November 16, 2012
CSD: Dealing With Difficult Colleagues
Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of an article from Convenience Store Decisions magazine.
Inevitably, difficult coworkers creep into your work life, disturbing you, your employees’ and your leaders’ workflow and negatively affecting the service you all provide your customers.
Unfortunately, at some point we’re all viewed by our colleagues as the organization’s difficult person.
That’s according to Ron Kaufman, author of the bestseller, Uplifting Service: The Proven Path to Delighting Your Customers, Colleagues and Everyone Else You Meet. And that’s why it’s important to find a way to provide uplifting service internally all the time, even when difficult situations arise, so internal tiffs don’t lead to rifts with customers.
Uplifting service is about service culture change. It’s taking action to create value for someone else, whether outside or inside your chain.
"When the entire organization agrees to define the way they work together using this definition of service, everyone will be able to focus on creating value and serving each other better, which leads to better external service," said Mr. Kaufman.
To help support uplifting service in such situations, Mr. Kaufman offered the following five tips:
Assess the situation carefully. Is your colleague deeply upset or simply having a bad day? Are they angry about an ongoing internal issue that must be addressed and solved, or a one-off situation that will resolve itself? Mr. Kaufman adds, "You can then determine whether the person just requires a little personal attention from you or whether a larger plan must be created."
Shift your perspective. Stop thinking of coworkers as difficult and start thinking about the difficulty they are experiencing, and how you can serve them to resolve the situation. You can then approach the issue with more compassion, generosity, empathy and patience.
Lean in and work on the problem together. "Let your colleagues know — as subtly as possible — that being upset or angry is not the best way to get what they need," Mr. Kaufman suggested. "You can start by saying, ‘Help me understand what you are concerned about.’ By saying this and then listening, often their anger will fade away and then you can both get to work solving the problem and improving the situation."
Plan how to work together. One way to defuse a difficult situation is to pull out a piece of paper and decide what actions each of you will take next. This helps remove emotional tension and gets everyone down to work.
Display the right behavior. An important and lasting way to make this behavior a part of your company culture is to role model it yourself. Eventually, your colleagues will see how you handle these difficult situations and how well your approach leads to positive action. They will follow your actions.
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Discussion Questions
Does extending the notion of serving customers to serving other coworkers sound practical? What’s the secret to happy store staffs?
Poll
The interviewing process is critical, more than ever, as a very pleasant person is what I look for. Grouchy people can not hide who they are for long, and I eliminate anyone who doesn’t play well with others pretty quick. Customers don’t need an attitude from my employees, and no one in business should stand for it, as it is a nightmare for the success of their business. Pretty simple for me.
The night before Jesus died he chose to wash the feet of his colleagues, even the two who he knew would betray or deny him. Well that classy move has had lasting effects. I’ll go along with that Biblical example.
However, we can only turn the cheek so many times for difficult employees. Sometimes they are our superiors. Many times the situation takes care of itself. A difficult employee usually is a sign of many things going wrong that eventually catches up to them and they are fired or they quit. Other times you must carefully administer a well planned mutiny to send a bad boss packing. Don’t feel bad, it’s for the good of the company, fellow employees, and their families.
One word creeps strongly to mind: TEAMWORK. A sports team is where everyone works in a rhythm to attain a goal on every play. If one or more players refuse to cooperate they are released to seek employment elsewhere. Why should we not expect that from our store staff?
If the excellent suggestions here didn’t work after an honest effort, I’d dust off the old resume. Realistically, some cultures are too sick for one person to have a major effect; often, they just get eaten alive instead. If senior management doesn’t address the issues, “patience” or being a “good soldier” is no longer noble. You’ll be far better off leaving and being part of a happier, more productive team. Been there, done that.
Great customer service starts with leaders who have the ability to authentically demonstrate, as the author states, “compassion, generosity, empathy and patience.” Modeling these virtues is critical to a culture that serves each other well. And such a culture is required for long-term, sustainable service excellence for the consumers of your business.
Frankly, if all you did was focus on internal service and a human, collaborative culture, the ‘customer service’ would virtually take care of itself.
This is one of the most important topics raised on this forum. Pay attention.
The question is, who comes first, customers or employees? Just remember that your employees will treat your customers no better than the way they are treated.
If you want happy, motivated employees who work well with others, hire happy, motivated employees who like to work well with others.
If you treat everyone like they are your customer/client, then you will be leagues ahead of most. I agree wholeheartedly and this is my personal approach to my work. I have also learned through direct experience that, unfortunately, there are situations where this will not work — when a sociopath/psychopath is in a position of power and does not care about the way others are treated and it becomes “okay” to lie to the customer/client.
When such a person holds sway over others in positions of power within a company, no amount of teamwork and cooperation will fix this. If, as a result of a highly-politicized environment, fueled and fostered by the boss (whether by direct action and intent, or by failure to recognize and address the issues), the true leaders within a company do not have the power to fix things, they will become frustrated and will leave. Morale will suffer, infighting then becomes the daily activity as each employee struggles to please the boss and not the customer (and again, EVERYONE is your customer/client). Work/energy becomes focused on internal issues, rather than external successes.
If you encounter such a situation, start looking for another job where you can apply this customer/client-centric attitude in all you do. Having worked in both types of environments and having landed somewhere where we are all openly accountable to one another, I can honestly say that it is far more rewarding to do the work and spend energy there versus struggling through a daily maze of internal back-biting and political wrangling. You can not fix it, you will not fix it, and, long after all the good people and customers/clients are gone, there will remain only a wretched, bitter shell of a company manned by the now desperate.
The secret to success is in empowering leaders within an organization who are focused on the overall success and dis-empowering psychopaths — the manipulators, the selfish. It takes wisdom and courage, and these are both attributes of true leaders.
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The interviewing process is critical, more than ever, as a very pleasant person is what I look for. Grouchy people can not hide who they are for long, and I eliminate anyone who doesn’t play well with others pretty quick. Customers don’t need an attitude from my employees, and no one in business should stand for it, as it is a nightmare for the success of their business. Pretty simple for me.
The night before Jesus died he chose to wash the feet of his colleagues, even the two who he knew would betray or deny him. Well that classy move has had lasting effects. I’ll go along with that Biblical example.
However, we can only turn the cheek so many times for difficult employees. Sometimes they are our superiors. Many times the situation takes care of itself. A difficult employee usually is a sign of many things going wrong that eventually catches up to them and they are fired or they quit. Other times you must carefully administer a well planned mutiny to send a bad boss packing. Don’t feel bad, it’s for the good of the company, fellow employees, and their families.
One word creeps strongly to mind: TEAMWORK. A sports team is where everyone works in a rhythm to attain a goal on every play. If one or more players refuse to cooperate they are released to seek employment elsewhere. Why should we not expect that from our store staff?
If the excellent suggestions here didn’t work after an honest effort, I’d dust off the old resume. Realistically, some cultures are too sick for one person to have a major effect; often, they just get eaten alive instead. If senior management doesn’t address the issues, “patience” or being a “good soldier” is no longer noble. You’ll be far better off leaving and being part of a happier, more productive team. Been there, done that.
Great customer service starts with leaders who have the ability to authentically demonstrate, as the author states, “compassion, generosity, empathy and patience.” Modeling these virtues is critical to a culture that serves each other well. And such a culture is required for long-term, sustainable service excellence for the consumers of your business.
Frankly, if all you did was focus on internal service and a human, collaborative culture, the ‘customer service’ would virtually take care of itself.
This is one of the most important topics raised on this forum. Pay attention.
The question is, who comes first, customers or employees? Just remember that your employees will treat your customers no better than the way they are treated.
If you want happy, motivated employees who work well with others, hire happy, motivated employees who like to work well with others.
If you treat everyone like they are your customer/client, then you will be leagues ahead of most. I agree wholeheartedly and this is my personal approach to my work. I have also learned through direct experience that, unfortunately, there are situations where this will not work — when a sociopath/psychopath is in a position of power and does not care about the way others are treated and it becomes “okay” to lie to the customer/client.
When such a person holds sway over others in positions of power within a company, no amount of teamwork and cooperation will fix this. If, as a result of a highly-politicized environment, fueled and fostered by the boss (whether by direct action and intent, or by failure to recognize and address the issues), the true leaders within a company do not have the power to fix things, they will become frustrated and will leave. Morale will suffer, infighting then becomes the daily activity as each employee struggles to please the boss and not the customer (and again, EVERYONE is your customer/client). Work/energy becomes focused on internal issues, rather than external successes.
If you encounter such a situation, start looking for another job where you can apply this customer/client-centric attitude in all you do. Having worked in both types of environments and having landed somewhere where we are all openly accountable to one another, I can honestly say that it is far more rewarding to do the work and spend energy there versus struggling through a daily maze of internal back-biting and political wrangling. You can not fix it, you will not fix it, and, long after all the good people and customers/clients are gone, there will remain only a wretched, bitter shell of a company manned by the now desperate.
The secret to success is in empowering leaders within an organization who are focused on the overall success and dis-empowering psychopaths — the manipulators, the selfish. It takes wisdom and courage, and these are both attributes of true leaders.