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Category: Operations

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Best Practices Growth Management Personal Development

Don’t Judge A Book By It’s Cover

There’s an old proverb that says, “Outward appearances are not a reliable indication of true character.” In other words, you can’t – and shouldn’t – judge a book by its cover.

One of my favorite examples of this is from the movie Pretty Woman starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. This classic movie from back in the 1990’s was about a wealthy man, Edward Lewis, on a business trip in Beverly Hills who falls in love with a prostitute, Vivian Ward. Edward wants Vivian to attend some of his business functions throughout the week, so he gives her some money (as in thousands of dollars) to buy some conservative, less revealing, clothes. In her “working clothes” Vivian walks into an upscale store where the employees won’t sell her anything and asks her to leave. Dejected, she returns to the hotel. The next day, the hotel manager takes her to a different store and gets her outfitted in some beautiful clothes. As she is walking back to the hotel, dressed in one of her new outfits and carrying several bags with different Beverly Hills store logos on them, she stops back into the store that asked her to leave. She asked the salesperson if she remembers her from yesterday. She reminds her, and then comes the famous line from the movie: “Big mistake. Big. Huge! I have to go shopping now.”

I experienced something similar years ago when I was looking to buy a new car. I was just 22 years old and driving an older car that had 170,000 miles on it. I’m not exaggerating! I walked into the dealership and none of the sales people would talk to me. I knew it was the car. They saw me drive up in an old car and decided I didn’t have the money to buy a new car.

The next day I went back, but this time in my father’s car, which was quite nice. This time I was approached by numerous salespeople. I had no trouble finding a sales person who wanted to sell me a car. I shared the story with the manager of the dealership, who was quite embarrassed. As a way of apologizing, he sold me a car at a fantastic price.

In business, it can be economically dangerous to make a snap judgement based on someone’s looks, what they are wearing, the car they drive and more. The founder of Walmart, Sam Walton, used to drive a pick-up truck. He didn’t look like a man who was worth billions of dollars. How many times did he “fool” people with his unassuming looks. It wasn’t intentional. It was just who he was.

Unless they prove otherwise, customers should be treated like… customers. Don’t make the mistake of judging a book by its cover. As Vivian Ward said in Pretty Woman, “Big mistake. Big. Huge!”

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, keynote speaker and New York Times bestselling business author. For information contact or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs go to www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken

 

Categories
Growth Human Resources Management Personal Development

3 Employee Engagement Killers You Will See At An Airport

I originally thought about entitling this blog, “How to avoid behaving like an airport.”  When I think about airport customer experience and employee engagement I remember how much I dislike traveling now.  The thought of it gives me a stomach ache and heartache.

Whenever I travel my wife always asks, “How was the trip?”  At best my answer is usually, “OK.  Nothing really happened.”  Occasionally I am lucky and the center seat is open.  Then I might exclaim, “Great, I had no one next to me and it was a pleasure.”  But, about 20% of the time I end up sitting in the center seat which more than offsets any excitement about the center seat being open.  Notice I am not mentioning the screaming baby.

I digress.  These issues are mostly the “luck (or un-luck) of the draw” and so it is difficult to hold airport leadership accountable for these random annoying events.  The next time you are traveling look for these issues.  It’s an opportunity to remind yourself to avoid certain behaviors that can damage employee engagement and customer experience every time.

Furthermore, these are behaviors (and habits) and behaviors can change.  Leaders who have these behaviors can change them immediately if they are convinced employee engagement needs to be managed and if they are convinced they damage employee engagement.  Habits are difficult to change but Viktor Frankl once said, “Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how’.”   If leaders appreciate a big enough “why” to change their behavior, I am saying that they can and they must!

If we truly appreciate the importance of employee engagement and how it impacts customer experience, we can change our habits.  Let’s not be like an airport.  Let’s not be:

  • Uncommunicative on essential information
  • Weak on personal accountability
  • Indifferent to feelings

Uncommunicative on essential information

Imagine you are at an airport.  Have you ever experienced an unexpected delay on a flight?  Imagine you are sitting at the gate and the expected boarding time passes and you neither see nor hear any communication about the change.  You walk to the customer service desk and you ask for an update.  You are then told there is a delay.  The communication was not proactive.  It was reactive.  The airline was either unaware or purposefully delayed communicating the status of the flight departure.

Imagine being in that situation.  How are you feeling?  Is there more trust or less?  Is there more credibility or less?  Is there more stress or less?  Leaders need to anticipate the feelings and reactions of employees if important information changes.  Poor communication at a time like this is either misleading and/or incompetent.  It damages trust and damaged trust will damage engagement.

On a recent trip the gate agent made an announcement. I couldn’t understand her in part because of the quality of the PA system and in part because she made the announcement at the same time another adjacent gate agent was making an announcement.   Although I could not understand her words, her body language told me it was serious and not good news.

I asked the people around me what she said.  They didn’t know either.  I walked up to her and told her she could not be heard and asked her to repeat it. She told me it was a delay due to maintenance.  She did not repeat her announcement.  My guess is she was worried about the negative reaction.

Effective leaders can anticipate reactions to changed information by putting themselves in the “shoes” of the employees.  Any change that could have been communicated and is not done in a proactive method will create a reaction that feels disrespectful.    Any reaction that feels disrespectful will damage trust which will damage engagement.

Weak on personal accountability

Who do you call at an airport when you are upset about an issue?  You can talk to (or yell) at a customer service agent.  Does it help?  They rarely have the authority to act for correction.  When your flight requires a change perhaps an argument with the customer service person will work.  For that issue they are empowered.  They can and will also act on your behalf when the airline is at fault. Other than that, you might be very frustrated at the answer you get to correct when you attempt to correct an issue. For example, to whom do you complain when the TSA line is too long and you are about to miss your flight?  Will TSA respond?

An organization with high employee engagement has clarified roles and responsibilities and has empowered the employees to act.   This allows freedom to act. Freedom to act on behalf of the customer will create an impression that the employees are trusted to do the right thing for both customers and for the company.  This improves engagement.  Any time you can demonstrate trust you have improved engagement.

Leaders can take time to help employees to know their roles and responsibilities.  They can take time to ask questions about issues employees encounter which require quick decisions and good judgement.  Leaders can take time to give employees the tools to act on behalf of the company to do their jobs properly and to serve customers with grace and respect.  It is rare to see this at an airport.

Indifferent to feelings

Do people get upset at airports?  YES!  Pretty much every day.  What can we do when people get upset?  We can provide empathy.  We don’t always have the answers to the issues and we don’t always know the root causes of problems.  What we always have is the ability to express empathy.

Empathy is the sincere expression that we understand the importance of an issue and we appreciate how the person must feel about the situation.  We can always do this. Leaders always can do this. Why not do it?

In my experience, there is a shortage of empathy in the workplace.  Empathy helps people to move past the negative emotions and move toward positive action. Leaders are in the best position to both demonstrate empathy and to show others how important the expression of empathy is for mental health and problem solving.

There are three simple behaviors leaders can do to avoid damaging employee engagement.  Why not anticipate communication on important issues?  Why not demonstrate accountability and why not help others to demonstrate it as well?  Why not demonstrate empathy when there is emotion?  Simple actions that are doable can make a big difference to both employees and customers.  Why not?  Why not avoid behaving like the typical airport?

Categories
Best Practices Growth Management Personal Development

Customers are Always Right… Not Anymore

Customers are Always Right….Not Anymore

(You’ve created this monster. Now, what are you going to do!)

You have to admit, things are different in our world these days. We are faced with dangers we didn’t worry about a few years ago. Every day we hear about mass shootings, road rage, physical and verbal attacks or disrespecting authority. Right as we get used to these horrid occurrences, something more appalling happens, like the shooting in Las Vegas. Crimes will continue to intensify and the more they occur, we will become desensitized to them.

The behavior of our society has altered from what it was even ten years ago. People make judgments on others without knowing anything about them. Verbal attackers interpret what they think the speaker means. They translate what is spoken by their own definitions without even knowing the person, and the problem is escalating.

This judgmental behavior carries over to your business. No longer is Sally Shopper coming in for a pleasant experience looking for her treasure. Now customers are rude, demanding what they want. It doesn’t matter what you offer them, they think they deserve better. This attitude and expectation of the shopper has changed the concept: the customer is always right.

Your goal as a business owner is to serve your consumer. You want to take care of them so they will return. To make that happen, you give them special services or pricing.  The idea is to turn the customer into a repeat buyer instead of a one-time shopper.

This mentality doesn’t work today. The consumer is not the person you have catered to in the past. You are now a supplier to purchasers who have a “me” attitude, wanting to tell you what the deal will be. Although you give away the farm it won’t be good enough.

Nevertheless, you can turn this around provided you change your philosophy. It takes time and sacrifice, but in the end, your company’s sales will benefit. You have to stop the bleed by teaching your patrons how to be good customers.

Think about what has been occurring. The purchaser comes in, you show them what they need, they bicker, you give in, and when they come back they quarrel more. They know you will give in so why not. You have trained the customer what to do, consequently, they will continue. The result is a negative impact on your bottom line.

This cycle has to stop. It’s okay to give special service or pricing to a consumer the first time. Through that deal, they see they are appreciated. Make it a big deal so they understand it is exclusive to them and a one-time occurrence. Here’s the hard part. Then it’s back to business.

Whoa, whoa you say. I don’t want to lose their business. This is where we separate the men from the boys. It’s time to go into training mode. You are looking for long term. Making the first transaction an unrepeatable, good deal is a start. What’s next?

It isn’t necessary to keep selling below what you list. If you are constantly being asked for discounts then reduce your price and uphold it. You won’t need to lower the amount because it is priced right. You believe in what you sell; now teach the customer the value of your products or services.

What will happen is the client will get used to how you do business. You don’t see doctors and dentists being asked to lower their price because we know the price is fixed. We can have that too. For example, when your customer wants to purchase an item listed at $500 don’t change your $800 price any lower. If they are only willing to pay $500 then show them what they get for $500. They set their budget; we teach them what’s available at that price.

We can’t do business the way we used to; consequently, we have to change with the times. Educate your customers. The consumer has forgotten that you are there to help them find the product or service they are looking for. You are the expert of your business. Train them how to work with you. Stand by your price. Stick with your policies. If you are not willing to do that then rethink what you are doing. If you don’t believe in what you are offering how will your customers.

Categories
Management Marketing Skills Technology

The Social Devolution of Business

Since the mainstream takeover of the social networks in 2008, every small business owner has been nudged, persuaded and cajoled into adopting a presence on all major platforms, and for many the results are perhaps not what you may expect.

We all hear and read of the massive success achieved from the small independent business that blew up from their inspiring Instagram account or the personality-led business that became an overnight success with their viral YouTube channel. These meteoric results create a desire that you must heavily invest in your presence on social media to have any success in a modern business landscape. The reality is, many small businesses are performing mass self-sabotage from their current efforts and their involvement in social media marketing is causing their business to go backwards.

Before I get into the dangers I want to make a very clear and simple point. I am a HUGE supporter of how digital marketing and social networking can have a MASSIVE positive impact. It is just the practices that I see adopted by the masses are quite frankly embarrassing.

The primary problem is that the “dark-arts” and “ninja tactics” orchestrated by some of the world’s most creative marketers have delivered results beyond expectation and suggested to the masses that these tools provide the answer, missing ingredients or short cut to success. So much so that they now have forgotten many of the core principles of building a business.

In all of my experience to date, the one thing that has been the single driver of every single successful venture, project or campaign has been the following of my personal mantra for success.

“Do the basics, to a high standard, consistently.” 

What is happening in thousands of businesses right now is that the core principles of sales are being forgotten in favor of rolling the dice with the next magic campaign, social post or viral video attempt looking for short-term success.

In the real world, there are no short cuts and developing a sustainable customer base is created over time and built on trust.

Business developers know that questions lead to conversations, conversations create relationships, relationships create opportunities and opportunities result in sales.

Slowing the process down often speeds the outcome up. I often draw comparison here as looking for a partner for life as opposed to sex on the first date.

Back to the self-sabotaging behaviours that are costing businesses a fortune.

1. Pissing in the Wind

I do not understand why thousands of independent business owners rush to build their social platforms, invite a handful of friends to like or follow their page and then never plan anything else to build their audience. Worse than this they spend fortunes on creating graphics and then invest bucket loads of time into collating and creating content to post regularly and nobody is listening! They are just pouring productive time and effort down the drain and could have gained more success by opening their front door and shouting their offers into the street!

2. SPAM

We are all in the “people” business and to gain true influence it is important that both visibility and credibility are established before any opportunity to do business ever exists. Yet daily the prior trend of spamming people’s email inbox has been replaced with sending 500 word messages with links to videos or squeeze pages via Facebook messenger, direct messages or as an auto-response to a new follower. Please, please pretty please can people put a stop to this blindly unsophisticated intrusion of privacy and if you have something that may benefit me – please get to know me a little first.

3. IDGAF

I am pretty certain that most people do not want to read some of the mindless drivel that people are sharing on their social streams. Ask yourself before you hit the “post” button, will this represent me and my brand well? Can people engage with it? Does it serve others? Everybody now has the ability to be a full media production unit – great that you can be the journalist, please do not forget that you need to hold the role of editor too! In this age of information we are awash with content to consume – if you want yours to stand out then please make it good enough.

4. Egocentric Results

Yes, you are the most important person in your life – I get it! Unless you are Kim Kardashian, Donald Trump or Selena Gomez then the likelihood of people being that concerned about what is happening in your world is slim to none. Make your contact about your audience, understand them and provide them with things that serve their life, make their day easier, and things they love to talk about.

5. Aimless Distraction

Whether it is the thumb on your iPhone, the index finger on your mouse wheel or two fingers on the trackpad, the action of mindlessly scrolling through the sea of nonsense on your social walls is causing a tragedy in lost productivity. For many a homebased worker, high pay off activity such as prospecting, serving customers and planning marketing campaigns has been replaced with the vacant distraction of the soap opera of social media.

This article is delivered with the purpose of holding up a huge STOP sign and helping you to re-evaluate your activity and ask yourself if it is really working and genuinely driving results or is it simply draining from your limited resource and standing in your way of building a solid business foundation.

Perhaps the shift could move back to understanding the biggest value in these tools is how they can increase productivity, reduce geographic constraints and accelerate the building of new relationships.

Build your audience, serve your audience, engage with your audience and be prepared to bring the conversation “offline” and work the old fashioned way if you would like to see some true returns.

And if you can’t wrap your head around it to make it pay for you, stop it and get back to delivering the basics, to a high standard consistently.

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Human Resources Management Marketing News and Politics Personal Development Women In Business

How to Read Body Language to Negotiate Effectively

“The better you read body language, the better you’ll be at understanding someone’s mind.” –Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert.

 

“How To Read Body Language To Negotiate More Effectively”

When you negotiate do you know how to read body language? When you read body language, do you know what to observe?

The following are some examples of body language signs you can observe to negotiate more effectively.

  1. Forehead Wrinkles – When someone displays a wrinkled forehead (unnatural wrinkles) it’s a sign of stress. Thus, the absence of wrinkles is a sign of calm and easygoingness.
  2. Eyes (wide opened versus closed and narrow) – Wide-eyes indicate someone’s attentiveness, interest, and open-mindedness. A narrowing of the eyes signals a higher degree of focus on the subject, which is usually accompanied with a furled brow/forehead.
  3. Smile – A genuine smile is denoted by turned up corners of the lips.
  4. Hand movements – Hand movements give insight into the mental thoughts you’re experiencing at the moment the hand gestures are made. Thus, open hand gestures are usually displayed when someone is not fearful. When hand gestures become closed (i.e. kept close to the body, rubbing each other, rubbing other parts of the body), that’s more of a mental display of being guarded, anxious, and/or cautious. When you see such actions in others, take note of what might have brought about a change from open to close. In situations in which you seek to impress others, keep hand gestures more in an open mode and don’t make gestures that might be perceived as manic, indecisive, and/or not in rhythm with the words you speak. Doing so will detract subliminally from your likeability and persuasiveness.
  5. Feet – When the feet of two people engaged in a conversation are facing one another, the individuals are mentally engaged in their conversation. When one person turns a foot away, that’s usually the point at which that individual has mentally begun to disengage in the conversation and soon they’ll exit it in that direction.
  6. Touching – The degree you touch someone and where you touch them conveys a sense of familiarity. Thus, you should be mindful of what someone might perceive as too much familiarity per you touching them too much. To gain insight as to whether you’re touching too much, take note to what degree the person you’re touching flinches and/or slightly pulls away/back when you touch them. That’s a nonverbal sign that you may have overstepped a boundary. Pay very close attention to such feedback. It will be the gauge from which you’ll gain insight per how well you’re being received.
  7. Voice Inflection – Since 80% and more of your message is conveyed nonverbally, take note of how your words can possess different meanings based on the way you announce them. Thus, note the inflection and tonality you convey with them. Ending a sentence on a high note can turn a statement into a question, which could make you appear less authoritative than what you intended.

 All of the above body language and nonverbal gestures impact the perception of the words you use to represent your thoughts. Thus, the meaning of your words can be altered by the body language signals that accompany them. As such, you should be very mindful of the signals you send to make your body language work for you and not against you … and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Human Resources Management Marketing Skills Women In Business

Does Changing Your Speech Style Sacrifice Your Identity?

This morning a client made a comment that echoed the misguided frustrations of many people I encounter, when concerns about authenticity come up. After we had identified a vocal habit that was sabotaging her ability to project authority, and worked on skills to improve it, she said:

“Well, but I guess our bad habits are a part of our identity, right?”

The answer is a very simple yes… and no.

Your bad habits are a part of your current identity, but certainly don’t have to limit or otherwise dictate the identity you can grow into if you choose to do so.

Let’s look at it another way. Your current knowledge, experience, and education make up a part of who you are today, right? But if your boss told you that you weren’t eligible for a promotion that you really wanted because you lacked Six Sigma certification, it wouldn’t occur to you to say, “Well, but that certification isn’t part of my identity. To learn those skills and employ them when needed to succeed at the job I have or want would be inauthentic.” It sounds ridiculous in that context. You’d be scanning the internet for the next time a course was available to get that line item on your resume, wouldn’t you?

Similarly, while nobody wants to have to change their eating habits, if your doctor told you that your blood pressure, sugar and cholesterol levels were off the charts and caused a serious risk to your health, you wouldn’t argue that you can’t change your eating habits because they were part of your identity. Sure, some food preferences are foods we grew up on and are linked to our family culture. But if you want your identity to be someone who plays an active role in your children’s and grandchildren’s lives, instead of someone who might not be around to play any role, active or inactive, you’ll find ways to make small lifestyle changes that don’t require you to live on salad.

In case a “Yeah, but…” is creeping its way to your lips, let me reassure you: there is no difference between getting certified in Six-Sigma, adopting healthier eating habits, and learning to speak with greater breath support or tonality, regarding the impact the change will have on your degree of choice, authenticity or identity.

Sure, you are partially a product of your environment, upbringing, etc., but identity is equally a very personal choice.

If you know that your current speech style sounds about as energized as Ben Stein’s portrayal of the economics teacher in the movie Ferris Buller’s Day Off, putting people to sleep as you run the meeting or give your presentation, you have two choices: You can shrug it off and claim, “Well, that’s just the way I talk,” essentially blaming it on your identity, and resign yourself to the fact that nobody will ever want to hear you speak. Or, you can decide that you want people to pay attention to you, to be inspired by you, and choose to take control of the situation. If you want to do the latter, to have that positive, inspiring effect on people, you’ll choose to learn how to modify your delivery in a way that appropriately captures their interest, because you want that to be part of your identity.

Let me clarify: I’m not suggesting you take acting lessons to play the part of some character who is different from you. And a learning curve is to be expected, so any new skill or knowledge may feel awkward and clunky until you get used to using it, and it becomes second nature.

That’s the real goal: that the new speech habits (or eating habits, or management techniques) ultimately become second nature, and a new part of your chosen identity that makes you feel confident in yourself and your abilities, and gets the results you want.

************

Do you have trouble finding the balance between speaking in a way that feels authentic, and in a way that gets the results you want?  Or do you have other questions or feedback about this issue? If so, contact me at laura@vocalimpactproductions.com or click here to schedule a 20-minute focus call to discuss it with me personally!

 

Categories
Growth Management Personal Development Technology

Right of Boom – Planning for Post Breach

At this year’s (2017), International Information System Security Certification Consortium (ISC2) Security Congress, we heard a keynote from Juliette Kayyem. She is the former Assistant Secretary for Intergovernmental Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security under the Obama administration. She not only talked about the importance of being prepared in order to stop attacks, but also being prepared for what she called “Right of Boom.”

Right of Boom is what you do after an event (attack or mistake) has occurred, whether it be a bombing like the Boston Marathon, a mass casualty event caused by system malfunction like the BP oil spill, or a cyber incident. The event is the Boom and what comes next is Right of Boom (picture a timeline).

This article is focused on Right of Boom planning for cyber security and whether you are an executive responsible for security and/or IT or an executive outside of this area (CEO, COO, CFO, CMO, etc.) this matters to you because at the end of the day it could mean the survival of your business.

You can plan all day long to stop a cyber attack or incident through vulnerability and risk management, good secure coding practices, and security awareness training, but you can’t stop it all. There will always be an attacker one step ahead at some point in your journey, whether because they just have more resources and time than you do, or one of your employees simply makes a really big mistake.

Since you can’t stop it all, you must plan for Right of Boom, what you do after the attack, which will be the difference between staying in business and maintaining a good business reputation, or going out of business. Even if you don’t go out of business, the way you handle Right of Boom could be the difference between a few million dollars spent in recovery and notifications and a few billion dollars spent.

Planning for Right of Boom means that you don’t just focus on a defensive approach to stopping attacks, misuse, and errors, all of which can have a catastrophic effect. You also ensure that there is proactive planning, testing, and more planning on what you do after something goes wrong. It’s not a matter of if something goes wrong; it is a matter of when.

Too many organizations are notified of a breach by a third party and oftentimes months after the breach happened. That means months have gone by with an attacker in your network doing what they want, collecting the data, and using it for their own benefit. It’s never good news when you are told by a third party that you have been hacked and that you have been leaking company and customer data for months. And with the average cost per stolen record of $141 based on the 2017 IBM Cost of Data Breach Study, imagine how much that can cost your organization not to mention the loss of customers and reputational trust.

The cost of that cleanup is much less for an organization that can detect a breach in near real time especially if they know what to do upon identification of the incident, i.e. if they have a  Right of Boom plan. It means less data loss (if any) and more time to properly clean up the incident, as in get the servers working again with the vulnerability fixed and bad guy out of the network with minimal disruption to the business.

The only way that proper Right of Boom planning and response is possible is if your organization takes it seriously. Do you have a security team that is empowered to create Right of Boom response scenarios and test them? Do you have a security team that has the resources to identify a suspicious event, whether it be malicious or accidental? Do you provide training for your IT and user community to understand their role in Right of Boom? Do you have third parties on retainer or whom you can call that are specifically trained to help you contain and investigate an incident?

These are just a few critical questions to ask your security team. If you have a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) or Chief Security Officer (CSO) they should be part of the C-Suite discussion on Right of Boom. They should have the resources they need and be tasked with and empowered to help ensure a Boom does not put your organization at great risk… or even worse, out of business.

If you do not have a CISO or CSO it’s time to either hire one or find a virtual resource that can help you on an as-needed basis with strategy planning around topics like Right of Boom. If you have questions about this or about finding a resource email sharon@c-suiteresults.com to discuss your specific situation and needs because security is what I do and I want to see your organization prepared.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Categories
Best Practices Growth Human Resources Management Personal Development Women In Business

The Other, Other ‘B’ Word

As an advocate for gender parity and diversity, I strive to broadcast a message about the immense economic potential of advancing women in the modern workplace. Often, my content is couched as a rallying cry for more men to become allies on the journey toward gender equality. Aside from the obvious egalitarian reasons for having more women in leadership, it also makes sense from a purely business standpoint. If organizations had gender-balanced leadership teams and equally valued the contributions of both sexes, they would be better suited to adapt and thrive in a complex, volatile global economy. The advantages of diversity in business have been studied for years and are well-documented: There would be higher employee engagement, less turnover, and greater profitability.

Considering the clear benefits of diverse leadership, why are there still so few women in C-level roles today? Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg, founded the Lean In non-profit organization to address this issue, and one of their campaigns is to ban the ‘B word’. No, not the one that rhymes with pitch. The other ‘B word’, bossy, is a term applied to young girls and women who are decisive, confident, and direct in the way they relate to others. It’s a pejorative used to discourage females from acting contrary to societal norms; i.e. that they should be agreeable and docile. Of course the male-driven business model encourages cutthroat competition and a commanding leadership presence, creating a Catch 22 for women who hope to be successful. If they try to fit in as one of the boys, they are perceived as aggressive and difficult. But if they are simply authentic, their kindness and cooperative nature work against them. The Ban Bossy project aims to empower women of all ages so they embrace their innate leadership qualities and are recognized as leaders in their own right. While this is an important effort in the push for gender parity, I worry that the message can be misinterpreted by some women who take it as free license to be the other, other ‘B word’: bully.

I stumbled across a YouTube video secretly recorded by a Georgia middle school janitor as he was being reprimanded by the principal for leaving work 8 minutes early. (You can watch for yourself here.) Throughout the meeting, the principal was rude, condescending, dismissive, belittling, and downright cruel. She repeatedly asked the janitor what his hours were, interrupted him as he attempted to explain the situation, and spoke to him in a manner unfit for conversation between grown adults. It was obvious from her smug demeanor that she was accustomed to using fear and menace to bend employees and students to her will. I’ve worked for and with women like this throughout my career. They either adopt this ‘dragon lady’ persona as a means of survival in a company or industry dominated by men, or it’s just their personality. This management style is unacceptable regardless of a person’s gender, but, as I mentioned before, there’s a double standard for women. They’re damned if they do act like men, and damned if they don’t.

How, then, can we ensure equal representation of women in leadership while discouraging bully behavior? Well, there are plenty of excellent books on the former, so I’ll tackle the latter because I believe bullying is an employee engagement issue, not merely a gender issue.

In my employee engagement practice, I teach managers to embrace a mindset of empathy, curiosity, and humility. Without these virtues, you are a just boss, not a leader. And you certainly won’t earn the respect or engagement of your employees if you forgo true leadership in favor of being a bully.

Empathy is our ability to relate to and feel for others. It’s what makes us human. When we empathize with people and “put ourselves in their shoes”, it causes us to think more carefully about how we behave and speak toward the the individuals in our lives. When meeting with an employee to have a potentially difficult conversation, empathy can make the difference between a mutually acceptable outcome and a result that leaves one party — invariably the lower-ranking person — feeling unheard, disrespected, mistreated, or cheated. Had the principal in the video practiced empathy by asking herself how she would want to be treated if she were the janitor, things would have gone much differently (and saved the school quite a bit of embarrassment).

While empathy means having an open heart, curiosity is keeping an open mind. Being a curious leader requires a willingness, even a desire, to hear positions other than your own. Doing so gives you an opportunity to build stronger relationships with employees. By asking them for their views, their feedback, their stories, and then listening without judgement or interruption, you are positioning yourself as a leader who wants to collaborate on solutions, instead of just bark orders. When leaders curiously listen, they are sending a message that they wish to co-create a positive and engaging employee experience. Woodrow Wilson once said, “The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people.” The principal made it clear during her meeting with the janitor that the only voice she cared to hear was her own.

Curiosity also means questioning your motives and behaviors. This takes a high degree of emotional intelligence that comes from being humble. Humility allows us to challenge the ego and make decisions that are more effective in the long run, as opposed to satisfying our own immediate need to feel important. Many people, when given power over others, tend to let it go to their heads at the expense of the relationships with those in their charge. They haughtily believe their management title grants infallibility and deity; that it somehow elevates them to a higher stratum than the peons being managed. But we are all flesh and blood. None of us is any better than the rest. What makes a leader is not her status, nor her ability to control and punish. The measure of a great leader is seen through the eyes of people whose lives are better for having followed her.

In order for us to have an impactful conversation about developing more women into leaders, we need to agree that bullying is the antithesis of effective leadership. We need to hold everyone in management positions, gender notwithstanding, to the highest standards of conduct and preserve the integrity of what it really means to be a leader. It will take a dramatic shift in the business world, one that champions the merits of empathy, curiosity, and humility. To start, those with the power to make this change will have to be another ‘B word’: brave. Courageous leaders — both men and women — must shape the modern workplace into an environment where bullies aren’t welcome, one where success doesn’t come without kindness.

About the author:

Jonathan D. Villaire is a bridge-builder, truth-teller, and advocate for empathy who helps leaders understand how to effectively engage their employees and, more importantly, how to stop disengaging them. He founded Cognize Consulting with the aim of giving supervisors, managers, and executives a new perspective on employee engagement: See employees as human beings, not as human capital. Understand how to create an employee experience that increases retention and attracts top talent. Engage employees with a leadership mindset of empathy, curiosity, and humility. He is a speaker, coach, and author of the upcoming book The Stepford Employee Fallacy: The Truth about Employee Engagement in the Modern Workplace.

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Best Practices Leadership Marketing Skills

30 Networking Questions to Make You Memorable

You walk into a room filled with people that is buzzing with conversations. Carefully you look around until your eyes meet a person by themselves and you smile. You walk over to them, introduce yourself, and shake their hand. Then, for many, the hard part begins. How does one have an engaging and memorable conversation with someone they just met?

For many, we tend to freeze up in these instances. Sure, you can visit about the weather or some current events, but that does not help you to understand who they are and the value they can add to your professional life or vice versa. Instead of asking the typical questions, try one of these 30 networking questions to help you get to know someone better and make the overall conversation meaningful and memorable.

30 Networking Questions

  1. What is the number one takeaway you hope to gain from this event?
  2. What did you learn from today’s speaker?
  3. How did you learn about this event?
  4. What type of connections do you hope to make today?
  5. What other events similar to this have you attended?
  6. If there is one thing I can help you with, what would that be?
  7. How can I help you succeed?
  8. What project(s) are you working on?
  9. Why did you decide to go into your field/business?
  10. What problem do you/your business solve for others?
  11. What is the biggest challenge you see happening in your industry?
  12. What is the latest news in your industry?
  13. What trends do you see in your industry?
  14. What’s the toughest part of your job?
  15. What kind of education/training do you need for your job?
  16. What is a typical day like for you?
  17. How did you come up with the idea to start your business?
  18. What book are you reading now and what is the one thing you have learned from it?
  19. What volunteer work do you do?
  20. Do you serve on any boards?
  21. What do you do for fun outside of your work?
  22. What is one interesting fact about you that may surprise me?
  23. Are you originally from this area and/or how did you end up in this city?
  24. What is the best piece of business advice you have ever received?
  25. What advice do you give to others in your industry?
  26. How do you stay motivated?
  27. What skills are essential for anyone in your industry to have?
  28. What are some of your favorite life hacks?
  29. What is the one app you can’t live without?
  30. How do you feel you or your company makes an impact?

How to Leave the Conversation

At the end of the conversation, there is always the business card exchange. Take this time to tell them how much you enjoyed visiting with them. Be sure to repeat their name as you thank them, and state one thing about them that stood out or that you enjoyed learning from talking with them. This last piece shows you actively listened and were engaged, and it will help you to remember an interesting tidbit about them the next time you are together or think of them. It will make you and the other person memorable.

I help executives create a powerful image and brand so they look and feel confident wherever they are. Contact me at sheila@imagepowerplay.com to schedule a 20-minute call to discuss how we can work together to grow your visibility through my return on image® services.

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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Human Resources Management Personal Development

Strategic Alignment Drives Sustained Results

There are seven ways for your company’s strategy, culture, and operations to align. Only one delivers sustained results.

• Are your business results falling short of expectations?

• Are you blindsided by hidden costs, disengaged employees, and unnecessary complexity?

• Are you sick and tired of fighting your competitors and internal roadblocks?

Unless your strategy, culture, and operating model are synchronized, you are wasting time, alienating employees, and leaving money on the table. The few minutes you spend reading the rest of this blog, will explain how a strategically aligned company is positioned for sustained results. Let’s define terms!

Your strategy is your overall plan to win in your marketplace.

As you develop your strategy, you get to choose your marketplace and you get to define what is a win. The only reason a company might choose not to have a strategy is because they are comfortable in their market position. Having no strategy is a certain slow death for a company. Market forces will eventually consume that company. Do you want this to happen to your company?

Your culture is the sum of the beliefs and behaviors your employees bring to work every day.

Each company’s culture is unique. Your culture is formed by the values lived and breathed by each employee, every day on the job. I’m not talking about the slogans hanging on the walls or the T-shirts. I’m talking about the accumulated employee beliefs and behaviors which arrive at work every single day. This is ‘who you really are.’ This is ‘your identity.’ This is how ‘your brand is created.’

Your operations are simply how things get done at your company.

• What needs to be done?

• Who does what?

• When does it get done?

• How will it get done?

These are your systems, processes, and procedures to deliver your strategy to the marketplace. Your resulting operating model translates your strategy into the daily operating instructions to be performed by your front-line employees. Now that we have defined strategy, culture, and operations, I challenge you to reflect on this question? ‘How satisfied have you been with your company’s growth and profitability over the past ten years?’ If you are not pleased with your results, ‘What are you going to do about it?’

The first thing that must change is, your mindset.

Begin to visualize strategy, culture, and operations as the ‘life blood’ of your company. When you successfully synchronize your strategy, culture, and operations, you are in a strong position to ‘chart your company’s course’ and begin to ‘experience your company’s vision.’ When strategy, culture, and operations are not in sync, your strategy, culture, and operations counterpunch each other until the ‘best man wins.’ Employees become disengaged; complexity surrounds what should be, simple changes; and you are consistently ‘leaving money on the table!’

So, how do you know if your strategy, culture, and operations are aligned?

Let me walk you through the process. First visualize your strategy, culture, and operations as three circles. Each circle represents strategy, culture, or operations. The question that matters is: ‘How well do your strategy, culture, and operations circles intersect?’ See the diagram to the left. The top circle represents strategy. The left circle represents culture. The right circle represents operations.

Strategy, culture, and operations and inter-depedent, and simultaneously impact each other. The numbers one thru seven in the diagram above, represent the seven ways your strategy, culture, and operations can align with each other. Let’s briefly describe each. After you have reviewed the descriptions, think about: ‘Which alignment sounds most like your company?’

Alignment 1 – Strategy Rules!

You have a great idea, but you have no clue what to do with that idea. Your strategy is developed and distributed, however, strategy is not a standalone step. You must make your culture and operations integral parts of your company’s strategic plan development.

 

Alignment 2 – We Decide, You Do!

 

Results when strategy and operations are in alignment and your culture is supposed to just, ‘Follow Along.’ Have you ever wondered why some of your company’s ‘initiatives,’ underperform?

Alignment 3 – The Dream!

You have in your head, ‘that idea.’ In your mind you can see it, feel it, and touch it, as if it were real. But, you’re the only one who sees it. The dream has not been translated into an executable game plan.

 

Alignment 4 – Silo / Turf War!

Results when your culture and operations are in alignment, but there is no common overall strategy. Each unit / department creates and act on the strategies they individually create. Say hello to politics, back stabbing, and game playing.

Alignment 5 – Culture is King!

Here, it is extremely important that people work well together. There are very few HR issues to deal with, but, there’s no strategy. No one knows how operations fit into the picture? A overall balance is needed.

Alignment 6 – Everyone’s on Board, I Hope It Works!

Results when your culture and strategy are in alignment, but you’re ‘rolling the dice’ with operations thinking, ‘it should work.’ You begin your new initiative, have your kick-off meeting, post your slogans, wear your T-shirts, but don’t spend a dime, nor give a second thought to operations.

Alignment 7 – Sustained Results!

When your strategy, culture, and operations are aligned, five things are crystal clear:

• You know who you are.

• You know where you are going.

• You know how you will get there.

• You know when you will get there.

• You know you will have sustainable, scalable results.

So, what will strategic alignment look like at your company?

Your company is in strategic alignment when you can:

• Embrace marketplace turbulence with your agile workforce.

• Consistently deliver your execution plans better, faster, and more cost effectively than your competition.

• Maintain a workforce of ‘owners’ who are excited to come to work each day.

• Maximize the return on investment in your people, your equipment, and your capital.

Just imagine:

• The resulting positive impact on profitability.

• Planting the seeds for your company’s future growth.

• Consistently beating your competition ‘to the punch.’

Can you really afford not to align your strategy, operations, and culture?

We’ve come a long way together. So now, in the comments section, please let me know:

1. Which alignment best represents how your company operates today?

2. How is that working for you?

Want to know more about strategic aligning your strategy, culture, and operations, sign up to receive my blog at www.GrowCompanyPofits.com.

Wayne helps CEO’s eliminate hidden costs, disengaged employees, and unnecessary complexity. How? Ensures your strategy, culture, and operations are aligned to deliver sustained results. Optimize ‘The Business Value Formula’ –> Recipe + Resources = Results.’ Learn more at www.GrowCompanyPofits.com