How Could 'zero Tolerance' Work for You?

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Kate Mercer has a gift for creating working environments that allow you and your organisation to produce great results through authentic communication, real teamwork and personal commitment.

She has been a consultant since 1990, following a 14-year career in line and project management, training and lecturing, and is a talented coach, facilitator and trainer.

Succession Planning - 3 Extra-Special Benefits For Managers

This article by Martin speaks of keeping succession planning in mind when leading your team. This is a  definite plus when leading a call center team.

When you lead a team in a business - any business - you need support from great people. It's a fact, you cannot do it all alone. And you will need every skill going to make the best of these key people, week in, week out.

Because this is an accountability only you can have. No-one else will be there when the lights go out. As a boss, the buck stops with you. Period.

And once you've worked your butt off to get a team that you want, what's to stop these great employees going off and getting a different job and leaving you all in a fix again? The answer is - you are.

By building an exciting, stimulating and developmental set of roles where your people are regularly challenged, they will stay. If you are supportive and encouraging for them, prepared to acknowledge often, the contribution everyone makes.

You also need people ready to take their places when fate or something else works against you. That's why succession planning is here to help you and a key tool to make more of your business, much more of the time.

Here are a three key reasons why succession planning will work for you. It's the richest skill you can develop:-

Make Time

Succession planning consistently creates skilled people, who are capable of taking the weight off a manager, to ensure that he or she doesn't have to do it all. Indeed, these talented, developed people, often can do the business even better in their particular niche skill than the boss.

This is really supportive for a manager and means that they can get back to their real task of focusing on bigger picture issues, where they give the best value.

So time is saved from the manic fire-fighting that happens when key people leave and you have to cope, somehow.

Because you know who it will be who will pick up the loose ends - however inconvenient they may be.

You got it - it's you.

With a great succession planning process in place, you can be assured that this stops - in fact there are much wider benefits too.

Confidence

With succession planning helping to create a healthy business future, managers can build a level of security into how they do their job.

This means that they can try out new things to build their business. Safe in the knowledge that they will have the right people in place, at the right time, their confidence swells and they become far 'bigger' people in themselves.

Once that confidence swells, the risks have a habit of paying off more often. Maybe it's with the confidence of knowing that not only do you have the best people in place, but they are also grooming the next generation too, that a more accurate capacity to make correct judgments kicks in.

Reward

Both financial and emotional. Enhanced performance usually generates improved earnings, since that is the way many businesses reward their people.

And there is more to it than that. It is at least just as, if not more, fulfilling to be rewarded by the emotional return, gained by using succession planning to create a brilliant team. To leave a legacy too. To leave a sustainable future.

It is personally extremely satisfying. This has positive knock-ons into other areas of a manager's wellbeing too.

It's just a simple, straightforward process, this succession planning thing is. All you need to find is the time to investigate it and the time to spend enjoying the results of your efforts.

Job Trend News: Home and Workplace Blur

Organizations are finding that providing such options makes bottom line sense:

1. It’s all part of the ongoing search for top talent. Offering these amenities is proving to be a strong recruitment tool.

2. It’s all about productivity. Companies find that they can relieve employees’ anxieties. Providing services or managing events that could distract them from their work focus increases their productivity.

You owe it to yourself to check these trends out. They may already exist with your current employer. But if you’re in the job market, negotiating these items can give your personal bottom line a serious boost.

You can stay on top of the ever-changing job marketplace with RSS! Don’t miss out on critical career news and innovative job search strategies. Now it’s so easy to have immediate access to current trends and alerts with RSS.

Paul Megan writes for EEI, the world-class pioneer in alternative job search techniques and non-traditional career advancement strategies . . . since 1985. Grab our stunning FREE REPORT: “How To Lock Up A High-Paying Job In 14 Days (Or Less)!” And click on RSS! www.fastest-job-search.com

Little White Lies - Are They Worth The Risk

It really doesn't matter where you work. Whether it is in a call center or ou yare in business for yourself, integrity is still a factor toward your success.

Joe Torrence

There are many circumstances in which it would be easy to enlist the aid of 'white lies' in the era we live in today. 'The check is in the mail' when in actuality it won't be mailed until tomorrow. 'She/he is in a meeting - out to lunch - gone for the day' instead of stating that she/he is unavailable and take a message. 'No we didn't get your fax' when it has actually come through hours before but gone unnoticed and unattended by the staff. A majority of humanity reacts favorably to honesty and integrity.

Often when the word 'integrity' is spoken it brings to mind a picture of trustworthiness and truthfulness.

Definitions for the word 'integrity' are: 1. Wholeness, Completeness 2. unimpaired condition, soundness 3. honesty, sincerity. A more current definition indicates that integrity is 'comprised of the personal inner sense of wholeness - an honesty and consistency of uprightness of character'. Thus a relationship with an individual or business that promotes integrity would suggest an ethical relationship. One in which honesty and trustworthiness would be understood.

Is it possible that a definition of excellent Customer Service could include white lies? First and foremost, the definition of white lies has changed dramatically in the past 25 to 30 years. Webster's New World Dictionary - published in 1974 - indicates that a "white lie" is 'a lie about a trivial matter often told to spare someone' s feelings."' Yet a current definition suggests: "….is a lie which is believed harmless or innocuous, or is in accordance with the conventions of the culture". Does this imply that we have become more complacent about accepting and indulging in "white lies". A "lie" - from current AND older resources - is an intentionally false statement. Albeit a "white lie", "lying by omission" or "just a lie" - it is still lying.

It is human nature to want to believe and trust. It is when a trust is broken that the problems begin - in all relationships. After we have been lied to,it is natural to disbelieve thereafter.

The success or failure of a service business is based on its customers. Satisfied, happy, trusting customers are essential to success. A business that has a solid foundation and where the essence of excellent customer service is an innate practice of every day's operation has no need for "white lies".

So the business owner must decide if the 'white lie' is worth the risk of breaking the trust of your customers.

Owner and General Manager of The Tab Store
www.gpxtabs.com
Value, Integrity, Honesty, Unparalleled customer service.

Credibility: Hard to Achieve - Easy to Lose!

By Graeme Nichol

There have been many studies on credibility in life and particularly in management. It seemed like an interesting topic to read and reflect on. I am not going into a huge diatribe merely making a few observations.

In this world we live and die by our credibility. It takes years to build up a level of credibility and you have to maintain it constantly or lose it in an instant!

Credibility is an important aspect for a leader and trusted advisor. One of the interesting aspects is that there are three levels to your credibility. Namely how you perceive yourself, how others perceive you and finally how you are perceived within the organization. The perception by others maybe very local but for many managers and consultants who work globally this can have an extended web! Each of these needs to be in some form of alignment so as to be meaningful and deliver the results.

If we struggle to believe the persona we project how would we succeed? Look at successful credible people they have an aura of success. They project success. In management and in life we need to be positive to keep moving ahead and developing our credibility.

If you think you’re the cat’s whiskers and you colleagues have a different opinion. This would not be good. You have to try through a 360 degree evaluation to ensure some alignment on this.

Then look a little further out in your organization. How are you doing? How is your management team doing? Your company as a whole?

Credibility is the ultimate foundational for effective;
• Leadership/Team Building
• Relationship Development
• Coaching & Teaching
• Customer Service
• Sales

Credibility is; “The level of respect others have about you”

As credibility goes up, so does other’s willingness to;
• Believe what you believe
• Value what you value
• Support your plans
• Help you achieve your goals
• Be honest with you
• Trust you

What makes credibility increase and decrease?

• Behavior perceived as being appropriate (from the other person’s perspective - not yours) to time, tasks, people and situations, makes credibility increase.

• Behavior perceived as being inappropriate for the same factors makes it decrease.

Developing Credibility Behavioral Examples that Build

• Honesty
• Devotion
• Punctuality
• Good Example
• Ethical Behavior
• Taking responsibility for behavior
• Keeping promises
• Forgiving and Understanding
• Getting Involved
• Focusing on the Positive

Avoiding Credibility Behavioral Examples that Destroy

• Dishonesty
• Lack of Devotion
• No Concern for Time
• Setting a Bad Example
• Unethical Behaviour
• Breaking Promises
• Denying responsibility for Behaviour
• Unforgiving
• Not Involved
• Focusing on the Negative

Think how Kenneth Lay, and Jeff Skilling destroyed their credibility in the Enron debacle. I am not so sure that Martha Stewart’s credibility was damaged by her short stay in prison. She was not guilty of insider trading, which would have destroyed her credibility! Maybe he legal system took a hit. Perhaps more so internationally than locally. Kinda weird!

We wont discuss politicians. Each one could have a book written by the ebb and flow of their credibility.

Build your credibility and maintain it - your life does depend on it!

Graeme Nichol Arcturus Advisors (www.arcturusadvisors.com)works with business leaders and their teams to close the gap between great strategies and mediocre results. (Newsletter arcturusadvisor@aweber.com)

Team Building Activities For Small and Medium-Sized Groups

Today must be call center team building day. Here is another article  by Anirban Bhattacharya on ideas for building employee morale and bringing a team togeather.

Give them a try and see if they work for your call center.

A company cannot get success until and unless its teams are performing at the desired level. Effective team building activities contribute a lot towards fulfilling the set goals and making cordial relationships among co-workers. Even the large corporations need to enhance their team productivity in order to build a fortune and establish their name in the customer market.

Disintegrate the Team

Team building activities are about inducing sense of togetherness, understanding each other's ideas, respect collective endeavors, and focusing on common goals. In order to improve team's capacity, companies often organize corporate events of different nature. However, activities vary on employees' idea of fun and maturity level.

To get the best results of team building endeavors, it is always better to make smaller groups. Smaller groups are much easier to be taught and interacted with as compared to a larger group. Usually a team of mere 4-5 members is likely to develop a better sense of communication, trust, compassion, and involvement with one another. Less members makes easy to handle the team and members are far more comfortable with working with each other, which could get difficult in a bigger group.

Handling a bigger group can be a difficult job but impossible. For getting success with a big group, an instructor has to know the members personally. Knowing members on personal level helps an instructor to understand the personal trait of individuals working for a team. Interestingly, many companies make a provision where employees have to chat among each other for at least 15 minutes. Talking frequently helps in breaking the communication barriers and developing a better relationship in a team.

Games work as effective medium of enhancing togetherness among members. They lead to increases in team member exposure to each other and different situation. As an instructor, you can choose a game that ensures absolute fun for all.

I webmaster of http://www.southernpursuits.co.uk/ dealing in all types of outdoor activities such as Team Building, off road karting, quad biking, Clay shooting, 4×4 driving, archery, team building, corporate events all over the UK.

Fun Team Building

Here are some terrific Team Building ideas for your Call Center from Jennie Gandhi. Give them a try and let us know how they worked out for you.

Group dynamics is an important aspect for the success of any business - big or small. This is why companies are inviting trainers to conduct programs in team building and leadership. In fact, according to the experts, fun team building activities during the training program bring about dynamic team understanding and synergy.

Given here is an interesting team building activity for trainers…

The Tennis Ball Game
Objective of this activity: To enable participants to experience the various stages of team building; as well as become aware of all that happens at each stage.
Duration for the activity: 20 to 25 minutes

The requirements:
8 to 10 Tennis Balls
A whistle
Prizes for the teams

The Rules:
Divide the participants into small groups, depending on the number of participants.
Have them arrange themselves in a circle.
Give one person from each team a tennis ball and the explain the rules of the game.
Each group is competing with the other groups. The winning team is that which completes the maximum number of 'circuits' in the given time span.
A circuit is considered complete when every member of the team has touched the tennis ball.
Only one team member can touch the tennis ball at a time. The ball should be tossed about rather than systematically passed around.
If the ball touches the floor at any point then the ball should not be passed around in the team for one minute.
Make the teams complete a few circuits and steadily create complex patterns.

Debrief the teams:
Stop the teams after a couple of circuits and ask for feedback regarding how they, as a team, are becoming more efficient.

Bringing in activity modifications:
A co-worker reports sick: Remove one participant from each team. This will teach the participants that teams can continue to function effectively, even if one team member is not present, as each one can fill in for the absent member.
Increased production demand: Give each team a second ball. As time progresses a third and fourth ball can also be thrown into each team. This is how the teams will understand the need to continue working efficiently when production needs have increased, no matter to what extent.
The understanding after this activity:
How did each team perform?
How did each team perform in comparison to the other teams?
Team analysis… Each team member communication, performance, behavior, etc.

Motivation and team building are essential for increasing self confidence and self esteem.

 

Valuing Individual Differences - Key to Team Success

Employee morale builders and team building go hand in hand with call center teams. Please take a look Andy's article on team success for suggestions for your team.

By Andy Cox

Seeing things in a different way can be the road to success. Leaders place a high value on being able to see things through different lenses. Successful problem solving teams and project teams value individual differences as the means of arriving at innovative ways to meeting their goals.

Most of us - based on our personal set of values, experiences, and a wide variety of other factors, develop a unique view of whatever we come in contact with. We each see things a little differently. In those differences lies tremendous value to ourselves and to others. It can be our greatest strength.

The keys in valuing differences as key to team success involve two dimensions.

The first is the external dimension - the overall team dimension. It's the team's ability to encourage, listen to and use the differences of team members to arrive at solutions and processes that far exceed in value and impact what any one member could provide. It can get messy. There is no learning without conflict. The ability to focus that conflict constructively is the highest order of skill in a team.

The external team dimension requires three critical elements to maximize the value of individual differences.

1 - Clear unambiguous structure focused on the goals of the team. Clear goals, sufficient resources, and effective team composition that recognizes cross functional contribution are all crucial to team success.

2 - An investment in team development of communication skills and the development of an understanding and acceptance of different behaviors, values and skills as essential to the best possible outcome.

3 - It's crucial that leadership and sponsorship of teams be assigned to the top line leaders who will directly benefit from the team's contribution, as the means of keeping focus on results.

The second dimension - the internal dimension - is the ability and willingness of qualified individual team members to value differences and share their unique perspectives.

This internal dimension requires the following from individual team members

1 - The conviction that the power of the group is greater than the power of any single individual.

2 - A willingness to share with others - and the communication skills to do so.

3 - An attitude and belief in plenty - plenty of opportunity for contribution, plenty of recognition for participation, plenty of reward for accomplishment.

4 - Having trust in their own perceptions - and believing their view is as valuable as anyone else's.

5 - Persistence in presenting individual views - while at the same time broadening individual views through listening and interacting with the views of others.

6 - A climate and culture that accepts and encourages differences.

7 - The maturity to persist even after individual views are not accepted as part of the solution.

8 - A respect for leadership and a respect for followership. In any team, as the process of solving problems and defining projects evolves, different people often take leadership.

9 - The optimism and conviction that the answer to most team challenges is right around the corner - getting around that corner requires looking at things differently.

There are few more powerful ways to leverage talent in any organization than through the use of teams. And yet, in many cases, teams don't meet expectations. In my experience, failure to value and build on differences is one of the main reasons for poor performance.

Take the internal and external dimension requirements from this article and see how team efforts in your organization can be improved. Maximize the unique value every person brings to the table.

Andy Cox is President of Cox Consulting Group LLC. The focus of his work is on helping organizations and their people increase their success in the hiring, developing and enhancing the performance of leaders and emerging leaders. Cox Consulting Group LLC was started in 1995, and has worked with a wide range of organizations, managers and leaders - helping them define success, achieve success and make the ability to change a competitive advantage. He can be reached at http://coxconsultgroup.com

If You Want Someone to Follow You, You Have to Give Good Directions

Cookie Tuminello

“Good leaders make people feel that they're at the very heart of things, not at the periphery. Everyone feels that he or she makes a difference to the success of the organization. When that happens people feel centered and that gives their work meaning.” - Warren Bennis

Whether you are a high powered executive, manager, entrepreneur, or president of a volunteer organization, your success will be defined by two things: 1) Letting people know they matter and 2) Setting clear expectations for them to follow. If you don’t have both of these 2 principles in place before your employees/volunteers start a project, I can guarantee you that you’ll soon hit a brick wail called “Lack of Communication.”

A lot of executives automatically ‘assume’ that their department heads or higher managers automatically know everything they need to know to carry out instructions without actually telling them what needs to be done. Well, we all know the outcome of how things will be if we use that lovely word ‘assume’, don’t we? Somebody is going to end up with egg on their face because a ball got dropped somewhere along the line!

You, as the person in charge, know what you want, but it’s up to you to clearly define your expectations to your team right from day one. The outcome may be crystal clear in your mind, but if not translated into clearly defined steps and written on paper, your message may be as muddy as the good ol’ Mississippi!

If you want to enroll others in your vision and get maximum participation, you have to write out the context of the steps for others to follow. There’s a reason why we call this a ‘clarity’ statement – it not only defines your desires, it also opens the door to another important step called ‘communication’.

Here are some steps that will help you ensure the teamwork, productivity, and positive end results you need to create success in your business.

1. You have to get real clear about where you’re going and what you want the final outcome to be before you ever present it to your team. If you’re not sure about where you are going, do you think they are going to follow you? I don’t think so Alice! Get the “W’s” down pat beforehand – Who will do what, when, and where and how it will all come together at the end.

2. Meet with your team to discuss your proposed new plan and tell them how it is going to work. Have a detailed agenda in place so as not to waste your time or theirs. Scheduling meetings with your key players creates a synergy and allows them to freely offer ideas and possibilities that you might very well not have thought of in your original concept. (There’s that word ‘communication’ explained.)

3. Be sure to set clear guidelines for who is responsible for doing what and when you expect it to be finished. Make sure that team members are clear about their roles so you won’t hear “I thought Mary was taking care of that!” when something doesn’t get finished.

4. Be sure you have a verbal commitment from your team that they’re on board for the project. Schedule follow-up meetings and weekly check-ins to keep the project on deadline. And speaking of deadlines, be specific about the date you expect to have everything completed by.

5. Lastly, offer your support and then get out of the way and let them do their stuff. No one likes to be micro-managed or feel as if their leader is breathing down their neck all the time! Words of encouragement go a long way to fostering good personal relations and they go down a heck of a lot easier than words of condemnation do. Remember, success is building relationships, not tearing them down.

All of the great leaders of our time had a clearly defined plan. In addition, they had an innate ability to communicate that plan to others in order to receive the results they desired. It just makes good business sense that you, as the leader, do the same.

Three Steps to Unleashing Your Team's Potential

By Steven Sonsino

Most people could perform at a much higher level than they do if their boss created a suitable environment for them to flourish in. In many instances, it's the boss who is holding the team back by trying to control it too closely.

So ask yourself, do you set unnecessary boundaries for your teams? If you have no idea, maybe you should ask them. "How am I holding you back?" you could ask.

One useful technique to adopt is a KISS strategy: use it in this discussion and you won't go far wrong.

Ask your people these four questions:
1) What should I KEEP doing?
2) What do I need to IMPROVE?
3) What should I STOP doing?
4) And what should I START doing?

What else can you do to unleash the potential in your people? It's about open conversations. I call these 'No Limits' conversations.

This is what you should do:
1) Keep your people informed with face-to-face briefings. This helps them feel useful and important. Clear and open communication is critical.

What does this mean? It means you've got to make sure you have a great team briefing mechanism in place. The Work Foundation in the UK (formerly the Industrial Society) has a useful team briefing mechanism you should consider. It's simple, powerful and effective. Visit the Work Foundation's website for details of 'Managing Best Practice No 72 Team Communication'.

2) Listen to your people and act on their objections when they have good ideas. Do it graciously and make sure folks know whose the idea was.

If, after listening to the objections, you decide not to change your plans, say why you won't change them. Try this kind of statement: "I can see that you're not happy with the process, but until we come up with a better one, I'd like to stick to this one for now. And if you have suggestions that will improve it further, do please let me know."

3) Let people decide HOW to do what you want. The toughest thing you have to do is let your people exercise as much self-direction and self-control as they can on routine things. You may need to say exactly what you want them to achieve or do, but please let them decide how to deliver it.

If your early indications are that what they're doing isn't going to hit the target, ask them whether progress is on target. If it then doesn't actually work, tell them it didn't work. Some managers assume their teams will know or find out, but this is not always the case.

Ask them what they're going to do next time. Ask what they need to do differently.

You've probably noticed that my suggestions involve talking to your people. You need to create an open environment, where everyone's ideas are welcomed and explored. And you do that by starting the conversations yourself. YOU are the one who has to change the way things work.

Your team has to know that you're interested in what they're doing, but that you're willing to let them get on with it.

Structured brainstorming techniques are needed here, not just haphazard 'shouting out' at meetings. I've got a great one I use called Nominal Group Technique but there are hundreds out there.

This 'No Limits' conversation policy is based on different assumptions about why people do the things they do. Great leaders assume that people actually want to contribute to their jobs. They know that people are 'pre-motivated to perform'. The trick is how do you get the performance out?

Secondly, great leaders know that the more people are involved in designing and managing their work, the better they will perform.

And thirdly, great leaders know that good and meaningful performance leads to job satisfaction - which creates an even higher performing team. You create a virtuous circle of performance that reinforces your leadership success and the success of your team.

Article Source: http://www.leadershiparticles.net

If you want the leadership success you deserve, get the leadership training you deserve. Download more free articles and leadership training videos from Steven Sonsino, an international business school professor and author of the Amazon bestseller "The Seven Failings of Really Useless Leaders" Get more FREE videos and articles right now: www.deathofleadership.com

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