Many leaders would proudly boast of their advanced degree received from the Institute of Tired Leadership Open Door-ism. At the suggestion that said leaders do not engage their employees or that they dismiss their team member’s input or feedback, said leaders would pound their fists in outrage and point to the certificate from the ITLOD. Unfortunately for leaders, the open door policy does involves more than leaving your door partially open during business hours and consequently there is more than one way to dismiss another person’s input or feedback, even if you graduated with honors.
Dismissal upon the transmission of input. The door was open. The employee knocked, confirmed and ventured through (not as open as open would indicate). The employee begins to engage with the leader and the leader A) engages with listening, body language and words or B) dismisses the feedback by the same gestures. Input from employees may not come at times that are of convenience to the receiving party but are always of some level of importance to the transmitting party. Dismissal following the transmission of input. The door was open. The employee shared their feedback. The leader made it through the conversation and communicated that the information was received with importance, what will the leader do to follow up with the input received from the team? The leader A) conducts a proper investigation into the information preferred to determine appropriate action or B) dismiss the input by doing nothing to follow up on the feedback received. Employees do not expect leaders to be omniscient, to know everything that is going on, but they do expect leaders to engage when a negative action is brought to the attention of leadership (more on this HERE). Dismissal of the confirmation of input. What happens when the leader listens, the leader investigates and then the leader confirms the input received by their employee? If an appropriate response or action is warranted, the test of leadership is now on display – what will the informed leader do? Leaders should not want themselves to be ignorant of issues, this is one of the great values of a truly open door, that employees are willing to share earnest concerns with leadership so that the team can address issues and maintain health should be celebrated. An ignorant leader who becomes informed and yet refuses action displays impotence. Why should employees care enough to make positive changes when leadership has demonstrated that it is not valued by them? Leadership is an extension of customer service within your organization. When leaders demonstrate care and service to their employees they perform several key functions including engaging their employees, encouraging positive action and demonstrating how the organization treats people. A healthy organizational culture is an extension of the positive example of leaders who are engaged in the processes of the team and the activities of employees who reinforce those values to each other as well as their customers. Earnest input and feedback from team members at every layer within the organization is critical to progress and growth. A company with no input from team members either has employees that do not care or employees who have concluded from the actions (dismissal) of management that leadership does not care.
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How leaders respond to conflicts can either reinforce cultural values that strengthen the team or they can respond in ways that destroy morale. In organizational cultures everyone loves playing The Blame Game and bosses are particularly fond of the follow up game, Crap Rolls Downhill. Both are games are trademarked but neither has any clearly defined rules or pre-determined outcomes. The game is often initiated by conflict and the fantastical response of leadership to avoid responsibility for resolution. Play number one is to assign. This phase of the game is also so joyously referred to as The Witch Hunt. The dice are shaken, rolled and a conflict of sorts ensues as the numbers clamber upon the playing surface. Whether the inquisition is over employee issues, customer service, payments, product failures or the like, bosses will rally the wagons, feigning a quick and concerned response. As the dust settles on the parade of indignation the supervisory fingers are drawn from their holsters with an insatiable thirst for flesh. Assignment of blame is seen by many as a gold star in the managerial belt. If someone can be blamed then we can all conclude that The Witch Hunt was successful. All that a conflict needs in order to be resolved is for some party to be assigned the blame. Shake the dust from our hands and the sweat from our brows, our job is d-o-n-e. Play number two is to assume. When blame cannot be immediately assumed and The Witch Hunt cannot be satisfied, the participants of the game have to make a choice whether they will draw upon the Actually-Investigate-An-Issue card or select from the much thicker Deck of Assumptions. The scientific process is only for nerds, right? Why would any self-respecting manager, who’s time is worth more than pure San Francisco gold, dip their manicured fingers into the Mire of Dispute Discernment? Most management practitioners believe they have achieved their success by trusting their trustworthy gut, so why would conflict resolution be any different? The savvy boss already knows who is guilty, they don’t need crime scene analysis, jury review or the Supreme Court to tell them what they already assume is correct. Play number three is to abdicate. If the dice aren’t rolling correctly and assigning blame nor assumptions are advancing the player through business Candyland, the next option is to pull the wild card that enables a manager to abdicate responsibility. In these scenarios of unresolved conflicts a boss must draw upon prior experience to climb a ladder to boost themselves above the strife or quickly chute down and away from the controversy. If there is a report that says issues will resolve themselves then it must be right and it should be believed. The final alternative play that no one wants to talk about, like it’s some sort of cheat code that no one understands is to eliminate. Elimination of the conflict requires identification of the cause. Why are we in the negative situation that we find ourselves confronted with? What root sources do we need to address in order to ensure that we do not replicate the negative effects? Conflicts are continuous, they can happen at any moment for various reasons and they create an opportunity for growth within the organization. Unfortunately conflicts require leaders to get their hands dirty fixing people issues and process malfunctions but they also remind leaders to be hands on with people and processes. Elimination (Secret Code) Instructions: Crap hits the fan. Find the crap. Get the crap out of the system. Get the crap into a toilet. Flush the crap as soon as possible. Don’t pretend the crap doesn’t exist. Don’t smear the crap all around the office. Don’t kid yourself that the crap will take care of itself. Social media has created a cyber veil between the harsh words we furiously finger hack into the ether and the negative impacts those haphazard paragraphs can have on fellow humans. When the indignant take to their devices to rap out negative commentary, there is an assumed additional layer of separation as we often feel like we are taking on the evil corporations rather than the individual humans who operate that entity. Our economy is global, our words are social, yet the implications of our rants always hit locally. Remember that as a human, our actions as humans impact other humans. If we have a good experience with an establishment, our words can filter through to affirming the good work of humans building that organization. Conversely, in those times when our persons are offended and we lash out at the monstrosity of some name brand organization, those verbal fires burn down to the the local level as our feedback finds its way to impacting humans. For good or bad the layers of separation between our words and their impacts on humans are only imaginary, the only veil is that we cannot see when the embers of our outrage reach flesh. From recent memory there was a particularly harsh winter in our local area that impacted power to many residents, ourselves included. While people were being inconvenienced by nature, many of them were taking to social media to decry the service of their local facilities providers. The local impact was such that emergency crews were being transported in from across the region and even some assistance from the other coast. What many humans were not taking into account while their fingers were raging was that humans were the ones out in that same weather that was impacting their homes. Humans, who were likely living with similar scenarios in their homes, were leaving their families to work around the clock to serve others. Humans were entering boom lifts to address downed power lines in extreme weather. While humans were raging against the machine they were missing the reality that their words were impacting humans who were helping to solve the issues, whether the offended humans felt it was happening fast enough or not. When an experience with an organization is less than satisfactory, rather than storming the gates of social media with indignation, if one wants to make an impact email or call the offending company directly. Remember as a human that other humans make mistakes, humans sometimes have bad days and humans sometimes need more training when they are put in positions they are not ready for. Humans can still send emails and make phone calls directly to the establishments causing offense, providing the humans in that organization the opportunity to respond as humans and potentially make earnest recompense for their actions that have offended fellow humans. Without the input of humans to other humans, humans are unable to act as humans towards humans. Be a human. There are few things in life that cost you very little and yet can have significant positive collateral impact in the life of another human. Paying someone a compliment will only cost you a few seconds of air and yet it has the potential to be a seed or a watering that flourishes in the life of a fellow human. We are well aware that words have the power to bring us to our knees, but words from the same stink filled sources also have the power also to lift spirits, raise confidence and inspire momentum. We recently had a very pleasant experience at a local eatery with a new waitress. What this young lady lacked in experience she more than made up for with the eagerness of a human who enjoyed helping fellow humans. Our waitress was personable, she smiled as she worked and greeted patrons with cheer. Our waitress was busy but she did not allow that to inhibit her from communicating with care. For example, we had requested non essential items from the kitchen, she politely stated, "I will grab those for you as soon as I clear this table so these customers can be seated." We made sure to inform her manager of her value, to tip well and to express our gratitude for this customer service professional in the making. For many industries, service is an essential component of the product offering. Those who interact with customers communicate with their attitudes, personas, body language, word choice, pronunciation, etc. When service providers create a positive experience for customers they create an atmosphere where patrons become those who will want to return to spend their dollars in the organization. We try to celebrate our positive customer feedback as we understand how many layers are baked into the process of bringing a positively finished customer experience confection from the project oven. When a patron chooses to hire our company, appreciates the process, enjoys our people's efforts, awards our team with a payment in full and then ices that cake with positive feedback, that's a party. We keep those nuggets of human positivity on our Wall of Fame and incorporate the details of their experience in our weekly meetings. For those out there who have taken pen to paper, fingers to keyboard and have joined the positive posting fans of an organization that has done them right, many thanks! As consumers of service and as humans of the same race, it is important that we vocalize our gratitude. The paying of an earnest compliment has few equals on return in human value. The example of paying an earnest compliment has the potential to create a tsunami of positive momentum, as those that directly experience its effect are awakened to a universe as it should be. Life can be simplified as well as dignified when humans treat humans as humans. Enjoy the art in life, positive practitioners of customer service are artists with a human pallet. Get your compliment check book out and start making some payments. |
AuthorThoughts on personal and professional development. Jon Isaacson, The Intentional Restorer, is a contractor, author, and host of The DYOJO Podcast. The goal of The DYOJO is to help growth-minded restoration professionals shorten their DANG learning curve for personal and professional development. You can watch The DYOJO Podcast on YouTube on Thursdays or listen on your favorite podcast platform.
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