For a manager to be brave enough to empower their people is one of the most enlightening actions they can take to remove some of the burdens that others can deliver.

Individuals start to flower in their abilities and become the swan to the ugly duckling of the past – producing results even beyond their own imagination.

A manager who unleashes the potential of their people in this way will achieve a fulfilment of their own possibilities and that of those in their care too.

I’m going to be all contentious here – are you ready?

Bad customer service is almost never the fault of the person who gives it. Period.

When we are at the blunt end of bad service as a customer, we immediately feel that it’s the one facing us (or in an increasingly virtual world, on the other end of some sort of line or another), who’s at fault.

Yet, I’m pretty sure that most people who go to work each day want to feel that they have done a great job. Trouble is, their environment isn’t always right.

So, what does that mean? Well, let me share with you 5 top line reasons why the obvious culprit in not the individual in your line of fire, the person right in front of you:-

1. The Wrong Person

You see, when organizations recruit customer ‘facing’ personnel, they need to be very definitely choosing those who like interacting with others.

So often, what I call ‘people-people’ don’t get selected because they can come across as a bit forward at interview, and that can irritate the selection team.

This is wrong.

People-people are outward and love interacting. So, when selection teams recruit, sometimes the wrong person gets put in front of you because the wrong choices were made, often for the wrong reasons.

2. The Wrong Priorities 1

Customers aren’t quite the priority the organization says they are.

Of course every organization on the planet ‘says’ that the customers is ‘the most important person’ (I actually disagree – see 4. below) – and then they don’t walk their talk. A customer is only the priority level that the sharp-end management gives it.

So they go giving their supposedly customer focused employees a ton of other jobs to do so they make best (financial) use of them.

Where is the logic of that?

3. The Wrong Priorities 2

Organizations love processes!

It’s what employs a whole bunch of people and then, with all that ‘delighting customers’ they are supposed to be doing, they lumber their people with audits and stock control and a multitude of non-customer aligned activities that support who?

Probably the bean counters and auditors who provide the processes in the first place. The customer front line employees have to comply, or they get into trouble – or focus on customers.

Well, we know what they are going to do, aren’t they.

4. The Wrong Focus

Organizations upset their people without even trying.

They fail to recognize and act on some of the most basic standards that any employee might expect.

Pay gets botched and/or paid late; workwear is always ‘delayed’; people don’t say ‘thank you’; personal ambition isn’t on the radar; holidays get moved.

None of this helps a customer facing employee be at their very best when they need to be.

5. The Wrong Managers

More and more these days, manager appointments are being dumbed down to a pretty low denominator.

Managers are given roles that don’t suit them and they don’t have adequate people skills to make the best of the people they have; nor appreciate the criteria required to get the right fit.

Add to that where managers don’t show they care about their people because their communication skills are lacking and you have the absolute recipe for trouble.

Can you see the reasons why it’s pretty unlikely that customer facing employees are rarely where the fault for failure lies?

If you’re a manager yourself, what do you need to change in the way you run your team; department or business. What do you not know about how the sharp-end works. And, when will you find out about it.

Or maybe you are part of the problem, not the solution?

A manager cannot do it all – their performance depends on how they get the best from their team.

By giving employees the capacity to act on the manager’s behalf they will benefit incredibly with that level of trust.

And when a manager says, ‘Look, do your best and I’ll always support you’, they will take risks at just the right level for them.

You are giving yourself more freedom in the process, and mentoring them into becoming a manager.

The customer is waiting for the “manager isn’t here”, and when he gets there, becomes extremely irritated.

They see it as a stalling technique and is more likely to require more costly remedies for the problem the customer has.

It’s a no-win situation for a manager that wants to portray that they are in control.

Far better to hand over control at the sharp end, by fully empowering employees to make the best decisions – and fast.

One of the biggest challenges in life, is where things go wrong. If not quite wrong, then at least not quite to plan.

Many people in these situations, whether it be a bigger picture life thing or just the small twists and turns of each of our day-to-day activities, find it much easier to blame others – sometimes, for almost everything!

Taking responsibility for each of our own lives is vital, if we are to see a way forward in a constructive way – a way where we take control.

It’s much easier – and very common – to blame someone else for the way difficulties and challenges in our lives show up. The truth most often is, that we are responsible for the life we end up with.

And by blaming others, we take away the honest truth, that we bring onto ourselves what we deserve from the actions – or lack of actions – that we subject ourselves to.

This happens in the workplace too. Whether you are a manager or an employee (or as is most common of all, both!), what you get is most often what you deserve from the position you put yourself in.

‘My boss is useless’; ‘No-one cares about me at work’; ‘It’s really tough here and getting worse’; and ‘I can’t trust my people to do anything right’, are amongst the phrases I hear, that people make when their workplace isn’t working right.

The truth is, in life, that what you get, is down to your actions in all but the most extreme situations.

Just like redundancy is in the news all the time now. ‘It just isn’t fair’ might be a reflection on what is happening to some people. Yet again, there is no fairness about it!

Preparing yourself in advance for what ‘might happen’ is good thinking in these times.

And if you do find yourself in this situation, thinking deeply about ‘what’s next’ (see this article), will ensure that you have a positive focus.

Many times we hide ourselves from what is becoming the truth because it is easier to bubble along – the challenge of different, new actions and their consequences maybe seems to be far too difficult.

Once you are in that position, it is just not acceptable to blame you lot on anyone else. It’s down to you to create actions that provide the outcomes you want.

It’s down to you to ask yourself “What can I do”, and stop whining, taking personal responsibility and action.

What – is about the action you can decide on.

Can – accentuates the positive – more is possible than you might think!

I – is yes, about you and standing up for yourself.

Do – is the ‘getting on with it’ part and making that difference happen!

It’s pretty much never anyone else’s fault, even though you might like to think it is and yes, you can do something about it.

I’m fascinated by productivity. Making things actually happen, instead of pondering endlkessly is a huge step forward for any manager.

When I was in Australia recently, I met up with Dr Ken Hudson, from The Speed Thinking Zone. Ken’s premise is that things take way too long and there is a better way.

Hudson’s Law of Meetings

February 27, 2009

In 1955, Cyril Northcote Parkinson suggested, in a tongue in cheek way, what has since become known as Parkinsons Law. It states:

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

I would like to suggest that this be updated for meetings in what i have called Hudson’s Law of Meetings:

Meetings expand to the time set for the meeting.

Think about it. Have you ever been at a meeting when someone says, well we have the meeting room booked for the next hour why don’t we stay till then. Why should you? If the meeting is over the meeting is over.

Why do most of us feel guilty about having a shorter meeting or one that finishes early? In a recent workshop we covered all we had to do and i suggested that we finish early. One person started to complain about this.

Why I asked?

Why don’t you use the extra time to go to the gym or see your kids or go to a movie?

If Hudson’s rule is valid then we should think seriously about the amount of time we spend in meetings. Why are all our meetings at least one hour? Why aren’t these half an hour?

Imagine how much time you could free up and how more productive and enjoyable your life could be.

Ken Hudson

Ken’s thinking is fast paced, as you might expect. I like his stuff and I want to know more, despite Australia being quite a hike from where I am.

I think you might like to check it out too, right here at The Speed Thinking Zone

Whilst many of the opportunities each of us face every day seem to have straightforward solutions, sometimes it’s worth considering taking a different angle.

As we go about our daily lives, we follow set patterns of behaviors that are along paths we have walked many times. It becomes difficult for us to amend our thinking and so we carry on as we have before.

So, I’d like to suggest an alternative course of action for a while. Just humor me for a while as you read on!

How would it be if instead of making a decision that you would normally do, you instead consider carefully doing exactly the opposite.

For example, if you have a set procedure to follow, I’d like you to consider what would happen if you did the complete opposite.

What would happen? What might you learn from thinking this way? Indeed, what positives might you gain, maybe unexpectedly, if you seriously considered doing the oppositie to where your natural and common thinking would usually take you.

Clearly there are some life and death situations where this would not be a valuable course of action to consider – and these will be less frequent than you might expect. It depends on how flexibly, risky even, you might want to try out.

Many times when you take this option and consider the other way, even the opposite way, there will be a learning to gain from seeing a completely different angle/perspective.

It just depends how you look at it and whether you can be creative enough to allow yourself this opportunity.

Many managers do this without even thinking.

They need to know that they will be far better in their own job when they give their people the ability to decide for themselves the actions to take.

Most decisions that are to be made, when the customer is in your face, demand immediate resolution.

And those who are nearest to the action, are usually the best to be empowered to take the quick decisions necessary.

If employees don’t develop the understanding that they are empowered to do what they can with the freedom that provides, they will always ‘pass the monkey’ back to the manager.

That way they can get off making a decision and risk less.

If a manager makes all the top decisions and involves his people as a minimum, they will do as they’re told, collect their regular salary slip and do only what’s asked of them.

You see, most managers come from the ‘shop-floor’ and find it difficult to let go of that role.

When they try to take a step upwards into a full management role, it makes them feel uncomfortable – as if they are not working ‘hard enough’.

It’s a two-fold problem, it leaves all the critical answers in the lap of one person and employees are at a loss, or afraid to make a simple decision in the absence of their superior.