It's Their Body

This morning USA Today has a front page article titled, Hotel staff 'reads' guests' needs.  (I can't find the link on www.usatoday.com).  You should give this article a quick read, if you can find it.

CALENDAR ITEM:  I am giving an updated Hire The Best Avoid The Rest presentation at the SYNNEX Varnex event in Las Vegas on November 14-15.  I hope you attend.  Email me in advance if you would like to meet before or after my talks to discuss your greatest employee challenges.

The USA Today article explains Affinia Hotels, a boutique five location chain, hired a body language expert this past summer to train staff how to intelligently guess what a guest may need just by looking at them.

How many times have you misread a coworker, client, or vendor and said something that upset them, or at least did not achieve your objective?  When was the last time you put your foot in your mouth up to the kneecap with the love of your life or friends?

Training like this may help.  Here are some quick thoughts:

1.  I like this training because this skill enables Affina hotel staff to improve their personal lives as well as their professional ones.  It is relational.

2.  The question is, how are they following-up on this training to confirm their staff is practicing the new skill, being further trained in its application, and helping new employees to develop similar skills?

3.  Maybe some of us should stay at an Affinia Hotel and see if we can sense their people using this new skill... or not?

I used to watch the TV show, Lie to Me.  It got cancelled earlier this year, but past episodes are available on Netflix.  The show gave examples of how human facial and behavorial cues enable you to determine whether a person is telling the truth.

Email me if you think we should develop a training like this for our clients.

Be an Intentional, Systematic, Servant Leader.

David Russell, CEO

Success With People, Inc.
MANAGEtoWIN, Inc.

MEETING IDEAS

What if you could lower your negative client experiences by 50%?  How much time and money would that save you?  How much better would your people get along if conflicts could be avoided?   Here are some questions to ask at your next meeting with your team to consider the benefits of better understanding the mood of others BEFORE and as you engage them in conversation: 1.  What are the five most recent problems we had with clients?  How could each of these situations been resolved easier if our people had better read the mood of the client? 2.  Do our clients lie to us?  How would it help us if we could know when clients, vendors, or coworkers are lying to us? 3.  If we could learn cues to understand a person's mood, as we begin a conversation and as the discussion continues, how would that help us serve clients better? If you need help, contact me.