Frustration

For a long time, I have understood that the role of an executive in a mid size or small business,
(less than 100 employees) is to provide leadership, direction and to establish priorities, amongst
other duties, which can be numerous.

I have tried, since the recession, to focus on priorities that will help not only the company, but our customers and our most important assets, our employees.

However, I am frustrated by the fact that no matter how much I make the case for this or that,
I get, basically countermanded, by some people's actions--as their is always another good priority or something that just happens to get in the way, of a given priority, like sales.

I also know that "the experts in the field of management" might also tell me that if you cannot
get your message across, maybe you need to get a new person or persons on the other end......
or maybe my message is convoluted or not clear. I am just a bit frustrated with it, as I know the
way to a better place, and to me, it is pure and simple, but I cannot figure out why my message has managed to get waylaid.

I already know that the hardest thing in situations like this is being able to have all of your staff or team be on the same page, with the desire to do well. To succeed. To prosper. To sacrifice.
I have had all of these qualities in most of my employees, but the saying that you cannot teach old dogs new tricks, seems to come up here. What bothers me is that they actually think, but do not say it, that they know better than me. Maybe they do, but I do not share that feeling, but I
know where it comes from.

It comes from those who feel they are in the middle of the action or the operations, or those who feel they simply know better. In any case, I wish I could be more effective in my ability to make
sure we are all focused where we need to be.

I think what makes this hard is that everyone on the Box Brothers team cares about what they do, how they do it, and most importantly, they care for the customer. This, I am very proud of
and this is why this discussion or mostly relative; we do great things for our customers, whether it is a rush delivery, a careful pack or something personally important or sentimental, or we do
a museum quality crate for a customer, or we make a box for a customer who needs it now--there is not anything we would not do for a customer in this realm, but most importantly, we do
not take the customer for granted, once we have made the sale. To us, a customer is the reason
we come to work, and maybe that is the secret to my dilemma, maybe I have not made us all
understand that you can have the best possible service in the world, but if no one knows about it,
no one will benefit from it.

I feel slighted, when I see my competitors advertisements, which try to fool customers into thinking that they care or even provide a level of service that is simply beyond ordinary.
That is why we guarantee our service and our customer's satisfaction, by doing things the right
way, and I only wish we had more opportunities to do what we do.