Category Archives: Leaders

Employability, Employability Skills, Leaders, Leadership, OTM Service Strategy, Service Excellence, Strategy

Great service identifies what we shouldn’t be doing

Just as great service tells us what we should be focussing upon and where our resources should be allocated, great service also helps to identify what we need to stop doing or what we should not start doing in the first place.

Southwest Airlines is an example of an organisation that is clear about the service that its customers want. They want safe, regular, reliable services that will get them to their destination on time delivered by genuine, caring and courteous staff.

Everything else, the in-flight food, the styling of the tickets etc. is all secondary to the main expectations of its customers.

Southwest’s Customer Charter outlines how it respects and addresses the expectations of its customers. You will not find Southwest Airlines placing a lot of focus on in-flight food. While it is available, it is not the main focus of their service. So they don’t put any more effort than is required into that part of their service.

Southwest’s service focus enables it to know what to do and what not to do.

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After we had expelled three members from the centre and fully refunded their memberships (even though they had already used 90% of their time) we were approached by more than 30 members who told us that if we had not acted and expelled the three people, then they would have all gone and joined another centre. It really re-enforced that our members’ code of behaviour was there for a reason. The worst thing we could have done was to have turned a blind eye to it. It would have cost us.

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
Dialogue, Harvard Business Review, Leaders, Leadership, Paradigm Shift, Professional Development, Shared Value

Creating Shared Value Contributes To Creating Organisations That Matter!

Michael Porter and Mark Kramer have released an interesting article about organisations creating shared value in the Harvard Business Review.

Porter and Kramer argue that organisations need to operate from a new paradigm. One where value creation is not just about profit generation but also about how organisations can contribute to solving community and societal problems. They are not talking about social responsibility either.

They are talking about a genuine paradigm shift in which profit and social responsibility create equal value and they argue that it is possible to create such an organisation.

Shared value provides value to the organisation achieving its objectives, provides value to the employees of the organisation in helping them to contribute to worhtwhile projects and provides value to the broader community in contributing to solving social problems.

You can access the full article here.

Establishing the skills to create an organisation that matters is paramount to being able to create shared value. Yet most organisations are unaware of the skills required to undertake such a paradigm shift. Developing the skills to dialogue is one of the critical skills required. You can learn more about the seven skills of dialogue here.

What are your experiences of creating shared value?

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
Annemarie Cross, Business Success Podcast, Employability, Leaders, Leadership, What Really Matters For Young Professionals

Business Success Podcast Interview with Annemarie Cross


Listen to a short interview on the Business Success Podcast hosted by Annemarie Cross.

Annemarie is a Branding Specialist and Business Coach and recently requested if I would be happy to be interviewed on her Business Success Podcast show.

In this interview I talk about:

  • The importance of organisational values
  • How to hire the right staff, and
  • How to build a top performing team, and much more!

Please take the time to listen to the short interview here.

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
Dalai Lama, Graduate-Students, Leaders, Professionals, students, Thankful List

The Thankful List

For many people around the world we have just finished giving and receiving gifts. Of course upon receiving gifts we have given thanks in appreciation of what we have just received.

A day later it is worth slowing down and reflecting on all the things for which we are thankful.

The Dalai Lama has shared that western people, despite their wealth spend most of their life suffering. The suffering comes from wanting something they don’t have and not appreciating what they do have.

The Festive Season often results in people receiving some of the things they have wanted. Unfortunately it is not long before western people then want something different, or better than they currently have. So the suffering starts again! It is for this reason that this time of year provides an opportunity to stop, reflect and to consider all the things for which you are thankful.

The act of writing your list seems to make it real. As you write down each item you automatically reflect on why you are thankful for that item.

To create your Thankful List I encourage you to be as specific as possible. Think of all the things from all aspects of your life for which you are thankful. For example name the people for which you are thankful.

You will be amazed at both the length of your list and what you have included on it. Interestingly, it is a list that, once started, seems to keep growing.

Once started, place your list where you can see it regularly. You’ll be amazed at the tension in your life that is reduced from running your eye over your list on a regular basis.

What’s on your Thankful List?

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
ebook, Inspire 2011, Leaders, Leadership, OTM Academy, Personal Development, Personal Success, Professional Development

Inspire 2011! ebook out now

Congratulations and thank you to all our OTM Academy members who contributed to the creation of our first ever OTM Academy member created ebook – Inspire 2011!

I’m confident that you will agree that after reading Inspire 2011! you will be bursting for 2011 to come along so that you can hit the ground running!

Please note that the entries in this ebook are, for most people, their first written piece to be published, so a huge congratulations to each of them and thanks again for taking the time to make your submissions.

The purpose of this ebook is for it to be shared, so please follow the instructions on page one and share it as broadly as possible.

You can download Inspire 2011! here.

Enjoy!

Gary Ryan

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
Customer Service, Employability, Employability Skills, Leaders, Leadership, Service Excellence

Income grows when you deliver great service

We have already identified that great service requires everyone and everything in the organisation to be aligned to enable the business to meet/exceed customer expectations. Think about your own experience as a customer. When your expectations are met and/or exceeded are you likely to use that service and/or to recommend it to others? Most often the answer to this questions is, “Yes!”.

Therefore it is not rocket science to see the relationship between providing a consistently good service/product and income growth. Don’t forget that a basic principle of great service is knowing and meeting/exceeding customer expectations. As expectations change, so does the service or product. Great service is not great service if it is not current. Gronroos (2000) highlights that it costs 5-6 times as much to attract a new customer as it does to keep an existing customer. So not only does great service increase income, it keeps costs down.

Why not use this article to stimulate Conversations That Matter® within your team or organisation?

Quote from a research participant
I’m a financial clerk. My job involves a lot of report writing. One day I asked one of the recipients of my reports if there was anything else that I could do for him. He said yes and explained this new report he wanted. It didn’t take long for me to create it and I now include it in my monthly reports. Last week he told me that he had recently made some decisions based on the patterns emerging from the new reports and that sales had gone up. I couldn’t believe it, I’m a financial clerk and I had actually contributed to making more money for the company.


What are your example of how great service has grown income?

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
Culture, High Performance, Leaders, Leadership, Motivation

How to motivate your team members when times are tough

I concur that organisations need to create the conditions that enhance individual motivation and that, most likely, the conditions that have caused people to appear ‘de-motivated’ now were present well before the economic downturn.

My research and experience has clearly indicated that there are a number of factors that leaders/manager can control that can enhance the conditions where individual motivation has a chance to be raised.

  1. Let people know what is going on – be honest
  2. Remind people of where you are going and how what you are doing now is going to get you there (Vision and strategy)
  3. Recognise people for their efforts – be genuine when doing this else it will backfire
  4. To the best of your ability ensure that people are doing work that engages their talents – this assumes, of course, that you have spent the time working out what their talents are in the first place (if you haven’t done this yet, then this too is an opportunity)
  5. Create opportunities for your people to contribute to finding and implementing ways to help the company ‘turn things around’ – Low Risk Projects are a great way to do this (a Low Risk Project is one that has minimal financial or brand risk associated with it, but a big upside if it comes off)
  6. This builds on number 5 above – continue to create developmental opportunities for your people – how smart can you be with you existing budget line items so that you can stay within budget yet still create developmental opportunities for your people to develop themselves? E.g. you probably can’t pay people more, yet you might be able to send some on a conference (that would be relevant to them and their role of course)
  7. Listen to what they have to say and implement (where possible) their suggestions – then let everyone know that you have implemented a suggestion from whoever suggested it – this proves that you have listened
  8. Trust people to do their job – there is not much more de-motivating that someone unnecessarily looking over your shoulder
  9. Give people honest feedback on their performance – what are they doing well, what could they improve on and what could they start doing that they are not currently doing
  10. Re-enforce the value of what they are doing and how it is helping the company get back on track.

These 10 suggestions are all within the control of each manager/leader and in my view are absolutely doable.

What have you been doing to motivate your team members?

How could you use this article to catalyse Conversations That Matter® within your organisation?

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
Customer Service, Employability, Employability Skills, Leaders, Leadership, OTM Service Strategy, Service Excellence

Delivering great service gives us job satisfaction

All staff, whether the CEO or the lowliest paid employee in the organisation, have a high sense of job satisfaction when they are able to serve their customers properly. When systems & processes exist to support the passion of people, great service can flow through an organisation.

The satisfaction that comes from serving people results from the positive relationship that staff feel with an organisation when they are supported in serving their customers. Positive staff relationships result in improved service. In turn, this type of relationship results in a positively reinforcing virtuous cycle that generates great service. In this sense, it is absolutely vital that systems & processes support staff in building positive relationships with clients, customers and stakeholders. Without this support delivering great service and staff job satisfaction fall through the floor.

How well do systems & processes support staff to deliver great service in your organisation?

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Relationship employees work harder and smarter. They care about the business, its future, its destiny. The business becomes their business. (Leonard L Berry)

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
career, Career choices, Career Success, Gareth Kent, Leaders, Leadership, Leadership Insights Series

Leadership Insights Series – Gareth Kent

Gary Ryan interviews Gareth Kent, a 31 year old Director of PRP Geelong. Gareth shares insights from his fascinating journey and in particular how a day spent creating a detailed plan for his future in his early 20s created the impetus for his success. This is a ‘not to be missed’ interview.

More webinars can be accessed by joining the OTM Academy.

Information regarding the OTM Plan For Personal Success program is available here. A new OTM Plan For Personal Success Webinar Series is due for release and will commence in late January and continue into February. You can express your interest in this program here.

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
High Performing Teams, Leaders, Leadership, Motivation, Teamwork

How should a Team Leader in a poor company culture improve team member motivation?

Unfortunately poor company cultures exist. This is why Organisations That Matter was created – to try, one company at a time, to change this reality.

So, what can a Team Leader do to improve the motivation of their team members when their team exists within a poor company culture?

The first thing is to control what you can control as the Team Leader. My experience and research indicates that pay is a massive de-motivator if it is not ‘fair’ in the overall context of pay within the company and the industry that you are in. If a person is not being paid fairly in this context, then pretty much everything else that the company does becomes less relevant over time. The pay issue becomes the core de-motivational issue.

If pay is ‘unfair’ then you must do what you can to fix that situation.

Most companies have systems and processes for accurately paying people. As such, if you believe that a person is being paid unfairly, go in to ‘bat’ for them. Let them know what you are doing but also let them know that you have to follow the system’s rules. Providing you have a record of being genuine, most people will be very pleased that you have taken the time and effort to go in to ‘bat’ for them. This act of support will often increase a person’s motivation. However it won’t last forever if the real problem isn’t addressed. (Please note I accept that the research indicates that most people feel they are underpaid. However, when ‘pay’ is placed in the context of company and industry, it is my experience that most people are able to identify if they are paid within an acceptable ‘range’ of pay.)

If pay is ‘fair’ then it is the cultural issues that come into play. It is possible, within limits, to create a positive sub-culture that may exist only in your team.

From my research from conducting many leadership development activities on this exact issue, the simultaneous things that you can do are very controllable.

You can genuinely appreciate and recognise the efforts of your team members. This starts with saying, “Thank you.”

You can look out for developmental opportunities (including projects) and offer them to your team members.

You can listen to their suggestions and genuinely take them on board and then get back to them about why their idea has/hasn’t been implemented.

You can assign tasks to team members that truly reflect their talents while at the same time creating some ‘stretch’ for them. Of course, this means that you will have bothered to find out what their talents are!

You can create team celebrations to celebrate successes.

You can bother to remember the whole of life details that your team members have felt comfortable sharing with you (ie their partners and/or children’s names, their birthday, special events in their life, their sporting teams and heroes etc.)

You can articulate how your team is contributing to your organisations vision and mission and help each person to ‘see’ how they are personally contributing to bringing these to life.

When times demand it you can make decisions that are timely and help the team to achieve its objectives.

These actions are all doable and are well within the control of a leader, irrespective of company culture.

It is my experience that when these activities are done with genuine intent, most people respond with an increase in self motivation and perform to a higher standard which is ultimately what leadership is trying to achieve.

How have you worked to increase the motivation of the members in your team?

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com