The Wow-Factor In Your Work

As a teenager, I spent five years in the Royal Canadian Air Cadets - Squadron 653. If there's one thing I learned in those five years was how to spit-polish a pair of shoes. If you can see yourself in the shine, then it was done right.

As much as I may know how to give a pair of shoes a great shine, I still prefer to frequent someone who does it for a living. I've had shoes shined in airports, hotels and on street corners. So when I checked into the Hotel Saskatchewan in Regina this week, and spotted the sign for on-site shoe shines, I checked it out. That's where I met Trevor. In his early to mid-twenties, Trevor obviously takes pride in everything he does. He is fit, well dressed and sports a pair of shiny shoes.

Over the twenty or so minutes Trevor worked on my shoes, we talked he explained his philosophy on shined shoes.

"I get a lot of business people through here," he said. "Many of them, when getting ready to interview a potential new employee, check out their shoes. If the new employee won't take pride in how they look themselves, then they won't likely take pride in the work they do."

"How we do one thing is how we do everything," I added.

"Exactly." He looked up at me.

I simply observed Trevor do his work. He was meticulous. Soap solution to wash off old dirt. A little alcohol to remove old layers of polish. Trevor got his fingers into the new polish, applied three coats, set fire to the polish to help it penetrate the leather, applied some water a few times, brushed and brushed and brushed and finished with a little lighter fluid and soft cloth rub. No powered brushes, no fake polishes, no Armorall (fake shine) and no shortcuts. The shine was noticeable. Those shoes reflected light from all around the room.

After twenty minutes in the chair, I stepped off of the shine stand.

"That'll be six dollars," he said firmly.

"No it won't," I replied. "Six isn't enough. I'll pay you ten instead."

I paid him ten, which, in my mind, was still a bargain for the quality of work. Oh, and so you know, Trevor gave me the best shoeshine I've ever found anywhere. Do yourself a favor if you're in Regina. Stop by the Hotel Saskatchewan and walk away with a smile and a shine.

Attitude Adjustment: Would people be willing to take the time to tell a story of how good your service and quality of work is? If not, is it possible you're not taking enough pride in what you do? People remember people who offer their best every single time - no excuses. How can you "Wow" your customers today? Remember, Customer Service isn't just a department - it's an Attitude.

Take This Relationship Philosophy To Work

A few months ago I was sent an email link to a video by Mark Gungor, a pastor from Green Bay, Wisconsin. Mark, in addition to being a pastor, is a facilitator of relationships. I watched the video and laughed so hard. Mark is also a stand-up comedian combining humor, values and real relationship solutions.

Last month I was visiting Green Bay and who do I run into in the mall? Mark Gungor. I recognized him right away since after watching the YouTube video, I ordered his DVDs. I had been watching them on the plane while laughing like a crazy person and lo and behold, there he was walking through the mall with his wife of thirty-five years, Debbie. We had a brief conversation and promised each other to keep in touch.

One of Mark’s philosophies in his program is advice to guys: “Be nice to the girl.”

How simple is that really? Just be nice. It’s not hard; in fact, it is easier than taking out the garbage or visiting your mother-in-law’s house. Just be nice. If the only time you spoke to your spouse was to point out their faults, that they did something wrong, messed up or screwed up, how long do you think your relationship would last?

Now take that same philosophy to work. (I know, I know. You think you’re supposed to check all home “stuff” at the door when you walk into work. Well you don’t do you?)

Think about working with employees as a relationship. The more you engage them in feeling better about the contributions they make, the more they will want to make the contribution. Jeez it's not that hard. Just be nice to people. Give a compliment when someone does something well. It will be easier to offer constructive criticism later if you’ve built up some respect from a little kindness. Trust me, it will mean much more.

People want to work for people who are just nice people. How hard is it really to offer a compliment? If it's hard for you, you're likely the wrong guy in charge.

You have to know, that in addition to being rewarded well financially, the one thing employees want (consistently finishing in the Top Five) is recognition. They want to be told they’re doing well – so tell them. If you give your people what they want, they will want to do more for you.

Be nice to your people. That doesn’t mean that you don’t address issues as they need addressing, but if people are doing things well, how hard would it be to tell them they’re doing it well? It’s only as hard as you make it.

And the same philosophy applies to standing in line at a Starbucks or wherever else you might find yourself getting impatient. Be nice to the person behind the counter. The whole world doesn’t stop because your venti, double shot, non-fat, extra-hot, caramel macchiato isn’t perfect.

“But for five bucks it should be perfect,” you might say.

Well, you’re being paid more than five bucks. Shouldn’t the same rules apply to you? Or would you prefer that someone is nice to you too?

Safety Attitude’s New Reality

Safety has become a big issue these days with not only the manufacturing, construction and heavy industry sectors, but also with a growing number of office-bound organizations. Safety is an issue that I take seriously. After all, I believe that safety is an Attitude – in the same way Leadership is an Attitude and Customer Service is an Attitude. Hey you can’t put on a hard hat, safety glasses and steel toes for an eight-hour workday and then go home and mow the lawn on your flip-flops. Safety is a concept your either own or simply tolerate. If you own it, safety is as important to you at home as it is at work. If you simply tolerate safety and safety procedures, then you’re a huge risk to the wellbeing of your co-workers. And somebody’s going to get hurt.

Now let me say that there are some people whose contribution to safety prevention I admire: accident victims who speak to schools, parents of children involved in accidents or injury who then take up the cause of making the world a safer place and finally, those who have lost a family member because of an accident and make it a life’s purpose to create a groundswell of change in laws and perception. These are all worthy causes and all commendable.

I’ve had several conversations this week with safety managers and safety conference organizers in preparation for several Safety Attitude Adjustments that I will be delivering. In past, many of these conferences have featured presentations from injured workers who now make their living on the speaking circuit warning people of the dangers of not being safe on the job. I think it’s commendable that people who have been injured on the job wouldn’t let their injury completely victimize them. Warning others of impending dangers on the job by witnessing the actual consequences of past mistakes (physical injury or dismemberment) can be a powerful message – for certain age-groups.

But here’s where I am becoming a little troubled. The labor market is changing. Baby Boomers are retiring and Gen Y’s are taking over. This is the same group (Gen Y’s) who have been raised on a steady diet of some of the world’s most violent video games – where dismemberment and blood-spurting graphics are used in delivering “entertainment.” Then there are the blood-spurting movies. Check out the video rental stores and count the number of horror/slasher films on the shelves. The new breed of worker is desensitizing to the concept of injury. To really drive home my point, look at the movies Jackass and Jackass II – films entirely about self-injury. And we sit at home and laugh.

The truth is that the message of “don’t do what I did” doesn’t hold the same punch that it used to. That message may have been very successful with Boomers but Gen Y thinks differently.

Think about this for a moment: an injured worker who may have been paid eighteen dollars an hour for doing a labor job now collects thousands of dollars per hour for simply telling the story of how he or she got injured. That is definitely sending the wrong message. The message you end up sending is that if you do the job safely you get eighteen bucks an hour but if you get injured you can tell your story for thousands. That message may actually be helping to glorify injury, not prevent it. I’m going to step out on limb here (with a tether and harness of course) and suggest that this is not the message you want your people to take away if you want to keep them safe.

You wouldn’t pay money to address your own organization’s business growth from someone who consistently went bankrupt. You wouldn’t pay money to learn leadership from a CEO who was just fired for being a tyrant. And you sure wouldn’t pay money to get the advice of a financial planner whose own investment portfolio is well below what your goal is. So with that thinking, why would you pay money to hear a safety message from someone who didn’t do it correctly on the job?

I would gladly be willing to listen to a former injured worker talk to me about how they overcame the loss of a limb and loss of a livelihood and turned their life around – how they managed to overcome adversity and find success regardless of their circumstances. That, I think, would be a great message. But don’t preach to me about finances if you’re broke. Don’t preach to me about leadership if no one wants you to lead their organizations. Don’t preach to me about how to grow a business if your history is primarily comprised of failures in business. And don’t expect me to buy into your safety strategy if it didn’t work for you. You need to start paying more attention to the message you’re sending your people.

Attitude Adjustment: Safety managers had better clue in to this and quickly. If you’re a safety manager, OH&S supervisor, department head or even CEO, take a look at your safety statistics. Are you finding the highest number of reportable or lost-time incidents with your younger workers? Then that should be a clue that your old way of training your people in the attitude of safety just isn’t working like it used to. Don’t blame the work ethic of Gen Y. If you want to improve your safety performance in your new workers, you have got to help change their attitudes on safety. And you had better be able to speak their language if you ever want to get through to them.

Confidence And The Workplace Attitude

Have you noticed the lack of eye-contact from a clerk while being served in a retail establishment? Have you noticed some of the people you work with who are reluctant to be forthright with customers and clients either on the phone or in-person? Have you noticed a propensity in your own workplace of people who don't seem to speak up when it comes time to address an issue that needs to be talked about?

It's happening more and more in workplaces across North America. Employers are searching out Communication Skills workshops in the hopes that communication with co-workers, clients and customers can be improved in an effort to streamline the workplaces. But it just doesn't seem to be working. Why? It's not so much about people communicating effectively as it is about the level of confidence within the individuals in raising the subjects that need to be addressed. It's a self-confidence issue.

I was recently surfing a business networking web site that asked the question: What are the most damaging aspects of a lack of self-confidence in the workplace?

I really began to think about how a lack of self-confidence impacts the workplace. Here's what I offered as my response.

Ultimately, every delivery and/or process mechanism in the workplace is directly affected on a quality level by a lack of self-confidence. Every intricate piece of the workplace puzzle is reliant on just one common denominator: people. It's people who deliver in every organization. It's people who make sales. It's people who develop marketing strategies. It's people who fix customer problems. It's people who lead organizations. It's people who implement safety programs. It's people who must communicate with other people on the job. One person without self-confidence makes the whole thing fall apart.

People without self-confidence will cause the organization as a whole to suffer.

• Productivity suffers in the absence of self-confidence because if a person lacks the confidence to accomplish a task, they will hold back their effort in the hopes of not doing it wrong.
• Sales suffer when a sales person lacks self-confidence. With a lack of self-confidence, a salesperson will feel intimidated to ask for the order. Sometimes in order to get a sale all one needs to do is ask. But without confidence, asking is the toughest thing they will do all day for fear they may be rejected.
• Customer service suffers when a CSR lacks self-confidence. A Customer Service Rep who lacks confidence will not ask the customer if service could be improved nor will they go over and above to satisfy any concerns before they happen for fear that they may create something they are ill-equipped to address.
• Management suffers when a manager lacks self-confidence. Sometimes managers need to address some tough issues with employees and by not addressing those issues, allow issues to go un-addressed and unresolved creating a new standard for behavior in the workplace.
• First impressions suffer when the receptionist lacks self-confidence. If the person who answers the phone isn't sure of him or herself, the person at the other end feels as confident about doing business with an organization as the person who answers the phone. If the receptionist can't instill confidence, the customer has no alternative but to feel uneasy about dealing with that company.
• Organizational meetings suffer when attendees lack self-confidence. People without self-confidence don't speak up and therefore end up harboring resentment or frustration that issues are not being addressed. The organization as a whole will suffer if frustration and resentment run rampant inside their employees.
• Innovation suffers when those charged with developing new ideas lack self-confidence. Without confidence, innovative ideas are not brought forward, nor discussed. New ideas are kept to oneself in the hopes that person won't be laughed at.
• Time management suffers with a lack of self-confidence. If there's no confidence from the employees to be able to accomplish specific tasks, why bother scheduling it in to their Daytimer?
• Communications suffer in the presence of a lack of self-confidence. People who don't have confidence don't speak up. Things are left unsaid and, by default, internalized. If it's not out in the open, it can never be dealt with.
• Marketing suffers when the marketing team lacks self-confidence. "This idea probably won't work anyway." That's a likely statement from a marketing department employee with no self-confidence and so the idea gets dismissed without a second thought.
• Cohesiveness suffers when employees lack self-confidence. People don't get along without talking out their issues. They simply tolerate each other. Toleration is not cohesiveness. Behind the tolerance could be a seething resentment and outward actions can demonstrate the harboring of resentment.
• And finally, in the absence of self-confidence, can anyone really be called a "leader?"

Shall I go on?

You get the point here. Organizations work fine - it's people who screw them up. Fix the people and you fix the organization. Stop wasting money on a useless things like personality assessments and team building until you have solved the root problem in any and all organizations - soft skills training to address "self" issues. Build your people stronger and the organization must get stronger by default. Better people offer better service, make better sales, better communicate, build better relationships, focus better, achieve better and ultimately lead better.

Attitude Adjustment: Before you start looking for quick fixes to make your team more cohesive, embark on sales training or service training or communications skills training, time-management training or even management/leadership training, make sure you've addressed the root cause of many of these workplace problems: self-confidence and the corresponding confident attitude that goes along with it.