Category Archives: Consulting

November 25, 2014 · 2:06 pm

Thanks For Bad Bosses

As we head into the Thanksgiving holiday, many people take the time to reflect on the things for which they’re thankful. When I was managing a team, I was hopeful that I made the lists in my team’s minds since having a good supervisor can make the work day seem not like work at all.

What always struck me when I worked in large offices was that there are really bad bosses. I had a few and I was peers with quite a few more. I even supervised a couple although their skills got better fairly quickly or they moved on. That’s not to say that I never had great or even good bosses. I was lucky to have had many of them. But the bad ones really stood out, and in a weird way I give thanks for them as well since they provided daily examples of what NOT to do.

Why were they bad? More importantly, what can you take away as learnings from the suffering of their subordinates?  Well, first I always shook my head at the bosses who confused what they did with who they are.  The bad ones all had a sense of entitlement; the great ones felt like jut another teammate.  You can spot the great ones – they’re leaders and would be so even if they didn’t have the title.  People come to them for help and guidance.  Bad bosses get avoided like the plague.

Great bosses have people who work “with” them, not “for” them.  Listen carefully the next time a supervisor mentions someone on his staff for that word.  You might also think that a great boss is completely incompetent.  Every time something goes wrong in their area, it’s the boss who says they’re to blame.  That is because the great ones take blame for every bad event that occurs while giving as much credit as they can to members of their team.

Finally, you’ve heard the old truism that there’s no “I” in “team.”  Great bosses believe that and they make sure that every member of their staff gets it.

So how about it.  Are you as thankful as I am for all the bad bosses that show you the light of effective management, or have you been cursed with only great bosses in your life?

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November 24, 2014 · 1:05 pm

Three Types Of Customers

I saw the results of a survey by the folks at SAP a couple of weeks ago and have been meaning to write about it as we hit prime shopping time for the holidays.  They announced results from the Customer Journey Poll, a survey aimed toward helping organizations improve their understanding of customer happiness and encourage brand loyalty.  They polled more than 3,000 Americans, ages 18 and older, to gain insight into what makes customers loyal to a particular brand.  What they found is interesting, albeit not very surprising.

They uncovered three very interesting personas that they claim definitely did not exist 10 years ago:

SAP found three distinct personas that surfaced from the poll data: The “virtuous” customer who patronizes companies that have values to which he or she relates; the “invested” customer, who loves to interact with companies and often seeks guidance and information; and the “ignored” customer, whose inquiries about a product or service sometimes get delayed or ignored. By understanding which customer falls into which persona, brands will have the ability to deliver content that customers consider most important and, in turn, improve overall engagement.

First is the Ignored Consumer:

While email is the most popular way cited to communicate with companies, nearly half of respondents (48 percent) reported problems with delayed or no email responses.  These customers… likely wouldn’t continue to patronize a company that cuts them off.

No kidding.  But how many of us are guilty of creating exactly that group among our customer base?  On the other side of the fence is the Virtuous Customer:

Virtuous customers are those who repeatedly buy from companies they deem to have values similar to theirs. Poll data showed that shared values was cited by 30 percent of Americans as a reason to stay loyal to a brand, making it one of the top three reasons for loyalty. Seventy-five percent said the product/service itself spurred loyalty, while 41 percent cited discounts/offers.

Finally, there are Invested Customers:

Invested customers are the ones who love to interact with companies. Fifty-four percent of respondents said they’d either like or might like (depending on the company) to be offered help via chat or phone before they even ask for it. A whopping 80 percent would either like or might like to be kept up to date on new products.

Interesting.  Just as there are different types of customers there are different methods with which to engage them.  It’s increasingly important that we not offer up one-size-fits-all solutions and focus on reaching each segment in a manner that addresses their loyalty hot buttons.

Worth some thinking?

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November 20, 2014 · 11:48 am

The Lady Does Protest Too Much

You might have read Hamlet. Perhaps unwillingly in high school English, perhaps for pleasure since it’s one of the greatest dramatic works in the English language. At one point Gertrude says “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

Tiger Woods Photo by Paddy Briggs

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

That line has been used as a figure of speech ever since (and since 1602 means for a long time) to mean that a person’s overly frequent or vehement attempts to convince others of something have ironically helped to convince others that the opposite is true, by making the person look insincere and defensive. Thank you, Wikipedia!

I thought about that quote the other day as Tiger Woods responded to a satirical piece written by the great Dan Jenkins. Jenkins wrote an “interview” with Tiger which was clearly labeled as made up in which Tiger was made to look cheap, dumb, and nasty. What happened next is instructive for all of us and for any business.

The “interview” ran in the print-only edition of a golf magazine.  Had Tiger left it alone, it would have been read by hard-core golfers and died.  Instead, Tiger took it upon himself to issue a 600 word rebuttal on ThePlayersTribune.com which was picked up immediately by the media.  The interest in the controversy grew quickly, and the golf magazine then posted the original article on its website where anyone could read it.  The mostly ignored problem became a front and center issue.  Which is the point.

Maybe you’ve heard it called “The Streisand Effect.”  This is when an attempt to hide, remove, or censor a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely.  It’s instructive.  By protesting too much we fan the flames of the problem.  Should every negative comment be ignored?  Of course not.  But had Tiger responded publicly (and I’m not sure he should have in this case) with an appreciative chuckle and a wink of the eye (“I’ll have to work harder and adjust my thinking to live up to the bad guy image you made up”), this all would have gone away.  Better would have been a phone call to Jenkins and a quiet meeting someplace to straighten it all out.

There are dozens of examples of companies and individuals choosing the wrong course and triggering The Streisand Effect.  While our emotional response to something false or misleading might be to take that course, the smarter response is to choose another.  What’s yours?

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