Archive | February, 2007

If Leadership Was A Punctuation Mark, What Would It Be?

by on February 27, 2007 in Work

Ever work for someone who thought leadership was defined by an exclamation point? Ever get confused by your own leadership style and whether you should get folks to follow you through a series of statements ending with periods? Is there a reason I’m beginning this post using only question marks? Hmmm?

We can get caught up in the notion that a leader has to be commanding…commanding in a sense where you’re slinging around words, phrases, and sentences ending with an exclamation point (my daughter likes to call them ‘shoutty marks’). It might sound something like this:

“Bailey! Come here! And explain to me why our customer is pissed off!!!”

Or perhaps, more often, we simply issue those commands with a bit more subtlety. Something like:

“Chris. Please come to my office and tell me what’s going on with our customer.”

Another option? Yep. How about using that wonderful creation, the question mark?

“Chris? What happened to make this customer so angry? And what’s your plan for making this right?

The first option isn’t going to win you any leader-of-the-year awards while the second might get you an honorable mention. The third one, though, leads to the gold medal round. The key is to get curious, which isn’t always easy or even the first thing we think of doing when something important is on the line.

Ask…is there something to learn here? And not just for you, but the folks you lead. By asking questions, you’re helping them learn from their own experiences. What may seem like an initial failure can turn into new opportunities. Use open questions (those that don’t lead directly to a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer).

Finally, all of this isn’t to say there are not times when every leader must emphasize their words with an exclamation point or nudge folks with a period. It’s just important to remember that questions are an essential part of a leader’s repertoire.

More Ways To Cultivate Remarkable Customer Service

by on February 21, 2007 in Business

Via David Gammel at High Context Consulting, I came across this fantastic article from Joel Spolsky called Seven Steps to Remarkable Customer Service. I really don’t know much about Joel’s company, Fog Creek Software, but if his article is any indication of what it would be like to be his customer, I’ll be giving his products a thorough review.

What’s compelling about the article itself is Joel’s way of making his points through stories. He could just say, “Here’s what you should do to create remarkable customer service,” but he goes further to give real-life examples of what works and what doesn’t work. Like the time he visited the locksmith or the time he overheard a customer complaint in a diner.

Check out Joel’s (bonus) step eight: Give customer service people a career path. Radical indeed when you consider that customer service staff are usually stuck at the bottom of the corporate hierarchy and payscale.

If your organization’s customer service needs a tune-up or a complete overhaul, take a look at how one company is changing the rules to build a better experience for it’s customers and employees.

Thanks, David.

Some Gifts Are Best Not Accepted

by on February 17, 2007 in Life

One of my daily reads is ProBlogger simply for Darren Rowse’s terrific advice for how to blog better. I’m in the process of implementing many of his tips so be on the lookout for some improvements in the next few weeks.

One of Darren’s posts yesterday caught my attention, not because of his blogging advice, but because of a more powerful reminder about what to do when you get some hate and anger thrown in your direction. Consider this insight that Darren gained from a Buddhist monk:

When someone attacks you with anger and hatred say to them:
“thank you for your ‘gift’ – but I think you can keep it for yourself.”

It is easy to take on the anger of other people and to wear it as a burden of your own but it is usually unhealthy to do so.

Anger and hatred directed at you by another person is their anger and hatred and not yours. While they may wish for you to take it upon yourself – ultimately it’s a ‘gift’ that would be better not received.

I tend to have strong empathic qualities. If a co-worker, customer, or my wife gets angry, I sometimes have difficulty not getting wrapped up in their emotions. But remembering that the emotion is theirs to own and give away and I have a choice as to whether I accept it is a liberating concept.

It’s About The Relationship, Stupid

by on February 16, 2007 in Work

Today, Management-Issues comments on a recent report produced by Robert Half International and CareerBuilder.com which says that employees trust their manager more than their senior executives. Yep. Not a lot of surprises there. Just consider the number of interactions between an employee’s manager compared to their VP or CEO. Put to a ratio, it’s going to lean heavily in the direction of the employee’s manager. This is the failing of the traditional organizational hierarchy and there is no cure for this problem until that wonderful little thing called the org chart shifts from vertical to horizontal.

The old, old-school mindset of command and control is always about getting other people to do what you want them to do. If your organization’s still hung up on this old chestnut, how’s it working out for you? Employees don’t want to do what their boss says to do. After all, is their boss on the phone with a customer who needs a solution to their problem now? No, most employees (or at least the ones you want to keep around) want to do what they need to do to get things done. They need to know that their manager AND their executives understand this and are willing to do whatever it takes to support this initiative. This involves the element of trust and the only way you gain and share trust is through a strong relationship. Which means that most of our corporate executives need to get out from behind their desks, open up some of the time on their calendar normally reserved for meeting with the media, corporate partners, etc., and visit their employees.

Here are three common reservations that executives have:

I’m too busy running the organization or my part of the organization. No kidding. So is everyone else in the company. Think that your call center staff is just sitting around with nothing to do? Think your marketing team hones their solitaire playing skills on company time? Then, you definitely need to visit. More than likely, you’ll find that they’re busy helping you run the organization, as well.

And here’s the kicker: it doesn’t need to be an all-day marathon task. It can take as little as five minutes. Rosa Say has a great model called the Daily Five which is well worth learning and building into your schedule.

I’m (secretly) scared of what I might find. Yeah, it might be painful to hear about the challenges of the day-to-day work. You might find that your employees don’t respect you. It’s called feedback and can help you grow. Some day it might actually save your job.

I don’t need to visit…that’s why I have management. Your department heads and junior management can’t replace you. If you strive to be a leader, be a visible leader. Else, you’re merely a puppet master using your managers to initiate commands.

And don’t rely on your junior management to build rapport for you. Middle management is always in an awkward position and it’s only made harder when the senior executives and ground staff don’t have good relationships. If your employees trust you as CEO, then they’re far less likely to go to their immediate supervisor and complain that the latest initiative from headquarters is full of shit. If they know you and trust you, they’ll either try to understand and move on or feel free to tell you directly that it’s shit. That’s the kind of frankness that every manager should strive for, right?

No one ever said that building relationships was easy. But here’s the thing: strong , open relationships are not just the glue of today’s organizations, they are the lubricant. Friction is a fact of life whenever you put two people together. That friction only multiplies when adding more and more individuals to the group. But relationships built on honest communications and trust keep the inner workings moving smoothly instead of grinding to a halt.

Does Happiness Always Mean Getting Your Way?

by on February 15, 2007 in Life

The BBC had an interesting article yesterday called Why are Dutch children so happy? that went on to explain why the Netherlands was at the top of a recently published Child Wellbeing Report produced by UNICEF. (By the way, the United States – perhaps unsurprisingly – rates pretty much near the bottom compared to Europe and Canada). The lead-in to the article reads:

Dutch children have been rated the most fortunate children in Europe. Their parents go out of their way to please them, and teachers expect less of them than some of their European counterparts.

Well, that’s not exactly how the UNICEF report portrays the Netherlands, but does raise some interesting questions when we think not only about our own children (regardless of which country you call home) but own lives at work. How much is our own happiness tied to having things go our way? Can there be happiness in our challenges and struggles?

Let’s take this example from the BBC article:

18-year-old Ysbrand, a student in Helmond near Eindhoven, says this picture matched his childhood. He says that his parents spent a lot of time with him when he was younger. His mother stayed at home while his father worked.

But, he said the contrast when you get to 18 can be something of a shock.

“Now I’m left to look after myself,” he told the BBC News website. “My parents say that I need to care for myself and to be independent. It’s hard. I don’t have much money as a student and to go out is expensive. Beer, for example, is very expensive in the Netherlands.”

By focusing on what will make us happy right now, we postpone possible future pain. Not that we shouldn’t aim for joy in our life, but we need to be honest with ourselves and consider whether our present experience – even if it does suck – won’t make us a better person down the road. Sometimes we need to unhappy in order to learn how to be happy. I can certainly remember painful experiences in my life that were hellish in their own special way, but in reflection I’m so glad that they were my experiences. I wouldn’t be half the person I am today without them.

And I hope this doesn’t seem like I’m picking on the Dutch. Frankly, I don’t think the example of Ysbrand above is all that different from some of the experiences I’ve seen from fellow parents here in the U.S. The desire to coddle and over-protect kids transcends borders and culture.

Today, we’re challenged to look at our own happiness and determine whether that happiness is real or is simply deferring pain for another time. Ask whether that graduate degree that might be challenging and even painful to undertake might lead to a better tomorrow for you. Ask whether the pain of quitting your job might not be the first step toward finding your own soulful work. Remember that happiness sometimes means taking the hard and painful path.

Be well.