Originally published in the October 2003 Issue of Link & Learn.

American revolutionary war hero, General Francis Marion, was physically unattractive, stood only five feet tall, and walked with a pronounced limp - but he was a man of substance. Marion possessed two qualities that made him a major contributor to the defeat of England in the American Revolution:

1) Courage -- which helped him secure the rank of colonel at an early age; and
2) Ingenuity -- which earned him the name "The Swamp Fox."

Marion's creatively engineered guerrilla tactics enabled his small, under-resourced unit to take on the large, well-supplied British troops. While the British fought with orderly precision and methodical planning, Marion's troop fought from trees and bushes. While the British wore bright red uniforms, Marion's Brigade donned camouflage. Marion's hit-and-run methods typically caught the British army completely off guard. It was guerrilla warfare at its finest.

Successful, magnetic service, today, needs to emulate guerrilla warfare - it needs to be unconventional, maverick, and out of the ordinary. By now, customers are bored with plain vanilla, meets-expectations service. They desire a quality product delivered with style and pride. They are loyal to service providers who offer remarkable service that leaves a story to tell. Such sparkly service requires leaders with courage enough to take the road less traveled - much like Marion did.

Francis Marion Was Courageous

Magnetic service leaders are courageous. Not a show-off, fearless kind of courageous, but rather an "I only regret I have but one life to lose for my country" kind. It is the courage that wells up from a devotion to duty rather than bravery that extends from disorderly desperation. It is seen in leadership that has its source in a deep commitment to customers as well as an insatiable desire to serve. Bill Marriott, Jr. said, "Great service comes from organizations whose leaders embrace the nobility of serving and thus pursue a path that leaves their customers pleased and their associates proud."

Jimmy Crippen, owner and manager of Crippen's Country Inn and Restaurant in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, knows the power of a courageous, do-the-right-thing example. The popular restaurant is an old bed and breakfast style home on a quiet street near down town. Blowing Rock, NC. One night, a group of twelve from Atlanta arrived at the busy restaurant to find that Jimmy himself mistakenly logged their reservation in for the next night.

"I am absolutely booked and can't possibly accommodate twelve people, much less at the same table," reported Jimmy. "But have your party go to the bar-drinks are on the house-while I work on a solution." Minutes later a crew of six waiters hauled tables and chairs from the kitchen to the front porch. Before they could finish their first drink, the out-of-towners were escorted to a spot that proved to offer the best seats in the house. Jimmy personally waited on their every need. A potential disaster was transformed into an enchanting evening because a bold leader walked his talk.

Customers are devoted to organizations that serve with honor -- ensuring agility and focus. Customers don't want to waste time double-checking to ensure that what was promised is delivered.

Magnetic service leaders are willing to go against the tide. Most leaders today have been inundated with the many ways they can violate employee rights and infringe on the sanctity of good public relations. Just as they have been instructed in acting like a leader, they have been informed to think like a lawyer. Many have learned to surrender to unrealistic demands (under the banner of some cause) when their consciences scream for acting on principle. Too many leaders would rather lose sleep than lose face. Such timidity has bred a cautiousness about controversy that has spread way beyond complex employee relations issues. The dearth of value-based decisions has left too many organizations with a character deficit.

Francis Marion Was Prepared

Francis Marion grew up in the wetlands near the coastal town of Georgetown, South Carolina. He spent his childhood learning the ways of the swamp - and the swamp life never left his heart. When he formed Marion's Brigade he set his headquarters up deep in the swamp near the Pee Dee River. By the late 1780's, when they were prepared to attack the British, the unit's expertise with terrain strange to the British soldiers bolstered their courage to play David and Goliath.

Magnetic service leaders find that courage is strengthened by preparation. Dancers rehearse, soldiers play war games, planners play out what-if scenarios, and product makers create prototypes. While everything cannot be pilot tested, magnetic leaders like General Francis Marion do their homework. "It isn't the will to win that's important," says famous and controversial Texas Tech basketball coach, Bobby Knight. "Everyone has the will to win. What's important is the will toprepare to win."

Southern Ohio Medical Center (SOMC) in Portsmouth, Ohio had a problem in 1998. Press Ganey, the J.D. Power of healthcare, had rated SOMC in the bottom quartile among all hospitals in customer satisfaction. CEO, Randy Arnett, and Medical Director, Kendall Stewart, sounded the charge: We must change our culture quickly. Their challenge was compounded by the fact that Portsmouth was rural and remote. The area was also economically depressed, sometimes making it difficult to attract the best medical talent. The challenge required broad-based preparation and persistence.

SOMC began a journey that included a system-wide study of tools and techniques needed to alter the perception of patients. Countless hours were spent by all employees in classes learning the skills of customer service. Committees devised new ways to measure performance and celebrate steps along their journey. The intensive and persistent preparation paid off - in just four years, SOMC's rating was boosted to the 99th percentile. Their performance on RN/LPN employee satisfaction was one of the top four hospitals in the entire nation. "Excellence," says HRD Director, Betsey Clagg, "shows up as stunning execution. But it's really about a solid vision, a thoughtful plan, and preparation-lots of unglamorous, late-at-night, behind-the-scenes preparation."

Francis Marion Had a Cause

A British officer was invited to visit Marion's swamp camp under a flag of truce. Marion offered his visitor a sweet potato baked on a campfire and served on a slab of pine bark. "Surely this cannot be your usual food," said the British officer. "Actually," replied General Marion, "because you are our visitor we are fortunate to have more than our usual amount." When the British officer returned to the British unit's headquarters in Georgetown, his colonel asked why he was so somber. "I have seen an American general and his officers, without pay, and almost without clothes, living on roots in the swamp; and all for liberty! What chances have we against such men?"

Your cause can be a deep commitment to the product or service provided to the marketplace. "You've gotta be able to see the beauty in a hamburger bun," said Ray Kroc, founder of McDonalds. Debbi Fields, founder of Mrs. Fields Cookies echoed the same theme: "I am not a businesswoman. I'm a cookie person." Southwest Airlines President and Chief Operating Officer Colleen Barrett says it this way: "We are not an airline with great customer service. We are a great customer service organization that happens to be in the airline business."

Your cause can also be a compelling commitment to the values you wish to demonstrate to employees and customers. S. Truett Cathy, founder and chairman of Chick-fil-A, the sixth largest fast-food chain in the U.S., is a deeply religious person. Like 1924 Olympic gold medal runner Eric Liddel's refusal to compete on the Sabbath that formed the plot of the Academy Award wining movie Chariots of Fire, Truett elected to remain closed on Sunday. While competitors KFC, McDonald's, Burger King, and the like serve customers seven days a week, Truett has gained favor in the marketplace for courageously remaining faithful to his cause.

"I like dealing with an organization whose leaders 'stand for something!'" was a frequent answer when a major research firm asked customers, "What do you like most about the organizations to whom you are most loyal?" Chick-fil-A, Southwest Airlines, USAA, and The Container Store were some of the companies that received high marks. Stand-for-something leaders weren't the loud, flamboyant, get-your-name-in-the-paper types. Instead they were courageous leaders who were clear, focused, and unwavering in their commitment to stay their course and stand their ground.

Francis Marion Was Connected

Marion valued his men and saw them as his partners, not his subordinates. In most army units, the commanders lived much better than their troops. This was not Marion's style. He slept on the ground with his troops, he ate only sweet potatoes when that was all that was available to his troops, and he deliberated tactics with his privates -- not just his sergeants. Shared hardship served to galvanize the zeal of the brigade, drawing their bravery from Marion's spirit and example.

Leaders often are heard to say, "It's lonely at the top." Such sentiment is taken from a perspective that positions leadership as a top-down, controlling relationship and not a partnership among colleagues. When Apollo 13 astronaut, Jim Lovell, was asked how he dealt with the stark terror of being in a space capsule facing almost certain destruction he said, "We had an important job to do, and we were never alone." Great leaders may be by themselves at times, but they are never alone.

Magnetic service leaders do not view accessibility as a passive "my door is always open" gesture. Connected leaders are out in front, there when you need them, behind the scenes, and perpetually "wandering around." Wandering around is far different from ambling around. Magnetic services leaders make deliberate and purposeful efforts to be on the scene to teach, model, reinforce, and affirm.

Great leader connections communicate a service mentality. Captain Michael Abrashoff, is the former captain of the USS Benfold, the acclaimed best-run ship in the U.S. Navy. "On my first day aboard, when the chow line formed for the traditional Sunday lunch on the deck of the ship, I went to the back of the chow line," says Capt. Abrashoff. "It had been a tradition that all officers went to the front of the chow line and then sat together in a different area of the deck. After getting my meal, I sat with the enlisted personnel. It signified to every sailor on board that I was there to support them, not the other way around." The following Sunday, every officer went to the back of the chow line and sat with the enlisted personnel.

Francis Marion Faced Danger as Duty

Leaders are not fearless beings who stoically snub their nose at terror. They are real-life human beings who face danger standing on legs of rubber with their stomachs in their throats. Danger makes them as queasy as a young recruit poised for his first taste of battle. But great leaders lean into danger out of a strong sense of duty and responsibility. "Everyone has butterflies in their stomach," says selling guru and author, Zig Ziglar. "The only difference between a pro and an amateur is: the pro has the butterflies in formation." Leaders act like pros because they feel accountable to those they serve.

Francis Marion was not a romantic in search of a hero's funeral. He was a realist who pondered his own mortality with the same uncertainty as the next guy. He hurt when he was wounded; felt remorse when he wronged another. In The Life of General Francis Marion, authors, Peter Horry and Mason Weems, write, "The Tories murdered several prisoners in cold blood. They said that Lieutenant Marion, at sight of such horrid scenes, appeared much shocked, and seeing among them a man who had often been entertained at his uncle's table, he flew to him for protection, and threw himself into his arms."

Magnetic service leaders are real business leaders, much like Francis Marion. Day in, day out, they wear their souls on their sleeves, showing the stuff they are made of. Or as John Ellis in his article "Strategy" in the October, 2002, issue of Fast Company tells it: "…Real business leaders…go out and rally the troops, plant the flag, and make a stand. They confront hostile audiences and they deal with the press. If the issue is confidence, they conduct themselves confidently. If the issue is trust, they make their company's business transparent. If the issue is character, they tell the truth. They do not shirk responsibility; they assume command. Because a fundamental ingredient of business success is leadership. And the granular stuff of leadership is courage, conviction, and character."

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