Power Steps to Sharpen Your Edge

Presenteeism is slashing profits and alienating customers. Meet Marian, the manager of the customer service department at QuikCom, a telecommunications company.  The telecom market is highly competitive, the technology is complex and customers' expectations are high. Marian is responsible for 75 customer service representatives who, collectively, are held responsible for QuikCom's customer satisfaction rating. Faced with falling Customer Satisfaction Ratings - blamed on long wait times -  Marian is charged with fixing the problem, without increasing headcount. Marian decides that keeping the Customer Service Representatives on the telephone will make the Customer Satisfaction Rating go up. Is she right? Simply having workers at their desks and able to work is no guarantee of productivity. Presenteeism at QuikCom improved attendance but worsened the Customer Satisfaction Rating even more. Once Marian realized that getting away from the telephone - occasionally - would actually improve the attitudes and the productivity of her Customer Service staff, the Customer Satisfaction Ratings followed suit. The return on investment was 230% Run the numbers PowerStep  Small steps for today that power big change When a deadline is looming and the pressure is on to finish a task or a project, what's your natural reaction? "I put my head down and push harder toward the goal! It's up to me to get it done." The PowerStep reaction is to do the opposite:  take a 10-minute vacation instead. Walk around the building; grab a cup of coffee or soda; breathe deeply, look at a picture of your dog; read a funny story. Here's an example:  Joseph absolutely had to finish a proposal for a client meeting by noon.  It's 10:45; he can't figure out how to meet the customer's deadline and stay inside the required budget. His heart is racing -- he feels the all-too-familiar needles of anxiety in his back -- every sound is a distraction. Joseph leaves his desk - leaves the building - and walks up to the pond in the office park. He sits on a bench and watches the ducks swim and bob and preen for 10 minutes.  He leaves the pond with a smile on his face and a spring in his step. When he returns to his desk, he finishes the proposal easily. By pushing back and looking up, he was able to  think about a solution instead of the problem.  The problem was a deadline so short, the supplier would have to add rush fees, which would push the project over budget. Joseph's solution? Use multiple suppliers instead of one - a smaller job makes the timeframe reasonable, so there's no extra cost. Pushing back, even for just a few minutes, will get you closer to your goal than digging in -- especially when the pressure is on. What Are You?  A Hedgehog or a Fox? In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins describes the hedgehog as a slow and dowdy creature that has been blessed with only one talent -- it curls into a ball of sharp spikes whenever it is attacked.  But in spite of its limited talents, it never loses to the clever and agile fox. Because it uses this special talent every single time it is attacked.  Collins suggests that companies who make it from "good" to "great" have one thing in common.

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