Empathy Can Not be Taught!

The reason is simply if we were to take a test before the class started, everyone would already know the answers.

Empathy in the Workplace

Is the lack of empathy affecting the quality of work or services in your organization?

In a recent conversation about things which could affect the quality of work for customer service based organizations, the idea of a lack of empathy being the cause was suggested. This might seem like a stretch, but it got me thinking, how much does empathy affect customer service, especially the quality of service?

First, let’s revisit the meaning of empathy;

From the University of California at Berkley’s Greater Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life explains empathy is “the ability to sense other people’s emotions, coupled with the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling.”

From the online Webster dictionary, “understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of others”

Empathy can be an important characteristic for anyone working in a customer based industry, as it allows an employee to truly see and sense how the customer is feeling, basically understanding how important something is to that customer, and how it affects them. Since I’m a Medical laboratory technologist, I believe empathy plays a large role in the quality of work lab techs perform.  Most lab techs don’t have the opportunity to interact with patients; however, we need to understand the work we perform on patient samples are ultimately for that patient, not the Doctors and Nurses, which technically makes the patient the customer.  

Without empathy, those providing the service may not be as willing to go above and beyond to satisfy customer needs/wants, or in the case of patient samples, maybe a technologist would be too quick to request repeat samples or do everything possible to ensure turn-around-time benchmarks are met. By feeling empathy, service providers would be more engaged in their work, realizing there is someone connected to that work, particularly in a healthcare setting, anything which can be done should be done.

According to Marsha Collier (@MarshaCollier, an author, radio personality and an educator specializing in technology and inspiring business), the ” Most essential qualities for a customer service rep” are;

1. Empathy

2. Patience

3. Sense of humor

4. Power to fix issues

Empathy being the most important of these items, allows service providers to truly understand what the customer’s concerns are, how they are feeling, and gives them the sense which empowers them to want to do all they can to help.  

How does it improve customer service?

When employees demonstrate empathy, customers will have a better experience, and employees achieve better results, especially working as a team. When it comes to dealing with customer complaints and concerns, most people tend to want to just say sorry for the inconvenience and provide discounts or other items such as gift cards. However, what customers want more than anything else, they want to be understood, which is simply and inexpensive, we simply show empathy.

Can we teach empathy?

With all the continuing education, many organizations and professionals complete nowadays, we as a society are seeing less empathy, lower quality customer service, even though there is an increase in knowledge and competencies.

If we ask people in your organization how important showing customers empathy is, they would already know the correct answers. Training sessions often include handling of customer service issues and how empathy should play a part in treating customers they way the need to be. The part of this which doesn’t make sense is if we fast forward to the end of the training session, the employees didn’t really learn anything helpful as the already knew how customers should be treated. Can we really tell someone how to feel? It's like telling an employee at the Louvre museum they need to have more passion and love for the Mona Lisa more. It's just not possible to tell someone or train someone how to feel.

PJ Manney (2008), wrote an article “Empathy in the Time of Technology: How Storytelling is the Key to Empathy." In which he describes how storytelling is extremely important in developing empathy. He goes on to point out how empathy has slowly decreased over the decades and how this closely correlates with fewer people reading books nowadays. We all know that good book which instilled feelings which closely mirrored what the characters were going through and feeling, or how about the chick flick (for lack of a better word) which also created strong feelings. This is where empathy comes from.

If empathy is best and most effectively developed by either reading or watching stories, then why is it the primary method for organizations to “teach” empathy is training sessions or maybe online courses? If this is the case an hour-long training session is going to do very little to teach someone empathy. An organization would get far more impact by providing a required book club where employees would read a selected book and instead of training sessions, the organization holds simply meetings to discuss theses books.

Over the last decade, there has been a strong push to further knowledge and competencies which we find now includes our personal time being used for such activities. Organizations believe this has a great benefit to professionals, customer service, and to the bottom line. However, this seems to be having the opposite effect. We need to get back to activates which promote empathy. We need to slow down, take in a book or two and give back some of our personal time to activities which promote a better sense of well-being and empathy will follow. 

Would like to know your thoughts on empathy, please leave a comment below. 

References

Goh, Gareth. 2015. "Empathy: The Must-Have Skill for All Customer Service Reps." http://www.insightsquared.com/2015/02/empathy-the-must-have-skill-for-all-customer-service-reps/.

Manney, PJ. 2008. "Empathy in the Time of Technology: How Storytelling is the Key to Empathy." Journal of Evolution and Technology (http://jetpress.org/v19/manney.htm) 19 (1): 51-61. http://jetpress.org/v19/manney.htm.

Together we can achieve anything

We often can't see the solution to a problem due to our attitude to that problem.  It's not the problem which causes the issues, but rather our attitude. We need to keep an open mind and explore all options. When we work as a team amazing things can happen. 

Tips for solving problems. 

• Utilize effective brain storming 
• Actively listen to all members of the team
• Don't reject any idea until these questions are seriously asked. "Why won't this idea work, why will this idea work?"
• Remember big things happen when everyone works together. 
• Keep everyone engaged. 

Corporate Social Responsibility

Cause-Related Marketing and Strategic Philanthropy

The main similarity between cause-related marketing and strategic philanthropy is they both benefit the public and the organization through corporate social responsibility (CSR). According to Saraf, V., Singhai, S., & Payasi, S. (2012), CSR benefits the organization in two ways; “reducing the negative effects…caused by the processes and product usage”, and “increasing the positive contributions” from within the organization. Rick and Williams, (2005) describe philanthropy as historically being an individual’s contributions to society rather than an organization. Companies primarily practiced cause-related marketing prior to the 1950’s. Since then companies have realized there are great benefits to involving others within the organization with their CSR activities.

According to Ferrell, O. Thorne, D. & Ferrell, L (2010), cause-related marketing and strategic philanthropy can be compared utilizing 5 different categories: focus, goals, time frame, organizational members involved, and cost. (p. 350).  Cause-related marketing generally involves one product, for example, MacDonald’s donating ten cents for every happy meal purchased; this primarily involves the marketing department. The main benefit to this approach is the advertising and increase in sales as consumers see a portion of their money going to a good cause. Strategic philanthropy is an organization-wide effort which involves the financial support and/or employee volunteer time. Employees tend to be involved and help out the cause, for example, Wal-Mart associates raising funds for the IWK which is then matched by Wal-Mart home office. As Rick and Williams reason “a company cannot survive in a sick community; therefore, companies that spend a portion of their resources to address social problems are helping secure their own long-term survival” (as cited in Spence & Thomson, 2009, p. 372). Both cause-related marketing and strategic philanthropy provide an organization with the CSR society demands of them.

References

Brill, B. (2009), Tis the season for strategic corporate philanthropy. Crain's Chicago Business,      32(50), 14.  

Ferrell, O. Thorne, D. & Ferrell, L (2010), Social Responsibility and Business, Chapter 9, pg. 350

Ricks, J. & Williams, J. (2005), Strategic corporate philanthropy: addressing the frontline talent needs through an educational giving program. Journal of Business Ethics, 60:2,   147–157

Saraf, V., Singhai, S. &  Payasi, S. (2012). Corporate Social Responsibility: Building Brand and Linking Corporate Strategy with Philanthropy. BVIMR Management Edge, 5(2), 88- 97.

Spence, C. & Thomson, I. (2009), Resonance tropes in corporate philanthropy discourse.          Business Ethics: A European Review, 18(4), 372-388. doi:10.1111/j.1467- 8608.2009.01570.x

What does it mean to be Sustainable?

Many organizations are starting to realize they need to do more than just go “green”. When someone talks about going green they are usually concerned with only the environment, and this determines the path they take while conducting their business. As Werbach (2009) pointed out after the effects of hurricane Katrina in the introduction of our text Strategy for Sustainability, we need to do more than fight for the environment. True sustainability needs to include not only environment but also;

·       Social

o   Anything which affects all levels of society

·       Culture

o   Embracing culture diversity

·       Economic

o   How will everyone (and corporations) obtain what they need, not just financially but food, water, and security

As werbach goes on to point out, Katrina would have probably not been as devastating if government, organizations, and individuals had addressed all of the above points. For example, wetlands had been drastically reduced over the past several decades which resulted in less water retention. A situation which could have been prevented if organization helped to address this as opposed to leaving it up to government and environmentalists.

In Saint John New Brunswick there is a plan to build a new sports complex in an area which has marshlands and the area tends to flood very easily. Part of the proposal needs to include an on-site reservoir which will have the capacity to retain all the rain water run off for a couple of days. This reservoir will slowly empty into the cities rainwater runoff. Their plan is to build a green space, a park with a lake. If all organizations did something like this, flooding could be reduced, which would help with environmental, social, culture and economic issues.

References:

Werbach, Adam. (2009). Strategy for Sustainability: A Business Manifesto. Boston: Harvard Business Press. ISBN: 978-1-4221-7770-9

Improving Employee Performance with Benifits

Do benefits impact performance? 

The main point of benefits is “to improve the quality of the work lives and personal lives of employees” (Belcourt, Singh, Bohlander, & Snell, 2014, p. 390). Benefits such as paid vacation, medical, dental, sick leave, etc. all play a part in contributing to people’s lives. These, of course, are the basics which allow employees to know how these types of expenses will be covered, this alone can remove a great deal of stress as items such as medical, prescriptions, dental are expenses often unexpected, especially medical if living in a country without universal healthcare. With so many companies looking for ways to cut expenses, benefits are often an easy target, and if the employees feel the benefits could be cut, or even linked to performance, this could push them to put in more effort on the job.

In an unionized environment, benefits often put everyone on an even playing field regardless of benefits. However, in an un-unionized workplace, benefits such as pay increases and time off are items which could be offered for performance, which would help definitely help drive employees to work harder.

In a survey showing “lifestyle/family care benefits impact employee performance” (Filangieri, 2015), one of the questions ask how family-related benefits affected performance, “35% think a lack of benefits related to family assistance has negatively impacted their work performance. This rises to 41% of those with children.” (Filangieri, 2015). The survey also lists the top benefits which would help improve performance, these five are;

·       Backup child care

·       Discounted care/reimbursement for care

·       Help hiring a housekeeper

·       Help finding reliable child care

·       Long-term or tailored senior-care planning

Why are companies moving away from defined benefit plans?

As mentioned above, benefits are an easy target when companies need to make cut backs. Benefits are becoming more expensive, whether its time off, childcare, medical, etc. and paying for the same benefits clear across the board for all employees regardless if they are used can not only cost but do very little to improve performance. By allowing employees to pick and choose their own benefits can be a win/win for everyone. The employee gets what they need and/or would use while the employer receives a reduction in the cost of insurance, as well as increased performance as the employee in receive the benefits catered to them.

References

Belcourt, M., Singh, P., Bohlander, G., and Snell, S. (2014). Managing Human Resources. Toronto, ON, Nelson education.

Filangieri, R. (2015, September 22). Survey shows lifestyle/family care benefits impact employee performance. Retrieved from BCG Advisors: http://www.bcgadvisors.com/survey-shows-lifestylefamily-care-benefits-impact-employee-performance/

Effective Communication: How to make a Peanut Butter Sandwich

I think one of the biggest setbacks we all face is a lack of effective communication. Both personal and professional aspects of our lives are influenced quite often from not effectively communicating. I was able to experience this first hand at a management workshop that I had the opportunity to attend. It was so enlightening and humorous that I knew I wanted to share it with all of you…

The instructor asked for 2 volunteers. One would give the other instructions on how to make a peanut butter sandwich and they would not be able to see each other. The direction giver had to use 10 easy to follow steps and the direction follower had to do EXACTLY what he was told and the only question he was allowed to ask was “how”. Everything was laid out on the table; a plate, knife, jar of peanut butter, and bottle of jam.

Some of the highlights of the lesson were VERY funny to watch. A whole loaf of bread (that was still in the bag) became covered in peanut butter (he had failed to tell him to open the bag and remove a slice of bread) and the whole bottle of jam was placed on top of the sealed loaf of bread that was already covered in peanut butter (this was because he instructed him to take the jam and put it on the peanut butter that he just put on the bread). 

The workshop, while very humorous, allowed me to observe effective communication in a different perspective. It made me see how it is so important when speaking to that other individual to ensure that we provide enough information for both parties to succeed. I was able to observe that the person who was giving the directions on how to make the peanut butter sandwich was even more frustrated than the person trying to do what was asked of him.

In the exercise the direction follower was only allowed to ask ‘how”, but each time the direction giver heard “how” he became more frustrated saying “what do you mean how just take the bread!” He wasn’t really listening; he was taking for granted that the other individual should know what he meant.

Most all of us take for granted that our friend, coworker, employee, acquaintance, sweetheart, child, etc. will know what we mean. When we are instructing or asking something of someone we often only give a brief summary of what we want and presume they will know the rest. We let our previous experiences with others get in the way of dealing with new people and often don’t provide enough information.

I like to think of communication as a scale that needs to balance. On one side is the giver and the other side is the receiver. If only one side is active then the scale will not balance. What I mean by this is even if you are the greatest communicator in the world it will not mean anything if you do not get feedback from the other side of the scale. It will not balance. Remember communication is a 2-way street. Ensure that your scale always has a sense of balance…you will be amazed at how it can change your life! 

Effective Leadership with Footprints

Effective Leadership with Footprints: Where do yours lead you?

When we think of leadership and footprints, we tend to only think of the mark a leader leaves on their followers and organization. But let’s look at the footprints from the literal perspective. Just imagine you could see your footprints as you travel throughout your organization on any given day, what would they tell you about your leadership style.

When I was a Wal-Mart manager the concept of footprints was constantly drilled into us. The concept is an easy one, what if you could see your footprints from above as you travel throughout the workplace. Now, most managers and leaders tend to stick to the main aisles, hallways, corridors, etc. as they come and go, conduct business, and attend meetings. However, the thing to remember is where the majority of the work is performed. Unfortunately, it’s not in these aisles, hallways, or corridors. If we’re going to lead people, we need to spend time with them. Management by walking around is the same concept, however, I believe the term footprints is a much better word. Managing by walking around doesn’t necessarily mean a manager is traveling every area which work is performed, nor when it is performed.

When I first became a manager, I read the best-selling book, “The One Minute Manager”, which many people would remember talked about setting goals, praising and reprimands. I have heard many people over the years say this book is common sense, and you know what, they’re right. If we all can agree “The One Minute Manager” is just common sense, it raises the question, why isn’t done in every workplace by every leader?

If we compare the One Minute Manager to the concept of footprints, it can be clearly seen how leading effectively involves one very important element, spending time with the people you’re leading. For those of your who are Doctor Who fans, the concept of “space and time” is something we have heard many times. Now take the concept of footprints and apply it to space and time. This is something I have always done and is the way Wal-Mart trained me. If we think of our places of work as the spatial component, and the time aspect as all the different time's work is performed, for example, days, evenings, and midnight shifts, we can clearly see when the work is performed. If you’re a leader, are you responsible for leading people on different shifts then you normally work? If so, do you ever make the time shift to spend time on those alternate shifts where your people are?

When I was with Wal-Mart and MDS labs, I had people who worked only evenings, nights and/or weekends, which meant I needed to spend time on those different shifts so I could not only see what was being done but to also provide those shifts with the leadership they deserved and required.  Yes, this can be difficult, however, spending time with your employees is key in developing a successful team.

How often have we seen situations such as these;

Bob, a new manager with ABC Tech started his fourth week with frustration over issues arising from the weekend shift with quality and budgets. He decides to ask John for help since he has been with the company for years. He asks John, “what is it they do on the weekends that requires so many people, and why with so many people are there quality issues?” Bob becomes even more frustrated when he hears John’s answer, “I don’t know”. You ask him to elaborate, however, he only replies, he doesn’t know want they do on weekends.

If I were Bob, I would rearrange my schedule and work some weekends to spend time with my people I’m responsible for leading. This is the sort of thing I did when I was management with Wal-Mart and MDS. It’s amazing the effect this has on the team, not only do they see you as a leader who takes the time and initiative to spend time with them, but also someone who is approachable, and willing to help. This has the effect of increasing morale and overall performance. One thing employees do not like to hear their manager say is “I don’t know what you do”, in cases like this the employee usually have thoughts of how do you expect to manage and lead us.

Another situation many of us have experienced is:

Sally, transferred to the HR division of Techy Tech three months ago and is starting to feel as if she is not doing a good job. She came from a small branch in the Maritimes where she would often see her manager who regularly provided feedback on her performance. Now that she’s in the much larger branch in Toronto, she has only seen her manager a few times since she’s been there. During lunch one day she asks Peter, “What could I being doing wrong?” Peter asks “what makes you think you’re doing something wrong?” Sally tells Peter she never sees her manager and in three months has never received any feedback on her performance. Peter Laughs, and tells her that’s what is like around here, “if nothing is said, then you’re doing a good job. No news is good news”

How many times have we heard or experienced a similar story? Looking at these stories, the thing lacking in both is the leader spending time with their people. By utilizing Footprints in both space and time, situations such as these can be eliminated. The benefits are huge, employees will feel better about their work and who are more engaged, especially during times of change management and uncertainty in the organization. 

We all know how difficult it can be at times to manage workload, however, leaders need to better understand, when they have a highly effective team which produce high-quality work, a leader’s job becomes that much easier especially when it comes to their other responsibilities such as reports, budgets, meetings, follow-up, setting and managing goals, etc.

Things to remember when walking around the work area:

•        Remember to spend time with each employee, do not simply walk through the work area.
•        Praise your employees, a pat on the back goes a long way
•        Observe the workflow, how is it affecting your team, good or bad
•        Remember to take notes, these will come in handy during performance reviews and will aid       in setting goals
•        Share information
•     Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up,

 The only way we can effectively lead your people is to spend quality time with them, remember praising and reprimanding people, and setting goals works best when you see them in the work area performing their duties, this is the best time to praise them for their hard work and correct actions which need attention. Far too many times we see leaders who are disconnected from their employees, and then wonder why things aren’t going well for the organization.