When Doug Sandler initially tweeted me to guest-write this blog, he gave me a few topic options: Entrepreneurship, Marketing or Customer Service. I thought, Great! I have so much to share on each of these subjects, I don’t even know which to choose? Then came a follow-up tweet: [Also] Give me your best quote on being a leader. Wait, what?

My mind started racing. LEADERSHIP? What can I say that somebody else hasn’t said already (much better than me)? What original excerpts have I posted that have gotten the most Likes or RTs? What’s for lunch? 

I went into overdrive, then suddenly drew a blank. Quickly checked my phone to see how much time I had before tweeting back and right before putting the phone down, received this text from one of my mentees:

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If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain how he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.” This is how you treat me.

And there it was. The most opportune reminder of what I believe good GREAT leaders (and leading brands) do: They take unselfies. That’s right. Remarkable leaders take time to showcase their most unselfish attributes…through others. They feature images of love, compassion, kindness and servanthood. They make it their first order of business to leave a selfless legacy. 

 




Leading brands can attribute much of their profitable success to taking unselfies. Organizations that make Corporate Citizenship a top priority are fruitful way beyond their bottom line because they’ve been able to turn both customers AND disadvantaged communities into fans. They also focus on providing a customized customer experience because they see people for who they ought to be: people.

I know this because I happen to work for a company that recently made Forbes Most Valuable Brands list, ranking at #1 in Customer Perception. It was also recognized by the Harvard Business Review for providing great customer service via social media channels. We get it. We take the focus off ourselves and put it back on who deserves it: our customers, our future generation, our legacy. Microsoft has donated over $1 billion to charitable organizations since it first began its Employee Giving Program, back in 1983. That’s a lot of unselfies!

Unselfies do more than capture a random act of kindness here and there. To true leaders and leading brands, unselfies are intentional leadership strategies that drive their every day. In a world increasingly growing with selfish motivation, unselfies help us stay noble and human. They remind us why we do what we do. If we are not genuinely serving others, if we are not helping people succeed, then what are we doing?

Last year a study estimated that over 1 million selfies were taken each day. That’s a lot of MEs. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against selfies. In fact, if you know me, you know I’m guilty of taking one (or two ☺)…but I often wonder, how wonderful our world would be if each of us flooded Instagram with unselfies too!  If for every selfie taken, TWO unselfies were posted. If you and I took twice the time and dedication to build other people up, as we take to build ourselves. If we shifted priorities, made it a point to go from good to GREAT leaders and first, took an unselfie.


Miri Rodriguez is the Social Media and Communities Lead for Microsoft Latin America. Her extensive career includes Marketing, Operations and Customer Experience. She is the mother of 2 boys and an American Bulldog. Her philanthropic work includes teaching middle school students at her local church, mentoring high school students at Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship and discipling young women into business leadership.