The Man, the Myth, The Legend

My stepfather was a legend in many ways. After serving in WWII he came back to his rural Missouri community and tried to find a way to make a living to support his family. After many stops and starts, he had the opportunity and decided to purchase a local tavern. This place was the true definition of a hole in the wall. It only served beer and coffee and was pretty much what you would think of as a typical old town tavern. He didn’t serve food at first, but the place had a grill and kitchen. People started hanging out over the lunch hour and would bring their own meat and he would fry their hamburgers and hot dogs for them for free. After a few months of this, he decided heck I can buy the supplies and start making money off cooking. In that idea  true empire was born. Bill had a superpower. It was not his cooking or barkeep skills but his mastery of human relationships. He was genius when it came to remembering people who had been in the tavern. If you had been in his place once, he would remember who your spouse was, your children’s names and where you worked and went to school. He was not afraid to ask you about yourself and find out who you were. People thought he was amazing and almost like a circus performer with an amazing memory.

Where Everybody Knows Your Name

Here is the part that not everyone knew. He read the Dale Carnegie book on How to Win Friends and Influence People. The book talks about the importance in learning people’s names because people love it when another person remembers who they are. He took that one idea and turned it into a mission. He was not great at remembering all this data. He was no different from anyone else. The difference was he worked at it. He carried a small pocket notebook in his shirt pocket. After the interaction with a new person, he would write down his intel on the subject, and then he would do what most of us would not. He would study his notes about people. He had hundreds of notebooks through the years. He would pull them like we pull out a smart phone. His superpower was actually a skill he practiced and refined. Did his interest in people work? Absolutely! His tavern became a thing of legend. In a town of 1,500 people, he served over 50,000 meals a year. People came from far and near to have a steak or burger at his hole in the wall place and talk with Bill. Customers would wait out on the sidewalk for hours to get a table. His food was good, but nothing over the top amazing. They came to see him. He never quiet grasped that concept. Making people feel good and valued by remembering their name, sending them a note, or remembering where their son went to college was his superpower. It was what set him apart from other establishments.

Finding Your Superpower

I know it was another time and generation and there are other ways of doing business today, but I believe there are some good lessons in his story. I still believe no matter what, people want to feel seen and valued, and the easiest way to do that is be genuinely interested in who they are. There is power just in remembering someone’s name.  Superpowers may be a gift but they are still something you have to work at. Don’t take your power for granted. Find out what your strength is in human relationships and make it better by practicing and refining that skill.

David Baszucki, CEO of  Rolex said, “Our superpower is our fierce commitment to creating a positive place to work and play. Our employees have the tools and the mandate to chase big game changing ideas.” So, think about what your superpower is as a leader and what your organization’s superpower is in the community. Now think about what it would take to practice and refine that power? What results could it provide to you as a person and to your organization? I would say the benefit to fully executing your skill could be limitless. That’s the view from where we sit this week.   ~  Liz