Complaints are Gifts in Disguise

No one likes to receive a customer complaint, but in any business (even really good businesses), a complaint now and then is a fact of life. The question is not if you'll receive a complaint (you occasionally will), but what you'll do with that complaint once you receive it.

Every year, businesses across the country invest millions of dollars to hire consultants who propose to help them identify their areas for service improvement. That's great, and in some cases they may uncover hidden opportunities, but the savvy business person knows that they already have an "inside source" when it comes to areas for improvement: it's their unhappy customers. These are the people who have actually used your service, found a glitch, and have taken the time to tell you about it. They have done for you, at minimal expense, what the consultant does for a significant fee. It's a gift that is worth far more than the price of the goods and services with which it is linked.

Treating a complaint as a gift will require a shift in our thinking about the role of the customer in our business. Rather than a one-way service structure, in which we decide what the customer should have and then we provide it, we need to view the customer-provider relationship as being dynamic in nature with knowledge flowing both ways. Here are some tips for treating complaints as gifts:

• When receiving a complaint, say "Thank you for helping us to identify our areas for improvement".
• The more dramatic the situation, the greater the opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to serving  the customer.
• Think of the information as "performance feedback" rather than a complaint.
• Focus on the message rather than the delivery, and keep your emotions out of it.
• Make it easy for your "customer-consultants" to provide feedback. Ask them at the time of checkout if they were pleased with their visit.
• Empower your employees to "thank" the customer for the gift by correcting the problem. When employees are empowered to problem-solve, service inevitably improves, along with customer satisfaction.

 I wish you all a happy holiday, and may Santa be stingy with your customer "gifts" (smile) in 2011.

What We Leave in Our Wake

I am currently reading a book by Dr. Henry Cloud, entitled: Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality. In the book, he compares the behavior of leaders to that of a boat, saying:

"You can tell a lot about a boat as you look at its wake...if it is in a straight line, you get the feeling that the boat is on course. But if it is wavering, you begin to wonder...There are always two sides to the wake that a leader or someone else leaves when moving through our lives or the life of an organization. The two sides of the wake are the task and the relationships (with others)...and the wake doesn't lie and it doesn't care about excuses. It is what it is...so we must look out over the transom (of the boat) and ask ourselves, 'What does our wake look like? Is it straight or is it wavering?"

For the most part, I think the results of our "task wake" are fairly obvious. We either hit our mark or we don't. We either achieve the goal or we miss it. The measures are in place that help us to know how well we perform in the task oriented portion of our job description. But what about the second piece of the picture: The relationship aspect? Well, the results of our "relationship wake" are also fairly obvious to everyone, with the noted exception of our selves. While we tend to remain blind to those we leave in our wake, those around us are seldom under such delusions. To them, it is all too obvious when we begin to waver.

In the book, Dr. Cloud asks a series of questions to help us identify and measure our performance in relation to our "relationship wake". He asks,

"...would others say that their experience with us has left them better off for our having 'moved through their lives' or would they say it has left them worse off? What is the nature of the wake? Are they (those who interact with us) smiling or reeling?"

He goes on to include such questions as:

• Are people more trusting after working with you?
• Have they grown as a result of being associated with you?
• Do they learn from you and feel lifted up and encouraged?
• Are they stretched and inspired to become more than they were before they worked with you?
• Do they feel fortunate to be associated with you?

Or...

• Are they wounded by you?
• Are they less trusting now that they know you?
• Do they feel cheated, put down or manipulated by you?
• Do they feel disappointed, let down or lied to by you?
• Do they feel inferior because of the way you interact with them?
• Do they want to work with you again?

Someone very wise once said, "Speak when you are angry, and you'll make the best speech you'll ever regret." I believe that applies not just to speech, but to all of our interactions made in haste and without forethought. If anything we do is worth doing, it is worth doing with care (i.e., avoiding harm or danger to oneself or others).


Our roles as leaders and managers requires a great deal more from us than technical proficiency. So take a few minutes today to examine yourself and your relationships with those you are charged with leading. What are you leaving in your wake?

Vitamins or Aspirin?

Dan and Chip Heath, authors of the book Made to Stick, made an observation that many businesses make the mistake of trying to sell "vitamins" rather than "aspirins". According to their premise, while it is true that someone may develop chronic headaches due to a poor diet, until you stop the pain (with the aspirin) you aren't likely to move that person on toward any lifestyle changes. It's hard to concentrate when you are in pain.

This same premise holds true for your employees in relation to motivation and improved performance. As leaders and coaches, we have a tendency to try to "rally the troops" through motivational meetings and pep talks. To our surprise and disappointment, they seldom if ever achieve any lasting change. A deeper investigation into the situation might prove that we are trying to "feed" our head-achy employees vitamins when aspirins are needed; we're trying to motivate them rather than find out what is causing the poor performance in the first place. Instead of holding pep rallies we need to be holding clinics.

Assuming you have the right employees "on the bus", motivation will not be a problem; the right people don't need to be tightly managed or fired- up. They are self-motivated by the inner desire to produce the best results and to be a part of creating something great.  

A supervisor's responsibilities then,  in relation to employee performance, lie in making sure that the right people are in place and impediments to excellence are minimized or eliminated. 

Take some time this week to do a health checkup in your practice. 

Do You Have "Novocaine Hands"?

A number of years ago I saw a movie starring the comedian Sinbad in which he played a con-man who impersonates a dentist. In one particularly memorable scene, he makes the mistake of washing his hands in novocaine rather than soap, then he tries to perform a dental procedure as his hands dangle numb and useless over the patient. Pretty funny scene.

But this scene set me to thinking about one of the most common reasons that we fail as leaders; it is because we are egotistical. You see, we have a common misconception of what it means to be an egotist. We mistakenly believe it is about thinking too much of ourselves; but that is not the case. Being egotistical means thinking too little of others. It means we are insensitive to the needs of those around us. As a leader, that is like trying to perform a dental procedure with "novocaine hands". As clear as you may be in what you want to do, you have no connection with those that must actually implement your ideas - your "hands", so to speak.

If you are unaware of what those you lead really need from you in order to be successful, you are going to get very disappointing results from their efforts. Your, and their, failure is guaranteed.

Turtles Can't Climb Trees

Alex Haley, author of Roots, is reported to have kept a picture in his office of a turtle sitting on a fence post. When someone asked him why, he would say that it was to remind him of a lesson that he learned a long time before. He said, "If you see a turtle on a fence post, it's a pretty sure bet he had some help getting there". He continued on to say that any time he was tempted to think of himself as a pretty big deal, he would look at the picture of the turtle in order to remind himself that none of us ever get to lofty positions without the help of others.

The role that you are in now is a result of the past efforts of others: parents, teachers, former bosses, mentors and others. You may be incredibly talented. You may be extraordinarily bright. You  may be perfectly suited to the role you now play; but you didn't get there solely on your own. You had help.

Now, as a manager and leader, you have the opportunity to help others; to help them make a climb that they can't make alone. Start paying your success forward. People-development is life changing for everyone involved. And, if you haven't done so recently, take a minute to send a heartfelt thank you to someone who has helped you along the way. Gratitude changes attitude.

Resist the Temptation to Hire in Haste

If I could offer up one piece of advice for managers in regard to hiring, it would simply be this: When in doubt – keep looking.

The temptation to “settle” when hiring for a critical, but empty, position is very strong, and many managers resort to the Warm Body Syndrome of hiring. In other words, a breathing body (regardless of how well it actually “fits”) is better than nobody.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The amount of disruption that a bad hiring decision can cost your practice and organization can be tremendous. Add to that the financial costs of low productivity, the costs of training and retraining, and the cost in man-hours that it takes to wade through the clean up required when the bad employee finally leaves (and leave they must), and you can see that a simple hasty hiring decision must be paid for long after the decision was made.

Take the time to hire well. Your practice, your pocketbook and your blood pressure will thank you for doing so.

Excuses and Explanations...What's the Difference?

As a manager, you will inevitably be faced with an employee that has not accomplished something that you have established as a goal for him or her. When you sit down with that employee to review the missed goal, you will be expecting an explanation, but may get an excuse instead. The challenge for you as a manager is to be able to tell the difference in order to foster growth and productivity in the employee.
An explanation is an account of what happened without any attempt to avoid responsibility for one’s actions. It is typically followed by an expression of the employee’s desire to make it right.

An excuse is an attempt to avoid responsibility for one’s actions and will often be followed by a stated or implied sentiment of “it’s not my fault”.

For example, let’s say that you have asked two employees to complete a work assignment by a prescribed date, but on that date, neither has completed assignment. You call the first employee into your office and bring the matter to her attention. She responds by saying that she couldn’t complete the work because the computers were down, and she was very busy with patients and the importance of the work had never been clearly communicated to her. ..in other words, she is saying “this failure is not my fault” (it’s the computer’s fault, and the practice’s fault and your fault, because you didn’t explain things more clearly). That is an excuse.

You call the second employee into the office to have the same conversation, but this time the employee listens politely to what you have to say and responds by stating, “I apologize for not getting this done. I did not understand the importance of completing this sooner. I will have it finished this week.” That is an explanation. She has blamed no one and has accepted that the failure was due to her lack of understanding. More importantly, she has of her own free will, offered a time frame for completion. The goal is no longer yours, she has made it hers.

Of the two responses, which one gives you confidence that a similar situation is unlikely to occur with that employee in the near future?

Do your practice (and your sanity) a favor and stop accepting excuses from employees. Excuses are verbal manifestations of immaturity, and employees who default to the “excuses mode” when things don’t go as planned are unlikely to be productive, responsible employees over the long term. Those who make excuses are more concerned with fixing the blame than fixing the problem.

Neither you, the employee nor your patients can benefit from that behavior.

Positive Reinforcement - It's Not Just for Puppies and Children

Human behavior research indicates that people do things for which they are rewarded and stop doing things for which they are not. In your own career, how many times have you done become discouraged because no one seemed to notice the effort you put in on a particular project?  How enthusiastic were you about working that hard the next time the opportunity presented itself?

The famous behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner once said, “People don’t come to work to get paid, they come to work so the pay doesn’t stop.” In other words, employees don’t think of their paychecks as a reward.  To most employees, a weekly paycheck is like oxygen. It only becomes important when there isn’t enough of it.

 So, if an employee doesn’t see their paycheck as a reward, can it be used to motivate him or her to work harder? The answer is, in most instances, it cannot. If you want to truly motivate the employee, you’ll have to look beyond the paycheck.

If you want your employees to engage in positive behavior, they must receive positive reinforcement as soon as possible after they have performed the behavior that you are looking for. This isn’t about false compliments. This is about praising good behavior when you see it. And the great thing about praise is that it costs you nothing.

When was the last time you walked past the front desk and heard an employee conversing politely with a caller, and then complimented the employee? Yes, I know that’s her job; praise her good work anyway. If an employee stays late without complaining, thank him for his commitment to the practice. At the end of a particularly crazy week, cater lunch in for your staff and say “thank you” for their efforts. Yes they were just doing their jobs. So what! Praise them anyway.

Rewarding employees for doing the right thing is like depositing money in an interest bearing account at the bank. You will always get back more than you put in.

If you are not getting the behavior that you want from your employees, try catching them doing it right (even if it is just that one time), and reward them for it. Your odds of getting a repeat performance will go up dramatically.

Does Your Employee Understand Your Priorities?

An employee typically does what he or she believes to be important. Projects that are assigned will typically go to the “bottom of the pile”, unless very clear instructions about priorities are given. It is how we all work (not just our employees).  As managers, we set ourselves and our employees up for frustration if we are unclear as to where a project should go in regard to its importance.  If you leave such decisions up to the employee, you must be prepared to live with the results of the employee’s priorities not matching yours.

A word of warning: resist the temptation to label everything as a “hot priority”. Making everything a Top Priority Project mentally exhausts those who must operate within your topsy-turvy system. You will burn out your employees; they will either quit or reassign their own values to the project in order to maintain equilibrium.

When an employee is not doing what you believe you have asked them to do, it is time to ask yourself:
·    Did I make it clear that this was to be a priority?
·    Have I made too many things a “top priority”?
·    Have I helped my employee to understand what our true organizational priorities are?
·    Can the employee reasonably do all that I have asked them to do in the time available?

Help your employees to be successful by being realistic and clear as to what is important  in your practice.

When Your Employee Won't Do What You Want (Because She Believes Her Way is Better).

On the surface, this may sound like reason number four (The Employee Thinks Your Way Will Not Work), but the two are not the same. In this instance, the employee doesn't necessarily believe that your way won't work; they just believe they know a way that will work even better, and that is the method she is using - regardless of established policy and procedure.

1) The first thing you need to do when dealing with this kind of resistance is to make sure that your way IS better than hers. If your way isn’t better, you need to scrap your idea and stick with hers until a better way is devised. Change for the sake of change is a waste of everyone's time.  Provide the employee with an opportunity to explain to you why she feels her way is better and listen with an open mind. Wait until she has finished before you start formulating a judgment about her method. Listening is critical to any successful communication.

2) If at the end of her presentation, you still see why your way is the better of the two, you will need to make a convincing presentation to her. If you can’t clearly demonstrate where your method has the advantage, you need to go back to the drawing board and further develop your method and/or explanation. Leaders and managers must be salespeople when it comes to the presentation of ideas. Most people will do things that are advantageous to them and avoid doing things that are not. Find the advantage(s) of your method and back them up with evidence.

3) If implementing your method is mandatory, be prepared to enforce compliance. If it is presented as optional, you have no right to be annoyed if the method isn't adopted by the employee. People tend to stick with what they know unless there is a clear incentive for change (i.e., more free time, greater profitability, continued employment).  If the way you want it done is truly the best way, then non-compliance by staff equates to sub-standard performance, and substandard job performance is not acceptable within DVC.

"I Know Better Than You"

One of the most frustrating things you will face as a manager of people is trying to lead those who think they know better than you do what is going to work and what isn't. This problem can be especially prevalent when working with employees who have been doing their job for a significant period of time; they believe they are "masters" of that job and doubt that you (who don't do the job on a daily basis) can possibly know what is effective and what isn't. Here are some thoughts on removing the "I know better than you" cricket from your employee's shoe (see first blog post).

1.  When you are trying to get employees to do things that are new to them, ask their opinion at the onset If your employee thinks your way isn't going to work, you want to know that early on so that you can deal with it quickly: and also to afford yourself the opportunity to readjust should they right. Remember - no manager is always right and no plan is foolproof. Meet with the employee(s) and together build a pros and cons list of the behavior/procedural change that you want to put into place. Talk it through as professionals. Don't be condescending.

2. The burden of responsibility for motivating your employees in times of change is on you as the manager. You have to be able to "sell" not "tell". What about your way will benefit the employee(s)? Everyone needs to know what's in it for them if you want more than lip service.

3.While you want employees on board, it is vital to remember that ultimately, you as the manager have the final say. Let employees know that they are expected to adopt the change and implement it to the best of their ability. Help them to understand the rewards that will follow a cooperative attitude and the negative consequences that result from an uncooperative one. Let them know that if they undertake the new procedure with a positive attitude and genuine effort, you are poised to accept the responsibility if the change doesn't achieve the desired result.

"Just Do It" Only Works for Nike

I imagine that most of us can remember being told by a parent or other authority figure, at some point in our life, that we should do something just because they “said so”. From their way of thinking, having a clear set of instructions was enough. The reasoning behind the order was not something they felt obligated to explain to the likes of you!

The problem with that type of reasoning is that it simply doesn’t work over the long haul (as I’m sure you also remember). People will do things, simply because you tell them to, only for as long as you can watch them.  To gain compliance over the long term, the reason for doing something in a specific way must matter to the employee, not just to you.

Here are some tips on how to gain long term compliance:

1) Before you put people to work, clearly explain how their performance will impact others.  While not doing things your way may end up getting them fired, fear is not an ideal (or long-term) motivator. Instead, take the time to explain the positive impact that their contributions will have on the customer and their coworkers.

2) Take the time to explain the reasoning behind a process or procedure. While it is important to not overwhelm an employee with too much information that may be beyond their frame of reference (i.e., “We need to {fill in the blank} in order to increase PSI, OSI, FBI and Private Eye…”., you need to provide enough information to give the task meaning.

If you are going to favor an acronym, then favor KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). While your front desk employee may not understand, or care about, PSI and/or OSI, she is likely to understand “I would like for you to schedule 12 regular exams a day. Regular exams are the bread and butter of this practice and they create the revenue we need to meet payroll.”

3) Explain the negative consequence of not following proper procedure. Once you have explained the procedure that you want followed, the benefits and reasoning behind performing it as you have explained, and you believe the employee understands how to perform that procedure, then explain the negative consequences associated with poor performance. 

•    “If you schedule twelve exams per day, we will be successful and on track. If you are not able to consistently get twelve exams on the books, it will negatively impact our bottom line, which we use to fund employee positions and bonuses. Under-performance in this area will eventually impact our bank account and your ability to get paid.”

Enough said.

You Can't Sing Along if You Don't Know the Words

As we continue our quest to find the "crickets" that are negatively impacting employee behavior, we can't ignore the possibility that poor performance is directly linked to the employee not knowing how to do what we are expecting her (or him) to do.


One of the most common pitfalls of training is making an assumption that because something was shown once or twice to the learner (or they were shown some written instructions) he or she now knows how to do it. (If you doubt the prevalence if this problem, just think of how many students are promoted to a new grade each year without ever mastering the skills of the previous grade.) Without going into dry details of learning theory, it is still worth pointing out that everyone learns differently (some learn by seeing, some learn by hearing, some learn by doing; the most effective learning is a combination of all three). Ensuring that your employee knows how to do the job as you like it done is your responsibility as the manager. Chastising a poorly performing employee who doesn't know how to perform the job you are asking her to perform will only frustrate both of you.

Admitting that we don't know how to do something - especially something that others assume we already know how to do - is a blow to the ego; and make no mistake, people work very hard to protect their egos.

When I was working in the hospital, I had a unit manager come to me about a young nurse who worked for her. She described the employee as pleasant, customer-oriented, and dedicated to her job (she almost never missed a day at work), but there was one recurring problem: this nurse continually pushed her work with the more seriously ill patients onto other nurses in the unit and it was becoming a serious bone of contention among the other unit employees. The assumption was that the nurse was lazy and did not like working the "hard" cases. The unit manager sensed she would soon have a mutiny on her hands if something didn't change, but she was frustrated because she felt she had tried everything she could to remedy the situation and she was still not seeing improvement.  The manager believed that she was out of options and was going to have to let the employee go.

I suggested that we try one last thing: have a Nurse Educator (NE) from the training department observe on the unit for a day or two under the auspices of a department-wide "skills check". At the end of the review, the NE's report was straightforward. The nurse in question was only avoiding treating patients that required a certain skill set; those involving specific cardiac care procedures. When the unit manager called the employee to her office and gently pointed out that the skills review had uncovered the nurse's deficiency in that one area, the young nurse admitted that she was not sure how to perform certain procedures (that she should have learned while in nursing school), and was afraid to admit it for fear of losing a job she really needed. Rather than put the patient at risk, she was asking the other nurses to "help" (a.k.a. - to do her work).

As a result of the what was learned from the NE's report and the subsequent discussion with the employee, the manager sent the nurse to the training department for an intensive period of training and review of the skills in question. The nurse emerged a week later; consequently more confident and productive. She no longer pushed her more critical cases onto others and the morale on the unit increased. By taking the time to identify the obstacles to this employee's success, the department became more efficient and was also saved the expense of rehiring and retraining a new employee to replace the one that had been under-performing.

So, are you assuming that because someone should know how to do something that they do know how to do it? If your employee isn't "singing along" with you and the rest of the staff, could it be because she doesn't know the words?

The First (and most likely) "Cricket"

As mentioned in the post below, there are several reasons that employees may not be doing what they should be doing, and the most obvious (but most often overlooked) reason is that the employee may not know what he or she is supposed to do.

Early in my career, I accepted a job as a recruiter for a medical staffing agency. Fresh out of college and wanting to impress my employer with my thoroughness, I would conduct lengthy and comprehensive resume reviews with each potential recruit. No stone went unturned, so to speak. I was pretty proud of my work. So imagine my bewilderment when I received my first performance evaluation and received a low score in the area of "interview skills", with the supervisor's written comment of "takes too long to complete applicant interviews". The supervisor explained that applicant interviews should take no longer than fifteen minutes each, and my average interview time was 30 minutes. The problem was that no one ever told me that! It was an unwritten "rule of thumb" (my supervisor's exact words) in that organization.

Take a minute to think about how many unwritten "rules of thumb" that you may be imposing upon your staff. Are you assuming that they know them? Are those expectations in their job descriptions or work plans? The bottom line is that you are setting an employee up to fail if you don't clearly communicate your expectations prior to the employee attempting the work. To ensure that your employees know what to do:

1) Provide the instuctions/expectations in writing to the employee.
2) Verbally review the instructions/expectations with your employee.
3) Have the employee tell you what the instructions/expectations are (this helps to ensure that you are both on the same page).
4) Follow up with feedback for the employee in a timely way (don't wait until performance review time to point out problems or provide praise).

Eliminate the possibility that your employee does not know what to do before moving on to address other, more complicated, reasons for poor performance.