. . .Let’s say in your company right now, you have (more or less) 25% of your employees who are like Paolo the Barber, and 25% who are like the Barman.

This leaves around 50% of people we haven’t spoken about and who I call Middlemen and women. For the sake of simplicity in this book, I’ll refer to them simply as Middlemen, as ‘middle people’ doesn’t have the same ring to it!

Middlemen neither share the passion and desire of Paolo the Barber, nor the negative energy of the Barman. They are somewhere in the centre. They neither over perform, nor under perform. Allan would say their performance is good, but ‘good’ in this case has a wide definition.

Good is only good. It is not excellent, it is not brilliant.

Good may give a customer a reason to come back and buy, but it may not. Customers want and expect excellence and br. . . Read More