It’s no fun losing a client to a competitor. It creates stress for you and you question your professional competence, even if you try to blame it on someone or something else. That’s why in last week’s message (here), I asked you to do something different to improve your client service. So, did you?

If you’re like most, probably not, which is unfortunate. Just reading these weekly messages won’t make you better. Your professionalism isn’t about what you know; it’s about what you do.

This is where your “sights” matter. If you did nothing, so far you have “poor sight”—unwilling to see and do the things that will help you. So let’s get your sights right.

First, you have to acknowledge that your inaction last week was an “oversight.” Anytime something goes wrong or has no movement forward, it’s usually because of an oversight in some area: planning, preparation, anticipation, communication, follow through, etc.

If you take the time to identify your oversight, you’re ready to learn “insights.” What happened specifically? Where was the breakdown? What needs to be different next time so you don’t repeat the oversight?

With the insights you’ve gained, you are prepared with “foresight” to execute what you learned and avoid the mistakes you made previously. Intention isn’t enough. You need to execute with the foresight you gained.

Here’s the sad thing—you will read this and think that improving your client service is a good idea. But then you will return your daily grind and do things the same way you’ve always done them.

So, in order to avoid the embarrassment of letting another week go by and doing nothing (oversight), commit yourself to selecting one thing to improve your service to your internal or external clients (insight) and then prepare to execute well (foresight). In the end, it’s all about using your sights to raise your professionalism and improve your service. And you will feel better, too.