Page 139 - Harnessing the Strengths

122 ■ Servant-Leadership in the Intercultural Practice

they don’t serve peanuts. In contrast, if you fly with Cathay

Pacific from Hong Kong to Taipei, during the fi fty minutes of
fl ight time you receive a warm breakfast that is actually so hot

that it is difficult to fi nish it during the fl ight. This is a question

of cultural differences. The specific American will argue that
an airplane is not a restaurant. The diffuse Chinese sees the
stomach and your comfort as part of the relationship. In a joint
workshop with Cathay and American Airlines on the subject
of “Serving the Client,” someone came up with the idea to
serve warm pretzels—brilliant, but not realistic, and also not
really solving the dilemma.
The servant-leader’s solution worked on the principle of
the moment of truth. If you only ever focus on creating deep
relationships with your client, you can quickly go bankrupt.
It costs far too much time to always be at the beck and call of
your customer. But if you never invest extra time in customers,
they will walk away (to a competitor that is willing to go the
extra mile) and you will also go broke. It is, therefore, in your
interest to look at where the crucial moments are in your busi-
ness where you can “mean more for your client” and make the
connection between the part (moment) and the whole (truth).
Singapore Airlines, Southwest, and Virgin are examples of
airlines that have taken a serious look at where their moments
of truth lie. They know exactly which moments are the most
important for their clients. That means that the clients get
optimal service at the moments they most want or need it—if
they miss their connection or lose their baggage, for example.

Through the specific moment, a connection is made to the dif-
fuse whole. Or, from the perspective of the servant-leader, the

greater whole serves the specific moment and vice versa.
Naturally, here there are also preferences that are infl u-

enced by culture; for example, the specific American leader

who fi rst addresses your specific results and then rewards you