“We like and respect our employees here,” the CEO told me. “We want them to grow with the company, develop their skills, broaden their horizons and be with us for the long haul. We provide them with regular feedback, and not just at annual reviews. Our managers are constantly talking with our employees, working on overcoming any performance challenges. Whenever possible, we try and promote from within so that we can create career paths for our key employees. We are VERY employee focused.”
Of course, these words were music to my ears. Creating a growth oriented environment that provides regular feedback is a great way to engage your employees. And engaged employees are happy and productive employees. Happy and productive employees lead to happy customers, increased profits, and a growing, thriving business.
It made me wonder what I was doing here. Why call in a consultant who specializes in creating an engaged workforce when everything sounded so good?
“Our employee turnover has been on the rise for the last couple of years and it seems to be getting worse, not better,” she told me. “At first the people leaving seemed to have good reasons for going elsewhere, but I’m a numbers kind of gal and the increase in the turnover rate means that I have to wonder what is going on.”
As it turns out, she was right to be asking questions. While she had worked hard to build a positive, growth oriented culture in the organization, she had turned her attention elsewhere in the last couple of years and had let her management team run things. Then there had been a drop-off in revenues and she had focused her efforts on some new products and systems that she hoped would help turn things around. What she hadn’t done was relate a drop-off in revenues, and a corresponding drop-off in customer satisfaction, to a changing culture in her organization.
“This used to be a great place to work,” one long time employee told me. “And I have hopes that it will be again. But things have changed the last couple of years. We used to talk with our managers all the time. In fact, we looked forward to it. But now we avoid telling the managers anything. It seems like every time one of the managers talks to you now it’s to criticize you for something you did, or didn’t do. I don’t like it here now. I do what I have to, and then I go home and forget about this place.”
I heard similar stories from other employees but often without the “this used to be a great place to work” preface. For employees hired in the last couple of years, they had never viewed the organization as employee friendly or a great place to work but, instead, as a place where creative ideas were discouraged and management seemed focused on finding fault with everything that was done.
What happened here? How did this workplace change from one that seemed to work so well to one that barely functioned at all? And why was the CEO seemingly so out of the loop?
We’ll explore these questions in part II of our story next week.
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time.....
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Where Customer Satisfaction Goes To Die
Recently, I was engaged in a conversation with some friends about customer service and some of our recent experiences. As is natural, the stories quickly deteriorated into laughable displays of everything customer service should not be. Story begat story about how a simple customer service issue quickly became a quagmire of bad systems, bad decisions, red tape, and rude customer service reps. Each story was rewarded with painful laughter, shaking of heads, and a general disbelief that anyone would ever believe calling customer service can ever be considered a good idea.
After nearly doubling over in pain from laughter about some of the experiences, I decided it was time to reverse the fields and tell a story about a good customer service experience that I had. I recounted the story about quickly reaching a human being to talk to rather than a lengthy, hierarchical phone menu. The person I dealt with spoke perfect English and I later learned that she lived and worked in Texas. When I described my issue, this person asked me a few intelligent, probing questions and then began to walk me through to a very satisfactory solution. I was actually pleased with the experience and told my friends the specifics of what worked for me and how it impacted my view of the entire company. This company, which I hadn’t given a lot of thought to before, suddenly took on a positive light for me, and made me think well of the entire organization.
My story was followed by another story from one of the listeners about an experience he had with a very small company that took exceptionally good care of him. He remarked how the positive interaction had impacted him and how, as the result of this experience, he had sent several of his friends to this same company to have work done. In this particular case, he had not been dealing with a customer service rep but just one of the employees of the company.
The simple truth is that each time one of our employees touches one of our customers it creates an impression of the company that has long term implications. When our experience with a member of the company is good, we walk away with a favorable impression. When our experience is bad or lacking in any way, it impacts us negatively, often giving us pause before using that product or service again.
There are certainly a number of factors that impact the way your employees or your Customer Service Reps treat your customers. Part of the issue is training. Have the employees been properly trained on handling complaints? Do they know how to disarm aggressive callers? Are they competent on the systems that they use to find answers quickly and efficiently?
Another key issue for Customer Service Reps is attitude. Do they honestly and sincerely believe it is their job to make the customer happy? Or, are they focused on handling calls within the 2 minute and 37 second guideline that they have been given? How do you go about instilling a positive attitude in the people who, after your sales team, have the most direct customer contact day after day.
I always find it somewhat ironic that “Customer Service” reps are often the lowest paid employees of an organization, receive the most training, and have the highest turnover. Yet these same employees are the ones who are talking directly to our customers. They have intimate contact with people who will likely decide, based on these interactions, whether they will ever buy from us again. Why is it that the people who come in direct contact with our customers are not the highest paid employees?
As you think about your customers and your desire to build your revenues and create long term customers, consider the impact that your Customer Service Organization has on your business. And then ask yourself these simple questions:
Is my Customer Service Organization structured and compensated like they are the key to long term customer satisfaction? Or have I simply created a cost center where customer satisfaction goes to die?
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time.....
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
After nearly doubling over in pain from laughter about some of the experiences, I decided it was time to reverse the fields and tell a story about a good customer service experience that I had. I recounted the story about quickly reaching a human being to talk to rather than a lengthy, hierarchical phone menu. The person I dealt with spoke perfect English and I later learned that she lived and worked in Texas. When I described my issue, this person asked me a few intelligent, probing questions and then began to walk me through to a very satisfactory solution. I was actually pleased with the experience and told my friends the specifics of what worked for me and how it impacted my view of the entire company. This company, which I hadn’t given a lot of thought to before, suddenly took on a positive light for me, and made me think well of the entire organization.
My story was followed by another story from one of the listeners about an experience he had with a very small company that took exceptionally good care of him. He remarked how the positive interaction had impacted him and how, as the result of this experience, he had sent several of his friends to this same company to have work done. In this particular case, he had not been dealing with a customer service rep but just one of the employees of the company.
The simple truth is that each time one of our employees touches one of our customers it creates an impression of the company that has long term implications. When our experience with a member of the company is good, we walk away with a favorable impression. When our experience is bad or lacking in any way, it impacts us negatively, often giving us pause before using that product or service again.
There are certainly a number of factors that impact the way your employees or your Customer Service Reps treat your customers. Part of the issue is training. Have the employees been properly trained on handling complaints? Do they know how to disarm aggressive callers? Are they competent on the systems that they use to find answers quickly and efficiently?
Another key issue for Customer Service Reps is attitude. Do they honestly and sincerely believe it is their job to make the customer happy? Or, are they focused on handling calls within the 2 minute and 37 second guideline that they have been given? How do you go about instilling a positive attitude in the people who, after your sales team, have the most direct customer contact day after day.
I always find it somewhat ironic that “Customer Service” reps are often the lowest paid employees of an organization, receive the most training, and have the highest turnover. Yet these same employees are the ones who are talking directly to our customers. They have intimate contact with people who will likely decide, based on these interactions, whether they will ever buy from us again. Why is it that the people who come in direct contact with our customers are not the highest paid employees?
As you think about your customers and your desire to build your revenues and create long term customers, consider the impact that your Customer Service Organization has on your business. And then ask yourself these simple questions:
Is my Customer Service Organization structured and compensated like they are the key to long term customer satisfaction? Or have I simply created a cost center where customer satisfaction goes to die?
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time.....
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
The Lost Art of Listening – Part 2
In last week’s blog, I recounted a “discussion” between two friends of mine where it was clear that neither side was really listening to the other. Instead, they were intent on making their own points in the argument regardless of what the other person was saying. It’s not exactly a secret that two monologues do not make a dialogue, yet too often that is exactly the way our discussions are treated.
Listening is something that most of us say that we do well, but few actually do. I’m sure there was a time in the history of man when people really listened to each other, but I’d be hard pressed to tell you when the time was, or why people stopped listening to each other. However, I can tell you some secrets to good listening that the best listeners employ and that make them “great conversationalists.” The secrets themselves are not complex and do not involve a lot of deep psychological understanding to employ. But, while they are simple to discuss, they are much more difficult to implement because they are “uncomfortable” and require a lot of thought. If you practice the techniques below, I promise you that you will be a better listener and that people will interact with you differently on a day to day basis.
Secret Number 1: Clear your mind
Just like Stephen Covey wrote in his groundbreaking book, “7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” you must first seek to understand, and then to be understood.
When listening to another person, clear your mind of all thoughts and focus your attention 100% on the other person. Put aside your own perspective on the issue, or your feelings about the other person and make your mind a blank slate to be filled by the other person’s words.
Secret Number 2: Don’t anticipate the conversation
As the conversation starts, resist the temptation to leap ahead in the discussion to its “obvious conclusion.” Don’t try and guess what they will say next. Instead, let their words come to you in the way that they had intended. When we anticipate where the discussion is going, we often miss key points the other person is trying to make.
Secret Number 3: Don’t multi-task
Study after study has proven that multi-tasking doesn’t work. Although many of us feel that we can do two things at one time, the truth is that when we try and do two things at once, neither task gets the attention it deserves. This is especially true when we are trying to listen to someone else. When you are engaged in a conversation, give the other person your undivided attention. Not only will you hear more, but the other person will appreciate your efforts as well.
Secret Number 4: Pause before responding
Normally, when we are engaged in a conversation we develop our response while the other person is still speaking. Sometimes we key in on a word or phrase that they used, and sometimes we anticipate what they are going to say (see number 2 above). In either event, we begin crafting our response while they are speaking, and in doing so we tune them out, carefully picking the words in our response for maximum impact. Instead, try letting the other person finish their statements and then pause before you respond. In reality it will only take you about 2 seconds to determine the perfect response, because of the quality of your listening. At first, this might seem like the longest 2 seconds of your life, as pauses in conversations tend to be rare these days. But after a little practice, this will become natural for you and for your listeners as well.
At first glance, it might appear that following these guidelines for listening could lengthen your conversations, taking up more of your valuable time. In reality, you will find that you will save time overall because the conversations will be more meaningful, you will reach resolution quicker, and you won’t have repeat conversations because of items left unresolved.
What are some of the rules that you engage in listening? Do you have secrets to share that make you an effective listener? If so, I’d love to hear them.
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time.....
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
Listening is something that most of us say that we do well, but few actually do. I’m sure there was a time in the history of man when people really listened to each other, but I’d be hard pressed to tell you when the time was, or why people stopped listening to each other. However, I can tell you some secrets to good listening that the best listeners employ and that make them “great conversationalists.” The secrets themselves are not complex and do not involve a lot of deep psychological understanding to employ. But, while they are simple to discuss, they are much more difficult to implement because they are “uncomfortable” and require a lot of thought. If you practice the techniques below, I promise you that you will be a better listener and that people will interact with you differently on a day to day basis.
Secret Number 1: Clear your mind
Just like Stephen Covey wrote in his groundbreaking book, “7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” you must first seek to understand, and then to be understood.
When listening to another person, clear your mind of all thoughts and focus your attention 100% on the other person. Put aside your own perspective on the issue, or your feelings about the other person and make your mind a blank slate to be filled by the other person’s words.
Secret Number 2: Don’t anticipate the conversation
As the conversation starts, resist the temptation to leap ahead in the discussion to its “obvious conclusion.” Don’t try and guess what they will say next. Instead, let their words come to you in the way that they had intended. When we anticipate where the discussion is going, we often miss key points the other person is trying to make.
Secret Number 3: Don’t multi-task
Study after study has proven that multi-tasking doesn’t work. Although many of us feel that we can do two things at one time, the truth is that when we try and do two things at once, neither task gets the attention it deserves. This is especially true when we are trying to listen to someone else. When you are engaged in a conversation, give the other person your undivided attention. Not only will you hear more, but the other person will appreciate your efforts as well.
Secret Number 4: Pause before responding
Normally, when we are engaged in a conversation we develop our response while the other person is still speaking. Sometimes we key in on a word or phrase that they used, and sometimes we anticipate what they are going to say (see number 2 above). In either event, we begin crafting our response while they are speaking, and in doing so we tune them out, carefully picking the words in our response for maximum impact. Instead, try letting the other person finish their statements and then pause before you respond. In reality it will only take you about 2 seconds to determine the perfect response, because of the quality of your listening. At first, this might seem like the longest 2 seconds of your life, as pauses in conversations tend to be rare these days. But after a little practice, this will become natural for you and for your listeners as well.
At first glance, it might appear that following these guidelines for listening could lengthen your conversations, taking up more of your valuable time. In reality, you will find that you will save time overall because the conversations will be more meaningful, you will reach resolution quicker, and you won’t have repeat conversations because of items left unresolved.
What are some of the rules that you engage in listening? Do you have secrets to share that make you an effective listener? If so, I’d love to hear them.
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time.....
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
The Lost Art of Listening
I was at a meeting of a local service club, sitting at a round table with 7 other people. And, I was trying to keep track of about 3 different conversations that were going on. Suddenly, one of the conversations got a little more heated, a little more intense, and a little noisier than the others. Obviously this discussion got my attention and I began to listen to it more closely. It was a challenge to listen to the conversation and follow the argument because it seemed to be jumping all over the place.
Tempers flared as the conversation got more heated, with both sides making bold statements, and even accusations, about the topic at hand. It was not so much a back and forth debate as it was two people standing atop their soapboxes shouting out their beliefs. Fortunately, this conversation was finally interrupted by the scheduled entertainment for the evening and things quieted back down.
The actual subject being discussed by the antagonists is not really important here, and the issue was never really resolved. What fascinated me was the way the two people involved went back and forth, each one deeply entrenched in their beliefs and unwilling to yield to the other. On one level, the lively “discussion” made our table the most exciting table to be seated around. On another level, the lack of true communication was astonishing.
Later that same evening I spoke with one of the two protagonists and asked him about the exchange. Specifically, I asked him what point the other person was trying to make that had gotten him so upset. He rambled for a few minutes, focused mostly on “how stupid” the other person had been, before finally quieting down. I asked a few more questions about the incident, all meeting with similar responses, before coming to the obvious conclusion that my friend didn’t understand the point the other person was trying to make, merely that her statements had been “wrong.”
“But how can you debate the merits of her arguments,” I asked, “if you don’t understand what her point is?”
I’d like to tell you that a little light bulb went off in my friend’s head when I asked that question. I wish I could tell you that my friend realized he had been too busy making his own points to even listen to the other person’s perspective, but that would not be true. Instead, he continued his diatribe without pausing for thought.
I’m sure that many of you are aware of Stephen Covey’s “Seven Habit’s of Highly Effective People.” If you are not, it’s a book you should read. Habit number 5 is “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” It’s a valuable habit that we should all study and practice.
But how exactly do we do this?
What is the secret of understanding?
I’ll be writing about that next week.
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time......
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
Tempers flared as the conversation got more heated, with both sides making bold statements, and even accusations, about the topic at hand. It was not so much a back and forth debate as it was two people standing atop their soapboxes shouting out their beliefs. Fortunately, this conversation was finally interrupted by the scheduled entertainment for the evening and things quieted back down.
The actual subject being discussed by the antagonists is not really important here, and the issue was never really resolved. What fascinated me was the way the two people involved went back and forth, each one deeply entrenched in their beliefs and unwilling to yield to the other. On one level, the lively “discussion” made our table the most exciting table to be seated around. On another level, the lack of true communication was astonishing.
Later that same evening I spoke with one of the two protagonists and asked him about the exchange. Specifically, I asked him what point the other person was trying to make that had gotten him so upset. He rambled for a few minutes, focused mostly on “how stupid” the other person had been, before finally quieting down. I asked a few more questions about the incident, all meeting with similar responses, before coming to the obvious conclusion that my friend didn’t understand the point the other person was trying to make, merely that her statements had been “wrong.”
“But how can you debate the merits of her arguments,” I asked, “if you don’t understand what her point is?”
I’d like to tell you that a little light bulb went off in my friend’s head when I asked that question. I wish I could tell you that my friend realized he had been too busy making his own points to even listen to the other person’s perspective, but that would not be true. Instead, he continued his diatribe without pausing for thought.
I’m sure that many of you are aware of Stephen Covey’s “Seven Habit’s of Highly Effective People.” If you are not, it’s a book you should read. Habit number 5 is “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” It’s a valuable habit that we should all study and practice.
But how exactly do we do this?
What is the secret of understanding?
I’ll be writing about that next week.
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time......
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
A Culture of Openness
A few years ago I got a call from a client after her first day at her new job. She had spent several years after college working for non-profits and was just experiencing her first days of life in Corporate America. She had hired me because she wanted help adapting to life in this new world, so I was anxious to hear about her experiences. But when I asked her how her first day was, her response surprised me.
“It was weird,” she said.
“What do you mean, ‘weird’?”
She was working for a privately held company with about a dozen offices across the country. The company was headquartered back east some place, and on her first day on the job they were being visited by the CEO on day 1 of a trip to every location in the company.
“He talked to us about the former executive,” she said. “Apparently he had embezzled a lot of money from the company before getting caught and the CEO was telling us about it.”
I was intrigued.
“What did he tell you?”
“He told us how much money the guy had embezzled, how he had done it, and who had helped him. He also told us about some new accounting controls that were being put in place, and about a new auditing department that was being formed. I don’t know what to do. It was a lot to absorb on my first day.”
Digging deeper she was impressed by the open way the CEO had spoken about what had happened and how they hadn’t tried to cover things up. The other employees, she observed, had asked questions and probed the CEO, but none of them seemed to be overly concerned. This had also impressed her, but the fact that she was starting with such bad news had left her somewhat concerned.
Flash forward a few months and we were talking again and I brought up the issue of her work and her company.
“It’s really an amazing place,” she said. “Each month we get a note from the CEO telling us how we are doing in revenue against our plan, what big projects we are bidding on, which one’s we have recently won and lost, and anything else he thinks we might want to know about. It’s really pretty amazing.”
And how did this openness in the organization affect her and her fellow employees?
“Everyone trusts the CEO to tell us the truth and everyone knows what is going on. The openness from the top permeates the organization and there just aren’t any secrets. Our Office Manager takes the note from the CEO and adds comments on how these things affect us directly and what we can do to help. I really wasn’t expecting this kind of honest communication, but we all feel like we’re part of the team.”
When I pressed her for how this had impacted her productivity, she told me that she considered herself a professional and didn’t think she was necessarily working any harder than she would otherwise.
“But,” she said, “I love this place so much I’m not sure I ever want to leave. I just want to stay here and keep learning more about the business and find new ways to help. That has to count for something.”
You bet it does.
A culture of openness, like the one my client has been experiencing, reduces employee turnover and, therefore, holds down your costs. It also encourages employees to want to learn about new parts of the business and grow with the company. And while these things aren’t easy to measure on the Income Statement, they definitely impact the long-term growth of your company.
How can you implement a culture of openness in your organization?
It’s really pretty easy once you know how. It’s about communicating with your employees on a regular basis, being honest about the company’s business, and sharing news and upcoming plans. As I’ve written about before (http://ecilearning.blogspot.com/2010/06/3-keys-to-building-trust.html) and as my client found out personally, this kind of openness builds an undeniable trust within the organization – among the employees, among the leaders, and between the employees and leaders – that will take your organization to the next level.
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time.....
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
“It was weird,” she said.
“What do you mean, ‘weird’?”
She was working for a privately held company with about a dozen offices across the country. The company was headquartered back east some place, and on her first day on the job they were being visited by the CEO on day 1 of a trip to every location in the company.
“He talked to us about the former executive,” she said. “Apparently he had embezzled a lot of money from the company before getting caught and the CEO was telling us about it.”
I was intrigued.
“What did he tell you?”
“He told us how much money the guy had embezzled, how he had done it, and who had helped him. He also told us about some new accounting controls that were being put in place, and about a new auditing department that was being formed. I don’t know what to do. It was a lot to absorb on my first day.”
Digging deeper she was impressed by the open way the CEO had spoken about what had happened and how they hadn’t tried to cover things up. The other employees, she observed, had asked questions and probed the CEO, but none of them seemed to be overly concerned. This had also impressed her, but the fact that she was starting with such bad news had left her somewhat concerned.
Flash forward a few months and we were talking again and I brought up the issue of her work and her company.
“It’s really an amazing place,” she said. “Each month we get a note from the CEO telling us how we are doing in revenue against our plan, what big projects we are bidding on, which one’s we have recently won and lost, and anything else he thinks we might want to know about. It’s really pretty amazing.”
And how did this openness in the organization affect her and her fellow employees?
“Everyone trusts the CEO to tell us the truth and everyone knows what is going on. The openness from the top permeates the organization and there just aren’t any secrets. Our Office Manager takes the note from the CEO and adds comments on how these things affect us directly and what we can do to help. I really wasn’t expecting this kind of honest communication, but we all feel like we’re part of the team.”
When I pressed her for how this had impacted her productivity, she told me that she considered herself a professional and didn’t think she was necessarily working any harder than she would otherwise.
“But,” she said, “I love this place so much I’m not sure I ever want to leave. I just want to stay here and keep learning more about the business and find new ways to help. That has to count for something.”
You bet it does.
A culture of openness, like the one my client has been experiencing, reduces employee turnover and, therefore, holds down your costs. It also encourages employees to want to learn about new parts of the business and grow with the company. And while these things aren’t easy to measure on the Income Statement, they definitely impact the long-term growth of your company.
How can you implement a culture of openness in your organization?
It’s really pretty easy once you know how. It’s about communicating with your employees on a regular basis, being honest about the company’s business, and sharing news and upcoming plans. As I’ve written about before (http://ecilearning.blogspot.com/2010/06/3-keys-to-building-trust.html) and as my client found out personally, this kind of openness builds an undeniable trust within the organization – among the employees, among the leaders, and between the employees and leaders – that will take your organization to the next level.
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time.....
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
The Case for Ongoing Personal Development
When we are young, we are a sponge for knowledge. We want to learn anything and everything. As children, we see the “big kids” around us playing ball, and we want to learn how. A sibling is reading a story out loud and it’s a skill we want for ourselves. A little girl goes to a dance recital and immediately wants to start taking ballet lessons.
At some point in time, perhaps when our thirst for knowledge is replaced by a structured learning environment, we lose that overwhelming desire for knowledge of any kind and find it replaced by much more discerning desires. We no longer want to know everything. In fact, many of us try and wall ourselves off from knowledge that, while useful, we see no need for. At this point in time, you are probably thinking about your teenagers. For many, High School represents a time of survival rather than real learning. We believe that we know everything and just focus on getting through each day. The point of High School appears to be about learning to take tests to prepare us for that next level - college.
For most of us college is again a time for learning. The style of teaching changes, as does our style of learning. We control our schedule of classes to an extent we never considered possible before and we find ourselves drawn to certain subjects that may appear to be the path for a future career. College is also a time for great personal growth as we learn about living life on our own, managing our personal finances, etc. College may or may not be followed by an advanced degree, depending upon our needs and desires. With our college diploma or MBA firmly in our hands we step into the business world, assured of instant success.
Or are we?
For the second time in our life, we believe that we know everything. Oh sure, it may take us a few months to get used to our new environment, but that’s just temporary. Before long we have been promoted, advanced into the world of management and conquered the business world!
Unfortunately, there is so much that we have not yet learned about business, or more importantly, about people. What college can never prepare us for is the complexity of human beings, the challenges of dealing with co-workers, and how to deal with the politics of the workplace. Working through the complex business scenarios presented to us in our class work is a breeze compared to dealing with the egos, political agendas, and hidden alliances in the office.
It’s a little bit like learning the theory of how to fly an airplane and then sitting in the cockpit and actually trying to do it. We know how things are supposed to work. But how they work in real life is often very different than we learned in our text books. On the one hand, it’s the same stuff. On the other hand, being at the controls brings in whole new levels of complications that you could only imagine while studying the theories of flight.
How does this tie back into personal development?
While we are young and adapting to our jobs, we find these human issues all around us and we learn to deal with them. But as we rise through the ranks, the issues become more complex, more subtle, and more challenging. What worked well for us as an individual contributor, does not work well when we achieve the level of Manager. What worked well for us as a Manager is not nearly as effective when we achieve the level of Sr. Manager. And the techniques we mastered at these levels are woefully inadequate for the challenges of being a Director, a Vice President, or a C-level executive. We must continue to grow our skills, specifically our people skills, as we progress through the ranks. Those who do adapt and grow find that success follows them. Those who fail to change, fail to learn, and fail to grow find that they quickly top out.
What are you doing to ensure your ongoing personal development?
And equally as important, what are you doing to ensure the ongoing personal development of your key team members? Without their continued growth, your own career may well be short-circuited.
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time.....
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
At some point in time, perhaps when our thirst for knowledge is replaced by a structured learning environment, we lose that overwhelming desire for knowledge of any kind and find it replaced by much more discerning desires. We no longer want to know everything. In fact, many of us try and wall ourselves off from knowledge that, while useful, we see no need for. At this point in time, you are probably thinking about your teenagers. For many, High School represents a time of survival rather than real learning. We believe that we know everything and just focus on getting through each day. The point of High School appears to be about learning to take tests to prepare us for that next level - college.
For most of us college is again a time for learning. The style of teaching changes, as does our style of learning. We control our schedule of classes to an extent we never considered possible before and we find ourselves drawn to certain subjects that may appear to be the path for a future career. College is also a time for great personal growth as we learn about living life on our own, managing our personal finances, etc. College may or may not be followed by an advanced degree, depending upon our needs and desires. With our college diploma or MBA firmly in our hands we step into the business world, assured of instant success.
Or are we?
For the second time in our life, we believe that we know everything. Oh sure, it may take us a few months to get used to our new environment, but that’s just temporary. Before long we have been promoted, advanced into the world of management and conquered the business world!
Unfortunately, there is so much that we have not yet learned about business, or more importantly, about people. What college can never prepare us for is the complexity of human beings, the challenges of dealing with co-workers, and how to deal with the politics of the workplace. Working through the complex business scenarios presented to us in our class work is a breeze compared to dealing with the egos, political agendas, and hidden alliances in the office.
It’s a little bit like learning the theory of how to fly an airplane and then sitting in the cockpit and actually trying to do it. We know how things are supposed to work. But how they work in real life is often very different than we learned in our text books. On the one hand, it’s the same stuff. On the other hand, being at the controls brings in whole new levels of complications that you could only imagine while studying the theories of flight.
How does this tie back into personal development?
While we are young and adapting to our jobs, we find these human issues all around us and we learn to deal with them. But as we rise through the ranks, the issues become more complex, more subtle, and more challenging. What worked well for us as an individual contributor, does not work well when we achieve the level of Manager. What worked well for us as a Manager is not nearly as effective when we achieve the level of Sr. Manager. And the techniques we mastered at these levels are woefully inadequate for the challenges of being a Director, a Vice President, or a C-level executive. We must continue to grow our skills, specifically our people skills, as we progress through the ranks. Those who do adapt and grow find that success follows them. Those who fail to change, fail to learn, and fail to grow find that they quickly top out.
What are you doing to ensure your ongoing personal development?
And equally as important, what are you doing to ensure the ongoing personal development of your key team members? Without their continued growth, your own career may well be short-circuited.
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time.....
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Lessons Learned – Lessons Forgotten
A few years ago I worked with a client who was looking for more from his team. They weren’t bad he had said, but they weren’t performing at the level he would have liked them to. I did a quick analysis of his team and came back with 4 factors for us to work on together.
1. Providing a vision
2. Defining roles and responsibilities
3. Creating accountability
4. Matching talents with roles
He clearly had a vision for his organization and how it fit into the overall company vision, but his employees were not aware of that vision and, therefore, could not buy into it. He thought the vision was clear, but as is often the case, it was clear only to him. Once we spent some time clarifying his vision and communicating it to his team, there was immediate improvement. Of course, having a clear vision that the team all bought into made it relatively easy to work with the team members and define their specific roles and responsibilities. While they all had their roles established before we started working together, those roles were fluid and were based on what they thought the goal was, rather than the actual goal. Once the roles were identified, we put the measurements in place to ensure that things were progressing and, last but not least, we made sure that we had a good match between the talent on the team and the jobs that needed to be done. It took us a few months to work through all of the details, but it was time well spent. Productivity increased, morale improved, and he began to feel good about his team again.
Flash forward about 3 years and I received a call from this client, again looking for my assistance. He had been promoted and was in a new role. As is often the case with any new boss, he wanted to make some changes in his organization. His vision was somewhat different from his predecessor and he was having challenges bringing it all together. He’d been with his new team for a few months and it wasn’t coming together as quickly as he would have liked.
I spent some time with his team and then sat down with him to discuss the plan for moving forward. I told him it was a 4 step plan:
1. Providing a vision
2. Defining roles and responsibilities
3. Creating accountability
4. Matching talents with roles
It only took a few minutes of discussion for him to realize that these were the exact same 4 items we had worked on together a few years earlier. These were all things that he knew were important, but that he had not taken into account in his new organization.
These were lessons that he had once learned, but somehow forgotten.
And the truth is that this happens to all of us. We learn lessons over time, but somehow forget the things that we learned. And we make the same mistakes all over again. We hire someone really smart and learn a lesson about the value of surrounding ourselves with talent, but then, for our next hire, we look for skills and forget about talent.
We spend the time to plan our project out and it turns into a major success, but then we create the plan for our next project on the back of a napkin. Or worse, the plan is only created in our minds.
We provide someone with honest feedback, presented in a way which shows that we understand them and that we want to help them succeed, and we watch them blossom. Then we turn around and give the next person feedback that hurts their feelings and creates a low sense of self-esteem. And, we watch this person fall apart in front of us.
We all learn lessons in life and yet, somehow, we all forget the lessons we’ve learned and we make the same mistakes all over again. We do it as children, we do it as young adults, and we do it as seasoned professionals. Over time, existing ideas are replaced with newer ideas, and new thoughts replace old ones. And this happens even if the old thoughts are good thoughts, relevant thoughts, important thoughts.
How do you ensure that you’re not repeating your past mistakes?
How do keep those lessons that you’ve learned fresh in your mind?
How do you continue to grow as a person and as a leader?
Often this journey is not one that we take on our own but, rather, with a trusted advisor, mentor, or coach. Having someone to assist you is one of the surest ways to ensure your own success.
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time.....
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
1. Providing a vision
2. Defining roles and responsibilities
3. Creating accountability
4. Matching talents with roles
He clearly had a vision for his organization and how it fit into the overall company vision, but his employees were not aware of that vision and, therefore, could not buy into it. He thought the vision was clear, but as is often the case, it was clear only to him. Once we spent some time clarifying his vision and communicating it to his team, there was immediate improvement. Of course, having a clear vision that the team all bought into made it relatively easy to work with the team members and define their specific roles and responsibilities. While they all had their roles established before we started working together, those roles were fluid and were based on what they thought the goal was, rather than the actual goal. Once the roles were identified, we put the measurements in place to ensure that things were progressing and, last but not least, we made sure that we had a good match between the talent on the team and the jobs that needed to be done. It took us a few months to work through all of the details, but it was time well spent. Productivity increased, morale improved, and he began to feel good about his team again.
Flash forward about 3 years and I received a call from this client, again looking for my assistance. He had been promoted and was in a new role. As is often the case with any new boss, he wanted to make some changes in his organization. His vision was somewhat different from his predecessor and he was having challenges bringing it all together. He’d been with his new team for a few months and it wasn’t coming together as quickly as he would have liked.
I spent some time with his team and then sat down with him to discuss the plan for moving forward. I told him it was a 4 step plan:
1. Providing a vision
2. Defining roles and responsibilities
3. Creating accountability
4. Matching talents with roles
It only took a few minutes of discussion for him to realize that these were the exact same 4 items we had worked on together a few years earlier. These were all things that he knew were important, but that he had not taken into account in his new organization.
These were lessons that he had once learned, but somehow forgotten.
And the truth is that this happens to all of us. We learn lessons over time, but somehow forget the things that we learned. And we make the same mistakes all over again. We hire someone really smart and learn a lesson about the value of surrounding ourselves with talent, but then, for our next hire, we look for skills and forget about talent.
We spend the time to plan our project out and it turns into a major success, but then we create the plan for our next project on the back of a napkin. Or worse, the plan is only created in our minds.
We provide someone with honest feedback, presented in a way which shows that we understand them and that we want to help them succeed, and we watch them blossom. Then we turn around and give the next person feedback that hurts their feelings and creates a low sense of self-esteem. And, we watch this person fall apart in front of us.
We all learn lessons in life and yet, somehow, we all forget the lessons we’ve learned and we make the same mistakes all over again. We do it as children, we do it as young adults, and we do it as seasoned professionals. Over time, existing ideas are replaced with newer ideas, and new thoughts replace old ones. And this happens even if the old thoughts are good thoughts, relevant thoughts, important thoughts.
How do you ensure that you’re not repeating your past mistakes?
How do keep those lessons that you’ve learned fresh in your mind?
How do you continue to grow as a person and as a leader?
Often this journey is not one that we take on our own but, rather, with a trusted advisor, mentor, or coach. Having someone to assist you is one of the surest ways to ensure your own success.
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time.....
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
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