In pursuit of excellence

Earlier this week, my brother Luke Dale-Roberts won a prize for outstanding excellence in his field.

A year after opening his own restaurant in Cape Town, he won South African Chef of the Year and his restaurant, The Test Kitchen came in at number two.

Luke’s approach to excellence – his winning formula – is an inspiration for me. I love his passion for food and the perfection that he creates on a plate.

As a coach, trainer and NLP Practitioner, I’m always intrigued by excellence in any field. I believe that it’s possible to capture brilliance, boil it down to the bare bones and then work out how we can apply it to ourselves.

So I’ve taken some time to think about what ingredients have made Luke a winner and how these could be applied elsewhere – to anyone in pursuit of excellence in their own field.

Here are my thoughts, based on observations of Luke as a chef and Luke as my lovely brother:

·         Passion for his craft: Luke loves food: unless he’s sleeping, he is looking at, smelling, tasting or cooking food, and even when he’s sleeping, he’s probably dreaming about food. This passion never switches off – which means that his senses are always alive to fresh inspiration and new ideas

·         Obsession with detail: ever since a little boy, if Luke was going to do something, he was going to do it extremely well, even if it was getting up to mischief at school!  This steely determination to getting it “just right” for every single customer means that for every dish, he creates a formula that can be replicated again and again, not only by Luke, but by the rest of his team

·         Daring to be different: Luke has always loved getting a reaction out of people and his commitment to mixing things up, both in and out of the kitchen, has always got him noticed. Luke is the real deal, he has never pretended to be anyone other than himself and that’s what attracts people to him

·         Finally, dedication to and appreciation of his team. Luke puts it best himself when he says:

“I think the secret to the success of the restaurant so far is that every single person who works here is completely and utterly committed to doing their level best every single day – from the selection of the produce we work with to presenting each dish on the plate – we all want the same thing, for the diner to be blown away by the combination of flavours and the taste experience that we have put so much effort into creating”.

        http://www.travelwires.com/wp/luke-dale-roberts-crowned

Modelling is an NLP technique which is all about taking the best of what people do, synthesizing it down and sharing it with others. Modelling can be extremely useful for individuals, teams and organisations as a way of defining, decoding and replicating excellence, and making it part of what we do every day.

So the next time you do something brilliantly, or the next time you witness someone being outstanding, take the time to re-live the moment and ask yourself, what is it that’s making me/them shine, how will I replicate it next time and how will it become part of my DNA?

At Zomi Communications, we design and deliver leadership programmes that inspire people to locate and release their inner excellence. We work with individuals to uncover their own leadership style and apply it to motivate and inspire others. Antoinette offers one to one coaching, for business and individuals. For further information about our training and coaching solutions, go to:

www.zomicommunications.co.uk

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http://thetestkitchen.co.za/index.html

Great Customer Service... the Mary Portas way

I love Mary Portas.  I love her style, her no-nonsense approach and her business savvy. What I’ve loved about her latest series, Mary Portas: Secret Shopper, is that she’s moved beyond the shop environment and into the customers’ world.

It's been a one-woman crusade to change the way people in Britain shop: raising our expectations of what the shopping experience should be all about and raising the bar on customer service. 

And what’s been the secret to great customer service, according to Mary? Her main point is that understanding what your customers want and giving them the service that they want is all about great listening. 

And, IMHO, that holds true whether you are selling a product or delivering a service to a client.

Being on a bit of a soapbox myself about effective listening (see 1 February blog, Are you really listening?), I thought I’d pick out a couple of Mary Mantras from last week’s episode, where she talks about great customer service to Fone House staff.

“The most important thing is the question... You’re assuming. You’re not listening, you’re telling.  And that is the problem all the time”           Mary, when talking to ‘H’, self-styled ‘Mr Big’, Larmborghini driver and owner of a Fone House franchise

“Maybe when you feel you’ve got to do the sale, [that’s what creates] the pressure. Whereas, if you genuinely approach the customer wanting to give them the solution because you have the knowledge, that puts you in a much more confident and powerful position. People don’t want hard sell. They don’t like it. They want people to be themselves” Mary, to a member of staff at the Islington Fone House branch

Although Mary relishes in her reputation as a tough-talker, she actually cares deeply about helping people to get it right.  And if you watch her when she’s working with people, she’s not scary at all. She’s getting to know them, sympathising, asking lots of questions and putting them at their ease. Once people are in that position of trust, they are then in the best possible position to receive her specialist advice. Which, ultimately, is what great customer service is all about.

At Zomi Communications, we design and deliver communications, management and leadership programmes that inspire people to locate and release their inner excellence. We work with individuals to uncover their own style and apply it to motivate and inspire others. For further information about our training and coaching solutions, go to www.zomicommunications.co.uk

To share your secrets for great customer service, tops tips for great selling and thoughts on effective listening, please comment on the blog.  Or email me at antoinette@zomicommunications.co.uk

To watch all of the Mary Portas: Secret Shopper episodes, go to http://www.channel4.com/programmes/mary-portas-secret-shopper and look out for this week's episode, Wednesday 9^th February, 9pm, Channel 4.