Interpersonal Business

Those who’ve survived in business have done so by never deviating from their model of insuring a positive and rewarding customer experience. Now’s the time to analyze just how user-friendly your company is. Make sure everyone on your staff understands their importance in the total “sales process.” Create a customer experience mission statement, including minimum standards of performance, and then provide the training to fulfill the objective. It’s time to dazzle the marketplace.

Each member of your staff must carry their own weight within your organization. Long-term employees have advantages in that they understand the history of your company and have valuable relationships that contribute to the whole. They can also feel “entitled” to their position solely on the basis of longevity. Managers have the responsibility to maintain the best person for the job or they become part of the problem. All members must bring merit to their profession as well as to the company – no one member is more important than the organization as a whole.

With the advances in technology, it’s more important than ever to find balance; we can have too much of a good thing. Capacity is now the issue, as well as keeping an eye on quality over quantity. Representing too many factories dilutes your ability to maintain quality relationships with not only your staff, but also with the factories, that will survive in tougher times.

Management struggles with the dynamics of effectively communicating to the staff its own perspectives relating to the needs of the individual team members and the impact those needs have on the organization as a whole. Staff members have three allegiances to their careers: Personal accountability to be the very best they can be by continuing to challenge themselves and grow, responsibility to the manager for a mutual commitment for collective success (this does not mean equal authority!), and a responsibility to the organization as a whole. While organizational relationships are not structured to be equal, they shouldn’t be competitive.