Great Workteams need Great Leaders, Shared Vision and a Great Fit for their members. Speak to Great Circle today and let us help you build a dynamic and collaborative workteam that presents an attractive face to the marketplace.

Whether we’re talking about

• the staff in your small business
• the department you lead,
• or even a network of collaborators you need to build in order to get that project up and running,

we can find a way for you to bring the best out of your team, while we bring out the best in you as their leader.

Ever played Chess?

In the greatest strategy game ever created, you don’t just roll the dice on your turn and move to the space indicated. You face multiple variations, possibilities, choices. You’re required to think carefully and creatively about every move you make.

When the half-decent chess-player considers moving a piece, they begin by looking at that piece in relation to every other piece on the board, friendly and hostile. They realise that both the piece and its possible moves have different effects at different stages of the game, that the piece’s value and behaviour depends on what’s happening at that moment.

The competent player considers the next move from many angles: “If I move my bishop to that space, what can attack me? What countermove will it provoke from my opponent? How does it open up space for me and the enemy? What advantage will it give me? What will it allow me to do on my next few moves? How will I protect myself?”

Now, if you’re a leader of some kind it would be easy to think of yourself as the chess-player and your team or colleagues or family as the pieces. I want you instead to imagine yourself as a piece on the board.

You are a piece that has the free will to make its own move. The forces that oppose you are waiting on that move before responding. The pieces allied with you will be affected by your move and will probably also move in response to it.

Your next move is as important as any other you have ever and will ever make. Please consider these thoughts and questions before you make it. (By the way, I’m not suggesting you go through this whole process for every other decision you make!)

1. What are the rules you must observe? How can you make these rules work for you?

2. OPTIONS: List all the possible moves you see you can make from here (even the crazy ones). Once you’ve listed all you see, answer these questions. If you “played” with a more aggressive style, what other moves would open up to you? What moves, if you played a more defensive style? A more structured style? A more unorthodox style? What if you played a game that was based on series of small moves rather large dramatic ones? What if you played more from the heart than from the head?

3. You may now have a sizeable list. Look at each potential move and answer questions like these:

• What specific advantage does it give me?
• Where does it leave me vulnerable?
• What possibilities might open up?
• What response are my opposing “forces” (personal or impersonal) likely to make? (“The auditors will have a coronary” “My tendency to worry will kick in” “My tired team may complain about more work and drag their heels”)
• How do I need to back myself up?
• Whose support do I need for this move?
• What am I certain it will cost me?
• How does this move line up with my overall vision, my goals, my integrity?
• Where does it lead to next?
• What benefit will it bring others?
• What do I need to consider in terms of timing this move for greatest effect?
• Do I need to break this down into smaller steps or is better enacted the way I’ve written it already?

4. Now which move looks best to take next?

Your move!

Here are my takes on useful managment behaviours:

1. When you train, don’t assume they’ve learned. Be clear on how you’ll know they’ve learned it and assess them carefully.
2. Learn to train and communicate in a variety of ways; that way if they don’t get the first time round, they may get it by the 3rd.
3. Listen at least as much as you speak
4. Recognise your biases and be prepared to step aside from them often (no matter how valid they are), especially when you’re listening
5. Hear the aspirations of your staff and find ways for them to reach for their goals, ways in which both their goals and yours meet
6.  Acknowledge the struggles of your staff and empathise with them
7. Don’t rescue staff from their struggles, teach them what to do and expect them to do it

If you were finishing this list, what would you add?

I think a lot about customer service, mainly because I experience it most days and provide it most days too! So here is – most of – a Top Ten list of non-negotiable maxims (or expectations) I have for Customer Service. I say most of because I’ve left the last 3 blank, and that’s because I’d like you to offer 3 of your non-negotiable expectations for customer service.

Here we go…

1. When you’re smiling, most of the world is smiling with you
2. If you must say “we can’t help you with that”, do add: “What we can do is…”
3. Never bluff when you can find out the truth
4. The aggrevating customer before you may not be a Career A**hole; they may just be having a very bad day. Treat them kindly.
5. If you hate the job, either find another or find the silver lining. People don’t pay for surliness
6. Help people find solutions, even if it means they buy somewhere else. They’ll remember your help and often they’ll both be back AND recommend you to others.
7. Your job is important; that’s why customers come to you. Treat yourself with respect and learn your job well.

Now what would you add to the list?

The reason I mention this is because I was profoundly affected by the difference in the way my birthday was acknowledged by two different people (whose services I have “employed” over the past year or more).

The first person was Leah Maclean. Over the past 18 months, Leah has been my on-and-off business coach, mentor-coach and internet/tech guru/troubleshooter. But she fast moved from being my coach and website designer to being my friend, ringing me occasionally for no reason other than to “shoot the breeze”, inviting me into a Rugby League tipping competition (in which I’m beating her by the way, despite her vastly superior passion for and knowledge of the game), tweaking things on my websites and sending me tips and helpful info far above and beyond the call…

Today, Leah posted birthday wishes on my Freakedout Fathers blog and sent me a carefully picked out Hallmark e-card containing a private joke.

By the way, the card’s theme was 10 Things You No Longer Have Now You Are Old. I particularly related to 

• # 2, (the ability to get up once you fall down – although for me this is more about the desire to get up again; lying down feels so good),
• # 8 (20/20 vision – last week I proved this when walked into a metal crossbar that I’ve known was at the end of our washing line for 9 years … and gave myself a slight concussion), and
• # 10 (firm abs – I’m beginning to call my abs “flabs”) …

Anyway, back to my story. Leah’s birthday wishes were heartfelt and I know she had no intention of reminding me that she’s out there or that I need her services or any other business-driven agenda. These acts of acknowledgement came on the back of Leah’s track record of authentic friendliness and humanity. They mean a lot…

Let’s compare that with a small business I’ll call Madison Professional Services (MPS). The Madison has been changed – the business is named after the woman who owns it and employs 2 part-time accountants (besides “Madison”) + a receptionist.

MPS handled my tax last year and charged me twice the fee I’d paid another agent the previous year … and for no discernible extra service or benefit. During the appointment, there was no small talk, no interest in what I did beyond its relevance to tax returns (and other services they offer), no inquiries into how I was faring in my first year of a business start-up…

I arrived home yesterday and looked through my mail. There was an envelope with one of those sticky labels you put through your printer adhered to the front with my name and details printed in clean crisp Times New Roman font.

Curious, expecting either a ransom note or one of those “You’ve Won the Spanish Lottery” letters, I opened it first.

Out fell a 10 X 8 centimetre piece of card. On it were the words “Madison Professional Services wishes you a very happy birthday & a successful year ahead!” – their phone number then the words “Accounting – Bookkeeping – Conveyancing”.

The piec-de-resistance (or however you spell that!) was the fact that bottom of the card was cut at a slight diagonal angle, presumably because 2 or 3 of the same messages had been printed on to that piece of cardboard then chopped (badly) into 2 or 3 personal birthday wishes to be sent to various lucky clients.

Which of these 2 businesswomen do you think I will return to when I need the services they offer? Which one do you think I will recommend to my contacts? Which one genuinely made my birthday feel great? And which one will never hear from this customer again?

*****

I want to free what awaits within me

so that what no one has dared to wish for

may for once spring clear without my contriving.

If this is arrogant, God, forgive me,

but this is what I need to say.

May what I do flow from me like a river,

no forcing and no holding back,

the way it is with children.

- Rainer Maria Rilke

I came across that poem in a course on designing better learning environments. It’s not just a piece of sentimentalism. It reminded me to be me - to embrace the way I think and speak and create and dream.

It reminded me of that great Olympic runner (celebrated in Chariots of Fire) Eric Liddell saying “When I run, I feel God’s pleasure”.

It reminded me that each of us has a distinctive genius that doesn’t always get an “airing”, but which needs focus and release…

Find your Voice.