Introducing the Daily Dose of Optimism: Highlighting Grand Acts of Humanity

Today, I’m introducing something new that I’m calling your Daily Dose of Optimism. Because in this time that’s impacting all of our lives around the world, what we are seeing our grand acts of humanity, not only in business, but across the world with every kind of person. So what I want to share with you are acts of goodness that will drive and will earn both human and financial prosperity, as we work our way out of this.

Addressing Employee Welfare Through Your Business Decisions

Today, I want to talk to you about addressing something that’s important, which is our employees, not only their welfare in terms of their homes and their safety, but their financial welfare as well.

There is a fine dining restaurant in Seattle called Canlis that usually serves the big meal you have to save for the whole year for—for your anniversary. They got all their people together—like many of you, they have frontline people who are dependent on coming in to work. And they brainstormed with them and determined, “Look, we all need our jobs and people need to eat, but clearly not fine dining.”

So with the help of their employees, their ingenuity, and with people in the community who worked with them because they believed in this cause, they rebuilt their business into three things:

First, a donut business: they work with people across the community who were able to provide them with equipment quickly. Their people started to learn how to make donuts; their chefs switched over quickly.

Next, they now also have a drive-through hamburger business. I hear these burgers are to die for. And now the locals are lining up—socially distanced, of course—to get these drive-through burgers.

Finally, they have the evening meal for families prepared, so that you can pick it up and go.

What we’re seeing in this example is a microcosm of the actions you can do with your business.

Give Your People a Seat at the Table

We know one of the things that is going to hit businesses that are dependent on frontline people especially is that, at some point, you may or may not need them physically.

What we are seeing in this example from Canlis is ingenuity, brainstorming, and giving your seat your people a seat at the table.

So number one, recognize if your business model certainly right now at risk, because of the in-person part of the experience.

Number two, bring your people together to brainstorm. Don’t forget to get your employees involved because what we’re going to see is if you give them a seat at the table, their spirits will rise, they will be feel part of a connected community.

And number three, rethink what service you provide. So while your job is to provide food, it doesn’t have to mean it’s delivering this personal, beautiful, fine dining meal. So rethink how will you deliver the basic service that you provide to your customers.

Become Unforgettable

As we eventually work our way out of this, your customers will keep coming back to you, they’ll remember you, and you will become unforgettable.

We all have an opportunity in this moment to become unforgettable for how we reacted to this emergency, for how we helped our employees, for how we help our customers, and for how we show up as the kind of people we are.

Hoping you’re all safe and sound.

This blog post is a lightly edited transcript of the video embedded above. 

We all have an opportunity in this moment to become unforgettable for how we reacted to the #coronavirus, for how we helped our employees, for how we help our customers, and for how we show up as the kind of people we are. #kindness… Share on X