Eric Jacobson

Archive for July, 2012|Monthly archive page

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The 9 Best Times To Thank A Customer

In Customer Service, Effective Communications, General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Management, Thanking Customers on July 29, 2012 at 6:54 am

In your leadership role, it’s vital that your team members know how to deliver excellent customer service.  “Knock Your Socks Off” type service as book editor Ann Thomas and Jill Applegate would say.

Part of delivering excellent customer service is saying “Thank You” to your customers and knowing when to say “Thank You”.

Thomas and Applegate recommend telling your customers “Thank You” during at least these nine situations:

  1. When they do business with you…every time.
  2. When they compliment you (or your company)
  3. When they offer you comments or suggestions
  4. When they try one of your new products or services
  5. When they recommend you to a friend
  6. When they are patient…and even when they are not so patient
  7. When they help you to serve them better
  8. When they complain to you
  9. When they make you smile

You and your team members can say “Thank You”:

  • Verbally
  • In writing (and don’t underestimate the power of personal notes via snail mail)
  • With a small, tasteful, appropriate gift


9 Ways To Improve Your Virtual Meetings

In Effective Communications, Engaging Employees, General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Skills, Meetings, Team Building, Virtual Meetings on July 29, 2012 at 6:49 am

Business leaders and employees are holding virtual meetings more than ever.  Despite the cost-saving and other advantages, virtual meetings versus in-person meetings have their challenges.  One of the largest is because participants cannot bond in the same way as they do when they are sitting across the table from one another.

In the new book, The Collaboration Imperative, co-authors Ron Ricci and Carl Wiese, recommend you follow these 10 tips for making your virtual meeting successful, particularly when you are leading the meeting:

  1. Before the meeting, make sure attendees have all the preparation materials they will need and the time to review them.
  2. Begin with a quick warm-up.  For example, start the meeting by asking remote attendees to describe what’s happening in their office, town or city.
  3. During “blended” meetings, where some attendees are gathering in person and others are participating virtually, address remote attendees first and then offer the opportunity to speak to in-person attendees.
  4. Identify in-person attendees.  In-room speakers–whether presenting or making occasional comments–should introduce themselves so that remote attendees know who is speaking and “learn” their voices.
  5. Ask remote attendees to be vocal.  Emphasize that it is their responsibility to let in-person people know if they cannot hear or follow the discussion.
  6. Rotate meeting times. Ensure that each time zone has a meeting scheduled during normal business hours.
  7. Solicit participation.  Regularly ask remote attendees if they have comments and encourage participants to speak up.
  8. Assign a meeting monitor.
  9. Avoid colloquialisms, acronyms and corporate-speak.
  10. Wrap up by documenting key discussion points, decisions and action items.


Book Review: Rapid Realignment

In Company Culture, Corporate Culture, Effective Communications, Employee Engagement, Engaging Employees, General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Books, Leadership Skills, Leadership Training, Listening Skills, Making Decisions on July 15, 2012 at 5:31 am

Spend some quality time with the new book, Rapid Realignment, and you’ll learn how to ensure that your strategy, customers, processes and people work seamlessly together in the service of customers and that those four elements continually realign in the face of constant change.

The authors, Dr. George H. Labovitz and Victor Rosansky, share throughout the book a series of case studies from Federal Express, Quest Diagnostics, Navy Hospital at Camp Pendleton, Farmington Savings Bank and a host of other organizations who have stepped up to the challenge of rapid realignment.

Key takeaways from the book include:

  • Vertical alignment describes a condition in which every employee can articulate the enterprise’s strategy and explain how his or her daily work activities support that strategy.
  • Each organization must have a Main Thing.  That Main Thing as a whole must be a common and unifying concept to which every unit can contribute.  Each department and team must be able to see a direct relationship between what it does and this overarching goal.  And, the Main Thing must be clear, easy to understand, consistent with the strategy of the organization, and actionable.
  • Growth and profits are surely the ultimate aim of every business organization, but they are outcomes of succeeding with the Main Thing.
  • Good bosses understand the value of giving subordinates a long leash.  In addition, best bosses listen, back up their employees, trust and respect their employees and provide feedback to employees.
  • Leaders foster engagement when they listen to their employees, create a common purpose, and give people greater ownership of their work.
  • Corporate culture is the product of four dynamically related components:  attitudes, beliefs, values, and behavior.
  • The fastest and most  effective way to change attitudes and beliefs is to change people’s behavior and show them the beneficial results of the new behavior.
  • Organizational culture is revealed in artifacts and symbols, the stories people  tell, relationships, and the rituals and rules that guide behavior.

You’ll appreciate the Key Points summaries and the Things To Do suggestions from the authors at the end of each of the nine chapters in the book.

And, particularly timely are the book sections where the authors teach readers how to:

  • bring the customer voice inside your company through social media
  • use social media and digital technology to quickly identify points of misalignment

Labovitz is the founder and CEO of IDI, an international management training and consulting company, and professor of management and organizational behavior at the Boston University Graduate School of Management.

Rosansky is co-founder and president of LHR International, Inc.  He has more than 25 years of experience as a consultant, helping Fortune 500 clients to drive rapid strategy deployment and alignment.

Thanks to the book publisher for sending me an advance copy of the book.


You Practice Open Leadership If You Do These 7 Things

In Corporate Culture, General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Books, Leadership Education, Leadership Skills, Leading By Example, Management on July 15, 2012 at 5:28 am

Open Leadership author Charlene Li reminds leaders to periodically ask themselves these “open leadership skills assessment” questions:

  • Do I seek out and listen to different points of view?
  • Do I make myself available to people at all levels of the organization?
  • Do I actively manage how I am authentic?
  • Do I encourage people to share information?
  • Do I publicly admit when I am wrong?
  • Do I update people regularly?
  • Do I take the time to explain how decisions are being made?


Ten Surprising Concepts that Teams (Organizations, Too) Should Adopt — Starting Now

In Coaching, General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Books, Management, Motivating Employees, Team Building on July 8, 2012 at 7:59 pm

Welcome to today’s guest post (and some new ways of thinking about teams) by Garret Kramer, author of Stillpower: Excellence with Ease in Sports and Life.

By Garret Kramer

These days, it seems that the same common concepts are stressed over and over in order to ensure team success. But I believe, from pee-wee to pro, that this standard coaching paradigm is simply not bringing out the best in our athletes. For evidence, just look at the erratic behavior of many well-known players. Not to mention that consistent excellence on the field — i.e., dynasties (yes, I am aware of salary caps) — has become a thing of the past. 

So, if you and your team, company, or family are after steady achievement, reflect on these ten surprising concepts. Then see if any of them make sense for you. 

1. Keep goal-setting to a bare minimum, if instituted at all.

Goal-setting narrows focus, which, contrary to popular opinion, limits opportunities and shrinks the perceptual field (awareness). It’s okay to possess the burning desire to win. In fact, I prefer that teams do. However, because winning has no ability to regulate your happiness or self-worth, relish the journey and experience instead of single-mindedly setting your sights on a title. If you do, the imaginative path to success will become evident on its own. 

2. Recognize and embrace individuality. 

Even within team environments, it is essential that individuality be fostered and encouraged. Why? Free will is the number one ingredient to productive behaviors and performances. A person will simply not perform to the best of his or her ability if the person’s inner wisdom (intuition or personal thought system) is compromised. 

3. Limit rules and expectations. 

To me, codes of conduct do not work. The inner conflict between what a person thinks is right, and what an organization tells the person is right, binds and confuses all individuals. This bewilderment creates dysfunction. Rather, here’s a freeing alternative: Hold individuals accountable to acting from elevated states of mind and pulling back from deflated states of mind — stop telling them which actions are, or are not, acceptable. 

4. Encourage love for, and respect of, opponents. 

Love and respect are the ultimate symptoms of a high level of consciousness — “the zone.” Hate and disrespect are symptoms of the opposite mind-set. So, just ask yourself, “How do I feel when I am not considerate of others, when I resent my opponents, or when I hold them in contempt?” Now why would you ever want your team to perform from this insecure psychological perspective? 

5. Discourage the creation of a pecking order. 

When people operate from low levels of well-being, they dwell on their differences. They become insulated and egotistical, and, in a team setting, it often appears that certain members are more valuable than others. Not so. Although roles vary, if you remove one piece from the puzzle the team ceases to be whole and its natural chemistry and functioning become impaired. 

6. Do not stress communication. 

Believe it or not, one reason that teams fail is because people overcommunicate. They speak when they are not capable (they are in a low mind-set), and listen when they should not (they are in a low mind-set). Lack of communication is never a real issue. A person’s state of mind when he or she communicates, or he or she does not communicate, is the only key to productive interactions between teammates. 

7. Do not adhere to a specific team “culture.” 

When forced to adhere to the edicts of once-successful traditions, ethics, or customs, a team is adopting someone else’s recollection of the way to perform, which has no relevance now. Buying into a culture binds a person’s thinking, thwarts free will, and creates followers who are not capable of coming through in the big moment. 

8. Leave the past in the past. 

The past, like a culture, is simply a thought system carried through time. No matter how hard you try, you cannot replicate a former triumph, technique, or feel. They are smoke; they no longer exist. Keep in mind, young players don’t care about the good old days. They intuitively live in the present — don’t lead them away from it. 

9. Drive effort with freedom.

There is a huge difference between hard work and best effort. Yet, teams continue to promote a grind-it-out paradigm that has little to do with success. Achievement is the result of fluent thinking, passion, and freedom. Why, then, when a team isn’t in this mind-set, do coaches preach diligence, desperation, or hard work? If a team isn’t giving its best there’s only one reason: The players are trying to control a natural instinct — effort. The biggest mistake a team can make. 

10. Teach that state of mind is relevant, while behavior irrelevant. 

This last characteristic is the foundation for the rest of the list. The most clear thinking leaders recognize that judging a person’s behavior serves little purpose. So, since errant behavior spawns from internal suffering or a low state of mind, demonstrate the importance of understanding and supporting all members of your organization — no matter their behavior or how much playing time you give them. Remember, a high level of compassion always leads to a high level of consciousness, and, in turn, a consistently high level of performance. 

Garret Kramer is the founder and managing partner of Inner Sports, LLC. His approach to performance has transformed the careers of professionals athletes and coaches, Olympians, and collegiate players across a multitude of sports. Kramer’s work has been featured on WFAN, ESPN, Fox, and CTV, as well as in Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other national publications.


7 Ways To Build An Effective Corporate Culture

In Company Culture, Corporate Culture, Effective Communications, Employee Engagement, General Leadership Skills, Leadership, Leadership Skills, Listening Skills, Management, Team Building on July 8, 2012 at 7:53 pm

Fortunately, most of my career I’ve worked in effective corporate cultures. If I put together the best of each, here is what made those environments effective:

•  Leaders led by example on a consistent basis and were willing to roll up their sleeves, particularly during tight deadlines or challenging times.

•  Employees clearly understood how what they did made a difference and how their contributions made the organization either more profitable or more effective.

•  The workforce included a blend of long-term employees with a rich company, product/service and customer history, employees who had been at the company for five to seven years, and then new hires with a fresh perspective and keen sense of new technologies and techniques. That blend worked best when the mix included virtually all A-players.

•  Top managers had a clear, realistic and strategic vision for how the company would grow and compete in the marketplace.

•  Employees were challenged and rewarded through growth opportunities, education and training and pay increases.

•  Leaders provided opportunities for the company and its employees to give back to the community. Sometimes it was through company organized volunteer projects. Other times it was by encouraging (and rewarding) employees to volunteer on their own.

•  A group of employees served on an activities committee with as little top management influence as possible, to plan at least monthly team-building, networking, education and charitable activities. This grass-roots approach helped ensure that the culture was shaped and influenced by employees and not only by top management. In this way, employees owned the culture as much as the management did.

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