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Easily Nip Employee Performance Problems In the Bud With These Tips...
1. Correct behavior/performance using questions...not direct orders. One of the best bosses I ever had never gave direct orders. She always approached me and each of her direct reports with questions or suggestions. For example, if she wanted to see a letter written differently, she might say, "What would you think about this?" and she'd suggest her ideal change. Some other phrases I recall her using include:
"Have you thought about this?"
"What would happen if we changed this?"
"What do you think of..."
When you approach a problem with a question instead of a direct order, it is much easier for the other person to make the correction because s/he doesn't feel attacked, reprimanded, and they are not on the defensive.
2. Call attention to your employee's faults indirectly. One afternoon I walked into the call center floor of the small group I was managing and I noticed that while we had seven calls in queue, three of my agents were available, yet not taking calls. Two agents were engaged in smalltalk and another was surfing the Internet. Here's how I handled the situation. I walked up to an open station that was right in the middle of the stations of the available agents and I picked up the phone and answered a call. Within two seconds all three agents had also picked up phone calls. After I finished speaking with the customer, I wrote a note on a Post It and handed it to the young lady who had been surfing the Internet and asked her to follow up on behalf of the customer I'd just spoken with.I made my point dramatically, yet without saying a word. I didn't have a problem with available agents being "idle" when calls were on hold again. An indirect intervention such as this one never fails to make your point and drive the behavior you seek.
3. Hire for attitude. Train for skill. So many of the problems supervisors have with employees delivering poor customer service to customers and even issues with employee relations are directly related to poor and negative attitudes. You can teach people your policy, your software, and how business is done at your company. But you cannot teach people to have a good attitude. Start by hiring for attitude and you'll have a good core to work from. Read my list of core competencies for customer service professionals by clicking here to get a good tool to help you hire for attitude.
4. Get the right people on the bus...and the wrong people off the bus. Jim Collins introduced this brilliant concept in From Good to Great…a book on what it takes to g o from a good company to a great company. And he found that companies that were able to successfully make the transition from good to great did not start by figuring out where to drive the bus and then getting the right people on it. It as if they (companies that leaped from good to great) said, “Look, I don’t really know where we should take this bus. But I know this much: if we g et the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats, and the wrong people off the buss, then we’ll figure out how to take it someplace great.” When you get the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus, problems with motivation, performance, and attitude largely go away. Start by getting the write people on the bus.
5. Always be fair and consistent when you discipline your employees. In my supervisory workshops I always share the Hot Stove Technique and offer it as an analogy to help supervisors and managers stay fair and consistent. Here's the Hot Stove Technique.
*Foreseeable. If a gas stove is lit, you can see it from several feet away. If you still choose to touch the flame, at least you could see beforehand that it was hot. Our employees must be able to foresee our expectations and the consequences of a failure to comply. You must let them know up front that poor attitudes, tardies, sloppy work, etc. will not be tolerated. Further, they should know right from the start what will happen if they choose not to comply with policy.
*Immediate. If you touch a hot stove, you will immediately be burned...not two weeks from the moment you touch it, not even two days. Our discipline must also be immediate. Don't wait for the annual performance review to talk about a serious problem and don't even put it off for a week.
*Consistent. A hot stove will burn you each and every time you touch it. Each and every serious offense by your employees must be immediately dealt with.
*Impersonal in Nature. A hot stove is no respecter of persons. It will burn you if you're a veteran cook or a curious two year old. As supervisors we must be the same way. Each employee who displays problems with your standards or policies must be spoken to.
Keep the Hot Stove Technique in mind when dealing with problems with employees and you'll always be consistent and fair.
Adopt and apply these super-simple tips and you'll give feedback that corrects shortcomings and inspires people to give their best!
Myra Golden is an award-winning professional speaker and principal of Myra Golden Seminars, LLC, a customer service training firm serving clients in food and beverage, banking, healthcare, hospitality, and other industries. Her client list includes McDonald’s, Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola, Frito-Lay, Michelin Tires, Pirelli, and Procter & Gamble, among many others.
For hundreds of ideas for customer service improvement for use in customer service training, visit the customer service training resource portal by going to www.totalcustomerservicetraining.com
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