Some months back, before the lockdown on my travel with my family to Paris, I had an encounter with a server I’ll never see again.

She wasn’t rude. She wasn’t incompetent. She was okay on every front of her work. But in a world with an array of choices as to whom we can give our business to, I opt for dealing with organizations that are beyond exceptional. Here’s what happened.

It’s 8.45 pm on Saturday. We walk into this restaurant for dinner. At the door, we are half-heartedly greeted by a server who tells us that due to a public event happening nearby, the restaurant isn’t seeing the traffic of people, so rather than 10 pm, the restaurant closes tonight by 9.00 pm. We are disappointed and about to leave. Just then, the restaurant owner walks into the restaurant, and seeing us, he greets us very cheerfully, asking if we are here for dinner. He gladly offers us a table and personally takes our order. The chef of the restaurant gives a personal touch by visiting our table and checking if we need anything. Toward the end of our dinner, we get a surprise treat of complimentary brownie and ice cream on our table. I gauged the owner had no idea of we being told that the restaurant closes early. Clearly, the owner was interested in people and in providing the best. Throughout our time at the restaurant, I also noticed the server was extremely disappointed and was going around doing her job uncaring and irritable. Anyway, we did enjoy our meal.

Being a people’s person, I decided on my way out to stop and talk with the owner for a few minutes. While thanking him for the great food and awesome service, I curiously asked him how long he’s been operating this restaurant. ‘Four years,’ came a prompt and happy response. I asked him about his future plans, and he said he would like to open up more restaurants in the next five years. I wished him good luck.

I’ve worked with many people over the years as a speaker and as a leadership advisor. For any organization to succeed in these times of complex and highly competitive business environment, what is essential is to develop its people to have a leadership mindset. If most of your people operate with a mindset like that of the server, where they continuously need management supervision, are in a rush to pack up early, lack the enthusiasm of ownership, are cutting corners and misusing their freedom, then let me humbly tell you this, your organization’s growth is near impossible.

Your employee’s mindset is the lifeblood of your organization. To see exponential growth in your business, train your people to be influencers and people-friendly. Develop the leader within every employee. Your people are the face of your business. They need to work with a forward-thinking attitude. Most owners and CEO’s know the direction they want to take their company. But as they look down the hierarchy, their people aren’t aligned with the company’s goals. They aren’t engaged fully in their work and would hop for another job at the first opportunity. No organization and no entrepreneur can reach far with the majority of its people in the hierarchy chain working enough to just get their paycheck on time. It’s time you did a reality check on your people’s mindset. In this age of acute disruption where change is happening at a superfast rate, former ways of doing things just don’t work anymore. The very definition of organizational success is now different. One of the most significant ways success in business and life will be defined in the coming business era will be through leadership.

Many companies today are derailed and not growing with speed despite having the best hands and minds at work. Much of my working life is dedicated to working with organizations across the world – helping them grow leaders at all levels. I have been helping companies to develop a culture where every person shows leadership in everything they do. When this happens, there is a vast difference in the company’s growth because now the majority of your people are obsessed with results: revenue, profitability and retaining customers, and minimizing the time they spend doing anything that doesn’t generate results.

I have witnessed that a firm that builds leaders across the company soon becomes undefeatable in any economy. I encourage you to explore this idea of having the majority of your people work with a leadership mindset.

Share+ discuss + debate this idea with your team and throughout your organization. Within a quick period of time, you’ll see some fantastic results.