I had a fascinating and eye opening experience this last week. A vendor we’ve been working with, who is wonderful and has always been eager to be helpful…was not her normal self. I’ll spare you the details, except to say that here’s what I noticed: her energy was off, she was short with me and tense, and when I asked her to help me with something – that I knew she wanted to help me with – she said “it’s out of my control, my power has been taken away.” I left there feeling less excited about and connected to the company, bothered about my customer care person and the experience, deflated, and not really eager to go back. I also felt a breach of trust (no great reason for it, just the feeling I had.) I left there wondering if I should find another vendor, drop the deal (it’s a BIG deal – high dollars, high value), or just blow it all off. The more I thought about it, the more bugged I got…it was incongruent with my experience of the past. I went back to find out what was up…In a word…”leadership.”
