Adding Value Through Your Service–I Can

The next component of developing the Power Habit of Other People Thinking and building the Power Element of Value is to add value through the delivery of your service.

Once you have identified your role of service and developed the right mindset of service, the next step is to follow through on your service and actively deliver it.

How you deliver your service is by aligning your Attitude with your Imagination. In regard to Other People Thinking, this means to align your attitude to serve with innovative and imaginative ways to serve.

This is best achieved through the implementation of The Golden Rule:

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

The Magic Word

Attitude, as we know, is the magic word.

Your attitude is the wand from which magic happens. Get your attitude right, and your world is right.

But how does this work in your practical, day-to-day life?

Let’s use the attitude of safety to show how it works. A ship’s captain and a pilot of a passenger aircraft share the same attitude and intention of safety first.

To the captain and the pilot, safety for their passengers and crew is paramount. Everything they do is with the aim of arriving at their destination safely.

Because of this attitude, they don’t take unnecessary risks. They follow protocols and guidelines. They have manifests and checklists.

All their thoughts and actions are focussed on getting their passengers, crew and cargo safely to port.

Imagine, though, if upon boarding your cruise ship you overheard the captain boasting how fast he could get to the next port through a section of reef that other captains were too scared to sail through?

What if you glimpsed the pilot in the cockpit taking a swig from his hipflask before telling the crew to get ready to take off?

You wouldn’t feel very safe, would you?

That’s because you know the captain and the pilot are not thinking ‘safety first’. They don’t have the right attitude to be in control of the vessel on which you’ve boarded.

Your attitude sets the tone of your experience because it determines the focus of your thoughts, which in turn determines the focus of your actions.

Right Attitude, Right Behaviour

You have probably experienced this in moments when you are rushed. If you are late for an important meeting, your attitude is “I have to get there as quickly as possible or I’ll get in trouble.”

So you speed through the traffic, maybe go through a couple of amber lights, cut people off, swear at a few bicyclists that slow you down, and pray that you don’t zip past a police car and get a speeding fine.

Then you rush into the meeting only to realise you’ve forgotten your briefcase.

In this situation, your attitude is one of speed, not of safety. You need to get to your destination as quickly as you can.

So your actions and behaviour reflect that attitude. Hopefully you don’t have an accident on the way and you avoid hitting a pedestrian.

Parents of newborn babies know how important safety is. On the first trip home from the hospital, the baby is carefully restrained in a capsule, which itself is secured in the backseat of the car by the seatbelt and safety hook.

The parents then tentatively reverse out of the car park and slowly make their way home, keeping well below the speed limit and ensuring a huge distance between them and the car in front should they suddenly have to slam on the brakes.

Then they breathe a huge sigh of relief when they pull into the driveway and turn off the ignition.

In this situation, the new parents are terrified of having an accident and are on high alert. Their sole thoughts are for the safety of the baby, and so it should be.

In the scenarios of rushing for your meeting and getting your newborn baby home safely, your attitude determines your behaviour. When you think speed, you act in a rush. When you think safety, you act safely.

When you have the right attitude, you have the right behaviour.

Your Value is Your Reward

This is true of every person and every profession. You are happy to send your kids to class because you know the teacher has the best interests of her children at heart.

You keep returning to your family doctor because you know he has your health and wellbeing in mind.

You eat at your favourite restaurant or diner because you know the chef keeps a clean kitchen and uses only the freshest ingredients.

You see, you reward others who have a great attitude, and this you usually do with your money and your patronage.

You trust them to serve you well and you develop continuing relationships with them. They reward you with valued service, and you reward them with the appropriate payment.

The people who add value to you and your family are the people you reward. The same is true for yourself:

Be of value to others, and they will reward you in kind.

Your Attitude Determines Your Reward

There are many ways to be rewarded, not just with money.

You can be rewarded with being trusted, by friendship, by being considered a person of integrity, and being held in high esteem.

You can be rewarded by being given more responsibility at work or in your family environment.

You can be rewarded by being included in organisational or sporting teams, in decision-making, in big projects.

You can be rewarded by simply being appreciated, by being welcomed, by being thanked.

A consistent, good attitude reaps consistent, good rewards. Which is why Zig Ziglar emphasised the importance of attitude in determining your levels of success when he said:

“Your attitude, not your aptitude, determines your altitude.”

Talent and ability can only take you so far. Determination will take you further.

But it’s your attitude that will determine how far you go and how successful you become.

The Golden Rule

One of the best attitudes you can have is the attitude of service.

The next step after identifying this area of service is to motivate yourself into action. You might have the best-laid plans of mice and men, but plans remain wishes without action. Faith without works is dead, as they say.

A great motivator for action is The Golden Rule and to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

In other words, do for others as you would like them to do for you.

So, a good way to develop your attitude of service is to frequently ask yourself:

“What would others like in this situation?”

The Golden Rule is therefore an antidote to bad karma. When you pay forward good energy, good stuff comes back.

Not always in the form of money, or possessions, or career opportunities, but it can do.

More often than not it’s in the form of positive emotions, like joy, fulfillment, goodness, peace, reassurance, wellbeing, self-love.

Act and behave, then, in a way that you would like others to act and behave toward you, and you will be amply rewarded with all the good things in life.