Are you going the extra mile?

Whilst putting together a presentation for a local – Hereford – networking group about “Brand You” I came across in the Humby archives a page on Know, Do, Be!  We used this when delivering customer service training sessions in Marriott Hotels.  It is something that translates into everything that we do – whether it is business or life in general.

We all know what our job is, our role at home, our role in business and as a consequence of knowing we then go ahead and do it – the tasks, the mechanics, the actions and as a result of this things get done.

The exceptional performers and achievers – business, sport, life – take it a stage further – they actually BE – they put their heart and soul into everything they do – they go for the WOW, go the extra mile (Napoleon Hill) , help make someones day (FISH Philosophy)

From a great website – has an infographic for Know, Do, BE for architects!

To get from the knowing and doing you need to go The Extra Mile Formula – at this point I shall hand over to  Napoleon Hill.

From his book

The Extra Mile Formula
Render more and better service than you are paid for, and sooner or later you will receive compound interest from  your investment. It is inevitable that every seed of useful service you sow will sprout and reward you with an abundant harvest.
Going the extra mile is not the sort of principle that can be put into practice in a few easy steps. Instead it is a state  of mind that you must develop, so that it is a part of everything you do. There is a subtle, but powerful, mental  attitude connected with it. The stories that follow will demonstrate that attitude and show you the concrete  benefits if brings. Remember, your best recommendation is the one you give yourself by rendering superior service
in the right mental attitude.
To help you keep your mind fixed on going the extra mile, I have developed the following formula, the only one in this book. It’s very simple:

Q1 + Q2 + MA = C.
Q1 is the quality of service rendered.
Q2 is the quantity of service rendered.
MA is the mental attitude in which it is rendered.
C is your compensation.
“Compensation” here means all the things that come into your life: money, joy, harmony with others, spiritual  enlightenment, faith, an open mind, a sense of tolerance, or anything else worthwhile that you seek. Always be  aware of the diverse nature of compensation. Money is nice, but it certainly will not be the only thing that makes  you successful–or allows you to enjoy success. Do not cut off relationships which are poor in financial rewards but  rich in other qualities, for no matter how much service you render, other qualities, for no matter how much service  you render, others will recognize your one-sided approach. The spotlight of contrast will shine on you unfavorably  then and will seek out those who remain true to the spirit of going the extra mile.

A true story…

One rainy afternoon an elderly lady walked into a Philadelphia department store. Most of the clerks ignored her, but one solicitous young man asked if he could help her. When she replied that she was just waiting for the rain to end, he didn’t try to sell her something she didn’t want, and he didn’t turn his back. Instead he brought her a chair.
When the rain let up, the lady thanked the young man and asked for his card. A few months passed, and the owner of the store received a letter asking that this young man be sent to Scotland to take  orders for furnishing an entire castle! The letter writer was the elderly lady for whom the clerk had provided a  chair. She also happened to be Andrew Carnegie’s mother. By the time the young clerk had his bags packed for  Scotland, he was a partner in that department store. This was the result of the Law of Increasing Returns, all  because he had shown a little concern and courtesy when no one else would.

The quantity and quality of the extra service you render will come back to you greatly multiplied. Consider the  farmer who plants a crop of wheat. If he harvested only one grain of wheat for each grain he planted, he’d be  wasting his time. Instead every successful grain produces a stalk and a sheaf containing many more grains. Of  course, a few don’t sprout, but whatever problems a farmer may face, getting back many times more wheat grains  than he or she planted isn’t one of them.
And so it is with everything you do in the service you render. If you render service worth a hundred dollars,  chances are you will get back not only those one hundred dollars but perhaps ten times that–provided you have  done so with the right mental attitude. If you render extra service unwillingly or resentfully, you will probably get  nothing back. It’s as if the farmer had sown his wheat on the interstate road instead of the fertile field. And if you  render your service only with a sharp eye out for your own benefit, you will get nothing except perhaps a poke in  that eye.

Napoleon Hill (October 26, 1883 – November 8, 1970) was an American author in the area of the new thought movement who was one of the earliest producers of the modern genre of personal-success literature. He is widely considered to be one of the great writers on success.^[1] His most famous work, Think and Grow Rich (1937), is one of the best-selling books of all time (at the time of Hill’s death in 1970, Think and Grow Rich had sold 20 million copies).^[2] Hill’s works examined the power of personal beliefs, and the role they play in personal success. He became an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933 to 1936. “What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve” is one of Hill’s hallmark expressions.^[3][4]How achievement actually occurs, and a formula for it that puts success in reach of the average person, were the focal points of Hill’s books