managers. The store manager would bring a pad and pencil to the meeting. Whenever an issue would come up in discussion, he would make himself a note and mumble that he would deal with it.
He never did!
All the managers soon learned that when the store manager wrote on that pad and said he would deal with it, what he really meant was that he would toss that paper in the trash as soon as he got back to his office.
Associate and employees expect action, not talk.
Stop talking and start listening
Face it: We’re in love with the sound of our own voice. We talk a lot. We have to talk a lot. Ralph Nichols said that “the most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them.” Danny is still in business even after decades.
No custom products producer will survive for long unless he listens. You won’t, either.
I’ll close with Danny’s tagline: “God made you a man; we make you look like a gentleman.” The things we do and say either makes people feel better about themselves or they don’t. Motivation, or the lack of it, does the same thing.
Add new comment