You wake up feeling achy. Scratchy throat. Fever. Cough. Bad news: you have the flu. With most of the country showing high levels of flu activity, the virus is spreading, and fast. While you may think you can handle a day in the office, the truth is you should stay home if you’re sick. Going to work when you’re less than 100 percent mentally or physically is called presenteeism and studies have shown it’s a $150 billion business problem. Between decreased productivity, prolonged recovery time and exposing others to your illness, it’s a losing situation for both you and your company. The key to solving the presenteeism problem is having the right resources: the tools to work remotely coupled with your employer’s trust. Companies that enable this work flexibility, called "workshifting," empower their employees to choose when and how they work based on their individual lifestyles. It’s not about doing 9-5 at the office; it’s about delivering great results from anywhere. Reliable, secure technology like GoToMyPC allows you to access your work computer remotely, whether you’re home caring for ill family members or feeling feverish yourself. With access to your files, programs and network, it’s just like being at your office desktop. So you can stay productive - and not share your germs with coworkers - while you or your loved ones recuperate at home. We recommend you create a workshifting plan with your employer and get the right tools in place to ensure you can confidently work from home if you need to this flu season. And in the meantime, keep that hand sanitizer handy.   Photo Credit: Marc Mateos - Because I’m worth it via Compfight cc

Dear Ritz-Carlton: Many companies have innovation on their checklist. How does The Ritz-Carlton best leverage this concept? Answer from Jennifer Blackmon, Corporate Director, Culture Transformation at The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: Innovation is at the core of The Ritz-Carlton culture. We understand that the best ideas and concepts for change will come directly from the individuals who are actually doing the work and that is why we foster a collaborative culture of innovation. There must be a process in order to nurture ideas, and leadership has to champion it. When a team member has an idea, how do they share it? What happens to it? Who will follow up on it? These are the questions every organization should be able to answer. If employees go out of their way to share ideas and all they ever hear in return is the sound of crickets—it won’t be long before they stop trying. Every organization has some extremely creative employees. Recognize and nurture their talent and give them the opportunity to see an idea through. When managed correctly, innovation will positively affect the bottom line, the customer experience and create employees who are passionate about the company. ∞ Join us for a one-day symposium, "Your Journey to Service Excellence." The day includes a keynote speaker, a Q&A session with The Ritz-Carlton executive panel, an optional networking reception and presentations about legendary service, employee engagement and developing a customer-centric culture. The Blog Post Dear Ritz-Carlton: Collaborative Culture of Innovation? appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

When it comes to work, do you make lists or prefer to keep things in your head? It’s a safe bet that most of us turn to the humble to-do list to organize our day. Getting things down, whether on paper or its digital equivalent, can help sort thoughts and make work seem manageable rather than overwhelming.     However, I was intrigued to read that Guy Kawasaki, former chief evangelist of Apple, does not keep a to-do list. "For the intellectual challenge, I never make lists," he said. "I challenge myself to remember what to do in order to delay the decay of my brain."  I’m not sure this approach would work for me, but what do you think? Do we really need that neat set of bullet points? Around this time of year, certain hardy individuals take part in winter swims, stripping down to plunge into vast, freezing stretches of water. Perhaps this is the equivalent of going without a to-do list at work - not something most of us would do often, but it can leave you feeling reawakened, even exhilarated. Take a leap into the bracing, list-free waters and emerge rejuvenated!  You go first.  Getting Things Done  The opposite of Guy Kawasaki’s no-list approach is Getting Things Done, the famous system for filtering life into a series of actionable items. If you’re the kind of person who relishes high-end organization, this is for you.  I’m a fan of both Getting Things Done and Guy Kawasaki, but personally I prefer somewhere in between the two approaches. Right now I’m enjoying online collaborative tools like Podio that allow me to share a daily task list with my team. This means they have a clear picture of priorities, and we avoid duplicating work. Plus, there’s the bonus of having nowhere to hide if I don’t, in fact, get stuff done.   I’m interested - what systems do you use to deal with your work?      Photo Credit: Photo David via Compfight cc

Each month, The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center (RCLC) features an interview with an employee—also known as a Lady or Gentleman of The Ritz-Carlton—in order to share an insider’s view of the organization. This month’s interview is with J. Weili Cheng, Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. RCLC: Please share a little about your role within The Ritz-Carlton organization. Ms. Cheng: I am responsible for all legal matters relating to the company’s operations, which include over 124 lodging and residential properties in more than 29 countries. Ritz-Carlton operates hotels for third-party owners, and I spend most of my time on work that relates to our hotel operating agreements. I handle many owner issues. If hotel or residential owners are concerned about Ritz-Carlton operations, and those concerns cannot be addressed or resolved at the local or regional level, I will support or participate in negotiations to help facilitate a resolution. What’s wonderful about The Ritz-Carlton is that we really make every effort to address owner concerns. However, if we cannot accommodate owners’ requests, I will assist in framing our response in the context of our business model, explaining why we cannot accommodate their requests. I also assist the team of Marriott lawyers who negotiate new Ritz-Carlton operating agreements globally. When certain issues arise in their negotiations with hotel owners, they will often come to me with questions. In addition, my team supports the day-to-day operations in the hotels and also in our club and residential projects. RCLC: What is your background prior to taking this position with The Ritz-Carlton? Ms. Cheng: After law school, I worked for a law firm, and then I worked for the U.S. Department of Justice. In 1985, I started working in the Litigation Practice Group at Marriott. I was then asked by Mr. Marriott to participate in strategic planning projects over the course of a year. After completing those projects, I went back to the law department and joined the International Development Practice Group. I worked on projects in the Caribbean and Latin America and the Middle East. In 1997, Marriott acquired the Renaissance Hotel Group and needed more international operations attorneys. I became the international operations attorney for Asia Pacific until I was promoted to being the lead operations attorney globally. While I continued to support Asia Pacific specifically, I was then also responsible for supervising the attorneys who handled the Caribbean and Latin America, Middle East, Africa, and UK and Ireland. From there, I joined The Ritz-Carlton. What has been great about working at The Ritz-Carlton is that I have an opportunity to provide legal support on a global basis—domestically and internationally. RCLC: What do you value about the culture of The Ritz-Carlton? Ms. Cheng: What appeals to me most about The Ritz-Carlton culture is engagement— engagement with others. You can’t engage without developing and building relationships. I like the concept of building relationships for life, and I view that as not just applying to our guests, but to everyone we encounter—our hotel owners, our colleagues and all stakeholders. When I’m speaking with our Ladies and Gentlemen or in a manager’s meeting, I often stress our motto, "We are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen." Our focus is typically on how we need to be Ladies and Gentlemen, but I like to remind people that we serve Ladies and Gentlemen. This means that our guests and everyone we interact with have to be and act like ladies and gentlemen. I explain that there are, unfortunately, guests who are not ladies and gentlemen. Our Ladies and Gentlemen need to remember that they are not doormats and deserve respect. They should not have to put up with abusive behavior from our guests or from their supervisors. RCLC: How does The Ritz-Carlton culture impact your legal work? Ms. Cheng: The culture of The Ritz-Carlton emphasizes building strong relationships and that meshes very well with how I have developed as an attorney. I view negotiations as an opportunity to further the interests of all parties involved, and I can understand and empathize with people who are unhappy. Over the years, I have learned that the negotiations are much more pleasant if you have a good relationship with the other party. If you’re friendly and personable, that can make all the difference. Of course, a good, personal relationship would not result in concessions during negotiations, but it makes the process more pleasant. About three years ago, I was involved in a negotiation involving the sale of a hotel. The negotiations were rather contentious at times, but I always felt that I had a good relationship with the hotel owner representative as well as his attorney. A month or two after the deal closed, I received a lovely email from the owner’s attorney saying how much she enjoyed working with me, and she hoped she would have an opportunity to work with me again in the future. I did not concede issues that were important to Ritz-Carlton and acted in the best interests of The Ritz-Carlton, but I handled the negotiations professionally and enhanced the working relationship between The Ritz-Carlton and that owner. My criteria for a good negotiation is that everyone walks away from the transaction satisfied, but not necessarily completely happy because negotiations don’t work that way. Not everybody gets exactly what he or she wants, but you end up accepting what you can. RCLC: Is a lot of your work over the computer? Ms. Cheng: A lot of my work is electronic, but I try to at least get to know people over the phone or at some point, meet with them. When you meet with people and establish a personal relationship, the lines of communication are much better. I was a litigation attorney for many years and concluded that most of the time people file lawsuits because they feel they have not been given the respect they deserve. Their feelings are hurt, and they want to extract some sort of retribution. So, they file a lawsuit. I think it’s really important in the business world to show respect because again, that’s the foundation for a good relationship. RCLC: How do the Key Success Factors at The Ritz-Carlton guide the work of the legal department? Ms. Cheng: The Ritz-Carlton has five Key Success Factors, and the law department spends most of its time on Number Five, "Maximizing financial performance." We do that in our work with owners on our operating agreements and in assessing risks. We want to make sure that we maintain the profitability for our hotels and for the company. We also spend time on Key Success Factor Number Four, "Deliver product and service excellence." At The Ritz-Carlton, we often come up with new ideas, products and services to distinguish The Ritz-Carlton from other brands. Often those new products and services require legal work. One example of this is The Ritz-Carlton cake. I was part of the team that helped select The Ritz-Carlton cake. We taste tested and ranked 14 or 15 cakes. That was fun! Once we identified the proper cake, we needed to enter into contracts for the production and distribution of the cake. We also needed to make sure that the cakes were produced in a manner that met food safety requirements. RCLC: You serve on the Executive Committee at The Ritz-Carlton. Will you share what it means to be a leader at The Ritz-Carlton? Ms. Cheng: Being a leader at The Ritz-Carlton is a responsibility. In my role, I have to walk the talk, and I’m very cognizant of how I conduct myself. Any success that I have had at The Ritz-Carlton is the result of having a terrific team of legal professionals. And the company’s success is the result of the efforts of our Ladies and Gentlemen around the world. They are the ones that interact with our guests on a daily basis. How they treat our guests and each other affects the reputation of The Ritz-Carlton. Our employees have many balls to juggle, and they have to do it well for our company to be successful. RCLC: Are there any final words of wisdom that you would like to share? Ms. Cheng: I’ve learned two important lessons in my career. First, I’ve learned that interpersonal relationships facilitate communication, and communication is very important in business. In our business, if a problem arises, it is easier to resolve the problem as soon as you know about it. It is far better to deliver or receive bad news sooner rather than later. Don’t let concerns fester. Otherwise, even little concerns eventually grow big and then are accompanied by a lot of negative emotional energy. Second, learn as much as you can. While I still have a lot to learn, my tenure with Marriott has allowed me to gain knowledge and experience, which has enabled me to better handle challenging situations and transactions. This is consistent with Service Value 8 at The Ritz-Carlton: "I have the opportunity to continuously learn and grow." ∞ 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 Our Ladies and Gentlemen: Weili Cheng appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

Today we have a guest post from Jill Konrath, author of SNAP Selling & Selling to Big Companies. If you’re like most sellers, you’re probably pretty skeptical of all the social media buzz out there. Everyone touts it as the next great thing, but, deep in your gut, you can’t quite figure out how tweeting or spending hours on Facebook will help you get more sales. If you’re selling to the corporate market, your instincts are correct. Your prospects aren’t hanging out on Twitter or Facebook during business hours. But there is one social media site that you really do need to invest time with: LinkedIn. In the past couple of years, it’s become an invaluable resource for savvy sellers. In our recent Sales & LinkedIn Study of over 3,000 sellers, we uncovered a group of savvy sellers who are proactively leveraging LinkedIn to find and create more opportunities. They’re using it to: Find multiple account entry points. Top sellers research their targeted accounts online, looking for potential people in a company who might be interested in their products or services. They know that having just one name isn’t enough anymore. They start by finding the primary decision maker based on the typical positions they deal with. Next they expand their search to look for this person’s peers, subordinates and boss. Then they proceed to contact these people to set up initial meetings. Gain invaluable insights. Top sellers realize that capturing and keeping the attention of today’s crazy-busy prospects requires a time investment for learning about them prior to initiating contact. On LinkedIn, they check out a person’s profile to see what’s important to them. They review mutual connections, updates, career history, group participation and more. Then they leverage these insights to craft relevant messages they can use to connect with these people via either email or phone. Showcase their expertise. Top sellers know that prospects check them out using LinkedIn. Rather than treating their profile as a resume, they use it as a tool to let people know the impact they can make on their businesses. They post updates, sharing links to good articles, ebooks, webinars and other resources. They contribute to groups, but never pitch their products. To sum it up, savvy sellers find LinkedIn, a social media website, to be a priceless asset. They use it strategically to open more doors, knowing that it gives them a significant edge over their competitors. Jill Konrath is the author of SNAP Selling & Selling to Big Companies. Get her FREE Prospecting Tool Kit. Photo Credit: mariosundar via Compfight cc

Today we have a guest post from Bill Cates. Bill is the author of Get More Referrals Now and uses GoToWebinar and GoToMeeting for all of his webinars and many client meetings. Bill helps sales people get more referrals and turn those referrals into new clients, and he helps sales organizations boost production through referrals and other sales-generating strategies. Check out Bill’s book at www.GetMoreReferrals.com. Contact Bill directly at BillCates@ReferralCoach.com To get more referrals, first you have to be referable. Are you? How do you know? You know that you, your products, or your services are referable if you are getting referrals without asking for them. Unsolicited referrals are a barometer of your referability. Every business and every salesperson should be getting unsolicited referrals. If not, there is likely a problem with the value or the relationship. There are two places to look to enhance your referability. First, your initial process must be referable. I don’t care what your business model looks like; you need to make sure you put your new prospects through a process that they will find valuable. In your efforts to sell your prospects on what you offer, are you looking for ways to provide value? Are your prospects learning and growing because of their interactions with you? Even if they didn’t buy from you, would they be better off from having met you? You want to make the sale and you want to do it in a manner that makes you referable quickly in the relationship. Second, you want to enhance your referability over time. Staying in regular contact with your clients and customers 1) keeps adding value and 2) builds a business friendship. The value they get from you makes you referable. And the business friendship is the turbo-charger to referrals. Do you have a model in place that helps you determine how often and for what reasons you’ll be in touch with your clients? Or are you winging it with your client contacts? I can assure you, your clients can tell the difference. Certainly, online meeting services and web conferencing can help you connect more meaningfully with each prospect and customer that you contact. Satisfied clients will often refer you when asked, but clients who are in love with your service (and the relationship you’ve established with them) will become your vocal advocates. What are you doing to become more referable? For four tips to become more referable, download the white paper.   Photo Credit: NASARobonaut via Compfight cc

"You’ll never have a product or price advantage again. They can be easily duplicated, but a strong customer service culture can’t be copied." — Jerry Fritz, Speaker The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: A low price may encourage a customer to do business with you, but most likely, it will not build customer loyalty. Customers can find which company is offering the lowest price on a product within seconds, and most consumers will shop around. When you focus on your customer experience rather than on price, you have a better chance of building loyalty and differentiating your organization from the competition. Creating an engaging customer experience takes more than a color change or technological upgrade. Most organizations known for customer service such as Nordstrom and Amazon have a customer-centric culture. The Ritz-Carlton was designed around Gold Standards—the Motto, Credo and Service Values—that ensure our customer is always the top priority. Every organization is capable of separating itself from the competition with a culture of service excellence. What are some steps your organization can take to make your culture more customer- or patient-centric? ∞ The Blog Post Inspired Thinking: Customer Service Culture appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

The roads of Austin, Texas will be a bit clearer this Friday, February 8—or at least that’s the goal. As part of an effort to remove 10,000 cars from the road, the Austin City Council has approved a one-day Work From Home initiative that encourages residents to skip the commute and spend a day working away from the office. It’s a step in the right direction for modern professionals. A recent report commissioned by the UK government found "there is a strong and compelling business case for flexible working," and showed workshifting can help retain staff, attract talent and increase loyalty and productivity—all of which help the bottom line. Yet, a 2012 study by Ipsos for Reuters News found just 9 percent of U.S. workers frequently work from a location outside their office, significantly less than the global average of 17 percent. Demonstrating the benefits of flexible working is part of the goal Moveability Austin has outlined for Austin Work From Home Day. The one-day event will give employers the opportunity to dip their toes into the world of alternative workplace options and, as a result of this single day of testing, Austin could see more companies putting flexible work environments into standard practice. And really, it all makes sense. We have mobile phones, laptops, software—all tools that enable us to work away from the office. Work is no longer a place you go; it’s a thing you do. Whether it’s a coffee shop, your kitchen or the confines of a cubicle, what matters most is finding an environment where you can be most productive. And it’s that productivity that translates into success for employers. In my experience working away from the office, eliminating a daily commute has given me more time and control over my schedule and allows me to make the most of the times and environments that optimize my productivity. The most important piece of this puzzle is having the right tools in place: trusted employees, buy-in from managers and remote-access resources that allow you to work from anywhere. As companies compete for the best and brightest, those that are supportive of workers who want to choose when, how and where they work will come out on top. The Social Good Summit, which is running the Austin event, will present their results of Work From Home Day during the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference, March 8-17, 2013, but the real measures of success are sure to show themselves in the months to come. Whether you’re ditching the commute and working remotely, or sitting in less traffic because your fellow citizens are working away from the office, we all win with a global workforce that supports flexible workspaces. Photo Credit: Dougtone via Compfight cc

Dear Ritz-Carlton: Do you hire and then train individuals to be open and warm? The above question is from an attendee at "Symposium: Your Journey to Service Excellence" in April. Answer from John Cashion, Corporate Director, Culture Transformation at The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: At The Ritz-Carlton, we do not "hire" individuals; instead we pride ourselves on "selecting" Ladies and Gentlemen that are aligned with the values and philosophy of The Ritz-Carlton culture. Our focus is to select the top 1% of the service professionals that have a sense of pride and ownership in the career they have chosen. The selection process must discover individuals with passion for what they do every day. Passion produces an intense emotional connection, but it must come from within and cannot be trained or taught. Each person selected undergoes a very thorough onboarding to understand the mission and vision of The Ritz-Carlton and their role in contributing to our culture. Beyond that, everyone understands that they become an Ambassador of the brand. At The Ritz-Carlton, we know that when we select Ladies and Gentlemen that have an emotional connection to our brand this will translate to a guest who is emotionally connected and loyal to our brand as well. The equation for creating a lifelong memory requires a sense of genuine care from a person who sees you as an individual and loves doing this every day. ∞ Join us for a one-day symposium, "Your Journey to Service Excellence." The day includes a keynote speaker, a Q&A session with The Ritz-Carlton executive panel, an optional networking reception and presentations about legendary service, employee engagement and a customer-centric culture. The Blog Post Dear Ritz-Carlton: Selection Process? appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

UPDATE: This contest is now over. Thanks very much to everyone who participated. We’ll be announcing a winner on Thursday, 21 February. If you’re like us, those New Year’s resolutions may be fizzling out, so we thought we’d help you get back on track! We’re giving away a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 with a complimentary annual subscription for GoToMeeting, so you can make work something you do, not somewhere you go - giving you more time to focus on those neglected resolutions. For us, much like most of the UK, that means hitting the gym more often, spending time with family - and improving our productivity at work. But, research carried out by Cancer Research UK suggests only 1 in 11 of us will manage to stick with these resolutions for over 6 months and a shocking 39% will have given theirs up within 2 weeks. So to make sure work isn’t the reason you fail to stick to your resolution, enter our competition today. To enter, just follow @GoToMeetingUK and tweet this message*. The competition ends on Wednesday, February 20th, so don’t wait! *This competition is for UK residents only. For full details, read the competition terms and conditions. Photo credit: WIRED UK