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Delivering a series of executive workshops in Southern California recently gave me an opportunity to first visit with my brother. He’s been trying to sell his house for quite a while and I went there hoping to help in some way. I prepared for the visit by consulting with some real estate experts and marketing geniuses, so I had a bag of tricks under my arm when I arrived.

One of the tricks was to set off a spark under his broker. There wasn’t evidence of any action on their part for a long time, so my brother called them and gave his encouragement.

Three days later as I was entering the airport to return home my brother called. His house was under contract. It seems that the realtor had made some calls, causing a new potential buyer to show up and a deal was struck. We can draw plenty of lessons from this vignette, but try this one.

We trust our people to be motivated and to consistently do the right thing and we wave our customer service banner with pride. Nevertheless, customers leave and it’s almost always due to some dissatisfaction.

The 18th century philosopher Johann Gottfried von Herder helps us know what to do. He said:

There is a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks.

And because you’re the leader, you must be that spark for your people, just as my brother was the spark for his broker.

You know where it’s needed, so go spark today.