Leaders listen to ideas, consider them, and then make their own decisions based on collective experience, knowledge and available information. While you should always be considerate, professional and respectful to your colleagues you should not agree with ideas and courses of action that you don’t believe in. If your experience, education and knowledge advise you against a particular idea then …
A taste of your own medicine
A taste of your own medicine is just what one may need at times. I say this with respect to the experience your clients go through with your services or products. Use your services, call your IT Service Desk (aka. Help Desk) and use your products in your daily life as that will clearly show you what your customers are …
Customer service: How to answer a phone
How should one answer the phone? Besides saying “hello” and being polite, it is essential to embody to quality you want your customers to experience in everything you do, even when answering calls. Once you have answered the phone, focus all of your attention on that client, don’t do other things and don’t put them on hold (unless you really …
Speak openly, honestly and frequently
Speak openly, honestly and frequently. Think for yourself, leverage your experience, knowledge and education to arrive to your own conclusions. Don’t simply follow the majority and fall into complacency, lack of action and lack of commitment. You should be represented by your own actions, not by actions of others. Stand up and speak up on items you feel strongly about …
To lead you must follow
To lead you must have followers, to have followers you must follow. Confused? Let’s explain it a bit better. Before you can become a leader you must know how to lead, you must know what works and what doesn’t. One of the best ways to learn this is by following others and experiencing how it is done well (or perhaps …
Leadership teams must reflect the larger population they lead
Adequate representation within leadership and governance teams is essential. This not only means getting the best people you can get to join your leadership teams, but it also speaks about the importance of being mindful of appropriate gender and racial representation as well. Examples of misrepresentation are everywhere. I have recently come across a governance body representing a very large …
People want to be heard and appreciated
People have an innate desire to be respected, heard, understood and appreciated. Once they reach out to those of us in customer service (READ: we are all in customer service) they want to feel that their concerns and problems are important to us, that we will take them seriously and be of assistance to them. Even when we are not …
Top 3 areas to focus on at a new job
Top 3 areas to focus on at a new job may vary when it comes to specifics and details. However, the overall theme of the three areas that deserve and need you attention once you join a new organization are: Meet your coworkers – learn what their hopes, goals and ideas are. Leverage their institutional knowledge and experience in adapting …
Age is just a number, don’t let it limit your growth
Your experience, skills and education matter more than how old you are. The quality you bring to a team depends on your past performance and your track record, not when you were born so please stop using it as a self-limiting factor in advancing and moving forward. You are never too young or too old to make a career move. …
Best ideas must win
Best ideas must win. They must win irrespective of who brought them up and how long that person has been with your organization. Whether they are a CEO, a President, or another executive or a temporary employee who started last week, quality ideas must always be enabled to rise to the top. Diversity of opinions, experiences, backgrounds and education is …