February 17, 2020

What’s Your LOA?

brian smith-pld, Coaching, Customer Service, Leadership Development, Management, Reformed Control Freak, small business owner, Teacher, Uncategorized

What’s your LOA – Your Level of Authority? How far can you go to satisfy your customer’s need without having to get permission? How sure are you that someone higher up in the pecking order won’t override your decision and undermine your authority, making you look weak in front of your customers or staff? What level are your direct reports at and how much autonomy do they have to make decisions without your approval? You can call it delegation – you can call it empowerment – you can call it what ever you want to call it but you’ve got to get it off your plate and on to theirs.

General Levels of Authority.

Level One: Get the facts – I’ll decide

Level Two: Suggest alternatives – I’ll decide

Level Three: Recommend an alternative – I’ll decide

Level Four: Decide – wait for my approval

Level Five: Decide – act unless I say no

Level Six: Act – report results

Level Seven: Act – report if unsuccessful

Level Eight: Act – reporting not needed.

Your job is to give your people the opportunity to grow. What do you need to do to keep moving them up the ladder? The higher the level – the less time you’ll need to spend putting out fires. The higher the level – the more time you’ll have to do what managers and leaders should be doing. Everyone can be at different levels. It just depends on how comfortable you are that they would make the same decision you would have made. I like to move everyone up to level six – what about you?

November 24, 2019

Your Only Competitive Advantage

brian smith-pld, Coaching, Competitive Advantage, Customer Service, Management, Reformed Control Freak, Soft-Skills Training

Product, price, promotion or place is no longer a competitive advantage. The only competitive advantage that you have left is the level of customer service you provide. To provide exceptional customer service is not that difficult. You only have to be better than your competition. Based on the results of a recent survey of 1281 consumers it doesn’t appear to be that big of a deal. 55% of the respondents said that they would shop elsewhere because of a “don’t care attitude”. 35% said being ignored by a sales person while they carried on a personal conversation on the sales floor or on the phone would be a good enough reason to leave. 58% of those surveyed sited rudeness as a reason to go elsewhere. 42% would go out of their way to do business where they got polite, respectful treatment. Let me repeat that again. 42% would go out of their way to do business where they got polite, respectful treatment. What level of customer service are you providing? More importantly, what lever of customer service is your sales team providing? Remember – to be exceptional in the eyes of the consumer you only have to be better than your competition.

November 17, 2019

Selling is a Contact Sport

brian smith-pld, Coaching, Competitive Advantage, Customer Service, Enduring Principles, Entrepreneurship, Ethics, Leadership Development, Networking, Personal Development, Personal Values, Reformed Control Freak, Self-Help, Soft-Skills Training

People Love to Do Business with People They Like

People love to do business with people they like and trust. How do you get people to trust you? Trust is a by-product of building those all-important relationships. Some people are better at it then others, but you can learn how. First you need to establish rapport. Find out what they like to do outside of the workplace and use that to strike up a conversation. Do they have a hobby? Do they enjoy cooking, tending to the garden or watching sports? Once you have established a rapport comes a relationship. You can’t build a relationship until you have established a rapport. Out of that relationship comes mutual respect. Others will not respect you until you have built a relationship. If they respect you – they will trust you because they believe you have their best interest at heart. Once they trust you – more than likely they will go along with what ever you recommend.

March 9, 2019

International Institute of Municipal Clerks Conference

brian smith-pld, Coaching, Customer Service, Dealing with Difficult People, Enduring Principles, Leadership Development, Management, Personal Development, Personal Values, Personality Types, Reformed Control Freak, Self-Help, Soft-Skills Training

Great News!!! I will be speaking at this years International Institute of Municipal Clerks Conference in Birmingham Alabama on May 23rd. Are you looking to enhance your ability to communicate and interact more effectively regardless of gender or generation? I will be delivering 3 sessions that day. “Powerful Communication Strategies: Bridging the Gender and Generational Gap” – “Confessions of a Reformed Control Freak: The Top Ten Sins Most Managers Make & How to Avoid Them” and “You Don’t Have to Like Them – Just Learn to Work with Them: Collaborative Team Building and Performance Improvement”. If you’re attending the conference please drop in and say hi. If you’re thinking of attending the conference you still have time to register. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

To find out more about Brian and what he can do for you and your organization please visit: https://briansmithpld.com