Be Different or be dead

November 5, 2016

4 breakthrough ways to get people to work together

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Unfortunately team dysfunction is a plague that affects many - in fact I would say most - organizations

And much has been written on how to build effective teams. But it’s much more than simply getting people to work well together.

After three decades of leadership, here’s my take on how to build remarkably productive teams.

1. Appoint a team leader who is emotionally invested — in the challenge the team is addressing. There may be a temptation to assign the role to an individual who is deemed internally (by HR in particular) to possess “expert” leadership skills, but don’t do it!

Results are produced when a crazy amount of emotional energy expended on solving the problem at hand not when sophisticated leadership skills are present.

Find someone to lead the team who is first and foremost the internal champion of the cause, and second, who has demonstrated experience in leading teams successfully in their past.

2. Provide the strategic framework for the team to work within — the team needs to know what is “within limits” and what is not. This is not an issue of containing creativity, rather it is a guidance mechanism to point creativity in the strategic direction of the organization. Unclear and vague strategic focus for the team’s work generally results in unusable output; an interesting answer to the wrong problem.

Test the team’s understanding of their terms of reference. Keep the conversation going until they have demonstrated an intimate understanding of what they are being asked to do and how their expected results relate to the strategic game plan of the organization.

3. Have the team present an update on their progress — to the team executive sponsor at least monthly. This will ensure the team stays on track and gives an opportunity to recognize team members on the points of their progress.

4. Build the team objectives into performance plan of each team member — regardless of whether the team is full time or part time, shared accountability for results must be assigned.

If members are not personally liable, the pressure is off and you can expected casual rather than focused attention on the team’s activity and results.

Develop functional teams by concentrating your efforts on making them effective - achieving strategic goals - rather than efficient - achieving internal harmony and busyness.

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

• Posted 11.5.16 at 09:56 am by Roy Osing
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October 31, 2016

6 promising ways to genuinely appreciate your customers

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6 promising ways to genuinely appreciate your customers.

Customer Appreciation Days don’t cut it; they actually contribute very little nothing to expressing a ‘thank you’ to loyal customers for their business.

You can’t make people feel appreciated by doing an occasional tribute to their importance. And you can’t do it by holding an event; a often crowded cheesy affair with free coffee and muffins. Or by offering them good prices one day a year.

Customer appreciation should be a continuous event; making making them feel special every time they touch your organization.

These are some of the proven and practical things you can do to warm your customers’ hearts to you 365 days a year.

Assign caring employees to appreciate — Put caring people in customer contact positions.

If you’ve successfully followed my suggestion to recruit people who have a proven track record of successfully serving others, you should have a stable of terrific employees to draw on and assign to customer-facing jobs.

A customer contact employee who doesn’t like human interaction, and all the complications that arise from it, can’t appreciate them. If you don’t have employees who are born to serve, an appreciative environment can’t be created and customers will continue to receive hit-and-miss feedback.

Respect differences — Appreciate each of your customers differently because each one of them has unique appreciation wants. Applying a boilerplate approach to all assumes that everyone likes to be thanked in the same way. Not true.

Everyone is different and the challenge is to find the way they, specifically, like to be recognized for their loyalty. Many organizations use common ‘trash and trinkets’ promotional items and other gimmicks to say thank you and hand them out to everyone.

Notwithstanding the fact that some marketing ‘experts’ claim they’re effective, my experience is that they are cheap and impersonal and should be avoided in favour of a more personalized approach.

De-escalate — Organizations have systems of rules and policies to control operations and to minimize risk (at least that’s what they claim they’re for). And most are quite inflexible when it comes to permitting a frontline employee bend the rule to accommodate a specific customer need. The employee is required to escalate the matter to a supervisor who makes the call on whether or not the rule should be bent or otherwise handled.

Appreciative companies allow frontline employees to have some degree of decision making authority when it comes to such matters; referring the customer to a supervisor is not required and the employee can take care of the customer in real time.

Shock them — People have come to expect a certain level of service business generally. They know that they more often than not need a receipt to return a product and they know that some companies provide in-store credits rather than cash refunds.

This level of expectation is a great opportunity to surprise someone with an act they don’t expect. This isn’t about sending a birthday wish to someone automatically every year, it’s about doing something spontaneously in the moment that shocks them because they are expecting something quite different.

Surprising someone and delighting them with the result speaks volumes about how you really feel about and appreciate them.

Guidelines not orders — Appreciativeness is governed by how well an organization tailors itself to each of their customers; this can be a challenge when it comes to administering its internal policies and procedures which as I’ve stated numerous times are typically written from a control point of view.

The problem is, of course, that if a customer feels suffocated by a policy because it doesn’t work for them, they will not only feel unappreciated, they will be upset and might leave you for a more friendly environment.

To be more appreciative, try and lighten up on your policies and procedures; see if you can use them more as guidelines as opposed to uncompromising rules.
If you do this and allow your frontline folks the power to bend one of your policies occasionally in favour of a reasonable customer request, you’ll not only find an appreciative customer you’ll also get a more engaged employee.

Dumb rules reduce your currency with people and forces them away.

Offer deals to loyalists first — Take a page from The Grateful Dead’s playbook; offer any special promotions and deals you come up with to your loyal fans first, before the general public.

Most organizations use promotions — ‘join me and get 3 month’s free service’ — to acquire new customers by luring them away from their competition.
The problem this strategy creates is that a customer who may have been loyal for 10 years doesn’t qualify for the special deal feels unappreciated — aka is really really pissed — when they find out they can’t get it.

By all means, use promotions to attract new business, but don’t miss the opportunity to use the strategy to show your appreciation to your existing customers first.

Put your customers first if you are serious about showing them your appreciation.

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

• Posted 10.31.16 at 02:22 am by Roy Osing
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October 24, 2016

5 important things to remember when you’ve been screwed over

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5 important things to remember when you’ve been screwed over.

It’s happened to all of us at one time or another in organizational life; we’ve been dealt a bad hand and have had to suffer the negative consequences of a decision that someone else has made.

A decision we had no input in; one that was not in our best interest. One that set us back and removed privileges we worked hard and long to earn.

You’re not about to change the decision; you either have to live with it or leave and find opportunities elsewhere.

Here’s how you might be able to stay and live with it.

1. Do your research on why the decision was taken — What elements of the organization’s business plan drove the decision? What does the overall good look like? Is the intent to increase market share? Improve profitability? Refine business processes to streamline customer service?

The strategic objective is the context to evaluate your particular concerns. It provides a higher level explanation of why you are being screwed over. It won’t necessarily make you agree with the decision taken, but at least it will enable you to understand why it was reached.

2. Always keep the long term first and foremost in mind — Short term set backs are a way of life for individuals who choose organizational life. Your immediate misfortune does not represent the end of your career.

The good news is that you will have more chances.

3. Show your resiliency — Be that person who can take the punch, move on and continue to make a valuable contribution to the goals of the organization. Stand apart from others who choose to stay in defensive retreat and be a victim.

Your immediate misfortune my be an opportunity in disguise.

4. Seek guidance — From a mentor who has, no doubt, experienced similar issues in their time. Express your feelings, ask for advice and listen.

5. Keep your mouth shut! — Go to your ‘cave’ and think before you go public with your opinion of the decision. It’s always tempting and hard to resist, but avoid the bitching and lamenting conversations with colleagues about how badly you’ve been treated.

Uncontrolled reaction generally results in saying things you will regret. You don’t want your personal brand to be tainted with winer and sniveler; it will hold you back once the ‘crisis’ has past (and it will pass).

Accept the fact that ‘they’ will do you an injustice sooner or later and if you treat the event as a learning opportunity it will serve you well in your career.

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

• Posted 10.24.16 at 04:23 am by Roy Osing
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October 17, 2016

11 simple truisms that make successful leadership

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11 simple truisms that make successful leadership.

A 33 year career with a major corporation is a long run. 

The opportunities I had to play leadership roles as president, business unit VP, marketing EVP and CMO provided me deep levels of expertise and practical experience in virtually every aspect of an organization.

With an understanding of how successful results are consistently achieved.

My career yielded these leadership learning points that, looking back, we’re critical to my success.

1. Informality breeds trust — A tight leadership style begets little organizational rhythm and as a result produces spotty results.
People trust people who are real and don’t act out their position in the hierarchy.

2. Simplicity attracts followers — It’s all about having an uncomplicated story line that people get, believe in and are able to execute on.

3. The frontline is in control — It’s where the brave idea of strategy turns into the crude deed of successful performance and results.

4. Your ego must be muzzled — When someone suffers a setback (and everyone does at some point) the overwhelming force that pushes them to lash out against the injustice must be subdued.
Respect must be shown for the winner to earn the right to compete another day.

5. Language captivates — Unique words for common concepts attracts attention, interest and support. Cutting through the idea clutter is an essential act of leadership. Why say ‘eliminate non-strategic activities’ when you can say ’Cut the CRAP’?

6. First responders earn the prize — Be the first one to offer to help in times of trouble regardless of whether it’s your job or not. Success is often achieved in the face of a screw-up or when the original plan falls short of expectations.

Be the person who jumps into the fray to get things back on track.

7. Connect the dots — And unleash the passion in people. Between what the organization wants to achieve and what each person must do to deliver it. Allow employees to determine their own tactical approach and inconsistency and dysfunction will result.

8. If you’re not focused, you’re done — Limited time and resource bandwidth make focusing on the critical few tasks essential to drive ahead. Chasing “the possible many” is a great way to make zero real progress.

9. Imperfection drives results — Seeking perfection paralyses an organization, as unnecessary analysis and pondering prevent taking action.

10. Serving humans is the critical success factor for leadership — “Commanders” create virtually no long term value for an organization. Asking ’How can I help?’ to destroy barriers that prevent people from doing their job is the key to engage employees and deliver unmatched performance.

11. Loyalty creates sustainable leadership — Personal commitment to the organization and people around them create leaders for life who are loved and remembered.

Ironically, I learned none of this at school.

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

• Posted 10.17.16 at 04:15 am by Roy Osing
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