This month I will be posting a series of business blogs written by Victor J. Temple, business manager at Friendship Garden Nursery School, Inc.

By Victor J. Temple

Is your truth……the real truth?

We are the best…..we are the best childcare…No one is better….our business runs like clock-work….nothing is needed.  Isn’t it easy to believe your own stories and rhetoric.  In a business the stories of superiority spread like wild fire when fed from the top.  

We fell into this trap in the past at our childcare.  We had the best childcare, just ask the teachers.  Some parents stated there is no better in the industry.  Accounting boosts of fail safe processes, with no errors. 

It takes a brave, insightful leader to support the bravado with fact.  If you desire the truth, ask all your customers; past, current and future.   Our story was we were the best in town and had the most competitive price. Then we asked our customers when returning from a sabbatical how we did while away. They told us that the teacher turnover was excessive, policies weren’t followed and pricing was inconsistent.

Try this in your company, walk into a classroom and ask the team why they are doing a specific task.  If the answer is, “because we have always done it this way”, you might not have that fail safe process with no errors. 

If you want to add fact to the bravado, just ask your internal and external customers for their opinion.