So many ads these days talk about how much companies care about us, how the airline or rental car company or hotel cares.  Here’s the problem, a company can’t care; only people can care.  If the company really cares, they need people who care, and the way to get people to care is to care about them.

Top brass, executives, CEOs, hear this loud and clear, all of the mission statements, marketing and taglines can scream about how much you care about customers, but until you demonstrate that caring to your employees, it’s all just words.  Employees won’t care about customers unless their leaders care about them, period.

The whole operation has to be a caring one from the executives caring for managers to managers caring for employees to employees caring for customers, in that order.  It starts at the top – or the center as I like to call it.  If I feel cared for as an employee, if I feel that my job isn’t always on the line, if I feel that I am being taken care of, I feel more inclined to care for and take care of the customer. It’s not rocket science, but it is science, because it’s part of how we’re wired as humans.

Humans were built to be communal creatures.  We work best in groups.  To kill the wooly mammoth took a group, not individuals.  To keep the village safe, we stick together.  We choose leaders because they are stronger, smarter, have more experience, and are willing to stay out in front to keep us…you guessed it…safe!  When leaders don’t keep the contract and do things that are counter to keeping the village safe, we lose faith, we begin to fear, we begin to separate into factions where we feel safer, the village begins to break down.  A broken village invites other, stronger villages to invade and take captives – all in order to strengthen their village and become safer.

So, what do we have in the business world?  We have a lot of leaders and top brass looking out for themselves at the expense of their people, the people lose faith and deliver the bare minimum, service is poor and the company is mediocre at best, potential is lost.   It happens over and over and it’s a shame.

Think about it.  Are you in an executive or management role?  Are you keeping your people safe?  Are you looking out for them?  If you had to go through a financial downturn, would you take a cut to save them or cut them to save you?  If you had a child serving in the military, which leader would you want them to have, one who is willing to suffer to save them, or one more concerned with saving themselves at the expense of your son or daughter?  It’s a no-brainer, so make it the thinking in your world too, take care of your people first and they will take care of your business.