Dogs Don’t Discriminate (WT483)

Dogs Don’t Discriminate (WT483)

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by Shirley Dalton | 27 Sep, 2019 | Blog, Mindset

WT483 Dogs Don't Discriminate

It was early morning and Ross was driving me to work with a client for the day.

I noticed a dog jumping all over a man who was sitting on the cold cement on a blanket.

The dog was on a leash and its owner was doing her best to pull the dog away, but it was having none of that. 

The dog clearly liked the man and continued to strain on its lead; tail wagging furiously and a big tongue doing its best to reach and lick the man’s face.

I was intrigued as I watched this and realised that the man appeared to be homeless, or at least he was begging.

Next to where he sat, he had two old crumpled cardboard boxes. I assumed they were to collect money or other donations.

He seemed to be enjoying the affections of the dog.

As we travelled past them, I couldn’t help but notice that dogs don’t discriminate.

They don’t know who is rich or poor. Who knows if they see fat or thin, big or small, different coloured skin and hair. They don’t know who is smart and who isn’t. They don’t know who works and who doesn’t. They mostly love and accept everyone.

Pity that the lady couldn’t allow the dog and the man to enjoy some affection.

What makes us discriminate?

How come we can’t behave more like dogs and be more accepting towards others?

Your action this week is to be mindful of your thoughts, feelings and actions and notice whether you find yourself discriminating or accepting others.

It’s Reception (WT482)

It’s Reception (WT482)

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by Shirley Dalton | 20 Sep, 2019 | Blog, Customer Service

WT482 It's Reception

The phone rang.

“Hi Shirley, it’s Reception. Are you guys extending over the long weekend?”

I had no idea who Reception was, nor to what she was referring. 

I had to ask her, “Reception. Reception from where?” 

She didn’t give me the answer I was looking for. 

“Are you guys extending over the long weekend?” she repeated.

My mind was racing.

What reception? What about the long weekend?

Then it suddenly dawned on me. She was the receptionist at the caravan park we were staying at.

I was working onsite at a client’s premises and normally wouldn’t have even answered the phone, however I had forgotten to turn it to silent.

I realised she must have thought that I was sitting around in the caravan park and of course I would know who and what Reception was.

Wow! Talk about lack of communication and automatic listening. I was making up all sorts of things in my mind to explain this situation.

I couldn’t help but think that a little (or a lot) of phone technique or scripting was needed.

How about something like, “Good morning, I’m Julia calling from Your Favourite Caravan Park. I’m ringing to confirm whether you are planning on extending your stay to include the long weekend.”

If she had introduced herself, the company and reason for the call, it would have prevented my negative reaction, anxiety, confusion and anger.

Your customer doesn’t always know who you are or why you are calling. Your customer doesn’t always understand what you’re talking about or trying to communicate.

Here’s your action for this week: 

  1. Discuss how you would have reacted if you received the introduction I did from Reception?
  1. Discuss how your Receptionist would have handled the call?
  1. Review your policies and procedures and make sure you have your standard scripts documented. 
  1. Train and support your people.

Your business’ reputation is far more valuable than simply being referred to as  “Reception”. 

You Need a Driver (WT481)

You Need a Driver (WT481)

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by Shirley Dalton | 13 Sep, 2019 | Blog, Business

WT481 You Need A Driver

I’ve mentioned a few times about the REACH profile. In the past few weeks, I’ve worked with a number of companies where the executive team have completed their profiles.

It has been really interesting to see the results.

In some companies, they have at least one of each profile (Counselor, Coach, Advisor and Driver), whilst others are missing a Driver. 

You need a Driver. A Driver is focussed on the “what”. They are results and outcome focussed and they will push us to get things done.

Without a Driver, we can tend to take it a bit easy and may not accomplish as much as we are capable of.

Ross is a Driver and I’ve noticed how he drives me.  On occasions when I want to wimp out and leave it for another day, he will push and let me know that I have to get my work done so he can do his. Uh! I don’t like it. However, I recognise the need for someone to do the pushing.

Here are the key words for the profiles and how they fit together.

Counselor – “who”. They focus on the people and are great at creating team and welcoming and inducting new team members. 

Coach – “why”. They’re great at inspiring and rallying others around a cause once they understand why the cause is important.

Advisor – “how”. They want to know the details and will push you to share how you plan on achieving your goals.  Interestingly, one of my clients recently demonstrated this perfectly in a management meeting when he pushed the Chair (a Counselor) for “How? How are we going to achieve this? What is your plan?”

Driver – “what”.  What are we looking to achieve? What is the outcome we want? What resources do we need?   

Ideally your management team should have at least one of each to ensure your company covers all important aspects as mentioned above.  At the very least, you need a Driver.

Clean Up Your Mess (WT480)

Clean Up Your Mess (WT480)

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by Shirley Dalton | 6 Sep, 2019 | Blog, Leadership

WT480 Clean Up Your Mess

Years ago, Ross and I attended a week long conference with Jack Canfield, best selling author of The Chicken Soup for the Soul series of books in Scottsdale, Arizona. The conference was called “Breakthrough to Success” and was based on one of his other best selling books “The Success Principles – How to Get from Where You are Now to Where You Want to Be”.

One of the lessons Jack taught us was to take 100% Responsibility for ourselves and our actions.

It was confronting at the time and yet so liberating.

This week in our leadership experience, I shared a similar exercise with participants.

We were discussing how it is never too late to clean up your mess. In other words, you can always say sorry or assert yourself, even if you think the moment has passed.

Here’s a couple of questions from the exercise.

Starting with “If I were to take just 10% more responsibility for ………. I would ………..”

What are you doing that is not working that you need to do less of?

What are you doing that is working that you need to do more of?

What are you not doing that you could try on to see if it works?

What will you commit to doing as a result of this exercise?

In other words, what mess are you responsible for and what can and will you do to clean it up?

When will you do that?

Let me know what your commitment is by commenting on this post.

It’s amazing how much we can achieve when we know we are being held accountable.

Are you willing to clean up your mess this week?

Chicken and Chips (WT479)

Chicken and Chips (WT479)

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by Shirley Dalton | 30 Aug, 2019 | Blog, Leadership

WT479 Chicken and Chips

This week, I facilitated Days 1 and 2 of the Leading Yourself and Leading Others experience. One of the topics is an Introduction to the Assertiveness Model. 

There is a big difference between being Assertive and being Aggressive. Sadly, a lot of people confuse the two. 

If you’re acting in an Assertive manner it means you get your needs met but not at the expense of others (win-win). Whereas if you act in an Aggressive manner, you get your needs met and you don’t really give a continental about others’ needs (win-lose). 

I was horrified whilst waiting in a shopping centre car park this week, having just taught this concept,  to hear a woman screaming abuse at an elderly man, “Chicken and chips! I told you. Chicken and chips, not f……..ng fish and chips.” 

“Wow!” I thought to myself, “If only someone had taught you the difference, there would be no need for this drama and angst and upset. That sort of behaviour does no one any good.”

The man was doing his best to run away and she kept running after him, screaming at the top of her voice.

I cringe when I witness this sort of behaviour because it is so unnecessary and really, chicken and chips is not the end of the world.  

If she had learned how to assert herself she might have been able to calmly express her disappointment, anger or annoyance. For example, a three part Confronting I Message describing the unacceptable behaviour, how it makes you feel and the tangible concrete effects is often enough for people to change their behaviour. In this instance, the woman could have said something like, “I’m really disappointed. I ordered chicken and chips, not fish and chips. I don’t like fish and I don’t want to eat this.” She could also add, “Are there other options?” 

Whilst I cringe, I also can’t blame the woman because most of us have not been exposed to better ways of communicating – me included. I too was a hot head until I learned these skills in my early 20’s. 

How about you? 

Do you think you act in an assertive or aggressive manner?  Perhaps you err on the side of Passive or Passive Aggressive.    

The way you communicate with people really does a make a difference to your relationships and results.

Know What You are Competing For (WT478)

Know What You are Competing For (WT478)

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by Shirley Dalton | 23 Aug, 2019 | Blog, Mindset

WT478 Know what you are competing for

This week, I trialled a new activity for self-awareness with some participants for an in-house training session.

Participants had to share their preferences for how their colleagues could best work with them.

To make it fun, participants had to select some items without realising that the number of items they selected equalled the number of things they had to share about themselves.

The instructions were simple, “Take as many items as you like.” 

It was really interesting to see how the participants turned this into a competition. They competed for items which backfired on them when they realised the connection between the number of items and number of shares. 

Suddenly those who had not collected many items were now feeling relieved.

The competition that participants created wasn’t the aim of the activity, however, it did provide an opportunity to gain valuable insights into understanding that you need to know what you are competing for before committing. 

It also provided an opportunity for participants to realise that making assumptions (as in more items is better) can be risky.

What would you have done?  Would you have questioned whether the number of items was important or would you have gotten swept up in the competition, which turned out to not be something many wanted to win?

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