What Customer Service is Really About

I was setting up a new MacBook Air a few weeks back. My list of apps and programs were being loaded until I hit a snag with OmniFocus. Having initially loaded OF via their website, I couldn't use the Mac App Store version. Unfortunately, my old serial number wouldn't register so I emailed the OmniGroup for advice.

I received not one but three emails back from Omni. One email went like this, "Dear Mike, we're sorry that you are having a problem with OmniFocus. The person you emailed is not in today so I'm stepping in for her." At first, I thought this was a joke. Who provides service that is so good that one staffer will step in for another staffer?

My problem was resolved in minutes.

Customer service is, if nothing else, about helping feel valued as individuals. It means extending a hand so that they stand out from the crowd. No one wants to feel used or manipulated and customer service can be the bridge between anonymous and known.

Question: who can you serve today so that they feel known and respected?

How to Respond to Negative Feedback

Good managers give tough feedback.  The issue is on the side of the receipient and the question is simple enough.  "How will I respond when I get feedback that hurts or at the very least, surprises me?"  

There are any number of responses, including but not limited to the following:

• "Fine!  I didn't like working here anyways..."
• "You're wrong.  I am doing a perfectly fine job in my role at work."
• "Are you serious?  Do you know how much the next guy screws up?"
• "I thought Facebook was the company email system..."
• "You're criticizing me for that?  Seriously?"

And there's my absolute favorite response from the employee to the boss, "You are an idiot!"  I'd like to see the backside of that staffer as the door hits him squarely in the pants as he just got his firing papers.  (ok, I wouldn't really want to see his backside but you get the picture)

Author Steven Pressfield (remember The Legend of Bagger Vance?) calls the force in us that brustles when we get negative feedback The Resistance.  The Resistance is that small (and sometimes loud) voice that wants to pack up our toys and head home when the going gets tough.  It's that desire to get defensive and pout.  The Resistance tries to tear down all of your work maturity and success and tell you that the grass is greener on the other side.  

Great leaders learn to harness The Resistance.  They wrestle with it and one day they lose to it and another they triumph over it.  The key is that they keep trying and never quit.  

They then channel The Resistance into a positive direction.  My advice is simple- when you get tough feedback from your boss, don't obsess about it.  Do something positive with it and work your tail off to correct it.  Your boss isn't an idiot and you don't know what he knows.  Deal with it. Learn from it.  Grow as a result of it.  

Spiritually speaking, tough feedback is a great opportunity for prayer.  It helps you be more humble.  Feedback allows you to journal more often in order to understand it better.  Most importantly, any opportunity to become a better person is a step closer to God and His plan for your working life.  

How did you last respond to negative feedback?  Are you prepared for it to show up again in the near future?

*Photo courtesy of EM

The Lingering Effects of Doing Too Much

I'm back after the longest vacation I've taken in years- 10 days.  I've heard about people who say that they need two full weeks to unwind.  A pastor-friend tells me that he needs to get out of the country before he can really feel like rest settles in.  I think I get that now.

The positive thing about vacation: deep rest and renewal.

The negative realization about vacation: it took me a full five days to stop working.

It's not that I actually wanted to work, I didn't.  It was similar to what they teach you in driver's ed when you are 16.  It's called velocitization and is defined as:

"The condition where frequently driving at high speeds affects your overall sense of speed. You become permanently velocitized."

I'm not proud of this but the symptoms were clear:

• Checking my work email when no one was looking
• Feeling distracted by problems at work that I couldn't solve within five minutes
• Not enjoying the beach and sun

This shouldn't be all that surprising but most of feel like when we begin a vacation, all of the stresses of work should turn off.  It doesn't work like that.  Stress needs time and distance to diminish.

Something had to change.  If vacation went on like this, I might as well have returned my airfare and written a big, fat apology note to my wife and kids.  Thankfully, time was all that I needed and day by day, work drifted into the past.

At around day five, people at work stopped emailing me and vacation really began.  The rest, as they say, is history and beautiful Naples, Florida became a home away from home.

What do you do when you realize that you're working too much?

Absorbed Focus

Mondays come around once a week, at least here in New Jersey.  The day is usually preceeded by a slight twitch of dread around Sunday afternoon at 4pm.  By the time that you wake up on Monday morning, you know if you're overwhelmed or are ready to kick butt during the day.

My wife asked me earlier today how I was doing during our mid-morning check in.  One deep sigh later and she knew all that she needed to know- I was overwhelmed.

By the end of the day, the feeling was gone.  I had cranked through about two hours of work before heading home and all felt right with the world.  In the words of energy expert Tony Schwartz, I had practiced "absorbed focus".  

In his post, "The Magic of Doing One Thing at a Time", Schwartz says this,

"I get two to three times as much writing accomplished when I focus without interruption for a designated period of time and then take a real break, away from my desk. The best way for an organization to fuel higher productivity and more innovative thinking is to strongly encourage finite periods of absorbed focus, as well as shorter periods of real renewal."

This is the crux: balance bursts of work with periods of meaningful renewal.  Most of us are not marathon workers but almost all of us can sprint from time to time.

How about you?  How can you absorb periods of focus during your work day like I did earlier today?

Photo by imagery majectic 

How to Cope with a Fishbowl Workplace

I once worked with a woman whose office was off the main hallway.  All day long, people would either:

1. Stop by to chat.

2. Stop in for a meeting.

3. Walk by and pretend not to look in.  (although they did out of curiosity)

 

Now, it could have been that her office was painted pink (not my choice, really) or that she could tell a good story.

 

Or the fact that she was the boss.

 

Let's admit it, when the bossman is around, we feel a bit tense.  When she is at a conference or is sick, we breathe a collective sigh of relief.  I see this each time I'm off campus and check in via phone- you can almost feel the ease at which people are working when I'm not around.

 

Why?  Because I am part of the boss culture.

 

Like it or not, when you are a supervisor/manager/executive, you have one word pasted onto your forehead and it's spelled "B O S S".  When you want to engage in conversation and the other person doesn't, it's not personal.  It's just that you're the boss.

 

This happens a lot when you enter a room and it gets quiet.  It's not that they were talking about you (although very possible)- it's that you are the boss and people feel like they should act a certain way around one of your type.

 

I do it too around my boss so I can relate.

 

So if you're a boss and want to avoid feeling like you're in that pink office and people are watching you, what should you do?

 

1. Give up.  People are interested in pastors, rabbis, bosses, doctors...the list goes on.  This won't change.

2. Use buffer technology.  I really like Ambience for iPhone and iPad to add a gurgling brook or rushing wave to my office workflow.  It's just enough of a distractor to keep me focused and ignore whatever distractions can be outside the fishbowl.

3. Re-think your open door policy.  It should not be open all the time, period. You can help people respect your need for focused work by occasionally closing your door.  This should not be all that often and you'll need to balance quiet, working time with an organizational principle of access to the boss.

4. Embrace your "bossness".  This only means that you should reach a point when you are ok with being a boss.  It's only temporary after all and should not be enjoyed all that much.

 

As Andy Stanley says, "Leadership is a stewardship.  It is temporary and you're accountable."

 

Here's to life within and outside of the fishbowl. Results can often come from places.

What's Your Struggle?

I'll never forget the time when my mother was at her peak performance as a real estate agent.  With untiring effort, intense client loyalty and a zest for sales, my mom became an excellent realtor.  The results showed year after year and our family benefited in a number of ways.

Still, I'll never forget a time when business was slow and customers were more fickle than usual.  Feeling blue, my mom had to look herself in the mirror and evaluate her own self worth.  She asked the question that ultimately envelopes every struggle, "Can I have worth even if my outward success may be hard to see?"

You bet.

I'm surrounded by amazing people who are confronting The Struggle.  They are successful on the outside but behind closed doors, face the same insecurities and doubts as you and me.  These are the ones who slam fists on tables to deliver a passionate point, the ones who seek comfort from their spouse, the ones who try to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The Struggle is that point (actually a string of them) when you're not sure if you're doing a good job.

When your outward success is foggy.

When people criticize you and bring Resistance.

What's your Struggle?  It's probably somewhere between anxiety-depression-self doubt-poor habits-fear-laziness-exhaustion-despair. I know mine is.

So when you feel that you are in the midst of The Struggle, what should you do?  Here are three suggestions:

1. Call it out. Actually tell someone that you're now in The Struggle.


2. Write down practical steps to get through it.  By breaking down complex problems into manageable tasks, you'll not only feel better but move forward in action rather than in despair.


3. Get support.  Few of us go through The Struggle alone.  Turn to your prayer partner, spiritual advisor or trusted confidant at work.  Talk about it.

The Struggle is not something that we go around.  Rather, we push through it and gain clarity and resolve on the other side.

Here's to your journey and mine...

*photo by nickwheeleroz