Saturday, April 28, 2012

Get ready for the future…

  by Dr. Charlie Hall www.ellisonchair.tamu.edu

Whether these changes are good or bad depends in part on how we adapt to them, but ready or not, here they come!
  1. The Post Office. Get ready to imagine a world without the Post Office. They are so deeply in financial trouble that there is probably no way to sustain it long term. Email, Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to keep the post office alive. Most of your mail every day is junk mail and bills.
  2. The Check. Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with cheques by 2018. It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process cheques. Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of the cheque. This plays right into the death of the post office. If you never paid your bills by mail and never received them by mail, the post office would absolutely go out of business.
  3. The Newspaper. The younger generation simply doesn’t read the newspaper. They certainly don’t subscribe to a daily delivered printed edition. That may go the way of the milkman and the laundry man. As for reading the paper online, get ready to pay for it. The rise in mobile Internet devices and e-readers has caused all the newspaper and magazine publishers to form an alliance. They have met with Apple, Amazon, and the major cell phone companies to develop a model for paid subscription services.
  4. The Book. You say you will never give up the physical book that you hold in your hand and turn the literal pages. I said the same thing about downloading music from iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I quickly changed my mind when I discovered that I could get albums for half the price without ever leaving home to get the latest music. The same thing will happen with books. You can browse a bookstore online and even read a preview chapter before you buy. And the price is less than half that of a real book. And think of the convenience once you start flicking your fingers on the screen instead of the book, you find that you are lost in the story, can’t wait to see what happens next, and you forget that you’re holding a gadget instead of a book.
  5. The Land Line Telephone. Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you don’t need it anymore. Most people keep it simply because they’ve always had it. But you are paying double charges for that extra service. All the cell phone companies will let you call customers using the same cell provider for no charge against your minutes.
  6. Music. This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music industry is dying a slow death. Not just because of illegal downloading. It’s the lack of innovative new music being given a chance to get to the people who like to hear it. Greed and corruption is the problem. The record labels and the radio conglomerates simply self-destruct. Over 40% of the music purchased today are “catalog items,” meaning traditional music that the public is familiar with. Older established artists. This is also true on the live concert circuit. To explore this fascinating and disturbing topic further, check out the book, “Appetite for Self-Destruction” by Steve Knopper, and the video documentary, “Before the Music Dies.”
  7. Television. Revenues to the networks are down dramatically. Not just because of the economy. People are watching TV and movies streamed from their computers. And they’re playing games and doing lots of other things that take up the time that used to be spent watching TV. Prime time shows have degenerated down to lower than the lowest common denominator. Cable rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about every 4 minutes and 30 seconds.
  8. The “Things” That You Own. Many of the very possessions that we used to own are still in our lives, but we may not actually own them in the future. They may simply reside in “the cloud.” Today your computer has a hard drive and you store your pictures, music, movies, and documents. Your software is on a CD or DVD, and you can always re-install it if need be. But all of that is changing. Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest “cloud services.” That means that when you turn on a computer, the Internet will be built into the operating system. So, Windows, Google, and the Mac OS will be tied straight into the Internet. If you click an icon, it will open something in the Internet cloud. If you save something, it will be saved to the cloud. And you may pay a monthly subscription fee to the cloud provider. In this virtual world, you can access your music or your books, or your whatever from any laptop or hand held device. That’s the good news. But, will you actually own any of this “stuff” or will it all be able to disappear at any moment in a big “Poof?” Will most of the things in our lives be disposable and whimsical? It makes you want to run to the closet and pull out that photo album, grab a book from the shelf, or open up a CD case and pull out the insert.
  9. Privacy. If there ever was a concept that we can look back on nostalgically, it would be privacy. That’s gone. It’s been gone for a long time anyway. There are cameras on the street, in most of the buildings, and even built into your computer and cell phone. But you can be sure that 24/7 “They” know who you are and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the Google Street View. If you buy something, your habit is put into a zillion profiles, and your ads will change to reflect those habits. And “They” will try to get you to buy something else. Again and again. All we will have that can’t be changed are Memories.
Something to think about in terms of how you are going to do business in the future. Most of these changes are already taking place. If you want to experience an amazing look back at the history of technology, then this 13 minute video about IBM will give you a glimpse of how far we have come.

Are relationships really that important to teamwork?

Mike Rogers www.socialsuccesstelevision.com November 17, 2009

Relationships are the foundation of teamwork. Teams fail to execute when relationships are poor. Yet leaders often neglect and sometimes even completely ignore this foundational component of teams. There are many reasons for poor relationships, but my opinion is that lack of understanding each other is the number one contributor.
If I don’t understand you, I won’t fully understand your motives. My trust is initially built on what I have seen or observed about you, not on what I understand about you. Therefore if what I have observed about you is negative, then your intentions will always be questioned.
I had a final job interview many years ago in which this was evident. As is the case with many final job interviews, this one was with the team that I would be working with. I believed my interview was going great, but one particular person’s body language told me otherwise. She just blankly stared at me, kind of “freaky” like. When I was being funny, she didn’t laugh. When I was being engaging and looking for agreement, she didn’t nod her head. She just stared at me. When it was her turn to ask a question, I immediately believed she was asking the question to be malicious and that she wasn’t really that serious.
I got the job and later discovered that this person showed no emotion towards any interaction, personally, or in meetings. But I also found out that she was one of the kindest and sweetest people you would ever know. Once I understood her, my judgment of her motives changed. Being on the same team, this would be critical because of the nature of the projects we would work on together.
When team members don’t trust one another, issues that need to be resolved in meetings become personal, not task-oriented. In fact, some team members may not even fully participate due to the fear of conflict. As a result, issues are never resolved effectively or efficiently.
If there is one thing I tell teams over and over again, it is that they must spend time together. There are many other things team’s can do to develop relationships, but spending time together is one of the easiest. Go to lunch together, spend a half a day or full day with teambuilding, have regular effective meetings together face to face or plan department activities together. There are many ways teams can spend time together, but the most important thing is that they do.

Why Brainstorming Sucks (And How to Fix It)

Mark Henricks April 15, 2011 www.cbsnews.com

The typical business brainstorming session consists of a bunch of people thrown together in a room and exhorted to "Think outside the box!" and "Rule nothing out!" Why this remains standard procedure is a mystery, since few brainstorming exercises of this sort yield much of value, and the problems with the conventional approach are well known.

If you want to do brainstorming right, discard the widely believed myths and go with the proven approaches. For instance:

Myth: The more ideas, the better. A superior approach is to think: "The more better ideas, the better." When brainstorming is too open to any and all ideas, and every idea is at least initially treated as equal, too many proposals are completely useless because they lie outside the organization's capabilities or limits. McKinsey & Co. describes a process called "brainsteering" in which some pre-set parameters -- ideas have to cost less than $5,000, say, or generate quick payback -- help idea-generators come up with feasible proposals, rather than concepts that are so far outside the box that they're useless.

Myth: A group of people working together can come up with better ideas than one person. Numerous studies support the opposite contention. A 2010 article in The Journal of Creative Behavior reports a typical finding: "Groups of individuals generating ideas in isolation (nominal groups) generated more ideas and more original ideas and were more likely to select original ideas during the group decision phase than interactive group brainstormers." One way to do nominal group brainstorming is to have participants come up with ideas on their own before the group session. Alternately, give each person in the session a piece of paper on which to write down ideas, without input from others, before subjecting them to discussion.

Myth: The best ideas naturally float to the top when discussion and evaluation is open, free-ranging, and unrestricted. Wide-open brainstorming sessions have many problems, beginning with the fact that talkative, dominating people tend to drown out quieter ones, whether or not the wallflowers' ideas are better. Get around this with round-robin brainstorming. This approach poses a question to the group, after which each member has a chance to bring up his or her suggestions without comment or interruption from the others. A scribe is assigned to write down each person's thoughts. Only after everyone has been heard from is the floor thrown open to talk generally about each idea.

In some respects, a business is like a machine that takes ideas dumped into the top and turns them into money that comes out the bottom. To the extent that's valid, how well your business does is a function of how good your ideas are. Discarding myths about brainstorming and doing this venerable creative process right will go far to improve the raw material you're using to create profit.

Mark Henricks has reported on business, technology and other topics for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, and other leading publications long enough to lay somewhat legitimate claim to being The Article Authority. Follow him on Twitter @bizmyths.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

How To Reverse Your Hard Wiring For Distraction

BY Expert Blogger Olivia Fox Cabane | 04-11-2012 www.fastcompany.com

If you want to be charismatic, your mind can't wander while you're one-on-one with a customer or colleague.

Here's a simple one-minute exercise to help you focus.     

Charismatic behavior can be broken down into three core elements: presence, power, and warmth.

These elements depend both on our conscious behaviors and on factors we don’t consciously control. People pick up on messages we often don’t even realize we’re sending through small changes in our body language.

In order to be charismatic, we need to choose mental states that make our body language, words, and behaviors flow together and express the three core elements of charisma. And presence is the foundation for everything else.

Have you ever felt, in the middle of a conversation, as if only half of your mind were present while the other half was busy doing something else? Do you think the other person noticed? If you’re not fully present in an interaction, there’s a good chance that your eyes will glaze over or that your facial reactions will be a split-second delayed. Since the mind can read facial expressions in as little as 17 milliseconds, the person you’re speaking with will likely notice even the tiniest delays in your reactions.

We may think that we can fake presence. We may think that we can fake listening. But we’re wrong. When we’re not fully present in an interaction, people will see it. Our body language sends a clear message that other people read and react to, at least on a subconscious level.

Not only can the lack of presence be visible, it can also be perceived as inauthentic, which has even worse consequences. When you’re perceived as disingenuous, it’s virtually impossible to generate trust, rapport, or loyalty. And it’s impossible to be charismatic.

Luckily, presence is a learnable skill that can be improved with practice and patience. Being present means simply having a moment-to-moment awareness of what’s happening. It means paying attention to what’s going on rather than being caught up in your own thoughts.

Now that you know the cost of lacking presence, try this exercise to test yourself and learn three simple techniques to boost your charisma in personal interactions.

First, find a reasonably quiet place where you can close your eyes (whether standing or sitting).
Set a timer for one minute. Close your eyes and focus on one of the following three things: the sounds around you, your breathing, or the sensations in your toes.
  1. Scan your environment for sound. As a meditation teacher told me, “Imagine that your ears are satellite dishes, passively and objectively registering sounds.”
  2. Focus on your breath and the sensations it creates in your nostrils or stomach. Pay attention to one breath at a time, but try to notice everything about this one breath. Imagine that your breath is someone you want to give your full attention to.
  3. Focus your attention on the sensations in your toes. This forces your mind to sweep through your body, helping you to get into the physical sensations of the moment.
Did you find your mind constantly wandering even though you were trying your best to be present? As you’ve noticed, staying fully present isn’t always easy. There are two main reasons for this.

First, our brains are wired to pay attention to novel stimuli, whether they be sights, smells, or sounds. We’re wired to be distracted, to have our attention grabbed by any new stimulus: it could be important! It could eat us! This tendency was key to our ancestors’ survival. Imagine two tribesmen hunting through the plains, searching the horizon for signs of the antelope that could feed their family. Something flickers in the distance. The tribesman whose attention wasn’t immediately caught? He’s not our ancestor.

The second reason is that our society encourages distraction. The constant influx of stimulation we receive worsens our natural tendencies. This can eventually lead us into a state of continuous partial attention, in which we never give our full attention to any single thing. We’re always partially distracted.

So if you often find it hard to be fully present, don’t beat yourself up. Presence is hard for almost all of us. A study coauthored by Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert estimated that nearly half of the average person’s time was spent “mind wandering.”

The good news is that even a minor increase in your capacity for presence can have a major effect on those around you. Because so few of us are ever fully present, if you can manage even a few moments of full presence from time to time, you’ll make quite an impact.

The very next time you’re in a conversation, try to regularly check whether your mind is fully engaged or whether it is wandering elsewhere (including preparing your next sentence). Aim to bring yourself back to the present moment as often as you can by focusing on your breath or your toes for just a second, and then get back to focusing on the other person.

One of my clients, after trying this exercise for the first time, reported: “I found myself relaxing, smiling, and others suddenly noticed me and smiled back without my saying a word.”

Don’t be discouraged if you feel that you didn’t fully succeed in the one-minute exercise above. You actually did gain a charisma boost simply by practicing presence. And because you’ve already gained the mindset shift (awareness of the importance of presence and the cost of the lack of it), you’re already ahead of the game.
Excerpted from The Charisma Myth by Olivia Fox Cabane by arrangement with Portfolio Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA), Inc., Copyright © 2012 by Olivia Fox Cabane.

Why Being A Meaner Boss Will Help Your Company--And Make Your Employees Happy

BY Denis Wilson | 04-13-2012 www.fastcompany.com

Everybody likes to be liked. And unless you’re the type of boss who revels in tyranny, it’s only natural to seek the favor of your underlings. But there’s a big difference between engaging with employees and fawning over them.

In an era when the virtues of a collegial and collaborative environment are widely espoused, there’s guilt associated with being a strong-handed boss. Managers are often afraid to pull rank for fear they’ll fall out of grace with their reports and spoil team camaraderie if they’re not nice. “So many leaders, supervisors, and bosses suffer from a nice-guy conflict,” says Bruce Tulgand, author of It's Okay to Be the Boss: The Step-by-Step Guide to Becoming the Manager Your Employees Need. “Managers are afraid that people will think they’re a jerk.”

Quite frankly, being nice is overrated. In fact, a 2011 study, "Do Nice Guys--and Gals--Really Finish Last?" posits that disagreeable people are more successful. The study, which appeared in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, showed that disagreeable people (especially men) earn more money and are perceived as better leaders. The research has too often been used to draw the conclusion that being mean is a good thing, says study co-author Beth A. Livingston of Cornell University. Which isn’t necessarily the case. Rather, the lesson here is that some people could stand to be less nice.
“Disagreeableness is a multifaceted trait,” says Livingston. Less agreeable people are generally “people who don’t really care what you think.” Unconcerned with stepping on toes or being unpopular, they cut a clear path to the brass ring and make more decisive leaders--which is especially important because building consensus often doesn't translate to success.
Let the performance be the arbiter—unless you’re running a commune.
One HR exec at a tech company tells the story of acquiring a startup with a culture that was so consensus-driven that they couldn't decide on which features to cut in order to keep projects on schedule and budget. “Products were delayed, but according to them they had the ‘best culture’ in the world,” he says.
Less-agreeable people are also more likely to advocate for themselves and for others--a huge part of being a leader. A moderately disagreeable person might have the attitude, “I’m not going to step on people willy-nilly, but I’m not going to let people step on me, either,” says Livingston.

Nice people tend to be too considerate and afraid to initiate structure, which can be trouble for a startup trying to establish itself as a legitimate business. Livingston cited Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg as a good example of someone who realized that if he wanted to continue as the creative, likable boss in flip-flops, he needed to have a bad cop around to bust some heads. “He hired [Sheryl Sandberg] from Google, and she whipped everybody into shape. They were pretty chaotic before that.”

Even in these kindler, more collaborative times, someone has to set priorities, pull the plug on an unprofitable project, or fire someone who’s not pulling his weight. If the reins lay in your hands, here are some tips to help you tighten your hold without being labeled a meanie.

Don’t Be Weak
Many bosses are reluctant managers because they’re afraid to come off as jerks, says Tulgan. “Really, if employees think a boss is a jerk, it’s when they’re too weak.” Weakling managers don’t take the time to manage on a daily basis. They let small problems build up into big problems. They pretend to be friends, but when things go south they show their true colors. And the only time they own their authority is when they’re angry with someone. “Be brave enough to own your authority before things go wrong,” says Tulgan.

Work it Out“Don’t fall for the myth of the natural leader,” says Tulgan. “If you want to be in good shape, you have to train every day.” Talk to people one-on-one, understand what their problems are, and remind them of how their role fits into the greater mission at hand. The big mistake that managers make, says Tulgan, is waiting until they have to give bad news or make a hard decision to start managing. They haven’t laid the groundwork. “If the only time you manage is when you have bad news, then every time they see you coming they’ll say ‘Oh no, here he comes.’”

Build StructureStructure is not a dirty word to employees. In many cases, they crave it. Philadelphia-based knowledge network startup, Quewey, recently brought on a CEO and the organizational changes have been welcomed by the group. “We realized that we needed a pointed decision maker,” says Michael Magill, of Quewey's business development and finance. “A lot of day-to-day decisions come up that don’t seem like big decisions, but they really mold your strategy. At a certain point, younger workers will begin to wonder who is responsible for managing the overall direction, message, and strategy of a business.” Magill says that having a defined leader has helped people understand their roles, set the founder's vision in sight, streamline processes, and increase delegation. And projects that would have otherwise remained in the brainstorming stage actually see action.

Monitor PerformanceManagers sometimes struggle with rewarding employees, fearing that others will feel passed over, like when giving out raises or offering a better office space. “Let the performance be the arbiter--unless you’re running a commune,” says Tulgan. If you keep close track of each person’s performance and what’s going on with the team, decisions will be respected. Tulgan says that leaders need to also show employees that they will help them earn promotions and find success.

Separate Wheat From The ChaffThe same goes for firing someone who’s dragging down the team. If you’re talking with your team every day and making clear what takes priority and what should be back-burnered, reports will have a clear sense of what needs to be done and you’ll know who’s delivering and who’s not. And don’t assume chopping a few heads will be received poorly by the high-performers. Says Tulgan: “Usually what managers find is that employees say, 'What took you so long?'" Low performers take up money that might otherwise be available for a raise, and they undermine teamwork. Good workers recognize this.

Share InformationSome managers try to keep too much information too close to their chest. Then when the axe comes down, folks are shocked and angered--and you come off as mean and callous. By explaining the facts up front, you’ll save a lot of heartache. For example, “If we delay this project, none of us will see our annual bonus.” Employees will respond to your transparency and know what lays ahead.

Hold Yourself ResponsibleTake ownership for bad news. If the news is a result of your own poor business decisions, take the blame, says Tulgan. “I’m gonna take a bullet, but we’re all gonna suffer.” If the news is based on a decision from above, don’t just blame it on the guys at corporate. “That undermines everybody’s confidence in the organization and the chain of command. Because that’s your source of authority, it weakens you.” Explain the business decisions that were made, and how it will affect the company.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Biggest Time Wasters for Sales People

by David Kale Copyright MMXII  Thinking About Sales Ezine

Good time management for sales people has been an obsession of mine for more than 30 years. In the last decade, I've been involved in helping tens of thousands of sales people improve their results through more effective use of their time. Over the years, I've seen some regularly occurring patterns develop - tendencies on the part of sales people to do things that detract from their effective use of time.
Here are the four most common time-wasters I've observed. See if any apply to you or your sales people.
Allure of the urgent/trivial.

Sales people love to be busy and active. We have visions of ourselves as people who can get things done. No idle dreamers, we're out there making things happen!

A big portion of our sense of worth and our personal identity is dependent on being busy. At some level in our self image, being busy means that we really are important. One of the worst things that can happen to us is to have nothing to do, nowhere to go, and nothing going on. So, we latch onto every task that comes our way, regardless of the importance.

For example, one of our customers calls with a back order problem. "Oh good!" we think, "Something to do! We are needed! We can fix it!" So, we drop everything and spend two hours expediting the backorder.

In retrospect, couldn't someone in purchasing or customer service have done that? And couldn't they have done it better than you? And didn't you just allow something that was a little urgent but trivial prevent you from making some sales calls? And wouldn't those potential sales calls be a whole lot better use of your time?

Or, one of our customers hands us a very involved "Request for Quote." "Better schedule a half-day at the office," we think. "Need to look up specifications, calculate prices, compile literature, etc." We become immediately involved with this task, working on this project for our customer. In retrospect, couldn't we have given the project to an inside sales person or customer service rep to do the leg work? Couldn't we have just communicated the guidelines to someone and then reviewed the finished proposal?

Once again, we succumbed to the lure of the present task. That prevented us from making sales calls and siphoned our energy away from the important to the seemingly urgent.

I could go on for pages with examples, but you have the idea. We are so enamored with being busy and feeling needed that we often grab at any task that comes our way, regardless of how unimportant. And each time we do that, we compromise our ability to invest our sales times more effectively.

  • The comfort of the status quo.

    A lot of sales people have evolved to the point where they have a comfortable routine. They make enough money and they have established routines and habits that are comfortable. They really don't want to expend the energy it takes to do things in a better way, or to become more successful or effective.

    This can be good. Some of the habits and routines that we follow work well for us. However, our rapidly changing world constantly demands new methods, techniques, habits and routines. Just because something has been effective for a few years doesn't mean that it continues to be so. This problem develops when sales people are so content with the way things are, they have not changed anything in years.

    If you haven't changed or challenged some habit or routine in the last few years, chances are you are not as effective as you could be.

    For example, you could still be writing phone messages down on little slips of paper, when entering them into your contact manager would be more effective. This is a simple example of a principle that can extend towards the most important things that we do. Are we using the same routines for organizing our work week, for determining who to call on, for understanding our customers, for collecting information, etc.? There is no practical end to the list.

    Contentment with the status quo almost always means sales people who are not as effective as they could be.

    My book,
    10 Secrets of Time Management for Salespeople, discusses the use of the "more" mindset as an alternative to the status quo.
Lack of trust in other people in the organization.

Sales people have a natural tendency to work alone. After all, we spend most of the day by ourselves. We decide where to go by ourselves, we decide what to do by ourselves, and we are pretty much on our own all day long. It's no wonder then, that we just naturally want to do everything by ourselves.

That's generally a positive personality trait for a sales person. Unfortunately, when it extends to those tasks that could be done better by other people in our organization it turns into a real negative.

Instead of soliciting aid from others in the organization, and thereby making much better use of our time, many sales people insist on doing it themselves, no matter how redundant and time-consuming is the task. The world is full of sales people who don't trust their own colleagues to write an order, to source a product, to enter an order in the system, to follow up on a back order, to deliver some sample or literature, to research a quote, to deliver a proposal, etc. Again, the list could go on and on.

The point is that many of these tasks can be done better or cheaper by someone else in the organization. The sales people don't release the tasks to them because they, the sales people, don't trust them to do it. Too bad. It's a tremendous waste of good selling time and talent. Chapter 10 of my book "10 Secrets" describes a system to nurture helpful relationships.

  • Lack of tough-minded thoughtfulness.

    Ultimately, time management begins with thoughtfulness. That means a sufficient quantity of good quality thought-energy invested in the process. I like to say that good time management is a result of "thinking about it before you do it."

    Good time managers invest sufficiently in this process. They set aside time each year to create annual goals, they invest planning time every quarter and every month to create plans for those times, they plan every week and every sales call. Poor sales time managers don't dedicate sufficient time to the "thinking about it" phase of their job.

    Not only do good sales time managers invest a sufficient quantity of time, but they also are disciplined and tough-minded about how they think. They ask themselves good questions, and answer them with as much objectivity as they can muster.

    "What do I really want to accomplish in this account?"

    "Why aren't they buying from me?"

    "Who is the key decision maker in this account?"

    "Am I spending too much time in this account, or not enough in that one?"

    "How can I change what I am doing in order to become more effective?"

    These are just a few of the tough questions that good sales time managers consider on a regular basis. They don't let allow their emotions or personal comfort zones to dictate the plans. They go where it is smart to go, do what it is smart to do. They do these things because they have spent the quantity and quality of thought-time necessary.
These are just a few of the tough questions that good sales time managers consider on a regular basis. They don't allow their emotions or personal comfort zones to dictate the plans. They go where it is smart to go, do what it is smart to do. They do these things because they have spent the quantity and quality of thought-time necessary.

Of course, there are hundreds of other time-wasting habits. These four, however, are the most common. Correct them, and you'll be well on your way to dramatically improved results.

Friday, April 6, 2012

Great customer service starts with 7 letters

Michael Hess www.cbsnews.com March 28, 2012

There is no shortage of advice, opinion, theory and technology around the practice of customer service. Some of it good, much of it not. But none of it -- none of it -- will result in a truly exceptional customer service environment if it isn't built around one simple word: Empathy.


No matter what procedures, processes, people or tools you put in place, empathy -- the ability to identify with and understand somebody else's feelings or difficulties -- is a quality without which superior customer service simply can't exist.

If you Google "customer service best practices," it returns about 13 million results. Tack the word "empathy" onto the same search and the results drop by 95%, to 700,000. By no means a scientific study or conclusion, but I think telling.

Customer service empathy can be boiled down to five simple questions:

  • How does the person I'm trying to help feel?
  • How would I feel if I were that person?
  • No matter the request or the "rules," is there something I can/should do to help?
  • What would I expect to be done for me if the roles were reversed?
  • In the end, what would make this customer satisfied or (better yet) happy, and is there any reason I can't do it or find someone who can?
With these five questions and the right attitude, you need little else to be a customer service superstar. They cannot be replaced with a 700-page handbook or multi-million dollar CRM system.

Empathy is often ignored or lost when companies start to get excessively clever and complex. Things like NIA (Next Issue Avoidance), ASA (Average Speed of Answer), KPI (Key Performance Indicators), and any number of other acronyms and metrics dehumanize a very human interaction. Articles, white papers and corporate guidelines often read like satire to anyone who is truly passionate about customers. They are full of buzz terms and grandiose technical language, focused very much on operational performance and "ROI," and very rarely focused on the person around whom all of this complexity revolves. It's akin to having a conversation about someone who's standing in the room but ignoring the fact that she's there.

Companies get so caught up in their systems and investments that they lose sight of the fact that genuine empathy can obviate the need for much of it, or at a minimum certainly simplify it. "Eyes on the prize," as it were.

I expect to get the usual flack from the people who work hard in these highly structured, analytical environments and think that my approach to service is quaint and unrealistic. That's OK. Their jobs -- and entire departments, businesses and industries -- revolve around systematizing service, I understand that. And of course I realize that in all areas of business there need to be steps, measurements, and controls in place (and the bigger the organization the more may be needed). But today's customer service standard-bearers have proven that process should only be built on a basic, human-focused foundation, and when it comes to serving humans, empathy is the best place to start.
Michael Hess is founder and CEO of Skooba Design, and also serves as an advisor to other entrepreneurs. He is "obsessed to the point of insanity" with customer service. Read the philosophies that make Michael and Skooba Design tick here.

Understanding Gen-Y's Top 3 Priorities

  Dan Schawbel  March 28, 2012 www.openforum.com

There are many clear differences between colleagues of different generations. But these have less to do with age and more to do with the impactful events that occur during formative years. When you're managing employees, consider the values the different generations hold dear.
Every generation is shaped by a few important world events, trends or experiences that contribute to its overall identity.
  • Baby boomers experienced the assassination of JFK, the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement.
  • Generation X (.pdf) had the Cold War, the Challenger explosion and the rise of AIDS.
  • Generation Y's identifying experiences include 9/11, the subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the recession.
These key experiences help to explain political, social and occupational motivations for any given generation. Making sweeping generalizations doesn't help you to understand the make-up of the individuals in a group, but they can help you see how people evolve with the world around them.
The context also helps us evaluate how different generations develop the priorities that govern their life decisions, and how those affect them at work. Gen-Y's top three priorities, according to a Pew research study, may surprise you. Here are some of the reasons behind each of them.
1. Being a good parent
The economic climate and rising costs of college have caused many Millennials to land back in their parents' homes. According to Pew Research, 30 percent of Gen-Y is living with their parents. Of that, a whopping 78 percent are happy about it.
Being a good parent is one of the most important things in their lives, said 52 percent of respondents in the study.
Gen-Y has very strong relationships with their parents (boomers). Their parents are still very much part of their decision-making process, even for older Gen-Yers. They recognize all that their parents have done to help them succeed, and they want to do the same for their children.
2. Having a successful marriage
Gen-Y has grown up during a time when divorce occurs in more than half of all marriages. In fact, only six out of 10 them were raised with married parents. Of the study's respondents, 30 percent said that having a successful marriage was of the utmost importance to them.
They have seen the negative effects of divorce, both personal and financial, and are determined not to make the same mistakes. For this reason, and for financial concerns, Gen-Y members are not rushing to get married. Only 21 percent are married now, half the amount of their parent’s generation at the same age.
3. Helping others in need
Helping others doesn’t just mean in their free time. Gen-Y has come of age during the global-warming debate and during a lot financial scandal (Enron, WorldCom, Bernie Madoff). The Pew study showed that 21 percent of respondents said helping others is key for them.
They want to work for organizations that put people first and the bottom line second. In fact, according to a Deloitte study, 92 percent of Gen-Y believes that success in business should not be measured purely by profit (.pdf).
Work with them
As an employer of Gen-Y, if you hope to develop and retain the top talent, consider their priorities. Realize that work won't be at the top of the list. They value a true work-life balance. And they want an opportunity to give back to the community through your company.
Understanding this and adapting to it will allow you to get the most productivity and longevity out of a generation that has a lot of intellect to offer your organization.
Dan Schawbel is the managing partner of Millennial Branding, a Gen-Y research and management consulting firm. Subscribe to his updates at Facebook.com/DanSchawbel.

Monday, April 2, 2012

The No-Hour Workweek: Reinventing Employee Expectations For The Modern Economy

by: Jon Stein, www.fastcoexist.com  March 28, 2012

The 9 to 5 is dead, but we’re still harnessing workers with its outdated strictures. Happy workers are more healthy and more creative, so it’s time to start giving our workers the leeway to be happy (because otherwise they work all the time). The secret: Treat them like people.

A University of Southern California researcher, Alexandra Michel, recently reported on the disastrous effects of the highly stressful work environment of investment banking, citing insomnia, alcoholism, heart palpitations, eating disorders, and explosive tempers among the health hazards of the job. These toxic working habits are not sustainable for the individual or the company. Nor, evidently, do they produce good business practices.

The poster child of bad corporate culture, banks may be the worst culprit, but they’re not the only ones fostering negative working environments. A study by Gallup-Healthways found that nearly one third of all Americans, across all ages and income levels, were unhappy or unmotivated by their careers. That’s no way for us to work, or to live.

What is a Good Job?

There’s a noticeable shift in what people value most in their careers. The New York Times studied key words in a sample of commencement speeches last year. The words “world” and “love” showed up far more often than “money” and “success.”
Is the old adage that there’s more to life than money finally sinking in? It seems there’s a nostalgic desire to return to the good old days, where people worked 9 to 5, never on weekends, consumed less, and had ample time for their families and friends.
Because that’s not going to happen, HR departments are considering dozens of ways to make their people happier and healthier, shorter working weeks, unlimited vacation days, uplifting working environments, and new policies to address core needs.
These are worthy ideas, but alone they fail to address some crucial transformations in the world around us. Technology has irrevocably changed the way we conduct business and live our lives. The 9 to 5 is dead and work is ubiquitous. We need to create new models accordingly.

The Startup Conundrum

When I founded Betterment, a better way to save and invest for what’s most important in life, my mission was to reinvent an old, broken process for the 21st century. The goal encompasses all aspects of the company: from the product itself and how we interact with customers, to the values with which we conduct business, and--most importantly--to how we nurture our team.
Startups are notorious for long hours, hard work, and high pressure. Technology means we’re permanently plugged in. Encouraging shorter hours sounds great in theory, but in reality it would likely just look good on paper. Everyone would still work all the time.
In designing a working environment that would bring out the best qualities in our team, we had to come up with a model to satisfy the demands of a startup while balancing the needs of individuals.

The “No-Hour” Workweek

The No-Hour Workweek means our team is constantly in contact. Two-thirds of our team takes customer calls on weekends, and our development team frequently works into the wee hours of the morning. We monitor social media, catch up on emails, and work on projects at night and over the weekends, and we’re constantly attending industry and networking events.
The No-Hour Workweek also means that our team members can come in at 8, 12, or not at all if they’d prefer to work remotely. It means they can work at the times they’re most productive, make family gatherings, attend to personal commitments, leave early for travel or yoga or drinks with friends.
We have tremendous respect for weekends and personal time. To balance the inevitable overtime, we take away traditional time restrictions. Our people get to lead the lives they want and be treated as the adults they are, and we get a kick-ass team that loves to work.
To be successful and to prevent it from turning into the All-Hour Workweek, the No-Hour Workweek needs a framework in place:
  1. Respect: Being connected 24/7 does not mean you place unrealistic demands on each other. If something is urgent, we treat it as such, but we don’t expect an immediate response on every item. We’ve hired people that respect each other and work as a team. They understand how to balance the priorities of our business with the various commitments and needs of their colleagues. Without this understanding, the No-Hour Workweek would spiral out of control.
  2. Focus: In a startup there is always more to do. Each individual needs to understand his or her immediate priorities and what we expect of them. With our guidance, they come up with specific, measurable goals to be reviewed every three months (and more frequently when necessary). It provides autonomy in the role and helps us work towards a common goal.
  3. Environment: It’s still important to foster team morale. Friday team lunches, regular happy hours, ping-pong tournaments, and a choice of workstations (couch, kitchen, nap-room, or desk), create a positive and cohesive work environment for our team. Despite all their options, our full team is in the office 95% of the time because they enjoy working here.
  4. Leisure time: The expectation to switch on whenever needed means encouraging employees to switch off just as frequently. We are a team of entrepreneurs, and we all know the best ideas are inspired away from the desk. Time is finite; energy is not. Rest and recuperation are the best way to boost energy levels. More energy means more creativity. More creativity means better work. And that’s a good outcome for everyone, and the world.