Radclyffe Consulting, LLC

Liz's Insights About This Season's "The Apprentice"

Are you kidding me?...Every time I watch this season's, The Apprentice, I wonder how smart these, what we call in corporate America, "HiPos" (high potentials) really are.  I mean, if I was going to be on The Apprentice, I would make sure I had watched it and learned as much as I could before going into the interviewing process.  Not only do they make the same mistakes as past candidates, but Donald will actually give them advice and they don't take it!!

Let's talk about bringing people into the Boardroom.  If Donald Trump says, "You can bring  one or two people into the Boardroom and I think you should bring in two," why would one not listen?  That's not very smart. In fact, it's downright stupid.

Here is another one.  Bringing someone into the Boardroom who actually tried to stop you as project leader from making the exact mistake that lost the project just because you don't like him.  Now we are talking absolutely moronic.

Oh, and I almost forgot about being really late for a meeting with the key clients who are also the judges and then not proactively apologizing even after the key clients point it out to you.  And let's not forget Lenny who asked no questions of his key clients so he could understand the success measures for the project and still doesn't think that was a mistake.  Now, yes, Lenny was the project leader, but no one else stepped up to the plate either and then complained about the fact that no questions were asked.  I think Donald should have fired the whole team for that one!  Except the season would have been over way too soon.

Dear Lord, I am so frustrated at watching this mediocrity that I'm sending my staff to apply - they would run circles around these "apprentices."

Purdue University's Center for Customer Driven Quality and Radclyffe Partner for the CCC Conference In July

Purdue University's Center for Customer Driven Quality (CCDQ) selected The Radclyffe Group, LLC as it conference partner to coordinate and organize this year's Call Center Campus in West Lafayette, Indiana from July 11-14, 2006.

"This will be a blow out event," stated Liz Ahearn, President & CEO of The Radclyffe Group.  "We are ensuring that the content is relevant and newsworthy, the speakers are credible and experienced and the program is highly interactive."  "We have invited speakers that have something unique to share; a compelling story to tell.  For example, our guest speaker is coming all the way from Hong Kong and was featured in March on Good Morning, America! Chetan Bhagat, author of One Night @ The Call Center will share his experience and findings about how representatives in India view their American customers and how they are trained to deal with Americans."  That evening he will have a book signing and CCC participants will be the first Americans to receive his book.

The Keynote Speaker, Sally White, Vice President of Service, North America, Smiths Detection, will be speaking about how her organization received perfect "10s" on her company's secret customer satisfaction survey.  She credits her "Seven Point Service Strategy," which she will share at the conference.  Smith Detection provides anti-terrorism equipment such as airport security scanners and other explosive identification products.  In the case of equipment failure, time is of the essence and her representatives need to detect the source of the issue accurately and dispatch a field service engineer quickly.

An exciting new track will be introduced this year - The Strategist.  If you like Donald Trump's, The Apprentice, you'll love CCC's, The Strategist!  Highly participative, two teams will compete to resolve a real Indiana business' service issue.  Who will win?  The best team, of course.  And, you'll be surprised to find out who is CCC's "The Donald!"  Another highlight of this conference will be the Virtual Contact Center Tours.  Relax at Purdue and take tours of your choice to see the best practices and "inside the operation" of some of the best contact centers in the industry!

The evenings will be jam-packed with exciting entertainment.  The Water Coolers will provide everyone will a unique and humorous look at what life is like in the contact center world and Casino Night will provide everyone with an opportunity to relax and let their hair down.

Who says there's nothing to do in West Lafayette, Indiana in July?!  Come find out why that is not true.  Go to www.ccdq.com to register today.

Donald Trump's "The Apprentice" - Leadership Lessons of March 23, 2005 - You've got to be kidding me!

Oh my goodness!  I don't know where to start on this one.  Okay, maybe I do.

Out of all of the shows, beginning with the first season, these "Apprentice" candidates (who, by the way, are supposed to be the brightest and the best) keep making the same mistake on their projects.  It is so frustrating I can barely stand it.  Why don't they learn from the past mistakes?

Before I start though, I am so frustrated I am going to write directly to the Apprentice candidates in this blog, instead of my usual "let's get a learning from this and apply it to all business situations."

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.

Dear Liz - I am seeking to define the title "Project Leader" so that I can set a standard for my organization's team to follow....Curious in Canada

...I am not looking to write a job description but rather to compose a list of the various personal, managerial traits and actions that make up an ideal project leader.   Best Regards, Curious in Canada.

Dear Curious:

Your request is a common one in that you are looking for attributes, inherent abilities, characteristics and potential actions that define the ideal project leader.  We have done the same in terms of recruiting for our training consultants and have defined exactly what those behaviors look like when effectively demonstrated.

A general rule of thumb, regardless of the specific requirements in any particular company or industry, is that an ideal project leader has to encompass the following characteristics or traits.  Often we call them "competencies":

• Communication
• Openness to Influence
• Openness to Feedback/Acting on Feedback
• Collaboration
• Analytical Skills
• Innovation
• Resourcefulness
• Problem Solving
• Teamwork
• Ownership/Personal Accountability
• Managing Priorities
• Proactivity
• Results-Orientation
• Detail Orientation
• Business Acumen
• Customer Partnership
• Process Improvement
• Team Development
• Professionalism

There are several schools of thought on whether the competencies or attributes listed above are too many, but I have found that within each attribute there are varying levels of proficiency that one individual might have.  We usually use the "Levels of Action" to determine where in the attributes an individual will fall:

5 = Takes Action And Reports Back Regularly

4 = Takes Action And Reports Back Immediately

3 = Suggests Action And Asks For Permission

2 = Asks What To Do

1 = Waits to Be Told What To Do

Any one individual should be able to perform at a consistent "3", but most likely you would want individuals to be performing what we call "Above The Line."

Donald Trump's "The Apprentice" Leadership Lessons of March 10, 2005 - "Out of Touch"

After the March 3rd episode I wrote not about Audrey, but about John.  And now I get to write about him again.

Unlike George and Caroline, I am not going to focus on his poor negotiation skills.  I think they expressed their concerns about that topic already.

There are so many elements to John's "leadership style" it's hard to select only a few, but this time I will focus on his interaction skills with prospects and team members.

Since the world revolves around John, he is completely unaware of his impact on others in the moment.  At first I thought he just didn't care how others perceive him, but I began to notice that when he was talking to the artists, he missed some obvious verbal and non-verbal cues.  This is important because many individuals in business miss these critical cues when dealing with their subordinates, superiors and clients.

Dear Liz: It seems I have a handful of people in my contact center who are instigators. What do I do if I can't fire them? Getting Scared in New Jersey

Dear Getting Scared in New Jersey:

Over the years I have worked with at least 25 contact center leaders who were also at the point of becoming threatened by a handful of representatives in their organization.  These representatives often made up stories about a particular team leader or manager and complained to human resources on a regular basis.

Since this is an anomaly in corporate America in general, human resources professionals and senior executives are often skeptical of the manager or team leader who is the target of these employees.  After all, they don't hear this about other managers in the company and since it's unusual to have a small group of people from one department constantly going to human resources, they question the manager's ethics and integrity.

You want to know what's going on and how to stop this behavior.  Over the years, we have conducted studies to identify exactly why this happens.  While it's a fascinating aspect of contact center management, it's very threatening when you are the target of these employees.

Donald Trump's "The Apprentice" - Leadership Lessons of March 3, 2005 - Let's Not Get Personal

I know, I know, Audrey definitely had it coming.  But what's with making it so personal?

One of the first mistakes in leadership - which is what this show is supposed to be about - is making things personal.  So this time even though Audrey is the ideal target, I'm not going to talk about her excessive whining or her "beauty" versus brains.  I think it's pretty obvious why Audrey was fired.  I agree with Donald.  She had to go. I'm looking at someone else this time.

How do I reduce the turnover in my contact center? Frustrated in Arizona

Dear Frustrated in Arizona:

I am going to discuss part III in today's section of "How do I reduce turnover in my contact center?"

Step 5: Create and Implement Motivation and Incentives

Step 6: Share the Big Picture

In The Most Unexpected Places: World Class Service at its Best

It's a beautiful thing when World Class Service happens when you least expect it. It happened to me this very past week and it was at a time when I was stressed and pressured for time.

It's like a little angel dropped from the heavens because someone up there knew I needed it.  It changed my entire day and I am sure it was "no big deal" to the person whom I felt saved me from myself.  I don't even think he realized what affect he had on me - but I'll never forget it.