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Let me give some examples of ‘walking contradictions’. If you look closely at the lives of most people in the building and related trades, they are usually involved in intricate and exacting work…and yet their service behaviour is often disastrous and anything but thorough. This is an enormous contradiction and one that is experienced and understood by all consumers…to the point of dread when calling trades people to organise a minor or major job. The reason for this glaring inconsistency, in my view, is that trades people are held to account by others for their building work but not for their service attitudes…which they are left to manage on their own. Leaving the building site and entering the more refined domain of senior executives, you will often find that another, serious contradiction exists…the one where managers consistently state that customers must be treated with care and consideration, but where their staff are often treated in a lesser or even an opposite manner! And another awful contradiction occurs when managers urge sales people not to capitulate on price when dealing with customers…and yet the same managers are notorious for often ‘screwing’ suppliers for all they can get.

The same form of nonsense can be found at work when sales people return to the office, following a stint of ‘looking after customers’, and then commence to treat colleagues in other areas of the business as second class citizens…and vice versa. I even remember seeing a so called top motivational sales speaker berating the concierge at the Hilton Hotel in Adelaide, shortly after explaining to real estate sales people how to be successful in business. The news for those that treat different people in different ways is this: ‘one way or another, sooner or later, double standards will create only half of the success that you want!’

The most successful people in business have only one standard when it comes to ‘anyone’ they deal with, inside or outside the company…and that standard is very high and keeps on being improved. Such a standard is not a tactic; it is a way of managing one’s own behaviour on the basis of a personal promise ‘to operate in a professional manner…at all times and with no exceptions.’ And beyond their treatment of people, very successful people make themselves accessible to everyone in the business mix…although for obvious reasons they must give most of their time to urgent, important matters. They also make a serious effort to meet and mix with people in all areas of the company, to build relationships and an appreciation for what people do.

The best managers are socially inclined at work, meaning that they mix well, and they are contributors to an enjoyable working atmosphere…whereas the worst managers are reclusive and either solemn or indifferent in their dealings with staff and colleagues. And perhaps the most serious contradiction occurs when certain business people work at being ‘nice’ at the office, and then somehow lose this quality when they get home.

There is no question that ‘walking contradictions’ do great harm to their own progress, plus they become the butt of jokes among colleagues…and so their value becomes very limited. The challenge is to be the kind of person who treats everyone with equal respect and offers equal assistance, which does wonders for the individual…aside from the positive impact on ‘all others’. To project one, improving, professional, consistent and friendly image is the aim…either that or you limit your relationships and yourself!