Quotes About Service

company needs to be able to articulate exactly what it does, whom it serves, and against whom it competes. Why? Because all employees should be made to feel like salespeople or ambassadors for the firm, and they cannot do this without a fundamental understanding of an organization's business. More important, without this understanding, employees cannot connect their individual roles to the overall direction of the larger organization.

avoid, as much as possible, telling clients what they would do if they were to be hired; instead, they just start serving them as though they were already a client. And

so I just go into sales meetings with the idea that I'm going to find a way to help them in some meaningful way. Then

erring on the side of the client when it comes to fees. Because you're interested in a long-term relationship with a client, it is in your best interest to show them that you are more focused on helping them than you are in maximizing your short-term revenue.

even though clients require us to be competent enough to meet their needs, it is ultimately our honesty, humility, and selflessness that will endear us to them and allow them to trust and depend on us.

I believe it's long past time that we, as individuals and as a society, reestablished the standard that leadership can never be about the leader more than the led.

Naked service providers don't enjoy being wrong; they just realize that it is an inevitability. And

Clients don't expect perfection from the service providers they hire, but they do expect honesty and transparency. There

they make it clear that their focus is on understanding, honoring, and supporting the business of the client. As

Listen, this is just an unpleasant part of our job sometimes. Those executives know that I took a bullet for them. I'll make sure they acknowledge that in some way, but I'm not going to punish them for it. Remember, they're paying us to help them make their company more successful, and if I had to be a trial balloon or a strategic piñata to make that happen, so be it.

Humble Only: The Pawn

It's not that they go out of their way to tick off their clients. It's just that they're so focused on saying and doing whatever is in the best interests of those clients that they stop worrying about the repercussions. They make themselves completely vulnerable, or naked, and don't try to protect themselves.

Take a bullet for the client. Make everything about the client. Honor the client's work. Do the dirty work.

It's about knowing that in certain moments you have to offer yourself up as a minor sacrifice to help them accomplish what they need to accomplish. Letting them abuse you, on the other hand, would be a terrible disservice. I know it seems like a fine line, but it's a real one, and it can be done.

At its core, naked service boils down to the ability of a service provider to be vulnerable—to embrace uncommon levels of humility, selflessness, and transparency for the good of a client.

What clients want more than anything is to know that we're more interested in helping them than we are in maintaining our revenue source. And

Naked service providers are so concerned about helping a client that they are willing to ask questions and make suggestions even if those questions and suggestions could turn out to be laughably wrong. They

ALWAYS CONSULT INSTEAD OF SELL

And they don't worry about whether the potential client will take advantage of their generosity; they know that for every client that does, nine others will appreciate their generosity and start to see themselves as a client even before they formally decide to become one.

Human beings need to be needed, and they need to be reminded of this pretty much every day. They need to know that they are helping others, not merely serving themselves.

Well, damme, William, I am sorry: I am very sorry, indeed I am. But injustice is a rule of the service, as you know very well; and since you have to have a good deal of undeserved abuse, you might just as well have it from your friends.

Not that I mean the least fling against men who have won a great fleet action - it is right and proper that THEY should be peers - but when you look at the mass of titles, tradesmen, dirty politicians, moneylenders...why, I had as soon be plain Jack Aubrey - Captain Jack Aubrey, for I am as proud as Nebuchadnezzar of my service rank, and if ever I hoist my flag, I shall paint HERE LIVES ADMIRAL AUBREY on the front of Ashgrove Cottage in huge letters.

Injustice is a rule of the service, as you know very well; and since you have to have a good deal of undeserved abuse, you might just as well have it from your friends.

Nelson once said that love of his country served him for a greatcoat.