It's the Customer, Stupid!: 34 Wake-up Calls to Help You Stay Client-Focused

Chapter 34. Ten Rules that Drive Client Decisions and Loyalty

Rule 39

"Customer-driven leaders understand that you can't shake hands if your fists are balled."

A significant part of leadership is the ability to compromise when it's appropriate. If you're all hot and bothered over a situation, compromise is difficult to achieve. After all, you can't shake hands if your fists are balled.

One must question the standards by which compromise is being achieved. What is the minimum acceptable standard that you can identify? How can you give a little, but get a little, too? If you can meet another person halfway on just a few issues, you'll open the fist and that will open your heart to settling the issue.

Rule 40

"Two rules of customer-driven leadership:

Rule # 1 . . . don't quit.

Rule # 2 . . . see Rule 1."

Great customer-driven leaders have a low tolerance level for quitting—for themselves, and for others. It's not in their vocabulary to quit. It's simply not an option. They never see it as an option in others, either.

The old saying "A winner never quits and a quitter never wins" is pretty good advice. The man or woman who simply loses just ran out of time. The person who quits defeats himself or herself.

Quitting, simply put, should never be an option. Leaders who are responsible take this into consideration and refuse to veer. They also refuse to allow the people on their watch to quit.

Rule 41

"Customer-driven leaders know the difference between a bend in the road and the end of the road."