The motorcycle first caught my eye on a winding road. It was behind me and following a little too closely. But it wasn’t until we got to the main road and were stopped that I saw a dog pop its head up from behind the driver. As the motorcycle passed, the dog was clearly visible. It was in a backpack with its head and front legs on the shoulders of the driver flying down the road at 60 mph.

Many miles down the road, we stopped at a light. The motorcycle, a car in front of me, then me. And that’s when it happened. The dog started to shimmy out of the backpack. Panic set in that the light would turn green, the motorcycle would move and the dog would pop out of the backpack and land on the road. Luckily, the dog popped out of the bag and started running down the road before the light turned green. It ran up to a parking lot and was caught by its person before being hit by the oncoming cars in the next lane. Crisis averted.

There are a whole bunch of points I can make with this experience. But I’ll keep it to just one. When people don’t feel safe or are highly uncomfortable, they will bolt. What conditions are you creating in your business?

The snow just started to accumulate and along with it came the cancelation of weekly trash pickup. The snow wasn’t supposed to cause an issue until the following day, but out of an abundance of caution, the service was canceled with pickup to occur one week later. And just then, the mail truck drove by on its normal route, causing me to think about the USPS motto:

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

Setting aside the very real issues snow storms cause, the contrast in services that day got me thinking about approaches to business. Whether providing services, completing projects or everyday activities, some approach getting across the finish line as a given. It will happen. Others look for reasons to stop. Which is yours?

The power went out for a few hours mid-day. Without the normal lighting, I was left to using the natural lighting streaming through the blinds. Without the overhead lighting, the natural lighting revealed finger prints on the cabinets. I had no idea they needed to be cleaned that much. Those fingerprints were not normally noticeable.

That’s the thing about business. Sometimes you don’t see what is going on from your current perspective. It takes a fresh perspective from a different angle to see where focus is needed. How are you getting a fresh perspective of your business?

Recently, I stumbled into a spot on a website that said “we value your privacy,” then only allowed you to opt out by email if you lived in California. The option was not available to everyone else. That would be following the law in California, not valuing privacy.

People have a good sense of sniffing out whether what leaders or companies say is true or if they are repeating a narrative. Building trust and credibility requires consistently being straightforward and honest.  Where are you landing the BS detector?