First things first!

A very recent situation with one of our customers reminded me of a situation that bears discussion. Some say that "customers are always right." We know that that's not really the case. But whether they're right or wrong, we want them to walk away from a problem feeling satisfied. Whether by providing clarifying information and allowing them to understand something better, or by truly fixing a problem, the outcome must be positive.

The particular situation that happened recently was a customer reporting a problem to us, but not doing it with a new customer support ticketing system we had just setup for their use. Literally the first thing that popped into my mind was, "Dang it! Why didn't they use the new system?" The second thing that popped into my mind was, "Dingus! Read the freaking problem and worry about the process later!"

Never put the customer's problem at a lower priority than having him comply with some process your company has designed...

Rep <answering support phone call>: Super support line, can I help you?
You: Yes, I wanted to report a critical problem with your product.
Rep: Thanks for calling, but did you know that you can report that problem online at our website?
You: Uh, yeah, ok. But I wasn't near my computer and thought I'd just call it in to you for quick handling.
Rep: Thank you, but it's better if you report it through the website in the future.
You: So you don't have the ability to log critical problems?
Rep: Yes, I can, but we like it better when they come in that way.
You: So why do you still have the support phone line?
Rep: For folks who don't have access to our website.
You: So can I just tell it to you now?
Rep: Yes, please go ahead, but try to use the website next time if you can.
You: Uh, I forgot what the problem was...

Okay, you may think this is an exaggeration, but I've had this happen to me before. Is it useful information that I can report problems online? Sure. Is that fact more important than actually getting a critical problem logged in and fixed? Not likely. Yet, here you are, being berated for not following their procedure. Your actual problem has become secondary. That is bad.

Instead, how about this:

You: Yes, I wanted to report a critical problem with your product.
Rep: Please go ahead, sir.
.........
Rep: Thank you very much, and we'll get that reported immediately. Also, in case you don't know, if it's ever more convenient for you, we offer the ability to log problems in at our website. It makes things a little easier for us to track that way, and you can follow the status of your requests.
You: Sure, thanks!

Always handle the customer's situation first. If you have any information for them about a different way to handle things, or any suggestions for next time, then go ahead and have that discussion. Having had his problem handled, now he'll be in the mood to listen to some other process points.

Thanks to Scott Sheppard

First, I'd like to take the opportunity to thank Scott Sheppard for his crazily in-depth review of my new book. As always, Scott went way beyond expectations and actually wrote a review that was fun to read. He also had a couple good points for me that I'll be trying to implement. If you haven't seen it, please take a look here. And be sure to read his blog... always some good entertainment.

It was actually a comment that Scott made to one of my blog postings a few weeks ago (check it out here) that reminded me of another similar trick when meeting people.

Many times, you'll be in a non-work setting with a large number of coworkers... think something like a company picnic or party. You may have just a few people that you work with, or you might have hundreds. Especially if a significant number of them report to you, they will think that you know all their names. Even if most of them don't report to you, they'll still expect that you'll be able to pin a name on them.

Unfortunately, as sad as it is, this is not always true. Especially in the larger companies I've been a part of, it can be very difficult to remember every name. Certainly, there are many you interact with frequently, and those folks aren't a problem. But there will be a few that just won't be waiting for you on the tip of your tongue. Not only can this be embarrassing, but it can leave the coworker feeling like they just don't matter to you. This is bad.

If you're at this event solo, this may not be a problem. You can just use general greetings and completely bypass the name fiasco. The "Nice to see ya!" trick works well. But, what if you have your significant other along with you? You're the one who's going to be expected to do the introductions, and that's going to leave you hanging out to dry.

My wife and I adopted a process for this long ago. When the third party approaches, if I don't immediately make use of the other person's name or do an introduction, she steps forward and introduces herself, as if I had forgotten to do so.

3rd party: Hi Eric! How are you?
Me: Hi Joe! Doing great thanks. By the way, this is my wife.....

 Or....

3rd party: Hi Eric! How are you?
Me: Hey! Great! How are you doing?
3rd party: Good thanks. I was just....
Wife <At first chance>: Hi I'm.... by the way.
3rd party: And I'm Joe.
Me: Oh sorry about that.

I know some of you have probably thought of this trick already, and I realize I'm giving away some secrets to those of you who I still might need to use this on. But that's just part of the sacrifices I'm willing to make on your behalf.

And once again, many thanks for the great book review to my buddy, um, uh.....
Wife <now at first chance>: Hi I'm..... by the way.
3rd party: And I'm Scott.
Me: Oh sorry about that.

Get the Book!

My sincere thanks to all of you who have been [pretending] to read this blog. Hopefully, you're learning a trick or two along the way.

For those of you who wish to take bigger bites, my long-in-production book has finally hit the presses! You can read all about some of the blog topics as well as literally ZILLIONS (literally!) of others, all from the comfort of your Kindle. Or iPad, or Nook, or whatever.

Or even feel free to get a hard-cover or paperback edition and show it off with pride to all your friends! If you'd like, I'd be happy to autograph it and thereby immediately reduce its value! It's your call!

It's available at Amazon, most other online bookstores (shortly), and should even be orderable from those physical places that we used to actually walk into to see what books were around... I forget what they were called...

Make it easy on yourself and just click HERE and I'll send you to the Amazon page. Anyway, in whatever form you allow me entertain you, enjoy! And thank you for your support!

Make a good first impression BEFORE the first impression

When you meet new people, many factors will affect the impression they form of you. How you handle yourself during the negotiations or discussions, your overall appearance, and whether you really did use your hands to eat that spaghetti at lunch. All of these things will contribute to the lasting impression you make. But, before things even get started, you can give a first first impression with the manner in which you introduce yourself.

Most folks want to know that the person they’re about to work with is friendly, open, and a general team player. They want to see that, although you take your work seriously, you don’t mind taking yourself a little more lightly when needed. You can get this across in the few moments before the meeting even begins.

For example, what’s the very first thing you say as you shake hands? One of the folks you meet is going to say, “Hi, I’m John Doe,” and you’ll reply with, “And I’m Sam Smith.” And then you say, “Nice to meet you.” Which is great – except for that you don’t remember that you actually met John Doe once, at some other meeting or conference a year or two back. John recalls your meeting clearly, but to you he just wasn’t that memorable. Whoops.

Many years ago, I noticed that David Letterman always greeted his talk show guests with a friendly, “Nice to see ya.” I realized that he had devised a foolproof way to say “hi” without any implication of whether or not he had met that guest before. I adopted the trick immediately.

Secondly, don’t rush to jam your business card into the other folks’ hands. Watch for clues from the other guys on when/if cards are going to be exchanged and follow their lead. If you’re about to sit down with some folks from the far east, there will probably be a very formal exchange ceremony you’ll follow. But if it’s a few “kids” in jeans from Silicon Valley, maybe not so much. Thrusting the card into their hands would only be a sign of formality they wouldn’t need to experience.

Once the meeting begins, you have your next chance to make that early first impression. Folks will probably go around the table introducing themselves and their responsibilities. Again, if you’re meeting with high-level government officials or something, you’ll have to serve up a good degree of formality in your spiel. But, in most situations, you’ll be able to dial down on the officialism.

Instead of introducing yourself with, “…and I’m the Senior Executive Manager of the customer services team”, try something lighter like, “… and I lead the customer services team”, or even, “… and I try to keep up with and take the credit for the cool stuff that my customer services team does.” They’ll know what you mean, and in one breath you’ll get across all those points about being friendly, open, a team player, and capable of a little jocularity. They will also see that you consider yourself to be on equal footing with your team members and that you know that your job is to let them achieve their maximum effectiveness.

More bossy goodness

Just a few last ideas to lessen the chance that your boss will want to kill you.

Be Positive

It’s so easy to be negative. We all have a tendency to immediately try to find fault with someone’s ideas. When presented with a “Can you do this?” kind of thing, our brains jump into a mode of finding every obstacle that would be in the way and blurting them all out to everyone. Maybe it’s that we don’t like change, maybe we’re covering our butts, who knows. But, the negative tendency is there.

Trust me when I tell you that your boss doesn’t want to hear all the reasons you can’t get something done. He wants to get stuff done. Actually, he wants you to get stuff done. He wants you to find a way.

Responding with, “We could never get that done with all this other stuff going on!” is not the way to go. There’s plenty of opportunity for a dose of reality – later. Start out by being positive. “Yeah! I like that! We can do that!” After all, you can “do” almost anything – assuming you’re given the additional budget, people, time, or whatever’s needed. I mean, you’re not going to be asked to do something without getting the resources to do it (either fresh or transferring in from somewhere else) or without having your priorities rearranged to accommodate it.

You can be positive to start with, then you can turn the conversation, gently, back to how you can. “Okay, let’s examine what it’s gonna take to make this happen.” At this point, just be realistic. “Can we put project X on the back burner to get to this now?” Or maybe, “I think if we shifted a couple of guys over from project X we could handle this.” Whatever it will take. Just start making suggestions to move things forward.

In the end, the “what it’s gonna take” part will amount to exactly the same regardless of whether you start positive or negative. The difference is that, rather than your boss (and everyone else) feeling like you’re coming at the task from a negative point of view, they’ll see that you’re trying to be positive about it and actually get it done. If the “what’s it gonna take” part ends up adding up to too much to make the idea practical, then everyone will see that together and it wasn’t you nixing the idea from the get-go.

In Boss We Trust

Simply stated, you have to always believe that your boss is doing his best to represent you and your needs – even when that might not be apparent. You have to assume that he’s fighting for you and your team, even if he’s not winning some of those battles. He may have been given marching orders to follow, and he's not going to look like a weakling with “Sorry... this wasn’t my decision” kind of statements. But you have to trust that he did his best for you.

At that point, when you haven’t gotten the answer you wanted, the absolute worst thing you can do is to start hammering him over how displeased you are. He knows. And he’s counting on you to not only be a good citizen, but to understand that he did what he could, even though he’s not saying it. Showing that kind of trust and respect will make him fight harder for you in the future.

Lookin’ Good

In general, always consider how anything you do will make your boss look. Whether in a meeting, an email, a presentation, or a hallway conversation, will he be proud of your actions? Are you making him look foolish? Are you crediting him as the source for much of your great outcomes? Remember that even if he wasn’t in agreement with you on whatever path turned out to be successful, he gave you the freedom and the trust to pursue it. That’s worth crediting.

Remember, the better the light you cast on your boss, the better his chances for advancement, and the better the chances of you moving up into his position!

Surprise!!!

Here are a couple more tips to help get on, and stay on, your boss's good side.

Nothing will please your boss more than getting blindsided from his boss or someone from another department. You wouldn’t like it much either. Certainly, as discussed earlier, you can’t expect to be up-to-the-minute current on everything happening in your area, and there’s no reason to feel that you have to keep your boss up to that level either. Doing that is too big a burden on either your own people or on you. You have to carefully pick the items of interest and present them in an appropriate timeframe.

Certainly, anything major, or anything that has direct negative implications on other departments or on customers is a good candidate for a quick update to the boss. You have to ensure that should he get a call from one of his affected peers, or from his own boss, that he’s ready with at least a little bit of information on the subject. It’s okay not to know about absolutely everything that’s going on, but for something major, he will look like a completely out-of-touch moron if his response to a critical call is, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

My methodology for these situations is to pop in with words like, “Hey I need to give you a quick heads-up on a situation that’s brewing…” Your boss will be trained to know what this entails and he’ll understand that it’s time for a short burst of real concentration. You’re about to give him information he may actually need to know in the near future. Give him the quick summary of what’s going on, who’s involved, what the “likely” outcomes may be, and the next steps your folks are taking. When he gets the call from whoever, he will appear totally in-touch and on top of things.

By the way, when you do your “pop ins” for these situations or any other, don’t assume that just because his door is open that he’s ready to engage in conversation with you. Some folks might be, and you’ll learn if that’s the case. But, always assume otherwise. My wording is, “Hey, I’ve got a couple important things to go over with you. Let me know as soon as you’ve got a few minutes.” He will appreciate you giving him the flexibility to prioritize you into his other happenings.

Complaints

Nobody likes a whiner. It’s okay to have problems or complaints, but how many times does it take of one of your guys coming to complain at you before you start hiding under the desk to avoid him? Don’t fill that role for your boss either.

Just as you should encourage your own people to do, when you raise an issue with your boss, try to do so in a constructive manner. Spend some time before the discussion thinking through possible causes and solutions, even if the power to implement the solution is completely outside your scope of control. When you have your discussion, adding your thoughtful analysis of the causes and solutions will change your boss’s entire perception of the meeting from “how can I get out of here” to “there’re some good ideas here.”

Your boss is probably in the better position to actually act on the information you’re discussing. It may require meetings with his boss or peers, but he can probably actually work to fix whatever your original complaint was. When that happens, a lot more people “win” since the problem was probably shared by many. The moron whines and moans. Managers solve problems.

Don't Save The Punch Line

Relating problematic information to your boss in typical story-telling language is not likely to go over well. Even if you can keep the story brief, your boss is going to start getting antsy to know where the story is going.

“First we did this, then we did this. Then this happened, and then there was even more of this. But another guy did this and this, and…”

By this point, your boss is a nervous wreck. He’s not even listening to you much now. He’s just wondering if everything came out okay, or if someone is dead.

Always start out with the punch line.

“I need to let you know we had an accident in the factory, but everybody is fine and there won’t be any negative affects on production. Do you want the details?”

Now he can relax. He’ll let you know just how much extra detail he needs now, and what can wait until later.

A few more bossy tips in the next installment...

Managing your boss

The importance of the relationship you build with your boss cannot be overstated. No one can do more to advance or hinder your career than he can. Regardless of your boss’s management style, good or bad, hands-off approach or micro-manager, you can still learn from him. And learning is always a good thing.

Keep in mind that when I use the word “boss” here, although I am primarily referring to the person
you report directly to, in many ways much of this information will apply to your higher-level superiors as well -- your boss's boss, his boss, etc...

What's the most important thing you can do to please your boss? Well, probably perform really really well, and finish all the tasks assigned to you or your group in record time. But, to get your relationship off on the right foot, from the first time you meet your boss, you need to start...

Learning His Style

Thankfully, most bosses are all about results, and that’s a welcome trait. As the competent manager you are, you should be able to wow him with your ability to get actual work accomplished by your team. But everyone has some degree of sensitivity towards how you handle the relationship from your end. Improperly done, you can set the relationship up for disaster, regardless of how well you actually deliver results. Adjusting to your boss’s operation and interaction requirements is vital to your survival.

In your initial interactions with your boss, begin to take note of what kind of communication styles he enjoys, and what styles seem to turn him off. Some guys are very detail oriented, and they enjoy hearing all those juicy details. Others want the executive summary. Still others don’t want to know anything about a topic unless it requires action on their part. Don’t mistake that attitude for disinterest in your activities. Take it as a sign of trust that you can handle things and that you’ll alert him when his time is really needed.

Whichever category he falls into, it doesn’t make him a “good” or “bad” boss – it indicates his preferred communication style.

How can you tell how much detail your boss needs? Start with the summary, then begin going into more detail. Watch for the eyes glazing over, the attention shift to whatever’s going on outside the window, or the sudden interest in email or cell phone. It doesn’t take long to zero in on his preferred level of detail. Once you think you understand what he needs, in future briefings just go to that level of detail and stop. If he wants more information, he’ll ask. If he does that consistently, you can probably assume that he generally desires a bit more, and you can adjust your style to fit.

When you have communications of a written nature, such as a report, you need to play to multiple levels since it will probably be “read” by a variety of folks. The reason I placed the word “read” in quotes is because many people who will need to read it – won’t. At most, they will skim it. Therefore, it’s important to include an “Executive Summary” section at the top that details the key elements of the report in one paragraph – which some also probably won’t read. Sad, but true.

Next, learn how much independence he wishes for you to have. Again, some guys are going to want to sign off on much more than others will. If you are starting from a position of trust, he may be perfectly happy to let you fly on your own unless you feel you need assistance. It is vital to stay close to whatever level of independence he wishes for you to have and not stray much higher or lower than that point. If you are coming to him for approvals way more than he thinks necessary, he’s going to think you’re overly burdensome and incapable of independent thought. If you seize far more independence than he wishes, he’s going to think you are a loner and maybe a bit out of control. Stick close to the level he wants and you will, over time, earn additional independence.

In the next few issues of this blog, a half-dozen or so additional ways to get on, and stay on, your boss's good side.