Golden Rule in Business

Associates

When you think of your department, your company, what would you say is your greatest asset?

Your brand?

Your intellectual property?

Your corporate goodwill?

I would argue that without your associates, your company would be inconsequential.  From entry level to executive team, the associates within your organization represent who you are to the customer.  In particular, entry level associates are most frequently those that have the first contact with your customer.  What image do they project?  What does your customer learn about your company from their interaction with your associates?

You’ve heard the statement “if momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.”  Same can be said for your associates.

When I worked as a Franchise Manager for Pearle Vision I can remember visiting one location that was owned by a doctor who owned three stores.  He spent the majority of his time working in a different location and so the associates in this particular store felt a little abandoned. It showed in their work ethic and their interaction with the customers.

“We don’t recommend any of the extra lens treatments to our customers,” said one associate.  “It just means more money in his pocket and if the customer doesn’t ask, why should we go out of our way to mention it?”

Wow.  How often, as a customer, have you made a purchase and were grateful to the associate for their recommendation for something you hadn’t asked for?  Often we don’t ask because we don’t even know it is an option.  So you have to ask:  how much money never made it to the cash register because of the attitude of these two associates?

First, please know, these were good people; smart, caring with the customers.  They were not being consciously vindictive – they just didn’t see how they efforts would benefit the customer, the store and their career.  They hadn’t received training and weren’t communicated with on a regular basis. They were in the dark and so operated with the only information at their disposal:  money goes into the cash register and then into their boss’ bank account.  Regardless if the amount was large or small, their paycheck remained the same so “what’s the dif?”

The difference?  The reputation the store had in the community, the profitability of the business and within less than a year of my business analysis, the owner decided to close the door.  Unbeknownst to the associates – their actions resulted in them both loosing their positions.

If the owner had taken the time to provide training, regular communication, praise and request their feedback that store might still be open today.

How we treat our associates is a direct connection to how they treat the customers which in turn impacts our bottom line.

Being a Golden Rule Manager isn’t just a nicety – its good business.

Chapter One: BE Positive

Look in the Mirror:  Where are you today?

       Do you tend to focus on the negative?

       Have you assessed each associate to determine their personal strengths and weaknesses?

       Do you offer strong associates the opportunity to peer train another in the department needing help in a given area?

We can all tell stories about the associate, customer, or vendor from hell.  Those stories make for great cocktail conversations.  Many years ago when I first began work as a manager of a retail store, I had an employee who was the definition of ditsy blonde.  Every day she arrived late, breathless and filled with stories of her personal life, her car and every possible reason why she wasn’t on time….AGAIN.

She would proceed to the bathroom, open her purse from which she’d pull a cosmetic treasure trove and spend the first 30 minutes of her shift putting on her makeup.

Well, I have never been big into the makeup scene, probably because I never really felt like I knew what I was doing.  The stereotypical female spending hours to get ready was never my modus operendi.  I never could figure out what took so long.  I remember even TRYING to spend a long time in the bath as I got ready for my boyfriend’s senior prom and the best I could manage was a half hour and that included the shower and drying my waist length hair.  A little foundation, two stokes of blush, a smattering of mascara and I’m good to go and yet, here is my employee in the bathroom, on company time, wasting 1/16 of her shift.   

Be positive, I’d tell myself.  If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.

Okay.  That’s sounds dandy, but I have a business to run.  I only scheduled two of us to open the store and I’m already waiting on two customers and answering the phone and placing product reorders, etc.  I need her out on the floor, now.

So how does the Be Positive attitude come into play?  Well, the cynics are saying “Be positive, that you are fired!”   That’s one approach.  But there are two sides to every story.

You see, once her make-up was on and she was on the sales floor, she was the best sales associate I’d ever seen.  She connected with the customers, she truly understood what superior customer service looks like.  Customers loved her. 

So we chatted.  I explained how valuable she was, how important her contributions to the overall business were and how I enjoyed her bubbly personality.  Then I stressed how important it was to be on time and asked if there was anything we could do to help her be successful.  She had managed to be on time in the past and I stressed my confidence in her ability to be successful in the future. 

She agreed to try harder.  I know, I know, you are thinking it’s a recipe for failure.

But the next day she was on time and I made a big deal out of it.  She still spent time in the bathroom, but it was an improvement. 

Each day that she was on time, I complimented her.  Pretty soon she was on time everyday and before long it was an issue that was behind us. 

Afterwards, she thanked me for my patience, apologized for the issue and told me that it was my belief in her that helped her correct the behavior. 

“Be positive” Behavior: Find something positive to say to each associate everyday.  Sometimes the ONLY good thing you can say is that they arrived on time.  Single it out – re-enforce the positive actions. 

As a culture we spend so much time concentrating on the negative that people are surprised when we take the time to say something positive.  When was the last time your boss said, “Welcome to work, I’m glad you are here?”  Imagine how your associates will feel when you compliment them.  They’ll stand a little taller, smile a little bigger and feel better about themselves.  They’ll spread that positive attitude to their peers and most importantly to your customers.  Pretty soon, your office will be the office EVERYONE wants to work in because it’s such a happy place.

Next Steps:  Find one positive thing you can say about each Associate each day.

Chapter Two: Be Informative – Explain the “Why’s”

Look in the Mirror:  Where are you today?

         When you assign a project, do you explain the why’s behind it?

         Does your team understand how their role contributes to the overall effectiveness, success   

        and  profitability of the department or company?

         Have you surveyed your employees or customers to gather their opinions and then failed to share the results?

Think back to when you were a kid. Remember when your Mom would tell you to do something? Sometimes it was a random request; like you are playing with your Barbies or Legoss and she sticks her head in the door and says, “Come on, get your coat on.”

Well, you don’t remember any appointment.  Nobody told you there were plans to go someplace. You are right in the middle of a Barbie/Ken date and finally found the perfect outfit for Barbie.  You even located two shoes that match.  You look up to find your Mom has already left your room and you holler, “Why?”

“BECAUSE I SAID SO.”

Oh, many times, she pulled the “because I said so” card. Grudgingly you drag yourself off the floor, looking longingly down at your dolls and slowly you turn towards your door.

“NOW!”

You hear your Mom yell at you to move faster.

You know where I’m going with this, right? How many times have we done the same thing at work? Oh, maybe we don’t say “because I told you” but it’s the impression we give.

So how does that make our associates feel?  How many communications have you read or even wrote that spelled out mandatory edicts without an explanation? I know, who has time to bring everyone up to speed.

But how quickly do you achieve 100% compliance without clearly communicating the “whys.”

Let’s turn it around and apply the Golden Rule. How would we like to be treated?  How important are the “whys” to us?

Go back to Barbie.  What if Mom had said, “Hey, come get your coat on? I can hear the marching band practicing at the high school – let’s go watch them practice.” 

Or

“Grandma called, she’s not feeling well and she asked us to come for a visit.  Go get your coat.”

We’d leave Barbie to fend for herself in a minute, right?

As the former Director of Communications for Cole National, I often had to communicate messages to associates that would require change or additional work. Most frequently my writing went under the signature of the President or Vice President of Stores.  Their goal was a communication that achieved results. My responsibility was to ensure the message was read – understood – and acted upon.

To that end, I always included the why behind the information. It doesn’t need to be lengthy or complicated, in fact, if it is – it won’t be read.

When communicating with your associates remember these tips:

Ÿ                  If there is an action, task or deadline for the reader, state it early and often

Ÿ                  Explain the why behind the message – it should be as simple as a sentence:

o                 “In response to competitor’s recent advertising we are…”

o                 “Due to changes in our vendor supply capability you will need to…”

o                 “In response to requests from your peers we are changing…”

Ÿ                  Tell them how their compliance will impact the company. When associates realize that the request isn’t busy work but will actually impact the overall company results, they are more likely to comply.

Ÿ                  Thank them in advance

Ÿ                  Reinforce any specific task and/or deadline

Ÿ                  Give them a contact in case they have questions or comments

Create a partnership for success by being informative and providing associates with the “who”, “what”, “where”, “why”, “when”, and “how”.  You are letting associates understand the value they provide to the company’s success.  That makes everyone a winner.

Next Steps: The next time you assign a project, take five minutes to explain the whys and benefits the project’s results will have on the company.

Chapter Three: BE Considerate

Look in the Mirror:  Where are you today?

Have you evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of each of your associates?

Do offer training for associates needing assistance in an area of their work responsibility?

Do you offer cross-training opportunities?
In Chapter One we talk about being positive. Being considerate goes hand-in-hand. As much as we’d like everyone to be our clone: same work ethic, owner mentality, intelligence level, capable of seeing the big picture and multi-tasking, that’s just not reality. Let’s face it – you and I are the only truly superior business people and everyone else is striving to be us.  But seriously, everyone brings their own special talents to the table.

If all our associates were great sales people, who would handle finance, marketing, technology or human resources?  As considerate leaders we have to look to the innate value of each associate or else our turn over rate will be greater than a fast food restaurant.

In the Bible, Jesus describes the church as a human body – lots of different parts all working together for greater success.

As an associate – there’s nothing worse than going to work everyday, dreading the experience. Certainly you’ve had jobs where you just didn’t feel successful and the hours would drag, right?

Think back to that experience.  Could it have been a miserable situation because your job involved tasks for which you weren’t comfortable or felt well suited?

I once worked for the phone company in one of their phone stores and I loved it.  I enjoyed helping people select their phone equipment and I felt successful.  Circumstances in my life required I move to another city and I attempted to transfer to a sister company.  I applied for what I thought was a customer service job.  However, the day that I interviewed, they were interviewing for customer service representatives and cold call sales associates.  The distinction between the two openings wasn’t made clear in the interview and I accepted a position that wasn’t what I’d applied for. 

I very quickly learned that cold calling was not for me. I did everything I could to avoid picking up the phone and making those calls.  Several painful months went by before my boss called me into his office with the message that I was no longer needed.  I was devastated but relieved. 

I wasn’t suited for cold calling.

I soon landed a job working for a franchisee of a magazine called Travelhost – the

Cincinnati

edition.  The owner and I attended training together and began the work of building the magazine franchise in our area.

My responsibilities involved interviewing, writing, editing and designing print advertising and local interest articles.  My boss sent me to the Art Institute of Cincinnati for a layout and design class (in those days it involved paper and a lot of rubber cement as opposed to InDesign or Quark computer programs).

After six months I found a new me – confident, satisfied, feeling like I was a contributing factor to the business.

What a difference to go from abject failure as a cold call sales person to successful managing editor of a magazine.

Was I still the same person?  Yes.  The difference was how my boss treated me and the responsibilities I managed. 

Take the time to truly look at each employee’s performance and ask yourself:

Ÿ                  Do they appear to feel successful?

Ÿ                  Are they leading/teaching their peers?

Ÿ                  Are they eager – appearing for work on time or early – volunteering for additional assignments?

Ÿ                  Are there certain tasks in which they excel?

o                 Detail oriented

o                 Customer focused

o                 Number driven

Ÿ                  Is there a way to reassign duties to those who seem to struggle?

I think back to the classic animated film Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  Remember Herbie the Elf’s classic line when his boss asked what’s wrong?

“I’m just not happy in my work I guess,” Herbie answers.

In a more recent film, Ella Enchanted, the evil king has pigeonholed the elves and requires they only hold entertainment positions.  Yet the elf Ella befriends wants to be an attorney.  His morale is low and his performance appalling because he is unable to perform tasks in which he feels successful. 

As a Golden Rule Manager – go right to the heart of the matter with your employees who seem to struggle and ask them, “What would your perfect job look like?”

Think back to the interview – what were their hopes and dreams for their professional future.  There will be times – far more than you may like – when an employee isn’t a good fit and no matter how many tasks you assign them, they just don’t perform to the level you require.  In that case, they need to look for a new career…with a new company.  But at least you’ll know you did your best to understand their true value.

Next Steps:  Consider an associate on your team who has been struggling and ask yourself, are they in the right position for their abilities?  Is there an opportunity to offer a change or a short term project that will spotlight their abilities?