Outliers – Who to Follow – A Leader with Faithful Followers

This is not a book review (but I do promise to review this book soon).  Nor is it an affiliate link, as usual.  Instead the graphic links directly to the ziglar.com website–and it is the purpose of this post to explain why…

Almost a month ago, there was a mix-up with an order I had placed online.  I personally dropped the ball, because it took me a while to go back online and check my order, and even longer to figure out how to contact the support department.  (Note: Follow up is a vital leadership habit.)

However, the fact of the matter was that there had been some break-down in the process…sometime after I pressed “Buy Now” and before the point when the book was shipped.

I contacted the company via their website–a process that was very easy to do.  They emailed me back within the hour!

I think there is an important lesson here for leaders, entrepreneurs, and service professionals: When someone gives us feedback, we need to listen to it quickly!

The response that I got was humble, authentic, and if you can imagine, enthusiastic.  Honestly, I had been extremely frustrated that this had happened, but this email response blew my socks off, totally disarmed me, and…left me speechess.

I have been following Ziglar, Inc. for quite a while, and there had been many reasons for choosing to do so.  Zig Ziglar is a true Outlier, an authentic leader of significance who stands out from the crowd and multiplies the leadership of others.  His son, Tom Ziglar is working diligently to share his father’s heritage and fill his father’s shoes (and doing a good job of it).

There are some other family members on the team.  But Zig Ziglar’s message and heritage and company have grown tremendously, and this is the point I want to drive home.

One of the great challenges of leadership is show the vision to others, help them see it, and equip them to follow after it.  John Maxwell says that “one is too small a number for greatness.”

Zig Ziglar has succeeded in building a team of leaders, of faithful followers.

The response of Cindy Oates, a customer service representative–a member of the Ziglar team, proved that to me.  It was the authentic action of one of Zig’s followers that did more than just assuage me.  It re-enlisted me as a follower, a member of this team!

I have to reemphasize that her humility was just so sincere.  She wanted to make this right, and she did! As a result of her actions, they probably lost money on me…a few dollars.  But the service that I received was priceless!

Thank you, Cindy, for living out the principles that Zig Ziglar teaches and for teaching me some very valuable leadership lessons.