Month: November 2010

Posted on

Ethics Management Programs: An Overview

Woman holding a pile of books on business policies and ethics

What’s an Ethics Management Program?

Organizations can manage ethics in their workplaces by establishing an ethics management program. Brian Schrag, Executive Secretary of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, clarifies. “Typically, ethics programs convey corporate values, often using codes and policies to guide decisions and behavior, and can include extensive training and evaluating, depending on the organization. They provide guidance in ethical dilemmas.” Rarely are two programs alike.

“All organizations have ethics programs, but most do not know that they do,” wrote business ethics professor Stephen Brenner in the Journal of Business Ethics (1992, V11, pp. 391-399). “A corporate ethics program is made up of values, policies and activities which impact the propriety of organization behaviors.”

Bob Dunn, President and CEO of San Francisco-based Business for Social Responsibility, adds: “Balancing competing values and reconciling them is a basic purpose of an ethics management program. Business people need more practical tools and information to understand their values and how to manage them.”

Benefits of Managing Ethics as a Program

There are numerous benefits in formally managing ethics as a program, rather than as a one-shot effort when it appears to be needed. Ethics programs:

  1. Establish organizational roles to manage ethics
  2. Schedule ongoing assessment of ethics requirements
  3. Establish required operating values and behaviors
  4. Align organizational behaviors with operating values
  5. Develop awareness and sensitivity to ethical issues
  6. Integrate ethical guidelines to decision making
  7. Structure mechanisms to resolving ethical dilemmas
  8. Facilitate ongoing evaluation and updates to the program
  9. Help convince employees that attention to ethics is not just a knee-jerk reaction done to get out of trouble or improve public image

What do you think?

————————————————————————-

Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD – Authenticity Consulting, LLC – 800-971-2250
Read my weekly blogs: Boards, Consulting and OD, Nonprofits and Strategic Planning.

Posted on

Organizational Culture and Executive Onboarding

A smiling business executive

Guest blog submitted by Krista Peterson

This dialogue about onboarding and new leader transitions is so multi-faceted, and there are so many interesting directions we can go. Let’s go deeper into the aspect of culture.

External Executive Hiring

Steve commented about the prevalence of organizations hiring externally for key roles. From my experience, both as a retained recruiter, and as an executive in an organization, I can attest that one way that a newly hired executive can derail goes back to a poor selection process. When the organization has been unclear about what they were actually looking for and subsequently selected the “wrong” person, the likelihood of derailment is even higher.

If companies are choosing an external candidate over internal candidates 75% of the time, it would serve them well to be really clear about the job outcomes, expected business results, team dynamics, and the leadership talents and skills needed to be most effective before they engage in a search. A robust search process can then screen candidates for leadership traits, experience, cultural fit, and past behaviors that most closely match those needs. Also, communicating what the culture is like to external candidates is critical during the selection process, so the candidate can self-select and make informed choices about pursuing that organization.

Cultural Fit

Sometimes even the best selection process can miss some of the subtle things that can lead to derailment. Cultural fit is one of the more subtle aspects to navigate, for there are many things at play that make it a complex one to figure out. On the surface, you have the corporate culture of the organization, this is usually known and easily described by employees. Then there are the sub-cultural elements of the organization or division, that may be less known. They represent the unwritten rules of engagement, how the work actually gets done in the system. It is these unwritten rules that can be harder to tease apart. Layer on top of that, the leader’s previous culture, which has influenced, in part, the leader’s style. What may have been culturally acceptable and rewarded in the previous company, may not be tolerated in the new organization, and because it is an unspoken rule, often no one has communicated this to the new leader clearly.

Case Study on Culture

One new leader I was coaching (at the derailment stage) came in to the organization at a Director level. His past experience was incredibly strong and industry specific. He was brought in as an expert to lead the expansion of an existing product line. His former company culture was very competitive, bordering cut-throat, and leaders there were rewarded for their independent thoughts and actions. The new organization was far more collegial and rewarded collaboration and partnership. The leadership skills that were nurtured and encouraged in one environment were derailing him in the new organization. No one had offered enough feedback, and so the subleties of the cultural and his leadership style was clashing. He was getting business results and was driving the new product line, but he was disenfranchising his team and cross-company partners every step of the way.

The Role of Feedback

Especially related to cultural fit, feedback plays a critical role. It is nearly impossible to communicate upfront every nuance of the culture, but as the new leader behaves in ways that run counter, feedback is essential to making early course-corrections. In next week’s entry will look at different types and approaches to feedback. In the meantime, it would interesting to hear how others work to ensure that new leaders are clear about the culture, especially in relation to a leader’s own strengths and opportunities? We would also welcome thoughts, ideas, and questions on the role of feedback in general.

Guest Writer Information

Krista Peterson, MA, is Founder, Principal Consultant, and Coach at Stone River Consulting in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her phone number is 612-719-7658; e-mail is kpeterson@stoneriverconsulting.com

Krista brings nearly 20 years of experience in leadership development to the practice, largely from her time at Target Corporation, where she served as the director of talent development, leading the organization’s strategy for developing leaders. She also led the creation of an internal executive coaching function, and expanded the onboarding services delivered to new leaders.

——————–

Steve Wolinski provides leadership development, organizational change and talent management services to numerous public, private and non-profit organizations.

Posted on

Who Could Refudiate a Good Headline?

Young cheerful lady showing thumbs up

 

Press Releases, Tweets — even, or especially, email subject lines — demand strong, catchy headlines. Imagine the volume of words that cross an editor’s or reporter’s eyes each hour! Guess which subjects they will be drawn to? Those that creatively thread the needle of journalism are the ones that will get sewn into the fabric of a feature story or news item. And that thread is your header.

A quick search of the past week’s headlines is instructive. This week the New Oxford American Dictionary named its word of the year Refudiate. And you have to admit that it’s a pretty “nifty” word, as Sarah Palin might say. In fact, it’s Alaska’s Governor Quit who coined the term. She’s got to feel pretty darn good about it, too, the designation from the Oxford word wonks coming in the same seven days that her reality show about Alaska — but mostly about her and her overexposed family and her simplistic political views — is breaking viewing records on TLC cable, such as they are. I have to admit, a sneak peak I stole the other night for 15 minutes revealed unusually high production values and tons of beauty shots of the inspiring scenery of the distant state where you can see Russia.

You can refudiate her politics all you want. But SP remains a headline grabber, despite the fact that she’s making fishing-boat-loads of money doing all this stuff in the guise of being some Teabag politico that believes she’s qualified for higher office.

Make Your Reporter Connection

Rather than dial up her BoobTube brand of Palintology online, I urge you instead to consider the power of good headline grabbers at another place. It comes this week from “Bill and Steve Harrison’s Reporter Connection” (if you haven’t joined yet, you should. It hooks up reporters with sources, like HARO does. Join here:

http://www.reporterconnection.com/11-15-2010.htm

The Harrison’s write, “Long before Diane Sawyer became the anchor of ABC’s World News Tonight, she did an interview in which she spoke about what kind of stories producers love, and what makes a great headline. For example, Sawyer talks about how this sentence: ‘This is a committee meeting which is very important politically,’ becomes more compelling when re-written as ‘This is a political time bomb – disguised as another government meeting.’ Take a quick read of this brief interview for other interesting nuggets.”

The power of the headline….Send me a few you’re proud of and I’ll post them. I promise I will not publically or bloglically refudiate any of them.

—————————

For more resources, see the Library topic Public and Media Relations.

—————————

Martin Keller runs Media Savant Communications Co., a Public Relations and Media Communications consulting company based in the Twin Cities. Keller has helped move client stories to media that includes The New York Times, Larry King, The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, plus many other magazines, newspapers, trade journals and other media outlets. Contact him at kelmart@aol.com, or 612-729-8585

Posted on

What’s Your Communication IQ?

ways of getting an effective communication

Communication, which occupies approximately 70% of our wak­ing hours, is what many leaders find the most frustrating.

Many of us were never taught to communicate in ways that lead to postive out­comes. Rather, we tend to experience annoyance, anger or just give up on the per­son or the situation. Here’s how to communicate better to get better outcomes.

Take a Quick Communication Quiz.

Think of a recent important con­versation. How many of these questions can you answer YES to?

  1. Did I prepare ahead of time for this conversation?
  2. Did I think about what’s the best way to approach this person?
  3. Was I aware of the other person’s communication style and spoke to it?
  4. Did I pay full attention, without multitasking, to what the other person was saying?
  5. Was the intent of my communication to discuss and understand rather than be right?
  6. Did I listen, without interruption, to the other per­son’s point of view even if I didn’t agree?
  7. If I was asking the person to take a specific action, did I make my request clear and concise?
  8. Did I summarize what I thought I heard the other person say before expressing my point of view?
  9. Did I follow-up to see if the con­versation was successful – it led to a positive outcome for the other?
  10. If the outcome did not meet my ex­pecta­tions, did I reflect on how to better com­municate with that particular person?

What’s Your Communication IQ?

8-10 Yeses indicate you’re the tops. Keep up the good work.

4-7 Yeses is OK. Brush up in cer­tain areas.

0-3 Yeses. You have work to do.

To Raise Your Communication IQ:

1. Talk less, hear more.
We want to be heard and lis­tened to but we don’t always concentrate on listening to oth­ers. We focus more on our agenda than on the other per­son’s concerns or issues.
2. Don’t shot the messenger.
We want to understand but our ability is tainted by our percep­tions of the person speaking or the outcome we are looking for. So, we often pass judgment on the speaker and disregard the message. Con­centrate on the message not the messenger.
3. Avoid mind reading.
We want some kind of action or response from another person. However, we don’t let them know what we really want or how to achieve it. Before as­suming the other knows what you want, first inform and then ask for feedback.
4. Stop pushing.
We want agreement from others, so much so, that we often be­come consumed with being right or proving our point. Rather, look for areas of mutual agree­ment. Then work from there to cre­ate a greater outcome.

Career Success Tip

Steven Covey, author of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, says; “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” Therefore, in your communication, make sure to understand others before you start trying to be understood.

Are there situations in which you need to raise your communication IQ? What do you need to do to get better outcomes? How will you know that you have been successful?

Do you want to develop Career Smarts?

Posted on

Monkey Business at the Better Business Bureau

group-people-working-out-business-plan-office

BBB in crisis management mode after being caught taking cash for ratings

Over the years, Bernstein Crisis Management has often had the challenge of protecting businesses from the abuses of the Better Business Bureau (BBB), the less-than-honest organization whose mission is supposedly to protect the public from bad business practices, so when I spotted an ABC News story calling out the service, my only thought was, “about time!” A quote:

The Better Business Bureau, one of the country’s best known consumer watchdog groups, is being accused by business owners of running a “pay for play” scheme in which A plus ratings are awarded to those who pay membership fees, and F ratings used to punish those who don’t.

To prove the point, a group of Los Angeles business owners paid $425 to the Better Business Bureau and were able to obtain an A minus grade for a non-existent company called Hamas, named after the Middle Eastern terror group.

“Right now, this rating system is really unworthy of consumer trust or confidence,” said Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal in an interview to be broadcast as part of an ABC News investigation…”

Additionally, in my experience, the BBB does not consider a complaint resolved until the COMPLAINANT considers it resolved — no matter how wacko or vengeful the latter person is.

Although the BBB vehemently denies that it is possible to buy higher ratings, claiming the example cited was due to a salesperson’s error, the ABC investigation actually managed to capture video footage of business owners being told that their grades could be raised if they paid hundreds of dollars in membership fees. With such damning evidence being thrust into the court of public opinion, the shoe is now on the other foot, as the group that has put unfair pressure on so many business owners is forced into crisis management mode in an attempt to protect both revenue and reputation.

——————————-
For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
——————————-

[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. , an international crisis management consultancy, and author of Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training.]

Posted on

Training World Class Customer Service

Customer service training workplace

Submitted by Guest Writer Rosanne D’Ausilio, PhD
Consultant, Master Trainer, Customer
Service Expert, Coach & Best Selling Author

To Train or Not to Train: Kicking Your Customer Service Up a Notch

According to a recent survey conducted by Tealeaf, a leading customer experience management company, one key element to surviving an economic downturn is excellent customer service. This is a huge opportunity for companies (like yours) willing to significantly improve their customer service, as this enables you to stand out among your competition.

By providing world class customer service, and listening to what the customer needs and wants, you are more able to satisfy your customer’s needs. This allows you to not only retain the loyalty of existing customers, but through positive word-of-mouth, procure new ones without massive spending on marketing and advertising.

This is vital since these same survey results showed that in the online market in particular, 4 out of 10 people stopped doing all business with a company after just one incidence of poor customer service. A favorite expression of mine (I don’t know who said it) is you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.

Listening is a major component in customer service. I just finished reading A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink. He reports research from twenty years ago when doctor-patient encounters were videotaped. They found that the doctors interrupted their patients after an average of 21 seconds. A more recent study shows that doctors have improved. It’s now 23 seconds before they interrupt.

While we can all probably relate and even chuckle, if we move this to the customer service arena, what happens? Customers don’t get listened to. And what do customers want? What do we all want? To be treated with dignity and respect, and most of all, to be heard.

It isn’t that people don’t want to hear what’s being said. Oftentimes the intentions are good. We want to do our best job in the shortest time possible. What ends up happening is you listen for the pause to jump in and take the person where you think they want to go (which may or may not be accurate). If you’re listening for the pause, you are not listening to the person so you have no idea what they have said and usually they repeat it and actually extend the contact.

In today’s world repetitive, routine, ‘just the facts, ma’am issues can be handled through self service usually efficiently and effectively. Therefore, the more complex, complicated, and accelerated calls are necessitating human contact.

Tools, techniques, common phraseology, and language are just a few requirements for world class customer service.

But are these taught in school? No. These are introduced in customized, live, interactive training sessions delivered in real time. Is this a cost to bear? No. This is about investing in your people. Usually the lowest paid person has the highest responsibility of contact with the current and potential customers. There are KPI (Key Performance Indicators) that can be directly positively impacted by customer service skills training.

What needs to be included? Obviously communication and (pro-active) listening; rapport building, anger diffusion, option offerings, and the like.

After all, we, the people, are who make the difference.

—

For more resources about training, see the Training library.

Rosanne D’Ausilio, PhD
Consultant, Master Trainer, Customer
Service Expert, Coach & Best Selling Author
www.human-technologies.com
www.HumanTechTips.com
www.customer-service-expert.com/report.htm

Subscribe to Rosanne D’Ausilio’s popular tips newsletter at www.HumanTechTips.com

Posted on

Business Christmas Cards

Merry-Christmas-sign

What Marketing Message Do They Really Send?

It’s primarily a Christian tradition. But the custom of sending Christmas cards has become popular among a wide cross-section of people, including non-Christians, both in Western society and in Asia. The traditional greeting reads “Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year”; much like that of the first commercial Christmas card, produced by Sir Henry Cole in London in 1843.

There are innumerable variations of the Christmas card formula, many expressing a more religious Christian sentiment, or containing a poem, prayer or Biblical verse; while others distance themselves from religion, with an all-inclusive “Season’s Greetings”. However, even the ‘generic’ holiday cards are sent at Christmastime, and often contain Christian symbols, such as Christmas trees and ornaments.

Is it (Possibly) a Negative Marketing Message?

What marketing message comes to mind when you receive a Christmas card from a business? Certainly, it’s intended to create goodwill, but it MAY create feelings of thoughtlessness. Are you unintentionally offending a valued customer who doesn’t share the same religious beliefs?

Religious Diversity in the US

The United States is the most religiously diverse country in the world.

While the majority of Americans (76%) identify themselves as Christians, mostly within Protestant and Catholic denominations, many non-Christian religions (including Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism), collectively make up the remaining 24% of the adult population.

Instead, Send a Message of Thanks!

Thanksgiving is currently celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, and has been an annual tradition in the United States since 1863. Thanksgiving is a holiday widely regarded by Americans as a time for:

This year, Thanksgiving will be celebrated on Thursday, November 25, 2010. So consider sending your trusted employees and valued clients that same message of gratitude, family and fun.

By sending Thanksgiving cards, you will pre-empt other businesses (including your competition) that send Christmas cards, you will stand out from the crowd, and your message of thanks will be remembered long after the holiday ends. (Can you say the same for Christmas cards?)

What else inspires you (think outside of the box) in your marketing messages this holiday season?

PS: The first Thanksgiving feast consisted of fowl, venison, fish, lobster, clams, berries, fruit, pumpkin, squash and turkey. This recipe is for an entire Thanksgiving Dinner that takes one hour to cook: One hour Thanksgiving Dinner.

(Many thanks to Wikipedia for the great source of information.)

——————

For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

——————

Posted on

5 Ways To Do Your Non-profit AGM on the CHEAP

Non profit written on a white background close to a note

Doing your Non-profit AGM on the cheap is not for everyone. If you use your AGM for a fundraiser, or are totally dependent upon private donors, then this wouldn’t be for you. But if you are a small or fledgling non-profit, this could help immensely.

When I first ran a very small non-profit, actually having an AGM event caused us hardship because we were very project funding based with little to no additional funding for special events. So it’s a good idea to look at how you can reduce your costs for your AGM event if you are in a similar situation. This is how you can do it:

  • Get a free vendor – Often if you are a community based organization, you can develop or already have developed relationships with local schools, community clubs, churches or seniors centres. These types of organizations are often willing to let you use their facility for little to nothing for using it because they see your organization as a valuable, contributing member to the community.
  • Make refreshments in house – Instead of paying a lot of money to hire a caterer or even to buy from a restaurant, why not purchase the basics needed and have staff and volunteers prepare the refreshments. This will take more coordination, but it is also an opportunity to empower your clients by asking them to help with the event and take ownership of it. Recommended types of food would be: sandwiches, veggie platters, cheese and crackers, pickles, fruit platters, coffee, tea or juice.
  • Sponsor funded AGM Report – Printing can be expensive, but there are ways to get it at little or no cost to your organization. Often local politicians have small pockets of funding that they can tap into, or they can often use their own printing budget to do the printing of your AGM report for you, provided you give them credit on the report as a sponsor. Or you could consider developing a partnership with a corporation or local business that deals in photocopying and ask them to contribute the photocopying of the AGM report, with credit on the report as well.
  • Recruit Entertainment – Instead of hiring someone to be the entertainment at the AGM, why not look for local talent that is willing to do it for the exposure. Often, local schools, church groups, or even residents are willing to perform at your AGM for free. It is a win win situation, they get exposure and you and your guests get the enjoyment of their talent.
  • Donated door prizes – We always found that the lure of door prizes often helped to draw our community into our events. AGMs can be pretty boring otherwise and you want your clientele and the surrounding community to participate. So you can approach local businesses to ask for donations of door prizes and offer to put up their names on a sponsor list at the event. Businesses enjoy being included in community events and you get door prizes that will help to increase the numbers attending your AGM.

Question of the Day: What tactics have you used to reduce the costs of your AGM event?

——————

For more resources, see our Library topic Nonprofit Capacity Building.

——————

By Ingrid Zacharias, Managing Director, Envisioning the Future International, http://envisioningthefutureintl.ca/

Posted on

Customer Satisfaction is no Longer a Unique Selling Point

Customer satisfaction evaluation

The “WOW” Effect is the New Trigger for Business.

Ok, so here’s the deal for anyone owning a business or working for one. Your business is all about solving a problem for your customer, right? Every one of your customers carries particular expectations each time they part with their hard earned cash in exchange for your products and/or service. (We’ll call your products or services “goods” for now. Goods are therefore your business’s cash cow or more specifically what puts pizza on your table).

In the past, customers were usually happy to pay for goods in exchange for your business delivering “the customer expectations”. While expectations may have varied, every experience, interaction or transaction resulted in either a satisfied or dissatisfied customer. Satisfied customers would come back and dissatisfied ones would go elsewhere. This was business then.

Today, customer satisfaction alone is not enough. Businesses need to “wow” over their customers by exceeding customer expectations and indeed surprise them. Over delivering is the new business rule. Satisfaction is a given and therefore no longer a Unique Selling Point.

Some firms using this technique include immigration solicitors oxford. as well as immigration solicitors northampton

There’s a reason for this.

The Wow Effect is now the only Guarantee for consistent Business Results driven by Passionate People working with Best Practices to deliver Quality Goods repeatedly.

How do you “wow” your customers?
uk immigration solicitors immigration lawyers london
uk immigration solicitors london

——————————-
For more resources, see our Library topic Quality Management.
——————————-

Posted on

Team building energiser: Team Jump

Business-team-mates-jumping-together

We would like to share an idea for a team building energiser that can be run inside or outside and would work especially well with larger teams. It’s called ‘Team Jump’.

A team jumping
This activity is not as easy as it sounds, especially with larger groups

Overview:
This team building activity is a great way to re-energise the team and have a great photo memory of your day’s training.

Running the Activity: Continue reading “Team building energiser: Team Jump”