moments Archives - Dennis E. Gilbert

29
May 20
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Leaders Show Up, Even When No One is Watching

Tags : careers ethics leaders moments opportunities

Talent and the admiration for performance may show up when you need it, or when you least expect it. Performance, conduct, and ethics always matter. True leaders show up every time.

When there is a graduation ceremony, someone will likely show up to talk about leadership. We’ve witnessed leadership in the Die-Hard movies, The Hunt for Red October, and A Few Good Men.

Leadership can be scripted in the board meeting, at the awards banquet, and for the corporate retreat. Yet, those aren’t the only places it is visible.

When the organization needs innovation, it should be present. During a massive disruption, it should be there. During an unexpected emergency, a pop-up meeting, or when someone least expects it, it should be there.

Yes, it should come when no one is watching.

Leaders Show Up

The kid who watches the fireman, the farmer, or the Navy SEAL, may experience something unexpected. It’s also true for those watching the backhoe operator, the auto mechanic, or the carpenter. And, someone quietly admiring a teacher, a doctor, or an astronaut. In all of these cases, leadership is happening, or it’s not.

Everyone working, every day, making an impact or a difference may not always realize who is watching. They may just be doing what they feel is their every day job.

Their defining moments are happening and are being experienced by someone else.

Perhaps unknowingly the work that you’ll do today will matter a whole lot more than just achieving results for your business or organization.

Leadership happens during all moments, not just the moments that it is scripted for.

We can skip the graduation ceremony, ignore signs of leadership in the movies, or resist the change happening right before our eyes.

Yet, leadership is still happening. It’s happening in the moment. It’s changing lives, and we don’t even know it.

Today you’ll deliver on some moments.

What will they look like?

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

02
Nov 18
4

Career Moments, Building it Inch-by-Inch

Tags : advancement career moments opportunities promotion

Careers often feel like they are a title, a spot, a position, or a place in time. They are more often the sum of many moments. What are your career moments and how much do they matter?

Inches Matter

I watched my favorite football team lose their game. They were down by one point. A field goal for three points or a touchdown for six? Field position with only five seconds remaining in the game called for a field goal attempt.

It was missed by inches. The game lost.

It is similar for the photo finish at the race track, or the basketball that goes through a hoop (or not) just slightly larger than the ball. We see it on the golf course, the ball ever so close to tumbling into that tiny hole.

Do inches matter?

Career Advancement

It often feels like your career is getting the big job, the larger salary, or special perks. It is the perceived feeling of being invited to the next level of meetings, having a role to supplement the conversation, and working with a bigger departmental budget.

All those things matter. They do make a difference. Are they really the defining moments for your career? Unlikely.

A career is the sum of many defining moments, moments added up across time.

Career Moments

Your career, just like the game, seldom goes into overtime where you have more chances for another moment. The time is fixed. Your career is finite.

The race won’t go for another lap. The hoops aren’t going to get bigger or closer. The golf ball once tapped, is on its own trajectory.

Getting the new job, the promotion, or landing in a new career may be a moment, but it is just that, a moment. One of thousands and thousands of other moments which inch-by-inch are either making a difference, or missing the opportunity.

All those moments add up to become your brand, your reputation, the view of your career.

Inch-by-inch.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

16
Feb 18
-

Customer Service Follow Through and Bowling

Tags : follow through moments touch points

It may seem that we are a society of quick hits and then run. Nearly anything in business, in marketing, or running your errands is about speed. A quick hit, then you’re gone. Is customer service follow through still important?

Impressed with Service

In many of my seminars related directly to customer service I will ask participants to think about a time when they were impressed with the service they received. Not when things went wrong, not the time they were so angry that they vowed to never return, but the opposite.

Perhaps surprisingly it is often hard for some people to remember the “wow” moments as compared with the bad moments. Eventually though, people can often come up with something. The best customer service is often a surprise. It jumps out at people and creates a lasting unforgotten impression.

Trends for Speed

Nearly everyday someone tells me about the importance of customer service. Certainly, that is most likely because of the work that I do, but it is also an indication that something is missing. People are feeling forgotten, hung out to dry, or worse, that they do not matter.

Perhaps businesses feel it is about the speed. Once the task is completed, it is on to the next. Time is money and our value comes from speed.

Bowling Party

I remember when I went bowling as a kid. One of my friends Dad’s was teaching me how to bowl. He said, “You have to shake hands with pins as you let go of the ball.” At first, it seemed silly, but it became a metaphorical example that I would continue to think about forty years later.

In bowling, we have to continue through with our throw. We don’t just stop our swing when we let it go. When we are first learning it seems appropriate to just chuck it, and hope to avoid the gutter, after all anything after the let go seems like a waste. It is the quick hit and we’re done.

Follow Through

Following through is important though. Certainly, we won’t guide or steer the ball once we have let go, but it is the motion of our throw that guides the path after the let go. If we plan to stop the swing of our arm at the moment we let go we’ll have a much less effective throw.

The same is true for every sales transaction, every customer interaction or touch point. If you let go at the moment the job appears to be done, if there isn’t any follow through, if you are focused solely on the task and then stop, it is not as effective.

When you let go, make sure you continue with the follow through. It will improve your score.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

13
Dec 17
-

Customer Experience Connections and Moments

Tags : connections customer experience frustration generosity moments

There are many labels for our current business climate. There is the connection economy, the digital economy, and my personal favorite is a label of, service economy. Regardless of the label, real customer experience connections and moments are more important now than ever.

When we think of connection, we often think of social media experiences. Connecting, friending, and following all wrap meaning around the social media experience. Those are really just faux connections though. Yes, they have some importance, but they aren’t the same as making a real connection.

Recently I was returning home after spending more than seven hours driving on the road. It was dark, cold, and I was hungry.

One of my favorite fixes for this is a carryout pizza. Just minutes away, I made the call to the pizza shop and arrived with precise timing.

Rush of Frustration

As I stepped out of my car, a pizza delivery person rushed around me from the side. He was talking to himself, mumbling something about kid’s behavior and their parents, and discipline. He must have just had a difficult delivery.

Although my day was long and hectic, I was tired, and I was hungry, I somehow felt this was going to be an interesting moment.

He rushed into the pizza shop, threw down his pizza bags, shed a coat, and stepped behind the cash register. I stood opposite him, waiting patiently.

He attempted to login and couldn’t get the code right, he was breathing heavy, and was obviously frustrated.

After a moment or two, he put both his hands out in front of him, palms down, and quickly swooshed his arms to both sides in a movement signifying calmness. He took a deep breath, looked up at me and said, “How are you doing sir?”

I said, “I’m OK, it’s OK.”

He said, “It’s been a crazy night, a crazy, crazy night.”

I said with a patient smile, “It’s all just moments. Just moments, it will be alright.”

His eyes shifted to the side in a moment of thought, then his shoulders dropped, he relaxed, he smiled, and we were, connected.

Customer Experience Connections

Sometimes when we say customer experience what we really mean is forming a connection. It is isn’t a like on Facebook, it isn’t a new follower on Twitter, and our network hasn’t just expanded on LinkedIn.

All of those things may cause a rush of dopamine in a technology-connected society. The purchase of a lottery ticket may do that too. The reality of outcomes sometimes makes us crave more.

A true connection is something different, a little more intense, and lasting.

Sometimes one of the best things to improve the customer experience is generosity. It doesn’t matter how your day is going, it matters more when you hold a door for someone, smile first, or make the moment more human.

These connections are valuable. More importantly, they are often repeated and shared.

– DEG

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

Tag Archives: moments

May 20

-

Leaders Show Up, Even When No One is Watching

Leaders Show Up

Nov 18

4

Career Moments, Building it Inch-by-Inch

Inches Matter

Career Advancement

Career Moments

Feb 18

-

Customer Service Follow Through and Bowling

Impressed with Service

Trends for Speed

Bowling Party

Follow Through

Dec 17

-

Customer Experience Connections and Moments

Rush of Frustration

Customer Experience Connections

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