Leaders, when’s the last time you saw your employees go the extra mile? 

Today? Last week?  Last month?

The photo at right was taken by Terry P., the Library Media Supervisor at my kids’ elementary school. (Back in the day, we called them “librarians”.) Shortly before this picture was taken, Terry had been doing an activity with the kids using pennies and reference hand outs.  At the end of the activity she instructed the kids to “stack everything on the tables before you leave”.

It would appear that an enterprising student took Mrs. P.  at her word.

Imagine the patience and precision required to stack all of those pennies.  Was it worth the trouble?  Was it even necessary?

Seems to me that your employees might be wondering that very thing— is what I’m doing even worth the trouble?  Does anybody even notice?

Leaders, stop for a moment and think of your team members.  What are they doing that would be noteworthy enough to document with a photograph?

Drawing a blank?  Then it’s to time start paying closer attention. Maybe they are going the extra mile, but you’ve somehow missed it. Your people are doing good work*.  Chances are you’ve just been too busy to see it. So go out and start finding the stacked pennies. Oh, and if you do find a noteworthy achievement— would you do me a favor and thank them for it?  Remember, it took a lot to get those pennies to stand up in that stack. If they don’t get any feedback, they might be tempted next time to let them sit in a big, messy pile.

*OK, so maybe some of them aren’t doing such great work.  That’s an entirely different blog post.

Photo credit: ©Terry P.

Sometimes a tweet just sums it up perfectly.  Ben Eubanks tweeted:

“Verbal Spam”.  Creates quite the mental picture, doesn’t it?

How often are you subjected to verbal “spam” in the workplace?  Probably more often than you’d like.  My first reaction to Ben’s tweet was to imagine people who blather on, saying nothing of value.  But then, I had a thought of how maybe there is some measure of value to some people’s “spam”.  Ever heard the saying “one person’s trash is another person’s treasure?”  I think this saying could apply to the communication process as well. Maybe some people are just droning on and on, but what if they are simply at cross-purposes with their listener? What equates to trashy spam for you as the listener may indeed be another person’s golden treasure.

Here’s an example.  When I conduct my Listening Skills for Leaders webinar, we discuss the following graphic:

Let’s say the woman on the left is a supervisor who is explaining a new company policy to the person on the right who is an employee.  The supervisor is very carefully explaining the details of the new policy—when the change will go into effect, the specifics of the change and what the employee needs to do to adhere to the policy.  It’s her job as a supervisor to communicate these details; therefore she believes she’s delivering a treasure-trove of information.

Now let’s look at it from the employee’s viewpoint. Perhaps this policy change will require some type of change in the way the employee handles his day-to-day work.  Maybe the change is extensive enough that he may have to learn something new, or re-think how he handles other related company policies. Maybe those changes are daunting in some way.  In the graphic above, the employee is listening for the emotional content of the supervisor’s message—and isn’t hearing it.  He’s only hearing the logistical details, which he may translate as “unhelpful” or even “spam”.

So, what’s a supervisor to do?  Supervisors are constantly communicating—everything from the  mundane (“cookies in the break room, eat up!”) to the life-changing (“We are going to have do lay-offs for fourth quarter”). The key is to think about the expectations of the listeners.  Supervisors skilled in verbal communication will think about the following before they communicate their message:

1. What’s my intent in sending this message?
2. What does my listener expect from this communication?
3. How will I check for understanding?

Answering these three simple questions will help supervisors stay focused in their communication, thereby reducing the chance that their employees will run their communications through the mental spam filter.

Crickets at your team meetings?

So I’m sitting at a large round table, talking with a team of eight senior-level leaders who work for a large corporation.  These are smart, sophisticated people, who have both street cred as field operatives and many years’ experience leading various types and sizes of work groups.  We’re discussing how to ensure that our communications are less command-and-control.  Comments start to flow:

• “We need to be more open-minded”
• “Our younger workforce expects to be part of the conversation”
• “How do we invite more participation?”
• “It’s a more informal process these days….”

Heads are nodding in agreement.  The group is engaged, building on each other’s responses.  Then, one person is brave enough to be the Devil’s Advocate:

“OK, so let’s say that I do all of these things.  I’m asking for input, I’m trying to get them involved. Which, by the way, I think I’m pretty good at.  So I ask for feedback and all I get is, you know, The Crickets.”

To which I inquire— Crickets?

“Yeah,” he says.  “You know—so quiet you could hear the crickets chirp?”

Ah, yes, I do know.  And the other leaders around the table chuckle and nod their heads in understanding.  What leader hasn’t tried to draw out his or her team, only to be met with silence or perfunctory “Nope, we’re all good. Nothing to say.”  While there’s no “truth serum” to get people talking, there are some ways to ensure that your team members will participate when asked.

Think about how you ask the question. Are your questions truly open-ended, or are they statements disguised as a question?  Phrases like, “What’s your reaction to the idea on the table?” and “Who has an alternative idea to offer?” are neutral and invite discussion. If you say something like, “Can we all agree that we need to do XYZ?” or “That’s a great idea, don’t you think?” tend to put the emphasis on your opinions and agenda.  These statements are good for bringing a dialog to a close, but not for creating discussion.

Inspect your consistency. Do you consistently ask for input?  Or, do you only ask on the “easy” stuff—things that don’t take a lot of time to work through?  Leaders who establish a track record of inviting diverse opinions are those who will, over time, get valuable input from their teams. Many leaders say to me, “I’d love to ask for input, but it takes too much time!” This is true; there’s an upfront investment.  Ask yourself, “Will the investment of time upfront pay off in the long run?”  If there is a true urgency and no time for extended discussion, you can still ask for input, but set a clear parameter: “Team, we’ve got a time crunch for this—we can only do a quick 15 minute huddle—what can you give me quickly to be sure we still make a good decision?”

Review your track record of taking action. The biggest mistake that I see from leaders is that they ask for input, (“because that’s our culture—we need to be team-based”) but don’t intend to do anything with it.  If you know you won’t (or can’t) take any action on the team’s suggestions, don’t bother asking.  Of course, you won’t be able to implement all suggestions, so again, set the framework: “I’m looking for 10 – 15 ideas.  After that, we’ll whittle the ideas down to the ones that make the most sense, given our time and budget constraints.”

Do you close the loop? Which of their ideas did you use? Be sure to let them know. Moreover, be sure to let me know if you didn’t use the suggestions—and why.  Be as specific as possible about why the suggestion couldn’t be implemented.  By giving specific feedback now, you can inform the team’s thought process for later, helping them understand the bigger picture issues of budget, strategy, resources, and yes, even organizational politics. This will pay dividends for future “I’d like your input” discussions.

Enjoying the serenade of cricket night-song at home on a balmy evening is a delight.  “Crickets” at your team meetings—not so much. Follow these four simple tips and you’ll reduce the silence at your team meetings.

What’s your favorite dialog-starter?  How do you invite discussion that’s productive and open?

Photo credit: istockphoto.com © Tatiana Popova

John Spence, author of Awesomely Simple

Earlier this year, I discovered the book Awesomely Simple and wrote a book review on it for this blog. I admired the book’s down-to-earth approach and wanted to learn more, so I reached out to its author, John Spence. John agreed to sit down with me last month for an interview.

Jennifer: Thank you so much for your time, John.  Let’s start from the broad perspective. What’s has the reaction Awesomely Simple been?

John:

As I talk with people about the book, here’s what I’m finding: business owners are hungry for any idea that will help them improve their business. They are running so fast and lean that they don’t have a lot of time to work ON their business. They are able to get solid ideas [from the book] that they can implement immediately. I tried to write the book in as simple a manner as possible to help them out.

Jennifer: That leads to my next question. You say that the premise of your book is complexity versus simplicity and running an effective business is simple, but not easy. Why do you think sometimes the business books make it so complex?

John: Many business books today are written by academicians or people who are big serious thinkers and are seriously into research. These people get paid for being brilliant and making things complex so you have to hire them to explain it.  That is part of their job. I just wanted my book to be simple and clear to understand. Here is the important part:  if it is easy to understand, then it is easier to apply.  

During my presentations to leaders, I often ask: “How many have read “Good to Great?” Just recently, during a lecture I gave at Wharton, many raised hands. Then I asked, “How many used it?” Not so many hands raised.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Jim Collins.  I always think this is an interesting dichotomy; there is a big difference between reading a book, understanding a book and then applying the ideas in the book. To me a book is useless if you can’t get to the third stage of applying the ideas. I wanted [people to take] ideas to action in my book.

Jennifer: Is it that the ideas in some books are too esoteric?

John: It might be that they are a little too challenging to grasp. Too esoteric.  It’s that old “Knowing/Doing Gap;” a lot of people know what they have to do but making that gap as narrow as possible is extremely difficult to do.

Jennifer: So we are talking about how your book is different. It swings the pendulum in a completely different direction—back to simplicity. The book outlines six principles of business success. Have any of the six been resonating more strongly than others when you talk with folks?

John: “Best People” has definitely resonated. I am starting to hear something that businesses are concerned that when the economy turns around their employees will bail as they have been worked so hard, maybe with less pay.  This is a bad thing to hear a business owner say especially if they know they have some great quality personnel.

Another one that has resonated with many people is “Disciplined Execution”. Leaders are saying “I know these things, but I’m not doing them consistently. It’s isn’t about learning a whole new model, it’s being more consistent about doing the basics. I can’t believe we don’t nail the fundamentals.”

Here is a classic example. Everyone knows how difficult it is to lose weight and what has to be done: reduce your calories and increase your exercise. So simple, yet not many of us do it really well. You need courage, discipline and determination to do these things really well. In my book there are just six thing to focus on. Just do the fundamentals really really well and you’ll devastate the marketplace.

Jennifer: So what is getting in the way?

John: Tolerating mediocrity, being so busy trying to put out fires that they don’t take time to build a fire station, getting caught in the daily busy-ness.  People are so busy working in their business that they don’t have time to work on their business. They are always hoping for a magic bullet. The six [principles] I have listed are the most critical.

Jennifer: You mentioned tolerating mediocrity. I noticed this is a strong theme throughout your book. In your experience of working with a broad section of leadership, why is this going on?

John: There are a several sides to this issue. First of all it is impossible to create a culture of excellence unless there are clear standards of excellence. I think companies may tolerate mediocrity because they have not defined what superior performance looks like clearly enough.  You can’t hold someone accountable to a standard that is ambiguous. No one ever told them [employees] what good performance is and how it will be measured. You have to clearly outline the standard.

In my book I discuss:  Train/Transfer/Terminate.  I love the Jack Welsh quote: “I never fired anybody that was surprised.”  You need to tell the employee you have set clear standards. Leaders need to say “we know you are not meeting them, what can I do to help you?”

Tolerating mediocrity falls back on the leader to set standards, discussing those standards, holding people accountable for those standards, being honest, and having courageous communication around those standards and letting people know when their performance is subpar. 

Here’s another factor: consider the middle or senior manager who may not be performing that well either. They don’t want to shine a light of accountability on someone else because they know that light will be reflected back on them.

In “Five Dysfunctions of a Team” by Patrick Lencioni talks about this really well when he talks about vulnerability.  It is about people thinking: I am afraid to say “I don’t know” or to say “I made a mistake”. Then the thinking evolves to “I don’t want to hold anyone else accountable because I don’t want anyone to hold me accountable”. I think a lot of times a mediocre leader lets mediocrity go because they don’t want to be held to a higher standard either.

Lastly, I think it is very challenging for people to have the conversation around “your performance is not to standard.” Many leaders are reluctant to have this conversation because they are just afraid to confront it. They just hope the situation fixes itself. One of my favorite phrases is: hope is not a strategy.  Leaders need to get better at those courageous conversations. Allowing someone to perform poorly when it eventually puts their job in jeopardy without talking to them is really mean. It’s not fair to the person, or the company. So, the earlier you have those conversations, the better because there’s still a chance you as a leader can fix it. But leaders need to have those courageous communications so that they aren’t tolerating mediocrity.

Jennifer: Speaking of conversations, I think your book really outlined some helpful specific dialog and practical tools to use.

John: Yes, there are several tools I have put in the book to help leaders. They’re sort of common sense and yet have been huge hits. For example, there is the “four pieces of paper” to help with managerial the four levels of decision-making.  I just met with a board of director and taught him the four level decision-making process. He thought it was so fantastic and would be able to apply it immediately.

Jennifer: In the chapter outlining the “Best People” principle, you tell a story from your personal consulting experience in which you stood in front of a client’s entire workforce and told the truth, which in turn got you fired from the project by the company’s leadership. It was a great example of “telling the truth to power”.  Readers from my blog are external leadership consultants and internal leaders.  Please give them some advice on how to speak “truth to power.”

John:  First of all, if you are a consultant: As a trusted advisor, you have an absolute responsibility to tell the truth all of the time— as you see it. Even if that costs you your job.  [As a consultant] I have been terminated for saying things that were uncomfortable or saying things that no one else would say.

The things I share [with clients] are not based upon my opinion or my thoughts and feelings. I collect information from hundreds or thousands of employees. I deliver the message from the employees. Most of my stuff is based on interviews, confidential surveys, and gathering data, with just a little bit of my opinion added in.

Now, if you’re a leader receiving unflattering information: I believe that when someone delivers that kind of information to you [as the leader] that the good lead r (metaphorically speaking) hugs that messenger. The leader’s message should be, “I hate to hear that, I love that you told me.” It may be painful to hear but it is important to listen and be thankful.

Jennifer: John, this has been an extremely interesting conversation. Readers of The People Equation will benefit tremendously. Thank you so much for your time.

John: My pleasure.

NOTE FROM JENNIFER:

John has generously offered to give me three signed copies of his book Awesomely Simple to share with my readers.  Want a copy?  Write a comment here or at the SkillSource Facebook fan page to the following question:

“What’s the most simple, yet awesome advice you ever received from a leader?” 

I will take all comments, put them in a hat and draw out three winners.  Enter your comment by 5:00 PM (EDT) Friday April 23, 2010. I’ll contact you via email if your name is drawn.

The “are leaders born or made?” debate. Said I wasn’t going to go there, but it’s just too irresistible.  A couple of weeks ago on the HR Happy Hour, we had a discussion on this very issue. The Twitter backchannel was ablaze with people debating the topic. Personally, I grow weary of the debate because it sets up an either/or position that isn’t very productive. More on that in a moment. 

What’s compelling me to get sucked back into the discussion? When a leading authority in HR weighs in on “leaders— born or made?” I take note.  That’s what happened this morning when I saw a retweet by Phil McCreight featuring the First Friday Book Synopsis blog interview with Dave Ulrich. A Professor of Business Administration at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, Ulrich is the author of over 20 books on HR, talent management, competency development and learning. I’ve followed his work for years and admire how he blends his research with actual practice.

Referencing Ulrich’s book The Leadership Code,  interviewer Bob Morris asks Ulrich about whether there’s a “DNA code” for leadership, thus setting up the “are leaders born or made?” question.

Ulrich’s response:

The research on this issue is fairly conclusive: 50/50. We have innate predispositions that affect who we are and what we do (nature) but we can learn and develop and grow (nurture). I am predisposed to being an introvert, but have learned that in teaching I need to become an extrovert to be effective.

So if people’s leadership potential is evenly split between what they’re born with and what they choose to develop, how come we’re still having this debate?  As with many debates, I believe it comes down to words and the meaning we ascribe to them.  In this case, I think the conflicting opinions stems in large part from how people are defining leadership. To some people, leadership is that “something” that a lucky few just simply have.  It’s hardwired and definitely not something you can learn in a training session. Others view leadership in a more comprehensive way—it’s a both/and type thing, consisting of innate traits and teachable techniques. 

Personally, I’m one of the “comprehensive” folks— when I say “leadership”, I’m referring to both the innate and the learnable.  And of course, when there are varying definitions rolling around, we have room for disagreement.

For the sake of clarity, I offer two sides of the “comprehensive” leadership coin:

Side one: Leadership.  At its core, leadership is the ability to attract followers.  It’s that simple.  One can attract followers to further a noble cause, or to create an army to destroy an entire civilization.  In the everyday workplace context, leaders are often seen as people who are driven, charismatic, and persuasive. Yes, these are traits that a person was born with to varying degrees of intensity.

Side two: Management. This is another aspect to leadership that sometimes gets partitioned off into a different category, somehow separate from ”leadership”.  This is the more operational side of workplace leadership: planning, organizing, delegating, coaching.  These functions are important as well, and shouldn’t be discounted. Too often, during discussions on leadership, I see scoffing at the “management” side of things.  In my opinion, that’s a mistake.  True, at the very top of an organization, it’s critical to have a passionate, focused, inspirational leader who can rally the masses towards an outcome that produces value for a constituency. And maybe there are just a select few who are wired for that role.

However, the reality is, there are a whole lot more leader/managers out there who need to do both functions.  They need to lead and they need to manage. They don’t have the luxury of delegating the “administrivia” to someone else to handle.  In these days of flat organizational hierarchies, they are the administrators as well as the motivational speakers.

Which brings me back to the “either/or” format of questions. 

• Leaders: born or made?
• What’s more important: leadership or management? 

When it comes to meaningful discussion, let’s do away with this polarizing structure.  Leave the opposing positions to the debate team.  For those of us interested in developing leaders, we need all the viewpoints we can get. If in fact, leadership is a two-sided coin, we need both sides to achieve the full value of the currency.  Otherwise, it’s just a shiny piece of metal.

Mentors Have Influence

In January  I wrote a post for National Thank Your Mentor Day in which I publicly thanked several of the people who had mentored me over the years. Not surprisingly, they all reached out to thank me for the recognition. Here’s what was surprising: not a single one of them remembered the advice that I so eagerly soaked up and made a part of my everyday actions. Granted, much of the advice was imparted over a decade ago, but to me—I recall it as if it was yesterday.  For them—it was just a blip in the stream of conversations that flow continuously throughout the work day.

Another observation: none of the people whose words made such an impact were a formal mentor to me.  Some were my direct supervisors, some are peers, and some I’ve simply admired mostly from afar.  But all of them had something to say and I was open to hearing it.

It’s a great reminder to leaders everywhere:

• Your words matter. 
• People are listening. 
• The smart ones are even taking note of your advice and doing something with it.

So here’s the deal: even if your company doesn’t have a formal mentoring program, you have protégés. Most likely, these people will not take the time to let you know how much your actions and wise words meant to them.  But even if they don’t clue you in please know that you did make a difference.

As part of my gig as a guest on the HR Happy Hour’s Leadership Show , I agreed to pull together some leadership resources for the Happy Hour listeners.  When I talk with clients about leadership development, they often say one or both of the following:

a)      We don’t have the time to develop something

b)      We don’t have the money to train leaders

This list is designed to help you with both of these challenges. These resources are a list of white papers, downloads and other great freebies offered by some of the most prominent vendors and thought-leaders in leadership development.  Most of the resources listed have a “for pay” component as well, so if your company is in the market for these tools, please do check them out.

“Many hands make the load light” and that is so true with the creation of this list.  A huge shout-out goes to my fellow leadership development colleagues Dave Brand, Dan McCarthy and Susan Zelinski for adding their favorites to the mix. I’m grateful for their contributions.

A Great Place to Start: Great Leadership by Dan McCarthy

Last year, Dan wrote an excellent post on http://www.greatleadershipbydan.com/2009/02/how-to-design-frugal-leadership.html. It is spot-on with practical suggestions and I agree completely that leadership development need not be pricey.  However, his suggestions do cost some $$, and I promised you “free”—so here we go. . .

Free Downloadable Research, White Papers, Podcasts

Note: some of the resources do require you to enter your contact information before allowing you to download, so you may not consider it 100% “free.”

I’m highlighting the well-known vendors because they have a lot of great content that’s easily accessible.  As Dan McCarthy points out in item #3 of his frugal leadership post, there are thousands of independent niche-oriented leadership development consultants out there. If you know of one that provides similar high-quality content, please feel free to post it in the Comments section.

Aberdeen Group

Achieve Global Research Library

Awesomely Simple Resources site; this is by author John Spence who published Awesomely Simple last year. I just read this book and it’s a really great overall management primer. This site provides additional “how to’s” that are based on the book.  

Bersin and Associates Research Library

Center for Creative Leadership Podcasts

DDI.com’s Thought Leadership page

Elliot Masie consortium: LearningTown forums

Fort Hill Company’s Knowledge Center

Interaction Associates: much is subscription-based, but look on the left-hand side of the homepage for free downloads, including excellent white paper on Improving Virtual Meetings

Institute for Corporate Productivity  

Jim Collins Leadership articles

Ken Blanchard Companies leadership white papers (creator of Situational Leadership)

Marshall Goldsmith Library “free resources” tab Example: Athena video clips

Personnel Decisions White Paper on Strengths

Seth Godin’s Free e-book: What Matters Now

Tom Peters Free Stuff

The Leadership Challenge Model

Leadership Blogs

Oh, where to start? There are SO many.  Here are some of my favorites. . .

All Things Workplace by Steve Roesler.  When I read Steve’s blog, it’s clear he does his homework.  His insights are supported by interesting statistics paired with real-life examples.

Aspire Collaborative Services by Mary Jo Asmus. Mary Jo is an executive coach and a former HR executive for a Fortune 50 company. She knows her stuff and writes thoughtful essays on the foundational aspects of leadership. 

Bret L. Simmons Dr. Bret (as he’s known on Twitter) is on the faculty of the College of Business at the University of Nevada, Reno. He’s also a leadership consultant. His blog takes on tough topics; plus I like that he assigns his students leadership blogs to read as part of their coursework—a contemporary take on college homework.

Great Leadership by Dan McCarthy. Yes, I already featured him, but his blog is consistent, balanced and practical.  Because he’s a practitioner (not a consultant) he’s not selling a thing. His content is always worth a read.

Human Capital League This blog isn’t strictly leadership-based. It aggregates many blogs that write on the topic of workforce development.  Each day, several blog posts are highlighted on the Human Capital League’s main page.  It’s worth checking out a few times a week.

Lead Change by Mike Henry. The founder of the immensely popular and active LinkedIn group by the same name, Mike blogs on a variety of subjects, all with the overarching theme of creating character-based leaders.

Mountain State University’s  LeaderTalk blog . Written by Becky Robinson in collaboration with Mountain State University’s School of Leadership and Professional Development, the site explores a broad range of insights, and guest bloggers.

The Weekly Leader features a nice round-up of leadership articles, interviews and podcasts on a diverse cross section of leaders from a variety of industries.

On Twitter?

Check out my  Leadership Round Up post.

[Note: I don’t receive any sort of compensation for the parties mentioned in this list. I also don’t specifically endorse any of the services, products or opinions contained within the respective websites, other than to say, “hey, here’s an interesting site, go check it out.”]

Kristina Evey, owner of Centric Strategies

A few weeks ago, Kristina Evey of Centric Strategies asked me to provide a guest post on her blog, which I happily supplied. You can see that post, The Customer-Centric Leader, here. In follow up conversations, Kristina and I wondered, “What would front-line customer service employees say to their leaders if they had a sort of  “open mike night”? Kristina’s guest blog post below is a result of that rumination, which takes the form of an open letter to customer service leaders.

Top Ten Wish List to Improve Customer Relationships and Service

By Kristina Evey

www.KristinaEvey.com

Dear Customer Service Leader:

It’s us, your staff.  You’ve been talking to us lately about how we should focus on improving customer service with our company.  So, in order to do that, we’ve compiled a list of things that we need from you to help us deliver excellent customer service. 

OUR TOP 10 WISH LIST TO IMPROVE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

1. Tell us what is expected of us. We have no way of knowing what it is you want us to do or how to act if you don’t tell us what you expect.
2. Communicate with us.  By opening the lines of communication as to how we are doing, what you like or what you don’t, we can tailor what we do to the expecations.
3. Empower us.  The more power you relinquish to us, the better able we are to serve our customers needs.
4. Recognize and reward me. We don’t need a party thrown for us every time we do something well, but it is certainly nice to know that you notice when we do things right.  “I noticed how you took the extra time to really help that customer.  I like the way you handled that.”  Those words will carry me for a long time.
5. Treat us the way you want us to treat the customer.  When you give us the service you’d like us to deliver to our customers, we’ll know exactly what to do.
6. Hold me accountable. When I know that my compensation will reflect my efforts to develop positive customer relationships, I’ll do everything I can to deliver quality customer service. 
7. Help me manage customer expectations.  Please work with us to let customers know when they can reasonably expect products to be delivered, to see results, or know what to expect.  When we say, “You should receive this soon.” Soon can mean tomorrow or next week, depending upon the customer’s perception.
8. Support my decisions that we make using good judgement. Know that we make the best decisions we can at the time with the information available to us.  It increases our confidence when you support us.  Yes, we will make mistakes sometimes. We promise we will learn from those and not repeat them if at all possible.
9. Walk a Day In Our Shoes.  Could you take an hour a week and do our jobs?  If you answered the phones once in a while, made the deliveries, scheduled shipments, prepped the procedure, you would know the challenges and needs that we have.  We would also know that you truly appreciate the work that we are doing.
10. Set Customer Service Minimums.  Help us set some Customer Service Minimum standards that we all know are the very least we will do for our customers. This will encourage us to revisit our service and continually increase the level of service that we provide.

These requests are really customer retention strategies that will help us to develop profitable customer relationships.  We know that without our customers, there is no business.  Without the business, we don’t have jobs.  In today’s economy, good jobs are hard to come by and we sincerely appreciate having our jobs.  We would love to work with you to build customer loyalty and improve the customer’s experience when they do business with us.

Sincerely,

Your staff

Kristina Evey helps companies improve the way they connect with their customers. She is the owner of Centric Strategies, a firm oriented toward developing a cultural mindset focused on the customer. Her strategy is to ensure that everyone within a company or group is of the same “Customer Centric” mindset.  You can also find many customer retention strategies by visiting www.KristinaEvey.com and signing up for her free newsletter focused on helping your company become more customer centric.

It’s great when a fellow blogger inspires me to get revved up on a topic. And so it is with Mary Jo Asmus’ series on the role that employees should play in helping their leaders improve.  Last week, in response to her post “Bad Manager or Flawed Human?” the discussion on her blog was lively.  She followed it up yesterday with “Dialog with Your Manager”.

Mary Jo feels strongly about this topic.  She firmly believes that employees must “own” part of the process—they must be willing to step up and give feedback to their bosses.   She writes,

“Many of us want to be able to turn to one another in our communities and workplaces with dialog that will further the healthy relationships that help us, our leaders and organizations, to grow. How can this happen if we don’t take some personal responsibility for addressing the behaviors of managers that harm us and ultimately destroy  “the greater good”?”

I feel strongly about this topic too.  In an ideal world, we’d all be big boys and girls and would willingly and skillfully engage in productive conversations for the greater good.  As I mentioned on MJ’s blog, we don’t, however, live in an ideal world.

So how do we move towards that ideal?  It’s a matter of helping people be willing and able.

Willingness: Assessing the Reality of the Threat

I believe employees want to help make their workplaces better.  The reality of actually doing something about it makes people nervous. It’s like there’s this big, gray unknown territory in between what they know should do and are actually doing. If employees’ default response is “it won’t do any good” to provide feedback to their boss, then they conclude that inaction is the best choice.  Perhaps they believe that “something bad” in will happen: the boss will yell or there will be retribution of some sort.  Speaking up is like stepping up to a dark abyss and deciding to jump.  Scary.  And fear doesn’t typically foster risk-taking. So first, we need to help employees achieve the desire to move from “wishful thinking” (“I wish my boss would…”) to actually engaging their boss.

Those of us in mentoring or coaching roles (internal or external, formal or informal) must help our colleagues assess how real the threat is.  I find that people often exaggerate the perceived outcome.  “I can’t approach my boss.  Are you kidding me? He’d blow a fuse!” Or, “No way, I don’t want to get fired!” My colleague Bob Anderson calls this “Makin’ Stuff Up”.  People imagine an outcome that is possible and turn it into something (in their minds, at least) that’s probable.  Then they decide not to act because they perceive that the risk is too great.

Questions to help evaluate the reality of the threat:

• To what degree are you comfortable approaching your boss with feedback?
•  Have you ever given your boss feedback before? How was it received?
• Consider the nature of the feedback—is it highly sensitive, or something fairly benign?
• What’s the worst thing that will happen? How probable is that worst-case scenario?

Even if employees are willing to give feedback, they are often unsure of how to proceed. That brings me to the second point: once employees decide to act, they must possess the proper skills to do so.

Ability: How To Give Feedback That Helps?

Even the most well-intentioned feedback won’t have positive results if it’s poorly delivered. Giving feedback to someone higher in the food chain is daunting.  Equipping employees with a few tools to do so  helps them have a “recipe” for what to say.  My favorite definition of feedback is: “Information that lets people know whether or not their actions had the intended impact”. By positioning feedback as “information” the feedback giver keeps the conversation neutral in tone.

People need to know the basics of giving feedback:

• Describe what you observed. Keep it specific.  Only describe something you personally heard or observed.  Otherwise, it’s just hearsay.
• Express the impact it made. Talk about how that behavior made you feel, or the business impact it had (increased mistakes, decreased communication).
• Ask for a change in behavior, if applicable. Say something like, “In the future, would you consider…”

Keep in mind that people have become conditioned to the phrase “I have some feedback for you.”  They may noticeably tense in preparation for what they’re about to hear.  That’s OK.  As long as they are willing to listen and the feedback giver follows the “recipe” above, the conversation has begun.  It may be bumpy and awkward, but it’s a start.

What’s Your Role?

What’s your role in this?  If you’re a leader, what are the ways you encourage feedback?  If you’re a team member, how do you work up the courage to give feedback to your boss? I agree with Mary Jo’s assertion that workplace dynamics won’t improve if we don’t talk with another and assume some measure of risk. The question is, how willing are you to step into the abyss?

As part of an ongoing series on Positive Office Politics, Mike Henry from the Lead Change Group writes a thought-provoking essay on the ties that sincerity and authenticity have to building trust.  Need to get caught up on the series?  Start at the beginning with Jane Perdue’s blog Life, Love and Leadership. From there, check out my post on Networking Inside The Company Walls.  Susan Mazza will be following up next week on her blog Random Acts of Leadership with a post on leadership agendas.

Right now, I’m ruminating on Mike’s essay. As usual, Mike’s provided me with tasty food for thought on what he calls “the trust gap”. He says,

 When a person fakes authenticity or sincerity, they misrepresent their true motives and create a trust gap. 

For people in leadership positions, this gap can have powerful and even tragic consequences.

I’m reminded of a story I heard years ago: a team of firefighters was fighting a blaze in California.  They found themselves surrounded by flames and their team leader told them to build a “fire ring” around them to protect themselves from the encroaching firestorm.  Some of his team members joined him within the fire circle, and some didn’t trust his judgment. In the end, those outside the circle perished while those who joined him inside the circle survived.

Of course, that’s an extreme example of the potential consequences of not trusting one’s leader. Even so, we can use the metaphor to contemplate the notion as it relates to our office jobs. What if we don’t trust our leadership?  What’s the “ring of fire” they’re asking us to step into? If we won’t willingly step into that ring, is it because they lack some form of sincerity?  Is their authenticity suspect?  I’m thinking the answer is: Yes. On some level the leaders haven’t earned their followers’ trust.  And that, as Mike points out, is driven in large part by their ability to be sincere.