In today’s episode, host John Laurito shares a business idea for leaders. It may benefit the company for businesses in the service industry—make that person feel extra special. Not only will you make your customers feel important, but you will also gain loyal customers. Remember, it’s the small details and little efforts that sometimes go a long way for your business, your team, and your customer.
[0:44] A quick business idea…
[3:29] For the leaders and business owners
[9:05] Outro
John Over the last two decades, I’ve been in an insatiable quest to learn everything I can about leadership, what makes the best leaders so good after running companies small and large over the last 20 years. Today, I speak on stages all across the world to audiences who are interested in that same question. My name’s John Laurito. I’m your host, and I invite you to join me on this journey as we explore this very topic and what makes the best leader so good. Welcome to tomorrow’s leader!
John All right. Welcome to today’s episode of Tomorrow’s Leader, where we dive deep on all things leader-related and related to leading yourself and leading others. I’m John Laurito your host. So I have a quick idea for you. Quick business idea. I was out to grab a drink with my mom and dad and my sister and brother-in-law, and I noticed that my mom got a glass of wine. And on this glass of wine was a little arched line that was about maybe two-thirds of the way up the glass of wine. And I noticed that when the person poured the wine into her glass, it was she had just ordered a glass.
John It wasn’t a bottle, it was a glass that he filled above the line. And first of all, I haven’t seen many wine glasses with a little etched line in them. But I guess that that’s I haven’t seen all the wine glasses that are out there, so never. But I just thought it was unique. I’m like thinking, why is there a line on this thing? But then I, the guy left the table and I said to my mom, I wonder if that’s supposed to be the line that you pour it to. I don’t know. I guess that’s kind of a strange thing to have on a wine glass, but that’s in fact they had to. That’s what it was. They had two lines because it was a large black kind of an extra-large wine glass, and there was one line that was about halfway mark in a line that was towards the top.
John And sure enough, there were two different sizes of wine glasses that you can order. So my mom and ordered the regular one, whatever, and then a wine glasses really came in sizes, but I guess it’s a full pour half pour whatever. Anyways, he gave her above the line and I said, So that’s kind of interesting. Like, there’s a line there. I think that’s probably for the reason that’s the serving size. But he went above, and it just made me think about the whole concept of if I were that restaurant, I’d be kind of an interesting thing to say. And maybe they do. Hey, we’re going to put these lines on these wine glasses here, and this is the expectation that the customer is going to have that this is a serving. But I want you to go above that.
John I want you to add a little bit above that. And that’s actually going to be our standard pour is, you know, half an inch above the line or whatever, you know, a centimeter above the line. That’s going to be our standard poor. They’re going to think they’re going to get less, but we’re going to actually give them more. And I just started thinking about that. I’m like, That’s kind of a really cool idea, you know, it’s just, you know, help. Everybody benefits. The customer feels like they’re getting more. The server feels like he’s or she’s pouring more. They’re probably getting a bigger tip. The business is doing better because there’s, you know, more good feelings about the business in general.
John They just started thinking, OK, as leaders and business owners, what can you do in your world as a leader, as a business owner to give that kind of extra something? So. And this goes, you know how my brain works. I get something in there and then it goes in a million different directions. My thought is, OK, as a business leader, you may be leading 100 people and you may have a large, you know, good size organization, good size group of people. But it is incredible. Some leaders have the ability, even though they might be leading a large group of people. They have the ability to make those people feel like they’re one of the most important people in that group, right? And people know you’re leading 100 people, but there are some leaders that have the ability to really make that person feel like they are the most important or one of the most important. I’ve had leaders like this.
John I had leaders that, you know, would set up a time with me, and they maybe left a little buffer at the end or whatnot, but they’d spend a little extra time with me. We might have half an hour set up and they’d spend 35 minutes or 40 minutes. It was a little thing like that that made me feel like I was more important. And maybe they have blocked off an hour and they were planning on only giving me, you know, 40 minutes. But it just made me feel a little bit more important. And I think about that as leaders. That’s a big challenge, right? Because people have choices, people have choices to where are they going to work? They have a choice, whether they’re going to be in your organization or go somewhere else. They’re constantly being bombarded with opportunities and offers, and now information is so readily available they can see what the average incomes are different companies, and all kinds of stuff.
John So as a leader, it’s not just about giving somebody an opportunity and hey, you got a job, but it’s about making those people that are part of your organization feel special and feel like they are one of your most important people. And think about your customers and clients, your customer. Is in clients know that as well, they know that you have thousands or hundreds of thousands or millions of customers and other people out there, but is there something that you can do that can actually personalize it and make that person feel like they’re getting a little bit extra? They’re getting a little something different. This was a silly little thing, you know, going out to eat, but I kind of felt like, Wow, my moms get a little extra special treatment here. Let’s get a little bit extra in her wineglass goal. Some small little thing.
John And in reality, maybe it wasn’t, but it just made the point that there are little things that we can do that really don’t take much time or effort or anything like that that can really make a difference. I was telling some leaders recently I said, You know, make sure that you publicize when one of your people does something really well. Make sure that other people know about it, right? Take that and share it because we don’t self-promote very well. Typically, our, you know, our human nature is not necessarily what some people do, but many people don’t. They don’t self-promote. They don’t share the things that they’re doing.
John So if you’re a leader and you see that, you know, I used to take stuff and I would share it with my leader. And I got that from Larry Post, who is one of my favorite leaders of all time, who did that with me. If I did something when I was at Ameriprise, something unique or special, he would get a great result. He would share it with the people above him, the senior executives of Ameriprise. It’s shared with the CEO of Ameriprise. And I’m thinking, wow, I love this guy because he took it upon himself to make it. And it was important to him that I was. There was a spotlight on my success that made me feel important. Even though we have 300 people or more underneath him, I felt like I was one of his most important.
John You know, he had a lot of people, but he took those extra steps in that time to make me feel special, right? And as leaders, you have the ability to do that. It’s unbelievable. The small, different, the small little steps that can make a huge difference. That extra couple of minutes, even the extra question at the end of a meeting. Hey, how are you doing? What are you going on this weekend? Or Hey, how was this weekend? I mean, those extra couple of questions makes all the difference, right? Sometimes we’re so agenda-based. It’s the meeting starts on the meeting and ends on, OK, well, one our next meeting. What are our action steps? Okay, great. Now make it a little deeper, more important, more personal. OK, I know the people that you’re working with and find out if you don’t know about them.
John Find out and learn about them. It doesn’t take a lot. So just cool or thought, just thinking about what can you do in your business as a leader to make, even though there’s a large group out there, make those one or two as you have individual interactions of people, make them feel unique, like make them feel like you’re there getting something extra from you or your customers are getting something extra, even though they may be on the same level as everybody else, they’re getting a little bit something extra. I don’t know what it is, but figure it out. You’re the leader. So just want to you’re thinking, get the wheels, turn a little bit. As always, I love your ideas for guests and future content challenges that you’re having, whatever the case may be. Message me. Let me know. Let me know your thoughts.
John And as always, I appreciate when you like, subscribe, share and go down below. Give a five-star review, I appreciate it! Thanks, everybody. Bye.
John Thanks for joining us on today’s episode of Tomorrow’s Leader for suggestions or inquiries about having me at your next event or personal coaching, reach me at John@johnlaurito.com. Thanks, lead on!
