Posts Tagged ‘Culture In the Workplace’

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The ultimate question

Sunday, August 10th, 2014

Business strategist Fred Reichheld wrote a landmark book on what he calls The Ultimate Question—“How likely are you to recommend us to a friend?”

By asking this question to customers and employees, companies can quickly learn who is a promoter, who is neutral, and who is detrimental to the well being of a company.

Those who answer the question with a nine or ten are considered “promoters,” people who help ensure the profits, growth, and overall health of a company. Sevens and eights are neutral. But if someone answers the question with a one through six, that person is a detractor, someone who will do harm to a business.

Everyone’s job in any company is to make sure that every customer is a nine or ten, and if not, to put a massive corrective action plan in place to make sure that customer moves into that zone of full support.

It also goes without saying that every staff member needs to also be in the nine to ten range. If you aren’t a promoter of the company you’re a part of, be a positive force to improve things, to make it a place you can be proud of. If that just isn’t possible, it might be time to consider moving on to a company you CAN fully support.

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Posted in Culture Transformation | 1 Comment »

Internal customer service

Sunday, July 27th, 2014

When most people picture a customer, they naturally think of the person who buys a company’s products and services. Making that person’s life better and easier is a great way to think of customer service.

But what about internal customer service—the way employees interact with and support others in the company? The best companies make sure their internal customer service is on par with their external customer service.

Suppose you work in IT and somebody’s computer is down. Now they can’t deliver great external service. You might make it your own goal that “No one will be down more than one hour.” Internal service supports external service.

Internal customer service also sets the tone for employee engagement. Each phone call from a colleague should be answered with the same courteous, “How may I help you?” language and tone that external customers receive.

This also has a huge impact on employee engagement. We are the face of the company to each other. If we see a cold and uncaring face when we interact with other employees, we will each naturally come to see the company itself as cold and uncaring. It’s hard to stay engaged in your work when you see your company in that unflattering light.

Engagement is tied directly to productivity, of course, so It’s not just a matter of being “nice.” Upping your internal customer service game can make the difference between a company that founders on the rocks and smooth sailing.

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Posted in Customer Service | No Comments »

Seeing informal agreements

Monday, July 7th, 2014


While my son was in India, he called to say, “Mom, you wouldn’t believe how different it is here. There are cars six deep, all blowing their horns and driving around people who are sleeping in the street, missing them by inches, with cows running up and down the road between all of it. And there are no road signs at all, and no lines on the roads!”

That pattern of behavior describes most workplaces! They have their own traffic jams and people sleeping in the way, right? And they have their own version of cows running up and down the street. And worst of all is that last observation—no instructions, no signs, and no lines.

Imagine if you woke up this morning and the streets on the way to work were like my son described—no lines on the road, no street lights, no stop signs and no laws?

That’s what your workplace would be like if it had no agreements.

Fortunately, there’s no such workplace. Workplaces are filled with agreements, formal and informal, spoken and unspoken. Some are obvious—be on time, don’t steal, don’t divulge confidential information.

Some others are less obvious but just as serious. Don’t undermine others with passive-aggressive behavior, for example. If you don’t have an agreement to disallow those unhealthy behaviors, then you have an agreement to allow them.

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Posted in Company Culture Change | No Comments »

When to leave your job

Monday, June 30th, 2014

Your job is imperfect. Your boss is imperfect. Your colleagues, boy, are THEY imperfect. None of this is news. The question is what you are doing about it.

If you’re accepting life’s little imperfections, that’s healthy. Giving constructive advice to improve things, good for you! But if you are complaining—aimlessly, pointlessly complaining—then it’s time for you to go. Your company is better without you. If you are taking checks from a company and then stabbing them in the back, you’ve got to think about your integrity. So off you go.

But wait! Before you go, let’s put things in perspective. Did you complain about your last job, too? Your last boss, your last colleagues? If so, you’re pretty likely to complain about the next ones as well. Then I guess you’ll have to cut and run from that one too.

Sounds like a pretty dismal future, don’t you think?

Instead, give yourself 24 hours to think about your situation. Focus on the things that are good, and come up with a strategy for improving the things that aren’t so good. But one way or another, promise yourself to turn off the pointless complaints for good.

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Posted in Dysfunctional Workplace | No Comments »

Agreements of Meetings

Monday, February 3rd, 2014


There’s nothing worse than a poorly run meeting—one that takes an hour to accomplish five minutes of work, or wanders in overlapping circles until everything is tabled for the next meeting.

Meetings are essential, but they don’t have to be pointless or painful. The key is to establish effective agreements for every meeting. For example:

Every meeting will have a written agenda distributed in advance.

Agenda items will be actionable—another one that too many meetings fail to follow. That means your agenda won’t include an item that says, “Holiday party.” Otherwise you’re in for a wandering half-hour brainstorm about the holiday party. Instead, you might say, “Choose location and set budget for holiday party – 10 minutes.” Boom! That’s actionable. Things will actually get done, and people will feel good about it.

Every meeting will have a designated timekeeper who will work to keep everyone on track and the agenda on schedule.

Those three agreements alone can transform meetings overnight from exercises in pointless collective misery to a driving force for your organization’s success.

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Posted in Staying Focused | No Comments »

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