40-Day Series: Thank You Clay Holyfield

I just had lunch today with Mr. Holyfield and thought what a great person to write about in this series. Clay and I started working together a few years ago and I have had the distinct pleasure in seeing him grow as a professional and as person throughout that time. He is a snappy dresser, terrific husband/father and one hell of a smart guy. He comes from a blue collar background, is a K-state grad and appreciates a well played football game (meaning smash mouth all the way!). He has a sensibility about him that enables him to be great at just about anything he does.

Clay worked his way up from the ground floor so has a unique perspective on what it takes for a company to be really good. He has worked in product management creating the product, in internal operations delivering the product, and has supported sales directly selling the product. He and I worked together on a custom solutions team so he also understands that many times what the customer wants isn't exactly what a company offers so you have to make it up as you go. He knows to be successful requires playing in the gray area and that some lines are meant to be stretched to satisfy the client.

You often hear "customer comes first" but many times the customer gets lost in the process, the reports and the bureaucracy. Clay made sure the customer never got lost..even if that meant working long hours to do so. I was always amazed at his ability to take care of both his external and internal customers simultaneously...a task difficult to do at best and impossible at worse. He accomplished this with his professionalism, attitude, skill and sincere desire to satisfy his customer. That is another thing...he took personal ownership of his customer, he made it his responsibility to not let anything keep him from taking care of what the customer needed to be happy. A class act who took ownership and accountability to do more than give lip service to customer satisfaction, he made it happen!

Golden Nugget: Know what your customer wants and give it to them.

Be who you are and learn to be better,
Lisa