One of the kinds of leaders who can drive employees crazy is the “Brainstormy” Boss, who creates a work environment that’s as changeable as the weather. It’s Raining Ideas! When brainstorming is used appropriately -- as... Continue reading
What can you do if it's clear that your boss thinks your job is a lot easier to do than it really is? You can think of her as the “Have You Gotten Any Better... Continue reading
Here’s an example of how to use emotional data to help individuals work more effectively. A frontline manager in a service company was known to have an emotional hair trigger. When Charisse didn’t care for... Continue reading
No matter how important it is to take everyone’s feelings into account, it’s still not reasonable to expect tears, shouts, or clenched jaws in the workplace every day. Excessive or poorly directed emotions get in... Continue reading
Anyone who says feelings have no place in the workday might as well say that breathing has no place in the workday. A human without either one is a corpse. The ability to use emotions... Continue reading
Every once in a while someone tells me a story of dysfunctional, disruptive, unprofessional, plain old odd boss behavior. Here’s an example, along with some suggestions for how to normalize things with a crazy-making boss... Continue reading
To improve the service experience for both customers and reps, start by targeting the key elements of service infrastructure that consistently create negative outcomes. After that, there are some deeply human aspects of service that... Continue reading
Customer service is a tough job. People who work in a pure service role (as opposed to those who but also take orders, provide sales support, or do real selling themselves) spend the vast majority... Continue reading
It can be very appealing to have an overreactive person on your team because of their strong drive for accomplishment and their very quick response time whenever there’s a problem to be solved. But for... Continue reading
If you suspect you’re an excessively reactive manager, you may wonder how to slow things down to help yourself work more effectively and not disrupt your team so much. And you may worry how you... Continue reading
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