When it comes to serving others, the best thing you can do for yourself, and others is to focus on yourself. What do I mean by that?
When something doesn’t work, we begin to blame the process, or the culture, or leadership, or people around us. We are always looking to implement new strategies to correct something. But how often do we ever look within ourselves?
We live in a world that revolves around service. No matter which industry, we are all working toward providing service in some way or form. Whether you’re developing or selling a product or providing consultancy, or healthcare, or volunteering to feed the hungry, we are all involved in making lives easier for others. We are taking part in solving some sort of problem in the world. There is not a type of work that doesn’t involve the service criteria.
We may think that For-Profit businesses are being performed for selfish reasons and to serve humanity and make an impact, we have to get involved in volunteer work and give without selfish motives. It's great to volunteer, however, it is certainly time to change our thought-process on “For-Profit” businesses.
When any type of work is done by keeping the service criteria in mind, it sure is to make a bigger impact on humanity and ultimately on this earth. Why? Because that is the law of nature. When we place emphasis on helping others, we are destined to reap the reward for our acts. I’m sure you’ve heard of “karma.” The concept is simple – when we do good, good comes back. It’s a simple phenomenon but if applied consciously we are sure to succeed.
We have been trained to hold a certain type of belief; by labeling the type of work as “For-Profit” and “Non-Profit” our society has stigmatized the work-culture. When we work “For-Profit” we start believing that we must seek profit, or else, it’s no good. For example, each time we interview for a job we go in with the mentality of “what’s in it for me?” rather than, “how can I serve others?” Often times, there is a constant battle going on between managers and workers, or employers and employees, trying to prove who's wrong, who's right. Industry leaders are desperate to find something that would make everyone happy. Worst case scenario, when people start to dislike their workplace, yet continue to work under the same conditions just to earn a living; the performance begin to impact the organization and company’s reputation begin to decline; and those dedicated to getting things done are left with even more work to do, affecting their personal lives. Noone wins in such scenario.
Instead, let us all make a conscious choice and practice this:
1. Look within yourselves to see where the disconnect is.
2. Reassess your own life and see whether you are in the right type of work.
3. If you feel and know that this is a wrong path for you, start making changes for yourself and following the path that makes you happy (And yes, being happy will pay the bills, if you take conscious actions).
4. If you feel and believe that you are, then see what you can do to help others, not criticize them.
5. If you feel that others’ behavior is impacting you, perhaps there is something deeper within you that you need to sort out. It’s challenging to accept but will serve you well for the rest of your life if you do.
6. If you can hone the technique of remaining centered under any circumstances, you have the potential to become a leader.
7. Take your newly discovered skill and advance to the next level. If you are a leader, you will do everything ethically correct to help others.
8. No matter which path you choose, there is one thing to always remember – be kind and non-judgmental towards yourself and others.
9. Now, focus on adding value for someone else – whether it’s your customers, your team members, stakeholders or any acquaintance you associate with. When you approach with an intention to truly helping others, you build better relationships, which help earn trust. And trust adds monetary value, both for the company you work for and for yourself.
The only way this strategy is successful is if you consciously work on yourself. You cannot take care of others, unless you take care of yourself. So, your day-to-day focus is to observe yourself, reflect upon your actions and celebrate small wins. When you apply this procedure on yourself, you naturally impact those around you. And when others feel this good energy coming from you, they begin to do the same for themselves and others around them. It creates a ripple effect.
This, in a nutshell, is what creates a healthy work culture. When work culture is healthy, it impacts our personal lives, and we begin to live with a more harmonious work-life balance. Healthy work culture displays in customer service and satisfaction. Customer satisfaction builds clientele trust, which brings in more business. More business is equal to increase in monetary reward. Hence, ultimately, we are back to where we started – To become an outstanding service provider, the best thing you can do is focus on yourself.
To summarize it in even more digestible content, here is what you can do to start implementing this strategy immediately, regardless of what position you hold or what role you play.
1. Work with a genuine intention of making an impact.
2. Build self-awareness and self-growth.
3. Be curious but never judge or criticize others or yourself.
We’ve been seeing things from the same lens for decades. Isn’t it time to switch the lens so we can start seeing things differently? But first, instead of looking externally, let’s focus that lens to our own selves and see what we can do to tweak a few things within ourselves. It’s much harder to do, but if you invest in yourselves, it will become much easier to adjust the world around you to start making a difference that you’ve always wanted, whether for your family, team or clients.
Simply put, become more service-oriented, starting by servicing yourself!
If you found this article interesting, like it, repost it or share it with others, because this will help spread positive awareness and transform work-culture across industries.
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#workculture #worklife #clientfocused #selfgrowth #workingwithpurpose #careersuccess #businessgrowth #holisticapproach #servicedelivery
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