I immediately made my way over to introduce myself and thank him for his generosity. When I asked him what prompted him to buy me a cup of coffee he explained to me he was buying everyone’s coffee for the next two hours. It was part of his company’s marketing and outreach efforts. This is not just some pay it forward sort of blip on the radar screen. And it certainly wasn’t a quick fix approach to marketing like a lot of knee jerk reactions we see in business today. US Cellular has created a company- wide initiative called “Surprise and Delight” and Ouellette’s supervisor gave him the latitude to simply go surprise and delight people in the community by doing something nice. This is what led him to Starbucks.

When I asked him to explain this unique strategy, he responded: “Our competitors, AT&T and Verizon, are #1 and #2 respectively in our market. While I might not have $5 million to put towards advertising like they do, I can do something nice for someone today who may remember that kind act when their contract expires.”

Ouellette wasn’t focusing on the competition or lamenting what U.S. Cellular doesn’t have and can’t do. Instead he made a conscious choice to focus on “the controllables”.  In other words, what they do have and can do.

Beyond finding a way to compete as the underdog, the great thing about the U.S. Cellular surprise and delight initiative is the neuroscience behind it. People who are depressed lack a chemical in their brains called serotonin, also known as the happy neurotransmitter. Doctors prescribe Celexa, Prozac and other anti-depressants to help elevate the depressed patient’s serotonin level. The interesting thing about a prescription is that it isn’t nearly as powerful as “surprising and delighting” to put it in US Cellular terms. Any time you perform, receive or even just witness a kind act your body sends your serotonin level through the roof at a much higher level and for a longer amount of time than the medication ever could deliver. So what U.S. Cellular has done is a win-win-win for everyone involved; from Ouellette feeling better by performing this initiative to delighting the Starbucks patrons who received the benefits of his gesture to the Starbucks employees who witnessed happy guests get even happier.

It is only fitting that he chose Starbucks as the location for his surprise and delight mission. It’s a brand whose retail experience is congruent with U.S. Cellular’s. Starbucks doesn’t have “employees”, they have partners. U.S. Cellular doesn’t have customers they build relationships with clients. There is a big difference. An employee works simply for the organization whereas a partner works with the organization. The term customer implies a transaction took place. The term client implies that a relationship exists.

The most powerful statement I heard from Ouellette was when he mentioned his philosophy on the whole initiative. 

“I may not win you over as a new client today;
but I will earn your business eventually.”

His comments stood out in my mind because quite simply, he has a winning mindset. He gets the fact that sales, like athletics, is about possessing a process-oriented mindset not an outcome mindset. With championship caliber sales people, selling isn’t something you do to someone; it’s something you do for someone. The difference is the former is purely manipulation and the latter is grounded in facilitation.

This process-oriented mindset is a lot like the methods farmers use to grow bamboo. Bamboo farmers plant giant timber bamboo seeds six feet deep in the ground and water them every day. At the end of the first year, they see no growth. They continue to water them daily. At the end of year number two, they still see no results from their daily efforts to water the bamboo. After three years, there is still no outward sign of growth. Then, all of the sudden after four years (over 1,200 days of watering) once the bamboo reaches the surface the bamboo shoots will sprout up at a rate of 90 feet in just 60 days.

This is the type of growth every sales person wants, but not every sales person is willing to put the work in today knowing they may not see any results from it for four or maybe even five years. The most successful sales professionals will apply that water daily any way because they have a vision for where they are going and the faith, focus and resilience to get there.

In addition to the surprise and delight initiative, another way U.S. Cellular waters their bamboo is by offering free smartphone training classes for novices.  Ouellette added that even if the participants aren’t currently US Cellular clients he will still offer them training on their iPhone because it is an opportunity for him to make a another positive impression (apply more water) on them.  Then when the day comes that they explore changing providers, they will think of him.

Ouellette commented to me that “This initiative is not simply about making a sale. There are more important things for a sales person to be thinking about than just making a sale today. Sure sales are important, don’t get me wrong, but it is about building the relationships to set yourself up for long term success. With the economy today, consumers are fickle and have a long term memory for bad experiences with vendors or service providers.  We want to be sure that when someone has a bad experience with one of our competitors we are top of mind for them and can wow them with a great experience at U.S. Cellular.”

Instead of viewing the consumer’s fickle mindset as an obstacle, Oullette and U.S. Cellular view it as an opportunity. By doing so, this opportunity can serve as a competitive advantage for them moving forward.

Everyone’s bamboo is different. Maybe yours isn’t a sales job like Oullette’s. It could be that challenging teenager you are raising, a new start-up company you founded, perhaps it is a relationship with your spouse. Regardless of what your bamboo is, keep the faith and keep watering it to get the result you want.

When your “practice” begins in business it is important to be certain that the team members and departments within your organization are prepared to consistently bring the best version of themselves to the office every day.  With this must come awareness: awareness of self and awareness of others. Without self-awareness you are blind to how your actions, thoughts and words impact others around you.  When there is an “awareness deficit” you also don’t realize what your teammates need each day to be their best and help take the organization’s performance to the next level.

With this in mind, I present some food for thought about what the leader and the team members must commit to doing each day, each week, each quarter of the year to make the upcoming year the best ever.

The Leader:

Must commit to bring the three E’s – energy, effort and enthusiasm. All three have the ability to spread like a virus. Are your three E’s worth catching??

Must commit to living the six P’s – Prior Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance.

Must have big eyes: A keen eye for detail and excellence as well as mistakes. Catch people doing something well, don’t just notice things that prevent the team from improving.

Must be the most organized person in the organization. Without organization “at the top” of the organization you will never get the maximum potential of the team in the desired time frame.

Must be “fingers on” more than “hands on” – The leader must have his fingers on the pulse of his team in order to know what they need and when they need it. This involves more listening than talking and more seeing than saying.

The Team Member:

Must bring their three E’s to the office. (If they haven’t, look no further than the leader’s E’s…. they obviously weren’t worth catching)

Must perform without mental clutter. Eliminate outside distractions through the 6 P’s and by having a process to get focused, remain focused and renew focus. Like sorbet cleanses the palate between courses of a meal, you need rituals to provide brain breaks as you transition between tasks during the work day.

Must commit to strive to “get from” work not just “get through” work. Get passion, purpose and fulfillment from your work not just get through the day.

Must elevate their commitment to learn –“ Learners are Earners” -- The beginning of the year often involves more training and learning as new products are often rolled out, new initiatives begin and on occasion new team members join the organization.

Must commit to 3-way fitness: Mind, body and spirit. The demands of taking your performance to the next level and working as a team will require you to be at peak fitness level in all three areas.

One of my favorite sayings on teamwork is a sign in the Butler University men’s basketball team room. It reads “Great Teams Have Great Teams”.  My workplace translation is that great companies are ones where leaders and team members capitalizing on every opportunity to help one another improve, grow and work together better towards a common goal. More we and less me!

I wish you success in your preseason preparations and in your quest to make the 2012 year your best ever!!

I believe I now understand why my father, Lt. Col. Thomas F. Brubaker, loved to tell stories about World War II. In my youth, while growing up listening to those stories I really didn’t.

I don’t think he enjoyed reflecting on his experience as a fighter pilot in the United States Air Force because he missed the dogfights and the combat. I know he sure as hell didn’t miss being a prisoner of war. I now realize he missed the feeling. Not the feeling of malnutrition or not knowing if he would return from a mission; rather the feeling of caring so deeply about a cause and about the organization he served.

He would get together with fellow retired officers and travel to reunions of the 361^st fighter group just to talk with others who shared that same feeling. I know now, the feeling I’ve described is one of caring so deeply about a cause that you would be willing to give your life for it.

While running the Maine Half Marathon on October 2^nd I got to glimpse that feeling. Please understand I am not comparing my run to combat or even service in the military; rather through this experience I was able to gain clarity about what a cause really means and what people are willing to sacrifice for a cause they care deeply about.

This was my second half marathon. During the race last year, I was touched by witnessing the many servicemen and women who volunteered there taking photographs, waving flags at us, and passing out water at the finish line. Receiving their support was one of the most humbling experiences I’ve had in my life. They lead a life of service to our community 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and they gave of their personal time (probably on the heels of a 12-18 month deployment) to serve the local community in another capacity. Couple this with seeing the effects of deployments on several GI Bill students I teach at the local college and I decided I needed to be the one serving them and honoring them in some way.

I decided to honor my father and these many soldiers by running in 2011 Maine ½ Marathon to raise funds for the MOAA’s American Patriot Scholarship. With the race coming on the heels of the tenth anniversary of the September 11^th tragedies this seemed a most appropriate cause.

I believe life leaves signs and clues for us to find and bring clarity to our thoughts. The military personnel volunteering at my previous race were the sign for me. What I learned during this year’s race brought about the clarity.

Was I doing the right thing for the right reasons? Absolutely. I received confirmation of this during the National Anthem when I glanced immediately to my right and saw a member of the United States Marine Corp standing at attention. After the anthem I gave him a quick thank you handshake before the cannon sounded starting the race.

The race was run in a torrential downpour and if the elements themselves weren’t enough, I heard what sounded like a gunshot at mile #3. It was in fact the “popping” sound of me tearing my calf. As I pulled up and moved off to the side to stretch and try “walking off” the pain I entertained thoughts of calling it a day. Those thoughts were fleeting though because when I glanced up whom did I see jogging by?  The same US Marine I met at the starting line. My thoughts immediately shifted to “if our soldiers can handle the adversity they endure on a mission I can do this. This, in fact, is easy. Finish your mission John.”

Had I simply decided to enter the race for no reason other than for the sake of running for myself I may not have continued. After all, this is just one race and there are plenty of others that could be run on another day at 100%. This was not the case, not today. I wasn’t running for myself I was running for a cause. A cause my father cared deeply about and a cause I could not let down.

I believe most retired officers probably tell the stories and have similar feelings about their service that my father did. After they retire from the military, most will never find a position working for an organization where they can recreate that same passion and purpose they felt about serving our country. I know this is why my father had a difficult time adjusting to work life after retiring from the Air Force.

In my professional role as a performance consultant, I work with companies to help them develop leaders and build a more engaged workforce. According to the Gallup organization, disengaged employees cost U.S. companies an estimated $350 billion annually. This staggering figure is in a sense “job security” for someone in my role. Really, these companies don’t need me to teach them how to do it, they need the U.S. military. I know one of my greatest lessons on engagement and aligning passion and purpose with your work took place through my partnership with the MOAA.

How to turn adversity to advantage

Knowing the powerful staining property of the clay, the business owner thought all was lost. With bankruptcy looming, out of desperation he decided to try to clean the inventory on the outside chance that he may be able to remove some of the clay from the fabric and salvage part of his inventory. The repeated attempts to salvage the many cases of stained white t-shirts failed miserably and it appeared bankruptcy was unavoidable.

When his efforts turned fruitless, he decided to attempt to use the red clay to finish the job….. completely dying the shirts a consistent color. Despite his wife and business partner advising against it, he felt there was literally nothing to lose. The shirts were dyed in washing machines filled with red clay and he named them dirt shirts. One of the most amazing aspects of this “innovention” (1 part invention+1 part innovation) was that the chemical properties of the red clay, when laundered made the cotton t-shirts velvety soft and smooth.

A day later, he sold the shirts from a booth in Poipu Beach and the product was met with a great response. The locals bought up his entire inventory on the first day! The owner turned innovator had to return to his facility to produce more overnight. Born of a disaster, from that day forward the concept of The Red Dirt Shirt took on a life of its own and has since become the single most desired tourist souvenir from the island.

I heard about this tremendous success story from a local executive during my recent trip to Hawaii. Paradise Sportswear’s discovery led me to thinking about how we approach business problems and other “collapses” in our lives.

Col-lapse: (kuh-laps) verb, To fall or cave in; crumble suddenly. The roof collapsed and buried the equipment.

One of the World English Dictionary definitions of collapse is “to break down or fall down from lack of strength”. Collapses in business can take a variety of forms: financial, physical and emotional to name a few. These each pose unique problems and we can become blinded by our problems which channels our focus in a negative direction. Negative thought patterns often become self-fulfilling and the resulting tailspin is difficult to self-correct your way out of. Look no further than the recent collapse of several major brands: Circuit City, Oldsmobile and Borders come to mind. As sales fell they lost touch with what exactly their customers what they wanted, why they were loyal and then did not innovate to adjust to the current market.  They just simply couldn’t get out of their own way.

While a physical collapse is not what led to the demise of these brands they did suffer from an inability or unwillingness to change and evolve in times of trouble and uncertainty. The takeaway here is that in order to maintain forward progress you need to be able to separate collapses such as a roof, a business concept, product or a system within your business from your actual self. If business professionals learned to handle defeat the way elite athletes do, improved results would come quicker and with more consistency.  Which in this economy is what we are all seeking isn’t it?

Your ability to maintain forward progress and positive mindset will increase dramatically by embracing these two concepts:

1. Detachment. Know the difference between an outcome and an identity.  Your identity is not defined by the outcome of an event. Your identity is the sum total of who you are, your unique talents, core values and outlook on life. For the athlete, a loss is merely an event that took place on one day. It does not label them a “loser”. The loss is viewed as feedback received and in turn corrections are made for the future. That loss is then put out of mind. The event (loss) did not define them, they defined the event.  Failure is merely feedback and used correctly feedback becomes the breakfast of champions.

1. Belief. Maintain the belief that problems are solutions in disguise. Often within our greatest challenges lie our greatest opportunities. Underdog teams understand this concept better than anyone. They are often the only people in the arena who believe they can win and that is just fine with them. They are also smart enough to know their viewpoint on performance is the only one that matters. A team’s belief is essentially shared faith and confidence. Time and time again we see belief trump talent and size in every arena. Why? Because belief allows you to compete without fear. There is no pressure when you have belief. This allows you to stay focused in the moment and be in the zone. You hear the term “playing loose” used a lot in sports.  By having belief you can play loose in the sport of business which will help you uncover opportunities not visible to many. The owner of Paradise sportswear found a way to play loose and create opportunity.

The word crisis in Chinese means death and rebirth. Through crisis what began as just another sportswear business died and a brand synonymous with Kauai was reborn. Advantage is born of adversity for all of us. His advantage was developed with zero financial capital rather intellectual capital was the funding source. Yours can be too.

Coaching Points:

What would you have done in their situation? Simply call the insurance adjuster or call upon your grey matter and imagination. How will your business be reborn in times of crisis?

What is your “Red Dirt Shirt”? Examine a current business issue you are dealing with. Like the red clay was to Paradise Sportswear, can the problem itself somehow be the very solution for you?

What is the number one way you can turn adversity to advantage in your industry?

“BRU TIP” - Define the events in your life. Do not let the events define you.