Tag Archives: voice

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voice matters

Voice Matters And It Counts, Use It Wisely

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Do you believe your voice matters? Have you ever thought that your communication is not heard or understood?

You’re certainly not alone.

It often feels best to be reflective of positive communication and positive interactions.

Have a great day.

Beautiful weather we’re having.

Great job in the meeting yesterday.

That is the type of communication most people are grateful for, they appreciate it, and welcome more of it.

Sometimes there are other forms of communication. Harsh, curt, or condescending.

And still, there are other forms, including aggressive, passive aggressive, or sarcasm.

Do all of these communications matter or only some of them?

Voice Matters

Your voice, what you say, what you do, how you act, it all becomes part of the organizational culture.

It is common that many businesses or organizations believe that their culture is only representative of what they want it to be. In other words, what they believe that are working towards is how it actually is.

This is often a root cause for why large-scale change efforts fail. When management believes that the culture, environment, and climate are representative of only what they say, and not what everyone does, it could spell trouble.

It is an easy trap to fall into.

Ask an organization leader how good their customer service is and they’ll probably tell you about a lot of success stories. Are they the best person to ask? Not really, the customers are the best people to ask.

Every organization is made up of both good and bad. While a focus on the good is favorable over a focus on the bad, pretending that the bad doesn’t exist often doesn’t make it go away.

Does your voice matter?

It matters either way.

You have a choice to make a positive and constructive impact or to become part of the problem.

You might think your voice doesn’t matter, yet every time your contributions are heard, that means someone was listening.

What happens next is conditioned by the people.

Good or bad.

Be the good voice.

-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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fifty percent

Fifty Percent, More or Less, and the Workplace Critic

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We often fear what the critic will say, yet it seems that the critic really shouldn’t matter. George W. Bush and Barack Obama, both Presidents of the United States, both roughly had only about fifty percent approval ratings while in office.

What is your approval rating?

Approval Rating

When you work on the project, help the boss, or give a presentation to the board of directors, what is your approval rating?

Many employees tell me about the disappointment they face when receiving feedback from their boss. They suggest that the boss stresses the shortcomings, missed opportunities, or rework required – what they’ve done wrong. Yet, these setbacks, let downs, or failures, only represent about five percent or less of their total contribution.

Has the boss placed an inappropriate focus on the problems? Has the employee exaggerated about the amount of emphasis placed on shortcomings?

If we perform above expectations for ninety-five percent of our work, yet our conversations are eighty percent about the shortcomings what is the result?

It may be easy to get caught up in a downward spiral.

Fifty Percent

Perhaps the better question to ask is related to the quantity of critics. Most successful employees have an approval rating of far more than fifty percent.

What is your approval rating?

We can’t allow ourselves to get stuck on the comments of our critics.

Yes, they are always out there. Often lurking, watching, and waiting for a time to express their dissatisfaction, their anger, or even their jealousy and envy.

Yes, our boss may have some performance improvement feedback for us. Can you turn that into something constructive?

Critics may have a voice, yet they only control the next outcome if you allow them to do so.

Don’t let the critic become your inner voice.

-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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Meeting voice

Meeting Voice, Do You Have It?

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It would not take you long to find someone in your workplace who absolutely dreads going to meetings. Are the meetings really that boring and uninformative? Are they a waste of time? Does someone have meeting voice?

Meeting voice is a condition. Many people chairing meetings have it. It is Charlie Brown’s teacher. So now, you know.

Attention Span

How is it in a first world country where there is so much technology people have stopped listening? Many people believe that their uptake on information is at astounding levels. So much so that they don’t even need to listen any more. When in doubt they may just ask Siri.

The reality may be that there is so much noise, so much clutter, that people have stopped listening.

Savvy Marketers

This drives the marketer crazy. It requires a degree in psychology to reach the target audience. The savvy marketer will find a voice though. It is well known that meeting voice won’t reach the target audience, build connections, or sell products. Mad Men knew this in the 1960’s and it is still true today.

People probably aren’t going to listen closely if it is hard. The easy route is faster, safer, and requires less energy.

Technology Surf

Mobile is growing in popularity. People surf their smartphones for nearly everything. They don’t do a deep dive, they don’t want the details. They want headliners, fast punch lines and sub sixty-second videos. People are scanning, they aren’t reading or studying.

What happens with all of this activity? Certainly there is miscommunication. Nobody is reading the fine print, details don’t matter, and who needs to learn when you can just ask.

What does this have to do with meeting voice? Meeting voice is a condition you don’t want. If you’re going to speak you’re going to have to be direct. Hours and hours of meetings are likely not effective.

No More Meeting Voice

There is so much noise in people’s heads. If even they hear you, it doesn’t mean they’re listening. They may be present, but they are not engaged. Some will claim information overload, others will miss the call to action completely.

If you are going to have effective meetings, you are going to have lose the meeting voice. Otherwise, you’ll notice more of the technology prayer. A condition easily spotted when a person is surfing their smartphone while holding it just below the tabletop.

Think more like the marketer. It will help.

– 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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customer service voice

What Is Your Customer Service Voice?

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Most of us have one, a voice that offers our opinions, expresses our values, and sets our desired expectations. Your voice may be more impactful than you realize. What is your customer service voice?

Internal and External

Keep in mind that customer service is both an internal and external part of your organizational culture. What is said, discussed, and believed is a big part of what sets expectations and creates outcomes.

Ship it anyway, the customer won’t notice.

I can’t find their telephone number on their website.

They completely rearranged the supermarket again, now I can’t find anything.

Your voice may be more powerful than you realize. What people say, even to themselves sets the expectations for future outcomes.

Power of Voice

When we believe the customer won’t notice, we’ll allow our work to have less quality. Believing that they won’t notice also signals that they don’t care. The belief becomes that they will continue to buy out of need, buy based only on price, or buy because they are sloppy or not frugal.

Certainly, the idea of fewer customer service oriented calls conceptually saves money. It removes the human cost. Similar to the auto attendant signaling us to “press or say one for sales, two for…” so that we are directed to the correct department.

The real problem may be that people are calling only after the website or help chat has left them with unanswered questions or additional frustration. Better yet is the system that demands your customer number, order number, or telephone, only to get a live person and have to repeat it all again.

When technology drives better service, when the investment is expensive enough to make it better, not cheaper, typically service will improve. Unfortunately, many efforts to remove the human factor are an immediate attempt to cut costs, not improve service.

The supermarket may measure profit and margins by what shoppers select and where they can find it. Single piece candy bars aren’t in the back corner of the store, that is where the milk, meat, and seafood is located.

The store may not care about the amount of energy required for your shopping experience, but they certainly want you see all the high margin items you can conveniently buy from them. In contrast, the e-commerce store allows sort, filter, and easy reorder, plus it arrives at your door.

Customer Service Voice

What we say, what we discuss, and most importantly what we tell ourselves and others will condition our expectations. This is our customer service voice.

When we believe that cheap is all that matters, that is probably exactly what we’ll get.

Perhaps our customer service voice should change. It may require more talk about what we buy being connected with what it is worth, not just connected with what it costs.

These are the businesses that are focused on doing what matters, not what is cheap.

They are out there. Their employees and customers both have the same voice.

– 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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