A colleague forwarded me this article, How can American Express help you?, with the comment, “Have a read of this brilliant article from Fortune, it reinforces all we advocate.”

In this interview, Jim Bush – American Express EVP of world service – talks about how they moved away from viewing service as a cost of doing business to an investment in building relationships with their customers.

Their call centre moved from a transactional, scripted environment to a conversational one that empowers their frontline to “pull out their personality” and engage with their customers.

Bush talks about the Golden Rule – treat others as you would like to be treated. At Peak Performance we take it one step further with our Platinum Rule, which recommends you treat others as they want to be treated.

Like a number of our customers, American Express uses Net Promoter Score to measure customer advocacy. Based on one question, “Would you recommend this company to a friend?” American Express is influencing their customers to influence their social circle. The strategy is paying off. Customer spending is up, attrition is down, and American Express has measured an increase in value to shareholders.

Getting customer service right can have a profound effect on the bottom line. This is why our training focuses on shifting mind-sets about customers and service, and building people’s confidence to engage authentically.

Relationship building requires basic communication skills that are often overlooked or not prioritised as highly as system or product training.

When you break it down, ‘basic’ communication has many layers: building rapport, flexing communication styles to match that of the customer, listening empathetically, asking relevant questions to truly understand, and adding value at every opportunity.

Ultimately, organisations that are genuinely customer-centric and who empower their service teams to care for their customers will eclipse those that provide
stock-standard transactions. Great service is great business.

Read more about the Net Promoter Score.

We have been conducting workshops with a client’s finance, marketing and business improvement teams as part of a major culture change initiative. As the workshops evolved, a fundamental lack of trust among team members and within other areas of the business emerged as a major problem. It showed up as an inability to ‘get things done’ – lots of activity for too few results. The cost to the business was huge.

Our client is not alone: trust, or lack of, is a big deal for many organisations. Without trust there is no personal accountability, and if we don’t have trust internally it’s very hard to build it with customers.

So what is trust and how do we cultivate it?

Lewicki and his colleagues describe trust as “an individual’s belief in, and willingness to act on the basis of the words, actions, and decisions of another.” Trust is paramount in any successful relationship. It means we are reliable and transparent; we deliver on promises and expect others to do the same.

At Peak Performance we have a Trust Equation:

Intention + Competence + Commitment = Trust

Intention is our purpose or motives and beliefs.

Competence is our ability to deliver on our promise (knowledge, attitude, skills).

Commitment is our vow to do what we promise (responsible and accountable).

Some aspects of trust are based on early impressions – we evaluate a person’s integrity and ability to do what they say they will. A deeper aspect of trust is established over time, where we factor in a person’s level of benevolence; our perception of how much they care about us and whether they would act in our interest.

A little reflection
Before you can build trust in your own team and across your organisation you need to reflect. What kind of person are you? What’s it like to work for you – especially when the pressure’s on? Are you consistent, reliable and respectful or are your team walking on egg shells?

The truth is, the kind of person you are and the way you lead others has a direct impact on the quality of your team’s work – their dedication, level of care, and inclination to go the extra mile.

Trust is organisational bedrock that is strengthened through daily doing. An insightful person referred to trust as a peculiar resource: it is built rather than depleted by use.

Steps to developing trust

There are several steps you can take to build trust in your team, which are particularly effective when performed repeatedly and in different contexts.

· Be good at what you do – strive to demonstrate that you are a safe set of hands. As others consider whether they can trust you, they will assess your qualifications and ability to perform.

· Be consistent and predictable – do what you say you will.

· Communicate openly and transparently – be clear about your intentions and motives.

· Share and delegate control – you have to give trust to get it.

· Show genuine concern for others – be respectful and avoid acting out of self interest.

Creating a culture of trust doesn’t happen overnight, but by making it a priority you’re already on the way to becoming an organisation your people and your customers can believe in.

In today’s turbulent market it makes sense to look for ways to improve the way you operate. But instead of just trying to do more with less, get smart about what you’ve got with some innovative and inexpensive assessment tools.

At Peak Performance we use the leading behaviour profiling tool iWAM (Inventory of Work Attitudes and Motivation), and Richard Barrett’s Cultural Transformation Tools (CTT), to enable leaders to actively measure and manage culture.

Here are three ways these innovative tools can be used to help organisations perform better:

1. Create a peak performance culture

Assessing your current culture and comparing it to your desired ‘peak performance’ culture can pinpoint misaligned values and issues such as bureaucracy, silo mentality, or poor communication. Slice and dice the data based on important organisational demographics so you can see what’s going on at the base level, then proactively focus on fixing the problems.

More on the Corporate Transformation Tool

2. Retain the right people in the right roles

It sounds obvious but many people lead lives of quiet desperation battling in roles they’re not naturally suited to. In challenging times you might need to make some tough calls on who stays or goes, combine teams, and need people to step up to the next level. Often during change the best people go first. It’s not all about competence and experience – attitudes and motivations have been shown as the best predictors of behaviour.

Profile your key people to better understand what makes them tick, look at their strengths and pick the best fit for the role. Make sure you have round pegs in round holes. Play to people’s strengths, use the right levers to motivate them and watch your productivity improve.

How iWAM can help you profile your key people

3. Model excellence

Imagine if the rest of your people performed like your best! What impact would it have on your organisation’s profitability? Now it’s possible to understand the motivators that make the difference in performance. In most teams there are the high performers, low performers, and everyone in between.

The iWAM tool identifies the common behavioural patterns for each performance group and highlights the patterns that are different for high performers. A model of excellence for a particular role can then be built to guide recruitment and selection, identify development needs, focus coaching and motivate people to perform at their best.

Find out more about the methodology for building a model of excellence using iWAM.

For a confidential chat about how these tools can help you get the best from your people contact us

The main presenter Roger Hamilton was very knowledgeable and charismatic and he was joined throughout the day by several other successful and equally polished business people. Roger talked about the latest mind-boggling technology and trends, or what he calls the top 10 waves, that will impact the way we live and work over the next few years:

• Artificial intelligence
• Mobile payments
• Touch screen technology
• Augmented reality
• Voice recognition
• 3D printing
• Global automation
• Hyper growth markets
• The consumer shift from ‘search’ to ‘research’
• The industry shift from ‘market share’ to a ‘shared market’
• The move from ‘information marketing’ to ‘automated, personalised service’

I admit to being blown away by the ‘futuristic’ technology that is actually available now, especially 3D printing. Wikipedia describes 3D printing, sometimes known as additive manufacturing, simply as ‘a process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital file.’ Forbes magazine explores this game changing phenomenon in its article Will 3D Printing change the world? There’s a useful ABC video story that demonstrates how it actually works and an insight into how 3D printing is being used in the medical field to build replacement body parts.

Available for a decade but now reaching a price point that makes it affordable in the home, this incredible technology will impact the whole supply chain. If you’re in design, manufacturing, retail, transport, logistics – in fact almost any industry, you want to be taking notice and considering what 3D printing will mean to your customers, their customers and your business. I know I am!

When reading the original New York Times article you might like to consider these questions:

· How do you and your people refer to clients? Hopefully not Muppets!

· Are you focused on making your people, your clients AND your organisation more successful?

· How has your culture changed over the past 2, 5, 10 years? Do you really know and is it for the better?

· Where is your culture heading and are you proactively managing it?

· As a leader, what behaviours are you role modelling?

· What ‘toxic’ behaviours might be disengaging your people and enraging your clients?

If you want to objectively understand what your people think about your culture or know there are some issues you need to address, contact us for a confidential discussion.

The extensive analysis represents results from 193 Cultural Values Assessments, 170 organisations, 139,430 participants, 29 industries and 32 countries/regions.

Desired Culture Values

The aggregated data revealed the most commonly identified desired values for a “high performing” culture are:

1. Teamwork
2. Continuous improvement
3. Customer satisfaction
4. Employee recognition
5. Open communication
6. Accountability
7. Information sharing

According to Shafer and Mills’ research many cultures are currently hindered by cost reduction, hierarchy, bureaucracy, long hours and a silo mentality.  However, people are calling for connection, transparency and feedback at work and they are asking for recognition, open communication and information sharing from their leaders and colleagues.

How closely do these values reflect your organisation? How do you know? How are you measuring and managing your culture?

For further information on this enlightening research read my summary or the full article by Shafer and Mills.

At this time of year many of us focus on our new year’s resolutions, setting or revisiting our SMART goals and planning the year ahead. We all know how important goal setting is but do you find that sometimes the process gets a bit too cumbersome?

Our strategic partner and January’s guest blogger, Ben Renshaw has a simple but powerful approach.  In our Real Leadership masterclass in Melbourne in December Ben asked us to  quietly reflect and come up with one word to guide and focus our attention in the year ahead. Growth, relationships, family, happiness were some of themes expressed.  Now back in London, Ben shares his focus themes with us in the blog below.

Ben Renshaw – Going for Gold in 2012

“I’ve just returned from six weeks down under in Australia and New Zealand. As my wife Veronica is from Auckland it has become an annual ritual, which I can’t live without! It gives me the time and space to recover from the year that’s been, and to set myself up for the year to come. One of the highlights on this trip was reading Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson – the exclusive biography. A gripping story which I couldn’t put it down (tough when you’ve got 3 kids!). Filled with countless pearls of wisdom, one of the points made which really rung true was the following:

 One of Job’s great strengths was knowing how to focus. “Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do,” he said. “That’s true for companies, and it’s true for products.”  

 I love this idea of focus as each year I decide on a theme, which becomes my guiding mantra over the days and weeks to come. 2011 was about freedom as I set out on my own personal inquiry to deepen my understanding and experience of such an illusive quest. I have decided that 2012 is all about enjoyment. In the year of our London Olympics I am going to challenge myself to make this year my best year yet and to enjoy everything I do, all of the time – a big stretch.”

What will be your winning focus for this year? Let us know!

What I like about the book is that it’s an easy read, ideal ‘inflight entertainment’ or for those few minutes you sometimes have on the train or in between meetings. It’s organised into six sections with a series of two page articles that cut to the chase with practical tips and lessons to be learned about how you can turn customers into believers. You might want to check it out at his website www.ianbrooks.co.nz.

An engaging speaker (despite the unreadable slides, tables and charts one expects from a numbers man!), Mark discussed the countless investment challenges in our uncertain global economy. It was a little unnerving to realise that even the financial experts in our successful developed country really are in uncharted territory. Like every other business leader they are doing their best to minimise the risk and make the right decisions, based on flawed and constantly changing information. 

When asked about the impact of emerging markets I was interested to note Mark’s comment that ‘cultural appreciation’ is going to be a key business priority over the next 20 years. I think that is true at a global economic level, national level and organisational level. In business, the winners will be those who embrace diversity and foster their culture as a unique competitive advantage. What do you think?