Fight or Flight???......CHARGE!!!!

Yesterday was one of those days. I don't get into detailed work stuff but lets say that something went customer centric wrong. We had to send an email out explaining.

Many a company President would not put their name on the email and send out the regular generic company support based email and have them contact support for any questions. I like pain, so I sent one with my personal email and asked people to contact me directly if they have any questions.

I did it because I want to feel their pain. I'm at the top of the food chain and I want to make sure situation never happens again. When I'm solving this problem in the new year I want to have the feelings of the impact from the customer perspective seared into my soul.

The letter went out late in the day to over 1500 customers. I didn't know what to expect. So I headed to the gym. I figured I could take it and ride it out. Or I could take it and workout. I chose the later.

I got to the gym and after a good dose of Beta-alnine and C4 I hit the weights HARD. Weight I've never hit before. I showed up at around 8:30 pm and I was so motivated to train like a mad man. My plan was weights, bike and then a swim. I was a man on a mission.

The weight I'm pushing I've never pushed before. I have veins popping up all over my body. When you start having veins start popping out of your thighs in the morning you know you're getting strong. And I don't have small skinny thighs. Veins in the thighs and across the knee has always been my barometer of getting in shape.

By the time I got on the bike the reply emails started coming in from customers. Not the kind of emails I want to get. But again I'm at the top of the food chain and if you want to run with the big dogs you need to piss in the tall grass. If you can't, go play with the puppies. Besides I've been on the top of the food chain and I've been on the bottom, the top is much better if you like pressure, decision making and dealing with employee issues.

The emails just got me more motivated to push harder. It was like I was getting shot with adrenaline. I knew once I got home I'd need to start replying and I knew today was going to be a day of kung fu fighting.

My only regret was by the time I got off the bike the pool was closed. I was hyper motivated to do a swim next. It was near 11 pm and they were closing the gym period.

I got home and did some email replies. I also wasn't prepared to give up that we could solve this problem somehow.

It's been my experience that a negative can ALWAYS be turned into a positive, sometimes you just need to think outside of the box. Many people just give up and look at the options in front of them and not beside, behind, above or below. There is always something that can be done or an approach that can be taken.

This morning I woke up, had my coffee and dug into my first batch of 60 emails that arrived in my box. Some where "no problem" others were "heart breaking" and one or two was just plain "nasty mean".  So I strapped on the helmet, the seat belt and positioned firmly my titanium cup and away I went sending back emails.

I got some of the replies for me to call them now they want to tell me how upset they are!!!! Ok. Deep breath and I did and I appreciated the feedback. I find people at the core are good and those that give me honest feedback, whatever the tone, I truly appreciate as it only helps in the long run if you address those issues.

Now the good news!!!

Aside from getting through all those emails and talking with customers I may have got the commitment from a key resource to do the near impossible and make everyone happy before Christmas. Which would be great.

I also found that most of the people were sympathetic and understanding of unforeseen circumstances. They appreciated some of the options we presented and took us up on them. Even the one's that were really upset after a personal call were continent. Many appreciated that the President of the company was truly engaged and cared. I do.

For some it would have been a tough day, for me I found it invigorating. But I do like pain and suffering as you can tell my the Ironman tattoos I have on my body. I'm also really fortunate to have a great team around me that helped rally and make things happen, quick.

We'll all know if it worked out on Monday. I'll either be a hero or a zero.

By 3:30 pm the work waters were back calm. I even had time to go Christmas and birthday shopping for Alice. Normally I don't go birthday shopping until the day before her Birthday, which would be tomorrow and same with Christmas. I usually do my Christmas shopping Christmas eve. Which I believe is the smartest time to do it. Especially after seeing the malls today.

The reason Christmas eve is the best time to do it is the malls are usually empty. At least of women. You typically can shoot a cannon through the malls and not hit anyone. Parking is easy. There is also better last minute deals.

The normal people all have their shopping done and are at home drinking their egg nog. Me? It's normally 4 pm, malls close at 6 pm. I do a quick recon, the stores are empty, I fly through. I pick up stuff. Finding help is a breeze as usually 3 or 4 of the customer service people are standing around talking in good spirits.

I'm normally in and out and in what would take me a couple hours on busy days takes me maybe 30 minutes. In a way I don't like to talk to loudly about this technique as I don't want to spoil it for myself if others start to pick up on it.

BUT this year I'm ahead of the game. I now have everything bought. Although everything just means Alice's gift. She buys for everyone else. I'm as surprised as they are to see what they got on Christmas morning even though the gift says from Mom & Dad or Santa.

The other problem I have is I can't wait to give my gifts. Buying and waiting is a killer for me. When I got home with my wrapped gifts (yes, I'm also always efficient getting them to wrap it at the store) I had a few and I couldn't resist and asked, er rather forced, Alice to open one of them. She did. It was a necklace. She loved it. I will say I do have a gift at picking jewellery, so I'm told. I can't pick purses, I need to phone a friend on that one, but jewellery I'm good at.

The rest of the night was nice and relaxing. Other than the garage door broke and lots of things that need plumbing need to be fixed, but other than that it was relaxing. We watched Reservoir Dogs. I love that movie. I forgot how good it was.

Oh and Reid did his homework. Yes. He came home early on a Friday at 11 pm and on his own started doing his Math homework. Something is really going on with Reid and I'm going to post about it tomorrow. He's going through a major transformation and it's scaring me. In a good way.

No Training - Recovery - Getting Kicked to the Balls and smiling.