I am a shoe maker! Ok, so I make clothes and accessories too, but I kind of like the sound of being a shoe maker more. Besides really loving the craft, it has a certain ring to it. Lol.
By a friend’s referral (God bless him), I got a request to make a few shoes and sandals. The price was far from right but I went on with it. I thought it’d be great to increase my customer base. Off to the market I went, with one of my partners. We had to buy some raw materials to kick off the production. I could categorically say that I was happy with my buy. Oops! I almost forgot to buy a chain accessory. One of the clients had specifically asked for his shoe to have a silver accessory. I made a quick dash to get it. In a hurry, I did not realize that the vendor had given me a plain one and another with an imprint on it. It came in pairs. That was obviously not a matching pair. I would need to go back to the market another day just in time to deliver on the order. I went back as expected with the mis-matched pair and asked the seller to kindly give me a replacement chain. “It doesn’t matter”, he said. “You can still use it like that”, he whispered. I was in shock. Since he would not change it, I bought another pair (made sure I was a lot more careful this time).
Back at my workshop, I asked one of the workers to apply polish on a specific part of the leather I wanted to use. It was apparent that he was distracted because he had put a little too much, that bit had become darker than the other parts. Thankfully, besides not having assembled the various parts yet, I still had extra materials to work with. We had to cut out another, sew, polish and assemble. I spoke of being grateful that we had more than enough materials to work with, else that would have been a bad production. “It doesn’t matter”, my staff said. “The client may not even notice if we sold it like that”, he added. In a fit of rage, I questioned what it is with us that would cause us to think the way we do. Then I remembered what a close friend of mine often said: “when people portray unacceptable behaviour or do not care about your set standards of excellence, see it as a coaching opportunity”. He had a lesson on attitude, excellence; the whole nine yards that day – much more than he’d ever have bargained for.
What I always tell people especially those I oversee at my work place is “what is worth doing at all is worth doing excellently well”. Many people do not have this culture and the ideology of “no one will notice” permeates their whole being. As you said such opportunities should be seen as a coaching one to correct this “non excellent” disposition.
In the last few months I have taken it upon myself to leave the office and follow some of my field engineers to their BTS sites to watch the way they carry out their preventive maintenance activities. Some I could see do it the way I would have done it while some do not. I had to tell them the story of my life about how when I was a field engineer too I do not leave a site without my equipment spotless and in excellent condition. I pick the dust blower machine, cleaning brushes, cleaning cloth etc up myself and show them exactly the way I want it done! Some will pick the habbit and not deviate from it anymore.