Emilie Shoop is a Speaker and Coach, founder of Shoop Training and Consulting and the creator of the premier team building event Rally the Team as well as the popular program The Shoop Shift: Six Gears to Rev Up Your Culture, Team and Leadership. She is the go to Leadership Expert when you want to learn how to maximize the efforts of your team the right way, so you go from just being another manager or business owner to being an influential leader.
People are complex and Emilie helps you learn to make each employee shine; she is a pro at getting to the heart of an organization’s people challenges and helping you to turn problems into success. Shoop Training and Consultant was created because one of Emilie’s pet peeves is unhappy people in the workplace. People are either unhappy with the work they are doing, their bosses or their employers. It is her belief that everyone has an innate desire to do well and somehow people lose track of that along the way, it is this belief that drives her to reach out and impact others with her people focused leadership.
Questions
- Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey
- Why do you think that leadership is important to customer experience and how you think what you are doing impacts on the external end of the business with the customers?
- Dou you find that some people are place in leadership positions because of their years of service with an organization or sometimes what’s on paper in terms of their academic successes but not necessarily because they naturally have an ability to lead other people?
- As a leadership expert, could you tell us three (3) things that you think every leader in any business needs to master in order to lead a very successful team with a culture that is built on service orientation?
- What are some recommendations that you would give to a business owner in the online spectrum in terms of leading in a strong way and creating a culture where you can translate how you feel to your customers and employees on an online platform?
- Can you tell us a little bit more about the Shoop Shift?
- What is the one online resource, website, tool or app that you absolutely cannot live without in your business?
- What are some of the books that have had the biggest impact on you?
- If you where sitting across the table from another business owner and they said to you that they feel they have great products and services but they lack the constantly motivated human capital, what’s the one piece of advice would you give them to have a successful business?
- What is one thing in your life right now that you are really excited about – something that you are working on to develop yourself or people?
- Where can our listeners find your information online?
- What is one quote or saying that you live by or that inspires you in times of adversity?
Highlights
- Emilie Shoop stated that she started her career in IT, she spent a lot of time with highly technical people and was highly technical herself, she found over time that she really just liked the people side of organizations and when she became a manager she got to start impacting her team by using good leadership and it was very interesting how many people complained about going to work and they don’t like the environment that they are in and just a few tweaks of leadership could make a lot of teams and a lot of employees really happy. When Emilie started her business she didn’t want to fix peoples’ computers for a living, she wanted to help people be happier at work and that’s what she set out to do.
Yanique stated that most of the companies that she has done business with and IT is one of those departments where they are very hard to communicate with; they don’t like to talk very much and a lot of things that they think are normal or that everyone should get, they get annoyed when you don’t get it because they thinks it’s normal and you should do this to get the computer work, it’s just a basic behavior and you are looking at them because they do it every day and you don’t.
Emilie agreed that IT persons are not really people persons and that it’s easier to target the IT world because it’s highly technical but she has been in organizations where there’s a lot of nurses and they are highly technical and they struggle with the same thing and same with financial institutions where people are really good with numbers but not good with the people aspect of it and so there is a lot of work to be done to help people to come out and realize what they think is “common sense” and “how could you not know that this is what you need to do” to get that across to the person in a much gentler way.
- Emilie stated that she sees it a lot where people will ask do you do customer service training and when she digs a little bit deeper and find out what’s going on in an organization, it usually comes down to some poor communication and poor training for the employees that are trying to give good customer service but they don’t have the tools, they are not equipped with the right information to do a better job and so they don’t realize that they are not doing a good job because they are doing the best they can with what they have and so she gets to work with people and help them figure out where the leadership break downs are coming from and a lot of times she sees that somebody has been put in a leadership position that doesn’t know how to let go of the daily activities and lead the team, they just keep taking over and doing it all themselves and team members are not able to grow and actually learn how to provide the best customer service.
- Emilie stated that she sees where some people are place in leadership positions because of their years of service with an organization or sometimes what’s on paper in terms of their academic successes but not necessary because they naturally have an ability to lead other people. What she sees is that for example: “I really like Suzie and how she works on this and we want to reward her some way, and the only way we can think of is to promote her” and then that promotion comes with a leadership component, instead of finding a way to reward that person for doing well, it could be with a different type of job with a different type of responsibility but making sure that responsibility matches with their natural gifts or their abilities or even desires. A lot of times people are promoted into those positions and they have no desire to lead a team.
Emilie stated for recommendation on promoting someone like Suzie without putting her into a leadership role, you want to make sure that you know Suzie well and have the conversation with her so that you can say “what is it that will help you feel more fulfilled with the growth opportunity that you are looking for, here’s what we see as opportunities or needs of the organization. Are any of these a good fit for you?” And so, looking for a way that she could take on more responsibility in ways that makes the most sense for her. Sometimes they have that person will become the one that trains others and that’s a different responsibility but they don’t have to lead them, they are just good at explaining how to do what they do or she as seen them take on different escalations so you are not the first line, you’re the second or third line or you only handle the special cases and that’s a way to have a different type of promotion in that scenario but really getting down to individual and figuring out what’s best for them.
Yanique shared that the approach of the organization is to include the employee in the decision making process of how it is that they are rewarded and that way it’s a win-win situation for both people because the company wins because the employee is doing something that they actual enjoy and they appreciate that reward versus just giving someone something they’re not too pleased with and they may fail as a result because their strength is not in that area.
Emilie agreed that stated that we fall into that trap of thinking that we want that recognition and we get caught up thinking the only way to do that is to become a manager and lead a team and that’s not the only way to get there.
- Emilie shared that the first thing is connecting, taking the time to connect with the individuals on your team, not just lumping everybody together but really getting to know the individuals. That will do so much for your business and how invested everybody is in your team. The second one is over communicate, the number one complaint she gets when she goes into any organization no matter how good they are at communicating, there is a lack of communication. She always tell people to start erring on the side of over communicating, look at it like marketing where you have to say the same thing ten (10) times for somebody to realize that they even heard the message, pretend you’re marketing your leadership message and you just keep repeating it and that will really start to help boost organization as well and then really just investing in your team and finding out where the weaknesses are, where they can use some extra help and focusing on the strengths and where you can boost there and just really having a pulse on the need of the team and making sure you take the time to fulfill those.
- Emilie stated that it really comes down to being human and not trying to be over professional. When you try to make everything kind of textbook or this is a business and therefore I should talk like a business, it’s really hard for people to connect. If you work with people in an office, you tend to have those conversations about “what happened over the weekend?” or “how’s the family?” or “I have this going on in my life.” The more you can incorporate that human inside of things, the more people can connect with you because that’s really what people are looking for, that human connection.
Yanique shared that she purchased a book called “People Shock: The Path to Profits When Customers Rule” by Tema Frank. The theme of the book was in moving forward in the world today, even though things are becoming totally automated, the one thing that customers are constantly yearning for is some level of human interaction. A lot of what she talks about is at the end of the we really have to get back down to the foundation of dealing with people and that simple human interaction. A lot of companies think that when they have an IVR system that says “press 1 for this and 2 for that or 3 for that” and after you have press 1,2 or 3 you have another set of buttons you need to press before you actual get to a human being.
Emilie stated that a few places where she called have the option for you to have them call you back, you can hang up and they will automatically call you back when it is your turn.
- Emilie shared the history of the Shoop Shift, she stated that over the years of working with her clients, she started to notice some trends that if you take a little shift in those areas, your business, your leadership, your team and your culture, everything will just start run a lot smoother. When she started to work with a company, she listed out the different areas and then help them figure out where they are hurting the most and they can start with that but the different areas are clarity, having a clear mission and vision and where the business or team is heading so that people know what the point of their work is, is very important. The second one is connection and having that really good connection with your team and making sure that everybody feels that they are apart of something bigger and people care whether or not they show up is really important. The third one is the communication and that’s where we focus on where there might be areas of improvement for communication, a lot of time we spend time on what needs to be communicated because they might be sending out information that nobody needs but totally missing something that everybody needs so she works in that area. Then coaching, she is not a big fan of discipline in the workplace but how can you coach people to get better performance and really focus in on strengths of people and just brings out the best in everybody. The next one is conflict and this is one where people try to eliminate all conflict in the workplace and she is an advocate of having some conflict because other than the petty high school drama, if it’s not that, it’s usually two (2) people that really care about their job, that are really passionate and they really want to do something for the customer or the business and they just have a difference in opinion on how to get there and she thinks that’s a great situation to be in. Lastly, you put it all together in the culture and people see different cultures in organizations and they look at their own and if you’re not working on that intentional everyday, your culture is going to fall to the least common denominator, so she helps people put that in the forefront and focus on that on a daily basis.
- Emilie shared that a unique app because it is really a time saver and a lifesaver and with every thing being online with pictures and visuals are so helpful, she loves PicMonkey. It’s a website where you can manipulate graphics in no time. You don’t have to be an expert and you can get cool graphics to put on your social media, on your website, in your PowerPoint and it’s super easy to use.
- Emilie stated that she wanted to pick a book that was really impactful and really a good fit for customer service and that book is “The Leader Who Had No Title: A Modern Fable on Real Success in Business and in Life” by Robin Sharma. It is motivating for you as an individual but just really breaking down how anybody can give world-class service in any job that they have. It is a really good story, well written and is very powerful.
- Emilie stated that the advice she would give is just stay focus on the people, if you focus on people as individuals, not trying to group them together or lump them into some way that you can make it easier for you to manage but if you focus on people as individuals, your business will be successful. The more you care about your employees, the more they care about your clients.
Emilie shared that the advice she would give an individual that is not a people person and is concerned about the bottom line as she has worked with persons like that and it’s a little bit of struggle because there is some convincing on her part for them but usually she has to break it down into the bottom line where if you connect more, you will have a lower turn over rate with your employees and that turn over rate is this much and it cost you this amount and that’s why it’s important. Getting a new client is much more expensive than taking care of an existing client and you can show that return on the investment and there are some people that you just cannot convince that that is important and they are not the right people to be with, then there are employees that are okay with that, it’s just picking and choosing the right combination than an employee to make it fit.
Emilie shared as consumers our expectations and standards are raising and how we all want to be treated overall.
- Emilie stated that she is really excited about an awards program that she has, she realized that this whole people skills thing and being people focused is really hard and it’s hard to get good at it and it’s not something that people get recognized for very often. A few years ago she started a leadership awards program where she goes through and give people awards in the different areas and it’s been really exciting to see that grow and to see more out of her region but right now it’s more regional and it’s something where each of the leaders get to share their tips and their thoughts on the aspect of leaderships. If they are really good at dealing with conflict, they get to share a little bit about that. It’s just an exciting day. The leadership award for this year is November 2016 and she has nominations coming in now so this is like the nerve-racking part, where she has to get all the nominations in.
- Emilie say listeners can find her on:
- Emilie stated that her go to quote is “You have not because you ask not.” She usually finds that when she is stuck or hitting a barrier, if there is no harm in asking, either for help or for the sale or whatever the case might be. She likes to remind herself, whom can she ask?
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