Be Different or be dead

January 28, 2019

5 myths about how to be an effective leader

Source: Unsplash

I feel for those young people who are thirsting for advice on how improve their leadership skills. Where do you turn for trusted information? Who’s leadership narrative do you believe?

It’s overwhelming to say the least. Google “leadership” and you are presented with way too many sources that can reasonably be consumed — that is, if you can actually find a source that sounds good to you.

These are 5 myths about leadership that are promulgated by most pundits of the craft.

You need charisma

There is a view that a good leader must possess the aura of charisma; that quality that they have to WOW! the person they are engaging with.
I would characterize the common view of charisma as ’communications on steroids’ and a classic case of style over substance.

If you’re wanting to build your leadership skills, do not put “I need to be more charismatic” on your list of things to improve on.
What worked for me was honest emotion (to be genuinely passionate about what you are talking about), simplicity (to talk about things in simple terms that people can understand) and informality (to be real — NOT SLICK — in what you say and how you say it).

Charisma is for showmanship, it’s not for leadership. I didn’t think Steve Jobs was overwhelmingly charismatic, did you?

You need to have vision

Great leaders possess the almost indescribable talent of being able to see into the future and know what the success ingredient for their organization is. Right?
Well, there are perhaps a few individuals who (in retrospect) had this gift — Jobs is the only one that comes to mind — but for most of us common leaders the vision thing is a non-starter.

At the time Jobs was spouting off about carrying music around on a device, did anyone say “WOW! This guy has vision”? No! It only became apparent later (and after a series of other device innovations) that his view of what customers would desire was extraordinary — and I would suggest that if Apple hadn’t executed on his plan, his vision label might never have been gifted to him.

Having vision is not a workable leadership requisite because it is only realized in retrospect. You can’t learn this skill; other competencies provide the opportunity to earn the vision label after you have achieved amazing things.

You need to delegate

Leadership school teaches you that you must be good at delegating tasks to others. In my view I see leaders delegating too much. Be careful, there is a significant difference between constructive delegation and abdication.

Appropriate delegation occurs when the leader hands off tasks that better fit the competencies of the people that report to them, but the outcomes are carefully monitored and managed by the leader.
Delegatory abdication, on the other hand, occurs when the leader hands something off and quickly dismisses any accountability for the results.

I have seen many leaders in my time abdicate their responsibility under the name of delegation. Is delegation an appropriate skill of an effective leader? Yes, but it comes with staying involved with what is handed off and holding the person accountable.

You need to command

Maybe it’s a General Patton infatuation, but it’s common to portray an amazing leader as being a tough commander dude.

This is the person who takes charge almost with brute force and singlehandedly orchestrates the outcome everyone is delighted with; they are at the top of the pyramid and there’s no question about who’s in charge.

This is the leader who acts, disposes instructions and who spends little time asking for input and suggestions — one who stands alone and is almost divinity-possessed in the face of crisis.

The commander leader is old school; who rose to adulation in wartime not in the conduct of normality.

Today, the commander should be Number 2 in identity, with servant-ship in the light. You don’t have to be great commander to be a standout leader; focus on asking people “How can I help?” rather than commanding them to “Do this!”

You need precision

This myth deals with the notion that a great leader needs to provide precise direction in terms of the organization’s future; they need to provide absolute focus on what the end of the journey looks like.

Well, it’s not required; in fact it’s a negative. Searching for clarity is a time consuming activity with a purpose that can never be achieved. In an environment of chaotic, rapid and unpredictable change, how can any future be perfectly clear?

The standout leader is ok with a fuzzy idea of where they should go. They understand the importance of executing on a chosen path and learning on the run whether it was the right choice; that making adjustments to a ‘just about right’ plan is more important than wasting time searching for a clear path that doesn’t exist.

You shouldn’t micromanage

Effective leaders are supposed to deal with the BIG issues in an organization. Building strategy, overseeing financing, negotiating mergers and acquisition and managing the board of directors would qualify as key roles in their job description.

But what about the so-called “little things” that require their personal fingerprint to get done the right way? Nope, they get delegated because the book on leaders says don’t micromanage.

Leaders are encouraged to not dabble in the details because they can be more effectively dealt with by the more junior crowd of manager.
That’s a myth. There are some (not all) matters that require the leader’s active involvement in order to produce the exact outcome needed.

For example, articulating exactly what the customer moment looks like for employees is something great leaders do regularly.

They spend time with customer contact people on the frontline describing the behaviours necessary to WOW! a customer; they choose not to allow this very crucial element of their organization’s strategy to be handled by junior managers. They know that the right consistent outcome of a customer moment of truth needs the view from the top, and they dive in and provide the direction themselves.

If you want to step up your leadership game, be careful to avoid these 5 myths propagated by the pundit crowd; which can stultify your efforts to take your skills to the next level.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 1.28.19 at 03:11 am by Roy Osing
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January 25, 2019

The one simple thing you can do to get your dream job

The one simple thing you can do to get your dream job.

Do you find it suspicious that there’s one critical thing you can do to succeed in work and life?
Well, if so, you haven’t been taking your education seriously.

That’s correct – while things such as knowing the right people, or being in the right place at the right time can help you advance your career, there’s one factor that trumps them all and is the basis without which you can never get where you genuinely want to — education.

It can be underestimated these days, but the truth is, it’s an essential step you need to take to build a career, reach your career goals and develop as a person.

If you feel you lack education, please don’t! It’s never late to learn!

Nowadays, especially in countries such as Australia or the U.S., and not to mention the online world, we have the resources to never to stop learning and growing.

Develop your mind and devote the next year to education — here’s why.

To get knowledge

This one is fairly obvious. One of the main reasons why people get an education is the knowledge it offers them.
This knowledge can be both practical and factual – so not only will you know the why and the how, it will also enable you to work better in your current role and any roles you hope to get in the future.

This reason is strong enough to apply whether you are looking into a career change and starting in a new field from scratch, or just strengthening your skill set.

Always be aware of it, and never stop learning. The world is developing at such an intense pace today, and there’s always more to learn.

Keep up, and you’ll reach the top easier, and stay there as well.

To boost your confidence

Frankly, apart from the actual knowledge, a degree or certificate is another important tangible outcome we get when we enrol in any studies at any level.

And while the “piece of paper” is important evidence of completing your educational goals, the sense of accomplishment you get when you’re done is just as important.

Maybe you worked really hard to get it, or you never really thought you would succeed in getting one in this particular field, but seeing it with your name on it will prove you that all the work was worth it.

A degree is just a symbol of everything education will give you: knowledge, skills, experience, additional skills in communication.

No wonder getting a degree will work wonders for your confidence. Late nights of studying and doing poorly on a test will test it, but actually finishing what you started will make you feel like you’re on top of the world.

To invest in yourself

There’s no better investment than an investment you make in yourself. What you will get in material terms is temporary – one day it can be there, the next it can disappear.

We’ve witnessed economic crises and natural disasters, so one can never be too sure about your belongings. But what you add to your mind stays with you forever, and yes, it can always be a tool to make something material.

Whatever stage you are at life, if you’re not too happy about where you’re heading professionally, make a turn. Enrol a master’s course in a field you’re passionate about, even part-time if it’s easier.

It can also be a great opportunity to travel and meet new people, so maybe think about taking a course at Perth College of Beauty Therapy, or any other institution that accepts international students. Or find a class online if no university near you offers one on a topic you’re interested in.

The world really is your oyster, and whatever you get in terms of knowledge, will stay with you forever.

To grow your social network

Remember how easy it was to make friends and have lots of acquaintances when we were in school? It’s only partially because we were young and didn’t have elaborate criteria for friends.

The major reason is simple: we were with people every day! They were all at our disposal every day for 5-6 hours.

So if you feel that you’ve ended up in a rut because you only see your 3 colleagues every day and the occasional person in the gym, furthering your education will also help you meet new people.

They don’t have to turn into best friends for life (though it’s possible), but you have at least one thing in common already: an interest in the topic you’re studying!

Growing your social network is never a bad thing – who knows who you might meet through your new colleagues and how that might shape your prospective career!

If you’re looking for a career change or want to push your existing career in the right direction, find a course that might help you. It may be hard at times, but overall, it can be the best decision you will make for yourself.

Good luck!

— Leila Dorari is an entrepreneur, self-development ambassador and an avid dog lover. She believes all people are born equal but only those dedicated and brave enough to work on themselves reach their full potential.

• Posted 1.25.19 at 04:42 am by Roy Osing
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January 21, 2019

8 excellent ways to get your retail business back to winning form

8 excellent ways to get your retail business back to winning form.

It’s shocking to see the number of retailer ‘deaths’ that have occurred over the last few years. These were once established businesses with a history of loyal customers and decent profitability.

But they simply ran out of steam and couldn’t keep pace with the changes taking place in the industry. Buyer demographics and buying behaviours quickly change and retailers incapable of keeping pace die a slow and agonizing death — store by store by store…

There is no single strategy that will save a retailer in the current chaotic and unpredictable business environment — particularly a pandemic — but there are some actions retailers can take to at least increase their chances of survival.

1. Renew your business strategy

It’s very tempting to take action and employ tactics that you think will help, but you need to start with redefining a strategy that you think will successfully meet the new dynamic.

The critical piece of thinking here is that you cannot assume what worked for you in the past will work in the future

I believe the main reason so many retailers fail is they hold on to their past business model, expecting it to work in an environment where literally every customer — competitor — technology variable has changed.

In addition don’t get sucked into believing that cost cutting will save you. The retail death spiral is not a cost issue, it’s a demand issue. Cutting costs with the hope of salvaging the company has a perilous and inescapable outcome.

Did you really think that by closing over 1,400 stores Radio Shack would survive? Not unless they change their business strategy and figure out how to do a better job at serving customers and providing unmatched value in the marketplace.

2. Deliver value; don’t sell products

Look at your business as an instrument to deliver unique value, not as an agent to sell products and services. Think about being in the ‘benefit creation’ business where what people want and desire drives the innovation process. The model of stacking the shelves — be it in a bricks and mortar environments or online — and having customers excitedly buy is wishful thinking.

And your retail value must be different that your competition because if you’re not different, you will fall victim to the commodity space where the value proposition for any retailer is reduced to price.

Commodity market players ‘race to the bottom’ with their prices much to the delight of the customers but to the detriment of the business as margins are squeezed and profits plummet.

As the telecommunications space was heating up with competition, we morphed our phone stores from outlets that offered telephones and accessories to residential customers to a solutions selling vehicle for both residential and small business customers. Product sales took care of themselves with this new focus.

3. Redefine who you want to serve

Change your target market. Demographics and psychographics are changing. Millennials are growing in number and will soon be the largest segment of the population. Continuing to target the older population, for example, because it has worked up to now is a choice with no long term future.

The question to ask is “Which customer group represents the greatest growth potential for our business?” Focus your energy on that group. Build capacity and competencies in your retail organization to satisfy the wants and desires of that group.

And say goodbye to customers who are no longer relevant to your renewed strategy. You can’t afford to hold on to your old base while pursuing a new one.

Deselecting customers is a difficult issue for most organizations as it means carefully shifting focus and investment away from customers who have traditionally been in the center of attention to a new breed who are unproven in terms of revenue generation.

4. Look for order of magnitude not incremental change

Minor changes to what you do and the way you do them won’t work; explore new completely different ways to completely morph your business. And consider outrageous ideas like the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas as well because the traditional tried and true approaches simply will not work anymore.

If your new retail idea doesn’t scare the hell out of you, chances are it’s too modest. 

We completely reengineered our phone store network by closing almost half of them and reconfiguring the survivors geographically through our operating territory. This was anything but a modest change for which we took considerable criticism. But it was necessary in order to place our new “customer serving centers” closer to the customers we decided to target.

5. Recruit a new team

if your current retail strategy won’t get you where you need to go, probably your existing team won’t as well. Be prepared to change the composition of your teams and recruit new blood with the skills and competencies necessary to deliver your new direction. Look for disrupters who hate the status quo; people who will push for change.

HR must constantly be on the lookout for the new breed; they should constantly be in the recruitment mode regardless of whether you have immediate opportunities available or not.
Sooner or later positions will open up, and you need a stream of people immediately at hand to draw on.

As the telecom business was changing from a monopoly to a highly competitive model, we had to purge much of the organization in terms of the skill sets and competencies in our people. We had to import a cadre of folks who had proven experience in the retail world and let go many who were effective order takers but not able to sell competitively.

6. Provide personalized service

As a critical element of your renewed strategy set your sights on providing more personalized service rather than the traditional one-size-fits-all doctrine. Retail success comes from engaging with and serving customers on THEIR terms, not on what the business deems appropriate given their internal constraints. If retail isn’t prepared to meet their customers on their turf, the game will be swiftly over.

We moved from a subscriber model in our phone stores to the strategy of creating more personal customer experiences for every person who came to our stores. One tactic we chose was to make the inside mirror the outside; in other words recruit employees that were integral to the mosaic of ethnic populations we served.

So in an area where we had a significant Asian community, we hired frontline people and leaders who were also Asian and who could relate better to this customer group and serve them better than people with other ethnic backgrounds.
Service levels increased with productivity and we quickly outpaced our competition.

7. Build a leadership team of servers

Hand in hand with establishing a service culture is the need to move leaders from a traditional command and control bias to a serve and coach paradigm where “How can I help?” supplants ‘Do this!’.

Critical to providing a personal experience for customers, retail operations must do the same for employees. An employee who experiences a servant leader who is there to help solve problems and eliminate job barriers will naturally apply the same behaviour to a customer. They learn to be helpful to customers because they receive the same treatment from their colleagues and bosses.

In the same way we had to move away from customers we had traditionally targeted, we had as well to exit traditional command and control style managers to make way for people who were natural servant leaders

8. Eliminate commission salespeople

Having commission salespeople is the anathema of the concept of serving customers and providing personalized solutions to their problems.
Employees who are paid to push retail product will flog their wares to, not serve, customers. They will push for the sale as opposed to taking whatever time it takes to problem solve with the customer.

They will have zero motivation to create memorable experiences for their customer because it takes too much time, requires too much energy, and because they’re not getting paid to do it. Be prepared for an exodus of salespeople when you do this; they will look for opportunities to continue their flogging ways with other retailers. So let them.

Retail businesses can survive; all is not lost. But it will require retailers to put the past to rest and take action to break away from ‘the way they have always done things’.

Those that have the guts to do it have a chance of surviving; those that don’t will die.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 1.21.19 at 04:05 am by Roy Osing
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January 7, 2019

7 reasons most call centers are absolutely shameful

Source: Unsplash

7 reasons most call centers are absolutely shameful.

Call centers generally don’t give good customer service.

Every organization that is big enough has a call center to handle primarily incoming calls from their customers.

There must be some redeeming value in having one if everyone has one, right? There is: it’s generally viewed as the most efficient operating solution for processing volumes of calls coming into an organization.

The dark side to call centers

But having led large customer service teams in a variety of business environments I have experienced a dark side to call centers.

In many cases I find that call centers represent the antithesis of miraculous service.

When an organization declares they intend to provide amazing service to their customers and then chooses an operating model with a call centre — particularly in a foreign country — as its nucleus, they are not only being disingenuous, they are fooling themselves (and probably driving their customers crazy) and assuming substantial competitive risk.

These are the aspects of call centers, particularly those that are outsourced, I find quite revolting.

They exist to manage cost

They choose to implement a call centre environment not to serve customers better, but to process volumes of calls at the lowest cost possible.

The question is rarely asked “Is this the best way to both serve our customers in an exemplary way while at the same time optimizing our cost position?”

It’s all about cost. That’s why most organizations outsource them around the world where labour costs are low. Current outsourcing destinations include India, Philippines, Thailand, China and Indonesia with many more planning to enter the fray.

This outsourcing trend has attracted a plethora of experts who define what it takes to have a successful call centre.

They are managed to improve productivity

Effectiveness of a call center is generally based on micro productivity measures such as:

▪️average holding time — the elapsed time it takes a call center rep to handle a customer query. Management tries to drive this number down in order to process as many calls as they can with the resources available.

The outcome of each call is rarely measured. Was the customer satisfied with the service they received? Did they enjoy the experience with the rep?

▪️average speed of answer — the average length of time it takes to answer an incoming call. When I ran call center operations in the telecom world, my target was to answer 80% of all calls within 6 seconds and our resource levels were set to achieve this result.

This was probably the best internal target we had that represented an attempt to deliver good customer service.
Can you imagine in today’s world reaching a call center rep of any organization within 2 or 3 rings of your phone? Rarely ever happens, with common wait times in the minutes rather than seconds.

Productivity and service miracles don’t easily coexist in most organizations; this measure needs attention if any organization wants to get out of the revolting category.

They don’t drive customer loyalty

Whether a call center serves incoming calls or is used to originate sales-type calls, the heavy traffic volumes involved generally work against the relationship building activity that leads to a loyal customer.

A call comes in > the rep answers (eventually) > the rep deals with the customer’s request > the rep terminates the call > the next call is fed to the rep.
And the cycle is repeated over and over again with a supervisor scrutinizing how long the rep is on each call.

The call center is essentially a production shop with no overt objective of creating an experience for the customer that could lead to brand loyalty.

Customer satisfaction may be measured along with productivity objectives, but a satisfied customer does not make a loyal one.

Satisfaction means that expectations were met; loyalty demands more — minds must be blown, expectations exceeded and marvellous experiences created if the loyalty dial is to be moved.

And this takes time. A WHAM! BAM! THANK YOU MA’M! process does nothing to encourage warm feelings and a desire to do more business with the brand involved.

They take control of your brand

The moment power is given to an outsourced call centre to engage with your customers, control is relinquished and your organization’s brand is put at risk.

Many organizations don’t even put in place a performance management contract with the 3rd party outsourcer to measure how customers perceive the service they receive from call center reps, so changes to brand position are unknown and can’t be responded to.

And with high turnover of employees, consistency in whatever customer treatment is given is almost impossible — at least I don’t experience it.

When your customer connects with the call center you have chosen to empower with your most valued asset, and the experience they have does not go well, it’s on YOU.
The call center rep is YOUR employee. The service outcome is YOUR responsibility.

YOU pay the price in the market.

Their words create the precious moment

Whether a customer has a miraculous service moment or not depends on communications with the call center rep. Miracles happen when the engagement is spirited, entertaining and responsive. When there is an easiness to the conversation that leaves the caller happy and fulfilled.

And for me, very often it is extremely difficult to fight through the accent of a foreign call center rep to have a meaningful and enjoyable conversation.
I simply can’t understand many (not all) of them, and that’s a BIG problem for the outsourcer.

If even the basic communications expectations of the call can be met, there is little chance that a service miracle will ever occur and in fact the opposite is the result with the caller being annoyed or angry with the encounter.

It’s not that the foreign reps are uneducated or don’t have some skills in the English language.
But it’s one thing to pass English 101 and have an understanding of sentence structure and grammar, and quite another to engage with someone else in a way that flows and is productive to the other party.

Are these reps tested by role playing to evaluate their conversational proficiency? Not from where I’m sitting.

Wait times are shameful

Outsources really don’t care about how long we wait on the phone to reach a rep; if they did, they wouldn’t tolerate wait times that often reach ridiculous levels — for me personally, I am blown away if I actually get a rep in 5 minutes and am not surprised to wait 45 minutes or longer. Business mediocrity in action.

It’s ironic that wait times take no priority at all; organizations are content to provide messages they feel assuage their shameful service: “Your call is important to us”; “We are experiencing unusual traffic volumes at the moment” unfortunately greet us more often than not when we call for help.

But wait! There is a silver lining to long wait times. Put your iPhone on speaker, slip it in your back pocket and get on with the job jar your wife has skillfully filled for you.

The reps have an impossible task

I totally get that even a highly competent and caring call center rep has a tough time being on 100% up time.
By the time a customer gets to them, they are often met with frustration, anger and sometimes abuse, with literally zero chance of turning a bad encounter into a pleasant experience.
The reps simply wants to get away from the pain they are engulfed in.

And the rep of course doesn’t own the problem — leadership does.

It’s a pipe dream and shameful leadership behaviour to create an impossible working environment and expect employees to perform impeccably. What planet are they on?

It’s quite simple, really.
If you want low costs, technology can do only so much and you will be saddled with the result. Under-resourcing is typically the result of cost cutting in the face of relentless demand and who pays the price? CUSTOMERS DO!

Call centers generally don’t focus on building intimate customer relationships and outsourcing them makes matters worse.

There are exceptions, however, but these rare organizations make the decision to establish their call center as an integral loyalty building instrument not as an efficient call processing center.

So if you decide to use call center technology to engage with your customers, please don’t preach your intent to deliver amazing service.

It’s intellectually dishonest and it fools no one.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead book series

• Posted 1.7.19 at 04:10 am by Roy Osing
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