By Laurie Guest
There are three facets of workplace participation that can make all the difference in productivity and results: attitude, initiative and engagement. These characteristics may come naturally to some, but often they must be cultivated in a workplace. Attitude – Yours, Mine, and Ours in the Workplace Your attitude is your choice. Choose well. Choose to surround yourself with the thoughts you want to have. Set boundaries on those inside and outside of your work who impact your thoughts. If you live with a person who is constantly stating things in the negative, consider having a conversation about adjusting that tone. If there are friends that can’t seem to get out of the negative place, maybe consider distancing yourself just a little bit in order to self-preserve. In the workplace, it’s a little harder to put space in place. It’s likely you’re not in a position to have the positive conversation talk with co- workers, but think about your own attitude. Initiative – Or is it interest? I believe at the core of the lack of initiative is lack of interest. Visualize the least motivated person you know personally or professionally. Can you picture them? Got it? I bet you’re picturing a person who is detached from the situation, looks bored, or appears irritated. What you may have is a corporate employee low on initiative who does what’s asked but doesn’t ever step it up a notch. How can you create more initiative in the workplace? Find out what aspect of the job interests the employees. If at all possible, give them responsibilities in that area. For example, I once consulted in an eye doctor’s office where one staff member was deemed the troublemaker. When I met with her and asked her questions about her job, she showed only mild interest in anything work related. Finally, I switched topics and asked her if she ever had a job she loved. She responded by telling me about her retail clothing job she had when she was just out of school. With the doctor’s permission, we asked her to take over displays in the optical area and in the windows. When her creative work got noticed and she was praised by others, her confidence went up and work performance improved. Initiative comes from being interested in the work at hand. What is it going to take to get all team members interested in your product, your services, and the guests that you are privileged to serve? Engagement – Ready for Battle While initiative is one’s personal responsibility to action, engagement means a formal promise, or, in its original form, ready for battle. What do we mean when we say, “We want engaged staff, or how do we facilitate that behavior?” Engaged staff means present in the moment and ready to take an action that fulfills the promise you have made to your guest. A server at a restaurant is engaged when he or she hears me place my order. For example, I already know I have to indicate a salad dressing, a side item choice, and a beverage, and do so when I order. A truly engaged server will smile and say thank you or possibly repeat the order if I said it too fast. A disengaged server will say, “How would you like that meat prepared? Do you want the soup or the salad? Would you like lemon with your tea?” You get my point. I’ve had this happen on many occasions in all kinds of industries and so have you. The disengaged employee doesn’t really listen and is on automatic pilot. How do we help staff be more engaged? What about asking for ideas from the team on how to do things differently or smarter? Attitude, initiative and engagement are the cornerstones to a successful organization. They do not appear automatically but rather through skillful planning and execution. Looking for your next healthcare speaker? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to make your healthcare event a success!
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By Laurie Guest
Winning back guests you have lost is not an issue people like to talk about, but it is a necessary topic in staff development. What skills do your team members need in order to thwart a customer defection? It begins with being totally present in the encounter in order to realize the guest is unhappy enough to leave. It ends by saying and doing the right things to turn it around. I have a great example of this happening in my personal life. Not long ago, my husband and I purchased a new refrigerator. We like to buy local whenever we can, and have been loyal customers for many years of a certain appliance store in our community. The new refrigerator has needed a repair man to come out four times for a series of issues, one right after the other. Eventually, it was determined that the left door was manufactured incorrectly, and a new one would need to be installed. Unfortunately, the company sent the wrong door, but that wasn’t determined until three hours of repair were completed. We ended up with a door that still didn’t dispense water or ice and even had aesthetic issues that included holes where a cover plate belonged. The part that bothered me most was that I was the one doing the calling every time to check on the status of the next step in the long, long saga. I had a refrigerator door that wasn’t right for over eight weeks, and I was still waiting. Exasperated, I finally drove to the appliance store to get an answer. The owner told me, “Oh, we have the new door. I just don’t know where to put you in the schedule, so I haven’t called you back yet.” Wrong answer. If he would have just called me with regular updates, I would likely be fine with the progress. He even told me he sees my name on the list regularly and keeps telling himself they need to fit me in. This is the last purchase we made at that local shop, I’m sad to say. I had been kind and patient every step of the way, in what was now edging into a four-month ordeal. He knew that I was not happy, but he did nothing to turn it around. If he told me that he had arranged for a new door and was doing the repairs at no charge to me, that would have been good service. The reason I will be moving on, never to return, is because there wasn’t an attempt to win me back after things went wrong. I haven’t received an apology for any of this, and clearly an apology was owed. After a bad customer service experience, my mom used to say, “I’ll do my voting with my feet.” Then she would stop doing business with that establishment and become a walking billboard of information about her experience. Whether you work for a mom and pop store or a global brand, you will have haters, but you can’t afford to ignore them. You need to learn how to embrace complaints, put haters to work for you, and turn bad news into good. Looking for your next healthcare speaker? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to make your healthcare event a success! By Laurie Guest
If you are a member of a team, working with your team is essential. Team building is one of the most frequently requested topics in my work with organizations. I always ask the client to first reflect on what teamwork means in his or her environment. Does it mean that the staff get along and are mostly tension free? Does it mean everyone knows his or her position and how it fits into the big picture? What kind of work environment are you looking to create? Knowing where you currently stand and where you aspire to be is the critical first step. Start the conversation with your team’s definition of teamwork. Teamwork means two or more people committed to working together to achieve a common goal. That sounds like a simple definition, but when we break it down a bit, it’s obvious that it’s harder than it seems. First: a team consists of two or more people. I always say wherever two or more are gathered, there’s trouble. Think about it. Different personality styles and different ways of communicating. What about the listening issue? I may think I’m being very clear with my words, but you hear something totally different. I think we can all agree that getting along with other people can be tough sometimes. The solution is to be understanding, forgiving, and nonjudgmental with your co-workers. Though I wasn’t very good at this in the early years of my career, I learned to be more tolerant by not making everything about me. Just because a co-worker doesn’t offer an enthusiastic “good morning” with a smile, doesn’t mean they’re mad at me. Odds are good it has nothing to do with me. Next: a team commits to working together. When I’m invited to an organization to help with teamwork issues, the first thing I do is try to figure out what things all parties agree about. For example, do we all agree that we want to be known as the premier place to buy our product? Do we agree that we can provide better service if we work together for a seamless delivery and stop airing our dirty laundry to customers? Yes? Okay, then what do we have to do to make these answers a reality? If we cannot agree to commit our efforts for the good of the guest, the company, or our co-workers, then cohesive teamwork is impossible to achieve. We will have to start at the foundation and work up to strength. Finally: a team strives to achieve a common goal. This is where we can dive in and make progress when we’re trying to improve comradery. Do we have attainable goals as an organization? Are the goals written down and reviewed on a regular basis? Does everyone understand his or her role in helping us achieve these goals? Is there a reward for all of us in achieving the goal? In other words, what’s my incentive? If you can’t answer yes to all these questions, then examining goal setting and incentives will be an important first step in getting everyone to work on the same page. A team consisting of two or more people working together to achieve a common goal is essential in a successful organization. Looking for your next healthcare speaker? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to make your healthcare event a success! By Laurie Guest
Does lack of consistency and low productivity impact your work environment? How? What tools have you tried to get back on track? During my days of managing others, there were three specific techniques I used to help people be more consistent and productive that are worthy of sharing. Weekly meetings with a notebook in hand Hallway management can get you in trouble fast. You’re walking down the hall, you see someone you manage, and you stop them with an instruction. They listen, nod, and then you both continue on your way. With no formal interaction, with no chance for the employee to document the new information, and with no paper trail to prove you even informed him or her of the information, it is likely the instruction is lost. Also, with this type of management, the only time employees get audience with you is when they knock first. Consider instead quick, formal, one-on-one meetings on a regular basis. The employee comes with a notebook or an electronic device for documentation. The bullet points of the meeting are written down, decisions made, dates and deadlines added, and then both people sign off on this document when the meeting is over. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s consistent. Figure out your MBAs Also known as your “making bank activities,” we all have tasks we do during the course of a day that make us feel productive but likely don’t lead to increased revenue or decreased expense, which are two things that lead to profit. One time, I made a list of all the things I’d already done during the day just so I could use my trusty highlighter to cross them off the list. What a waste of time that was! But it sure made me feel a sense of accomplishment. However, it wasn’t an activity that helped me make bank. Make a list of your daily activities that provide the best results to meet your goals. Put them in a priority order and then be consistent in attending to those things first. If you have support staff that will handle some of these things for you, you have time to concentrate on other things. Evaluate whether those other things that you’re doing are a good use of your time and whether they make you more productive. Adopt a one-pass system This concept comes from my medical office days. My doctor had a philosophy that directly impacted his level of success: using a one-pass system as much as possible. That means he would touch a file one time, complete everything that was necessary, and then pass it along to the next staff person who needed the file. He would not allow a stack of charts to sit in a pile, waiting on answers to questions. He felt that a lot of time was wasted shuffling papers around. I bought into the same philosophy in my office. When I’m self-disciplined enough to follow my own rules, it makes a huge difference. When the task comes in, take action on it immediately all the way to completion whenever possible. That means all the way to the cabinet and its proper resting folder. Touch it once. Finish, file, and put it to rest. If it needs further action, then properly document, set the ticket reminder and the system that works for you, and then store it where you can find it until the earliest possible time that you can resolve the task. It works like a dream even if you are not paper-based and everything is electronic. For more consistency and increased productivity in your workplace, initiate formal one-on-one meetings on a regular basis, concentrate on activities that lead to increased revenue and decreased expense, and adopt a one-pass system to complete tasks. Looking for your next healthcare speaker? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to make your healthcare event a success! By Laurie Guest
When I was in my early 20s, I left a job solely because I felt undervalued and under-appreciated. When I look back on that experience, I realize that may not have been true. I probably needed a little maturity to understand what was really going on. Regardless, I left a field in which I received a degree, a good job with several years of experience in my pocket, and an opportunity to grow within that practice. In fact, most people leave a job because of feeling under-appreciated by coworkers or leadership. However, we can actually retain more staff if everyone, bosses and coworkers alike, learned to be more appreciative of the people around them. What’s the proper way to do this? The Appreciation Formula. There’s a formula for that? Think of it like frosting on a cake. You want it evenly spread, not too thick in any one spot. The formula is very simple. It’s the person’s name, followed by what you’re praising them for, and ending with why it makes a difference. Imagine hearing someone say, “Hey everybody, good job today.” That’s just white noise, a blanket praise. Now listen to the difference here: Look the person in the eye, use her first name, tell her why you’re thanking her, and include why it makes a difference. It sounds like this, “Betty, the way you handled that angry patient today was fantastic. By the time we did her exam, she had calmed down, and things went much, much better. Thank you.” Hear the difference? Though it sounds a little odd and rehearsed, in real life with the sincerity of the situation, it is a huge improvement over “Thanks a lot” or “Great job today.” Simple, right? Get out there and praise someone today. It’s the gasoline between paychecks and one of the easiest staff development tools that I offer. Looking for your next healthcare speaker? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to make your healthcare event a success! By Laurie Guest
During my years as a professional speaker and trainer, I have paid close attention to the actions of successful business management teams. One factor that seems consistent is the ability to retain good staff. I have a few common sense ideas, often overlooked by employers, for retaining good people and building long-term professional relationships... Appreciate good work Watch staff members in action and comment on their good work. When was the last time you gave a sincere thank you to the staff for arriving early to open, staying late to close, or making your day go smoothly? A quick “Thanks a lot!” yelled over your shoulder as you are halfway out the door does not count. Take the time for sincere gratitude. Acknowledge productivity Increased customer volume directly benefits the owner. The staff, on the other hand, may only see it as more work. Recognize hard work with an individualized reward system that increases morale. The key to this idea is to determine what each staff member feels a good “reward” would be. Donuts for breakfast may not always be the extra special treat you anticipated. While one person would like a small cash bonus, a working mother might appreciate time off to catch her child’s soccer game on a Saturday afternoon. Provide continuing education Make it a top priority to send your staff to educational programs in your industry. Encourage your team to become members of any state or local organizations that are pertinent to your product or service. If there is no such thing, then create “on-site” teaching opportunities. Employees that feel they are growing in their position will stay longer. You would not think of denying your children a chance to go to school, yet many staff people are denied “work schooling” that could make a big difference to their careers. Build opportunities for growth Plan annual retreats and develop long-term action plans. Focus on personal growth for each team member along with business goals. Allow shadowing of different areas of the company so overall knowledge is as widespread as possible. On occasion, send key staff people to visit others in your industry in a non-compete area in order to bring back business building ideas to share in the workplace. In summary, if you want to know how to find and keep good people, think of it like a good marriage. Find staff people who have similar interests and values, then treat them like treasured family members. Open communication, mutual respect, time for fun, and plans for a future together will build a long-term professional relationship. Looking for your next healthcare speaker? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to make your healthcare event a success! |
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