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How do you Create an Incredible Guest Experience? It Starts with Your Employees’ Experience

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We know how important it is to create incredible guest or customer experience. But have you been looking at it first through the lens of your employees’ experience?

All too often, we put together training programs or launch initiatives or assign e-Learning modules to employees about what we expect from them, but never stopped to ask if in fact they are satisfied. If they are having a positive employee experience. If it is justified asking them to deliver a certain experience because it is in alignment with their values.

Sadly, all too often, we ask for a higher standard for our employees than we are delivering to them.

Please hear this: There is a connection between employee and guest or customer experience. You do not have one without the other. To try is an exercise in futility.

Recently, I hosted a live event at a five-star, beautiful resort. I wanted my family to benefit from my business so I decided to host it somewhere where they could come with me and most importantly, I wanted to serve my coaching clients by giving them an incredible place to learn and reflect that would bring ease, joy and abundance into their businesses.

Good in theory. Only one problem. The people at the resort were miserable.

From the minute anyone attempted to make a reservation, they were faced with broken links, coupons not activated, long waits on hold and short-tempered agents. Was it their fault? Nope. They didn’t break the systems or show up to do a bad job.

When everyone arrived, the wait in line at the front desk was long. The reservations were wrong. People had to be moved to different rooms. Requests to bring luggage up to rooms or sign up for shuttles weren’t booked. Was it their fault? Nope. We learned most were new, they were short staffed, and the hotel was booked above capacity.

It was not unusual to see a staff member there at 8:00 in the morning, and they’d still be there at 8:00 at night. We were there for one week, and some staff and managers we saw there every single day. Not only is that not possible or reasonable but it makes me wonder, what kind of retention problem exists that you need people working there that many days?

I won’t go on, but one thing became very clear. The individuals who were the face of the customer experience were overworked, unsupported, and undervalued. How can you profess to be a five-star hotel when you don’t deliver a five-star experience to guests? And how can you be a five-star hotel when you deliver a one-star employee experience to your front-line staff and middle managers?

I may have been frustrated, but at least I got to go home. Their only options were to put up with it or leave. Are you reflecting right now on if your employees experience the same two inferior choices? It doesn’t have to be that way.

How do you create an incredible guest or customer experience that represents your brand well aligns to the employee experience? Here are four secrets:

1.What You Expect for Customers You Must Deliver to Employees

Take a look at your customer service and guest experience training. Now take out the word “customer” and replace it with “employee”. Do you live that? If the answer is no, start there. Don’t ask something of someone that you can’t deliver yourself.

Last fall I had the pleasure of speaking for the senior management team for a hospitality organization on the list of Great Places to Work. In preparation for the talk, I took their Guest Experience e-Learning training and presented my recognition talk in alignment with those seven pillars of their guest experience. They connected the dots instantly, what aligned well between the guest and employee experience, and what they needed to work on for employees. And that’s why they’re a Great Place to Work. Because they’re committed to moving the needle on the experience for all.

2. Analyze Your Data

Consider your employee feedback and customer feedback side-by-side. All too often we look at each set of data in isolation, and at different points in time. Some of the call centre owners I spoke for in March sent out an employee experience survey every day because that’s what they do for customers. Keep the pulse on both, and you will begin to see connections; when one goes up, the other is up there too. Effect one, the other follows. It’s like a two for one deal!

3. Identify Your Priorities (A Wish Doesn’t Create Change)

If you have a target and an operational priority for your customer or guest experience, also have one for the employee experience. What project or initiative will help with both? What barriers will roadblock both? What is the most important thing you need to address immediately? What is going to require longer-term effort? For example, as a recognition expert, my advice is to start with recognizing your staff in small ways, and monitor customer satisfaction scores; I suspect you will see, the more recognition you give out to employees, the more your guests will say their experience was exceptional and ratings will be higher. How do I know? Because my clients do this and cannot believe how small gestures make such a huge impact so quickly.

And by the way, rather than try to fix all of those data points in your surveys, keep it simple with just a few allowing you to make sure they’re aligned.

4. Measure What Matters

With those priorities, you will need to measure success on both the customer and the employee side. Likely the measures are out of alignment, but you can make small tweaks to bring them into alignment for frequency and initiative. There is no point in measuring something that you aren’t sure what impact it will have, or so many things that you have no time left to make small tests of change. Measure a few things well – strategically and often – and once those numbers stabilize, move onto the next priority.

The bottom line is this: your front-facing customer is going to remember how they feel with your employees, and you may never get a chance to serve them again or the cost of losing them might be so high it’s worth the work I’ve outlined here. It’s hard enough to retain top talent without depriving them of an environment where they can thrive.

If you’ve been focusing on the guest experience, why don’t you share this information with other people on your team? What other ideas do you have? Share them in the comments below!

Moving from Problem Obsessed to Solution Focused: The 5 Most Important Questions You Need to Be Asking

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As a leader (formal or otherwise), do you sometimes feel your office is a revolving door?

One problem and one complaint after another? Do you feel your office is a dumping ground for problems? Do you feel you’re left to clean up other people’s messes (and you’re busy enough with your own core work?) That by the end of your day, you have no energy left, you feel deflated and you worry all your effort isn’t leading to lasting sustainable change.

If this describes your workday, and if feels like every day is Groundhog Day, I’ve got a fix for you.

I want to share with you an evidence-based tool that will allow you to respond in a way that people feel they’re incredibly well supported without you feeling you need to pick up the pieces for them. It’s a solution-focused approach that originally came from the therapy world, but moved into organizational development and coaching. As a professional coach, speaker and trainer having introduced this to thousands of leaders, I can share first hand the transformative effect just five questions has had for busy middle managers.

As one individual shared on a recent evaluation” “If I had only learned this 20 years ago when I became a manager, I would’ve saved myself a lot of time and enjoyed my job more.”

So what are these questions? I’ll share the below and you can download them here:

1.What do you want?

When you think about yourself in a problem-solving situation and you’re trying to find solutions, is the first thing that you discover the best idea? For most people, they need to ask or be asked that same question repeatedly because typically, the first thing that we think of comes out of our mouth first. Ask what else, what else, what else? Then you will truly understand what the person wants.

2.What is already working?

This can be a tricky question to ponder if people are in the middle of a negative vortex, but there’s always something that’s working and again, consider, what else, what else, what else? Soon you will see the many things that are working.

3.What is possible?

Helping people see what they most want and what is already working, the possibilities open up and expand so we begin to offer solutions and problem solve. If you’ve ever tried to talk to someone about something that you’re frustrated about, you will know how annoying it is to have them try to solve the problem when all you needed was a listening ear. Instead, if they asked you, ‘what’s possible’ and ‘what else’ they’re demonstrating that you are the most resourceful person in the room.

4.What resources and knowledge do you already have available?

In other words, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. What could you tap into? It is incredible what people come up with…”what else, what else, what else?”

5.What is the one thing you’re going to do next?

This question helps the individual decide the most important next step to make progress. It’s a relief to not have to come up with the “strategy” but rather one step forward. Even the most overwhelmed person can decide one next step.

It’s incredible to me when I use this in coaching conversations or in front of an audience, how people get clear on the one next step and the hope and energy they feel as a result. They know it’s going to stop the revolving door of people complaining and negatively impacting your day.

And if you want to go one step deeper, understanding how to use this in the context of people who complain a lot, while you are over on my website downloading these questions in poster format, why don’t you also download the exercise “Complain, Complain, Complain”. All of these resources are designed to help you save time and enjoy your job more!

For more great tips and insights why not  subscribe to my YouTube Channel? We have a helpful VLOG for you to help magnify your greatness in work, family and life every week!

Three Secrets to Recognition: Making it Easy to Recognize your Peers, Staff and Clients

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When I was flying back from a recent speaking engagement, I happened to be sitting beside somebody who, I learned very quickly, was an incredibly motivated middle manager. He was on the way up in his career and very passionate about his people. When he asked me what I did, I shared I was a recognition expert, he excitedly peppered me with questions.

  • What is the value of recognition?
  • How could I do more of it?
  • Given I travel so much, how can I do it from another country?

That question inspired me to create this post, because he’s not the only one who has these and related questions. For busy professionals like him, here are three essential ingredients to successful recognition:

  1. Have the tools for recognition available.

Have a stack of “thank you” cards in your office or work bag. If you are really savvy, you’ll already have them stamped with your return address! All you need to do is fill out the card, write the person’s name, and pop it in the mail. If it goes to their home, think about the impact of that for the person receiving it! What a wonderful way for them to be able to share it with their family.

I have a product, called, “FROG Kudos Cards” that some of the folks that I know, they keep two in their pocket every single day. They put them in their pocket at the beginning of the day and they find somebody to give it to, whether personally handed over or placed in one of those envelopes. Whatever your ritual is, find recognition tools that you can have handy. You are so much more likely to recognize people when the resources and tools are at your disposal.

At a recent International Conference I spoke at, after the break, one of the business owners came back with a big smile on his face. I inquired if he had taken out my homework of recognizing a colleague over coffee with a compliment card. He replied, “I actually went down to the gift shop and bought enough postcards and stamps to write a thank-you card for every member of my team and I’m sending them before I go to bed tonight.” I was so impressed! Now that is a resourceful man! If he can do it in the middle of a conference in another country, think about how much easier you can continue recognition with the tools already available!

2. Intention

When you are engaging in a discussion with your team, “How are we going to use recognition?” be intentional. Knowing what you believe will be better as a result. And be ready to break down barriers and support the converted. Be intention about making it work.

I was recently doing some work with a group that wanted to make sure that the moms and kids in their facility were able to feel valued and appreciated. They were able to talk about all the ways in which they already do it as well as some very specific strategies. That led to a beautiful conversation about how they could do the same things in their team meetings. Thinking intentionally about how you can do this daily or on a weekly with each other meant that doing it for their clients would be that much easier and more natural! When you have your team doing it, you not only have accountability, you also have greater sustainability.

3. Experiment

If you notice somebody doing something that deserves acknowledgment, don’t lose that opportunity. For example, I carry little squishy frogs in my purse. My brand is FROG – Forever Recognize Others Greatness™. When I FROG a perfect stranger, of course, handing over a little squishy frog and saying, “Have you been frogged lately?”, which can sometimes get a strange reaction, of course. I will tell them what it means and then say, “And the greatness I want to recognize in you is…” That is something I don’t plan, I just spontaneously do it in the moment.

By catching people off guard and surprising them, that’s the exponential power of recognition. It means more, because you’re surprising people. It’s something they are not expecting. This kind of surprise factor will go farther than if somebody shows up, for example, to an annual award ceremony. Spontaneously acknowledge people in whatever way you are comfortable with. How can you experiment with different ways of recognizing individuals organically in the moment? How can you take recognition efforts that are going “stale” and mix them up? You don’t have to do it alone! Think it through with others and try some things! What is the worst that can happen? Believe me, it’s worst if folks thing you don’t care and aren’t noticing their greatness.

I hope you have found this really helpful. For more recognition tools and tips daily, why not check out my Flash Briefing on Amazon Alexa. You can have an app, you can have the device and you can also subscribe to Podbean, and every day you’ll get a new juicy insight to keep your recognition going, to retain your best people, delight your customers, and of course make sure you love your job.

Why Being a Visible Leader is Essential to Retain Top Talent (and It’s Worth Your Time)

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I recently got back from speaking at an International conference in Puerto Rico. As you may recall, Puerto Rico was devastated a year and a half ago by Hurricane Maria. The General Manager at the premium Hotel where the conference was being held was a speaker, sharing what it was like being one of the surviving hotels during the natural disaster. It’s a powerful story in and itself, and I’m excited to share with you the VLOG interview I did with him next week. But let me give you a teaser:  visible leadership and every leader pitching in was essential to get through the crisis. But did that stop once the hotel was back up and running? No. I saw him half a dozen times in the week that I was staying on the property. This man knew people by name, cared about the culture of the organization, and had his pulse on the hotel every day.

This is not the reality in most organizations. Nor is visible leadership a requirement in the hospitality industry alone. For those of you who read my book Forever Recognize Others’ Greatness, we stress how it is virtually impossible to authentically and sustainably recognize your top talent unless you get out of your office and meetings. In this blog, I’m going to tell you why.

And by the way, even if you are not yet a formal leader, this post will be helpful to shape your leadership philosophy and provide some insights to align with those you report to.

But first, a confession….

Visible leadership was not always a priority for me. When I took on my first management job 10 years ago, sure I got to know my team, but being visible outside my team was not a priority. I focused on my peers. I worked hard to maintain a “perfect presence” – professional suits, high heels, scarves, and the right jewelry. Looking back, I thought that coming across with the right image built credibility. Really, I was playing a role. It was about me. What I learned with time was that what I had been creating was an us and them impression.

So I changed that. I started dressing in fewer suits and stopped cramping my toes. I spent part or all of every Friday out of the office with direct service providers who knew the answers that we on senior team didn’t have a grasp on to fix.

I learned four valuable lessons that I’m excited to share with you here. And you know what? My job got easier. I became more effective. I was more confident. I was assertive because I knew what was really going on. And I was more respected (not always popular by my peers, but they respected me more for it as did the staff and supervisors).

4 Reasons Visible Leaders Are More Effective

  1. It makes you more accessible.

You probably already are an accessible leader. People can reach you by phone, text and perhaps you also have an open-door policy. But do people feel you are accessible? Do they want to approach you? Are you around on their “turf” levelling the playing field? Are you seeing for your own eyes what they are experiencing? When you are present, you have a different leadership presence.

And it makes you think about how you do all your work as a leader differently. Recently, I received an email from one of my clients. He’s a very successful, third generation business owner. At the end of the year, he often gives a bonus to staff. Instead of mailing a cheque, however, he personally delivers them to his staff. The point is, he went to them as opposed to everyone receiving them all at one time at their holiday lunch. He went to each person individually and he recognized their unique contribution. It was more than a cheque. It was a touchpoint, one that levelled the playing field.

2. It allows you to see what’s not working.

I had this incredible opportunity to speak with a senior leader, someone who used to be my boss’s boss many years ago. Given some of the challenges in the industry she works in, she said to me, “I’ve never spent more time out of my office, at the frontline, trying to help address issues and to be a support to people. If I say it once to staff, I say it 10 times a day, we can get through this.” She’s not micromanaging, let me be clear. She’s showing up to provide visible support, asking great questions and breaks down barriers. She has never known more staff or been known by them. Now, she cannot imagine it any other way.

What a difference it makes to see a senior leader at the frontline making that statement not just from her mouth, but by physically being there, and reassuring we can get through a crisis or just seeking to understand how staff feel work processes can be improved, made more efficient, delight customers more, or celebrate small improvements made every day.

3. It gives you a chance to celebrate in the moment.

When you see people doing good things and they are working well, it allows you to take that moment, to recognize and acknowledge it. If there’s one thing I know from working alongside, doing presentations for, and even doing training for professionals, they often undervalue their accomplishments. It becomes an expectation before long, that’s the new norm. When you personally see it and go into their work environment, it allows you to take a step back and celebrate it.

I spoke for a group of hospitality senior leaders, and subscribed to their internal newsletter for two months before speaking with them so I could weave in great examples and opportunities for improvement into my speech. It became very apparent some leaders who submitted recognition that they knew intimately the great work that was happening, people’s names and the pulse of the team. Not only did this come through with their written kudos, but also describing how they celebrated it with staff and supervisors in the moment when they were on-site. Others leaders’ submissions were very high level and didn’t come across as truly knowing their people. Which leader would you follow?

4. It allows you to get to know people as people.

Visible leadership enables you to recognize what your top talent most values. If you have somebody that’s super organized and efficient, you can recognize authentically and in a meaningful way how you appreciate their organizational skills. For somebody that you notice is always smiling and greeting people, whether it be their colleagues or your customers, you’re able to acknowledge how important that is in creating a welcome environment for all. It is more powerful to notice specifics in the moment than saying, “I heard,” or, “In this survey somebody told me.” Sure, you can do both, and it lasts longer and is generally received as more meaningful when they experienced it, and were able to zoom in on what they most value.

You may be thinking, “but I don’t have time for this!” Here is how I did it. I blocked time every Friday, the whole day or part of a day, and then got very discerning about how I spent the rest of my week. If a meeting didn’t have an agenda, if my attendance wasn’t absolutely necessary, if a project didn’t have a sponsor or budget, etc, I said no. Again, it didn’t always make me popular, but I was more effective in the end because I was making a profound impact from what I was learning and how I was recognizing folks doing the frontline work that mattered most in the organization.

Looking for more great ideas? Don’t miss a VLOG by subscribing to my YouTube channel. Every week we share resources, ideas and information to help you build strong, healthy cultures. You can also forward this along to your friends and colleagues to build the rock solid organizations that deserve you!

5 Misery-Making Things At Work We Accept (But Don’t Have To)

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As a recognition expert, I often find that following a keynote, or when coaching leaders, there are a few common things mention that annoy, frustrate and roadblock their productivity, yet they’re so commonplace they haven’t put steps in place to change them. What if in fact, you could make your own workday and others more enjoyable, satisfying and productive? Wouldn’t you try it?

You may be thinking, if the solutions were that obvious, why wouldn’t we be fixing them? As I begin to share this list, you’ll probably realize they are deeply embedded in workplace behaviour and culture – your workplace and many others! Yet, with some help and commitment to tweaking things, you may find you can take more of your time, focus and energy back, redirecting it to what you do best and enjoy most.

1.Emails

There’s some research now that’s showing that emails are becoming one of the biggest stressors that people deal with. Not being caught up, having to check it while you’re on vacation, arriving to 50 more after just one meeting (that you notice on your way to your next meeting). Ring a bell?

Some people think email is inevitable. A necessary evil. However, there are lots of things you can do to reduce email traffic. Check out systems like Slack and Click. Tools like these and others are helping work teams contain conversations around projects so that your communication stays focused, productive and updated. Say goodbye to long never-ending lists of emails in your inbox!

2.Committees and Meetings

Death by committees and meetings! Patrick Lencioni wrote a great book on this a number of years ago. Sitting in meeting after meeting, 8 am to 5 pm, it occurred to me we didn’t have to be this overscheduled. Furthermore, I began to notice how many things we discussed just to feel like everyone was included because no one read the written communications (perhaps because they were always in meetings), and as the only means to keep a project on track. Some meetings didn’t even have a structure such as an agenda! Oh, the pain!

When a new CEO came in and he said, “What is with all of these meetings?” I, perhaps unpopularly said, “Why don’t we put a hiatus on all meetings that are not absolutely required? Only support meetings that are legislated and mandated, but every other meeting is on hold for three months. Let people get their time back. And that after three months, people need to pitch to bring back the meeting.” He agreed. Initially, people said, “Oh my gosh, we can’t do without these meetings!” But it is incredible how focused, productive, and collaborative people were able to be when their calendar was not blocked during their most alert hours. You can probably imagine, many fewer meetings came back. Could you try a meeting holiday, even meeting free Fridays?

3.Task Delegation

When support departments delegate tasks to busy middle managers who are already overwhelmed to do work that is very specialized, not only will they feel anxious that they can’t do it as well as a trained professional, but also, they don’t have time to do it. Consider your processes and determine if there’s something that we’re asking people to do that isn’t really reasonable and, frankly, is causing them undue stress.

Also, consider what tasks people are doing that aren’t necessary. Plan your next group meeting with Doodle or purchase a scheduling software system like Calendly or TimeTrade. You are too busy and it’s painful to go back and forth setting up meetings (it just compounds problems 1 and 2 we discussed above). Let technology do the work for you.

4.Corner of the desk phenomenon

When we add projects, we may have great reasons why we want somebody to do it, and yet, they cannot get it done because they already have a full-time job. How much do you ask people to do without having a conversation about what’s coming off their plate? Why don’t you initiate that conversation?

5.Annual recognition only

Failure to recognize people in a meaningful way on a regular basis leaves people to feel less motivated, energized or clear if what they’re contributing is making a difference. Leaving it to annual (or worse, only at 5, 10 or 25-year marks) is even worse than infrequent recognition!

I can’t tell you how many people have still had large amounts of email in their inbox, sat on many committees, and still have tasks that haven’t made it off their plate yet. However, when somebody takes the time to acknowledge and appreciate how hard they’re working, the strengths and the skills that they’re bringing to the organization, how they know that there has been an extra push lately and that it is valued and appreciated, when it’s specifically, authentically, meaningfully acknowledged, people are willing and able to work for you; that much harder, that much more focused, that much more productively. You won’t get your best from people if you only make a big deal of them once they’ve been with the company for 25 years (and believe it or not, the main investment Canadian organizations make in recognition is this!)

If you find that people are not performing at their best, and that includes you, perhaps burnout has set in from the very things we can change in organizations. Isn’t it worth trying to shift? Wouldn’t a small improvement make a huge impact when you consider your whole workforce?

There are many easy things you can do about each one of them, which is why I invite you to spend 15 minutes chatting over a virtual cup of coffee to strategize how I can help you.

5 Ways to Bring Meaning and Joy Back to your Career

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Do you feel meaning and joy every single day from the work that you do? Do you love your career? If Oprah invited you to be a guest on Super Soul Sunday, would you have so many stories and examples to share you would not know where to start?

Well, if you’re not sure or if you’re worried the answer is no, you are not alone. A small percentage of us are actually satisfied and engaged in the very place we spend most of our time – our workplaces. The good news is, we have found it elsewhere; 67% of Canadians say they’re very happy. Imagine how many more would be happier, or happier for a greater part of our day, if we could find that joy at work too? I believe it’s possible.

I want to share with you five powerful questions to clarify where you can find more joy and satisfaction at work:

  1. Are you proud about the work you do and who you work for?
  2. Do you have a close or even best friend at work?
  3. Do you have joy and happiness at least once every single day at work?
  4. Do people see and honour your greatness – your talents, passions, and virtues?
  5. Are you recognized for that greatness every single day?

If the answer is no to any of those questions, just ask yourself, “What would Oprah inspire you to do? Would she settle? Nope. So why should you?

What is one thing you could do to bring greater joy and happiness into your workday? Here are a few ideas:

  1. Speak positively about your job, employer and accomplishments in your role
  2. Spend time socializing at work or outside of work with coworkers you respect and share common interests with
  3. Before you finish work, write down, note in an app like WinStreak, or simply think about one thing you that worked well or was positive about your day
  4. Recognize someone’s else greatness (they’ll be more likely to recognize yours and others)
  5. Find a way to bring recognition into your workplace such as in team meetings, stand up morning huddles, a kudos board or random acts of recognition (e.g., thank-you notes)

No matter how much control you feel you have at work, there is always something you can do to regain joy and contentment at work. And isn’t it worth it? You spend enough time there…

Want ideas every day of how to keep doing this? Listen on your Amazon Alexa device or podbean app to Forever Recognize Others’ Greatness.

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