Asking for Help is Good!
For many of us, asking for help feels like we’ve failed. In some cultures (national and corporate), this is even true.
For anyone to ask for help means, admitting a weakness or flaw. Whilst this is a somewhat skewed perspective, it is nonetheless the case. From a very early age, we’re conditioned to be independent, to solve our own problems, not to inconvenience others (I’m guilty of this!), to be the best we can. Asking for help goes against all this conditioning.
Look at the best performing teams: what do they all have in common? Answer: they work together effectively; they trust each other; they know each other’s areas of strength, and leverage them, but know their weaknesses and support them.
No one these days can expect to be “all things to all people”. With life’s ever-growing complexity, we need to rely on each other more.
Back to the original title of this article: asking for help is good. What it shows is that the person asking knows they need help, they are not afraid to admit they have a problem, they want to improve, and help the team and they trust their team. How many cases of stress and “burnout” have we seen/heard about caused by people not daring to ask fort the help they so desperately need?
Another possibility, depending on the nature of help requested, is that it may indicate an area for improvement in the way that an organisation does things. We all hate to change, sometimes change is a good thing, as long as it improves conditions for both workers and customers. “Change for change’s, sake“ is neither necessary, welcome, nor cheap!
What might it mean when people in our organisation feel they can’t or shouldn’t ask for help? It may indicate a toxic work culture where lack of trust and an unhealthy competitive atmosphere. Team tasks may take longer to complete, be delivered late or not in the form needed.
How do we encourage people to ask for help and to understand that such requests will not be seen as signs of fail ability to be punished?
I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services. For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.
Labels: Leadership, Productivity, Teamwork
Fraught with Friction
I received a brilliant newsletter from Michael Heppell not long ago about the “friction” that we encounter in multiple aspects of our daily lives.
Michael, in case you haven’t heard of him, is the author of How to Be Brilliant and other books on service and self-improvement.
For Michael, “Customer Service” means more than the proverbial “fake smile” and “Have a nice day”. We should always be on the lookout for how we ourselves can improve, innovate and make things easier on others. His bugbear, in his newsletter, was “friction”.
Surprisingly, Michael claims that we can be rude, drop the ball, mess up pricing and still be forgiven if things go smoothly. If, however, our interaction is “fraught with friction, we shouldn’t be surprised if our customers vote with their feet and look for smoother alternatives.”
Michael has spotted a number of the ways in which we experience friction (but I bet we can all add others!):
- Enter your password (No, not that one…).
- Print this (don’t worry we’ll never actually look at it).
- We need your details for security (only to have to repeat them... twice).
- Please choose: 8am - 1pm or 1pm - 7pm for your convenient appointment.
- You need to download the app first.
- Please speak in your normal voice. What is your postcode?
- Please repeat your postcode.
- I'll be with you in a minute.
- I'm not authorised to...
- It’s policy…
Each encounter with friction slows a customer down and gets them annoyed. It slows them down (or even stops them) from making a buying or loyalty decision.
Is this what we really want?
If we don’t enjoy friction when we’re customers, do we think it’s any different when it comes to those who use our products or services? What friction does that result in for our staff and business?
What could we all do (starting with just one thing) that could remove or at the least reduce friction and give customers a smoother experience?
I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services. For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.
Labels: Customer Care, Productivity, Strategy
New System, New Problems
A client of mine recently commented on how a newly installed accounting system had resulted in them being unable to pay suppliers presenting legitimate invoices.
The problem was, apparently, that payee details were not transferred from the "old" system to the "new" system... As a result, all that client’s suppliers were asked to complete new supplier registration forms (even though their information would not have changed). Imagine the chaos this caused! Not only that, but also the inconvenience and ill-will of having to fill in the same form again. One supplier had already completed their form and then seen their payment delayed even longer whilst their details were re-entered into the “new system".
Whatever happened, something went horribly wrong. Either comprehensive User Acceptance Tests (UATs) weren’t carried out, or somebody decided that transferring this data couldn’t be done for whatever reason.
The client has been able to pay one of its major suppliers, but this supplier has now stopped dealing with them. That supplier delivers an important service to my client, and through no fault of their own have fallen victim to circumstances.
When we introduce new systems, it’s generally out of a genuine desire to improve our service (or, at least, not to fall behind the competition). However, before we “go live”, we need to remember that others will be affected. These may be:
- Our own staff
- Customers
- Suppliers
- Regulators
- Others we didn’t think of at the time
Before implementing any changes, we need to do our utmost to make sure it works – preferably the way it was intended to work - and that it improves the lives of our customers. We also need to ensure that ongoing support is there for when things “break down” or the “unexpected” occurs.
At best, system “glitches” are a minor inconvenience and can be rectified quickly. At worst, they result in unwelcome publicity, loss of business and even legal action or regulatory penalties.
Do you have a process to check whether a new system is “fit for purpose”?
I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services. For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.
Labels: Customer Care, Leadership, Productivity
Do We Need "Teamwork Training"?
The corporate ethic has it that workers do their best to rise to the top.
The problem with this is that it is inherently contradictory to an organisation’s goals which, these days, depend increasingly on teamwork.
Teamwork is a group of people trusting each other, working together and looking out for each other to achieve a common goal. Getting to the top in many businesses (and politics), however, means putting oneself above the rest – the exact opposite.
To reinforce the point, who are the ones who “get the glory” on TV, the news and in the press/corporate newsletters? Answer, those who have clawed their way (or are clawing their way) to the top over the backs of others.
Hunter gatherer societies found (through hard experience) that working as a team is far more effective in bringing home food for the rest of the tribe. Solitary hunters may get lucky, but more often than not, they don’t.
If one looks at modern armed forces training, it’s all about teamwork as your life may literally depend on your buddy/wingman/backup doing the right thing at the right time. The ultimate test of the officer is whether their team will follow them into battle and die – the most extreme example.
In the corporate world, we don’t expect our team to lay down their lives (although many sacrifice their marriages, relationships with children and personal health at the altar of “the company”). Success, promotion and recognition come at a cost.
I recently saw a TED Talk about how the US’ SEAL Team 6 decides on whether a candidate is fit to enter. The answer is simple: trust. Not performance. Trust.
The same applies to leaders and teamwork. A team that trusts its leader and each other is capable of quite literally working miracles.
We have innumerable metrics to measure performance; we have almost none to measure trust.
We need modern leadership and teamwork training to teach workers to subordinate the contradictory desire to rise to the top over the backs of others by re-instilling the spirit of teamwork that comes naturally to any society of hunters.
I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services. For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.
Labels: Career, Leadership, Teamwork
