Seven Steps to Coaching Your Employees to Success

Greetings! Following is a great article about coaching employees. Remember, growth and improvement happens with consistent practice, training and reinforcement. I love the question: “What happens the other 364 days of the year?” as posed below. I hope you enjoy this article from Entrepreneur Magazine.
                                                                               -Kathy Shook, Shoppers, Inc.

Seven Steps to Coaching Your Employees to Success
Many employers sit their workers down once a year for a review. At that time, the employee finds out what they've been doing right or if there are areas in need of improvement. But what happens the other 364 days of the year?

Coaching is a different approach to developing employees' potential. With coaching, you provide your staff the opportunity to grow and achieve optimal performance through consistent feedback, counseling and mentoring. Rather than relying solely on a review schedule, you can support employees along the path to meeting their goals. Done in the right way, coaching is perceived as a road map for success and a benefit. Done incorrectly and employees may feel berated, unappreciated, even punished.

These seven steps, when followed, can help create a positive environment for providing feedback.

Click HERE for entire article


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Positive Tip: The Power of Thank You

HI:  The following article expresses my thoughts this week.  I am so grateful for our clients, our co-workers, our company and each of you reading this article.  Have a wonderful week and Thank You so much. 

Kathy Shook

The Power of Thank You

In the spirit of Thanksgiving I'd love to share with you the benefits and power of two simple words. THANK YOU.

They are two words that have the power to transform our health, happiness, athletic performance and success. Research shows that grateful people are happier and more likely to maintain good friendships. A state of gratitude, according to research by the Institute of HeartMath, also improves the heart's rhythmic functioning, which helps us to reduce stress, think more clearly under pressure and heal physically. It's actually physiologically impossible to be stressed and thankful at the same time. When you are grateful you flood your body and brain with emotions and endorphins that uplift and energize you rather than the stress hormones that drain you.

Gratitude and appreciation are also essential for a healthy work environment. In fact, the number one reason why people leave their jobs is because they don't feel appreciated. A simple thank you and a show of appreciation can make all the difference.

Gratitude is like muscle. The more we do with it the stronger it gets. In this spirit here are 4 ways to practice Thanksgiving every day of the year.

1. Take a Daily Thank You Walk - I wrote about this in The Energy Bus. Take a simple 10-minute walk each day and say out loud what you are thankful for. This will set you up for a positive day.

2. Meal Time Thank You's - On Thanksgiving, or just at dinner with your friends and family, go around the table and have each person, including the kids at the little table, say what they are thankful for.

3. Gratitude Visit - Martin Seligman, Ph.D., the father of positive psychology, suggests that we write a letter expressing our gratitude to someone. Then we visit this person and read them the letter. His research shows that people who do this are measurably happier and less depressed a month later.

4. Say Thank You at Work – When Doug Conant was the CEO of Campbell Soup he wrote approximately 30,000 thank you notes to his employees and energized the company in the process. Energize and engage your co-workers and team by letting them know you are grateful for them and their work. And don’t forget to say thank you to your clients and customers too.

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I’m thankful for YOU.

by Jon Gordon

What are you thankful for? Share one or two things that you are thankful for in your life...

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The Myth

I thought everyone would enjoy this article, a reminder that growth and improvement happen over time. Especially in companies: we cannot give our employees one shot of training or motivation and expect that to last indefinitely. Everyone needs consistent training, encouragement and feedback for lasting growth! Enjoy and we appreciate your comments. Kathy

Posted by Jon Gordon

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(Excerpt from Training Camp by Jon Gordon)

There is no such thing as an overnight success. Too many believe in the fantasy that superstar athletes, actors, musicians, doctors, pianists, researchers, Olympians and others were born that way or simply stumbled on their success overnight. After all, the best of the best make what they do look so easy that people either think anyone can do or that a select few are chosen to do it.

This myth is perpetuated by the media. On television we see the successful person performing his/her craft. We see the concert, the movie, the computer program, the game, the play, the miracle surgery, the lecture, the Nobel Prize, the latest discovery or the Olympic event. We see the end result—the outcome. But what most of us don’t see are the countless hours of sweat, toil, dedication, practice and preparation that lead to greatness.

The tennis champion hit a million backhands before winning the US Open. The rock star sang for countless hours before reaching stardom. Technology designers spent thousands of hours to create new and revolutionary products that make our lives easier. The teacher spent a career preparing and practicing ways to better connect with and teach her students before winning a teacher of the year award. The symphony practiced thousands of hours to create music that brought the audience to tears. And the sales team spent a year preparing for the important meeting that landed their biggest client.

The ideal of the overnight success is a myth. Just as the Olympian must train for years for one defining race, you must wake up each day and practice, prepare and train to be your best. Don’t settle for mediocrity, but strive each day for excellence. It requires hard work, preparation and hours of effort, but it’s worth it.

Do you agree with The Myth? Post a comment below…

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Reduce Costs and Improve Morale

Wow, can you believe it’s November already? This year is flying by! I thought you’d enjoy this great article about cutting costs and improving morale…therefore improving customer service. Enjoy!
-Kathy Shook, Shoppers, Inc.

Reduce Costs and Improve Morale
How? Ask your employees. In an uncertain economy, CEOs scramble, looking for ways to cut costs and keep their businesses afloat. The most common step they take is to reduce the workforce by terminating employees, which reduces payroll but also has a devastating impact on morale and on customer service. It’s a short-term solution to a long-term problem.

What these CEOs should be doing is looking for ways to reduce day-to-day costs without sacrificing quality or service. Often, when they decide to do so, they hire high-priced consultants come in, look over their operations, interview employees, and then develop a glossy report of their findings. It’s an expensive and lengthy process. And most often it focuses on looking for ideas that will save $100,000 to $1 million in one shot.

Those CEOs are correct in turning to experts to identify areas in which they can cut costs—but they’re turning to the wrong experts. They should be asking their employees. Those employees already are on site. They already are knowledgeable about your people, processes, products, and services. They know what changes could be made to improve productivity and cut costs. They’re just waiting to be asked for their ideas—so ask them.


-John Tschohl, Service Quality Institute

And, if you need an inexpensive means to survey your employees, contact Shoppers, Inc. We can set up an online employee survey for you at a very low cost!

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IMPROVE CUSTOMER SERVICE…STEP 3

We are working on our Service Improvement Plan – our SIP; in order to make our customer service outshine everyone.  To exceed our customers’ expectations the first time and every time, so they become FANS of our company and rave about us to all their friends and family.

Before we did anything, we made a plan.  We don’t want to throw money at the problem before we know the following:

1.  How does our service quality rate today?

2.  How good should it be?

3.  How do we get from #1 to #2?

We’ve surveyed customers and employees and have that data readily available to analyze.  We’ve determined what we do right and also what frustrators in our procedures that kept our customers unhappy.

Step 3:  How do we succeed?

What we do right:  Since we now know what things make our customers happy, what they like about it, let’s emphasize it:

• Communicate the positive feedback to our staff 
• Take advantage of what we do better than competitors:  Brag about it!
• Improve our staff’s skills at these items and reward these behaviors

What we do that frustrates customers:  With the feedback we obtained earlier, we know what they don’t like. 

• Streamline procedures to work in favor of speed and service
• Communicate to staff; encourage their ideas and participation
• Improve our staff’s skills so the frustrators are removed

           

On both issues above, the key item is IMPROVE OUR STAFF SKILLS.  Provide the customer service training they need so everyone’s skills are excellent.  We all assume that everyone knows to smile, greet and thank.  But they don’t…TELL them what we expect. This gives staff the support needed to show our full, serious commitment to improving customer service.

And, don’t forget to practice what you preach.  Great customer service is for EVERYONE; not just outside or “external” customers.  Teach your staff to provide great service to each other, too.  Start calling co-workers “internal” customers:  so everyone is positive and helpful to each other.  You’ll be amazed and the attitude improvement and teamwork that evolves.    And that will lead to better service outside….which will lead to customers SELLING for you:  they’ll tell their friends how great you are!!

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