Archive for May, 2009
Accepting Help is OK!
Shopping in a store recently, I found that I had some change in my pocket - just enough to make it easier for the assistant to give me a note back, rather than a load of coins.
So I offered it, so that could happen.
Instead, she said, ‘No, that’s fine I have plenty of change, thanks’.
Whilst I appreciated that she said it for the right reasons and was trying to help me out, I rather felt rebuffed.
Not only was I trying to make it easier for her, but it was good sense for me as well - less coins to lug around in my pocket.
Sometimes, although we are trying to be courteous and do our job, whether it be serving a customer in a shop, or even as we manage others, we sometimes feel that accepting help isn’t right.
We don’t feel comfortable accepting help - like that it shows us lacking somehow.
In fact accepting help is a fantastic tool for building relationships. It creates a partnership which cements a relationship powerfully.
If someone didn’t really want to offer help, but felt obliged, then accepting it helps them decide in a more authentic way in the future (”hmmm, so if I offer they might take me up on it…”).
Rarely do people offer help if they don’t want the other party to accept it. If they do and it is accepted, then they quickly stop doing it!
The acceptance of offered help is a win-win.
In management terms, acceptance of offered help not only releases a manager from some of their workload, but it is hugely developmental for their people.
It creates a feeling of accomplishment and feeling valued, which stimulates engagement and the thirst for more.
Accepting help is OK.
Using Resources Wisely
What resources?
People, goodwill, reputation, location. USP, and more…
You have many resources at your disposal, whatever your business activity. Probably many more than you realize right now.
So, first up is to make sure that you understand what they are.
Resources are costly, so it’s vital to ensure that where you do have costs, they are targeted and focused and utilized accurately.
Ask your customers and people what you represent to them and find the sweet spots.
Once you’ve got the hang of them, it’s time to do more, much more of the things you do well.
And then there’s the other side as well.
By reviewing those things that are of less value, you can do less of them, saving and reallocating costs, such a valuable exercise in the current financial climate.
Focusing on what you are best at and dropping things that don’t create value for you can be a very useful exercise.
Focusing attention on just where valuable resources can be focused, creating more value and a much more creative use of the assets you have.
Absence Management - The Easy Way
Absence, unsurprisingly, figures large in the bottom line considerations of most businesses and organisations.
Often there are two key ways to solve the problem, the ‘carrot and stick’.
That is, to offer incentives to come to work more regularly (!) and the alternative is to ‘beat up’ your people to scare them into popping in to do a bit now and then.
There is a third way - a much more value-creating way. The third way that has stimulated an article from me and a new web page, both of which will be ready shortly.
Absence, in my experience, is caused by a number of things, all of which can be relatively easily resolved, but take some key action steps on the part of managements dealing with the matter.
Here is a top level list of ten things you can do which will significantly improve attendance (note the positive spin!)
- A clear system, communicated and understood by all as to how absence will be managed.
- A commitment by all involved in this process to deliver fairly, consistently and without fail.
- A culture which is supportive, encouraging and developmental for every one of your people.
- A management sensitivity for when things are not right with each member of their team.
- Those accountable for managing the absence process actually do it, visibly.
- Every one is given valuable work to do, and is appreciated for it.
- Boredom is ruthlessly targeted in whatever radical way possible.
- Challenging opportunities are provided for everyone who needs new goals and opportunities.
- Management recognises early on whether their people are having to work in unjust conditions and this gets fixed quickly.
- Employees work the hours they are contracted to and encouraged to get off home after that (and take all their holidays).
It seems a simple enough thing to achieve, but in many, if not most organisations, absence management is achieved poorly at best and at worst, contributes to an overall decline in morale and motivation.
That’s because the organizational culture sucks!
Cheating is Good!
Hey, how about this.
Cheating on the job is good!
No, no, no - not if you cheat to anyone’s disadvantage or harm or illegal sort of stuff. But if you beat the system to, for example:-
- Make a customers day
- Make something really effective
- Build a business relationship
- Surprise someone positively
- Make life easier
- Bend a rule even!
See it as another way to be pro-active and creative around the business you are in - it’s not just OK, it’s positively fabulous!
You see, organisational systems are not meant to help those most important in a business - the customers or clients.
They are usually to protect profits for shareholders.
Unless this is worked in perfectly - and it rarely is - systems tend to get in the way of great customer service, especially the most vital one of all, building relationships with them.
In fact, beating an internal system and sharing that with your customer is a wonderful partnership (so don’t forget to tell them what you’re doing!)
If you are a manager, cheating the system; bending the rules; or simply doing a favour for one of your own employees is a brilliant way to partner better.
After all, are your own people not another example of a most important customer - the internal one?
I’m not, as I said at the beginning imploring you to breach laid down rules, just tweak’ them a bit - to everyone’s advantage!
So, today, go for it - where can you ‘cheat’ in your work a bit today, and make a real effective and relationship-building difference - to all your clients or customers - including your very own?
The Path of Least Resistance
Sheep!
If you look across a windswept hillside, you will see criss-crossing it the tracks of sheep.
The tracks meander, avoiding the most difficult ways, because the sheep have an inbuilt, inherent mechanism for making their way the easiest.
Management can be this way too.
Whilst we may draw negative connotations from linking ourselves to sheep(!), learning from the ways of nature that there are easier ways is very valuable.
So, what to do…
So, what are the paths of least resistance? How can you make the most of them and how do you recognise them?
Try the reverse logic - where are you most stressed out and find things ultra-challenging?
These areas are your clues to the tough areas to find workarounds. These areas are where the sheep have learned not to tread - they are the ‘paths of most resistance’.
And then…
Make it easier for you - easier for your people by meandering your route, ever so slightly, as you aim for your clear goal or outcome.
You can deliver the focused outcomes you need - just make it easy!
When Customer Relationships Get in the Way
It was written on a sheet of paper.
Clear, thick black pen on crisp white paper. It was positioned full square in the glass door - the only one that opened of the two doors available), at the entry to the shop.
“We do NOT provide change for parking”
Clearly the provision of change was an imposition placed on the shop by customers and passers-by.
So they were making it very clear that they didn’t (maybe there’s a whole piece somewhere about clarity too) offer this service.
It got me to thinking about other signs I’d seen around shops. “No Entry” is a favourite. Another is “We do NOT give refunds for sale items”.
And I wondered why these businesses go so out of their way to alienate their customers and potential customers.
Sometimes I’m in awe of how hard businesses make it for their customers, because they, the business, like it that way.
This is about their systems, their small discomforts and ultimately not about what their customers would find useful or helpful.
If anyone reading this comes up with any strict rules about what businesses or organisations will or will not do for you as a customer, I’d love to hear them!
« Previous Page — Next Page »
