There’s no doubt one of the most significant challenges any service organization faces is how to sustain excellence in service delivery over long periods of time. After all, service organizations live or die based on the passion and commitment of the people providing the service. Once the passion goes, the service trends to the ordinary. Or worse.
If you have the privilege of leading others, consider what Dr. Mayo’s 3rd condition for sustaining success means to you, your team and your organization.
If you’ve ever been part of a truly effective team…a high performance team, you know the experience is memorable. For those who’ve lived and thrived on a high-performance team, the memory of what it was like to work with a motivated, caring, challenging (but respectful), accomplishment-focused group of individuals provides sustenance for the lonely, near-death experiences that characterize so many other team and project experiences in the workplace.
How consistent are you in your approaches to dealing with people and problems? Is there an early warning system in place in your office that tracks your every move from the car through the parking lot and into the office? How you respond to people and to situations (victories, losses, mistakes etc.) goes a long way to forming the working environment on your team.
I had the pleasure to connect on the phone with Jesse Lyn Stoner, co-author with Ken Blanchard of Full Steam Ahead-Unleash the Power of Vision in Your Work and Your Life (second edition), and this podcast is the output. I like the book a great deal…and as I indicate in my intro comments, I tend to approach books on Vision with a bit of trepidation.
Great frontline leaders create great experiences for their employees. This flows immediately and directly to customers. And then it flows to the top and bottom lines.
Note from Art: this is a rave. I was on the receiving end of one too many miserable support experiences recently, and this is my, “I’m Madder than Hell…” response. To the Executives and CEOs who believe it is a good idea to make your customer’s lives miserable, get a clue.
We face dozens of moments every day where instinct tells us to turn straight into the wind and apply brute force to solve problems, resolve squabbles and keep people moving. Sometimes, our instinct is wrong. Instead of offering a quick solution or mandating an end to squabbling, effective leaders adjust their course by learning to tack. Here are 5 ideas to help you learn this valuable skill when facing significant headwinds in the workplace…
Much of who we are and what we do in our professional lives is built on an unforgiving foundation of trust. Trust is hard earned and those bestowing trust do so slowly, carefully and tentatively, all the while testing for reasons to pull back and guard this precious personal asset. True trust is rare in the workplace. It’s also critical for high performance.
We waste fortunes inside our organizations on misguided programs and oddball incentives, seeking ways to motivate and inspire people to work hard, innovate, create, care and to live up to their potential, when the real solution is literally on the tip of our tongues. Here are 5 ideas for curing Context Deficit Disorder:
