Kirsty Dunphey

Tell me your secret!!

noreply@blogger.com (Kirsty Dunphey) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:10:00 +0000

“Tell me your secret!!” said the text message from a former staff member after I wished her a happy birthday for her daughter. It came after I’d also wished her husband and son a happy birthday in the past few weeks.

She knew she must have told me her family member’s birthdays but couldn’t remember how. I reminded her of the “magic form” she’d filled in for me when she first started working for us which told me the important birthdays and anniversaries in her life as well as her favourite flowers, restaurant, chocolate etc.

Most people write down that information on day one of working with us and then, in amongst the wave of other information they get exposed to that day, promptly forget.

Then all I have to do is refer to a trusty little excel spreadsheet once a week that I keep on my desktop and I suddenly look like I have a magic crystal ball (and a fabulous memory).

Thanks to Rick Deluca for the idea and for making me look like a memory superhero.

(And don’t feel like you can only do this for new team members – I had all my staff fill it in as soon as Rick taught me the idea – there’s no time like NOW!)

Where do you come from?

noreply@blogger.com (Kirsty Dunphey) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:25:00 +0000

Some years ago I went with two girlfriends to spend a week at a health retreat. The three of us stayed in exactly the same accommodation, ate the same meals and had the same opportunities in terms of what fitness experiences or treatments we chose to partake in – and yet, each of us had a completely different week.

One friend, heavily pregnant at the time took the week to relax and rest indulging in morning tai chi, long naps and hours spent recharging. The other friend had a very emotionally introspective week with treatments and other reflective sessions. I spent the week working out till I nearly passed out, reading heaps of books and forming a growing obsession with the customer service flaws in the retreat.

Same opportunities, completely different experience because of where we each were in our lives at that time.

This week I read some feedback about a real estate agency that has now closed down stating “XXX Real Estate were the best agency I ever dealt with and it’s a shame they’re no longer in business”. Yet, I’ve had other people tell me how furious they are at this company.

Same company, two different experiences. So who’s right about what it was like to deal with that company?

Probably both parties. It may have been the different person they dealt with, but I also think it could also have been what they brought to the experience.

A person with an investment property who has had a terrible experience with a previous property manager is very likely to form a different kind of relationship with their new real estate agent (one that is less trusting, more jaded, more suspicious) than an investor who has had good previous dealings or has been referred to that agency by a fan.

A divorcing couple in the middle of a nasty break up are likely going to have a different relationship with their sales agent than a couple looking to upgrade to start a family.

What are your clients bringing to the relationship before you even have a chance to impact on them? How can you work to form relationships with them even in the most trying of situations?

Pizzazz or Perfection?

noreply@blogger.com (Kirsty Dunphey) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:56:00 +0000

I recently did a cupcake decorating class in preparation for my little girl’s

first birthday. We learned how to decorate three cupcakes, a face, a car on a

road and simple stripes.

As the fabulous instructor Sally showed us how to craft the intricate

decorations, 11 of the 12 people in the class, with the exception of a few

differing colours recreated in excruciating detail the cupcake they were being

shown how to create.

Me – I went a bit off course. Instead of stripes I had a go at a plaid pattern

(with limited success). Instead of a classic 2 box car design, I had a go at a

sportscar with a middle aged driver with a comb-over. Instead of a bun on the

head of my face, my cupcake chick had pony tails and a cheeky grin.

I laughed when I got home thinking that my performance in this cupcake class is

pretty indicative of my work attitude as well. If you want something done

exactly the same way over and over again “perfectly”. I’m not your girl. I’ll

improvise, I’ll test new ways, I’ll get stuff wrong and sometimes I’ll come up

with something brilliant.

Would I want an entire team of “me” working at my company? Not in the least.

It’d be bedlam. We need perfectionists and pizzazers (sure it’s a word)-

what’s your style?

Now… if only I could find a way to incorporate a cupcake decorating class into

my recruitment process…

Out of Office or Out of Your Mind?

noreply@blogger.com (Kirsty Dunphey) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:35:00 +0000

Each week when we send out our weekly newsletter we're inundated with replies detailing that people are "out of office".Now don't get me wrong, I love a good out of office reply, but we see some shockers here on a weekly basis.

Here's some of my least favourites.

1. The grammatically incorrect / spelled incorrectly reply. With spell check there's really no excuse.

2. The too brief reply. We got one simply saying "On leave <> - cheers". There's no space limit on most out of office systems - give a little more.

3. The reply that only lists a phone contact. If someone's chosen to email you, please, give them an alternate email contact (it's clearly their preferred method of contact).

4. The expired date. This one kills me. Joe is out of the office until 21 December (only it's 24 December now!) If you're going to put an out of office on - diarise to take it back off again!

5. The no end date. "I'm out of the office from 4.30pm Thursday". Until???

Out of offices I've loved:

Greetings and I hope you are well.

Just letting you know that I will be away on leave for the next few weeks and that my dedicated Finance Manager <> will continue to manage all matters during this time.

<> is fully across and briefed on all current and potential client needs so please feel free to call him on <> or email him on <> should you require any assistance.

My fellow Directors <> and <> will also be supporting <> during this time with any new or additional property investment finance or home loan needs.

Thanks for your continued support and I will be in touch on my return.

Regards,
John
<>

Hi there,

I trust that you are well!

I am currently on Annual Leave until the 20th June.

I will be clearing my inbox every 3 days. However if there is any urgent issue please call my mobile on +61 418 878 901

Take care and we will chat soon!

Many Thanks
Tina
<>

and my favourite for sales people that I've been mentioning in talks for years (and yes, I still love seeing it come across our inbox)

Hi,

As a salesperson I'm away from my desk for much of the day showing properties, dealing with clients and signing contracts.

It's my policy to check emails twice a day, but if you need me more urgently, please feel free to call me on my mobile <>.

I look forward to talking with you soon!

best wishes,
<>

Will your out of office be forgettable or useful? Embarrassing or memorable? Helpful or painful?

Would you invest in these guys?

noreply@blogger.com (Kirsty Dunphey) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:31:00 +0000

So, these guys walk into your office and ask you to invest in their fledgling company. What do you think? First impressions?

If your answer is - I love pocket protectors and facial hair you'd be onto a winner. You'd have just invested in the original Microsoft team (see a fresh faced Bill in the bottom left hand corner?)

Now while this is clearly an old photo - it goes to remind me that first impressions aren't everything.

If you're going to a job interview, am I recommending wide lapels and orange tones? Probably not.

But if you're conducting a job interview, am I recommending you look past initial first impressions? Absolutely. I wrote in my book Retired at 27 If I can do it anyone can about a fabulous former employee who I didn't call back after a not so great first impression in a group interview (she was shy and faded into the background). Strangely, the next day she was in our office for a day's trial. I was confused. Turns out the girl I'd meant to call back had the same name as the girl who'd shown up. Not wanting to be rude we let the unexpected candidate work her trial and at the end of the day every team member she worked with insisted we hire her. First impression - not stellar. Lasting impression - Kim was and is one of the more exceptional young ladies I've ever worked with.

Where do you need to look past the first impression today?

Positively Pervasive

noreply@blogger.com (Marjorie) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:23:00 +0000

"I am staying positive," she said to me adamantly. I've been saying things to myself all day like "it can't get any worse than this!"

I wish that was some sort of a punch line, but the girl I was speaking to believed wholeheartedly that this statement represented her being “positive”.

She didn’t realize that it’s really difficult to phrase a positive statement around negativity.

It's like trying to motivate yourself to lose weight by saying that you want to be less fat today than you were yesterday. It's like trying to get positive about your education by saying you want to be less stupid.

I wrote in my book Retired at 27, If I can do it anyone can about keeping a journal of the high point of my day. Nothing else other than a one sentence statement indicating the high point of my day. I kept a journal for 3 years until seeing the high point became habit and something I could easily do.

I recommended it to a friend going through a hard time and then I saw her journal. Written on the front was “It’s good news week…. It can’t get any worse”. Arghgh!

I’ve been in a rut before where the world seems like it’s falling down around me. We all have. But I can assure you, fueling your mind with negativity ‘aint going to break you out of that rut.

We’ve all done the exercise where you close your eyes and try to pick everything blue around you (if you haven’t, do it now). Now open your eyes and all you can see is blue – pens, the sky, clothing. Your mind will gravitate towards what you focus on. What are you choosing to focus on?

So where to from here? Maybe each night when sharing dinner with a loved one, you share the high point of your day. Maybe you tweet it to the world or to me - @kirstydunphey. Maybe you email it to a friend. Recognise the highs, the positive moments and I assure you, they may start small and less frequent, but by choosing your focus there will be more and more to focus on.

Hold the line…

noreply@blogger.com (Marjorie) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 11:24:00 +0000

I called Towns Shearing (an independent real estate agency in my home town of Launceston) today and was greeted by an extremely professional voice on the phone asking me if I wouldn’t mind holding for just a moment. Having started on the phones in a real estate agency I understood that she was likely fielding multiple calls and so I replied that I wouldn’t mind holding.

As soon as I was placed on hold I realised that I might do better just to call the agent I was after on his mobile and so I hung up the phone and did that, connecting with him straight away.

Surprisingly though, when I got off the phone to that agent I had a voice mail message from Daisy (the professional voce who had put me on hold only minutes earlier). On finding that I’d hung up, Daisy had called me back (their phone system had showed my number) to offer service.

While I had already had my enquiry dealt with and didn’t need to call Daisy back I was blown away by this extra level of service. How often have you left an organization superbly impressed after being asked to “hold the line”?

It’s not you… it’s me.

noreply@blogger.com (Kirsty Dunphey) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 23:26:00 +0000

So I got broken up with this week. Dumped. I’m even a little heartbroken.

Don’t worry – my marriage isn’t in jeopardy. A client broke me up with me.

I say “broke up with me” instead of “fired me” because I’m being dumped not because of anything I’ve done. The client still loves us. They’re not going to another service provider. They’ve just had a change in circumstances.

Now, I could present a wealth of service strategies on what to do to win back a client who is firing you, but I had to pause when I thought of what to do with the client who was simply ending our relationship with a “it’s not you, it’s me”.

So here’s the approach I took and I kind of based it on how I’d like someone to treat me if they actually broke up on me:

Step 1. I took it like a champ. I let the client know how disappointed I was, but that I understood their reasons behind their decision.

Step 2. I took a step back. I reflected on their reasons and offered a creative solution to work around their current situation. While I wasn’t sure it would work (it didn’t in this case) I was sure my effort would be appreciated (it was, with the client responding with “Thanks for always trying to work out a mutually beneficial solution though - it's really impressive”).

Step 3. I didn’t make the break up unnecessarily hard or convoluted. In short, I didn’t try and create any unnecessary hurdles to the client leaving. I made the transition as easy for them as possible. Why? Because they’ve now just reverted from being a current client to… a future client.

They’re back on my prospecting list and as much as it took me 2 years to get them on board in the first place, I’ll keep working until they’re a current client again.

Stay tuned.

Confidence is the ultimate sexy

noreply@blogger.com (Kirsty Dunphey) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 04:32:00 +0000

Kia Orana (Hello, welcome in Cook Islands Maori).

I recently visited the tiny island of Aitutaki in the Cook Islands. There I saw a local show highlighting the culture of Aitutaki in dance, singing, drumming and great humour.

Watching the tiny kids dance was a highlight and it’s fabulous to see that the gorgeous Polynesian culture here is being maintained and appreciated. The most interesting thing for me however was an older female solo dancer later on in the night.

As she walked to the middle of the raked sand performance area I noted that by “traditional” standards she wouldn’t have been someone that I would have rated as show-stoppingly gorgeous. As she started to dance I felt a shudder go through me as I watched her less than flat stomach start to roll and gyrate. Instantly I placed myself in her position and knew that were I clothed as such, and dancing as such, I’d be wrought with fears of what people were thinking of my stomach, my thighs, my arms.

Mere seconds into her performance however I realized that the entire crowd had hushed – the first time for the evening. All eyes were on this solo dancer. Unlike many performances, she maintained next to no eye contact with the audience - she was lost in the dance. A knowing smile beamed from her lips and with every hip sashay, booty shake or divine hand movement she exuded the utmost confidence and conviction. She was incredible. Right then and there she was perhaps the single most gorgeous and sexy creature I’d ever seen.

How did she go from someone I wouldn’t have looked at twice to someone utterly captivating? Confidence. Skills. Conviction.

How does a young real estate agent go from someone you’d be hesitant to lend your car to, to someone you’d feel confident handling the sale of your biggest asset? Confidence. Skills. Conviction.

How can you start to inspire more ease in your clients and more desire to be around you as a business person (or even just a person for that matter!) You know the answer.

I don’t know?

noreply@blogger.com (Kirsty Dunphey) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 11:01:00 +0000

I don’t care how smart, talented, trained or educated you are, in your professional life time and time again, you’re going to be hit with questions to which you don’t know the answers.

A real estate agent showing a house will be asked about the energy efficiency of an appliance, or an accountant will be asked about an obscure tax law, a police officer will be questioned about a portion of legislation they’re not familiar with.

And many of us will feel a sinking feeling when we’re asked that tricky question. No one likes to say “I don’t know”.

So my advice – don’t.

Instead say… “Is that important to you?”

For example, a real estate agent showing a house is asked what type of insulation is in the roof. Reply – is that important to you? Oftentimes the is “not really” – people are just filling space with conversation and asking may save you a random fact finding hunt over something of no importance to the person asking the question. If however the answer was – Yes, my son has allergies to XXX you could reply – ok, I’ll find out and let you know and you’re further educated as to why the person wants that information and can more specifically track down the correct answer.

Or perhaps try… “Great question, let me find out for you”

Rather than, I don’t know, this leaves the person with a little pat on the back (for a great question) and provided you do what you say you’re going to (find out the answer) you’re golden.

You might try… “Judy in our organisation is our specialist on that, let me find out her thoughts”.

An easy way to retain credibility and to make the person feel as though you’re valuing their question by seeking counsel from someone who is a “specialist”.

So let’s ban “I don’t know”, but recognise that the other fabulous thing about feeling the “I don’t know” dread is that next time you’re asked that question – you’ll know!

Sweep the floor with service…

noreply@blogger.com (Kirsty Dunphey) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 20:49:00 +0000

As I write this I’m visiting the spectacular Cook Islands. We’ve just had a visit from the complex’s handyman as our air-conditioning was making a bit of a strange noise.

He arrived, fixed the problem and went on his way. I thought it was strange as he disappeared as he didn’t even say he was done and was leaving.

But then he returned, and where his ladder had been, he started to sweep. There had been some minute dust and debris knocked as he was doing his work and he swept the floor beautifully clean. With a smile and a wave he was then done.

Simple, thoughtful service that made a lasting impression. His sweeping, was a clean sweep in the service stakes on this trip so far.

In my industry: real estate, this might be as simple as offering to take your shoes off at any front door you come to. A hairdresser might offer every client a drink while they’re having their hair done. A waitress might take time to get to know a child by name.

What can you do today that charms, surprises and delights?

Attention Detention

noreply@blogger.com (Kirsty Dunphey) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 08:47:00 +0000

This morning my husband was getting my little girl out of bed as I walked past the door to her room half asleep and groggy. Moments later – tears.

Confused I walked back into the room only to discover I was in fact the cause of the tears.

As I’d walked past the doorway my little girl had seen me and had sent a huge smile my way. Without any acknowledgement from me as I disappeared – tears ensued.

After revelling in my parenting fail and smothering my tiny one in masses of kisses it hit me that

I’m guilty of doing a similar thing in the workplace at times.

Despite knowing that how many people need praise and recognition in a workplace – I’m sometimes a blur of emails and tasks and instructions.

When was the last time you stopped to acknowledge someone in your workplace? A smile, a moment or a word of praise missed might not result in tears in your workplace (who knows it might if missed too often), but think of the added benefits to the working atmosphere if you remembered to do it more often.

Who needs your attention right now?

noreply@blogger.com (Kirsty Dunphey) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 00:28:00 +0000

If you haven’t read Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeir Hansson yet – go buy a copy, it’s simple and brilliant and has made me significantly rethink a lot of the way I do business. Page 70 Rework of says “Build half a product, not a half assed Product.”

I love this statement and the simple truth around doing a smaller portion of work well rather than trying to be everything to everyone. It’s the reason our real estate agency Elephant Property does one thing – residential property management – instead of trying to do commercial and sales and 5 other things half assedly.

It’s the reason ReallySold just helps real estate agents write better ads. The original concept that spawned ReallySold started as a website that offered about 60 different training and assistance features to real estate agents. As I was going through the planning stages for my behemoth real estate training site, the component that helped agents write awesome ads was the 1 in the 60 that I was the most excited about. It could also be implemented quickly and done well. In that instance I built 1/60th of a product – but it was the right choice.

Are you trying to do too much? What’s are you best at? What can you astoud and wow people by doing? What can you be a rock star at?

Taboo Topics

noreply@blogger.com (Kirsty Dunphey) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 23:59:00 +0000

My husband and I were playing a lively game of Taboo last night with his parents. For those of you who don’t know the game, you’re given a key word and without using certain related words your job is to get your partner in the game to guess the key word. (ie: if the word is “shower” you couldn’t say “rain”, “wash”, “bath”, “water” or “gifts”).

The great thing about Taboo is that it forces you to think really quickly and you often end up saying amusing things. Like the time a friend’s clue to her partner was “what I would get done if I was going to have any work”. The answer (correctly) – “Nose Job”.

After much giggling at some of the terrible hints we were all giving, my father in law Bob, paired with my husband picked the word “property”. Bob’s initial clue was a great one – “Kirsty deals primarily with this”. My husband’s guesses fired out in machine gun like manner “Business... Complaints… People”.

Eventually they got to “property” – but I was a bit taken back at what my husband thinks I primarily deal with!

Business and people – no worries there. Complaints though! Later I asked him – why did complaints feature so highly on his list. They certainly wouldn’t feature highly on the list I’d create for myself in terms of what I primarily dealt with.

Do I deal with complaints? Absolutely – property management comprises a lot of conflict resolution. But even though they’re not a large component of my day, it was apparent from my husband’s front of mind that they’re what causes me grief outside of work. As it turns out – complaints are what I bring home from work.

As excited as I might be about the new record rental price we’ve received, what I talk about at home instead is the tenant who is unhappy that their rental property is going to be marketed for sale. Rather than talking about how delighted I am at a staff member’s result on an exam, I’ll bring up an unflattering review.

It was a pretty startling realisation for me that:

a) I’m not focussing enough on our successes

b) That I might be a bit myopic when it comes to focussing on any perceived conflict or complaint

A great lesson for me and a hopefully my husband will answer the question differently in the future with a change of perspective from me.

Thanks Steve

noreply@blogger.com (Kirsty Dunphey) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 23:44:00 +0000

I took a moment to pause early on the 6th of October (Australian time) to thank Steve Jobs. I was so saddened to hear of his passing.

Fittingly I thought, my next steps were to tweet about it on my iphone before sitting down to type this blog on my MacBook Pro.

That said: it’s not just the “things” I’ve been playing with for 20 years that I’m thankful for.

Here was a man who showed us all how something functional could be gorgeous and designed to make us marvel.

Here was a lifelong learner who showed us that you don’t always need a formal education to succeed (Steve dropped out of Reed college).

Here was a flexible creator who also brought us Woody and Buzz from Toy Story.

Here was a business leader who showed us how to build a company with such a culture and verve.

Here was a tenacious character who showed us that it’s never too late if you love it when he clawed his way back into Apple after being fired.

Thank you thank you thank you and farewell.

The Real Prize…

noreply@blogger.com (Kirsty Dunphey) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 09:58:00 +0000

I love a business award for so many reasons.

Much of my “profile” has come from winning the Telstra Australian Young Business Woman of the Year (about a 63 and a half years ago when I was still one of the youngest people in our organization – today at 32, I’m the oldest in my office).

Our real estate agency Elephant Property was just named the Real Estate Institute of Tasmania’s Property Manager of the Year. It’s a significant award where we were up against much larger companies, companies that have been in business much longer than ours and companies that were named like real estate agencies are “meant to be” named after amusing surnames - c’mon you know you’ve thought that about L. J. Hooker before! (This is said with much love to the many awesome people I know working at L. J. Hooker!)

The best part about winning this award for me? Was it the added credibility winning a great award gives your company – or the boost to our team morale – or the great fodder for press releases – or the amazing people we’re sure to meet competing for the national award – or the congratulations coming in from our clients?

It was actually a text from one of my business partners. She’s been doing an amazing job lately working long hours, pushing herself out side her comfort zone and trying to fit that in with being a great mum and wife (she was 7 months pregnant when we started the company!)

Her text simply said that winning the award helped her realize that what we’re working towards was worth some of the short term sacrifices we’ve been making along the way and that she hadn’t been able to get the smile off her face since she heard the news of the award.

What a great prize.

Who does your taxes?

noreply@blogger.com (Marjorie) — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 10:46:00 +0000

Louis the weedy tax accountant is my favourite character in the classic 80’s film Ghostbusters.

At the end of the film after the big marshmallow man bites the dust and the roof is pretty blown off the central park adjacent building – Louise is rescued by the Ghostbusters.

Louis: Who are you guys?

Dr Ray Stantz: We're the Ghostbusters.

Louis: Who does your taxes?

The world is half up in smoke, a giant man made of confectionary had just caused havoc in the streets and he’s just been trapped inside a crispy underworld dog and yet Louis never misses an opportunity to prospect for new business.

When was the last time you asked someone – Who does your taxes? (Or your hair, or services your car, or gives you personal training)

Roadblock on your road to glory?

noreply@blogger.com (Kirsty Dunphey) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 10:07:00 +0000

I was recently emailed by a young lady who has set up her own charitable endeavour and has hit some pretty substantial roadblocks. She was unsure where to go from here and was after some advice.

My first piece of advice: EVERY endeavour hits roadblocks.

Some prime examples:

•the Frisbee took 9 years to “take off” (excuse the pun) – invented in 1948 it wasn’t a hit till 1957

•Velcro inventor and engineer George de Mestral spent a decade perfecting his invention before he made a sale

•Karl Elsener invented something you probably have in your home today – a Swiss army knife – but it took him 13 years to find a market for his product and he was bailed out by friends and family several times over

•In my own life even just looking at one area – financing - I’ve been:

◦Knocked back for finance on my first business

◦Knocked back for finance on my first investment

◦Knocked back by a potential investor

It’s note the presence of the road block that’s the issue, it’s what how you choose to address it. Bruce Lee speaks about being “like water” if water encounters an obstacle it just flows around it.

How can you flow? How can you adapt? What questions do you need to ask yourself to move around your road block?

Good luck to Olivia in finding your way around/over/through your road block!

I'll have... nothing

noreply@blogger.com (Kirsty Dunphey) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 10:31:00 +0000

Mid 2011 I made the decision to travel with a girl friend and daughter on a cruise for 12 nights through the Greek Isles. Around Croatia my 7 month old little girl decided the cruise seemed like the most appropriate time to cut her first two teeth! Teething woes aside it was a sensational trip and the second time I've been fortunate enough to see part of the world on a cruise ship.

My friend and travelling companion had never experienced the gastronomical delights that cruising has to offer and by the time we got to the fourth course, dessert, each night she was full past her eyelids and always declined the spectacular offerings. Mid cruise Ricky, our waiter whose home country was the Philippines, questioned my friend when it was time to order dessert querying: "Are you sure you want nothing?" "Nothing" she said absolutely resolute. As each dessert for the 7 other people on the table arrived, Ricky cheekily put it down in front of my friend before whisking cheesecake, profiteroles, bomb alaska, ice cream, parfait and more off to their rightful owners.

One more time he asked "Are you sure you want nothing?". "Absolutely" was the reply. With a grin on his face Ricky placed the platter below in front of my friend to uproar and laughter from our table.

This lovely display of wit and charm was just one of many examples of fabulous service mixing with real personality that we experienced during this cruise.

I've eaten at so many extremely formal restaurants where the service has been impeccable but distanced. On this ship I got to know the personality behind so many of the staff and it made the experience so much more full and valuable. We met Ganna a waitress from the Ukraine who, in her home country, was an english professor at a university and yet earned 15 times more per year waitressing on the ship. We met staff from all over the world working away from loved ones and children. My little girl had about 50 or so adopted aunts and uncles who all welcomed her back overjoyed each time we were on their part of the ship. Congratulations to Princess Cruise Line for empowering their staff to be able to relate to the guests on such a real and personal level.

It made me wonder how able my team would feel to be able to convey (when appropriate) their true personalities, history and stories when interacting with our clients. There's a time and place for formal and respectful, but oh boy did personable and real make an impact on me in the Greek Isles.

All the gourmet stuff has mould on it!

noreply@blogger.com (Kirsty Dunphey) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 11:47:00 +0000

“It’s fine – all the gourmet stuff has mould on it” exclaimed a friend’s boss.

“Not bacon!” my friend (the employee) countered.

Clearly there were some differences in what was deemed appropriate behaviour between leader and employee here!

I wrote an email to someone today discussing the various challenges of stepping up to a leadership role. In my mind, most people promoted into leadership roles go in fairly unprepared for the struggles they’ll face.

How do you find the happy medium between cost saving and safety (mmm… moldy bacon!)

How do you find the perfect balance of being friendly with those you manage without losing their respect for their leader if you’re too familiar.

How do you set an example for them to follow on the days when you feel like crawling under your desk and putting a huge sign on your door that you’ve gone to Jamaica!

In my first staff management role (excruciatingly detailed in my book Advance to Go, Collect $1 Million) I was such a brilliant first time manager that all my staff (housemaids at the motel I was managing) up and quit on me within 2 weeks!

While I don’t think I’ve come close to perfecting the role of being a manager or leader within an organization each misstep I make (and we all make them) helps me refine and improve my technique.

5 things you can do to improve your leadership performance:

· Find a way for your team to give you feedback on how they think you’re doing (anonymous performance reviews work well in my experience and while they’re a little daunting the info received can be so valuable)

· Remember back to your previous leaders in the workplace. Who did you admire the most and why?

· Find a way to recognize your staff in a meaningful way – simply finding out what their favourite chocolate bar is might be a start!

· Take stock on what leadership training you’ve actually done – what’s your ongoing formal education plan for leadership (after all we can't have YOU developing mould!)

· Take a great leader out to lunch. Find someone you know has the respect of their team and take them out to lunch and probe them with all sorts of meaningful questions on what works for them (and what hasn’t in the past!)

The One Star Review

noreply@blogger.com (Kirsty Dunphey) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 13:11:00 +0000

I was recently asked (most flatteringly) to give the opening address for a former staff member who has just opened his own real estate agency. As the words tumbled out of my mouth: “I’ve known Richard since his first day in real estate, I’ve seen him get his first listing, make his first sale, receive his first glowing testimonial.” It was at this point Richard with his trademark smile and honesty interjected with “She also saw me get my first complaint!” The audience laughed, and so did I.

Complaints, especially in service based industries like real estate are a common occurrence. Obviously great players attempt to minimise them, but I’ve always been of the opinion that when a complaint occurs, it shouldn’t be something you dread or push under the rug. It should be something that highlights a service or procedural error that you can improve on going forward. It's something that can make you better at what you do.

Saturday
5 days before the launch I’d gone out on a lovely romantic dinner with my husband to celebrate the day upon which 8 years ago he’d proposed to me. We arrived home around 10.20pm, Saturday and I checked my phone to find a text message from one of my business partners informing me that there was an unfavourable review posted on our facebook site.

I logged on to facebook straight away. After reading the review I texted the two staff members who may have been involved and heard back from them within minutes. From there I spent the next hour in repair mode.

The review gave us one star (this alone was mortifying for me when every other review on our facebook page had given us 5 stars). It stated that the person had called our office and hadn’t had their phone call returned in a reasonable time.

Devastatingly two of the reviewer’s friends had commented on the review already and it had only been up a matter of hours. That’s the power and the curse of instant social media beautifully illustrated. If 2 of his friends had felt they needed to comment, how many others had already seen it and not commented and how many had seen it just by looking at our page.

My first step was to comment on the review that I was looking into the situation and would be in touch soon. I also left my direct email address on that comment. I then went to the person’s facebook page and directly messaged them again stating that I was doing my best to get all the details and there I gave my direct mobile and email address and asked for some more details on the situation so that I could appropriately respond.

From there an email went out to all potential staff involved and all business partners as an update and a request for more information from those involved.

Sunday
Sunday morning I heard back from the complainant with the details. His frustration was completely justified, we had not gotten back to him in an appropriate time and I let him know where I was at in my investigations, I let him know he had been heard and that I was just waiting on a few more pieces of information to not only find out how he’d been left without contact, but also to resolve the enquiry he’d contacted us with. I told him when he'd next hear from me.

Monday
8.30am – I had the information he required from us that he was after in his initial phone call to the office and had that side of the situation resolved fairly quickly.

By midday I also had an explanation as to how the return of his call had been delayed. We’d had a staff member away from the office on medical grounds and this contributed to the delay. However, most importantly, when I relayed this to the complainant, to me the most vital thing was that I let him know that these were the circumstances surrounding the issue, but they were by no means an excuse. Every office is busy, every office has people away sick and every office should have appropriate means in place to deal with these everyday occurrences so that the experience to the customer is seamless.

In damage control mode I wanted to make sure that while I was working on resolving this issue that the unfavourable review wasn’t the first someone saw when they looked at our reviews page. As such I asked a number of clients if they'd feel comfortable in reviewing our services on the page and quickly we had a couple of lovely reviews from very happy clients showing at the top of the page. Now, back on to resolving my one star.

Tuesday - Wednesday
I went to the office in question so that I could speak to the staff members involved and conduct some training based on the feedback we’d been provided. I kept contact with the complainant informing him of the training I was doing and the progress we were making in attempting to have delays of this sort not be an ongoing issue.

Thursday
I touched base a final time with the complainant to make sure he was 100% happy with the way I’d handled the issue. When he replied that he was, I asked if he felt comfortable removing the review. His reply was that I’d gone to a lot of trouble and he was happy to remove his review. He was extremely reasonable the entire time I dealt with him. And my final follow up to this gentleman will be to pop something in the mail to him next week thanking him for his feedback and for helping us become a better service company.

Ultimately, with social media, you can typically find ways to remove unfavourable posts and reviews by deleting them. For me that was never an option. If I couldn’t find a way to resolve this issue for the gentleman so that he felt comfortable deleting the review himself, I would have left it there (as sad as that would make me).

Was it a lot of work to go to get him to delete the review? Yes, it was quite a big investment in my time.

Was it worth it? Absolutely. It highlighted an aspect of my business that I wasn’t aware of and that needed addressing.

I’d go as far as to say that I’m grateful for the complaint because of the flaws in our service delivery that were easy to address and rectify that it illuminated.

The next time you get a complaint – will you see it as an opportunity to get discouraged or an opportunity to improve?

Dadpreneur: myth or man?

noreply@blogger.com (Kirsty Dunphey) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 00:05:00 +0000

I recently wrote a blog about my experiences combining my most recent adventure (motherhood)with my ongoing passion for business. A bit daunted with the slightly different take to what I usually blog on I sent it to some fabulous working mums I know to proof and give me their opinions.

A fabulous entrepreneur and mum – Tina Tower from Begin Bright wrote back and some of her comments really stuck with me.

Tina wrote: “A notable change is before in media I could be referred to as a 'young gun woman in business' where as now I get 'Mumpreneur' in everything! I figure I am showing my sons that a woman can be good Mum, a good wife and have great self fulfillment through running companies. The balance I find is never perfect, (you) just have to do what works best for you and family.”

Tina hit the nail on the head with the balance aspect that I’m struggling to find now. The other thing that struck me when Tina mentioned “Mumpreneur” is that I hear that term a lot these days, but didn’t think I’d ever heard the term “Dadpreneur”.

Take Donald Trump: like him or loathe him, I find one of the most amazing things about the Donald is that he seems to have raised his children with an amazing work ethic and appreciation for education. Where other children growing up in households of great wealth have gone off the rails or live out their days on trust funds, Ivanka and his other children impress me with their business nouse and what appears to be extreme level headedness. That said, can you imagine anyone describing Donald Trump as a “Dadpreneur”?

So my next challenge was to find an out and proud Dadpreneur.

Facebook search asked me if I meant “mompreneur”… hrm… not encouraging. Twitter’s @dadpreneur is an inactive user… back to the drawing board there.

So, I googled “Dadpreneur” and the top links were to a blog that hadn’t been updated since 2008 and a website that didn’t work.

Link number three however was more encouraging and was an article about Chris Pegula’s (@chrispegula) business “Diaper Dude” (making nappy bags Dad’s want to be seen with) and on top of being a spunk, Chris is a father of three with a nifty looking website who’s getting some great press right now.

Dadpreneur found! And while it’s unlikely Bill Gates (father of three Jennifer, Rory and Phoebe) is ever going to be described as a “Dadpreneur” they’re out there.

Now… as to how I’ll feel if I start getting described as a “Mumpreneur”… we’ll have to cross that bridge when and if we come to it!

The Bachelor vs The Applicant

noreply@blogger.com (Kirsty Dunphey) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 09:51:00 +0000

I’ve unashamedly said on many occasions before that one of my guilty pleasures is trashy reality television. Survivor, Amazing Race,
the Apprentice – I’m hooked.

My current outlet from reality through reality television is “The Bachelorette”. For those of you with far more varied and interesting lives than I (who haven’t watched this show) it’s one bachelorette with a whole bunch of potential suitors. Each week the bachelorette eliminates men until at the end (after the grand sum of around 8 weeks), she’s left with someone who, in most cases, proposes marriage. Not surprisingly the success rate from this show, in terms of relationship longevity, isn’t great.

What I’ve always found so fascinating is that there’s only ever one star of the show – the Bachelor or Bachelorette - and yet almost all the people brought in to “date” this person seem to fall head over heels in love. Unrealistic? Absolutely.

My theory is that people are instinctively competitive and want to “win” the show and in competing, they manufacture emotions that perhaps aren’t as strong as they would be if they’d just met the bachelorette at a club one night. That or people out and out lie about their feelings to stay longer on the show.

It reminds me, in some ways, of a heated job interview. 20 candidates vying for one job at a company. In most cases the employer does the interviewing. They ask the questions. They decide whether the employee is right for them.

To me, a longer lasting relationship might be gained if the employee (respectfully) does some interviewing of their own to find out if they feel the company is also right for them.

An employee employer relationship is similar in so many ways to a romantic relationship (albeit a bit of a twisted one!) Is it realistic to expect that you’ll find job-love if you don’t do your homework as well?

noreply@blogger.com (Kirsty Dunphey) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 14:36:00 +0000

I’m so sorry I had no idea who you were…

A few years ago I was introduced to someone “important”. He was “important” due to all that he’d achieved in his career – some fairly impressive accolades. I was excited to meet him.

He was… less excited to meet me. We were introduced, he briefly said hi and then left while I was mid sentence to talk with someone “more important” than I.

I was a little disappointed, but, thems the breaks right? Not everyone is going to want to have a yack. I soon got over it.

The next day, I got on stage and gave the speech I’d been flown into the country to perform for the organization this important fellow worked for. Later that day Mr. “Important” asked to take me aside. Suddenly – he was excited to talk to me. He even went so far as to apologise for his rudeness the day before. He said “I’m so sorry, I had no idea who you were”. He didn’t realize I was the guest speaker. He didn’t realize I was “worthy” of his time.

I worked with this company for many years and never formed a close relationship with this chap. In that initial interaction he’d told me so much about himself. When he thought I was no-one, I wasn’t even worthy of a minute of his time. When he thought I was important, suddenly I was worth common courtesy and more.

It's been a great lesson to me over the years that every person I interact with no matter how "important" others might think they are deserves my attention, my respect, my common courtesy.

Breast Foot Forward (the mummification of Kirsty)

noreply@blogger.com (Kirsty Dunphey) — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 00:28:00 +0000

No you did not….

Surely it was over the phone….

In person! Are you serious? That would have been enough for me to walk.

My friend (a sensational working mum) was aghast. In fact, so was I, at what I was telling her.

I’d just made a job offer to someone, in person, face to face… while breastfeeding my child.

One minute I’m an entrepreneur who’d rather hold a meeting than a close friend’s child and the next I’m this hybrid businessperson/manic mother whose attempts at multitasking today included:

- trying to feed my child while sitting in the driver’s seat in a drive-through car wash (note this was not successful: the car wash was very exciting to the tiny child)

- creating from instructions on the internet (because I couldn’t wait for postage from the States) my very own hands free breast pumping bra – so that I can use both hands to type while listening to the rhythmical whirr of the pump (one sports bra destroyed, but it works surprisingly well)

- and the aforementioned feeding of the child whilst making an offer to a candidate to come and work with us

Now in my defense, the person to whom I made the job offer had the option to see me today with child or tomorrow without and chose today and I have known her for some years. But ask me 3 years ago if I’d ever do what I did today and you’d have been met with a laugh and a scoff.

A mummy was something I travelled to Egypt to see, not something I was. Maternal instinct extended to me being exceptionally proud of my former staff when they started their own businesses, not something that would have me screaming in my sleep at my husband to stop rolling over lest he squash the baby (who does not and has not ever slept in our bed). Work-life balance meant having a fabulous husband who was fine with me working long hours or travelling when required, not dealing day to day with “mother’s guilt”. (NB: For those of you unaware of mother’s guilt – it seems to be the pretty commonplace fear that when you’re at work you should be with your child and when you’re with your child that you should be at work).

In my life I’ve done some things that others might see as being difficult. I’ve started businesses from age 15, bought and sold companies, worked with over 100 staff, owned over 40 properties and yet the most difficult challenge I’ve faced thus far is how to retain myself, my goals, my dreams, my business aspirations and to mesh them seamlessly with all I want to be as a mother (and believe me I want to do it to the best of my ability) to this tiny human who has come into my life.

Sometimes I write blogs when I’ve figured something out and want to share what I’ve learned. Not the case today. I’m simply writing to applaud the mothers that have worked with me previously and done amazing jobs at work and at home – I didn’t understand what you were going through – I’m only just beginning to see it now.

I’m also writing to thank my friends who are mothers for their help in working through these exciting and challenging times with me. You are my mentors. You help me see what’s possible, what’s not and what’s really important.