Turning Them Over
“People don’t leave bad companies. They leave bad bosses”.
One of the problems any employer faces is staff turnover. Some industries experience this at a more rapid rate than others as a “natural event. Call centres are a case in point: youngsters fresh out of school or university work a shift system for two years to gain experience in customer service before realising that a 24-hour shift system doesn’t leave them much social life.
But there are other reasons employees leave voluntarily and all stem from leadership.
Let’s start with lack of recognition. We want to be recognised for our contribution (however small) and simply not being noticed/acknowledged can be demotivating in the extreme. How do we feel when the boss takes all the credit?
Another could be lack of trust from the manager. There could be good reasons for this, e.g. we haven’t yet proven that we can be trusted to manage on our own. However, if our work is being constantly checked even after a considerable number of years, clearly something’s wrong. There may be exceptions to this (banking is one that comes to mind, flying a commercial airliner is another). Is it a training issue or a “genuine” competence issue?
This leads to a related cause: micromanagement, when no one can do anything without being constantly corrected by their manager.
Growth opportunities again are important for people. We want to be promoted. We want more experience. We want more responsibility (generally).
Broken promises also feature heavily. Promises must be fulfilled unless there are extremely extenuating circumstances (e.g. a pandemic, a takeover, or something else major). Managers who don’t keep their promises find themselves suffering from lack of trust in their team.
Culture is also key. There’s a famous saying that the culture of an organisation is shaped by the worst behaviour that the leader is prepared to accept. Culture can make a real difference in terms of morale, productivity, and whether people go to bed on Sunday evening looking forward to coming to work the next day or not. I’ve experienced jobs where I woke up every morning dreading going to work either because of a toxic boss or a toxic culture. Equally, I’ve had jobs where I couldn’t wait to get to work!
Leaders who lack the necessary leadership skills, the interpersonal skills, or others are also a major issue and this lack is often related to causes enumerated above.
If you’ve got this far, you may be asking “what about compensation?” Poor compensation is a factor (for some). However, if we look at the wide variety of jobs available “out there” there are those that are comparatively poorly compensated compared to others. A university professor who is one of the few world experts on a particular subject may not be as well paid as, say, a successful 35-year-old investment banker who earns huge bonuses. “Compensation” means different things to different people. For some, it’s cash. For others want recognition. “Everyone has their price”.
I find that I often observe both myself and other leaders by doing “mini audits” where any of these problems may lie. Of the eight causes listed above, how many may be present or at least a risk in our organisations?
As Bob Nelson commented, “An employee’s motivation is a direct result of the sum of their interactions with his or her manager.”
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.
Labels: Leadership, Productivity, Strategy, Teamwork
Keep it Simple
Technology lets us do so much more in terms of accessing, using and providing information and services. Unfortunately, this may well be its main disadvantage.
If it’s to be useful, technology has to be user-friendly to all users. There will, of course, be exceptions: specialist technology etc, but I have in mind the “standard” apps that one uses on a smart phone to access services.
We’ve come a long, long way in a very short time in terms of what’s accessible on a mobile device. We now have a generation of children (“Gen Alpha”) who simply don’t know what life without a smart device is like.
Equally, we have a (dwindling) number of people who can best be described as “technophobes” (afraid of technology). These are most often found in the “Silent” (pre-boomer) and even the Baby Boomer generations.
As time goes on, apps are updated. The latest update to the Apple Infrastructure is iOS 18 which has caused some distress to users as it has changed the “photos” app into something that appears at first sight much more cumbersome to use.
It occurred to me that one of the problems may be that many of these apps are designed by Millennial and Generation Z developers who are perhaps designing them for their own generation without thinking about those who have gone before. It wouldn’t surprise me if Gen Alpha look on such apps in the not-too distant future and wonder how anything so anti-diluvian could ever have been allowed on the market.
Be that as it may, the one thing many apps seem to have in common is that, as they are updated, they become more complex and the user interface becomes less user friendly. I’ve frequently had to resort to Google to find solutions to simple problems once I’ve downloaded the updated version of an app which I used with no problems before. Developers design apps without always appreciating how they’re used by current users (even though the update may actually provide an even better experience, it still frustrates users until they’ve understood how to work it).
My advice to anyone (not just developers) is keep it simple. The simpler it is to use, the more users you’ll have. If you’re lucky, it’ll also be simpler to diagnose and rectify any faults in the coding.
We seem to think that, if something’s complex or complicated, it must be good. That is rarely the case. As Einstein famously said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”
Simple processes and procedures generally are easy to understand, apply and, if there’s a problem, it can be rectified fairly quickly.
What in our organisations could be simplified?
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.
Labels: Customer Care, Productivity, Selling, Strategy
Toxic Leadership Behaviour
With ever-increasing pressure on leaders to “perform” these days, the temptation to indulge in what some might see as “toxic “strategies can be very powerful.
I recently read a fascinating article by Jeroen Kraaijenbrink on some of the typical toxic behaviours one might encounter.
Kraaijenbrink identifies seven key behaviours. He starts with micromanagement: a behaviour that stifles innovation and trust as workers feel undervalued and demotivated, meaning lack of job satisfaction due to seeing their work continuously undermined.
The next is withholding information. If someone does this deliberately to keep their people in the dark, the result is a culture of secrecy and mistrust – the “information is power” syndrome. The team may also not be able to make effective decisions. To this I would add the opposite: deluging workers with information, emails, memos and such like whether they’re relevant to them or not. This causes “information overload” and stress as people try to work out and prioritise what’s important. A good leader acts as an “information funnel”, reviewing inbound messages and deciding which are relevant for which worker.
Many of us will have heard the maxim that leadership is a position offering an opportunity to build others. Thinking of one’s position in “hierarchical terms” is likely to mean the leader believes in command-and-control style.
“Divide and conquer” tactics result in cohesiveness and trust amongst team members being destroyed and a toxic working environment. Additionally, they undermine collaboration and encourage destructive competition.
How often have we heard of “the leader who’s never there”? Employees and workers will feel they’re not supported as well as experiencing uncertainty in direction. Additionally, personal development and addressing issues promptly may result in lower job satisfaction.
Another toxic behaviour in terms of managing people comes in the form of seeing team members as resources rather than human beings (think of the ghastly “Human Resources” description for the department charged with workers’ well-being). In such cases, burn-out, lack of engagement and high turnover can result.
Finally, the all-too common fault of playing favourites can destroy team morale and result in divisions and resentment when merit is overlooked, discouraging effort and loyalty.
Personally, I know I’ve been guilty of several of these sins at one time or another. The key is to learn from them and avoid repeating them.
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.
Labels: Customer Care, Leadership, Productivity, Teamwork
My Hotmail Conundrum
I’m a proud and happy Mac user! After working on a PC for 25 yeas of my professional life, for whatever reason I decided 11 years ago to switch to a Mac.
To paraphrase the slogan “someone” used, “Once you use a Mac, you won’t look back!” I love my Mac. I’ve learnt how to use my Mac (mostly through trial and error). If there’s something I can’t do, I Google it and find an abundance of articles, helpdesks and videos on how to resolve my problem. I once received the ultimate compliment that people should refer to me for any Apple related issues (mind you this was within my own family).
One of the services I use with Apple is the mail app. I run several email accounts on this: personal, business and two public domain emails (one of which I use for online shopping).
One of those public domain emails is a Hotmail address and is the first email address I ever had that was my own and could be “carried around with me” as I moved from country to country.
This year, Microsoft updated their sign-in protocols for Hotmail and I started receiving emails that I would no longer be able to access my Hotmail account without taking certain action. Microsoft did provide guidance on what action to take, but unfortunately it was written for the operating systems used on iPhones and iPads. It didn’t apply to people using Apple Mail on their desktop Mac. Things came to a head, when I received what seemed to be the final warning that I would no longer be able to access my Hotmail address from my desktop. I’d already taken the action needed to be able to access it on my iPhone and iPad so it was not going to be a “dealbreaker” if I couldn’t access it from my desktop. However as I advance in age, I find that I prefer accessing email from a larger screen rather than that on an iPhone (even the new “plus “size phones). An iPad 11” is OK.
I finally “Googled” something like Can’t access Hotmail on my Mac desktop” and there in the top five suggestions, was the answer to my problem. It was simple! Within a minute, I’d successfully reconfigured my Mac to access Hotmail once more.
The individual who provided it commented that Microsoft instructions were only for the operating systems on iPhones and iPads but not Apple MacBooks or desktops…
It made me wonder, DID Microsoft or whoever the employee was that wrote the original instructions for iPads and phones simply not realise that iOS is different to OSX?
It certainly seems to be the case. After all, is it reasonable to expect a Microsoft employee working on one particular product to understand the intricacies of Apple’s operating systems? This isn’t the first time I’ve encountered this problem either. Are we in our organisations just as guilty of not “seeing the bigger picture”?
Those of us Mac users who use MS Office on our Macs will also have encountered similar predicaments when using the Mac versions of Office.
In the end I realise this was nothing more than a simple case of awareness. Our world is growing faster, more complicated and more diverse every year. What holds through this year may well be obsolete next year.
How can we as business leaders, manage this rate of change in such a way as to keep our business is going (and our employees sane!)
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.
Labels: Customer Care, Productivity
Teamwork Comes from TRUST
Stephen Covey, author of “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” once commented that “without trust we don’t truly collaborate; we merely coordinate or, at best, cooperate. It is trust that transforms a group of people into a team.”
The art or science (or both) of teamwork has been the subject of many studies. The US Navy SEALS generally won’t put someone on the team if they can’t trust them. So what is it that creates this “trust” that seems to be so important?
From what I’ve seen, there are several factors at play:
First and foremost, team members must feel safe. This means that not only must they feel safe to make mistakes, but they must also feel safe to admit them, ask for help and that people won’t try to “stab them in the back”. There are countless stories of certain industry sectors where people claw their way to the top over the backs of others, where admitting to weakness or mistakes is a “career limiting move”.
Another factor is communication. Team members must have open and frank communication and be able to feel safe in saying things. This has already been mentioned in the first paragraph dealing with safety. However, it’s just as important to be able to voice concerns, complaints, criticisms about what’s going on. Of course, when it comes to one’s teammates, things need to be done in a more diplomatic way, but if someone isn’t, say, pulling their weight or is causing trouble one way or another, then an “intervention” is needed and fast before team morale and productivity suffer irreparably.
Understanding one’s own strengths and weaknesses as a team member is also vital. Some people are “naturals” at sales. Others may not be so gifted in this area, but turn out to be brilliant organisers, administrators and checkers. Yet others are able to keep the team “together” when tiredness sets in or morale starts to flag.
Understanding the interplay of all these factors (and more) is vital in managing team dynamics. Once the team truly trusts each other to “have their back” it’s amazing what they can accomplish!
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.
Labels: Leadership, Productivity, Teamwork
Learning Through Mistakes
I’ve come to realise that you can’t develop leaders and good decision-making without also allowing people to make mistakes and (preferably) learn from them!
The best way to learn is to make mistakes. None of us remember learning to walk but if you ever watch an infant learning, you’ll notice that they’ll keep falling over and picking themselves up until they “get it right”.
Whilst it may be dangerous (financially and – or for health and safety reasons) to allow people to fail too often, learning from one’s mistakes provides the best experience for the next generation of leaders. As that famous philosopher “someone “said, “Good decisions are the result of experience. Experience is the result of poor decisions.”
The skill of the leader who’s bringing up the next generation is to know when they can be allowed to fail (without provoking disastrous consequences) and when to give them closer guidance. What many notice is that, in the beginning, a fair degree of “hands on” instruction and guidance is necessary, but as the “apprentice” gains in experience, confidence and commitment to the organisation and shows they are capable of either thinking things through or, at least, knowing when to ask for help or advice then one can slowly “let go the reins”.
Not only will this develop a capable generation of leaders, but it also allows their leaders to spend time on other important tasks, adding value to the organisation. The culture of the “blame game” where aspiring leaders are allowed to fall flat on their proverbial face is neither building nor likely to develop leaders. Indeed, it will only serve to develop a generation of risk avoiders who when faced with a crisis, either “pass the buck” or are likely to lead the organisation to disaster.
I have seen the results described above in a number of cases. All decisions as a result are referred “up the line””.
Scientific studies have shown that humans are mentally conditioned to avoid action that could result in a loss, more so than to take a risk that may result in a substantial gain to them or their organisation. This is probably due to our old “survival instinct” from man’s early days. Whilst it may still be applicable in certain situations, it doesn’t apply to all.
We’ll never eliminate risk entirely unless we refuse to take any action with any degree of risk. We can however coach the next generation of leaders to think for themselves in such a way that they examine a situation critically, consult with others and take the most well-considered and informed choice available to them based on experience.
How is your organisation set up for this?
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.
Labels: Career, Leadership, Risk, Teamwork
Communication and Customer Service
One of my recent experiences showed me how crucial good and clear communication can be in providing quality customer service.
As the world “goes global”, we find ourselves dealing with call centres outside our own country, with people whose first language may not be our first language, all combined with the bureaucracy that’s part and parcel of large organisations (particularly financial services) in today’s world.
I finally realised something was wrong when email communication with the particular individual resulted in exactly the same email with exactly the same wording coming back to me every time that I thought I had explained and clarified something. Finally, I called the company’s Customer Service Hotline and was able to clarify exactly what the individual was trying to tell me.
Not only did this show me how vital clear communication is in providing service to others, but it also showed me that it will continue to be a problem that we need to understand and to deal with. Despite the best intentions of “the other person”, misunderstandings can and will occur.
The trick is being able to resolve the situation quickly. It did take me a while to realise something was very wrong with the communication between me and “the other guy”. Once I worked it out, I was able to devise a solution and achieve the expected result.
Some may say, “Surely it was up to the company and the company representative to devise the solution for you the customer?” In answer: yes, one could take that attitude but then would it actually, move me further towards the goal I had set myself or would it simply turn into a game of “saving face”?
How can we as “Customer Service” businesses ensure that our communication is as clear as possible and, at the same time, devise processes where there is clearly an issue?
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.
Labels: Customer Care, Risk
