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This blog entry has been adapted from the September issue of The Quest for Workplace Excellence (sign up here)

Last month, Steven Slater, a disgruntled JetBlue flight attendant, became a cult hero to thousands of workers who could relate to feeling overworked and underappreciated. There have been t-shirts made honoring him, facebook pages have popped up, songs have been written and performed, and people have even raised money for his bail. His story sounds like something straight out of the 1999 movie, Office Space. You can even imagine the rap song, “It Feels Good to be a Gangster,” playing over Steven Slater’s August 9th outburst. And it probably did feel good; until he realized that he had no job lined up.

Other than bringing frustrated employee’s fantasies straight out of the movies and into real life, Slater’s situation brings up a secondary, but serious, issue that is bubbling below the surface: employee retention. We can guarantee that Steven Slater will not have many serious job offers in the airline industry after his 15 minutes of fame are over – if he isn’t sent to jail – and his time is just about up.

Thinking ahead to when the job market returns, as leaders should be doing, what will happen to the employers of these fed up huddled masses who fantasize about the day when they can responsibly quit their jobs and work where they feel they would be more appreciated?

Employee engagement is key.

Continue reading “6 Tips to Help Prevent Employees from Making Costly Emergency Exits” »

This blog entry has been adapted from the August issue of The Quest for Workplace Excellence (sign up here)

“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”

- Maya Angelou, civil rights activist, U.S. autobiographer and poet

Over the past two years, a great percentage of the questions that our clients have been asking us are about change. “How do I introduce this specific change into my organization/department?” “Why do my employees resist change?” “How do I get everyone on board and successfully implement these changes?” “Should we make change slowly or move quickly?” Change is a difficult, but necessary, challenge for every organization. Imagine if your organization had stayed the same for the past ten years. Yikes! That is a scary thought since customers and industries are constantly changing. Change is not the obstacle, the real obstacle is the attitudes that fight the change.

Continue reading “Navigating Organizational Change” »

This blog entry has been adapted from the July issue of The Quest for Workplace Excellence (sign up here)

“He who knows others is learned; He who knows himself is wise.”

- Lao-tzu, Tao te Ching

If you ask an artist what the most difficult subject to paint is, while retaining true likeness, you are likely to get the answer, “Myself.” This is because the most distorted lens we use is the one we view ourselves through. When artists paint themselves, they are likely to look at their features with varying degrees of self-deception. Sometimes the view is more favorable, sometimes it is less favorable.

Artists’ misperceptions or preconceived ideas of themselves can become the ingredients of a masterpiece. Leaders’ misperceptions of themselves can become the ingredients of a nightmare. While this challenge is all too familiar to artists, it is even more imperative that leaders understand their true likeness, and more importantly, how they come across.

Continue reading “Leadership and Self Perceptions: Who Do They Think You Are?” »

As a leader, you have the ultimate responsibility for your behavior. You are the role model for your team. You are the only person who decides if you will act ethically. When it comes to honesty, respect, fairness, and especially safety, there is no off season.

Being ethical (or unethical) is reflected in everything we do. As a leader, our choices affect not only ourselves, but those working around us as well. It’s easy to make excuses for ourselves and be blinded by our own biases, but our customers, employees and peers are trusting that we are honest and fair individuals. There is no better time than now to re-examine habits and make sure that they are in alignment with this vision.

Continue reading “Leadership Ethics: Do You Walk Your Talk?” »

Handling talented, but toxic, employees

May 2010 Quest for Workplace Excellence

When you think of the driving force behind the choices of leaders when coaching employees, what emotion comes to mind? Is it appreciation? How about passion? Optimism? For many managers it is those. For some managers, unfortunately, the driving force is fear. Fear of what an employee will say or do if things do not go their way.

These employees who are causing fear in leaders are typically the employees who are the top performers, obtaining great results, but are still managing to leave a path of destruction behind them. They are not pleasant to work with. They throw fits. They threaten to quit. Never are they accountable for their actions, and if they are held accountable, giving the manager the cold shoulder is a common response. However, because of extensive knowledge, experience, etc., they are, or at least they convince others that they are, indispensable. This gives them leverage, and they use their talents to drive fear into their managers by holding them hostage.

Continue reading “Are you a Leader, Manager or Hostage?” »

We often train clients’ employees in the art of customer service, but, up until recently, we have not touched on the power of Social Networking as it relates to creating highly satisfied, loyal customers. Our goal is to share with you information that will raise your awareness about the power of Social Networking when it comes to customer service.

It has been predicted that Social Networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are the main sources where people will soon be getting all their news from. Recently, we realized that this is where the NEWS gets their news from. Shortly after we felt a 7.2 earthquake here in San Diego, we turned the television to CNN to see if they had any reports on the magnitude, central location, etc. After only three minutes had passed, CNN reported on the earthquake, saying that they heard about it through users’ updates on Twitter.com. Then they presented a live screen cast of Twitter user’s comments on the event which were coming in by the hundreds every few seconds. Twitter informed thousands of people, including major national news stations, before the USGS was able to.

Continue reading “Social Networking Sites make Customer Service the New Killer Business App” »

Tips for getting the most out of your home life and your professional life

“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.”
- Michael Altshuler

Just 25 years ago, business basically stopped at 5:00 pm. The receptionist went home and the office phones were turned off. If your need was urgent, you may have left a message on a machine to have your call returned the next business day. Very few people had mobile phones. If they did, the phone was permanently mounted in their car. The internet was in its infancy. And, there was no email streaming 24 hours a day. Back in the good ol’ days, the boundaries between your work life and personal life were clear. Today, for many of us, the overlap between work and personal life is unavoidable.

Continue reading “Managing Work-Life Balance” »

Monday mornings can be difficult. You come back from a relaxing weekend to be bombarded by meetings, phone calls, and basically any other distraction under the sun. To help inspire you to seize the week, we send out a free Leadership Quote of the Week email on Monday mornings. Quotes from inspirational leaders will remind you of your role as a leader, and inspire you to look at the upcoming week in a new light.

Sign up here to start your week off with a little perspective.

Here’s a preview:

Never under-estimate the value of an open mind.

“I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times.”

-Everett Dirksen, U.S. politician who helped pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Continue reading “A Cure for the “Case of the Mondays”” »

This blog entry has been adapted from the January 2010 issue of The Quest for Workplace Excellence (sign up here)

For the last 20 years, we have had the privilege of working with thousands of leaders. Leaders who are passionate about life and love what they do to earn their living. Leaders who are CEO’s, managers and supervisors representing all types of organizations and industries.

What is important to note is that each of the leaders we have worked with and every one of us who is reading this article are equally fortunate in one way: we are all blessed with the same amount of time each day. Everyone has the exact same 1,440 minutes each day and 365 days each year. Although we are all granted the same amount of time in a day, some people accomplish a lot more in their time than others do.

How are these people able to accomplish so much more?

Continue reading “Goal Setting: Turning your Dream into Reality” »