Tuesday, August 12, 2008

First Time Supervisors

First Time Supervisors

What's the nicest way to give constructive feedback? You can't go wrong with these steps...
1. Always beg in with praise. Starting with praise puts both you and your employee at ease.
2. Describe the specific performance/behavior you have observed. If I say, “Lynn, you don’t respond well to feedback.” that doesn’t tell her much. But if I say, “I am concerned about the way you respond to my feedback. For example, last month when I spoke to you about your attendance, you became defensive and abruptly left my office. Yesterday, when we spoke about the same issue, you raised your voice and again walked out of my office.” Describing the situation helps the employee understand exactly what you mean and it helps them to accept the feedback as valid. Vague feedback may actually be more confusing than helpful.
3. Respond to the situation. It’s important for you to express your feelings about the performance or behavior so the employee knows exactly how you feel. You might say, for example, “I’m disappointed in you and I know you can do better.”
4. Invite your employee to respond. Giving constructive feedback must be a dialogue and it’s important for your employee to state her feelings just as you did. Ask, “What do you think about what I’ve said?” Getting the employee to respond makes the discussion more relevant and builds accountability for behavior or performance change.
5. Offer suggestions for performance improvement. Instead of giving a direct order, which employees tend not to like, offer a suggestion. You might say:
 “You might consider this.”
 “Do you think this would work?”
 “What do you think of this?”
 “Maybe if we were to phrase it this way it would be better.”
6. Summarize and express your support. You’ve covered a lot in steps 1 – 5. Now it’s a good idea to clarify your main points and the employee’s commitment. One suggestion is to say, “Lynn, what will be your first step?” After hearing and accepting her response, you could say, “I know you’ll do just fine. Let’s get back together in exactly 30 days to review your progress.”
These simple steps will position you to engage in interactive dialogue that is focused on results and maintaining the esteem of your employee. Use these steps the next time you give constructive feedback and you won’t feel guilty or cause resentment.
Tips for Motivating Call Center Employees
Supervisors can learn much about praise and motivation from the sports industry. Critical to the success of any sports or corporate team is praise. Here’s how coaches and fans motivate players and how you can motivate your team:

Cheer your team. Perhaps professional athletes would play simply for the money, but can you imagine a basketball game with no fans and no cheering? It wouldn’t be the same. The cheering of fans energizes athletes. Fans cheer to motivate, encourage and show support for their teams. Athletes, like your employees, are motivated by both money and praise. Never assume money alone is going to motivate and keep employees.

Praise progress, not just results. Football fans don’t wait until a touchdown to cheer. They cheer when their team moves the ball to first down and when the opposing team is stopped on third down. Many managers withhold praise until the goal is accomplished and some only give praise during an annual performance review.

Point out the positive, even when your team misses the mark. In an interview after a loss, coaches always state what their team did well, highlighting the effort and talent of their players. Coaches summarize things the team could have done better and quickly point out the strengths of the other team and they do this without slamming their team.

Here’s a creative idea you might want to try. One day I got my entire team involved in praise. I sent an email to the group and asked each employee to take a few moments to leave a note for a fellow employee stating why they appreciated them. The next morning I had 12 notes from employees thanking me! The notes kept coming throughout the day and every employee took the time to thank every one of their co-workers. The department buzzed with energy the entire day.

Everyday you should look for opportunities to praise your team. Take care of your employees and they will take care of your customers.

What Customer Service Representatives Really Need
To Stay Motivated and Productive
Here are some proven and affordable ways to motivate CSRs…
1. Reward perfect attendance. One of the biggest challenges facing call centers is attendance and punctuality. Many call centers use a “point” system to deter lackadaisical attitudes in attendance and to a large extent the point systems are effective. But have you thought about rewarding employees for good attendance. I worked with a small call center recently that eliminated the point system and instead offered bonuses for perfect attendance. At the end of a 30-day period, all employees who had perfect attendance (no late arrivals, no sick days, no late returns from break or lunch) were awarded P3000.00 bonus. Amazingly, employees who had habitual patterns of never showing up on time got it together to earn the bonus.
2. Paint a picture of excellent, mediocre and poor performance. Management should sit down with employees at the beginning of the year and describe what each level of performance looks like. For example, a manager could say to an employee: If you want to get a “5” in teamwork, here’s what it looks like; here’s what I expect. Here’s what it takes to get a “3” in this area, and here’s what you’ll have to do to get a “1” in this area. Of course, no one wants to be a “1” performer and most will aspire to be a “5”. Clearly describing what it takes to earn the “excellence” mark motivates employees to give you stellar performance – and makes it easier for them to achieve.
3. Leave bureaucratic/inflexible management styles at the door. Recent research on the toll that some management styles take on customer contact employees has found that bureaucratic/inflexible management styles create higher turnover and increased stress levels among customer contact employees.
4. Know what matters most to CSRs. Job factors that matter most to CSRs are (in order of importance): 1. Good wages, 2. Job security, 3. Promotion and growth in the company, 4. Good working conditions, 5. Work that keeps you interested, 6. Personal loyalty to employees, 7. Tactful disciplining, 8. Appreciation of work done, 9. Sympathetic help on personal problems, and 10. Feeling “in” on things. Try to create a work environment that supports their top needs and you’ll find that motivation and productivity will naturally outflow.

While money is the primary motivator for customer service professionals, it is not the only motivator. Look for creative ways to motivate your team by rewarding stellar performance and keeping them in the loop and make it easy for them to perform at the top of their game by setting clear performance expectations. They will reward you with hard work and loyalty.
What tips can you share for being more organized?
If you’re like most workers, 20% of your average workday is spent on "crucial" and "important" things, while 80% of your workday is spent on things that have "little value" or "no value". Perhaps the biggest roadblock to accomplishing the important tasks of our workday is disorganized. Because you have a business to run – and you simply cannot afford to spend 80% of your time on tasks of little value-

 Use one calendar. First of all, I should say USE a calendar. Though Post It® Notes are convenient, they cannot be a substitute for a calendar. Find a system that works for you. Do not confuse yourself trying to use a Day Timer and Outlook or a wall calendar and a pocket calendar. Find one system and use it exclusively.

 Dedicate one hour per week to planning and preparation. Time Management experts often quote this startling fact: One hour of planning will save 10 hours of doing. Take time at the beginning of your week to carefully plan your schedule and to-do lists and you will gain hours of time for more productive tasks.

 Touch paper only once. The average worker touches one piece of paper 4 – 6 times before taking any action. For example, I might open a letter but decide to read it later, so it goes in my in basket. Later when I’m looking for a lost document, I handle the unread letter again (as I shuffle papers in my in basket), I pick up the letter at some point to read it, but I’m interrupted, so it goes on my desk. As I’m shuffling papers on my desk, I touch the letter again…and again and again. Don’t waste time like this. There are only 4 things you can do with paper: dump it, delegate it, do it, or designate follow-up. Do one of these things each time you have a piece of paper in your hand. If it’s trash, throw it away now. If you need to review it 2 weeks from today, file it. Don’t simply stack paper that you’ll have to go through again and again.

 Hold meetings at odd times. Do you lose several minutes each day waiting for co-workers and employees to show up at meetings? Here’s a sure-fire tactic to get everyone there on time. Instead of beginning at 10:00 am, start the meeting at 10:03 or 9:57. People tend to remember the odd times and get there on time.

 Work with a clean desk. Studies have shown that a person working with a messy desk will spend, on average, one and a half hours per day either being distracted by things in their view or looking for things. That's seven and a half hours per week.

 Check your email hourly. While we often feel compelled to check our inbox each time a tiny envelope pops up on the screen, I urge you not to do that. Many people are interrupted by incoming emails dozens of times a day. Email tends creates its own sense of urgency, but most of the communications are not all that urgent. Consider checking your email once each hour, or even less frequently if that is feasible. Of course, if your job is to respond to customer emails, this tip should not be taken.

Implement just one of these easy tips and you will be amazed at how much more productive you can be!

HOW TO ADDRESS UNNACCEPTABLE EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE
Moving from peer to boss
As supervisors, we often avoid opportunities to address unacceptable performance or behavior. Perhaps we fear our feedback will result in a difficult-to-handle response or harm relationships. The reality is, withholding constructive feedback will do more harm than good in the long run. Giving constructive feedback is easier and more effective when we are prepared. Following are 7 steps for addressing inappropriate behavior.

Here’s the scenario: Jessica has been tardy 3 days this week.

1. State the facts – Start off by stating the facts. Be concise and direct. You know you’ve stated the facts when no one can disagree with what you’ve said. The goal of this step is to get both parties on the same page and to set the tone for productive dialogue. “Jessica, you were 10 minutes late this morning. You were also a few minutes late on Friday and Monday.”


2. Interpret the facts, giving the benefit of the doubt – The other person may become defensive after you’ve stated the facts, after all, you’ve just pointed out a flaw in their performance or behavior and it is natural to take this personally or to become defensive. In this step, you want to bring down the wall of defensiveness by giving the person the benefit of the doubt. “I know your son just started kindergarten this week and I imagine the transition is affecting your schedule.”

3. State your feelings – The reason you’re addressing the issue is because you have some feeling about it. Honor yourself and get those feelings out. Simply identify and state your feelings. When you do, don’t justify or minimize the feeling(s) – just name it. “I’m disappointed in your recent tardiness. Your tardiness directly impacts our service levels which means customers have to hold longer and your co-workers have a difficult time handling calls.”

4. Validate the relationship – You’ve just authentically stated your feeling(s) regarding unacceptable performance. This may be a hard pill for your employee to swallow. Follow this up with a little sugar. Find something positive to say about your relationship and make it genuine. “You are one of my superstar employees! I’ve always appreciated the way you take initiative and anticipate customer’s needs.”

5. Say, “Help me understand.” – In steps 1 – 4 you are doing all of the talking. Now it’s time to turn this into a dialogue and get your employee’s feedback. Do this by simply saying, “Help me understand…” For example: “Help me understand why you’ve been coming in late.”

6. Request behavior change – Now you need to directly state what you need to have happen. “I have to have you here on time. Our customers need you here and your co-workers need you here.”

7. Ask, “What do you think of what I’ve asked of you?” – This is a dialogue and what your employee is thinking and feeling matters. Let them know this by asking for their input. “Do you think what I’m asking of you is reasonable?”

Managers using this method should not fear getting a difficult-to-handle response or harming the relationship. This method is direct, clear and maintains the esteem of your employees.

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