Aha! Leadership

The 5-Fold Resolution That Will Revolutionize Your Business

So we are into the second week of the new year … if you’re like most people, you’ve already abandoned at least one of the resolutions on your list.  Don’t feel too badly – at least you made one at all!  Research shows that only 40 to 45% of American adults even make resolutions each year.

Even though almost 50% of people who make new years resolutions do break them in the first 6 months, research shows that making resolutions is useful. People who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don’t.  So why not improve your odds at making a change and explicitly define one goal that will affect you, your business, your customers, employees and your competition in 2012.  What resolution has this 5-fold effect?

RESOLUTION:

Focus on CONNECTING with your customers & improving their

EXPERIENCE with your organization

THE RESULT BOOST:

 1) Retention 2) Sales 3) Team morale 4) Gain competitive advantage

5) Your peace of mind because your business is founded on rock-solid customer relationships

You may not be able to influence the national economic forecast or consumer confidence index – but you can impact the confidence your customers have in your team’s capabilities, reliability, quality and commitment to their business.

Other options for improving profitability & gaining competitive advantage are: 1) lowering prices – not very profitable and 2) improving product quality, which can take substantial time and money.  The fastest and most cost-effective way to impact the bottom line & differentiate your business is to focus on improving your relationships with your customers & boosting the number of positive experiences they have working with your organization.

FOCUS ON PEOPLE – NOT NUMBERS

The most important aspect of this resolution is helping your team learn how to move from concentrating on customer service or satisfaction, and focus on really connecting with customers & improving their experiences when working with your team.  They are different goals.  Let’s look at the definitions of each:

Service  [sur-vis]

a. an act of helpful activity

b. to aid or be useful

Connect  [kuh-nekt]

a. to join or unite

b. to relate to or be in harmony with another person, or one’s work

Given the choice would you rather simply provide a helpful activity, aid & be useful to your customers, or be joined or united and relate & be in harmony with them?  If your customer feels like you “get it” and are tuned in to their business, understand their goals, pain points & find solutions to their needs – they will feel a connection with your organization, as opposed to simply serviced or satisfied.

Now no one is saying you shouldn’t measure the resulting improvements with customer relationships in some way, but if there is too high a focus on” ratings”, then it is easy for it to become more about achieving a minimum level in satisfaction, rather than becoming tuned in and focused on understanding your customer’s business, their needs & how to solve their problems.  Let’s face it – people either feel like someone “gets it” or they don’t – there isn’t a sliding scale.  Who can walk away feeling confident about the job someone will do if they feel like they were only kind of understood?  From this customer perspective, on a scale from 1 to 10 – you are either a 10 or a 1, there’s no in between.

January 10, 2012 at 12:49 am

EQ – What Einstein didn’t teach you!

Have you ever worked with someone who was incredibly smart, but somehow managed to damage relationships and had difficulty working with other people effectively?  We have all heard the term “book smarts”, describing someone who might score well on an intelligence test.  Different terms are used to describe a

person through of as savvy and very successful at relating to other people, finding ways to accomplish their goals.  Maybe you have referred to that kind of person as “street smart” or “good at building relationships”.

In the last 15 years the term Emotional Intelligence has surfaced.  Very much like having an IQ (intelligence quotient) as it is measured; several models of Emotional Intelligence or EQ have come onto the scene in business.  One of the grandfathers of the term Daniel Goleman identified the five “domains” of EQ as:

• Knowing your emotions.
• Managing your own emotions.
• Motivating yourself.
• Recognizing and understanding other people’s emotions.
• Managing relationships, i.e., managing the emotions of others.

Leaders and companies across industries are acknowledging the importance of this skill set so much so that it is consistently trumping other skills for hiring and promotional decisions.  Many successful leaders swear by the practice of “hiring for attitude”.  What they are really hiring for is emotional intelligence.
CareerBuilder.com commissioned a poll this year and found that more than 70 percent of employers say they value emotional intelligence over workers’ intellectual ability or IQ.
The jobs site’s survey also found that in this post-recession era that more than a third of employers place greater emphasis on hiring and promoting people who have high emotional intelligence quotients, or EQ.
Further, CareerBuilder found that 61 percent of employers surveyed said they are more likely to promote workers with high emotional intelligence instead of candidates with a high IQ. What’s more, 59 percent of hiring managers said they wouldn’t hire someone with a high IQ but a low EQ.

 
“In a recovering economy, employers want people who can effectively make decisions in stressful situations and can empathize with the needs of their colleagues and clients,” Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder, said in a statement accompanying the release of the survey data.
“Technical competency and intelligence are important assets for every worker,” Haefner said. “[But] the competitive job market allows employers to look more closely at the intangible qualities that pay dividends down the road.”
If you are already convinced this is important for your personal career growth and success, how do you go about demonstrating Emotional Intelligence?  Some answers can be found in more detailed responses from over 2,600 private-sector hiring managers surveyed by Harris Interactive as part of the study CareerBuilder.com commissioned.
When asked why emotional intelligence is more important than high IQ, employers said employees with high emotional intelligence (in order of importance):

• Are more likely to stay calm under pressure
• Know how to resolve conflict effectively
• Are empathetic to their team members and react accordingly
• Lead by example
• Tend to make more thoughtful business decisions

Human resource managers and hiring managers assess candidates’ emotional intelligence by observing a variety of behaviors and qualities. The top responses from the survey were:

• Admitting and learning from mistakes
• Keeping emotions in check and having thoughtful discussions on tough issues
• Listening as much or more than they talk
• Taking criticism well
• Showing grace under pressure

In addition to thinking about how you can increase you own EQ by demonstrating the skills listed above, Aha! Leadership developed a multi-session series and workbook Leaders can use with their teams to strengthen working relationships.  The series was designed to provide a deeper insight about team members and simply start a dialogue.  Knowing the goals, motivation and ways your team perceives information is critical to successfully leading.  The biggest mistake we see leaders make is NOT taking time to better understand the people they work with.  “I am too busy” is often cited as a reason this does not happen.  “Our conversations are centered around solving business problems or dealing with fires.  When could I fit this in?”  The reality is having strong EQ skills is sure to circumvent a number of issues, thus saving everyone time in the long-run.

December 5, 2011 at 9:12 pm

3 Keys to Effectively Giving Thanks

As leaders most of us mean well but forget one really important skill… the ability to showing appreciation. According to the US Dept of Labor, the number one reason Americans leave their jobs is because they didn’t feel appreciated and currently 64% of Americans don’t feel appreciated at work! That’s staggering … on the other hand I get it and can actually relate.  As an employee, I can’t honestly say that I felt totally appreciated. On the other hand, as a leader I had the attitude that: “they know how much I appreciate them…”.

The question is …do they?

Did you know?

• 89% of managers believe employees quit their jobs for money.  Fact: only 12% leave for money. Most, actually quit because of their  relationship with their boss.

Source: 5 Languages of Appreciation

• Only 35% of Americans received recognition in the workplace last year (That means a staggering   65% of Americans didn’t receive even a thank you!).

  Source: Gallup Org.

• 2 to 1 Employees favor recognition from managers over coworkers.  In other words, your team wants you to notice them.

 Source: 5 Languages of Appreciation

When you show appreciation for the people on your team it improves their confidence and competence.

Here are three simple things to keep in mind when showing appreciation or recognizing someone for a job well done:

1.       Personalize it  – Find out what is personally motivating to the person you are recognizing and include that.  Avoid “one size fits all” and make the reward more meaningful.  When in doubt, ask!  Check out the book The 5 Languages of Appreciation by Gary Chapman. See Issue #161 of the Aha! Leadership Newsletter for a summary of 5 Languages of Appreciation. Not a subscriber? Sign up here!

2.       Be Timely — Try to provide recognition that is as close to the positive outcome or behavior you are trying to reinforce.  It loses power when too much time passes.

 
3.       Be Authentic — Point out in a genuine and specific way, what the person did that was positive.  What exactly did the person do that resulted in a successful outcome?  This is your opportunity to reinforce what went right.  Using colorful adjectives without meaning clouds the opportunity to perpetuate what is working.

This weeks’ leadership challenge…

Give thanks to those that you appreciate most!  You will be amazed by their reaction…

November 21, 2011 at 2:40 pm

6 Secrets for Turning a Mistake Around

Six Secrets for Turning a Mistake with a Customer into a Golden Opportunity

Let’s face it – no matter how much we plan for success and train our teams how to serve our customers with excellence, sometimes things are just going to go wrong.  Great leaders actually plan for things to go wrong. Sound crazy?  When things go wrong it can actually be a chance to capture a customer’s loyalty for good … if handled correctly.

Don’t miss these golden

opportunities!

1. Acknowledge & Expect Challenges

Even if you have developed a stellar team that values the customer & always keeps them top of mind, people make mistakes or imperfect decisions when faced with a challenge.  Let your team know that you understand this and that you need them to be transparent about it when it happens, so that you can leverage all available & reasonable resources to repair the problem. Time is often not on your side in these cases and reacting quickly can provide you with more options than if you wait. It also shows the customer that you are giving the situation priority & attention, so they can relax and trust that your team is on top of it and looking for solutions.  Make sure employees you are having challenges with are not in a position to bottle-neck your ability to respond in an effort to avoid another “black mark”.

2. Immediately Apologize to the Customer!

One of the most powerful and under utilized phrases is “I’m sorry”.  If you’ve messed up – or even if you haven’t but the customer thinks you did, teach your team to immediately respond to a concerned or upset customer with, “I’m so sorry – let’s figure this out!”  The customer is likely anticipating a fight – so let them “win” right off the bat & change the tone to one of cooperation.  Customers just want to know you’re interested in helping make it right if you need to.  Going on the defense, acting neutral or reciting “policy” creates an us versus them tone.  You can sort out who really screwed up later, but meanwhile the tone will be more collaborative, you will both be working together looking into what makes sense.

3. Keep the Big Picture in Mind

It’s so easy to get focused on the wrong things when a customer is pointing the finger.  Warn your team about these two common pitfalls:

-       Winning the battle & losing the war is an easy trap to fall into. You don’t have to capitulate to everything a customer demands – but when developing a solution it makes sense to take into account the entire relationship, their history with you, how large a footprint this perceived problem will make in their organization, and the probability that the real story will be understood as it spreads.

-       Focusing on “my job” and losing sight of what makes sense for the customer and your relationship, is a common and usually unintended trap your team can fall into.  If a problem is blocking them from completing one of their responsibilities the natural tendency may be to focus on the completion of task because that is their “job”.  Reinforce that their ultimate job is to do what is right for the customer as well as making sense to your organization.

Instead work with your team to:

-       React how they would want someone to if they were in the same situation and they believed they were right.

-       Talk about & emphasize what makes sense. 

-       Remember: refunds & guarantees may be necessary and fair – a good start – but they don’t fix relationships, people do.

4. Develop a formal action plan

Account for problem situations with customers and develop a procedure for moving these situations out of the normal process, and funneling them into one that provides for manual handling, human contact, and quick approval for solutions that are developed.  Remember that acting swiftly usually provides you with more options for fixing what is wrong.

5. Provide Tools

Most people really care, want to connect with the customer & do the right thing.  But they don’t always naturally know how to communicate effectively. It’s just not their expertise or strength.  You can help them by providing a way to learn these skills.

Learning what to say, and how to talk to an upset or unhappy customer is crucial.  Providing your team with tools can be as simple as teaching them how & when to use powerful language & caring phrases to elicit information from a customer, like “Can you help me understand ..?”  Remind them that if the customer is unable to tell them what they do want, your employee can take the information about what is wrong & that they don’t want, and consider options for simply doing the opposite.

6. Prepare & Practice

For a lot of people it’s a long way from their brain to their mouth. Knowing something in your head, is different than actually articulating it and expressing it out of your mouth – especially if their dealing with an upset customer.  The best way for your team to become good at it is to practice what to say and how to say.  It’s also important to remind them that even though it may feel like it’s personal when a customer is expressing themselves angrily, it’s really not. Teach them to take the emotion out of it, or pretend that the customer is not angry, but rather sad & asking them for help.

Where’s the golden opportunity in all of this?  Sadly, doing the right thing isn’t common enough in today’s world and many organizations focus on minimizing their monetary losses rather than doing the right thing.  Can you think of a time when a company you were doing business with messed something up badly, but then willingly did what it took to make it right?  What kind of feeling did you have about that organization at the end of the day?  How loyal are you to them now?  How many people did you tell the story to?  Can you think of a better way to distinguish your business and differentiate from the competition?

November 10, 2011 at 2:45 pm

6 Scientifically Proven Ways to Slash Stress

If you are leading a team (or running your own business), you know a thing or two about stress. People react differently to stress. Some eat too much, some don’t eat at all. Some work even harder to get things done, others stop working altogether. But there’s one thing that all stressful people share – a decreased ability in the brain function. This is a death sentence in the knowledge economy. But fret not, help is on the way.

                                             The Big (Little) Ideas:

Take on one of the challenges below for the next week and see how it feels. Your stress levels should see an immediate improvement.

1. Seek and destroy.Seriously… this is the secret to reducing stress. Find out the things that you know cause you unnecessary stress, and eliminate them before the become a problem. Don’t like your cell phone buzzing every 2 minutes with a new email? Turn off the notifications.
2. Find more positive coping mechanisms. If you are like most people, your coping mechanisms tend to be on the unhealthy side – the drink after work, the extra helping of potatoes at dinner, or thecigarette over the lunch hour. Replace those negative copingmechanisms with positive ones – take a walk, or even just a few deep breathes make a big difference.
3. Keep to-do lists. Yes, you’ve heard this before, right? However, the cold hard truth is that people who keep to-do lists get more done.
4. Train yourself to be calm.There are people in the world who can remain calm under the most stressful situations – most senior executives have mastered this skill.  A crazy example… think about lion tamers. They weren’t born with the ability to remain calm while starting death in the face, the were trained to. A little exercise and daily relaxation techniques will take you a long way to facing any situation with calm and grace.
5. Plan your day. First thing in the morning take just a few minute planning your day will help you feel in control and get more done. Pick the 5 things that you must get done each day and do them. You will be amazed at how much more productive your day will be.
6. Plan your life. B.F. Skinner – the famous psychologist – maintained a 10-year planner. You might start with a shorter time frame, but these plans really can help you feel more in control of your destiny, which means less stress.

Don't let stress bog you down, take control of your health.

Why It Matters?

We all face stress. Almost everybody I’ve ever met has at some point complained about their lives being too stressful. The one and only thing you can do to make your life less stressful is to get better at dealing with stressful situations. They saythat the most hardest thing to manage in business is yourself. Keeping your stress level down will help you manage yourself so that you can get to important stuff — managing your business effectively.

Tools: Apply these to your business and life.

Take on one of the challenges above for the next week and see how it feels. Your stress levels should see an immediate improvement.

Turn off your auto email notification
I did this a week ago and I truly can’t believe how much time this saved me! Research says that we waste 64 seconds on every notification that we receive… Take control and turn off email notifications.

Click here for easy instructions on how to turn off your email notifications.

Share document using Dropbox
Stop emailing versions of documents back and forth. Instead share documents using the “cloud”. Dropbox is a great tool…learn more by going to dropbox.com.

Learn to text…vs. leaving a Voice-mail
If you don’t text yet… learn. It’s easy and great for sending short quick messages to your family.  It’s much easier than leaving a voice mail.

October 26, 2011 at 6:43 pm

Leadership Blunder Part 2

In the last newsletter we spent some time thinking about the biggest mistakes leaders can make.  Certainly everyone makes missteps.  Learning, adjusting and improving from those mistakes are critical skills to develop yourself.  In that article there were some major leadership mishaps identified that cost leaders big time.  Betraying trust, wavering in uncertainty or arrogance were just a few of the Leadership Blunders mentioned by a collection of experts put together by Harvard Business Publishing.  To refer to the video referenced last time, click here: Harvard Business Publishing Leadership Blunders.

Aha! Leadership wanted to turn this discussion towards, what leaders should do to be successful.  We asked you the question: What is the most impactful thing a person can do to successfully lead?  Sixteen of our readers responded to the call, here is what you said:

Over half of responses cited trust and integrity as being most important.  One reader put it like this, “Have integrity and care about the organization, the people it serves, and the employees.”  Almost half of the responses in this category mentioned the idea of leading by example.   Nothing takes the wind out of the sails more than the “Do as I say, not as I do” philosophy of leadership.  You can see it sink morale and turn a team cynical.  You may have experienced this at some point, for example, a leader who slashed the budget in the name of cost-cutting and then made some expensive, perhaps unnecessary purchases.  The leader who talked up the idea of work ethic and charging hard, but did the bare minimum to get by on the job.  The examples are endless.

How refreshing and impactful to see a leader who understands how to walk their talk!  One reader shared this philosophy, “Don’t ask someone to do something that you would not do yourself.”  Trust workshops are highly sought after in Aha! Leadership’s Practice.   Many leaders understand this and want to make sure they emulate trust building behaviors with their teams and in their organizations.

The next highest concentration of responses was around valuing and caring for the people under your leadership at over 18%.  Just over 10% of responses were about empowerment of the team members.  Two additional responses that were hard to categorize elsewhere were about:

1) ensuring as leaders we have humility and vulnerability;

and 2) listening and providing appropriate guidance/direction.

Trust and teamwork are cornerstones of successful businesses.

Hearing people’s candid responses to help leaders become more effective is so valuable to those reading this article.  Thank you.  There are no hidden agendas, people we are trying to please or impress, just an honest answers to help us get better.  Let’s not allow this advice to go past us without some reflection.  How can you take a step to improve your leadership?  What will you do after reading this to make a difference in your leadership?

October 4, 2011 at 10:05 am

Celebrate Your Year!

 

Before you start setting goals for 2011, stop, take stock and celebrate what you’ve achieved in 2010!

Create Your “Win List”

Try this… before the end of the year create a “Win List”. Its purpose is to help you acknowledge all of your wins, especially those that challenged you or required you to take risk or try something new.

  

This powerful technique takes about 30 minutes to complete. Start by listing all of the goals you set and achieved this year. Then list any other wins you think of – both large and small.

 

Here are some questions to help you create your list:

• What three achievements are you most proud of this past year?
  • Why were these things important to you?
• Which goals were easy to accomplish? Why?
• Which goals were a challenge to accomplish? Why?
• What one success surprised you this past year?
  • How did you set yourself up for this success?  
• What new skill did you master?
• What was your biggest lesson learned?
• Who helped you accomplish a key goal?
  • How can you thank them for their help?
• What risk did you take that worked out well?
  • Why did it work?
  • How can you leverage it and do it again?

Add to my list…what “Win List” questions would you add?

Add your comments!

 

December 21, 2010 at 10:52 pm 1 comment

Undercover Boss—We’ve got work to do…

A new season of television brings a new season of Undercover Boss.  This month’s article shares insights and key learnings from the premiere episode and as with past articles asks questions that may be relevant to your organization.

This episode featured Steve Joyce the president and CEO of Choice Hotels.  For those unfamiliar with this reality shows format, leaders from major companies swap their suits and ties for work clothes, an assumed name and work in the trenches of their own companies.  The goal is to better understand the culture, how customers are served and to learn more about their employees as people.

Joyce doubles his undercover experience by not only working in a number of different company hotels but also by staying in a different one each night while undercover.  He experiences hard work, getting stuck in an elevator and being forced to pay for “complimentary coffee”.  You can get a glimpse of his encounters by watching the following You Tube video:

Three key themes that bubbled up included:

 1) employees don’t always get information passed down to them regarding the resources that are available to them;

2) while decision making is encouraged at all levels sometimes decisions made aren’t in the best interest of the client;

3) saving money is always a good thing but lack of basic maintenance will harm your organization in the long run.

Watch the following excerpt from Undercover Boss courtesy of You Tube

Key Questions:

When it comes to your organization, what systems do you have in place that assures your employees are aware of all the resources available to them?

How do you know that decisions made by your employees align with the company’s values and at the same time consider the best interests of the customer?

Are you paying attention to the “basic maintenance” of your organization? (this includes not only the physical plant but the cultural one as well).

As Leaders of our employees and stewards of our companies we need to be sure our messages are clearly communicated, that our policies are understood and applied properly, that employees know and take advantage of all the resources that are available to them, and our organizations are properly maintained physically as well as culturally.

Complete episodes of Under Cover Boss can be viewed at CBS.com

If you liked this post… please share your comments!

November 22, 2010 at 7:23 pm

How To Get More From Your Team

PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH!
This past week I have had several interesting conversations with leaders.  They have said, “I wish my team would…” or “ I wish (insert name here) would just… “

Often, this comment revolves around simple concepts such as:
·         Getting the report done on time.
·         Being friendly and pleasant with other co-workers.
·         Being more detail-oriented.

From one senior leader I heard, “I wish my leaders would ….”
·         Be accountable
·         Make the tough call
·         Have the tough conversation

In other words, they wish they would simply do the right thing.   In fact, this week a group of leaders and I discussed how silly it is that we as leaders need to clearly communicate that coming to work each day with a good attitude is the expectation.  It’s frustrating because I believe most of us genuinely feel that having a good attitude is simply the ante required to play this game we call work.

Alas, the Leadership Aha! What if we did what we expect of others?  
Not just sometimes , but ALWAYS did what you expect others to do. Think about it. This sounds easy enough but I assure you it isn’t.  Try it…
This week think about your actions, your responses, and your choices from the perspective of, “How would I expect others to behave?” or “What would I expect someone else to do in this situation?”

This concept is more complex than just doing the right thing.  Why?  
Doing the right thing means something different to everyone; therefore leaving gray area and thus allowing us to justify our actions and trivialize what is “right.”

Yet, we always seem to be clear about what is “right” when we are the the customer, or better yet… the leader.  If we are truly honest with ourselves we would realize that we expect others to be perfect while we often fall short of our own stringent standards. Doing what you expect others to do is difficult and convicting.   For those of you with children, take this one step further and do what you would tell your son or daughter to do.

I challenge you this week to hold yourself to your own standard. Have the tough conversation. Make the tough decision. Apologize. Always have a good attitude. Show up on time. Meet deadlines. Make customers happy. The list goes on and on…

I believe you will learn It isn’t easy being perfect, yet it is certainly worth a try.

Leadership thought for today… Model what you expect!

November 16, 2010 at 10:40 pm