Who's Driving Your Bus?

Who's driving the bus? Is it the evil Mr. Ned? Is it the flighty cousin Janet? Is it the focused brother Floyd? Is it the kind-hearted Kara? Is it the irritated Uncle Ira? Is it the selfish sister Sally?

The preacher used the analogy to describe the different personalities that we all have inside of us. Each individual person can be a little testy or get angry. Sometimes we can be focused or kind or easily irritated or selfish. We can be all sorts of things. But what we're feeling inside at any given moment does not necessarily dictate the decisions we make as people. The preacher's point was well made. Each one of us is our own bus. And we decide who drives our bus.

The same situation arises in the world of customer service. As much as we'd like to be proactive our whole life and plan tomorrow knowing that tomorrow will go according to plan, the reality is that customer service in particular demands reaction. It requires us to respond to the customer's changing needs or to the complaint or to the issue or to the red flag or to the unexpected or to the new edict handed down by executive management.

And how we handle that situation is often dictated by the attitude we bring into the situation. We could have an attitude of inflexibility and resisting change. We could have an attitude of pointing figures and talking behind others' backs. We could have an attitude of self-pity and self-doubt.

Or. . .

We could have an attitude of flexibility and welcoming change. We could have an attitude focused on creating solutions and being open. We could have an attitude of trying to help others and the confidence to do so.

Our attitude comes across externally to others, but it's based on an internal decision we make. We decide who drives our bus.

Who's driving your bus today?