This Is How Your Staff Will Give Better Customer Service To Your Clients

In order to have happy, loyal customers, you need to have happy, loyal staff that your customers love to deal with – be it on the phone or in person. Talking with your customer service staff should be a pleasant experience. If your staff currently is not creating pleasant experiences for your customers, a training [...]

Is “Recognition” A Management Style?

I was recently discussing which is the best management style out there and while I’m all for a “coaching management style”, I vote for an eclectic one that uses different styles in different situations. If I had to give it a name I’d call it “Recognition-based Management Style”. And – if you’ve been here before [...]

How To Retain Talents When You Can’t Give Them A Raise

The only way to keep employees in a company by recognizing their needs and responding to them.

This is “Before-The-Fact-Recognition” and creates sustainable motivation that will last even through a financial crisis – as opposed to “After-The-Fact-Recognition” which consists mainly of rewards (for achievements) and only gives short boosts of motivation (as long as the rewards keep coming).

If you give people a chance to grow, to be involved, if you make them feel valuable by giving them a chance to make a difference (to the company, their colleagues, your clients, etc.), if you ask them for their opinion, so they feel respected and important and if you openly communicate your concerns and that you do recognize their needs – then you’re creating a relationship (a psychological and emotional bond) with your employees that they won’t break just because someone offers them more money.

The Offline LIKE Button And Recognition

Yesterday I had the pleasure to visit TamTam – a Dutch “Fullservice Internetbureau” specializing in getting their clients “connected” and creating engaging online experiences for their client’s clients. TamTam is an organization that supports the individual independence and personal growth of their employees. They even created a “LefJeDroom” program (see the introduction in Dutch here) [...]

Use Wacky Appreciation Days To Create Fun At Work

You know that unexpected little surprises make people way happier than expected ones, right? And coming up with something unexpected on a regular basis is not easy, right again? Here’s a source of information that will give you a boost of creativity and ideas in creating more fun for your team at work. It’s a [...]

When Recognition backfires…

At my company, when a colleague does something great – secures a new account, exceeds a goal, etc. – everyone is called into the lobby. The person’s supervisor announces what she did and she has to dance in front of everyone. I’ve heard that public speaking is the most common fear, and public dancing has [...]

This Is the Simple Key To Employee Engagement

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler. [Albert Einstein] Employer Engagement and Line Manager Engagement lead to Employee Engagement. It’s a perfect example for a 200% relationship, where each party always gives 100% to support the other party – regardless if the other party is able to reciprocate at the same [...]

If You Get The Company Culture Right, The Rest Will Happen Automatically…

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos on core values, hiring practices, onboarding, customer service, company culture and why every line manager is advised to spend 10-20% with their team outside the office… Always a pleasure to listen to his philosophies, attitude and wisdom.

Do your employees feel like they really are your greatest asset?

In a recent article in the Entrepreneur Magazine, Bill Bartman shares some wise words about investing time in your employees, walking your talk, being congruent and respecting your employees by taking them and their input seriously. Here are some excerpts: “When the highest-paid person spends time with the newest, lowest-level employees, it sends the message [...]

SMILE :) …For Sustainable Engagement

Many people forget that they are still communicating when they think they’re “on a break”. Within the past week I’ve witnessed three different people who forgot, and noticed the impact it was having on their audience. One of those three people was Ed Kowalczyk, the frontman of the band Live, who was in town to [...]