Through the Eyes of a Child

As part of my Father’s Day festivities this year, I received a very sweet memento from my 6-year-old daughter that she made for me in Sunday School. It was a laminated certificate in which she gave responses to questions intended to reveal something about me and our relationship. It is a time-honored tradition shared by many faiths (I assume), and I looked forward to reading what she had said.

It started with the basics such as our names and my favorite food, which she said was pizza, and then moved on to more telling questions. Her favorite thing about me is that I read to her every night, which is not completely accurate, but we have made our way through a few selections from her new detective “chapter books.” I’ll take it.

Then she had two “complete the sentence” questions that really revealed an interesting reality for both home and the office. She said, “My dad likes to…take breaks from work.” And she followed that with, “I love my dad because he …sometimes stays home from work.”

Once I got past the thought that her teachers were probably not terribly impressed with my ambition or work ethic, it made me realize how snippets of time – captured moments – can make such a lasting impact on our memories and view of reality. As I have discussed here before, I really struggle with working too much, not too little, and I am constantly searching for the proper balance between being with my family and providing for our financial needs.

But I think there is an important lesson here. While I am not a “quality time instead of quantity time guy” – quantity is crucial and cannot be made up for through intensity – there is something to be said for making moments count. And the same is true as we deal with clients.

While we are busy with everything we do to keep the business moving forward, a well-timed personal communication with a client can go a long way in keeping them connected. A phone call, a lunch or even an e-mail just to check in, say hi or ask how things are going will do wonders in that department.

I think it is awesome that my daughter believes that there is no place I would rather be than home with her and the rest of the clan. And she is absolutely right. I think our customers can have that same feeling – without having to read to them at night.