Greetings Leaders!

As consumers and customers, I’m sure all of us have had both good and bad experiences with customer service. There are businesses and establishments that we remember fondly, usually because someone there went out of their way to make our experience delightful. On the other hand, there are businesses that we would never recommend to a friend and I’m sure you can recount your worst experience in detail, even though it may have been 20 years ago.

As a leader, how do we ensure  that our staff are giving the best customer service available? Or, if they are not working in customer service, how do we get them to perform at a level where the organization can excel?

Let me rephrase the question. Is it the employees responsibility to ensure great customer service, or it management and leadership? If I walk into a coffee  house and am ignored by the staff while they chat about the party they had last night, whose fault is it?

Read the rest of this entry »

Greetings Leaders!

I often wonder why some companies have great leaders, and others don’t. Any company worth mentioning has a leadership program, yet not all companies have great leaders. Why is that? Here are five steps you can take to ensure you and your organization are developing great leaders.

Read the rest of this entry »

Greetings Leaders!

I was faced with a very uncomfortable situation last week. Someone said something about me that was not true which resulted in a very bad outcome for me. I do not know who this person was, but they had the ear of someone important, and that is all that matters. Have you ever been in this situation before? If so, what did you do? What do you think I should have done?

In this case, I was faced with a no win situation. Without going into too much detail, I was the outsider. The others were insiders. Need I say more. There are times in life when you are going to be faced with something unfair and there is nothing you can do about it. Or is there?

Read the rest of this entry »

5 Leadership Skills for Project Managers

Guest Blogger Claudia Vandermilt

As a project manager, your teams rely on your leadership skills to guide and encourage productivity and project success. When provided with quality leadership, team members often respond positively; they build stronger relationships and rise to project challenges brought forth by their leader.  Arm yourself with these five critical leadership skills to help propel a winning team:

Read the rest of this entry »

Greetings Leaders!

While teaching a project management class last night, we got into a discussion about social media, technology and how communicating can overwhelm you due to the many ways we now communicate. Many of the younger (under 30) students said that they had a hard time managing their communications because of the myriad of ways that people communicate today. It was not too long ago that people joked about being addicted to the “crackberry”, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. Today we communicate by E-mail (old school), texting, instant messaging, phone calls (really old school), twitter and other social media tools. These make us more accessible than ever before, and if you’re not careful, you’ll find yourself texting, twittering, instant messaging and emailing all at the same time. With all these demands for your time coming at you at once, it can be overwhelming. Here are some tips to getting your life back under control.

1. Read the rest of this entry »

Greetings Leaders!

This may seem like a rhetorical question to you, but the answer is important on several levels. On an organizational level, it is vital, because managers and leaders are very different kinds of people. Both are needed in an organization, but if you have the wrong people in the wrong slots, disaster awaits. If you have a manager slotted where you need a leader (not leadership – but a leader), or you have a leader acting as a manager, you are asking for trouble. The manager won’t lead, and the leader will get bored and leave. On a personal level, you need to understand which one you are, and ensure that you are in a position that utilizes your strengths. So how do you know if you are a manager or a leader?

Read the rest of this entry »

Greetings Leaders!

Last night I volunteered at a Career Coaching event at Bayside of Granite Bay. The event supported the Career Coaching program for those in transition, and there were 50+ job seekers there. For those in the Sacramento-Roseville-Rocklin area, I highly recommend it. They’ve successfully helped over 200 people find their next career. Although affiliated with the church, this is a non-evangelical event. Meaning you can walk in the door without getting preached to. The point is to help people in need get back on their feet.

I’ve done this before both at the church and other groups, and am always struck by the high caliber people who are for whatever reason unemployed. If you find yourself in this predicament, take heart, it is only temporary. Having said that – I do also come across those who I know will struggle to find their next job. If you’ve been unemployed for over 6 months, here are 5 things you need to consider.

1. Read the rest of this entry »

Greetings Leaders!

This is the 15th posting in the series The Path of the Honorable Leader.

Accountability. Holding others and self to be responsible for one’s actions. The Honorable Leader knows that there are no excuses. That whatever we do, we are responsible for the results. If we can take credit for the good, we should also be willing to take credit for the not so good, or sometimes, the bad. To hold people accountable means to love them enough to hold them responsible for their actions. Much like we teach our children the to be responsible for what they do, the Honorable Leader knows that this is something we should continue doing as adults. By holding others accountable, we build the framework for growth. That a lack of accountability leads to reckless actions, pain, setbacks, and a life of mediocrity.

Holding others accountable is hard. To tell someone they missed the mark, while encouraging them to do better, takes time and energy. It puts the leader in a vulnerable position as he must sometimes buck against the headwind. His may be the lone voice that calls for reasonableness and accountability. Too often, leaders fail to hold others accountable. That in their quest for power, prestige and profits, they sacrifice accountability. The Honorable Leader knows better. Accountability is a cornerstone for long term growth. Accountability, while sometimes painful, is the only way to sustained progress.

As an Honorable Leader, hold others, and yourself, accountable for your actions.

All the best!
All the time!
JT

Related articles

• Affordable accountability: Who pays the price? (thehighcalling.org)
• Five Steps For Leaders To Elevate Their Purpose (leadchangegroup.com)
• Please Don’t Hold Me Accountable (katharineweinmann.com)

Greetings Leaders!

I was taking a walk during lunch the other day near downtown Sacramento. As I was walking, I looked up and saw… oranges! Later during my walk along the river, I looked down and saw turtles! Ok, some of you may think I’m losing my mind. But I was having a trying day and was in a sour mood. So, when these little things came along, they just lifted my spirits. I wasn’t expecting to find an orange tree in downtown Sacramento. I wasn’t expecting to see turtles basking in the sun. Then I started to think, why don’t I expect the unexpected in other areas of my life?

As I think about life, many of us expect… the expected. When things are tough, we expect them to get worse. We get in the habit of looking at the ordinary and get used to living in mediocrity. The oranges and the turtles reminded me that life can also throw beautiful things your way, when you least expect it. The thing is, you have to stop what you’re doing, and take a look around you. If I hadn’t looked up, I wouldn’t have seen the oranges. They were there all the time. I even walked by them on a walk the other day, and didn’t even notice them. I’ve also been down the river before, so I probably have walked by turtles basking in the sun before.

The point – if you’re having a bad day, or a bad time. Stop. Look up. Take a walk. Open your eyes. God gives us gifts every day – and we often overlook them.

All the best!
All the time!
JT

Greetings Leaders!

I’m the middle of teaching a project management class and we just finished up a section on Stakeholder Management. The discussion was lively, the group insightful, and as is often the case when I teach, I learned a few things myself. What I found interesting was the passion this particular group of students had about managing stakeholders. Most of the students are experienced project managers and they had a lot of insight into this vital but often overlooked area of project management. The two questions that got the discussion going were:

1. Would you consider yourself (as a project manager) successful if you met the requirements, the timeline and the budget… but your customers were not satisfied with the product?
2. Would you consider yourself successful if your project was delivered later than originally planned, over the original budget, but your stakeholders were happy?

Of course there are many situations that would influence your answer. But in general, and the class agreed, managing stakeholder and customer expectations were the keys to measuring project success.

Read the rest of this entry »