When I go away from work, on a vacation, or to a seminar, and then come back, I see things differently.  My perception of the way my business runs changes..  Sometimes it's a slight shift.  Other times, Ive notices big changes have occured without me even being aware of it.  Nothing physical.  Always emotional, cognitive, visual.  But always at least one-two degrees of seeing something differently. 

This holds true working with your staff.

Customer service reps almost always focus on the transaction, the order, the questions, they can get bogged down in the details.The intensity of a normal business day, from within a company’s customer service dept. is great, it can get ovwhelming at times.  Growing business, more customers, less customer service reps, doing more with less.  Day in, day out.  Meeting sales goals, introducing new products/services, handling warranty/complaint issues, etc.  Most places have no time to ‘breath’ or take a fresh look at the way we work.

When I return back to work after being away I’m reinforced with the idea of what my role is.  I have seen that my company/work is EXTREMELY related to the rest of the nearby world (even though I can’t ‘see’ that when I’m sitting in the office day after day).  I see how the rest of the world has changed.  I see how the rest of the world is still the same.  It gives me hope and excitement to do my work and do it better.