Sprinter or marathoner
May 31, 2007
What makes a good homework assignment? How do you take the real work of the person you’re coaching and turn it into something they might grab onto and make their own?
In past posts, I’ve talked about the principle of homework. I strongly believe that (almost) every coaching session should end with at least one action that both you and your colleague agree will help push practical, on-the-job learning and performance. But choosing the right assignment can be a little tricky.
Let’s start with basics: who chooses the assignment? I’ve argued elsewhere that any coaching homework must ultimately be chosen by the person being coached. This keeps ownership for performance and learning right where it belongs – on the shoulders of the person receiving the coaching.
But as a coach, you can help brainstorm a list of good options. Here’s where it’s important to understand the person you’re working with. One thing I watch for is a client’s learning pace: simply put, is he a sprinter or a marathoner?
Sprinters get all fired up about taking action and ride their inspiration for bursts of learning. They can be impressive with the quantity and quality of work they produce during these periods of energy. But they need short assignments because they also tire quite quickly – or get bored and want to move to something else.
Marathoners are different: they like long-term projects where they can see gradual progress and the fruit of their perseverance. They plug away and eventually reach their destination, knowing that their endurance helped them both get real work done and learn along the way.
Earlier in my coaching work, I looked down on sprinters because they would choose a marathon homework assignment and burn out in the first few miles. I saw it as a character flaw. Now, I just recognize it for what it is – a different approach to work. And I see it as my responsibility to help my client figure out what approach works for them and to choose appropriate assignments.
How about you? How do you help select homework for those you coach?
Getting ahead of the customer satisfaction game
May 23, 2007
Bob Sullivan wrote a post on his Red Tape Chronicles blog recently about how disappointed most of us are with customer service – and how out of touch more CEO’s are about how their own customers perceive their company’s service level. Yup, you got it. A recent Accenture study showed that 75% of CEO’s think their company’s service is above average while almost 60% of consumers say they’re at least a little miffed about recent customer service experiences.
There are several interesting aspects of this study – like how a group of smart, successful people have lost touch with one of their most important constituencies – but I want to focus in on one that doesn’t get much attention. That is, the role of the sales function in driving customer satisfaction.
Right now, some of you may be saying, “Huh? What does the sales organization have to do with customer satisfation? Aren’t they about one thing and one thing only – selling?”
In most companies, yes. That’s the sad truth. But there are some rare companies who instill a different thought process in the sales organization.
Take a start-up software company I know about. They are growing by leaps and bounds and have taken justifiable pride in the support they give customers post-sale, including competent staff who actually answer the phone.
Then they conducted a small study about their customers’ experience and level of satisfaction. What they found surprised them. While customers gave them high marks for their competence and responsiveness, they also talked about the many surprises they had when trying to install and use the software. Unfortunately, these surprises were extending and complicating implementation, leading some customers to wonder when (if ever) they would get the software fully installed and start reaping full business value.
Enter the role of the salesforice. Our fearless start-up owners started doing a smart thing – they started to look backwards in the customer’s experience (past the usual pre/post sale divide) and realized their sales force could play an important role in setting appropriate expectations for the implementation process.
It’s not enough to follow up on the lead, do a good needs analysis and close the sale. No, the additional, critical role of a sales organization is to help manage the customer’s expectations of what happens after the sale.
Of course, this only matters if you want to grow by references/reputation and you want to actually deliver great service and value to customers. This start-up – and other smart companies – have made that choice. And they’re willing to get their salesforce to do non-traditional activities to put the choice into action.