Dear Ritz-Carlton: How do you handle employee burnout or engage employees who have lost their passion? Answer from Diana Oreck, Vice President at The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: The best leaders know how to inspire their employees to get out of bed every day and bring their passion to work and volunteer their best. They can even do this with employees who seem burnt out and have lost their passion. Here are some techniques that can work: Give the employee specific examples of when they have excelled and gone above and beyond in the past. Share recent examples of when the employee has appeared disengaged. Ask if something is bothering the employee because you would like to help. Your intent is not to criticize but to assist in motivating the person to attain their former passion. Remind the employee of their purpose versus their function. Examples: An Environmental Services (EVS) staff member in a hospital is not just cleaning a patient’s room. They are looking carefully at the patient. If something appears wrong they can run to get a nurse. This can save lives. A financial advisor is not just giving tips about how to grow money. They are providing security and peace of mind. Explain to the employee that he/she is a member of the "A" team. When everyone is not pulling his or her weight, it lets down the team. Motivating disengaged employees is not easy, but it can be done. It is also time consuming, but you should invest the time. Disengaged team members exhaust their colleagues and that is not fair to anyone. ∞ The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center offers advisory services, courses and presentations to organizations that wish to benchmark the award-winning business practices of The Ritz-Carlton. Your organization can learn about The Ritz-Carlton methodology for customer service, employee engagement and leadership development. We also guide organizations through a multi-step process in order to achieve sustainable culture transformation. The Blog Post Dear Ritz-Carlton: Employee Burnout? appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

In business, as in sport, we should relish competition - even when we come second best.  It’s been fascinating to watch the intense rivalries on display during the Olympics and Paralympics: Tyson Gay and Usain Bolt in the 100m, Team GB’s Victoria Pendleton and Anna Meares in women’s track cycling, Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte in swimming - and most recently, sprinters Oscar Pistorius and Alan Oliveira, who went head to head in the men’s 200m Paralympics final.  Such rivalries have always been interesting for me. Over the past couple of years, I’ve followed the Brownlee brothers, Alistair and Jonathan, and their rise to the top of the triathlon world. It’s clear that fierce competition has inspired both men to train harder and smarter in an attempt to get the better of the other. Rather than shying away from competing against each other, they have confronted the challenge head on, and this surely played a part in their medal-winning efforts at the Olympics. In the world of business, we can learn a lot from these rivalries. Competition forces us to innovate and develop more efficient techniques. It follows that the most successful businesses are those that are never satisfied. The constant search for competitive advantage is why we are seeing more businesses than ever before using flexible working to increase productivity and responsiveness. If you can hold a face-to-face meeting with a potential client or business partner virtually, this gives you a clear advantage over a competitor who may have to wait several days or even weeks to arrange a similar meeting in person. However, implementing new business processes is never an easy feat. So how do you find the motivation? Imagine the sting of defeat. The feeling of defeat is something we all have shared at some point. Even Bolt has come second before. Pistorius experienced this most recently when he lost to Oliveira. His outraged reaction seemed out of character, and he later apologised for the timing of his remarks. True competitors use defeat productively, turning it into a force that drives them to return even stronger than before. Yes, it hurts being beaten. But it’s what we do with defeat that defines our success. I have no doubt Pistorius will train even harder, more determined now to win when he next races Oliveira.  How will you and your business rise to the challenge?   Photo credit: Telegraph UK / Getty Images

Today we have a guest post from Jay Cross. Jay is the Johnny Appleseed of informal learning. The Internet Time Alliance, which he chairs, helps corporations and governments use networks to accelerate performance. Jay has challenged conventional wisdom about how adults learn since designing the first business degree program offered by the University of Phoenix. He is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Business School. Jay and his wife Uta live with their miniature longhaired dachshund in the hills of Berkeley, California. Businesses around the world are transforming into modern enterprise networks, but their training departments are stuck in the previous century. In the pursuit of fixing what’s broken, let’s imagine what ideal corporate learning would look like if we could start over from scratch. To keep things simple, let’s call the industrial-age companies Hierarchical and the network-era companies Collaborative. Control in Hierarchical companies resides at the top. Orders and instructions are pushed down through the organization. Alternatively, control in Collaborative companies is distributed throughout the organization. Workers and supervisors have a large say in what they do, and they pull in the resources they need for themselves.  Where should we focus to improve learning? It’s a matter of People and Infrastructure. People Who should be involved? Experienced workers in addition to new hires and novices Part-timers, partners, contractors and distributors Recruits and former employees Customers Whether on your payroll or not, people who learn with you bond with you, and performance and profits improve. People are at their best when they’re doing things for themselves, when they pull what they need rather than have things pushed on them. Collaborative organizations outpace Hierarchies when the future is unpredictable and change is rampant. These modern organizations provide a variety of means for workers to get the information they need. Instead of rigid training sessions, the organization supplies a platform that nurtures self-directed learning. Companies successfully transition from Hierarchical to Collaboration by handing more control over to those that are closest to the customer. This may seem radical and unsettling, but it’s a key to becoming a Collaborative organization. Infrastructure What do we need? Technology to support collaborative learning Internet functions worth replicating in-house Learning platforms and networks Together, the above form workscapes - the infrastructure for working smarter. But bear this in mind: it’s not about the technology. People come first. But you can’t do without the technology either. To improve your workscape, look at consumer applications to get a good idea of what’s required in a collaborative learning environment. Some of those consumer applications are simple to replicate in-house. Others are not. You can’t afford to create your own Facebook or Google behind your firewall. That said, there are lots of applications you can implement at reasonable cost. Podio is just one of many examples. Be skeptical if your collaborative infrastructure doesn’t include these minimal functions: profiles, activity streams, wikis, virtual meetings, blogs, bookmarks, mobile access and social network. Is your business ready for collaborative learning? Answer the 9 questions posed by our survey to find out. After, download the white paper to learn how to make the transition. Photo credit: erpcenter

Many organizations think they have a strong culture. They may have a mission, vision and values. They may even have some posters on the walls to remind employees about those mission, vision and values. But unless your culture is lived by your leaders and your employees—it’s nothing more than a bunch of nice words. Diana Oreck, Vice President of The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center, emphasizes that "Your culture must be enlivened every day. It’s not enough to talk about your organizational culture when your P&L has gone south." You must find a way for your culture to go from employees’ heads to their hearts. When they internalize the culture they then "live" the culture consistently. You know you have a timeless culture when the company President moves on, but the culture lives on. To check the vital signs of your organizational culture, consider these 10 questions: 1) Is your culture visible? At The Ritz-Carlton, every employee has a Credo card (includes the Credo, the Motto, Employee Promise, Three Steps of Service and the Service Values), and a Pyramid (includes the foundation, Key Success Factors, Mission and Vision of The Ritz-Carlton). In addition, posters of the Motto, Credo and Employee Promise can be found at every Ritz-Carlton hotel. 2) When are new employees introduced to your culture? New employees at The Ritz-Carlton learn about the mission, vision and values throughout orientation. They are given Credo cards on the first day and are asked to memorize the Credo. On the third day of orientation, new employees are asked to recite the Credo in front of the group. 3) Do your employees talk about "we" or "us" vs. "them"? Do your employees feel like management and the front line are working together to fulfill your mission? Or do your employees feel a disconnect? Two Service Values at The Ritz-Carlton that foster a collaborative atmosphere are: "I am involved in the planning of the work that affects me" and "I create a work environment of teamwork and lateral service so that the needs of our guests and each other are met." 4) Do employees understand their role in upholding your culture? The Service Values at The Ritz-Carlton establish accountability because they all start with "I." The Service Values carefully and concisely spell out each person’s role in enlivening and living the culture of The Ritz-Carlton. 5) Are your employees engaged? The Ritz-Carlton not only measures employee engagement, but also conducts follow-up meetings to ensure that any shortcomings are being addressed. When employees see that their feedback results in improvements, they feel valued. This makes employees more vested in your organization and more committed to upholding your culture. 6) Is leadership walking its talk? One of the primary ways that The Ritz-Carlton enlivens its culture is through a morning meeting called Daily Line-up. This meeting happens at every Ritz-Carlton around the world, and leaders—including Hervé Humler, the President and Chief Operations Officer (COO) at The Ritz-Carlton—participate in this daily meeting. 7) Do employees know the difference between their function and their purpose? The Ladies and Gentlemen—the employees of The Ritz-Carlton—understand that their highest mission is the "genuine care and comfort of our guests." Their job function may be bellman, server or housekeeper, but their purpose is to provide legendary service. Having a common purpose unifies your team and strengthens your culture. 8) Does management create strategic plans without any employee input? Each year, The Ritz-Carlton creates a SWOT (Strengths, Opportunities, Weaknesses and Threats) that feeds into the strategic plans. The Ladies and Gentlemen all participate in this SWOT process. This collaboration reinforces that we are all responsible for the maintenance and development of The Ritz-Carlton. 9) When creating long-term plans, does your organizational culture impact decisions? When The Ritz-Carlton develops long-term plans, the Key Success Factors—the five goals that we focus on to support our culture and brand—guide the decision-making process. The Ladies and Gentlemen are encouraged to weigh every decision against the Key Success Factors to ensure that the organization remains true to its mission. 10) When you open a new branch or new location, how is your culture being shared at the new facility? When The Ritz-Carlton opens a new hotel, Hervé Humler, the President and COO at The Ritz-Carlton, or Bob Kharazmi, Global Officer, Worldwide Operations at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C.— fly to the new hotel and introduce the culture to the new employees. They believe that the best way to maintain a strong culture is to have the founders share the inspiration and impetus behind the culture. The Ladies and Gentlemen at The Ritz-Carlton live the Service Values. A phrase that is commonly used is: "That’s not Ritz-Carlton." This is not used to police colleagues. Rather it’s used to invoke a common goal of upholding a culture that is maintained, preserved and enlivened by every employee. When you have a well-articulated culture that is enlivened, you will find more clarity and unity within your organization, and you will set yourself up for greater success. ∞ The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center offers advisory services, courses and presentations to organizations that wish to benchmark the award-winning business practices of The Ritz-Carlton. Your organization can learn about The Ritz-Carlton methodology for customer service, employee engagement and leadership development. We also guide organizations through a multi-step process in order to achieve sustainable culture transformation. The Blog Post Organizational Culture Must Be Lived Every Day appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

Today we have a guest post from Jill Konrath. Jill is the author of SNAP Selling and Selling to Big Companies. Ten years ago, Jill was a quiet, unknown consultant who did great work for her clients. Today, she is an internationally recognized expert known for her fresh sales strategies and game-changing approaches. For more, visit www.jillkonrath.com. Getting through to today’s crazy-busy prospects requires fresh strategies. But, as you’ll learn from the interchange below, not everyone is up to speed on what it takes to be successful. See how Kate the Prospecting Ninja tries to enlighten her manager about what’s actually working today. "Will you stop staring at that computer and make some calls!" demanded Kate’s boss. "But, boss," answered Kate, a sales rep for a growing company. "It’s why I’m doing so well." "You could do even better if you’d pick up the phone and start dialing." "I know you keep saying that," replied Kate. "But the truth is, you should be asking me why I’m so much more successful than my colleagues when I make fewer calls." "That’s sales heresy. Everyone knows that sales is a numbers game." "Okay," said Kate. "Try these numbers out. You know Hoopla Restaurants, the company I just closed a big deal with last week?" "Yup! Nice order too - and very profitable." "I tracked them online for about six months," Kate continued. "Then, about 10 weeks ago, they announced a new health-food initiative. That got me thinking they’d need new menus. So I went to their website to take a quick look at their current ones and see if I could discover any ways to help them." "Kate, stop right now. Why in the world didn’t you just call their printing people to see if we could bid on their new menus?" "That wouldn’t work," she explained. "We’d just be another printer. All they’d focus on would be price. I needed to get to their VP of marketing with some fresh ideas. Specifically, I focused on how to redesign the menus to reflect their new image and increase order size at the same time." "You know that’s what our graphics people are for, Kate. It drives me crazy that you’re wasting all that time when you could be calling or setting up meetings…" "But, boss," Kate interrupted. "You wanted numbers, so I’m going to give you some. You needed to know the context first. "Once I knew that I could provide value, I put together a 10-touch prospecting campaign using the phone, email and social media. Each message was slightly different, but essentially the focus was on their strategy, industry challenges and my ideas for how to achieve their goals. "It took about three weeks, but the VP of marketing finally agreed to a quick video conference. We talked, and he liked what I said. Then he asked me to meet with Terry, the project manager, to flush it out more and get the pricing. "All told, I made eight contacts to get the business. I had a one-out-of-eight hit rate. And, because I didn’t go to purchasing, I didn’t get into any price wars either - which is why our margins were so good." "Kate, you could do so much better if you’d make more calls. I’ll let you keep doing it this way, because it seems to be working - but don’t tell the others. I’m holding them to the activity goals." As he walked off to "motivate" another rep, Kate the Prospecting Ninja rolled her eyes and thought, "He’s going to be a tough nut to crack, but I’ll keep working on him till he gets it." To learn more about Kate’s success strategies, download "7 Secrets of a Prospecting Ninja."    Photo credit: mbeo52

"Imagine the impact if every single person working for a company were able to be a creator and innovator. Team members should be enabled, empowered, and challenged to unleash their entrepreneurial energy and their creativity to help improve their team, store and company." — John Mackey, co-CEO of Whole Foods Market The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: We all have our strengths, we all excel in certain areas and each person brings their experiences to the table when a group is tasked with a project. Every member of your team is creative in one way or another; your responsibility as the leader is to find where each individual thrives. What would happen if you asked a Sales expert to design the "look and feel" of your product? When we focus on the individual strengths of our workforce the creativity and ingenuity of the entire team grows together and great things are created. The Ritz-Carlton believes so strongly that our Ladies and Gentlemen are all individually creative and innovative that we made it one of our Gold Standards, which reads, "I continuously seek opportunities to innovate and improve The Ritz-Carlton experience." It is important to note that we are not asking our employees—our Ladies and Gentlemen—to invent electricity. Even small innovations like shaving a minute off check-in or check-out time can have a significant impact. How do you enliven the creativity and innovation of your workforce? ∞ The Blog Post Inspired Thinking: Creativity and Innovation appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

In the opening episode of Mad Men, we see top marketing executive Don Draper sitting in a bar, furiously scribbling on a napkin. If you’re familiar with the series, you’ll know Draper is not without flaws, but his decision to leave work so he can focus on a vital product pitch is inspiring. Throughout the series (and on Twitter) when important deadlines loom, his first instinct is to escape the daily distractions of the office.   Of course, escaping from the interruptions of work isn’t just something highly effective fictional characters do. Jon Favreau, the precocious young speechwriter of a certain Barack Obama, wrote the first draft of the U.S. president’s inaugural address in a Washington café, insulated from the distractions of a highly charged office. Although Favreau probably used a laptop or even a smartphone rather than a napkin to capture and shape the key points of Obama’s historic address, the same principle applies. Needing to get something crucial done, he left the workplace behind.  Here’s what I think we can learn from this.  Question the old. Like Favreau, many of today’s successful flexible workers are likely to be found in a café or co-working space with coffee, laptop and smartphone in tow. Others work from their kitchen table or a park bench. In a sense, regardless of location, they have all broken with convention. A common assumption is that we’re more easily distracted outside of the office - that real work doesn’t happen there. In fact, as recent research suggests, the classic office environment is full of its own distractions, each of which can be an obstacle to productivity. Question the prevailing wisdom and new possibilities present themselves.    Use the technology.  Using flexible working applications, it’s now incredibly easy to create a digital office environment that is instantly accessible via laptop or smart device, giving every employee in an organization the option to work and collaborate from where they feel most productive. Meetings can be hosted remotely and projects can be shared and managed in collaborative online work spaces. The simple fact is that we don’t have to be in the same space, or even in the same time zone, to produce our best work, whether individually or as part of a team.   Change it up. New to flexible working? Unlock your potential by carrying out your own flexible working experiment. This month, try working flexibly for a few days and see if it helps with your productivity. I’m confident it will. Photo credit: simplybike

Dear Ritz-Carlton: Do daily meetings get a little boring when you do them every day? Answer from Joseph Quitoni, Corporate Director, Culture Transformation at The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: Our company’s values and successes are the by-product of our well-defined Gold Standards and the disciplines that allow every one of us to live those standards, every day. Our Gold Standards are what separates us from the competition and ensures sustainable growth for each individual and the company! Our daily meeting, better known as Daily Line-Up, was created to align us as a company and reinforce our philosophy that helps sustain our culture. This 15-minute meeting happens every day at every Ritz-Carlton location around the world—including the corporate office. While the Gold Standards never change and that message is the same, Daily Line-up gives us an opportunity to create and communicate new ways of delivering the Gold Standards that are inspirational. Through new, innovative and positive storytelling and role modeling by leaders and employees, Daily Line-up is never repetitious or even worse, boring. This consistent approach to enlivening culture not only creates habitual behaviors for our employees—the Ladies and Gentlemen of The Ritz-Carlton, but also helps them create unique, memorable and personalized experiences for our guests! ∞ The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center offers advisory services, courses and presentations to organizations that wish to benchmark the award-winning business practices of The Ritz-Carlton. Your organization can learn about The Ritz-Carlton methodology for customer service, employee engagement and leadership development. We also guide organizations through a multi-step process in order to achieve sustainable culture transformation. The Blog Post Dear Ritz-Carlton: Are Daily Meetings Boring? appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

If existing business methods have always worked, why change? This question and its implied answer - a variation of "if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it" - are persuasive. After all, change requires effort and often creates disruption. But should we really be afraid of stepping outside of convention? Sometimes changing things and trying a new approach, even if it is derided by others, may just create that crucial edge a company needs to be competitive. This is the premise of the brilliant film Moneyball, which chronicles the game-changing practices behind the Oakland Athletics baseball team and its unconventional manager Billy Beane . Beane introduced an evidence-based system  called sabermetrics to recruit a competitive baseball team on a tiny budget. Although Beane’s approach flew in the face of traditional baseball wisdom and the entrenched beliefs of grizzled talent scouts, it enabled him to find exceptional value in undervalued players. The result? Baseball minnows Oakland Athletics were able to compete on an even footing with giants of the game like the New York Yankees. Sabermetrics has since become widely used, even outside the ballpark. Oakland would never have tasted success if Beane had stayed within convention. This got me thinking: what conventions do we face in the world of work? Here are a few.  Your daily commute is a fact of life. Real work takes place in an office at a desk during normal work hours. You need to be in the same room to have a productive meeting. In your own field, are you held back by convention, or do you aspire to be like Billy Beane? Photo credit: Jason Alley

Each industry must find ways to provide unique, memorable and personal service. There are basic service principles that every industry should follow such as treating customers or patients with attentive care, consideration and respect. However, in order to stand out from your competition and create loyalty, your customer service must exceed the expectations of your customers. The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center spoke to some of our past clients in the aviation and automotive industries and asked how they provide outstanding service for their customers. They kindly shared their most effective customer service tips: 1) Greet your customer by name Greeting a customer by name is critical for building trust and showing respect. Customers want to feel recognized and treated like a fellow human being—and not like a faceless transaction. A warm, sincere greeting also helps repeat customers feel remembered and valued. 2) Practice anticipatory service Many passengers (or clients, patients, patrons, etc.) have questions, but do not like to ask them. They could be shy or are concerned about appearing ignorant. Encourage your staff to be proactive and approach passengers rather than waiting to be approached. 3) Be knowledgeable and prepared Make sure all of your staff has a firm understanding of the top things they are likely to be asked. When your staff answers basic questions with confidence, competence and clarity, then your customers will feel more secure. 4) Adapt as needed In aviation, your customer service role may be airside or land side, and therefore, your customers have different needs depending on where they are. You should tailor your message appropriately. For example, if you are interacting with customers who are arriving at their destination, your tone should be warm and welcoming. However, if you are assisting customers who are going through security, your tone will need to be more firm. 5) Invite interaction Always ask open-ended questions to customers. An open-ended question gives customers the opportunity to tell you if they need any additional services. It is also more conversational, more caring and less abrupt. 6) Exercise discretion Privacy is a serious issue in today’s world, and customers feel less at risk when your organization values discretion. Spend extra attention making sure your customers’ data is secure, and be sure all of your employees avoid disclosing any customer information. 7) Stress safety All customers want to feel safe. This is especially true in transportation. Customer service agents can promote an atmosphere of safety by being alert and calm. Every small gesture of extra care—such as escorting customers to their desired location or providing umbrellas during inclement weather—helps reassure customers that they are cared for and safe. 8) Respect people’s time Long wait times often lead to irritated customers. Customers want convenience. Your organization can streamline processes by utilizing technology—such as mobile apps. One automotive company executive stated they are "implementing tablet technology for [their] service drive. It will work in conjunction with radio-frequency identification (RFID), and it will automatically load a customer’s service appointment onto the tablet when the customer drives into [their} store. This eliminates making the customers wait while [they] get information from them." 9) Develop relationships Every interaction (phone, email, text, live, in-market, etc.) is an opportunity to nurture and develop a ‘client-relationship.’ As one automotive company executive points out: "Customers may be enticed to visit your store because of the carrots—such as free gasoline or complimentary towels—but CLIENTS retain and purchase services from professionals." In other words, an incentive might get a customer through the door, but when you build relationships with customers, you earn loyalty. 10) Show transparency Your customers do not want surprises. Hidden fees or confusing language will make your customers suspicious. You can’t build relationships when your customers have their defenses up. Purchasing a vehicle represents a large investment, and you must ensure your customers are provided with a clear understanding of the transaction and all the details—including pricing, maintenance, service and labor rates. When you educate your customers, you are creating informed buyers and reducing the risk of buyer’s remorse. To produce outstanding service that generates word-of-mouth, make sure your customer service is consistent and practiced by all of your staff. As it implies in point #9 above: Every interaction can make an impression. When your whole organization values your customer, you are sure to create customer service experiences that lead to customer loyalty.  ∞ The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center offers advisory services, courses and presentations to organizations that wish to benchmark the award-winning business practices of The Ritz-Carlton. Your organization can learn about The Ritz-Carlton methodology for customer service, employee engagement and leadership development. We also guide organizations through a multi-step process in order to achieve sustainable culture transformation.  The Blog Post 10 Customer Service Tips from the Transportation Industry appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.