Tag Archives: shortcuts

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workplace comparison

Workplace Comparison and Judgement

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The conversation often starts with a workplace comparison. Someone else did it wrong, someone else had permission, or everybody does it.

Often it seems we live life in comparison. The grass is always greener. Someone else was lucky, or they must come from money.

The Illusion of Shortcuts

It may be a way to create blame or it may be a way explain shortcomings. It may also be a lure into the trap that shortcuts exist and the best way to get ahead is knowing how to navigate them.

When you look for the bad, the things that could go wrong, or a reason why it won’t work, you’ll likely find it. Finding someone or some circumstance to blame may be self-protection or it may create a reason to give up before you get started.

Careers have a beginning and an ending, and a whole lot of stuff that happens in the middle. You work for a paycheck, job satisfaction, or to make a difference.

You also probably wonder from time-to-time if you are getting left behind.

There are some guarantees. One guarantee is that when you compare your life’s work against another’s, you’ll find some differences.

Workplace Comparison

Some people are worn out, tired, and want a break. Some will cite fear, hesitation, and hurry as the cause for their outcome.

There will still be other onlookers who claim the shortcut was the reason.

The shortcut is an illusion. An assumption that because you know now, and didn’t before, you’ll be able to get there quicker.

Speed may matter, and so will timing.

Comparison over action may be similar to a dog chasing its tail, or the rocking chair on the front porch. Lots of activity, things in motion, but no one is going anywhere.

Shortcuts are often an illusion and so is the comparison.

Reserve judgment and stay focused.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), 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.


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answers

Just Tell Me The Answers

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In school it may have seemed easy to study to the test. In fact, in some curriculum that is exactly the plan. For real life it may be a different story. Are you just looking for the answers or are you learning along the way?

Shortcuts

It seems like the shortcut. The path that will lead you to the result faster, more efficiently, and with less expense. If we can learn the answer, we’ve shortened the time requirements.

Just getting the answer may help us navigate the software, do a quick fix home repair, or learn how to apply makeup.

Just watch a video. You’ll find the answer.

Finding the answers seems like the right path. Finding them with little expense sweetens the pot.

Why learn the math when you can do it by learning a few buttons on a calculator?

It is the shortcut. The smart and easy way.

Answers

Most of what will unfold in your business or for your career won’t develop from just being told the answer. The greatest success stories haven’t developed from trying the shortcuts.

Time matters, and so does discovering the answers. Answers really are not always the biggest challenge though. There are plenty of highly educated people. They’ve learned to know a lot of answers.

The grass doesn’t become greener just because you’ve learned the answer. The grass becomes greener by doing the work. It is the sweat equity that will create the most success.

At least once a month I bump into someone who wants to make a change for the (assumed) greener grass. When I ask why, they often say, “I want the lifestyle.”

What they really want is all the answers. Skip the sweat.

Even when armed with the answers, there aren’t any shortcuts. Sometimes we all must do the math.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), 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.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+


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Customer Service Shortcuts

Customer Service Shortcuts and Culture

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It is easy to disregard customer service. Perhaps in many organizations it is quickly brushed over because there is no rocket science and, after all, it takes a lot of energy to do it right. Do you have a culture of customer service shortcuts?

How do you know you have good customer service? How are you measuring the success of your customer service culture?

Said or Done?

Many organizational leaders tell me that they survey their customers. Some suggest that management is carefully watching and monitoring both processes and outcomes. Others claim to be doing it digitally. They monitor social media, review sales data, and analyze lifetime value.

In many ways, all of those produce some form of evidence. Evidence is valuable and meaningful, but it may not be the entire story. Things are likely missing, valuable things that are overlooked, underestimated, or disregarded.

What is the culture of the organization? What are the habits, the traditions, and the values? I’m not just talking about what is said in the boardroom, at the quarterly meeting, or on a digital document otherwise known as the employee handbook.

What is the execution or organizational habits? What are the customer service shortcuts? None of it may be rocket science.

Shortcut Investment or Divestment

Many businesses invest in shortcuts. It is the auto-attendant telephone system, the ring the buzzer for help, or the website contact page. They invest in touch point reduction. It is the listen carefully because our menu options have changed, or it must have went into my spam folder.

Customers don’t hear reasons, they hear excuses. What they feel, is a lack of caring. What your execution is demonstrating, is a shortcut. Every action, or a lack of, has a cost. What can your organization afford?

Customer Service Shortcuts

It isn’t about well-crafted words on a document, it isn’t the glamorous pitch from the C Suite, or it is not necessarily about what is contained in the managers’ report.

It might be a part of all of those, but the biggest part of your culture is execution, the things that become values, traditions, and the brand.

There is value to what you say, but what will be remembered the most is what you do and how your customers feel.

Is it time to consider how you’re coming up short?

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), 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+


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