The Difference Between "The Wills" and "The Will Nots"

I have been on a bit of a rant lately as it pertains to customer service. maybe its because I see so much bad service in my travels that I am often astounded when I get good service. 


Some people say that today's employees just don't care; that they don't make enough to put up with customer abuse, anger and frustration so they do as little as possible.  Others say it is lack of training. These so called bad employees have never been trained or have been poorly trained to handle the rigors of retail outlets.


And while much has been written about the 99% vs the 1%, I think its not about the haves and have nots, its about "the wills" and "will nots."


We hire employees and sometimes they work out and sometimes they don't.  For every employee I have hired and had to fire, I blame me. I failed. Failed to hire the right person, failed to train the person and failed to monitor that person's progress.


It wasn't until I found out that the person I hired was a "will not" person.  they will not work at what they were hired, will not go the extra mile and will not learn from their mistakes.


But I finally cured that.  Now i try to hire athletes. It worked for Tom Landry, the legendary coach of the Dallas Cowboys. He hired Bobby Hayes, at the time the fastest human on the planet - did 9.2 seconds in a 100 yard dash, and then trained him to catch footballs.


Bobby Hayes had a "will" personality. he will learn, he will be trained. He will listen. He will learn from his mistakes and he will want to be the best he can be.
So the moral of today's story. Look for "Will" personalities. People who will achieve and have demonstrated it before. People who will learn and have demonstrated it before. People who will fail and pick themselves up and promise to do it better next time and have demonstrated it before.


Start with some of the people on the local high school or college athletic teams.  They wouldn't be playing sports if they didn't want to win.


They have the WILL to win.


And I imagine so do you.