My husband needed to borrow my car this weekend for a road trip out to the desert, so he asked me, "Does your car have gas in it?" My mind quickly went through all the outings since my last fill-up over a week ago, and I realized I had taken a grand total of 4 drives in my car, each under 5 miles. So I replied, "It sure does. You should have plenty of gas for your trip!" I could manage so few trips because I workshift from my home office on almost a daily basis through various Citrix products. During times like these with the latest spike in gas prices, I am extremely grateful for my work situation. I am able to save thousands of dollars every year by cutting out my commute. And all it took was asking my boss if I could do a test run at making it work. That was 8 years ago now. At the time, I didn’t know many people who also worked from home as often (or what impact it could have), but I’ve noticed the trend grow more and more, and the money saved and environmental benefit is greater than I had imagined all those years ago. Here are just a couple workshifting advantages taken from "Improving Quality of Life through Telecommuting." Converting just 14 percent of jobs to telecommuting positions would: Eliminate 136 billion vehicle travel miles annually in the United States by 2020 and 171 billion miles by 2030. Reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 55 million metric tons - or nearly 1 percent of current national CO2 emissions. So regardless of what happens with gas prices, workshifting can be an effective solution for employers, employees and the environment. I know it has been for me.   Photo credit: bernhardbenke

In an interview at Stanford Business Graduate School, former talk show host Oprah Winfrey told her audience: "At the end of every interview from the murderer to Beyoncé, the question everybody asks is, ‘Was that OK?’ ‘How was that?'" It seems all of Oprah’s guests were looking for one thing—validation. We want reassurance that we have done a good job. This seems especially true at work. According to the report "The Impact of Recognition on Employee Retention" from Globoforce Workforce Mood Tracker, 39% of employees feel underappreciated at work, and 77% admit they would work harder if they felt better recognized. Rewards at The Ritz-Carlton At The Ritz-Carlton, we believe in recognizing employees for their contributions. The Ladies and Gentlemen—the employees of The Ritz-Carlton—give each other First Class Cards whenever they want to express gratitude for outstanding work. Ladies and Gentlemen can also be nominated for the annual Gold Standard Award. Each year up to five winners are chosen based on their ability to consistently and positively impact Guest Engagement, Employee Engagement, Community Footprints®  (The Ritz-Carlton social and environmental responsibility program. See interview with Sue Stephenson for more information.) and other Key Success Factors at The Ritz-Carlton. The Gold Standard Award recognizes an elite group of Ladies and Gentlemen—at all levels—that exemplify exceptional service and a commitment to The Ritz-Carlton philosophy. Gold Standard Award winners are outstanding professionals who have gone above and beyond the duties of their roles, providing lateral service to their fellow Ladies and Gentlemen, and anticipating and fulfilling the needs of their team and the organization as a whole. Story of a Gold Standard Award Winner The Destination Services Coordinator from The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island was one of the 2015 Gold Standard Award winners. She earned the award due to her outstanding work, her dedication to The Ritz-Carlton Gold Standards and for her passion for helping those less fortunate. Last year, this award winner was instrumental in finding an anonymous donor who contributed $14,000 (USD) to build a foundation for an accessible park for disabled children and their families. There was land already designated for this venture; however, the planning committee was hesitant to use any resources to develop the park due to the lack of existing foundation. The Destination Services Coordinator worked with a developer, determined the cost and was able to find an anonymous donor who sponsored the foundation for the park. Her genuine caring was key to the opening of the "Pirate (Freedom)" playground in May 2014. Now, the community has a new park where any child, regardless of physical limitations, can play. In addition, the Destination Services Coordinator donated her time through the Succeed Through Service® program to the local Boy’s and Girl’s Club, to help prepare children with the skills they will need in their future careers. With the help of local partners, she organized a community service day with over 1,400 participants that resulted in a $170,000 (USD) impact on the community. The Destination Services Coordinator also helped the hotel earn the Regional Community Footprints Award. Most likely, this exemplary employee would contribute above-and-beyond work whether she received awards or not, but even high performers like to be recognized. Importance of Recognizing Employees Author Stephen R. Covey noted in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: "Next to physical survival, the greatest need of a human being is psychological survival, to be understood, to be affirmed, to be validated, to be appreciated." Recognition programs are a great way to showcase outstanding efforts, but appreciation in any form—including a simple "thank you"—can boost employee engagement and make the work day happier for all. ∞ 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 Rewarding and Recognizing Employees appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

This week we released an updated GoToMyPC app for your Android phone or Kindle Fire, further adding to our portfolio of mobile solutions that enable a more flexible approach to work. When life’s little emergencies are pulling you in many different directions, a cloud-based service like GoToMyPC might be exactly what you need. Here are some scenarios when the GoToMyPC mobile app can come in handy: Soccer + deadline - You have to pick up your kids from school and take them to soccer practice, but you are on a deadline. Weekend interruption - While playing golf on the weekend, you get an urgent call from your boss and need to jump online to update a document unexpectedly. Vacation panic - You’re sitting on the beach in Hawaii and realize that you forgot to approve the time cards. When emergencies such as these pop up, we often find ourselves stranded on the road, on a beach, or at a family member’s home, with just our mobile devices to help save us.   Enter GoToMyPC … The fact of the matter is, we’re always on the go and life today is mobile. We don’t have the time or desire to sit in an office for 10-12 hours a day anymore. So why not mobilize work? GoToMyPC enables you to access all your computers and files easily from your smartphone, tablet and laptop. We know our customers consider their mobile devices a necessity for getting work done. They have been raving about the way our product untethers them from the office and has saved them from life’s little (and big) emergencies. So how can it help you in your times of need? Keep reading to hear real customer stories that were sent to us via our website and also during a Facebook poll we did in August. Visit our Facebook page to read even more. Even better, start a 30-day free trial and tell us one of your own! "Because of the complexity of my real estate company, I chose to use a cutting edge desktop, even though I go from branch to branch for portions of my work. By using GoToMyPC on my iPad and iPhone, I can access needed information without having to carry equipment around." "I have used GoToMyPC from the hospital too! My dad was having a surgery and I was able to be with him during his recovery period, just working away while was he was laid up!" "My client had a canceled flight on a Sunday and I was in a fashion show without my iPad or laptop. I was able to get her on another flight right away and did it all on my iPHONE!!! Great. She was very happy and my client forever. Thank you my GoToMyPC." "We LOVE GoToMyPC!!! It has enabled us to work from home and all over the country for that matter. Whoever developed this was a genius and we are very indebted to them!!" "I was on a tight deadline for a 36-page catalog that had to be done in 2 days when my husband went into the hospital for an emergency. Grabbed my laptop and through the power of GoToMyPC I was able to work from the hospital and even meet the printer in the hospital parking lot for proofing. You guys have saved my job on more than one occasion and I use you just about every day " "The birth of my three grandchildren. I worked through the hours before delivery."  

"We begin to see, therefore, the importance of selecting our environment with the greatest of care, because environment is the mental feeding ground out of which the food that goes into our minds is extracted." — Napoleon Hill, author The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: If you want your organization to consistently provide legendary service, you must ensure that your work environment, your foundation, your culture is designed to support an atmosphere of service. When you establish and enliven an environment that prioritizes service, your employees will naturally prioritize service as well. The Ritz-Carlton culture springs from our Gold Standards, and these standards are our "mental feeding grounds." They remind employees that "the genuine care and comfort of our guests is our highest mission." Giving your employees customer service tips and tricks without creating a culture of service is like building a house without a foundation. It might work for a while, but when there’s bad weather, the home will collapse around you. You want to build an organization that maintains its values through all circumstances—and offers stability and consistency to your employees and your customers/patients. Being able to provide an environment that is supportive, engaging and passionate gives your staff the ability to have the mental preparedness they will need when doing their job. ∞ The Blog Post Inspired Thinking: Work Environment appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

Workplace flexibility is on the rise as more organizations experience the productivity advantages of mobile work. If your company hasn’t adopted a mobile work strategy yet, then you’re moving slower than your competitors. As a leader or business owner, you need to seriously consider adopting policies and cloud-based technology that will enable your team to work from anywhere on any device - including smartphones and tablets. Of course, enabling mobility means you need convenient, secure and reliable tools that provide remote access, video conferencing and IT remote support. In other words, you need a mobile office. Step 1: Equip yourself with the right hardware Cordless laptops, tablets and mobile devices free employees from their office desks. Look for powerful hardware with quality reviews for durability. You should also look for technology that is compatible with your company standards or software and programs. Step 2: Make sure you have an Internet connection Working disconnected from the Internet means fewer interruptions from emails or instant messages. However, with the right cloud software, the Internet allows you to collaborate with others and continue business interactions from anywhere. When you’re out of Wi-fi range: Talk to your mobile phone provider about Internet tethering plans. Tethering allows your mobile phone to transfer Internet connectivity to your computer or laptop with a USB cord. Step 3: Have reliable audio and a durable headset Since you’re working at a distance, clear audio is essential to getting your message across. Look for a durable headset that has a USB adaptor. Equally, having a headset with an adaptor to a landline is a good backup. Caution: if you have low Internet bandwidth, audio through VoIP (that is, through your computer’s mic and speakers) might be choppy; be prepared to use a phone for audio instead. Step 4: Equip yourself with the right cloud software Remote workers need to have simple ways to access their office files and applications, collaborate with co-workers and clients, and get IT support on the go. Look for tools and mobile applications that are easy to use, enable secure connections and that work on multiple platforms. For example, Citrix GoToMyPC has mobile apps for iPad and iPhone, available on the App Store, and apps for Android phones and tablets available on Google Play. Step 5: Have a plan B Almost every remote worker has been there. You’re in the middle of an online business meeting and your Internet connection goes down. Or your audio connection gets fuzzy. Or your power goes out. Mobile offices need a business continuity plan just like brick and mortar offices do. Here are some useful backups to help you be ready for anything: Internet: As mentioned in Step 2, when you don’t have an Internet connection, you can tether your smartphone to your laptop or tablet with a USB cord. Also, it’s a good idea to get to know where all the good Wi-fi hotspots are in your locale. Audio: If you usually depend on VoIP, plan to have a cell phone or landline phone available, and keep the dial-in conference number handy. Likewise, if you usually depend on your phone connection, keep a headset around in case you ever need to get audio through your computer. Power: In some cases, you can keep going if you have good batteries and tethered Internet. But if you’re sitting in the dark, then what? Try to plan for a secondary work location - preferably one across town that doesn’t depend on the same power source. As more companies adopt mobile work strategies, finding cloud-based solutions that allow for anytime, anywhere work should be top of mind. Cloud-based tools propel productivity and empower workers to produce results outside the boundaries of location. Citrix GoTo cloud-based solutions (GoToMeeting, GoToAssist, GoToMyPC, ShareFile and Podio) make it easy to create a mobile office, allowing work to take place with anyone - anytime, anywhere. For more information about building a mobile office or Citrix GoTo cloud services, please visit http://news.citrixonline.com/resources.   Photo credit: pejrm

Our mobile apps for GoToMeeting have been out for a couple years now, and we love that so many people are using them. In fact, over 100,000 meeting attendees join through our mobile apps every month! We want to thank all of you who are adopting mobile workstyles and making the GoToMeeting apps part of your toolset. We’ve heard from doctors, project managers, sales managers and many more about how our mobile apps are allowing people to collaborate from anywhere. But we keep getting one question over and over again: when will I be able to host and present content in online meetings from a mobile device? Today we’re happy to announce that we’ve taken the next step. With the new GoToMeeting app for iOS devices, our customers can launch meetings from an iPhone and present content from an iPad. As you rely more on these devices every day, you can now collaborate with the most complete mobile experience yet for GoToMeeting. Here’s what you can do with the new GoToMeeting app for iPad and iPhone: Launch a meeting and invite attendees with just a few taps. Change presenter so another person can show their screen. Present your content by simply browsing to it or opening email attachments (iPad only). Easily share content from ShareFile or Dropbox during a meeting (iPad only). Brainstorm with the onscreen highlighter and whiteboard (iPad only). Try out the app today! Afterwards, be sure to rate us in the App Store.  

Dear Ritz-Carlton: How do we keep one another (especially "upper level" team members) accountable to civility and respect? The above question is from an attendee at the "Symposium: Your Journey to Service Excellence" in April. The following answer is from Jennifer Blackmon, Corporate Director, Culture Transformation at The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: Accountability begins with well-articulated expectations that are translated into specific behaviors. Civility is a cultural nuance that can take on many shapes. What does it mean to your organization specifically? Can you describe what respect would look like in action? Once you answer those two questions, then the processes utilized to ensure they are happening are much easier. At The Ritz-Carlton, we use performance management, annual reviews and a robust training certification to ensure everyone is aligned. Once there is clear alignment, then accountability will happen organically at a peer-to-peer level. It becomes part of "who you are," not "what you do." When it comes to Culture, alignment is key. Regardless of the words shared in your company’s mission, vision or values—Culture is created by the behavior of the senior leaders. If civility and respect are not part of what they do, it should be eliminated as an expectation for anyone. ∞ On Thursday, November 12, 2015, The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center will present "Your Journey to Service Excellence," The Ritz-Carlton approach to legendary service, employee engagement and a customer-centric culture. This one-day Symposium will take place at The Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner in McLean, VA. Complete your enrollment by August 1st to take advantage of early-bird pricing. The Blog Post Dear Ritz-Carlton: Maintaining Civility and Respect? appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

The nature of work has changed. It’s no longer a place we go. It’s a thing we do. It’s about working better together, getting people involved and moving the business faster… by powering all workstyles. As a result, IT support must change too. IT is the backbone to the new world of mobile, distributed working. To support more users and keep up with escalating demand, IT needs to replace antiquated support tools with new technology. The new IT solution is . . . a new set of integrated tools that focus on live support of people, process and technology. The new solution should be able to deliver multiple services from just one interface ‒ no more jumping from one tool to another. Today at Citrix Synergy 2012 in Barcelona, Spain, the conference where mobile workstyles and cloud services meet, Citrix debuted its newest cloud-based IT support tool: GoToAssist Service Desk. This new tech tool provides a simple, intuitive way to more effectively manage IT service desk operations. GoToAssist Service Desk enables support professionals to: Easily log, track and resolve incidents. Manage configuration changes, releases and workflow Deliver end-user self-service. Best of all, Service Desk is seamlessly integrated with GoToAssist’s Remote Support and Monitoring modules. IT pros who utilize both the Remote Support and Service Desk modules can easily initiate incident tickets from a remote support session or launch a remote support session from a Service Desk ticket. No more juggling multiple tools and duplicating data entries. The new GoToAssist Service Desk delivers these key benefits: Reduce IT firefighting, free up time and lower IT support costs. Gain total visibility into the entire IT support services to accelerate issue resolution. Streamline support workload among team members Removes the complexity and time in implementing ITIL and ITSM best practices. Create a beautiful, easy self-service portal - end users can submit and track support requests and view knowledge-base articles. GoToAssist continues to simplify IT support by providing easy, affordable access to an essential toolset - service desk management, remote support and IT monitoring - all from one user interface. Combining critical tools enables IT departments to be more efficient, effective and saves costs. GoToAssist can be customized to fit the unique needs of each business — choose one module, two or all three. Learn more about the full set of GoToAssist Service Desk features or give it a free test drive!  Sign up for a free trial or contact our sales team to learn more.  Pricing packages start at $49 USD per month, per technician.

The following post was written by our Millennial colleague and 2012 Olympian, Caroline Queen. Caroline currently serves as the Senior Program Specialist for The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center. We are Millennials, and we are coming for you. Or rather, to work for you. According to a 2014 report from Deloitte, Millennials will make up 75% of the workforce worldwide by 2025. Today, many of those 20-somethings are already in your workplace, speaking with your customers and representing your brand. Five Ways Millennials Will Improve Your Workplace The following five reasons show why you want Millennials in your workplace and how you can maximize the talents of this generation. Millennial Trait: We are enthusiastic Benefit for You: Improved products, processes and services for your organization Millennials reported being most enthusiastic about our jobs compared to Gen Xers and Boomers (Deloitte). Enthusiasm boosts employee engagement, which drives efficiency, quality, a positive workplace environment and ultimately, profitability. How can you ensure this enthusiasm stays and continues to deliver? Recognition. Millennials relish recognition—especially in the form of opportunities for leadership and personal development. One way to provide such opportunities is to foster a culture of innovation in your company. Barry Salzberg, CEO of DTTL said, "It’s clear that Millennials want to innovate and businesses should be listening.… Fostering a culture of innovation will not only help retain high-performing talent but it will also drive growth by creating opportunities for individuals to unlock the next game-changing innovations" (Deloitte). Millennial Trait: We can be team players in diverse settings Benefit for You: As Millennials climb into management positions, we are more likely to lead in ways that empower our diverse teams to grow themselves and perform to new heights. Although many sources report that Millennials are not team players, we have had more teamwork integrated into our school work and been raised in a more diverse world than previous generations. "Immune to hierarchy or labels and raised in an era of social media and crowdsourcing, Generation Y [the Millennial generation] is fiercely inclusive," according to Entrepreneur. Millennials are the most diverse and accepting generation yet in every sense of the word: race, sexual orientation, physical abilities and other attributes (Ernst and Young). The ability to work with colleagues of all backgrounds will become increasingly valuable as companies want to recruit and retain the best talent by creating a supportive work environment for all. Millennial Trait: But we also are self-sufficient Benefit for You: Wired to solve their own problems Entrepreneur also supports the claim that Millennials are quite self-sufficient. We like to attempt problem solving on our own first. Sixty percent of Millennials surveyed said they do not immediately call company support and 71% search the Internet for a solution (Bomgar). Bomgar also noted that Millennials are able to work and solve these problems from almost anywhere as we are the most tech-savvy generation, too. With regard to technology, Boston College points out that Millennials are the first generation to have been exposed to and been users of technology their whole lives. Technology comes naturally to us. So we are more than happy to assist our older colleagues who might not be as comfortable. Millennial Trait: Contribute to corporate responsibility Benefit for You: Bring a global and caring approach to the workplace Millennials want to make a difference and not just in your business. We want to affect social change, fill in the gap between what we see government doing and the results we want to see in policy, and take care of the environment for ourselves and our children. Whatever our specific passions may be, Millennials are ready to participate in and strengthen corporate responsibility programs (Deloitte). Millennial Trait: We know ourselves Benefit for You: We can help you learn about and reach Millennials Millennials are also growing up to be consumers. Companies must learn how to generate and market products and services that cater to what Millennials want. So why not ask us for assistance? Making Your Workplace Millennial-Friendly In order to attract Millennials to your workplace, you must create an environment that will appeal to them. You can do this by safely adapting your current organizational culture. How do you know what to adjust? Ask. Facilitate a discussion with your Millennial staff members and identify some solutions that are mutually agreeable. Even small modifications can go a long way. Perhaps you permit your employees to work from home once per week. Perhaps you make your tasks more team-based or integrate new technologies. Again, you’ll have to determine what will best attract Millennial employees by communicating with your current staff. These changes might even appeal to your Gen Xers and Boomers, too. At The Ritz-Carlton, Millennials are often included on innovation projects among more seasoned Ladies and Gentlemen to give insights on our future guests. Also, from the perspective of The Ritz-Carlton, it is important to understand what our internal guests, our Ladies and Gentlemen, want out of our work environment. Our service values support our abilities to be involved in the work that affects us and to learn and grow. Our leaders facilitate broad communication to keep everyone informed and provide frequent opportunities to share constructive feedback. Transparency, development and inclusion are qualities that help engage Millennials according to Generations at Work. Nurturing Future Leaders Despite the entitled air of Millennials as a whole, we ultimately are grateful for opportunities to learn from the current leadership in an effort to grow into future leaders. Given the right tools and relationships, we will work hard and help make your company better. If you still find yourself unsure about Millennials after reading this, I encourage you to give it additional thought. We’re coming to your business, like it or not. By harnessing the enthusiasm, creativity and skills we’re bringing to the table now, you can ensure that your company is ahead of the curve and training tomorrow’s leaders today. ∞ 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 Why Do You Want Millennials in Your Workplace? appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

I’ve been following the UK political party conferences with interest over the past few weeks. One thing that has struck me is how similar politicians can be, regardless of their affiliation. This is what makes the current mayor of London such a breath of fresh air. Yes, like all successful politicians, Boris Johnson is never short of a sound bite, but he stands out from the crowd because he’s not afraid to be different. All politics aside, there are useful lessons we can learn from Johnson’s approach to marketing himself. Rule 57: Be anything but boring.  Johnson is undoubtedly the first London mayor to hurtle down a zip wire, get stuck - and then turn the episode into a PR triumph. The secret? Just as you should avoid micromanaging your team, sometimes it’s okay to not have complete control of your marketing strategy. Play to your strengths and you increase your chances of a positive outcome.    Rule 12: Let your talent shine. Make sure people know about your successes. Johnson never misses an opportunity to talk up his accomplishments. Embrace this attitude when pitching for business or reviewing your goals. Shout about your achievements to avoid blending in with competitors.  Rule 3: Be genuine.  Build trust by being genuine. Johnson’s public persona is one of unashamed and unapologetic difference. His rising popularity indicates that this stance is working and that people believe in him. In the world of business, being genuine is crucial in dealings with customers and suppliers, each of whom is a potential advocate. Don’t create "badvocates."  Rule 77: Learn from history.  Understand the past to improve your future outlook. Johnson’s frequent references in speeches and articles to the classics of literature showcase his learning as well as his broad horizons. This is one politician not afraid to look beyond the present.   Too often in business, we become fixated on the next quarter or financial year and fail to understand the past so that we can plan more effectively for the future. Where do you want to be in the next 5 or even 10 years? And where were you at those milestones in the past?   So, ready to take that zip wire?   Photo credit: steveritchie