Six Leadership Styles

2010 January 30 By

In “Developing a Leadership Style,” Alan Murray cites six styles of leadership from Daniel Goleman’s “Primal Leadership.” They are outlined below:

  1. Visionary: this is best when an organization needs a new direction. The aim is to move people towards a new set of shared dreams. Leaders communicate where a group is going, but not how it will get there. This way, people free to innovate, and experiment.
  2. Coaching: this style focuses on developing others, showing them how to reach their goals and improve their level of performance. One warning is that too much hovering over an employee might, instead, be perceived as micromanagement.
  3. Affiliative: stresses importance of teamwork and connecting with others. This style is not good to use by itself because it tends to emphasize group praise allowing for poor performance to go uncorrected.
  4. Democratic: this style works best when the organizational goal is unclear and the leader needs to tap into the feedback and wisdom of the group. This style is counterproductive in times of crisis, however, when quick, decisive decisions are needed from leaders.
  5. Pacesetting: leader sets a high expectation of performance. But it must be cautioned that using it too often can result in lower employee morale because employees may feel that their work is never good enough.
  6. Commanding: while this military style is the most often used, it’s also the least effective. It leads to lower morale because there are more criticisms and less praise.

Without a strong vision of leadership, managers may display a leadership style that is too affiliative (e.g., unable or unwilling to address poor performance), too democratic (e.g., lacked ability to make decisive decisions), or too pacesetting (e.g., worked employees to death but never happy with their performance).

Reference

Murray, A. (2009). Developing a leadership style. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved on January 30, 2010 from http://guides.wsj.com/management/developing-a-leadership-style/how-to-develop-a-leadership-style/

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Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With:

Impression Management of President Obama

2010 January 27 By

In Leadership in Organizations, Professor Gary Yukl defined impression management as “the process of influencing how others perceive you” (Yukl, 2010, p. 136). Dr. Yukl states that often people use excuses and apologies to avoid being blamed for their mistakes or poor performances.

Yukl (2010, citing Pfeffer) states that many leaders try to create the impression that they are “important, competent, and in control” (p. 138). Successes are often broadcast, while failures and errors are kept quiet and not publicized.

Salancik and Meindl (cited in Yukl, 2010) studied annual reports for a group of companies over an 18 year period. They found that top executives often gave themselves credit for positive results but would blame negative outcomes on “aspects of the environment” (Yukl, 2010, p. 138).

The President is using impression management by trying to deflect criticisms that he does not have his finger on the pulse of the American people’s concern about the economy. Case in point: Health Care vs. Economy. Polling of public opinions indicate that his approval has taken a dramatic downhill turn. I believe that this is, in large part, because he failed to listen to ordinary Americans who are much more concerned about job security than health care reform. However, rather than admitting that his priorities were off (pursuit of health care), he’s attempting to explain that what he failed to do was explain to the American people about his plans to revive the economy (and the media’s over-emphasis on health care).

Yukl (citing Pfeffer) says that some leaders “seek to distort or cover up evidence that their strategy is not succeeding” (p. 138). This is one of the tactics used by leaders to “avoid the appearance of failure” (p.138).

In a Harvard Business Review blog posting, Norm Smallwood (one of the authors of the Leadership Code: Five Rules to Lead By), gave Obama a C+ as a leader based on a review of the President’s first year in office. Smallwood outlined 5 rules which a leader is graded on:

Rule 1: Be a Strategist and Shape the Future. Grade D
Rule 2: Be an Executor and Make Things Happen. Grade C
Rule 3: Be a Talent Manager: Engage Today’s Talent. Grade B
Rule 4: Be a Human Capital Developer: Build the Next Generation. Grade: Incomplete
Rule 5: Be Personally Proficient: Invest in Yourself. Grade A

Smallwood’s overall grade for Obama’s freshman year: C+

If I were grading President Obama’s performance as a leader using Smallwood’s rules, I would give Obama a D- instead of a C+. Here’s how I would grade him and why I believe he earns a D-.

Rule 1: Be a Strategist and Shape the Future. Grade D+
Obama is “trying to ride multiple horses at the same time and the result is a lack of focus and direction” (Smallwood, 2010). When he became President, Obama inherited problems from his predecessor, but instead of focusing on a few areas, he added even more onto his already full plate.

Rule 2: Be an Executor and Make Things Happen. Grade F
“[Obama] has unleashed a torrent of opposition around spending ourselves into the ground as a result of initiating one of the largest health care reform bills in our history, even before the dust settled on any of the nation’s economic issues” (Smallwood, 2010).

When he started last January the U.S. was in the midst of an economic recession. His first priority should have been on creating and sustaining more jobs and rebuilding consumer and business confidence. Obama’s inability to make things happen is the result of a lack of focus due to too many initiatives going on at the same time. He’s on “initiative overload right now” (Smallwood, 2010).

Rule 3: Be a Talent Manager: Engage Today’s Talent. Grade C-
Although Smallwood (2010) believes that Obama was good at engaging talent in selecting his cabinet and getting their support, I’m not sure that I see it that way. Obama invited Hilary Clinton (who was a strong opponent in the Democratic Primary) to work alongside him. While things may seem calm on the surface, I’m not certain that strong convictions and feelings (held by Clinton) can be set aside that quickly. Another point I want to make is that even when, on paper, your team seems like the “Dream Team,” in reality if there’s lack of trust and bitter infighting, no amount of skills and intelligence can overcome anger, distrust, and resentment. Finally, Obama’s tendency to surround himself with academics who are out of touch with middle America translates into selecting Ivy League-educated academics who know little to nothing about mainstream America.

Rule 4: Be a Human Capital Developer: Build the Next Generation. Grade: Incomplete
I would agree with Smallwood’s assessment. It’s still too early in his presidency to tell what if anything, Obama is doing to build the next generation.

Rule 5: Be Personally Proficient: Invest in Yourself. Grade A
Although Obama gets an “A” a word of caution must be noted. A President who seems to be out of touch with the average American, and one who seems to appear often on magazine covers and in TV interviews instead of behind the scenes working, might be interpreted as a President who cares more about self-image (impression management) than in helping to lead a nation out of a recession.

For these reasons, my grade for Obama’s first year is: D-

References

Smallwoood, N. (2010). Obama as leader: A freshman year report card. Harvard Business Review Blog. Retrieved January 27, 2010 from http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/01/obama_as_leader_a_freshman_yea.html

Yukl, G. (2010). Leadership in organizations (7th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall.

Filed Under: Leadership, Organizational Psychology Tagged With: ,

The Arrogance of Leadership

2010 January 24 By

Last summer (while in a Psychology of Leadership class) I read about Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (A&F) and its shrinking profits due to its refusal to offer discounts on its clothing line in this recession. A&F’s position was that the discounts would water down their image of a luxury brand, especially as they’re opening up stores overseas in Milan, London, and Tokyo. So if they were to slash prices here in the U.S., A&F wouldn’t be able to maintain that air of exclusivity.

While A&F was suffering, competitors like American Eagle benefited from its missteps. It seemed (and continues to seem) that the strategy of selling high-priced clothing to tween, teens, and young adults was (and is) not proving to be very effective in this down economy.

What’s more, Wall Street analysts argued that “the luxury image is failing to resonate with consumers amid the recession.”

As I read about A&F and their dwindling profits, I wondered about its top leaders and how they exerted power. Did these leaders exert coercive power (threats of punishments) or did they have expert power (leaders who are believed to know what’s best) and eventually became too authoritarian or was it some other combination of factors? Did the CEO and other C-suite execs not heed the warnings given to them by some within their own organization or might some of the top executives have even offered a different strategy but their suggestions were tossed out?

That was last year. Now it’s “next” year, as in 2010 next year. And it seems, based on a recent projection from Aol Money & Finance that it may not be A&F’s year.

Fresh off a terrible 2009, A&F is planning to shutter all of its RUEHL stores by the end of January 2010. Designed to target the after-college demographics with a Greenwich Village-inspired decor, RUEHL struggled in a down economy due to A&F’s failure to understand consumer spending behavior and its own arrogance in refusing to offer “sales” (similar to its philosophy for the Abercrombie & Fitch stores which are also struggling).

Aol Money & Finance (quoting 24/7 Wallstreet) recently stated:

Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) posted the worst same-store sales results of any large retailer in America during 2009. Measured on this basis, volume was down between 15% and 17% in the fourth quarter. Caris & Co, the research firm, recently expressed strong doubt about how it might recover. The firm operates a number of brands including Abercrombie & Fitch, abercrombie, Hollister, and RUEHL. ANF sales dropped 15% to $765 million in the quarter ending October 31. Same-store sales were down 22% for that period. The company has 1,129 outlets and will have to retreat to its early 2007 store count of 950. In the mean time, it is hard to see how the management team at ANF keeps its jobs.

I’m no expert, but anytime you end up making anyone’s “Retailers Likely to Close Stores in 2010″ and it’s only January, that is a clear sign that the people running the show need to go.

It’s simple, when millions of people are out of work and millions of others cutting back, and your store refuses to slash its overpriced clothes, all you’ll hear are crickets chirping and the sound of silence – death knell for a clothing retailer.

References

Aol Money & Finance (2010). Retailers likely to close stores in 2010. Retrieved January 24, 2010 from http://money.aol.com/investing/big-retailers-which-may-close-or-downsize

Holmes, E. (2009). Skimpy Profits Pressure Abercrombie’s Pricing Attitude. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 24, 2010 from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125020118719130371.html

Filed Under: Leadership, Organizational Psychology Tagged With: ,

Follow Your Heart

2010 January 20 By

One of my all-time favorite quote is from Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. It was a speech given to the graduating class at Stanford University in June 2005. Jobs was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2004, the year before. Luckily, it was eradicated through surgery and he has since recovered. Below is his commencement speech:

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart…

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Filed Under: Attitudes & Emotions, Happy & Unhappy, Health & Wellness, Meaningful Work Tagged With: ,

What Really Motivates Employees

2010 January 17 By

In an article titled, “What Really Motivates Workers” in the January-February 2010 issue of the Harvard Business Review, Amabile & Kramer (2010) invited over 600 managers from dozens of companies to rank the impact on employee motivation and emotions of five workplace factors:

  1. recognition,
  2. incentives,
  3. interpersonal support,
  4. support for making progress, and
  5. clear goals

The #1 ranking of the managers was “recognition for good work.”

However, and this surprised me, from their multiyear study in which they tracked the day-to-day activities, emotions, and motivation levels of hundreds of knowledge workers in various settings, Amabile & Kramer (2010) discovered that the #1 motivator for employees is progress.

You read that right folks, the top motivation for workers is making progress.

On days when workers have the sense they’re making headway in their jobs, or when they receive support that helps them overcome obstacles, their emotions are most positive and their drive to succeed is at its peak. (Amabile & Kramer, 2010, p. 44.)

Ironically, progress was the factor ranked dead last by managers as something that motivates employees.

The researchers analyzes nearly 12,000 diary entries, along with the writer’ daily ratings of their motivation and emotions. The analysis indicated that “making progress in one’s work – even incremental progress – is more frequently associated with positive emotions and high motivation than any other workday event” (Amabile & Kramer, 2010, p. 44).

The HBR article offered this advice to managers:

Avoid impeding progress by changing goals unilaterally, being indecisive, or holding up resources (Amabile & Kramer, 2010).

How managers can help facilitate progress (Amabile & Kramer, 2010):

  • Clarify overall goals
  • Ensure employees’ efforts are properly supported
  • Refrain from exerting time pressure so extreme such that minor glitches are seen as crises
  • Cultivate a culture of helpfulness
  • Roll up your own sleeves and help out
  • Celebrate progress, even small ones

Reference

Amabile, T.M. & Kramer, S.J. (2010). What really motivates workers. Harvard Business Review, 88(1), 44-45.

Filed Under: Attitudes & Emotions, Happy & Unhappy, Leadership, Meaningful Work, Organizational Psychology, Stress, Teams, Training & Development Tagged With: , , , ,

Helping to Bring Credibility to Executive Coaching

2010 January 15 By

The profession of coaching has grown and continues to do so such that “nearly every age, occupation, and personal passion has a coach waiting to answer the call” (p. xiii). In particular, coaching is becoming a common part of an organization’s toolkit to help rank-and-file employees on up to top executives (Whitworth et al., 2007).

Much has been heralded (especially within the past several years) about coaching and its benefits. No, I’m not talking about sports coaching, but rather coaching applied to the world of business, also known as executive coaching. Because there’s no law (in the U.S.) preventing anyone from calling him/herself a “coach” or using the word “coaching,” executive coaching can sometimes seem like the old wild west. Research indicates that within the field of coaching, one of the fastest growing areas is in business (includes executive) coaching (WABC, cited in Stout Rostron, 2009).

It’s interesting to note that many who enter the coaching profession do so without any formal psychological training (Peltier, 2010). As such, they often question the need for this type of background. A 2009 Harvard study of coaching showed that only 13% of coaches believed that psychological training was necessary and almost half didn’t think it was important at all (Kauffman & Coutu, cited by Peltier, 2010).

However, the study also observed that even though coaches are only hired to help executives with personal issues 3% of the time, these same coaches, in fact, addressed a personal issue 76% of the time in coaching!

Stout Rostron (2009) maintains that while business coaches don’t need to be psychologists, they should at a minimum receive “practical grounding or ‘literacy’ in psychological theory” (p. 25).

While researching coaching textbooks, I came across the Institute of Coaching, an organization that aims to legitimize the field and practice of coaching by promoting coaching research, education, and practice. It is “dedicated to enhancing the integrity and credibility of the field of coaching.” Stout Rostron (2009) talked about the need to create empirical evidence on executive coaching and its impact. This is why I believe the existence of the Institute of Coaching will be a tremendous boost to help build that much needed credibility in the otherwise undisciplined field of coaching.

“The Institute (housed at McLean Hospital, the largest psychiatric teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School and the world’s premier psychiatric hospital) is a way to build a robust international coaching research community and to support coaching research by providing research grants and mentoring to advance the practice and profession of coaching.”

The Institute of Coaching recently launched its own membership association called the Institute of Coaching Professional Association (ICPA).

MEMBER BENEFITS

ICPA members (annual subscription fee required) have access to peer-reviewed journals, networking and educational opportunities with leaders in coaching research, coaching demonstrations, and much more. ICPA offers three levels of membership—Affiliates, Founding Members, and Founding Fellows.

All members have access to:

  • Monthly Coaching Report
  • Extensive online resources including a library of research papers, white papers on best practices and return on investment, PowerPoints on many coaching relevant topics
  • Monthly live interviews, seminars, and coaching demonstrations with coaching leaders and researchers.
  • Online journal club
  • Journal subscription to Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research & Practice
  • Discounts on IOC events and professional development seminars

SEMINARS AND INTERVIEWS

Leadership tele-seminars, podcasts, and interviews will us better understand the mindset and expectations of the business leaders. Questions include: What do corporate leaders value about coaching? What are they looking for?

COACHING DEMONSTRATIONS

Coaching demonstrations will help you see coaching skills in action and learn the answers to important coaching questions. Coaches will describe the theory and evidence-based thinking behind the interventions they offer. The goal is to use theory and research to provide much needed “legs” for the practice of coaching.

COMMENTS

For those new to the profession of coaching (especially students like me), the benefit of watching coaching demonstrations is invaluable. This is a great way to learn by watching veteran/master coaches. When I was going through my counseling program, our professors made us watch videos of master therapists/psychologists conducting sessions. It was a way to connect what we learned via books to real life scenarios.

[NOTE]: ***I am not affiliated nor am I being paid to advertise the Institute of Coaching. I am merely passing along information that I think might benefit those who seek it. Thanks.***

References

Institute of Coaching. (2010). About Us. Retrieved January 10, 2010, from http://www.instituteofcoaching.org/index.cfm?page=aboutus

Institute of Coaching. (2010). Welcome to the Institute of Coaching Professional Association! Retrieved January 10, 2010, from http://www.instituteofcoaching.org/index.cfm?page=members

Institute of Coaching. (2010). Coaching Research Network. Retrieved January 10, 2010, from http://www.instituteofcoaching.org/index.cfm?page=network

Kauffman, C., & Coutu, D. (2009). HBR research report: The realities of executive coaching.

Peltier, B. (2009). The psychology of executive coaching: Theory and application (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.

Stout Rostron, S. (2009). Business coaching international: Transforming individuals and organizations. London: Karnac.

Whitworth, L., Kimsey-House, K., Kimsey-House, H., & Sandahl, P. (2007). Co-active coaching: New skills for coaching people toward success in work and life (2nd ed.). Palo Alto, CA: Davies-Black.

Filed Under: Coaching, Executive Coaching, Leadership, Organizational Psychology, Teams, Training & Development Tagged With: , , , ,

Workplace Psychology Resource Page

2010 January 13 By

What started out as a personal mission to find the best resources for a class has resulted in the RESOURCES tab on this blog. In researching textbooks to supplement my own learning for a doctoral Consultation Psychology class, I asked professionals on LinkedIn for their recommendations as to what they considered were the best or “must have” coaching books.

What I ended up getting was a confusing mixture which included everything from executive coaching books (what I asked for) to spiritual, self-help/personal development books (not what I was asking).

However, the best response and the one that proved most helpful came from Dr. David Peterson, a Senior VP PDI Ninth House.

I also asked professors of Industrial-Organizational psychology for their input regarding which general I-O textbooks they used in their own classrooms. I combined those instructors’ recommendations with other professionals’ suggestions into the same list of I-O books. Some are geared more specifically to certain tasks under I-O (e.g, job analysis) while others are meant to serve as introductions to the field of I-O psychology.

While no list is flawless, I think the list I’ve created (thanks to the many LinkedIn professors and professionals practicing in I-O psychology, consulting, and/or coaching) will serve as a good guide.

Click on the RESOURCES page to see for yourself. It is located at the top of the WorkplacePsychology.Net blog.

I hope you find it useful. Please contact me if you have other suggestions and/or comments.

Steve Nguyen

Filed Under: Organizational Psychology, Training & Development Tagged With:

Undercover Boss and Emotional Intelligence

2010 January 11 By

A new reality TV show called Undercover Boss will soon hit the air. The idea is for top executives to go undercover by working as rank and file (ordinary) employees in their own organization. Each week a different executive will work undercover deep inside their company.

While working alongside their employees, they will see the effects their decisions have on others, where the problems lie within their organization and get an up-close look at both the good and bad while discovering the unsung heros who make their company run. -Undercover Boss website

The show is set to premier February 7, 2010 after the Super Bowl.

It seems that by helping executives become aware of what it’s like at the bottom of the ladder in their corporate hierarchy, that they would somehow become enlighten and change how they conduct business and/or run the organization.

Peter Senge says, “The quality of our leadership depends on the quality of our awareness.”

Among the leadership competencies identified, emotional intelligence is one quality that is important for effective leadership (Goleman, cited in Yukl, 2010).

Emotional intelligence is the extent to which a person is attuned to his or her own feelings and to the feelings of others and is able to integrate emotions and reason such that emotions are used to facilitate cognitive processes, and emotions are cognitively managed. – Gary Yukl

Emotional intelligence can help leaders solve complex problems, improve decision-making and time management, adapt to changing situations and better manage crises (Yukl, 2010).

So by working alongside ordinary workers, these CEOs will (hopefully) gain emotional insights into what life is like to work in that job for that company. They will gain skills to better understand what it’s like to “walk in their workers’ shoes.”

Reference

Yukl, G. (2010). Leadership in organizations (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Filed Under: Leadership, Occupational Health Psychology, Organizational Psychology, Training & Development Tagged With: , ,

Corporate Irresponsibility or Just Plain Heartless?

2010 January 7 By

My wife and I enjoy volunteering to help others. While living in Saipan (Northern Mariana Islands), we volunteered to help clean up the island and helped start a group to combat the stigma of mental illness.

Back during my college days at Baylor University, I would make my group do volunteer work. And though some of them didn’t like it at first, they thanked me for it later on. For almost two years, I volunteered at a food pantry center, cleaning and organizing can goods which would then be given to those who needed food.

It’s a great feeling knowing deep down that what you do (i.e. helping others without any financial reward) comes back tenfold in the form of emotional gifts of thanks or just knowing that you did the right thing.

So when I came across this story in the New York Times about a clothing store discarding brand new clothes rather than giving them away to those who could use them, it made me really sad and then mad.

According to the NY Times, “bags of garments that appear to have never been worn” were found at the back entrance of the H&M clothing store. What’s even more disturbing was that these unworn garments were “slashed most of them with box cutters or razors” to make sure that no one could wear them!

Not too far from the H&M store were trash bags (found the week before Christmas) with clothing tagged for sale in Wal-Mart stores. These garments had “holes punched through it by a machine” to also prevent people from being able to use them.

With phrases on the H&M’s website like corporate responsibility and text carefully crafted promising to donate clothes to charity, I wonder if these acts (they’ve happened before) of destroying unworn clothes rather than giving them away are indications of a blatant disregard for the well-being of others and a general decay in the moral fabric of our society.

Kassin, Fein, & Markus (2008) found that there are two qualities that predict helping behaviors, empathy and moral reasoning. It would seem that the companies that exhibit these heartless acts lack both the heart and the brain to care.

I’ll leave you with two questions to consider:

  1. Have we fallen so far down the hole of greed that we’ve forgotten or ignored the cries of our fellow men and women in need?
  2. What ever happened to our sense of decency and compassion?

References

Dwyer, J. (2010). A Clothing Clearance Where More Than Just the Prices Have Been Slashed. The New York Times. Retrieved on January 7, 2010 from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/06/nyregion/06about.html

Kassin, S., Fein, S., & Markus, H.R. (2008). Social psychology (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

Filed Under: Leadership, Meaningful Work Tagged With: ,

Feeling Refreshed and Back to Work

2010 January 5 By

Photo: Hammock BVI by T Dominguez

The Christmas and New Year holidays forced people who are employed to take pause in their work. Earlier today one person commented on Twitter that the tweets (what people post about) were so great that she didn’t want to sign off/log off because she was so interested.

I wondered if people’s rest due to the holiday season was the reason for this level of activity.

Binnewies, Sonnentag, and Mojza (2009) conducted a study involving 358 employees who worked with people with special needs (those who were mentally or physically disabled). I can say, based on experience, it’s a stressful area.

Two questionnaires were given six months apart. The researchers found that when people feel recovered (mentally and physically refreshed) during their leisure time their performance on the job increased.

“[H]ighly recovered individuals showed increased task performance after 6 months because they felt more capable of successfully accomplishing work-related tasks” (p. 252).

They clarified that feeling recovered during leisure time is about how much a person feels refreshed mentally and physically. This feeling of recovery (feeling recovered during leisure time) is positive compared to a need for recovery and mental fatigue. The need for recovery represents a negative recovery because a person is forced to rest due to work-related demands and/or work-induced fatigue.

Put simply, deciding to rest before you’re stressed and exhausted is a good thing.

Although this sounds like common sense, I thought it was important to cite reputable research and therefore this study was worth mentioning.

I think this quote from Ralph Marston perfectly summarizes today’s post…

Rest when you’re weary. Refresh and renew yourself, your body, your mind, your spirit. Then get back to work.

Reference

Binnewies, C., Sonnentag, S., & Mojza, E.J. (2009). Feeling recovered and thinking about the good sides of one’s work. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 14(3), 243-256.

Filed Under: Happy & Unhappy, Health & Wellness, Occupational Health Psychology, Stress Tagged With: , ,

Bad Attitudes Lead to Bad Behaviors

2010 January 3 By

Back in the 1990′s I took a vacation to Cancun, Mexico. It was a great experience. One thing I still don’t understand is why people get so dressed up when they fly. Think about it, you’re sitting uncomfortably in a seat designed for a child because any adult over 4 feet tall can attest, it’s pretty snug squeezing yourself into the seat, sometimes in between two other passengers. And let’s be honest, airline seats aren’t the cleanest. Then there’s the whole going to the restroom bit.

For all these reasons and more, I almost always wear the most comfortable clothes I have. On most days, this means t-shirt, shorts, and a pair of sandals.

On the flight from Cancun back to Houston (and then Dallas), I was lucky enough to be bumped up to first class. I forgot why, but I think the airline made some type of mistake. No worries, I was excited to be able to stretch my legs and not be packed in with the other passengers back in coach class.

Anyone who’s ever been on vacation as a tourist understands that you end up buying and wearing clothes you’ll never, ever wear again. But, at the time, it’s fun. While in Cancun, I got myself one of those cool (at least I thought so) ponchos that had “Cancun, Mexico” printed on it.

Thus, my traveling outfit that day consisted of my Cancun poncho, shorts, and sandals. I looked like a cross between the guy from the movie Sixteen Candles (the one that said “Automobile?”) and a Mexican cowboy. Looking back, I’m fairly certain I could have been nominated to be on a “make-over” TV show. I still laugh when I think back to what I was wearing that day.

But what happened once I got on the plane wasn’t so funny.

I was like a kid in a candy store. I still couldn’t believe my good fortune to be placed in first (or business) class. Proudly sporting my Cancun poncho and in my comfortable shorts and sandals, I headed to my seat and proceeded to sit down.

Still standing over my seat and just as I was about to sit down, a flight attendant came rushing down the aisle towards me and in a strong tone said, “Sir, you can’t sit here!”

I don’t remember if I was surprised or offended or both, but I smiled and responded, “Ma’am, I’m suppose to be here. This is my seat” and showed her my boarding ticket with my seat assignment.

The great thing about being bumped up to first class is that no one knows about it. So this flight attendant had no idea if I paid for my seat or if I got placed there as a free upgrade. But, that shouldn’t have mattered.

Clearly surprised, the flight attendant nodded, mumbling and stumbling over her words, apologized, and left.

Why did she apologize? Because she took one look and formed an attitude (an impression) about me and my place on the plane, which was clearly not in first class. We all do this. We see people (their appearances) and form opinions about them. Our bad attitudes will lead to our bad behaviors.

In their classic textbook titled “Social Psychology,” Kassin, Fein, & Markus (2008) found that when attitudes (our positive, negative, or mixed reaction to a person, object, or idea) are strong and specific they determine our actions. We vote based on our political opinions, we based our buying decisions on attitudes about the products, and racism is rooted in our negative feelings about a person based on their membership in certain groups.

Attitudes are important determinants of behavior. – Kassin, Fein, & Markus (2008, p. 189)

Our bad attitudes lead, not only to our bad behaviors, they also hurt our organizations in at least two important ways:

  1. Lost of revenue, and
  2. Damage to corporate image

In my case with the flight attendant, forming negative attitudes about others based on their appearances can be embarrassing (at best). But at the other end of the spectrum, you can offend customers so much that you lose them as valuable clients (or fail to maintain those customers who are loyal), and they’ll tell others about how poorly you treated them.

Suppose I wasn’t some college kid, but ran my own business or was CHRO (Chief Human Resources Officer) for a company. And the actions of this flight attendant offended me so much that not only did the airline lose me as a valued member, but I wrote a complaint letter about the incident to the airline president. What’s more, suppose I had told all my family members and friends about what happened. That didn’t happen, but let’s suppose it did.

This next story actually did happen several years ago during a car buying experience. We were so turned off by the car salesman’s condescending attitude (“Can you pay for this car?”) that we actually walked out during the negotiation process and purchased a car from a competitor. And the answer to his question was “yes” we could afford to pay, and gladly did so – to his competition.

How many of us have ever chosen to avoid dining at restaurants with a rude wait staff? How many of us have ever done business with a company because we liked the people working there and how they treated us, even if they weren’t the cheapest? I have and I bet you have too.

How to Change Attitudes

Persuasion by Communication (Change as a Result of Others)

  1. Our attitudes change based on the merits of the source (i.e., influenced by the strength & quality of the arguments).
  2. Our attitudes change based on superficial cues (e.g., if the person has a good reputation, speaks or writes well, we tend to believe and accept his/her message).

Persuasion by Our Own Actions (Change from Within Ourselves)

Sometimes when our actions deviate so far from our character and convictions (called cognitive dissonance), it causes us to want to change our attitudes.

I’ll take the cognitive dissonance example and relate it to the world of business. When leaders, managers, and/or employees act badly (behaviors) toward customers, it’s crucial to get to the root cause by examining both the individual’s and the organization’s attitudes (thinking).

When bad behaviors (toward customers and even one another) deviate so far from your corporate mission & culture, ask yourself:

Isn’t it time the entire company change its corporate attitude?

Reference

Kassin, S., Fein, S., & Markus, H.R. (2008). Social psychology (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

Filed Under: Leadership, Organizational Psychology, Training & Development Tagged With: , ,

Poor Customer Service Hurts Your Business

2010 January 1 By

One thing I always notice is how often quality is sacrificed for speed. At the local supermarket near where I live in north Dallas, they have a “self-checkout” lane that can accommodate up to six customers. For those who have never had the pleasure (I’m being sarcastic here) of using one of these “self-checkout” lanes, let me fill you in on what you are not missing out on.

Apparently, in the quest to improve customer service (and cut cost), grocery chains and even Wal-mart have created lanes that allow customers to scan their own items. In essence, the customer now becomes the unpaid employee.

The idea is fine, that is let the customer do the work while reducing the cost to hire an employee because by doing the work the customer is in control.

This is not very smart. First, your customers should never perform duties meant for employees. This is not elitist, it’s simply the idea that when I go into a store to buy a product, I should not also be forced to work as an unpaid employee.

Second (and my biggest complaint) is that the customer is not trained to perform tasks that paid employees can do. Let’s go back to the “self-checkout” lane. Maybe it’s just that I always have bad luck because these “self-checkout” lanes never work right. At first my wife thought that I didn’t know how to use them. And while it’s true that my wife is right about lots of things, it turns out that she also has trouble with “self-checkout” lanes herself.

Why?

The first problem is the annoying automated voice that speaks when it senses any item being removed from the bagging compartment without permission. Makes you feel like a second grader doesn’t it? For some reason, this bagging compartment police prevents you from scanning your next item until you put back what you took out. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to know when things are removed or placed back and will keep repeating the same message.

So, after slowing down the process (with people staring and waiting impatiently behind you), I’ll look around for some assistance (there’s always one person standing there, I think, to supervise). The “paid” employee then walks over, punches in a few codes, and then it’s back to work for the “unpaid” employee.

The second problem is that when you have an item that isn’t listed, you have to find it on the touchpad. But it isn’t always simple to find because there are different varieties of tomatoes, etc.

So, again, after slowing down the process, I’ll look around for some assistance and the “paid” employee then walks over (again), punches in a few codes, and then it’s back to work for the “unpaid” employee. You get the idea.

Call it bad luck because this insane scenario seems to happen to me 9 out of 10 times I’m in these “self-checkout” lanes. It’s rarely ever faster, and instead creates more problems and ends up wasting time (mine and the “paid” employee).

In Harvard Business Review’s “What service customers really want,” Dougherty and Murthy (2009) point out that customers are no longer putting up with “rushed and inconvenient” service that’s become commonplace in today’s business. Customers want a great experience when they come into a business establishment, whether it’s selling groceries or dry cleaning clothes. Businesses that understand this will gain customer loyalty.

In their research, Dougherty and Murthy (2009) discovered that when customers contact businesses for service (i.e., calling customer service), they want two things.

First, is the employee helping me (frontline employee) knowledgeable?

Second, will the issues I have be resolved on the first call?

Regrettably, many service centers (call centers) continue to track and measure time on hold and minutes per call just as they have done so for decades! The irony is that when companies do this, the message to the employees is to hurry up, resulting in a rushed job – exactly the kind of experiences customers hate.

On average, 40% of customers who suffer through bad experiences stop doing business with the offending company.

Companies need to allow for some flexibility. Give your employees some latitude “to meet individual customers’ needs and provide positive, satisfying experiences.” Managers should check whether the customers’ problems were resolved during first contact, find out what the true problem is (if the issue isn’t resolved in one call), and then make the change needed.

Some companies are arrogant enough to believe that irritated, pissed off customers will forgive them and come back for more. But “research indicates that, on the contrary, alienated customers often disappear without the slightest warning.”

Bottom line: Never sacrifice quality for speed. Your customers will become irritated and disappear and your business won’t have the “customer” in customer service to worry about anymore.

Reference

Dougherty, D. & Murthy, A. (2009). What service customers really want. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved January 1, 2010 from http://hbr.org/2009/09/what-service-customers-really-want/ar/1

Filed Under: Leadership, Organizational Psychology, Training & Development Tagged With: , ,