As a newly appointed Director, I sat in the hotel room at a Miami resort attending a manager’s training. My team radio crackled loudly; another incoming question from one of my staff. Being polite, I quickly hopped up and went out the door to respond. After this exercise occurred a few more times, the long-time resort Dock Master, a navy veteran commander, offered an observation: “A sign of a good leader is that when that leader...
“True courage is being afraid, and going ahead and doing your job anyhow, that's what courage is.” ~Norman Schwarzkopf I recently spoke at another great facilities leadership workshop. While at lunch a department leader at a major university shared, he had some weeds in his department; employees who refused to buy-in, work together or produce the results he needed. He felt helpless in his own department. He said HR would not let him fire them. He was frustrated. We...
“When everything seems like an uphill struggle, just think of the view from the top.” ~Anonymous In running a team, department, or business the day-to-day operations can exhaust all our time and energy. The marketplace is a demanding environment, the grind can leave a person empty and tired. Often it is easier to stay busy in the work, and to ignore being intentional in your personal growth. Self-improvement is one of the few areas that is going...
“A brand is defined by the customer’s experience. The experience is delivered by the employees.”~Shep HykenListen – pay attention to what your customers are saying. Use surveys, feedback cards, and face to face conversations to see how you are doing.Be aware - watch each team member in the act of serving a customer – where are the weaknesses and how can you build them up?Define - what is and is not great customer service. New employees...
Nonverbal communication is made up of all the things we add to the words - when we smile, wave, or look someone in the eye when talking to them. Most of the time we think of those things as supporting our words, the verbal message, but in fact, most agree it makes up around 93% of all our communication. Why? Because those gestures, facial expressions and eye contact heavily influence how people interpret and react to...
“Great vision without great people is irrelevant.” ~Jim Collins, Author of Good to Great Today, finding quality employees could well be a full-time job. The challenge is that you already have a full-time job. The good news is that there are many outlets that make this less time consuming and more beneficial. Here are a few: 1. Post on your social media outlets. What started as a way to stay in touch with friends and family has...
“Yeah, but that’s not my zone, that’s their zone.” How do you overcome a wrong mindset that creates silos and excuses within your team? Most facilities and large properties need a simple and efficient way to manage their work flow. One simple way to accomplish this is to divide a large area into smaller areas of responsibility. In developing these smaller areas, aka zones, it allows for better attention to detail within the individual areas and...
Most of us don’t try to irritate the boss, we see no real positive gain in such. If your boss has empowered you to make decisions and act on their behalf, then my assumption is you probably are capable and have the power to answer questions that come up. As a leader, you are looking for people whom you can develop and hand off more responsibility to. Leaders need their people to think through problems, respond...
Honesty. If you are truthful, it builds trust. So how do you mentor your people to be honest? One way is to be honest yourself…always. Recently, I was doing a one-day training event with a great organization, and I had everyone list the traits of their childhood heroes. As we reviewed their heroes, it was clear that the heroic traits had more to do with the hero’s character and less to do with their knowledge. The act...
With so many companies experiencing growth opportunities, one of the biggest challenges facing our service industry is finding people to work. The demand for quality work has not and will never decrease. Quality is important and always will be. Some businesses have dealt with the labor shortage by decreasing the number of customers they will service or purging out their low margin - high upkeep customers. Others are ramping up employee pay and seeking new employees. The...