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JIMINY SELF-HELP HANDBOOK 16

the correct levels of attention are applied and properly delegated, information is taken in and
understood, and finally strategic decisions are made about how best to respond to a challenge.

The best leaders display their organizational awareness by helping workers put their focus on what has
meaning, then by capturing and directing the collective energy toward the strategic goals that matter
most. Such leaders know where that energy seems well-directed, and where in the organization it
could be better utilized—and put their own energy into upping the game as needed. Highly successful
leaders have also ‘holistic awareness’ capabilities. Inside the organization they can catch the emotional
climate and people’s collective enthusiasm (generally, things that cannot be accurately measured by
metrics, gauges, indicators etc.). In the ‘ecosystem’ the organization operates, they understand how
the organization relates to others (suppliers, competitors, key operators). Finally, they can also
understand the big picture of the larger systems in which the organization exists (the economy,
technological shifts, social trends, and political changes and more).

On the opposite side is the “organizational attention deficit” where missing data (like getting too little
attention in the marketplace) and not devoting enough attention to where it should go, leads to bad
decisions.
Service Orientation

Regarding our target group Service Orientation is about anticipating, recognizing, and meeting
customers’ needs.

A person is service-oriented if he/she:
• Understands customers’ needs
• Seeks ways to increase customers’ satisfaction and loyalty
• Gladly offers appropriate assistance
• Grasp a customer’s perspective – acting as a trusted advisor.
We are using the term ‘customer’ in its broader meaning:
everybody we want something from, is a customer – the
product we are selling is ourselves.

The basic technics to increase our customers' satisfaction
and loyalty are:
1. Form relationships with them. Why? Because this
helps you to stand out from the crowd and lubricates
business going forward. This is easily done by treating your customers with respect – be punctual,
greet, use “please” and “thank you” liberally, admit when you are wrong and fix your mistakes
and be motivated to serve.
2. Know ourselves. Why? Service orientation does not equate to selling our soul to the devil. Once
we have established that the relationship is in line with our values and goals, we need to know
our strengths and weaknesses so that we can sell ourselves with confidence.
3. Communicate effectively because we may the perfect fit for whatever our customer needs but if
we can’t decipher what they are looking for and how we fill that need we are going to lose the
opportunity. We must use our listening skills to find out what’s really important to the customers
and our non-verbal skills to affirm that we are deserving of their time/ money/ job/ service. This
needs also an energetic and enthusiastic attitude.