Up until about 1995, most leadership books that were written were really about management. The message was leadership and management were one in the same. A good manger was thought to be a good leader. The simple truth of the matter is that leadership and management are as different as day and night. Managers do things right. Managing is about maintaining systems, processes and procedures; in other words, management is about managing the work environment and controlling those workplace elements that we can control. Leaders on the other hand do the right things. Leadership is about influence; dealing with those things that we can’t control. Things like people. Leaders understand that leadership is about getting people to do those things that you require them to do, when they are not obligated to do it. When we exam the overall scope of the leadership position we see that good managers maintain corporate direction and good leaders change it. Both roles are very different.

THE POSITION MYTH

It’s not the position that makes the leader, it’s the leader that makes the position. I have two clients in Southern Ontario who forced their respective presidents out of office. Both thought that it was time for a change - a fresh start so to speak. What was the result of their dismissal? Some key people followed them out of the company and so did some customers. Some remaining managers made it their mission to teach their employer a lesson in diplomacy and treatment of employees. They became very nonchalant in their day-to-day dealings with employees and company shareholder value fell dramatically. What took place is that the Law of Leadership became evident. These two Presidents may have lost their positions but, they did not lose their ability to lead because, they maintained their ability to influence.

THE PIONEER MYTH

John Maxwell a well-known author, visionary and ordained minister, speaks about the misconception of being a pioneer. He states that we often think that anyone who is out in front of the crowd is a leader. They must be! How else would they have assumed this position? The truth of the matter is that your ability to lead has nothing to do with being out in front, taking charge. There have been several leaders in business who were out front, taking charge of the situation and the people that they thought they were leading allowed them to do what they wanted to do. When these leaders fell short, their people were nowhere to be found, nor were they willing to accept responsibility. The true test of your leadership comes down to having people follow you and their willingness in accepting responsibility and accountability for their actions by acting on your vision and trusting your decisions. You don’t always have to be the “Lead Dog” in the race.

THE SAVIOUR MYTH

Uncertainty tends to lead to increased fear. As fear levels rise, it is normal for people to focus on personal security and safety. People will withdraw, become more self-serving, and more defensive. Employees tend to focus on smaller and smaller details and it becomes more difficult to work together, and nearly impossible to focus on the bigger picture. Because of increased fear, many people turn to leaders with unreasonable demands. We want someone to rescue us, to save us, to provide answers, to give us firm ground. Leaders are pushed to get out of this corporate mess, even if it means surrendering individual freedom to gain security. But the causes of insecurity are complex and systemic. There is no one simple answer and not even the strongest leader can deliver on the promise of stability and security. Corporations instead, terminate the leader and continue searching for the perfect one. Organizations still charge the leader to provide solutions and when s/he doesn’t, we then sacrifice them to atone for the sins of the system. Leaders don’t always have the answers; they have a lot of questions just like the rest of us.

THE KNOWLEDGE MYTH

It has often been said by many a great business leaders, “knowledge is power”. Most of us believe that since power is the essence of leadership, those who are desirous of becoming a leader must possess a great deal of knowledge and intelligence. This isn’t quite accurate. I have worked with some of the smartest engineers and accountants in the food industry. These people were so far ahead of the rest of us with their ideas and value added thoughts that I was in awe of their intelligence. However, as leaders they were absolutely terrible. Their ability to inspire others didn’t even register on the chart. Being a good leader is much more than just being brilliant. It is a real life skill and not everybody posses it nor are they cut out to exercise it.

What differentiates your business from that of your competitor? Study after study shows that it is your people. While your products may not be significantly different, your chances of success are dramatically increased if you have the right people.

In a groundbreaking study, the Gallup Organization gathered data over 25 years. They interviewed over eighty thousand leaders and collected data from one million employees in a wide variety of organizations. The study concluded that successful leaders use four simple keys to select, involve, encourage and retain people.

The first key is to select for talent. Talent is defined as the recurring pattern of thoughts, feelings or behaviours that an individual displays as s/he does her/his job. In the selection process, leaders must determine the presence of three basic talents. They are striving talents (what drives the individual - his/her motivation), thinking talents (how s/he thinks and makes decisions) and relating talents (how s/he relates to people). To begin the selection process, leaders must isolate the talents of their best people and create a model against which they will select new people.

The second key is to define the right outcomes. To fully involve people and give them a reasonable chance of success, leaders must define exactly what is expected of them. The simplest way of doing this is to use the SMART Formula. Every task must be defined using the criteria of Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timed. By using this formula, leaders make it easier for people to meet their expectations and thus gain confidence in themselves and their abilities.

The third key is to focus on people’s strengths. The Gallup study recommends that leaders recognize the differences in people, focus on their strengths and manage around their weaknesses. This is the only way in which leaders can show respect for individuality and encourage people to be the best they can. As part of this approach, it is critical that leaders avoid the ‘no news is good news’ syndrome in dealing with performance. They must provide feedback on performance on a frequent basis. A failure to do this condones inappropriate behaviour and results in missed opportunities to reinforce desirable actions.

The final key is to find the right fit. Leaders must be constantly aware of how individuals are dealing with the demands of their specific jobs. The right fit means that people are enjoying what they are doing and meeting their needs to feel important in their roles, to learn and to earn a living. Leaders must be willing to confront situations in which people are clearly not happy. They must move individuals if their talents can be used in a different position. If not, the manager must treat them with respect and dignity and free them to pursue a career more suitable to their talents.

Leaders who use these four keys to select, involve, encourage and retain people will have people who feel valued. The individuals will be successful and, therefore, more likely to stay with the organization. In this manner, the leaders will be successful.

If you have found this article thought provoking, I recommend the book First, Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman. It expands on the study from which I have drawn my comments

In banking, key performance indicators (KPI) play a significant role in determining your bank’s level of performance. KPIs may either be financial or non-financial and should be set to suit the bank’s organizational framework, strategies and objectives. KPIs vary from one bank to another due to contrast in CEO management approaches.

Many community banks have a multitude of key performance indicators that are more likely to be included in a KPI report. These performance indicators may be incorporated in your KPI report or may be used as basis for establishing a new one.

One is liquidity ratios. Consider settling one or two of the twelve liquidity ratios, at least, to deal with liquidity issues that mostly affect your bank. Another is uninvested funds, which, when taken less the reserve requirements give an ongoing measure on how you perform at keeping the bank’s funding going through investments.

Moreover, showing a table of loan commitments beginning the period; new, funded commitments as well as ending balance will show future obligations and movement. Putting average rates for every category will also yield a sound indication of how upcoming loan gains will be affected.

On the other hand, demonstrating a graph of loans outstanding at the beginning of the phase; new, funded loans, principal reductions and total ending loans will show loan activity as well. Looking at the loan portfolio’s average rate at the beginning and end of the period will show profitability information.

Meanwhile, loans exceeding a specific dollar amount such as huge loans that are paid early may imply either a potential opportunity or a lost customer. Banks have customers maintaining considerable balances, in which significant increase or decrease in the said accounts can also mean a possible loss or gain. Changes in loan rating categories or levels of loans bigger than the specified amount must be individually listed.

The total quantity and sum of new deposit accounts also provide a growth measure as well. Monitoring by the kind of account such as savings, checking, CD or money market gives better data instead of simply using totals. There is also the total quantity and amount of closed deposit accounts, in which putting new accounts is the central focus although the net increase is considered highly substantial. Replacing accounts on continuously can cost quite a lot.

Furthermore, it doesn’t hurt to formally report large or unfamiliar items, in case you are aware of them. Establish a threshold that is low enough to yield important items but is high enough to keep you from producing a list that’s a page long list. Keep in mind that limits may depend on the expense item’s nature.

Additionally, the earning assets quotient should be differentiated against the previous year or month to date. Also, the ratio of interest-bearing liabilities should be compared to the previous year or month to date results. Always make sure to be on the lookout for trends of both these factors. Don’t forget to consider customer count as well.

Lastly, it is important to evaluate your KPIs every year after setting plans for the coming year. Be sure that your KPIs come with measurements that can forecast how the year’s goals can be met.

Your journey into fulfilling your Hundred-Fold-Life will also include some of the same attributes as your past work life.

When you work for someone else, you will have a job description, listing those things that you are expected to accomplish as well as a work schedule, listing the hours in which you are expected to accomplish them. Simply changing bosses does not change any of the same requirements of a certain amount of work to be done in a specified time period.

However, the constant barrage of advertising telling people they can work in their pajamas at whatever schedule they choose has confused a lot of people into believing that any job they get working from home will only take an hour or two a day and if they want to stay I bed until noon, it is acceptable. Unfortunately, in the business world this line of thinking does not mesh well with reality. Most people also know that the idea of dressing for success is as much about how they feel about their own self-esteem as how others may perceive them.

Even when on the telephone, it is much easier to present a more professional image than if you are still in your pajamas. As for your work schedule, any home business job that offers enough pay to keep the bill collectors off the front step is going to require more than two hours a day. While you can establish you own schedule for when you work, it should be consistent on a daily basis. If you plan to work eight hours a day, it may not matter which eight hours, but you will have to work.

Many people who have a home business will work a schedule similar to others within the home so that their time off can match others. For their own productivity, it is important for them to get up in the morning, get ready for work and then put in their own scheduled hours. In the evening, they can devote time to family and friends and by treating their online occupation just as they would a real-world job, others may be more inclined to understand their home business schedule and offer far fewer interruptions and distractions.

When working from home, the schedule should include time for breaks as well as lunch breaks and these should be adhered to as stringently as the working schedule. It is best to understand that working from home means more than being at home. Whatever you are doing has become your chosen occupation and you are now in charge of your future. You will want to be a better boss than the last one you worked for and when you find yourself not following your schedule, consider asking yourself for a raise.

Understand that when working from home, you are solely responsible for your own future as well as you own income. With most home business opportunities, the payoff is only as good as the effort expended. By choosing to work at home you are also choosing to accept the rewards, as well as failures, most often associated with work at home businesses.

Don’t shortchange your Hundred-Fold-Life by getting sloppy or lazy in your daily efforts. You must develop the necessary habits to be successful.

“There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.”

Sam Walton, Founder of Wal-Mart

Sam Walton lived a life which displayed everything he believed in. Over the years, especially since Wal-Mart became a publicly traded company on the stock market, Sam’s vision and philosophy have slowly been forgotten. Although Wal-Mart may not offer the greatest customer service today, Sam’s words on the importance of customers to any business are timeless.

If business was to be compared to a car, customers would be the fuel. No fuel and the car cannot go anywhere. No customers and the business cannot go anywhere.

All businesses have some kind of customers. The philosophy behind the content in this article is just as applicable to personal relationships as it is to customer service in business. Although we are conditioned to believe our personal relationships are different from business relationships, in the end it is all the same; how you deal with people. Whether it is in your personal life or business, the principles shared in this article will benefit anyone who is willing to apply them in their situation.

Some have other businesses as customers, other have the general public as their customers. There are also internal customers and external customers. Internal customers are employees and external customers are those who your employees deal with. Keep your internal customers happy and they will naturally be compelled to do everything they can to keep your external customers happy.

This article deals with external customers and seven proven customer service principles which are guaranteed to create raving fans. Raving fans are customers who are so enthusiastic about doing business with your company that they become walking, talking billboards advertising and raving about your products and services to anyone in need of them.

The essence of creating raving fans out of your customers lies in going back to the basics. That’s right, simple strategies which are timeless and guaranteed to create astonishing results.

Also, it is crucial to realize that all successful businesses offer massive value to their customers. Creating products and services which efficiently and innovatively solve problems adds tremendous value to a person or business. This same value is what gets turned into an equivalent amount of profit.

Here are seven proven customer service principles guaranteed to turn the customers you have now and those to come in the time ahead into raving fans. This will naturally create an upward spiral of growth for your business since these very customers will happily share their great experience with your organization with countless others.

Keeping your word is where it all begins

When you say you were going to do something, customers expect you will do it. Since it is the norm for companies to make promises and not keep them, any business which is adamant about keeping their commitments to their customers is warranted to stand apart from the herd. So next time you are telling one of your customers you will do something, make sure that you do it no matter what happens.

Keeping your word with the customers allows them to be able to trust you. Trust is the essential ingredient to any successful long term personal or professional relationship. It is the foundation upon which everything else is built upon. Not just in business, but in general in relationships in life.

Always be honest and tell it like it Is

Your customers are people just like yourself and have more common sense than most businesses are willing to admit. By being honest and telling your customers the truth, you are much more likely to get a positive response to any situation. Given the current technological dynamics of our existence, a customer or client can very easily interact with others and get to the bottom line quickly.

The Internet is and has been changing the way business is conducted around the world. If you say your pricing is the cheapest and customer service the best, it is only a matter of minutes before this can be verified by interacting with others in a global economy. A prospect can do five minutes of research on Google and find out if you are telling the truth or just blowing smoke.

Always think proactively, looking around the corner

Everything in life is a dual creation. What that means is first we create any idea, service, or product in our mind. Once that is done, we then create its physical manifestation in the physical world. Thus it is totally accurate to say that if we wish to change our physical reality, we must first change our mental reality.

Thinking proactively when it comes to customer service boils down to addressing concerns PRIOR to you having to hear from the customer that something needs to be done. A simple example is an Internet Service Provider informing their clients that a necessary upgrade to computer services infrastructure will temporarily disable Internet access on x day at x time. It is simply amazing how much thinking proactively can benefit the bottom line of any organization not just when it comes to customer services, but also business strategy in general.

Deal with problems as best you can yourself, never passing the buck

My greatest mentor once told me that he met a billionaire, that’s right, a billionaire, who shared with him that “until a person realizes problems are a normal state of affairs, they have not even begun to mature yet.” Whether you wish to admit or not, problems in life are just as much a part of reality as eating, breathing, and walking. A person can certainly structure their life in such a manner that they can minimize those problems; however when the problems do arise they must be dealt with.

The best way to deal with any problem is THROUGH IT. What that entails is when problems arise; you simply stop and evaluate what is happening. Based on your evaluation, the problem is then to be addressed according to a chosen plan.

When a customer calls or walks in with a problem, it is an absolute opportunity to solidify their trust in your organization and prove that they can count on you to get it fixed. The first step is simply clearing up the facts and getting to the bottom line of exactly what needs to be addressed. Once the problem is clearly understood, it can be eradicated. The more authority your employees have to address customer problems, the better it is since nothing upsets customers than being passed from department to department when dealing with a problem.

There is no point in arguing with a customer because it is a lose/lose situation

The best way to deal with an argument is to downplay its confrontational aspect and direct all energy and attention towards a solution. What can be done to make the customer feel happy and cared for.

A customer can totally be wrong; however most of the times they simply need education to better understand the situation at hand.

It is also very important to separate an objective argument from a personal attack. If a person is frustrated because a product or service has not lived up to its standard, it is essential for your company’s representative dealing with the customer realize that the customer is upset at the situation and not at them personally. Often arguments turn personal when the people involved had nothing in the creation of the problem being argued about to begin with.

Accept your mistakes, learn from them, and do not repeat them

My greatest mentor, who is a professional drag racer at heart, also shared with me that in professional drag racing “the one who makes the least mistakes wins.”

We all make mistakes. Some of us accept that we made a mistake, evaluate the situation, learn the lesson and move on, while others get stuck in a never-ending state of denial. “What did I do wrong? I am not responsible for it!” is a common theme in their life.

Acknowledgment always precedes resolution. When a company’s customer service representative is dealing with a situation where a mistake has been made by the company, the best thing which can be done is taking ownership of the issue at hand. The anger and emotion around any issue can be minimized by admitting fault and diverting all energy towards a resolution. Customers are normal people just like the rest of us and when they hear that a mistake was made, and that you apologize for it and focus on the solution, the energy balance shifts from being upset to feeling content that the issue at hand will be professionally addressed.

You may have heard before “when you lose, don’t lose the lesson.” There is always something to be learned from any situation in life. Your general attitude will determine how you look at life, which will bleed into any business you are a part of. With each mistake, it is essential to realize what went wrong, how it went wrong, and most importantly what can be done in the future to prevent the same situation from occurring.

Consistency is the name of the game for lasting success

If you do something once, great. If you do it twice, awesome. If you do it three times, brilliant. And if you do it over and over, consistently, congratulations my friend, if you happen to be doing things the right way, you are officially a success.

Repetition is a common theme for most of what we do in life. When the six customer service principles discussed above are practiced consistently, customers realize over time that the integrity of how you choose to run your business is unable to be compromised.

Always remember, people buy more so because they want to, than they need to (Why do you think the average family in the west has so much debt?). Similarly, customers do business with companies because they WANT to do business with.

If your customers truly believe that your company can be counted upon, not in times when everything is fine but in times where there are problems and challenges, they will choose to do business with you because they know that no matter what you will get the job done.