Businesses with customer service staff might have recently employed Generation Z (yes, we’ve moved on from Gen Y) during the July holidays from school and university. Young people with limited skills, experience and/or knowledge about the businesses might have been given the responsibility to influence whether customers buy, recommend the offering or simply walk away.

Yet dealing with the public is a difficult job that requires a high degree of emotional intelligence, creative problem-solving and exceptional communication skills.

In a world where internet shopping erodes significant chunks from companies’ bottom lines, and where news travels at the speed of Twitter, it’s time to stop and ask, “What am I doing to equip my frontline staff with what they need, to deliver stand-out service?”

The cost to train and coach young people to deliver a stand-out service experience is insignificant compared to the costs to develop, market and sell new products.

We know word-of-mouth is more powerful now than it ever was, given the variety of platforms social media provides. Landlords of holiday accommodation know that regardless of how they advertise their property, consumers will be influenced by reviews of people they don’t know and may not even like! Sales staff often underestimate the sphere of their influence.

Here’s an example to illustrate. I waited in line to be served by a young sales assistant in the store of my telecommunications provider. He had just helped another customer who appeared similar to me demographically. As that customer turned to leave, I noticed the sales assistant rolling his eyes at the customer as they left the store. Consider the potential harm to the business in that moment of indiscretion. That sales assistant’s lack of professionalism undid the hours his colleagues spent converting me to their business in the first place, never mind the financial cost of advertising. Little did he know that I'd use his indiscretion as an example of what not to do when training thousands of others on customer service.

Gen Y and Gen Z are the customer-service front of the future. Teach our emerging workforce emotional intelligence so they can engage with your customers. Remind them how valuable they are to the success of your business. Set the bar high and support them to reach it.

Consumers are spoilt for choice, which means that delivering a memorable customer experience is key to staying in business.

If you’re thinking again about the strength of your organisation’s customer service, and would like to lift the bar, check out our Customer Experienceprogramme for ideas that will work for your team.

My own PD this month raised discussion on the topic of what the key purpose of my job was. To impart knowledge, or to help people become knowledge-able?

The talk was stimulated by Michael Wesch, associate professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University, in an interview on what iGen (the youngest generation) are looking for. Knowledge of how the world works is slowly becoming redundant as younger generations re-define how we do our jobs, what jobs are of value, attitudes towards work, and attitudes towards life. He talks about evoking a sense of wonder in students, inspiring them to ask more questions, to seek more knowledge – let’s face it, they can usually find the answer to anything at any time through their preferred search engine!

So if they can get knowledge on their own – what is our role as trainers or L&D specialists? I’m delighted to say that it’s to ask questions, to challenge assumptions and beliefs, to introduce some theories and concepts and to encourage debate on their current validity and usefulness. In many of my training sessions I’ve stated up front that my intent is for learners to leave with more questions than they came with – in effect, to be knowledge-able.

Prepare for the next training session you attend – what do you want to know? Why do you need to know it? What problem or opportunity do you have that this information or session could address? Learning is easy when you’re curious.

Heard this before?

You're about to finish high school or uni and you still have no idea what to do. Beware of the conflict between your intrinsic and extrinsic motivations - they can lead you astray when making your big decision. Here’s why.

Kaitlin Wooley and Ayelet Fishbach conducted experiments of people going to the gym. They found that when people were planning to go to the to the gym they focused on the outcome ie. improved health (extrinsic motivation), but when they were at the gym, they focused on the experience itself (intrinsic motivation).

How this impacts on the question of what to do next is that extrinsic motivators are more likely to influence your decision making. You'll think about what job will pay more, how will a certain course get you a job, how difficult the programme is, how much it costs etc. While these are all worthwhile considerations, the bottom line is that you could end up doing something that doesn’t ring your bells and is hard to do simply because your intrinsic motivation isn’t kicking in.

We know that happiness and satisfaction are not connected. You may end up with a life that is satisfied in terms of what you have achieved and bought; but you just might not be happy. Keep this in mind when considering your next move; there is nothing like the intrinsic joy of work. It doesn’t feel like work.

Dan Pink states that three key motivators are mastery, purpose and autonomy. It is easy to find examples where this seems to hold in general life. Think of all the things we can customise now to make them our own and how this correlates to our level of engagement. Have you designed a piece of furniture, chosen a frame for a picture, re-designed a room, perhaps even bought accessories for your car? When we make things our own, we enjoy them more.

Consider how this plays out at work. If you set targets for your staff, do you let them design the path to achieve them? Do you give them autonomy to complete tasks in their own way (to the agreed standard, in time, on budget), or do you prefer them to do it your way? Do you always lead the discussion at team meetings and come up with the new ideas or do you facilitate the session to discover their ideas?

If your success depends on the peak performance of others, and their performance depends on motivation, and their motivation depends on being given autonomy and a sense of purpose, it makes sense to put these goals on your list of priorities this year.

Dan Pink states that three key motivators are mastery, purpose and autonomy. It is easy to find examples where this seems to hold in general life. Think of all the things we can customise to make them our own and how this correlates to our level of engagement. Have you designed a piece of furniture, chosen a frame for a picture, re-designed a room, perhaps even bought accessories for your car? When we make things our own, we enjoy them more.

Consider how this plays out at work. If you set targets for your staff, do you let them design the path to achieve them? Do you give them autonomy to complete tasks in their own way (to the agreed standard, in time, on budget), or do you prefer them to do it your way? Do you always lead the discussion at team meetings and come up with the new ideas or do you facilitate the session to discover their ideas?

If your success depends on the performance of others, and their performance depends on motivation, and their motivation depends on being given autonomy and a sense of purpose, it makes sense to make this top of your priority list this year.

Managers usually ask: “How do I motivate my staff?” Here's what Dan Airley offers in his book ‘Payoff’.

“Because motivation is a part of almost everything we do, and because it influences and sustains virtually every aspect of our lives, it is impossible to come up with one simple set of motivational rules.”

He goes on to say, “Motivation isn’t at all straightforward. Rather it is intricate and mysterious... To motivate ourselves and others successfully, we need to provide a sense of connection and meaning.”

Airley's research makes a strong case that monetary rewards provide short-lived motivation and in fact reduce motivation to perform in the long term. He uses stories to point out how motivation is often the drive behind achievements that are difficult, challenging, and painful – a finding I’m sure any successful person can attest

to.

The lesson for people leaders is that the strongest motivator is completely within your control: acknowledge the efforts of your staff. Science confirms that paying attention to their contribution and giving positive feedback is worth more than a bonus and it has a lasting effect.

“Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.” Viktor E. Frankl

Over the past three months I’ve had the pleasure of working with a team of managers. During morning tea on the third session, a quietly spoken chap asked me for a moment of my time.

He told me that he had been trying some of the techniques we had discussed and that they had made a significant difference to how his team was working; they were communicating better and getting more work done. He was so appreciative for the guidance and had been looking forward to this session.

Let’s face it, advice is only worthwhile if someone is prepared to do something with it. I’d been given a gift, a learner took initiative and made a difference.

Feedback is indeed a gift.

‘What happened’ – the title of Hillary Clinton’s recent book – was a must read to get her perspective of the question on a good half of the population’s minds. After being subject to the media's interpretation of events, I was interested to hear the story (with all its bias) from one of the key players.

Here are a few of my reflections:

She must be the most (or certainly one of them) investigated person in history but I'm still not clear what she has legally been accused of wrongdoing.The different treatment of men and women, by men and women, is still alive and well. We can still get away with doing things, and being judged for our actions, differently.The noisy wheel still gets the most attention - and what they want.People like drama, we look forward to the juicy story with more enthusiasm than we give to seeking truth.Media has the final say . People are as predictable as they are unpredictable.Energy, passion, and productivity is still abundant at the age of 70.

My favourite chapter was 'Women in Politics' and I bought in to her story that despite not winning the election, she has moved women closer to being given top positions.

My favourite quote was one she found in the Bits and Pieces magazine that asked for entries defining 'a friend'. The winning quote was: "A friend is the one that comes in when the rest of the world has gone out." I've already made different choices with this quote in mind.

Many book reviewers dismiss What Happened for numerous reasons. Psychology tells us that we look for information to confirm our existing views (confirmation bias) so you'll probably find that there will be as many people who are interested in giving her the benefit of the doubt as those that won't. Keeping an open mind isn't easy as I'm finding out while reading Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury, an account of Trump's first 200 days in office.

My bottom line: learn to make up your own mind, don't let media do it for you.

Heading out of a workshop a few weeks ago, I wished a participant a great weekend to which he replied, “I’m turning 70 tomorrow so it will be a good one.” About to celebrate a significant birthday myself, I was reminded that being old or young simply depends on your benchmark.

Which cast my mind to other benchmarks. Our achievements in life, family, social groups, education, health, financial positions to name a few. How often do we benchmark ourselves against others who have achieved more than us? How often do we console ourselves that we’ve achieved more than someone else. How often do we check the impact our benchmarking has on us and others? No doubt there’s a place for constructive benchmarking – goalposts that we can keep in our sights and aspire towards - but why do we create space for benchmarks that don't help?

Remember that the thoughts we allow our minds to entertain, become the emotions and behaviours that define us. Be selective with your benchmarks – choose ones that will help rather than hinder your journey to becoming the best of you.

Picture credit: Gorgeous bouquet from the Cross family :)

I have just seen the first advert seeking people to work over the Christmas holidays. It's inspired to put on a second Stand Out programme this year to help our young workforce do a great job.

Holiday jobs lead to experience on a resume which in turn leads to other jobs. Employers give their casual retail staff a great opportunity to learn about their store, products, and how to serve customers. While that's a start, the real opportunity is having the experience to connect with a diverse population, in a variety of moods, under a whole lot of time-pressure.

Business success is dependent on the ability to connect with and get along with others. It's a life skill that can be learnt. At work you have to get on with everyone, and it's not always easy. Learning skills and techniques to facilitate it is an investment for life.

Enroll for our last Stand Out programme for 2017 and set yourself up for a successful future. If you're going to get a job, you need to know how to Stand Out. Blending in with everyone else isn't going to get you ahead.

This is my gift. I can make a tree talk. That is according to an old friend that I recently re-connected with after 30 years.

So I invite you to consider what the ‘compliment’ means (I took it as a compliment). Can you start and maintain a dialogue that gets the most introverted person talking and sharing some of themselves with you?

Many people struggle with knowing what to say when meeting people for the first time. binspired has many communication programmes designed to get even the most introverted of us engaged with others. Check it out.

“An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth”, written by Chris Hadfield was recently recommended to me during a visit to Canada. Hadfield was a Canadian astronaut and I was intrigued to hear his story. Here are some things I hadn’t appreciated about life in space:

Lifting anything (even a refrigerator!) is effortless in space, so daily exercise is critical to keeping your muscles (and muscle memory) working for when you return to earth.Going to the bathroom can take a long time as every drop of moisture needs to be contained (if it’s not, you have to chase it around the bathroom until you do contain it).Your spinal structure changes and weakens making simple things hard when back on the ground.

Aside from these fascinating realities of life in space, it was inspiring to learn about the focus and dedication to perfecting the art of working in space and honouring the opportunity to do so. I learnt about the focus, repetition, teamwork, camaraderie, trust, practise, hope, dedication, excitement, and ultimate achievement of one man’s life. A person with a dream, and the drive to make it happen.

So my question is: while gravity keeps us grounded, what holds you back? Think of the relationships, adventures, desires, ‘what-ifs’ that you have ruminating around in your mind. What impact is the gravity of your own making having on your life?

Well worth a read.

We're proud to announce the launch of a new professional development programme, Stand Out, designed for young adults in their last years of high school, at university, or having a gap year.

Employment is a must to fund any future aspirations, whether they be to pay of loans, learn, live independently, travel, or simply to party. But getting a job and getting ahead at work isn't something you learn at school. Stand Out participants will learn to:

communicate with confidencedevelop successful workplace relationshipssell themselves through the recruitment processbe a valuable employee.

We know what employers want and we want our emerging workforce to have it.

If you know anyone who will benefit from Stand Out, forward them this link: www.binspired.nz

A few weeks ago I designed and facilitated a workshop for a team of sales professionals. One of the company's values was to be customer-centric - a favourite topic that I could easily work with and integrate through each part of the workshop.

As the workshop concluded I asked participants for a brief overview of the key things they had learnt. One very honestly said, "All that thinking was exhausting! I never appreciated just how deeply we needed to think about our customers' needs." Another equally honest participant agreed saying, "We've heard our managers talk about customer-centric but have never paid that much attention to it, or known how it affects us."

So while my learners were exhausted from the cognitive challenges I'd put them through, I was thrilled that being customer-centric was no longer just lip-service - they actually knew how to be it. Great job.

Last week I facilitated a time management workshop for 20 managers. Before we began, I asked them to identify what they would do with the extra time they were going to find. What would be worth focusing on, changing schedules for, being disciplined about? We know that time management is all about making different choices, so what did they really want? What would be worth working for?

Sleep. More than 60% of participants wanted to sleep. Others wanted to relax, play more sport, exercise, or spend time with friends and family. Not surprisingly, no-one wanted to work more, and sadly no-one wanted to invest in professional or personal development. Most just wanted to sleep.

The company prides itself on its achievements, innovation and sustainability. I couldn't help but wonder how much more could be achieved if the staff were rested and energised rather than just tired.

What would you do if you could find more time?

Now that you’re settling into the year and have set yourselves some goals for 2017, you might be looking for some inspiration to set you on your way. How about reading Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers – one of my favourite business books.

An outlier is something outside the norm; people outliers achieve extraordinary things. Gladwell questions how they do it.

He links success to a variety of factors for example culture, time of birth, social background and in doing so gives the reader many ‘ah-ha’ moments. He makes links between success in sport and birth dates; ability to learn maths and language; culture and risk of crashing planes; number of hours and mastery. Gladwell provides food for thought that can be applied in business, parenting, coaching, and life in general.

Outliers will interest anyone who is open to learning more about how our environment and culture, opportunities and attitudes impact on success. It’s not a typical management book of models or theories, it simply investigates a wide variety of stories that make a compelling argument to Gladwell’s suggestions.

Managers, parents, teachers should all be interested to see how they impact on the success of others. Enjoy.

This is a long post and despite trying to condense it, I've decided to keep it as it is for my blog.

In my opinion it's the more interesting and worthwhile version than the edited one on Facebook. It started by trying to write an overview about myself so that potential clients would have more insight into who they were inviting into their organisation. So it's a post about me, how I've arrived at this point in my career, and a personal note of gratitude to the people that made it happen. As it happens, today is my birthday and a good time to share my reflections with clients.

Arriving in NZ at the age of 22 it was time to find a job. Peter Gates gave me an opportunity at his successful optical business in Newmarket and taught me the ropes about what customer service really looked like. Two years later I gratefully accepted another position at a pharmaceutical company by a chap called Norman Eckhoff and the appointment was approved by the MD, Tom Hart. Bless these men who thought attitude and motivation were worth more than a degree. After a year as a sales rep, David Taylor took me on as a marketing assistant and under his guidance and the rigour of working in the pharma industry, taught me the foundations of business planning. Four years later Mark O’Brien took me on as a sales & marketing manager and it was a privilege to manage a fabulous team under his lead. An engagement, a marriage, two children, and several promotions later it was time to leave AstraZeneca and begin a new career.

The great thing about redundancy is that it forces your hand. Once you’re reassured that financially things will work out, you can take the opportunity to start fresh. A clean slate. A new future to create. After a few years testing my skills in a variety of other pharma companies it was time to see if they were cross transferable. Thank you Richard Griffiths for the L&D opportunities at the ASB and Sovereign. What a delight you were to work with.

Anne Poole (note, the first women of influence in my career – ladies, we need to work on this!) took me on at Counties Manukau DHB as a L&D Consultant and it was superb to get an insight into the inner workings of the hospital system having worked in it as an outsider for 12 years. I left Counties to work from home and avoid the cost of doggy-daycare and the damage at home caused by our border collie pup, Coda.

In 2009 binspired was established. Ingrid Brodie and Jo Hyland included me as a consultant on their training team at ProFormance giving me exposure to many more industries and business issues. I will be forever grateful for their confidence, trust, and care.

Over the last couple of years my work has been with Opus, Ultimate Care Group, Counties, Waitemata DHB and the EMA. Vanessa Green (EMA) has been a strong advocate and has allowed me to design and facilitate programmes for many of her diverse clients. Other than being an ultimate professional, she’s hilarious and a delight to nut things out with.

What I’ve learnt over the years you can find out for yourself from my website. It’s a culmination of my studies and experience – all shaped by the opportunities given to me by the wonderful people mentioned, and many more. In the same way that others have shaped my career, my job is to help shape yours.

Organisational Psychologist, Adam Grant, explains why you should recruit ‘givers’ and keep ‘takers’ off your books.

If you’re thinking about deepening your learning on what to include in your recruitment process or understanding team dynamics, invest 15 minutes and watch this Ted Talk. His research includes the impact of giving and taking on profit, productivity, customer satisfaction, and operating expenses.

You might be interested to work out which camp you mostly sit in too, if so click here to take the test. Good luck.