Radclyffe Consulting, LLC

Leadership Lessons from The Deadliest Catch

Have you ever watched The Deadliest Catch? What a great show by Discovery Channel from which to learn some old-fashioned leadership lessons. If associates and leaders could change a couple of behaviors demonstrated by these inividuals while they work, corporate America would be very different indeed.

First, let's take a look at what these "associates" are expected to do while they work and think about what employees in corporate America would say if we expected them to perform this way. The fishermen or crabmen work 6 months long and many times put in 36 hours straight throwing gear and picking up gear filled with crabs in the Bering Sea, one of the most dangerous bodies of water in the world. They do this in cold, winter waters and in deadly storms with high waves crashing into them on the deck of the fishing boat. And, they get paid based on how many crabs they catch, which can be almost nothing of the captain charts the wrong course. One doesn't just become a crab fisherman, one has to earn it by serving as a "greenhorn" preparing bait and quickly jumping into the gear, hooking the bait and escaping the gear in a matter of seconds. They do this hundreds of times during the course of the day. Often, no one on the boat gets a warm meal for days on end. When equipment breaks, like the crane that lifts the gear off the stacks, a man has to be hoisted 3 stories into the air in high winds and ferocious seas to change a metal pulley. He has to be hoisted up to retrieve the broken pulley and then hoisted again to replace the old pulley with a working pulley. This has to be done quickly, because all fishing stops while this repair is taking place. Imagine the complaining that would occur if we expected even half of this amount of discomfort from our associates

Now let's take a look at the leadership. The cultural norm on the fishing boat is that the captain has the first, middle and final word on everything. There is no arguing with, or complaining to, the captain. What he says goes, period. And when the captain gets upset, look out, mate! Even brothers of the captain who work on the boat don't argue with the captain. The respect is something I haven't seen in corporate America in two and one-half decades. As a role model, the captain also works 36 hours without sleep. He is responsible for charting the course to find fish, not exceed the fishing limits and keep his fishermen safe in dangerous conditions. If the captain doesn't feel he's being heard, he goes down to the deck and oversees the work until everything gets back in order. He doesn't have to say a word. Everyone knows what they have to do and they do it. No one wants a bad fishing season. If they had a bad fishing season, it would all be for naught.

I find their dedication, enthusiasm, work ethic and respect for authority refreshing. We could all benefit from emulating these men who sacrifice being away from their families for months at a time in harsh conditions, to provide well for the future. They look to pass their boats and businesses onto the family so they will have a relatively secure future.

Jackie Warner's Work Out - How to Quickly Disempower Your Staff

Everyone wants to know why I watch this type of television programming.  I'll tell you why.  It provides lots of leadership training fodder.  What a fun way to learn!

In this last episode, Jackie invites the women on her training team (yes, only the women) on an Olivia Cruise (yes, the lesbian cruise line) and she asks that two of her trainers, Jessica (yes, her ex-lover and employee) and Erika to run a boot camp while on the ship.  They agree to do it and put in time planning how to co-facilitate the session.

These two trainers were organized and effective. While in the middle of their training, who should appear but Jackie, who then proceeds to take over the boot camp by interrupting Jessica and Erika.  Jackie takes over the session, not by requesting politely if it is okay with her two trainers and the class, but just begins by providing instructions to the participants, who, quite frankly, were a little confused as to who they should be listening to.  A power struggle ensues and Jessica tries to keep control by yelling out to the group, "who wants to stay with me?"  Oy, what an embarrassment.

Later at the bar, as Jessica and Erika are triangulating about how inappropriate it was for Jackie to take over in the manner that she did, Jackie again slithers up and begins arguing with Jessica and Erika.  Her position? "I am the boss.  I invited you here and if I want to interrupt and take over, so be it."

Employee Engagement: How Important Is It To The Bottom-Line?

One of the most frustrating factors in a contact center environment is keeping CSRs motivated and passionate about what they do.  There are two kinds of CSRs: those who love what they do almost as a "calling" and those who stay because, well, what else would they do?  A favorite saying of mine, "You can stay or you can leave, but you can't stay AND leave," really says it all, doesn't it?  I'm talking about those people at work that you wish would leave, because they are no longer interested or engaged in the department's mission.

The next time you are requesting money for training, coaching or team building, provide some of these interesting factoids from Gallup:

• Disengaged employees cost US Business between 270 billion and 343 billion dollars a year
• Disengaged workers are 10 times more likely (48%) to say they will leave the company within a year than engaged employees (4%)
• Companies that had a lower percentage of disengaged workers outperformed the S & P by 24% over a 3-year span
• Only 4% of disengaged employees will advocate the company to others compared to engaged employees (75%)
• Only 10% of disengaged employees compared to nearly 80% of engaged employees will recommend the company's products and services to others

Demonstrating Value to Senior Mangement through Data Mining

I get asked for advice all the time about how to get senior management to really value the call center and its purpose.  While CEOs will tell you that the customer facing operation is of critical importance, it is one of the first places they go to cut costs when the going gets rough.  I don't have to sell this audience on the importance of continuing to deliver World Class Service even in the face of financial adversity.  The key is to sell the C level executives on the real and financial value of the call center in a way that is meaningful and compelling to what's important to them and usually, but not always, it's the bottom line.

Jet Blue - A Good Service Recovery? Better than all

At least the CEO of Jet Blue is not in hiding in the wake of the scheduling scandal last week.  In fact, he is doing his best to take responsibility for his company's lack of performance by offering a new service policy.

Whether you agree with his service recovery strategy or not, you have to give him credit for facing the music and attempting to placate the masses with vouchers. 

I for one am sick of the airline industry acting like they are not responsible for how they handle things "out of their control."  When my flight was delayed out of Newark because of a maintenance issue with the plane, the gate agent rhetorically asked me, "Well, you wouldn't want to be on an unsafe plane, would you?" 

You Never Know When a Crisis Will Happen - Just ask Jet Blue!

Oh, boy!  When I saw this on the news my heart went out to the CEO, David Neeleman, who is reportedly "humiliated and mortified."  This is another example of a leadership lesson he couldn't live without. 

It's frustrating for me personally, because it is my job to convince CEOs and senior executives to invest the money up front in their talent and infrastructure so that when a crisis happens, everyone knows exactly what to do, how to do it and has the skills to do it effectively.  I can't tell you how many executives gamble that a crisis isn't going to happen to their company. 

Our Future: Cultivating the Employees of Today

Those of us who are baby boomers may be finding it difficult to understand the attitude of the employees of today - those individuals who are our future organizational leaders; the people to whom we will leave our legacy when we retire.

What is the secret to cultivating these individuals and ensuring that they don't unintentionally pass on what I call the "entitlement values" so pervasive in our twenty and thirty somethings culture of today?  And how do we motivate them to "do what it takes" to be successful in this lean business environment today?

The key is to give up the old notions of Baby Boomer Behavior (working 80+ hours per week) and to try to find ways to work around the challenges with the "youngins" and their values.  After all, we can't complain, we're the ones who made them this way.  Unless you are in a highly competitive business in which everyone wants to work, there is no way demanding excessive overtime and undying loyalty is going to get you to success.  What it will get you is high turnover.

I came to this realization while watching "Work Out" on Bravo.  As a leadership  lesson, I think it has value- for those who have type of business I mentioned above.  In this continuing saga, Jackie, a highly demanding personal training business owner, commands perfection from her personal trainers and gets away with it, simply because everyone wants to be a personal trainer to the stars.  Her successful company is gloriously located on the rooftop of a highrise in LA - all very chic and exciting.  Everyone there is beautiful and young and while their staff meetings are on the rooftop veranda every Friday night, no one seems to mind very much.

Jackie's message is clear; you want to work here, you do it my way because it works and it's the way it has to be.  When you leave here, you can do it your way, but not until then.  In terms of coaching, she tells them, "The first time I give you feedback.  The second time I have to talk to you I'll be aggravated, but we'll talk.  The third time I figure you don't get it and you never will."  Ah, if only it was that easy in corporate America!

The reality is that we in corporate America have to walk a fine line, serpentining through the legal and HR landmines that abound.  Let's face it - we don't really have the power to fight this emerging trend.

The 10 Most Painful Learnings I Have Had As A Contact Center Leader

There is something to be said for pain...it certainly can change behavior.  As a contact center leader I have been a keen follower of Pavlov; I have learned from my mistakes.  Sometimes it took two or three times, but eventually I have been able to rally back and identify what happened and what to do differently next time.  As a contact center consultant for over a decade, I have been able to confirm the learnings I had as a contact center leader and been able to pass those learnings on to clients.  I call these "The 10 Most Painful Learnings" and these were, indeed, gifts.

Would You Rather be Liked or Respected?

As a leader, would you rather be liked or respected?

Most of us in a leadership role would respond to this question, "I would rather be respected!"  But are our day-to-day actions when running our organizations belying our true need to be the "popular leader" and be liked rather than respected?

The truth is that we all have a need to belong to a "community," according to Abraham H. Maslow, the father of humanistic psychology, as he describes in his Hierarchy of Needs .  Additionally, corporations place heavy emphasis on their Core Values Statements and many have incorporated these values into their performance evaluations of the management staff.  As society becomes more litigious, corporations have virtually rendered themselves helpless in holding employees accountable with real consequences for negative behavior or poor performance.

So, how then, are we leaders supposed to lead effectively while meeting the company's expectations about achieving performance results when we are torn about being liked and accepted by our employees and can't hold them accountable because they may get upset?

It's 2005! Is Your Contact Center Where It Should Be? Why Not?

So, it's 2005.  Is your contact center where is should be, given the year, the technology and all that we have learned in the last 15 years?

Given what we know, contact centers should be in a place in which they are delivering World Class Service during every call, with every customer, every single day.  That's a given.  Then, where should we be today? And if we are not, why not?

Taking the information we collect from our customers during every interaction, identifying mission-critical information and providing consultative services to our internal stakeholders, that's where!

Are you not there?  Are you wondering why?  Are you still struggling with getting your contact center to deliver World Class Service everyday, during every interaction?  Are you wondering what differentiates some contact centers from others?  Why are some so great and others just fumbling along?