Here’s my issue — attitude, morale, thoughts… none really matter in our workplaces.
Sure, we’d love for everyone to have our version of a good attitude. Yes, I can certainly support “good” morale (whatever the heck that is), and of course, I’d prefer everyone thought like me.
None of these, however, really matter. What matters, of course, is observable behavior. It’s the only thing we can really see, act on, and manage to.
Tell someone they have a “bad attitude.” What happens? They close up and get defensive. “No, I don’t,” is the typical reply. Now where are we? No closer to where we want to be, only now the employee is defensive.
Focus on observable behavior.
“John, every time I say ‘Good Morning’ to you, you tell me to go to hell.” Now THAT’S observable.
“Pat, I’ve noticed you never delegate work to Jamar over there. Why?” Observable also.
Get to the substance — to the part where we can take action to manage, correct, and/or modify.
Stay focused on things we can see, touch and feel… otherwise, your attitude may be showing.
The Unicorn of Continuous Improvement — Two steps forward, two steps back…
Continuous Improvement… the unicorn of any contact center.
Yeah, I know. Continuous Improvement is the wonder child of any measurement-driven organization. The Holy Grail. It’s how we make incremental improvements over time, increasing our productivity, effectiveness and profitability. “It’s what we do.” So, hear me out before you go all “what’s this unicorn crap?” on me. (more…)
Thought I’d keep it light this month. It’s possible someone told me I’d been a little preachy lately… but what do they know?
How do you know you’re leading? What do you measure? What do you look for?
Consulting the great Google oracle, it looks like 73,300,000 people already know and have written about it. (Heaven forbid the Google breaks; how will I ever conduct my research?)
Since I didn’t see what I was looking for, I thought I’d share a couple of lessons I learned about a decade ago, shortly after I’d taken command of a few hundred motivated and talented Airmen and was voluntold at the last minute that I would be leading the entire wing on its monthly run.
I’m gonna try to keep this upbeat, but the underlying issue is sad… and oh so preventable.
So many of your employees have these 8-track tapes running in their head that say things like “what’s wrong with me?” “I screwed it up, again” and “I’ll never get this right.” That’s because all they ever seem to hear about is what they messed up, what they’re doing wrong, and what they’re not doing fast enough.
You might hear it fairly often, too, but this isn’t about you. (more…)
One of your best employees (by whatever performance measure you use) needs an extra day of bereavement leave for the death of a grandparent who raised her near single-handedly. This employee has been with you 6+ years, with no attendance issues, no unreasonable demands, and you can’t even remember the last time she asked you for something. (more…)
Mistakes. Nobody likes ‘em, everybody makes ‘em. Yet it still sends a quiver up the spines of leaders everywhere, hearing “you made a mistake.” Our minds start racing, searching for pieces of memory that could reveal where we may have stretched a bit, or perhaps were a bit unsure in the decision we made.
“Crap! Now what…?”
We investigate our mistake, searching minute details in hopes of ensuring we never make that mistake again. Or any mistake, frankly. Many of us spend numerous waking hours fretting over the possibility (and reality) of making one mistake or another, incorrectly believing that error-free efforts are the minimum threshold of success for leadership.
How’s that working for you? I’ve got some suggestions that may help you be more successful — and less frustrated — in your leadership decision-making. First, a newsflash: you will make mistakes. Get over it. Mistakes are not inherently bad; our reactions to mistakes are much more telling than the mistake itself.
So, here we go… The 3 Principles for Avoiding Death through Mistakes: (more…)
