Monthly Archives: January 2015

Leaders as Greeters

greetingI remember when Walmart had official greeters in their stores. It was their job to say hello, give you a shopping cart, and if you had young children with you they would give them a smiley face sticker.

I always thought that was a unique way to welcome you to a store. Walmart just isn’t the same without the official greeters.

There are still businesses that have greeters, although they are called something else, and their job description includes more than just saying hello. Think of hotel porters, employees who stand at the front entrance of the mall stores, and with the advent of online shopping the website has become the ultimate greeter.

Why are greeters so important to business? Because the customer experience begins and ends at the front door. Leaders should see themselves as greeters for the very same reason. Part of their responsibility is to provide the same three customer (employee) experiences: Connection, Direction, and Reflection.

Connection

Greeters are the first to welcome you to the hotel, store, or website. They make you feel part of a larger group, you know you are not alone in your quest. Leader Greeters do the same thing. Employees need to feel that they are part of the team. Everything from the basic introductions to ongoing communication fosters a connection.

Think of your role as the Leader Greeter like CEO Jeff Bezos sees Amazon, “We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.”

Direction

Greeters help customers find what they want on the inside: the hotel room, the store aisle, or which button to press on the website. Leader Greeters do the same thing. Employees need direction to the right opportunities, training, and coaching. Businesses that want a good customer experience don’t let customers wander around until they are frustrated. Employees want to know they are headed in the right direction as well.

“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.” – Lao Tzu

Reflection

When customers leave the hotel, store, or website, businesses want them to remember a good experience and have the desire to return. Hotel porters are the best at giving restaurant recommendations. Store employees showing appreciation by saying thank you goes a long way. Websites that keep you informed about your order keep you coming back for more. Leader Greeters do the same thing. When it’s time for employees to go home for the day, or take a vacation, they need to feel like they accomplished enough on the job and were successful. Help your employee’s work-life balance by prioritizing and delegating the right work load.

“The state of your life is nothing more than a reflection of your state of mind.” – Wayne Dyer

Leaders Shine the Light

shining a lightIn entertainment, light focused into spotlights bring attention to the people who possess such great talent and skill that audiences will flock to see and hear them perform. In medical procedures, light focused into x-rays can illuminate areas in need of repair. Each of these examples brings about the opportunity for positive results.

Leaders in all walks of life also have the ability, and the responsibility, to use light in the exact same ways in order to bring about positive results. The actions that leaders should take are rather straight forward, as we will discuss below, however only the most confident leaders can help their team shine brighter than themselves.

Spotlight Leadership Opportunities

These are the basic light shining opportunities that every leader knows they should do, many leaders do well, and most underestimate the impact. Think of everything from one-on-one meetings, team meetings, and town hall meetings. Think of phone calls, emails, and announcements. Any time a leader can shine the light on their team’s success they should do it, and here’s why:

Shining a light recognizes accomplishments. Everyone needs to hear they did a good job. It’s an easy way to keep up morale.

“Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.” – Sam Walton

Shining a light rewards achievement. Everyone already knows who does the work, but does the leader know and publically acknowledge those that made success possible?

“Share success with the people who make it happen. It makes everybody think like an owner…” – Emily Ericsen, VP of HR, Starbucks Coffee Company

Shining a light raises awareness. Everyone wants to be successful in what they do. When you shine a light on successful results, people will imitate the actions that brought success.

“Celebrate what you want to see more of.” Thomas J. Peters

X-ray Leadership Opportunities

These are the harder light shining opportunities that every leader knows they should do, some leaders do well, and most underestimate the impact. Think of everything from one-on-one meetings, mentoring sessions, and performance reviews. Think of project updates, status reports, and meeting debriefs. Any time a leader can shine the light on their team’s opportunity for improvement they should do it, and here’s why:

Shining a light reveals faults. If something is not working than a leader owes it to their team to point out the facts and let the team figure out how to get it back on track.

“Have an attitude of fact finding, not fault finding.”

Shining a light removes fear. Nothing causes fear more than the unknown. Providing the opportunity for a regular review of progress helps your team act and ensure success instead of reacting to failure.

“FEAR has two meanings: Forget Everything And Run, or Face Everything And Rise.”

Shining a light restores focus. Success relies on having a goal, developing a plan to reach the goal, and executing the plan. The best leaders know that plans are always adjusted but only with a keen focus on the goal.

“Your focus determines your success.”

You can’t solve a problem you don’t understand.

don't run away from problems, solve themWhen something is not turning out like you want it to what should you do? Change what you are doing. Sounds simple enough. Sometimes it seems easier to just keep doing what you have been doing and ignore the issues than to figure out what the real problem is and solve it, but as William Rotsler said, “You won’t find a solution by saying there is no problem.”

I have also seen that you have to understand the problem before you accept a solution, or you risk accepting a solution that’s too easy to solve the actual problem. Equally bad as running away from a problem is to think you have it all figured out only to find out that the solution didn’t solve the real problem but only a symptom of the problem.

Thankfully, there are people who have figured this problem solving process out already and we can learn from them. I have taken the Six Sigma process first started by Motorola in the 1980’s and sprinkled it with ideas espoused by past leaders to form the four step process that I use:

Step One – Identify the real problem by asking the right questions. Your goal in step one is to gain alignment on the real problem by asking defining questions. What are we working on? Why are we working on this particular problem? How is the work currently being done? What are the benefits of making the improvement?

“To solve any problem, here are three questions to ask yourself: First, what could I do? Second, what could I read? And third, who could I ask?” – Jim Rohn

Step Two – Find the real cause of the problem through analysis. Your goal in step two is to obtain and sift through as much data and facts about the problem as you can within a limited time frame to bring the root cause to the surface.

“If I had 60 minutes to solve a problem, I would spend 55 minutes defining it and 5 minutes solving it.” – Albert Einstein

Step Three – Find the real solution to the problem – not just the easy one. Your goal in step three is to brainstorm on as many possible solutions you can until you find the one that is the most promising and practical.

“If you find a good solution and become attached to it, the solution may become your next problem.” – Dr. Robert Anthony

Step Four – Make sure the solution really sticks. Your goal in step four is to make sure the solution lasts. Even though you are solving problems, this is still change and it takes more work to stick with change than it does to implement change. You will have to gain alignment for the solution by selling the benefits, handing off leadership to the team that will be using the solution every day, allowing issues to be raised and ensuring they are quickly addressed.

“Change is hard because people overestimate the value of what they have—and underestimate the value of what they may gain by giving that up.” – Dr. James Belasco

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