Give people the opportunity just before they are ready for it. In hospitality we either promote too soon or not soon enough. The key is to give people the opportunity at a time when they are almost there. This will push them out of their comfort zone so they are challenged, but just enough so that they achieve success.
- Sarah Derry for HospitalityMagazine.com.au
Topics: Goals, Leadership and Management
Getting an audience is hard. Sustaining an audience is hard. It demands a consistency of thought, of purpose, and of action over a long period of time.
- Bruce Springsteen
Topics: Memorable Interactions, Customer Experience, Customer Lifecycle
As geese flap their wings, they create an uplift for the bird following. By flying in a V formation, the whole flock adds 71% greater flying range than if any bird were to fly alone.
- Author unknown, quoted by John J. Murphy in Pulling Together
Topics: Teamwork
Never assign blame. When you offer your solution, do not fault the customer. For example, how would you feel hearing the following: "If you had scheduled your appointment the first time you called we would have come out." Statements like this will put the customer on the defensive. When you are trying to help a difficult customer, blaming serves no purpose. Likewise, never blame another employee or department. Saying, "The first employee you spoke with should have scheduled your appointment," may relieve you from blame, but this statement serves no purpose. To the customer, you are the company. Use I or we when referring to your company to show you are accountable.Topics: Business Skills, Customer Service, Customer Experience, Problem Resolution
Rule: You can get your time and your life under control only to the degree to which you discontinue lower value activities. For you to do something new, you must complete or stop doing something old. Getting in requires getting out. Picking up means putting down.
Creative procrastination is the act of thoughtfully and deliberately deciding upon the exact things you are not going to do right now, if ever. Most people engage in unconscious procrastination. They procrastinate without thinking about it. As a result, they procrastinate on the big, hard, valuable, important tasks that can have significant long-term consequences in their lives and careers. You must avoid this common tendency at all costs. Your job is to deliberately procrastinate on tasks that are of low value so that you have more time for tasks that can really make a difference in your life and work.
-Brian Tracy, Eat that Frog
Topics: Business Skills, Goals
We may think we know what someone is trying to say, particularly if we make assumptions about them and their motives or agendas. But generally speaking, we are not learning when our mouths are moving. We are also not learning when we become too focused on what we want to say, the points we want to make, or when we spend time judging whether or not the person speaking is right or wrong. Pay attention to what is being said. When people in business fail to hear and understand each other, the results can be disastrous.
- Brown, Haygood, and McLean, The Little Black Book of Success
Topics: Being Attentive, Listening, Customer Service