First, ask yourself...Would you like to provide better service to each and every unique customer that you have?
Regardless if we are referring to external customers or internal customers (internal customers being our employees, co-workers, superiors, business partners, etc.), the only way to build strong, loyal relationships in today's extremely competitive environment is to provide the absolute best, most above-and-beyond service possible. But here is the problem: each and every customer is different, which means that what one customer might consider to be excellent service might simply be average to the next.
The only way to provide the absolute best service to ALL of our customers is to service them through what's called The Customer Paradigm. This means that instead of worrying about what you feel to be good service, you are only concerned with their opinion. We can begin to operate under The Customer Paradigm by asking ourselves specific questions, such as: How do THEY feel about my service? What do THEY really want? What do THEY consider to be excellent service? What do I know about THEIR preferences? How can I improve on our past interaction to make it better, according to THEM?
The key is remembering that just because YOU feel you did a great job doesn't mean they feel the same way, and their opinion is the only one that really counts. In order to make sure your customers have an A+ experience every time, you should evaluate every aspect of your service (through their eyes) which will also help you to decide if there are any parts that could be fixed, changed, eliminated or improved to enhance their experience.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Achieve Better Outcomes While Empowering Employees
First, ask yourself...
Are your employees ever unsuccessful when they are empowered with brand new tasks for the first time?
Empowering someone is an excellent way to develop their skills, and increase their commitment to the goals of the team/organization. However, if the proper steps are not followed, the act of empowerment can backfire - often resulting in conflict, mutual lack of confidence, and a regression in that particular employee's performance AND desire to be empowered again in the future.
The 1st step (out of many) to successfully empower someone is to provide them with an extremely clarified description of the role or responsibility that you would like them to perform. Seems like common sense, right? Unfortunately, this easy but important step is often overlooked due to our tendency to assume that since WE know exactly what to do and how to do it, that means the OTHER PERSON does as well.
Clearly communicating exactly what the task is will ensure the employee fully understands what to do. Going into specific detail will also proactively uncover questions they might have - usually ones that you would have never thought to address!
Are your employees ever unsuccessful when they are empowered with brand new tasks for the first time?
Empowering someone is an excellent way to develop their skills, and increase their commitment to the goals of the team/organization. However, if the proper steps are not followed, the act of empowerment can backfire - often resulting in conflict, mutual lack of confidence, and a regression in that particular employee's performance AND desire to be empowered again in the future.
The 1st step (out of many) to successfully empower someone is to provide them with an extremely clarified description of the role or responsibility that you would like them to perform. Seems like common sense, right? Unfortunately, this easy but important step is often overlooked due to our tendency to assume that since WE know exactly what to do and how to do it, that means the OTHER PERSON does as well.
Clearly communicating exactly what the task is will ensure the employee fully understands what to do. Going into specific detail will also proactively uncover questions they might have - usually ones that you would have never thought to address!
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Develop More Trust Within Your Relationships
First, ask yourself...
Would you like to see your relationships continue to strengthen over time?
Strong, trusting relationships are not simply created out of thin air. They take time, and they take work. If we desire to have the type of relationships where a strong, mutual level of trust is shared, then conscious effort must be made on our end to "build" the relationship in order to get it to that point.
Affirming is a technique that we (especially as leaders) can use to help strengthen our relationships. To affirm our relationship with someone means to consciously and proactively communicate to them any of the following: what they do well, what we like about them, why we respect them, the good work they do, etc.
When we affirm, we do it with sincere purpose and intent. It is much more than simply giving a compliment. It is indicating that we believe in them and truly value their relationship, and at the same time, indicating they should also do the same for us. The more we affirm our relationships with others, the stronger the relationship will get, which will allow for more trust to be built over time.
Would you like to see your relationships continue to strengthen over time?
Strong, trusting relationships are not simply created out of thin air. They take time, and they take work. If we desire to have the type of relationships where a strong, mutual level of trust is shared, then conscious effort must be made on our end to "build" the relationship in order to get it to that point.
Affirming is a technique that we (especially as leaders) can use to help strengthen our relationships. To affirm our relationship with someone means to consciously and proactively communicate to them any of the following: what they do well, what we like about them, why we respect them, the good work they do, etc.
When we affirm, we do it with sincere purpose and intent. It is much more than simply giving a compliment. It is indicating that we believe in them and truly value their relationship, and at the same time, indicating they should also do the same for us. The more we affirm our relationships with others, the stronger the relationship will get, which will allow for more trust to be built over time.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Leading Others Through Change
First, ask yourself...Do you ever feel like you don't get a full "buy-in" from your employees when you implement a change?
When change takes place, it is human nature to have concerns about it. The level of accuracy with which those concerns are addressed will significantly impact the type of reaction (either positive or negative) we have towards the change. If our employees' concerns are not addressed, fear and resistance will overcome other emotions, and they will have little motivation to "buy-in" to whatever the change happens to be.
Often the most overlooked concerns that must be addressed are the personal concerns our employees have. They will always have questions such as "how will this change effect me?," "what's in it for me?" and "what must I do to be successful in relation to this change?"
If these questions/concerns are not addressed and we leave employees wondering or guessing, there is a strong likelihood of immediate resistance to the change and an even stronger likelihood that fear will take over. Luckily for us, the best, easiest, and most effective way to ensure our employees DO NOT fear the change is to simply answer questions proactively, and be open and honest about information.
When change takes place, it is human nature to have concerns about it. The level of accuracy with which those concerns are addressed will significantly impact the type of reaction (either positive or negative) we have towards the change. If our employees' concerns are not addressed, fear and resistance will overcome other emotions, and they will have little motivation to "buy-in" to whatever the change happens to be.
Often the most overlooked concerns that must be addressed are the personal concerns our employees have. They will always have questions such as "how will this change effect me?," "what's in it for me?" and "what must I do to be successful in relation to this change?"
If these questions/concerns are not addressed and we leave employees wondering or guessing, there is a strong likelihood of immediate resistance to the change and an even stronger likelihood that fear will take over. Luckily for us, the best, easiest, and most effective way to ensure our employees DO NOT fear the change is to simply answer questions proactively, and be open and honest about information.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Enhancing Your Productivity
First, ask yourself...
Do you ever go home at the end of the day, feeling like you didn't get enough accomplished?
Have you ever worked a 12-hour day or a 60 hour week, and then looked back and felt like "nothing got done?" I'm sure we can all recall times when this has happened. One of the main reasons for this is because we're not always efficient AND effective with our time.
To be efficient with our time means to get things done right. To be effective with our time means to get the right things done. With those definitions in mind, its easy to see how we might work "hard" all day and get a bunch of "tasks" accomplished (we are efficient), but if those tasks are not the ones we should even be working on in the first place, then we are NOT being effective- which leads to stress, frustration, and the feeling that we didn't get much done.
So how can we ensure this does not happen? Simple! Make sure our tasks are directly related to our ultimate goals. When the work that gets accomplished is meaningful and is moving us closer towards accomplishing a desired outcome or goal, we will feel much better about the time that was invested.
**This week's tip was taken from "Maximizing Productivity" which is the March session of The Compass Program. Click Here to view the schedule of all 12 sessions for The Compass Program.
Do you ever go home at the end of the day, feeling like you didn't get enough accomplished?
Have you ever worked a 12-hour day or a 60 hour week, and then looked back and felt like "nothing got done?" I'm sure we can all recall times when this has happened. One of the main reasons for this is because we're not always efficient AND effective with our time.
To be efficient with our time means to get things done right. To be effective with our time means to get the right things done. With those definitions in mind, its easy to see how we might work "hard" all day and get a bunch of "tasks" accomplished (we are efficient), but if those tasks are not the ones we should even be working on in the first place, then we are NOT being effective- which leads to stress, frustration, and the feeling that we didn't get much done.
So how can we ensure this does not happen? Simple! Make sure our tasks are directly related to our ultimate goals. When the work that gets accomplished is meaningful and is moving us closer towards accomplishing a desired outcome or goal, we will feel much better about the time that was invested.
**This week's tip was taken from "Maximizing Productivity" which is the March session of The Compass Program. Click Here to view the schedule of all 12 sessions for The Compass Program.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Increasing Employee Commitment
Would you like your employees to be more committed to the team and/or organization?
Employees today can't be told, tricked, forced, manipulated or "managed" into committing to the team. They must make that choice on their own, and it is up to us, as the leaders, to help them make the right choice! It is our actions, and the environment that we create/promote that plays a significant role in the level of commitment our employees choose to have.
To help our employees become excited about the team, and consequently raise their level of commitment, one of the most important things we can do is to actually help them feel like a bigger, more important part of the team. Some examples are things like: encouraging and soliciting their input and opinions, reminding them of the importance of their role to the team's success, and openly sharing information with them (such as info about the company, team goals, future opportunities, etc).
When our employees truly feel that they are integral to the long-term success of the team, they will be much more likely to increase the level of effort they put into their job, and ultimately care much more about contributing to the team's success!
Employees today can't be told, tricked, forced, manipulated or "managed" into committing to the team. They must make that choice on their own, and it is up to us, as the leaders, to help them make the right choice! It is our actions, and the environment that we create/promote that plays a significant role in the level of commitment our employees choose to have.
To help our employees become excited about the team, and consequently raise their level of commitment, one of the most important things we can do is to actually help them feel like a bigger, more important part of the team. Some examples are things like: encouraging and soliciting their input and opinions, reminding them of the importance of their role to the team's success, and openly sharing information with them (such as info about the company, team goals, future opportunities, etc).
When our employees truly feel that they are integral to the long-term success of the team, they will be much more likely to increase the level of effort they put into their job, and ultimately care much more about contributing to the team's success!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Providing Feedback to Employees
First, ask yourself...
Would you like to get better outcomes from the feedback you provide to others?
Providing constructive feedback to someone at work can help facilitate important change, and have a tremendous impact on their future performance. But if certain steps in the feedback process are not correctly followed, we run the risk of providing ineffective feedback, which will prevent us from experiencing the outcome we desire.
The first step for providing effective feedback is to share your desire to provide the feedback. This step is quite simple to perform, yet often overlooked. An example of this is, "Dan, I would like to talk to you about your presentation yesterday. Do you have a couple of minutes right now?"
When you let the other party know that feedback is coming, it will prepare them (possibly for some constructive comments) and they will be less likely to be defensive. It's also important to understand that "right this second" is not always the best time for someone to hear the feedback you are about to provide to them. They might be busy, angry, tired, upset, or distracted at that given moment - all things that could cause your words to go in one ear and out the other. Prefacing your comments by asking if this is a good time allows them to let you know if there might be a better time to talk - a time when they will be in a better place to listen, give you their full attention, and truly understand your message and intent.
Would you like to get better outcomes from the feedback you provide to others?
Providing constructive feedback to someone at work can help facilitate important change, and have a tremendous impact on their future performance. But if certain steps in the feedback process are not correctly followed, we run the risk of providing ineffective feedback, which will prevent us from experiencing the outcome we desire.
The first step for providing effective feedback is to share your desire to provide the feedback. This step is quite simple to perform, yet often overlooked. An example of this is, "Dan, I would like to talk to you about your presentation yesterday. Do you have a couple of minutes right now?"
When you let the other party know that feedback is coming, it will prepare them (possibly for some constructive comments) and they will be less likely to be defensive. It's also important to understand that "right this second" is not always the best time for someone to hear the feedback you are about to provide to them. They might be busy, angry, tired, upset, or distracted at that given moment - all things that could cause your words to go in one ear and out the other. Prefacing your comments by asking if this is a good time allows them to let you know if there might be a better time to talk - a time when they will be in a better place to listen, give you their full attention, and truly understand your message and intent.
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