Archive for January, 2010
Service With a Smile from Sylvester at Staples
Posted by: | CommentsOK, I know that’s a lot of alliteration. But I’m feeling a little playful today because I’m feeling so good, and I owe it all to Sylvester.
My day started with a stop at Staples to pick up a package of hanging pocket files and folders. After I walked in the door I was approached by a young salesman who greeted me with a smile and a question, “Can I help you find something?” Shock. I think I was flustered because that kind of genuine welcome is rare in retail businesses these days.
We found the pocket files but not the folders I wanted. “We don’t have them, but I’m sure the Staples around the corner on Lexington Avenue and 51st Street does,” he said.
He took my purchase to the counter, smiling all the way. After he rang it up, he made sure that I knew I could enter a monthly drawing for a $5,000 Staples gift card. “All the information is right here,” he said, as he pointed to the sales slip.
“You’ve made my day, Sylvester,” I beamed. “And you’ve made mine,” he said with a smile.
I walked out the door with an extra spring to my step. What a great day this is going to be. Thanks, Sylvester.
Does Money Ensure Employee Engagement?
Posted by: | CommentsMoney is not the primary motivator of employee engagement, according to a recent study sponsored by the U.K. government. David McLeod, one of the co-authors, states that money may be what attracts someone to a company. But once s/he is there, more important is –
• How is the company treating me?
• Am I fully valued?
• Do I know where the organization is going?
• Now that I’m here, is compensation awarded fairly?
• Are my managers listening to me?
• Is someone going to coach me so I can do a better job?
Common sense, right? But, as my friend Andrea Nierenberg often says in her training sessions, “what’s common sense isn’t often common practice.” The common thread binding employee engagement efforts is communication – are the CEO and his managers communicating with employees on a regular basis? Employees can’t know where the company is going unless someone tells them. They can’t know they are valued unless someone gives them an occasional “attaboy” by way of encouragement.
What impresses me is that the government actually felt the topic was so important for the success of U.K. businesses, that it commissioned a study to learn exactly what engages employees. If you want to look for yourself, the title of the study is called, “Engaging for Success: enhancing performance through employee engagement.” Scroll to the bottom of the page when you get to the site for the PDF. I’ll warn you that it is 157 pages long, but it is there for the reading.
Also included in this post is an interview BNET conducted with David McLeod in which he discusses the survey findings. Very interesting.
How IBM Promotes Employee Engagement with Social Media
Posted by: | CommentsI am constantly impressed with IBM and its open attitude towards its employees’ use of social media. The company has on its website, for all to see, its “IBM Social Computing Guidelines”. 
I wrote about this on the Blogger’s Bulletin, a LinkedIn subgroup. With the start of 2010, other companies, who are floundering with their social media policies, would do well to check out IBM’s guidelines. One of many lines in the guidelines that intrigued me: “IBM is increasingly exploring how online discourse through social computing can empower IBMers as global professionals, innovators and citizens. These individual interactions represent a new model: not mass communications, but masses of communicators.” What a profound statement. Gone are the days when a company can tightly control its message through advertising and printed materials. IBM has recognized that thousands of its employees, within certain guidelines, are the touch points for communications with customers, prospects and the general public.
Empowering employees to be brand advocates for the company takes courage and a great deal of trust. From the guidelines, “In 1997, IBM recommended that its employees get out onto the Internet – at a time when many companies were seeking to restrict their employees’ Internet access. In 2005, the company made a strategic decision to embrace the blogosphere and to encourage IBMers to participate.”
IBM says that when it wishes to communicate publicly as a company it has a well-established means to do so – through employee blogs and other forms of online discourse. Isn’t this refreshing? That a company as huge as IBM is empowering and leveraging its employees to enhance its brand? There are other companies, too, like Zappos and Comcast that understand the value of employee involvement in social media. But there are too few companies who understand the power of the Internet. And some companies are still muzzling their employees – but it’s too late. Their employees are already out there.
Jon Iwata, SVP, Marketing & Communications, spells out IBM’s social media policy in this video. Jon Iwata – Social Media as an Internal Tool. Well worth watching.
Tailor Your Communication Style to Meet the Needs of Others
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By Sue Porter “The Accidental Leader“
Would it help if you could:
- Diffuse misunderstandings before they get out of control and turn into conflict?
- Relate to your audience and clients with greater understanding and grace?
- Be able to know a person’s needs, and what they value with just a couple of interactions?
- Give others exactly what they need to keep them motivated and on your team?
You can do all of this, and more, by understanding the DISC behavioral styles method of relating to others. DISC is a tool that helps you in understanding others according to their individual behavioral style. You could say it is the language of behavior, needs and differences. There is no right or wrong style. We are all a combination of all four styles in varying degrees. Read More→
