Learning from Sal the Butcher
The Wall Street Journal ran an article last week headlined: “Choice Advice from Meat Cutters.” Here’s the lead.
“Meat cutters have long spent their days slicing and dicing hunks of beef, pork and poultry. But surprisingly few knew precisely what to do with those roasts, steaks, chops and filets. Now supermarkets are trying to educate their meat cutters on the finer points of actually cooking the stuff they cut.”
This is an interesting article about how supermarkets are trying to re-create what used to happen all the time in a local butcher shop. My mother always asked Sal, our butcher for advice.
Sal was one of those old time butchers. He could cut up anything. First he asked how you wanted your meat cut. Then he remembered it so you didn’t have to tell him again.
In this era of “case-ready,” plastic-wrapped meat there are people behind the meat counter at your local supermarket who are more like retail clerks than butchers. The difference between them and Sal includes three lessons that you can use to improve your career outcomes.
Master your craft. Sal knew everything about being a butcher. Because he did, he could make recommendations based on the best choice, not just on the choice he knew how to do.
Talk to your customer. That customer may be a real customer. It may be your boss or anyone inside your organization that uses your work product. Whoever it is, talk to them. Learn about them.
Once you know about your customers and what they do and how they use what you do, make suggestions about how they can do better. As Zig Ziglar has said for years, the best way for you to succeed is to help other people succeed.
