Gratitude/ Appreciation – Gratitude and appreciation is one of the most powerful forces possible to channel in an organization. As a business leader, owner or manager – you must master the art of gratitude and really show people that you have a vested interest in their growth and development.
When was the last time you sat down for 20 minutes and asked your employees – how they are doing? What are their goals for the next 5 years? Do they enjoy working at your company? Is there anything that I can of to help you achieve those goals? How is my leadership – is there anything I can do to be a better leader?
If you are a manger, business owner or leader – these are some questions you should stop and ask yourself unequivocally and be objective in your responses.
Our employees are like our children and they model our behaviors and attitudes all the time. Just as children live what they learn, employees practice what they see whether good or bad.
I’ve been to so many business places and seen managers speak down to employees in front of customers making them feel incompetent and demoralizing them. Think about an employee that works in a hotel and is asked to set up a room for a conference, he proceeds to set up the room with tables and chairs, however, he does so without closing the partition to the room in order to separate an existing meeting that is in session. The customer from the other meeting complains to the hotel manager and the manager calls the employee out on the action in front of the customer – do you think this behavior is correct?
Let’s look at another example – a fast food restaurant has a cashier dealing with a customer that is purchasing credit for her mobile phone meanwhile there is a line full of hungry customers waiting to actually order food from the menu. Due to lack of training from the fast food chain when the cashier was hired – this prevented her from dealing with the transaction quickly and attending to the customers waiting. Her manager comes over and reprimands her in front of the line of customers – how do you think the cashier felt?
We need to make our employees know that we are there to support them in challenging times and in times of awesomeness. The most important role of a leader is to grow and develop people – I think many leaders forget that this is their number one responsibility. The people in a company are the single greatest asset – they communicate with clients, they take orders, they do accounting, they market your products, they sell your products and services, they many times take verbal abuse from customers and are not thanked for doing a great job!
My challenge to all of you that have the opportunity to read this newsletter – for the month of October 2013 – Make sure that you do 2 special things for each employee that you directly influence and lead that will show your sincere gratitude and appreciation for the work they have been doing and also for them as a human being. People want to feel valued, appreciated and worthwhile. In order to make Jamaica the best customer service country in the world – we have to do our part in making this happen.
National Customer Service Week is October 07-11, 2013 – Is your company doing something special for your internal and external customers this week?
Jamaica Customer Service Association 11th Annual Conference – November 5-6, 2013 – Jamaica Pegasus – “Bedazzled by Excellence: The Service DNA”
