Show Notes

• Archived Blog Post

  Date / Time: 10/2/2007 12:08 AM UTC

  BLOG: "Leadership Characteristics - Managing the difficult employee" with Verena Somer
  

  1. Short biography: www.theServiceadvisors.com
  
  2. How did you get to this point in your career?

              As a result of my training in theatre, I became keenly aware of how behaviors trigger emotions.  For example, I had an acting teacher who coached celebrities like Tom Selleck, Michelle Pfeiffer, Ted Danson, etc., and he was often asked ‘How do you sustain the emotional level of a performance night after night?, and in some cases, year after year?”  He would advise his students to commit to the behavior and the emotion would follow.  These moments of commitment are referred to as “choices”, and that same principle can be applied to our daily interactions in the work place. 

  You may have heard other customer service professionals refer to “Moments of truth”.  There are literally hundreds of these moments within each interaction we have with our customers, clients and staff.  Our choices, or “behaviors” combined with our “script”, in that moment, dictate the outcome of the interaction.

  Anyway, that’s how my career evolved.  I was a good observer and could analyze my choices while staying in the moment.  I shared this skill with staff, and eventually other clients found it significantly helpful in transforming their relationships, both personal and professional.  And I liked that I could have that kind of positive impact on someone’s life.
  

  
  3. What should every business-owner/executive/leader know?

  It’s all about leadership.  I’ve seen organizations spend tens of thousands of dollars on building a service culture, and if they don’t have committed leadership, they won’t be able to reap the long term rewards of the time and money they’ve spent on growing their service program.  Leadership is a broad topic, but I’ve distilled it down to some characteristics with a particular behavior and script associated with each characteristic.  So you can literally turn the knob on your office door and begin to do things differently today.  You don’t have to attend a class or seminar that leaves you with several handouts and notebooks and possibly a tape or two.  In my experience, these items go on the shelf and are forgotten.  These characteristics are on one piece of paper that can be posted on your desktop as a reminder every day of what behaviors are important to becoming a great leader.  The biggest impact will be with your staff.  You’ll see positive results immediately.

   

  Those characteristics are as follows:

  Passionate – service is as important to you as the budget.  For example:   Whenever you talk to staff about budget, service must always be part of the conversation.  Script:  “We’re not going to be able to get that copy machine this year.  I know that it continuously needs repair and is a source of frustration to you, but it’s important that we don’t convey our frustration to our customers.  We’ll continue to give the same great service, and I’ll do my best to continue to wok on the problem.”

  Set & Communicate clear priorities – using the copy machine example, in one sentence you’ve conveyed to your staff your expectations.  Do something every day to let your staff know what you expect.  And, don’t forget to emphasize this during the interview process.  The best time to let people know what to expect is BEFORE you hire them.  Do they have a problem saying their name when they answer the phone?  If that’s what you expect, you’d better find this out before you bring them on board.

  Listen & Act on staff suggestions – Share the power.   You don’t have to think of everything.  Get your staff involved.  Ask them for their thoughts and then act on their input.  I ran an office with a call center and 15 case managers.  We needed a new system to make sure that the case load was equitable.  I could have easily developed a system and told the staff that effective tomorrow, we were going to change the way we distributed cases.  But, this was the perfect opportunity for them to get involved and design a system that would work for them.  It was more important to me that they were happy, and that the work got done and on time.  So I gave them those parameters and turned them loose.  They came up with some great ideas and chose one to try.  It was very successful because it was their idea – not mine.  Less work for me, too.

  Obtain resources needed – OK – back to that copy machine example.  This is something that can make their lives miserable.  How do you think they’re going to treat your customers if they don’t have what it takes to give good service?  At a minimum, you have to keep them updated on the situation.  Let them know the status and that you’re continually working on their behalf.  I consulted with a physician’s practice where the nurses complained that they didn’t have enough blood pressure cuffs.  As a leader, it’ your job to sacrifice to get them what they need. 

  Recognize frequently – do you think you have to buy your staff a trinket to recognize them?  Remember the power of a personal Thank You.  Keep some cards in your desk drawer, or just write a Thank You on a post-it note.  But, make it specific.  For example: write this – “When you said, “Is there anything else I can help you with today” you demonstrated one of our values – to always “be helpful” to the customer.”  I’ve given you the language, so start to recognize someone on your staff TODAY!

  Empathy – as a leader, you’ve got to understand where your staff is coming from.  Are they always late?  Why?  It’s your job to say:  “That must be very difficult for you.  What can I do to help you get to work on time?”  If you’re asking them to be helpful to your customers, you have to be helpful to them.

  Role model – Does your staff see you get frustrated in front of your customers?  If so, you can guarantee that they share their frustrations in front of customers, also.  Do you give an unhappy customer some options for resolving the problem?  Then, your staff will do the same.  Do you listen with understanding and make an empathetic statement, sincerely, when listening to your staff?  If so, they, in turn, will behave similarly with your customers. 

  To summarize the leadership issue, if you’re going to ask your staff to do things differently, you’d better have addressed all of the characteristics above FIRST. 

   

  4. What are the key success-points and mistakes most business owners make in regards to employee retention?

  First of all, they don’t take the time to recruit and hire appropriately.  If you get the right person and they’re a perfect fit for your team, that means a lot to not only the new recruit but the existing staff as well.

  Secondly, there is no defined career path.  No matter the size of the company, you must always find a way to encourage skills-building. 
  

  
  5. What are the biggest pitfalls of poor employee management?

  You lose business.  It’s as simple as that.  You can spend your dollars on marketing efforts and advertising campaigns, but if you don’t take care of your employees, they won’t take care of your customers, and you won’t get the repeat business.  You’ll just have to spend more money on attracting new clients.  That’s not necessary and it’s a waste of your resources.  Investing in a service culture, is the most cost-effective proposition for any business.
  

  
  6. How would you link the elements invested in a business start-up and staffing with the ones output at the time of the business disposition?

  It’s a value proposition.  If someone’s evaluating your business, you can show them the great financial results, but you can guarantee the steady growth because of your human resources and your customer relationships.
  

  
  7.  You’ve shared a lot in terms of leadership and employee management, but what do you do when you have to deal with a difficult employee that’s making your life miserable.

  You’re probably locked in a power struggle with the difficult employee, and it’s your job to break it.  Start slowly by adding the leadership behaviors to your daily routine, and consider giving up some of the power to the difficult employee.  I’ve always had great success in “pushing the HELP button.”  You’d be surprised at how effective this technique is in your personal and professional life.  Simply say, “I need your help” and you’ll be amazed at how the cooperation level will increase.  I had an employee who did nothing all day but document – my actions, the staff’s actions – you name it, she documented it.  And, of course, this documentation was done in order to file grievances or make other types of negative reports.  When I was faced with a move to a new office, I put a positive “spin” on this behavior, and told her, “You’re very organized and you keep excellent notes.   I need someone like you to help me.  Would you be willing (key phrase) to manage the move for me.”  I had an ally, and she did an excellent job at managing the move.  As a result, she was considered for a higher level position.  And, although she still had some personality and behavioral issues that caused commotion every now and then, I could always rely on her for help.  I had to ensure calm by continually involving her in the leadership role, but it paid off, and the power struggle was a thing of the past.

   

  8. What do you have in the works?

  My mission is to make my 25 years of experience available to every business, whether small or large.  A website is in development that will make the concepts of a service culture available to the “do- it- yourselfer.”  And, I’m building a Service Culture Kit, for purchase, that will contain a CD with all the tools and templates that I’ve spent hours developing and researching.  These are proven techniques that work, and all of it should be ready in a couple of weeks.  The website will be called The Service Advisor, so do a Google search and check it out.

  
  9. How can people get in touch with you?

  I have an 800# and I encourage your listeners to give me a call if they want to get some tips on how to get started to build a service culture or if they have a particular service issue that they’d like to discuss.

  They can call me at !-888-822-1253.  The initial consultation if free.

  • Tags:
  • employee
  • leader
  • training
  • business-owner
  • executive
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