Fake
Darren Whitehead's January 8th talk on family is super and one of his points really applies in business too.
His early illustration is about Christmas cards. Christmas cards are great, but he complains they do not always communicate the truth. For instance, some services offer a "head swap" where you can swap the head(s) of kids who are not smiling with another "head" that is smiling into your best photo so it appears everyone is part of one big, happy family.
He suggests the Christmas cards of the "perfect" family sharing their accomplishments for the year are kind of fake. Their stories leave out the struggles and reality. The cards are depressing because...
"You compare what you do know about your family with what you don't know about someone else's family. You're just sort of looking at the facade..."
We tend to give too much credit to some of our competitors, and great companies like Disney, Apple, and the Cheesecake Factory. QUESTION: Are we making the same mistake when considering our employees and client experience (company culture)?
Is it only our people who are not entering time in ConnectWise, Autotask, or other program daily so we can bill clients?
Is it only our tech who yells at a client?
Is it only our employees who do not have annual goals or any documented accountability to achieving significant results - just management-by-nagging? ("Management-by-nagging" is intermittent whining, complaining and/or threatening employees rather than systematically managing them.)
THE GOOD NEWS: Your competitors have the same company culture problems that you do, no matter how good they appear. They are doing "head swaps" to look their best. They are vulnerable. You can beat them.
THE BAD NEWS: You are not as perfect or as good as you appear to be at times. You are vulnerable. You can be beaten.
THE OPPORTUNITY: Systematically improve your strengths so in those areas you are unbeatable. Work on your weaknesses to eliminate them or at least make them competitive.
See Meetings Ideas for one approach. Why fake it? Do you really need "head swaps" to compete? Overcome your company culture challenges by being an intentional, systematic, servant leader.
Don't miss our upcoming webinars.
Be an Intentional, Systematic, Servant Leader.
MANAGEtoWIN, Inc.
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Also, be careful NOT to compare what you know from personal experience as a shopper of your company's products or services with what you really do NOT know about how your clients are being treated by your people. Here are some ideas on how to discuss this with your team: 1. What three areas of our client experience are our greatest strength, and why? How can we confirm this without bias? (In other words, if you feel your tech support is great, how can you listen in on a call without your people knowing you are there so you truly experience the quality of your services?) 2. What three areas of client experience are our biggest weaknesses? What is one thing (or a maximum of three) that we can do to instantly improve in this area? 3. How can the changes we make to improve our strengths and weaknesses be measured and people held accountable moving forward? 4. What are the three ways we make you, our employees, feel most valued? How can we do those even better? 5. What are the three things that make you believe the work you do for our company is meaningful to you personally? What would make your work even more meaningful? |