~ Loyalty Factor Information Exchange ~
Info Exchange – Turn the Ship Around
April 10, 2013 | Author dmdurkin
Welcome to the Loyalty Factor Information Exchange, a bi-weekly service providing summaries of major publications and books on various management and customer relationship topics.
Loyalty Factor has been instrumental in helping companies:
- Increase Customer Satisfaction by 20 – 33%
- Increase Revenues by 50% in 18 months
- Increase Manufacturing Production by 200% in 18 months
- Simplifying mergers and acquisitions
Our information exchange this week highlights the book, “Turn the Ship Around “ by L. David Marquet.
How to Create Leadership at Every Level
How would you like to work in a place where everyone around you is totally engaged and contributing their full intellectual capacity; a place where people are healthier and happier because they have more control over their work; a place where everyone is a leader?
A nuclear-powered submarine would seem an unlikely place for a new model of leadership to be forged, especially aboard the USS Santa Fe – dogged by poor morale, poor performance and the worst retention in the fleet. That is, until David Marquet took command.
Turn the Ship Around! Is the story of how Marquet took the ship from worst to first by challenging the U.S. Navy’s traditional leader-follower approach and implementing his own framework of leader-leader.
The results: each member of Marquet’s crew became a leader and assumed responsibility for everything he did, from clerical tasks to crucial combat decisions. It became an empowered organization.
How did Marquet do this?
- Rather than telling everyone what they needed to do, he would ask open-ended questions about how they thought the problem should be approached. This strategy of giving decision-making control to the people works very well provided the people have the technical competence. Marquet learned early on he had to ensure the technical competence existed and if it did not, training was a necessity. As authority is delegated, technical knowledge takes on greater importance.
- Applying a questioning strategy is very impactful provided the leader does so in a curious fashion, asking questions to learn, as opposed to asking questions where people feel they are being interrogated for their knowledge. Marquet used the curious approach.
- He provided the organization with goals and objectives and allowed them to figure out the prescribed approach. This allowed for many ingenious ideas to solve issues and meet the goals. With clear and complete understanding of what the organization is about, then individuals were able to make decisions against a set of criteria that included what the organization was trying to accomplish.
- When people executed successfully, Marquet used immediate recognition to reinforce the desired behavior.
With this leader-leader structure, everyone wins – top performance, ensuring excellence and the development of future leaders.
If it can work on board a nuclear submarine, it can work for you.
For guidance on how to adopt the leader-leader approach in your organization, contact Dianne Durkin of Loyalty Factor at 603.334.3401 and visit www.loyaltyfactor.com.
Posted in Employee Loyalty, Employee Retention, Engagement, Leadership Development, Magnetic Leadership, ~ Loyalty Factor Information Exchange ~ | 
Tags: empowerment, Recognition | 
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Info Exchange – The Price of Incivility
March 27, 2013 | Author dmdurkin
Welcome to the Loyalty Factor Information Exchange, a bi-weekly service providing summaries of major publications and books on various management and customer relationship topics.
Loyalty Factor has been instrumental in helping companies:
- Increase Customer Satisfaction by 20 – 33%
- Increase Revenues by 50% in 18 months
- Increase Manufacturing Production by 200% in 18 months
- Simplifying mergers and acquisitions
Our information exchange this week highlights the recent article in Harvard Business Review, “The Price of Incivility” by Christine Porath and Christine Pearson.
The Price of Incivility
Rudeness at work is rampant and it is on the rise. The authors believe this chips away at the bottom line because nearly everybody who experiences workplace incivility responds in a negative way.
Employees are less creative when they are disrespected and in many cases may get fed up and leave.
According to the article about half decrease their effort or lower the quality of their work. Incivility also damages customer relationships. The research by the two authors shows that people are less likely to buy from a company with an employee they perceive as rude, whether the rudeness is directed at the customer or another employee.
After collecting data from more than 14,000 people in the United States and Canada, the conclusion is incivility is expensive and few organizations recognize or take actions to curtail it.
A poll of 800 managers and employees in 700 industries showed with incivility. Below are some statistics on the cost of incivility:
- 48% intentionally decreased their work effort
- 47% intentionally decreased their time spent at work
- 38% intentionally decreased the quality of their work
- 80% lost work time worrying about the incident
- 63% lost work time avoiding the offender
- 66% said their performance declined
- 78% said their commitment to the organization declined
- 12% said they left their job because of the uncivil treatment
- 25% admitted to taking their frustrations out on customers
It takes a lot of vigilance to keep the workplace civil. Managers can use several strategies to keep their own behavior in check and to foster civility among others.
Below are some of the strategies:
1. Manage Yourself
2. Model Good Behavior
3. Ask for Feedback on your Behavior
4. Hire for Civility
5. Create Group Norms
6. Reward Good Behavior
7. Conduct Post Departure Interviews
The message is very clear. Just one habitual offensive employee can cost the organization in lost employees, lost customers and lost productivity.
To foster civility in your organization and reduce the impact of incivility, contact Loyalty Factor for aide in improving your organizational relationships!
Posted in Employee Loyalty, Employee Retention, Engagement, Leadership Management, ~ Loyalty Factor Information Exchange ~ | Tags: Engagement, Productivity | Comments Closed
Info Exchange – A Golden Age for Working Women
March 13, 2013 | Author dmdurkin
Welcome to the Loyalty Factor Information Exchange, a bi-weekly service providing summaries of major publications and books on various management and customer relationship topics.
Loyalty Factor has been instrumental in helping companies:
- Increase Customer Satisfaction by 20 – 33%
- Increase Revenues by 50% in 18 months
- Increase Manufacturing Production by 200% in 18 months
- Simplifying mergers and acquisitions
Our information exchange this week highlights the recent article in Forbes, “A Golden Age for Working Women” by Jenna Goudreau.
A Golden Age for Working Women
As the world job market struggles to rebound from the depths of the Great Recession, one thing that’s not getting as much attention as it used to is how long-term employment trends are changing – and that not everyone may find a job even when the pace of recovery hits its stride again.
In the new knowledge economy, physical and manufacturing jobs have slowly disappeared. Computers disrupted once stable occupations like postal service and administrative work. And it may be just the beginning.
Because technology is improving at such a rapid rate, many now-familiar computer industry jobs will soon be automated as well. The jobs that survive all this change will be those a robot or a piece of software cannot do, requiring social skills, eye contact and a personal touch.
As we move toward a service economy, skills like communication and collaboration will move to the forefront. These are skills that most women possess. British futurist Ian Pearson calls this “The Care Economy.”
Women tend to excel at showing empathy, compassion and teaching others. As we move into the care economy, women will find many jobs easier to survive in.
Dianne Durkin of Loyalty Factor specializes in helping organizations excel by capitalizing on the personal touch! Contact Loyalty Factor today to schedule a consult to improve upon your organization’s soft skills.
Posted in Employee Retention, ~ Loyalty Factor Information Exchange ~ | Tags: Care Economy, Women | Comments Closed
Info Exchange – Magnetic Leaders: Take these 10 Critical Steps
February 13, 2013 | Author dmdurkin
Welcome to the Loyalty Factor Information Exchange, a bi-weekly service providing summaries of major publications and books on various management and customer relationship topics.
Loyalty Factor has been instrumental in helping companies:
- Increase Customer Satisfaction by 20 – 33%
- Increase Revenues by 50% in 18 months
- Increase Manufacturing Production by 200% in 18 months
- Simplifying mergers and acquisitions
Our information exchange this week highlights the recent article in Leadership Excellence, “Magnetic Leaders: Take these 10 Critical Steps” by Dianne Durkin.
Durkin’s ‘Ten Critical Steps To Achieving Magnetic Leadership’ featured in February’s issue of Leadership Excellence alongside authors such as Deepak Chopra and Richard Branson.
Magnetic Leaders
What do the Leaders of top companies do to create and nurture an inviting workplace that is filled with fully engaged and enthusiastic employees?
Below are 10 actions to help achieve this goal:
1. Develop your vision. Make sure you have a vision with the purpose and values to make it real. State where you are going clearly.
2. Identify your leader type. Knowing who you and what type of leader you are helps you and others identify where, when and how to best behave and act to focus their time and energy to achieve the goals and objectives you set out for them.
3. Track your leadership development progress. Keep a leadership log to document what you do and what happens. Review what happens regularly. Reflect on what you are learning and how you are changing.
4. Recruit and retain the right people. Identify what makes individuals successful in your culture, and recruit for those skills.
5. Engage, empower and enrich your employees. Invite them to become part of your vision. Empower them to be a force of change. Give them a role and the responsibility for implementing solutions to major business issues.
6. Create a work environment that fosters creativity and innovation. Go beyond simply improving the physical environment. Focus on how people feel. Evaluate the energy when you walk the floors. Make changes to ensure that the work environment fuels your objectives and helps to achieve your goals.
7. Appreciate and reward your employees. Develop and deploy a schedule that regularly and meaningfully rewards employees to create a culture of appreciation.
8. Focus on things that inspire your people. Develop and improve the key programs that your people need to stay engaged and loyal. (Training, wellness, etc.)
9. Improve the most important things first. Identify your major short comings head-on. Identify what boosts your progress and what holds you back.
10. Visualize the future. Define the characteristics of the leader you want to be and what the future looks like for you. Describe how you’ll balance your personal and work life and how you’ll build loyalty and trust.
Great leaders lead magnetically by fully engaging and empowering people, transforming them into innovative thinkers and major contributors. Appreciating effort and rewarding results generate loyalty and impact profitability.
For strategies on how to become a magnetic leader and help your organization reach great success, contact Loyalty Factor at 603.334.3401. Loyalty Factor has helped numerous organizations grow beyond expectations by embracing the above disciplines.
Posted in Employee Loyalty, Employee Retention, Leadership Development, Magnetic Leadership, ~ Loyalty Factor Information Exchange ~ | Tags: Branson, Deepak Chopra, Leadership Excellence | Comments Closed
Info Exchange – Winning with Transglobal Leadership
January 30, 2013 | Author dmdurkin
Welcome to the Loyalty Factor Information Exchange, a bi-weekly service providing summaries of major publications and books on various management and customer relationship topics.
Loyalty Factor has been instrumental in helping companies:
- Increase Customer Satisfaction by 20 – 33%
- Increase Revenues by 50% in 18 months
- Increase Manufacturing Production by 200% in 18 months
- Simplifying mergers and acquisitions
Our information exchange this week highlights the book, ”Winning with Transglobal Leadership ” by Linda Sharkey, Nazeen Razi, Robert Cooke and Peter Barge.
In today’s complex global world corporations need to find leaders that can integrate effectively across cultures, countries, geographies, and deal with the complex legal cultural, political and social environments that globalization presents. The first priority for these individuals is to be inquisitive to succeed.
According to the authors of this book you can have all the technology in the world, great cash reserves and great business fundamentals; however, the key to success in the global arena is the people. To manage people effectively, Transglobal leaders not only have high cognitive intelligence (IQ), they have other types of intelligence including:
- Moral Intelligence: Having a clear moral compass and understanding of how different principles and values play out with different cultures across the world.
- Emotional Intelligence: Empathizing and connecting with others on a social and emotional level.
- Cultural Intelligence: Knowing the critical cultural norms and mores of the countries and areas in which one would be assigned. This is not just the subtle differences between cultures, but rather the interpretation of the shared attributes that have been taught and passed down from generation to generation.
- Business Intelligence: Understanding the components of running a successful business. Including:
- Creating and communicating a well-developed and thought-out strategy
- Understanding current and future customer requirements
- Developing processes to deliver results seamlessly in response to customer needs
- Ensuring sufficient data and information to monitor and evaluate performance
- Are good people leaders
According to the book, global leaders are natural innovators and local leaders tend to be more conforming. Meaning, global leaders do not have to work as hard at diversity and inclusion. They tend to be unconsciously competent in this area and they try new things naturally.
In summary,
1. Transglobal leaders are skilled at reading people; they have good antennas, and are sensitive to social norms, behaviors and biases.
2. Transglobal leaders thrive on the differences and welcome fresh angles that diverse perspectives can offer.
3. Transglobal leaders are personally involved discovering and nurturing diverse talent and fostering a culture of inclusive diversity.
For strategies on how to become a magnetic leader and help your organization reach great success, contact Loyalty Factor at 603.334.3401. Loyalty Factor has helped numerous organizations grow beyond expectations by embracing the above disciplines.
Posted in Leadership Management, ~ Loyalty Factor Information Exchange ~ | Tags: Global | Comments Closed
Info Exchange – Breaking the Fear Barrier
January 16, 2013 | Author dmdurkin
Welcome to the Loyalty Factor Information Exchange, a bi-weekly service providing summaries of major publications and books on various management and customer relationship topics.
Loyalty Factor has been instrumental in helping companies:
- Increase Customer Satisfaction by 20 – 33%
- Increase Revenues by 50% in 18 months
- Increase Manufacturing Production by 200% in 18 months
- Simplifying mergers and acquisitions
Our information exchange this week highlights the book, “Breaking the Fear Barrier: How Fear Destroys Companies From the Inside Out and What to Do About It” by Tom Rieger.
In organizations fear can take many forms. Fear compels employees and managers to protect themselves by creating seemingly impenetrable barriers fortified by rules and practices that benefit one group while harming others. Left unchecked, fear-driven barriers can spread at an alarming rate in an organization.
Instead of defining success by reaching the company’s overall goal, in a fear environment:
- Workgroups simply concern themselves with their own self-interests.
- Restrictive policies pile up until managers start to exert extreme control over headcount and resources.
- Other managers feel compelled to build empires – taking over other departments’ functions to regain or enhance self-sufficiency
In the midst of these counter- productive activities, employees suffer, success deteriorates and efficiency dies. While those barriers might seem insurmountable, they are not. According to the authors, courageous leadership is the answer to create a transformation.
In post recessions when organizations are dealing with widespread loss and fear, it’s easy for them to give up hope that they can get back that edge, and the fierce pride that drove success in the past. That hope still lives inside every employee, manager and leader. To unleash that hope, organizations must utterly destroy the fear barrier.
The first step is to understand the underlying root causes. The second step is to create an environment where courageous behavior can flourish and thrive.
Removing barriers starts with understanding what people are trying to protect and shifting their reference points toward the greater good rather than local processes. This will make the difference between success and utter failure; between dreams realized and hopes dashed. It is a journey you can’t afford notto take.
Take the first step towards eliminating fear barriers within your organization by calling Loyalty Factor at 603-334-3401 to schedule a consult on proven methodologies to alleviate fear!
Posted in Employee Loyalty, Employee Retention, Leadership Development, ~ Loyalty Factor Information Exchange ~ | Comments Closed
Info Exchange – How the Mighty Fall and Why Some Companies Never Give In
December 12, 2012 | Author dmdurkin
Welcome to the Loyalty Factor Information Exchange, a bi-weekly service providing summaries of major publications and books on various management and customer relationship topics.
Loyalty Factor has been instrumental in helping companies:
- Increase Customer Satisfaction by 20 – 33%
- Increase Revenues by 50% in 18 months
- Increase Manufacturing Production by 200% in 18 months
- Simplifying mergers and acquisitions
Our information exchange this week highlights the book, “How the Mighty Fall and Why Some Companies Never Give In” by Jim Collins.
In How the Mighty Fall and Why Some Companies Never Give In, Jim Collins highlights five stages of why companies decline.
1. Hubris born of success - By this Collins means companies have become arrogant and feel entitled. In many cases these companies overestimate their own merit and their capabilities. A mantra they might have is “We are so great, we can do anything!”
2. Undisciplined pursuit of more – This can be a combination of more scale, more growth, more acclaim, or more of whatever those in power may want. This type of behavior may cause the organization to go into areas they are not good at, or continue to foster growth to the point where they cannot be good at doing what they do or cannot deliver on what they do. It can be viewed as the “overreaching effect.”
3. Denial of Risk or Peril – In this situation leaders discount negative warnings and data and put a positive spin on everything. In severe cases they may blame external factors for setbacks, rather than accept their own responsibility.
4. Grasping for Salvation – When a company has reached this stage, the leaders can either lurch for quick salvation or go back to the basic principles that brought about success initially. Common survival instincts might include:
- Bringing in a charismatic visionary leader.
- Implementing a bold and tested strategy.
- Developing a new blockbuster product.
- Do an acquisition.
Initially these dramatic silver bullets appear positive and many do not necessarily last.
5. Capitulation to irrelevance or death – According to Collins, the longer a company stays in stage 4, the more likely it will be to spiral downward. Accumulated setbacks come in and expensive false starts erode the financial strength and the individual spirit within an organization and the organization atrophies.
Collins does say companies can recover and highlights three companies that have been successful in doing so – IBM, Nucor and Nordstrom. The path to recovery lies first and foremost in returning to sound management practices and rigorous strategic thinking. In summary,
- Great companies can fall and recover.
- Great social institutions can fall and recover.
- Great individuals can fall and recover.
For more information on how Loyalty Factor and Dianne Durkin can help you regain or maintain the success track as we head into the New Year, call 603.334.3401 or visit our website at www.loyaltyfactor.com.
Posted in Brand Loyalty, Customer Loyalty, ~ Loyalty Factor Information Exchange ~ | Tags: Jim Collins | Comments Closed
Info Exchange – The Value of Loyalty
November 28, 2012 | Author dmdurkin
Welcome to the Loyalty Factor Information Exchange, a bi-weekly service providing summaries of major publications and books on various management and customer relationship topics.
Loyalty Factor has been instrumental in helping companies:
- Increase Customer Satisfaction by 20 – 33%
- Increase Revenues by 50% in 18 months
- Increase Manufacturing Production by 200% in 18 months
- Simplifying mergers and acquisitions
Our information exchange this week highlights Loyalty Factor President Dianne Durkin’s insights on the value of building loyalty within your organization as well as your personal and professional lives.
The Value of Loyalty
Over the years I have spoken a lot about loyalty in the corporate world. Today I want to speak about loyalty on a personal level.
Loyalty is one of those qualities that people admire most in others. People value it more than almost any other quality. They try to teach it to their children and emphasize it to their staffs. They also try to gauge it when deciding on business and personal relationships.
Much like the word integrity, loyalty is something many people throw about freely. There is no doubt loyalty lets people know where you stand. At the same time it requires that you speak truthfully to the people and organizations to which you are loyal. Loyalty requires honesty. In business or in personal relationships, loyalty is indispensable.
When asked why people stay loyal, many answer, “It’s the belief”. Belief and loyalty make a huge combination – belief in the person, belief in the individual, belief in the company, and belief that the loyalty will pay off in the long-term. Unfortunately, we live in a world with increasing short sightedness and this affects our loyalty.
Each time we are loyal and judicious, loyal and not fanatical, loyal while understanding the road to be taken, loyal without offending others, we reinforce one of the pillars and one of the most admired attributes in ourselves and others – LOYALTY.
For more information on how to build the Employee Loyalty, Customer Loyalty, Personal Loyalty and/or Brand Loyalty in your personal and professional relationships as we head into the New Year, contact Dianne Durkin at (603) 334-3401 or email her at dmdurkin@loyaltyfactor.com.
In her keynote on “Managing Change” Dianne Durkin highlights the value of risk in creating successful opportunities.
Posted in Leadership Development, ~ Loyalty Factor Information Exchange ~ | Tags: Loyalty, Managing Change | Comments Closed
Info Exchange – The Advantage
November 14, 2012 | Author dmdurkin
Welcome to the Loyalty Factor Information Exchange, a bi-weekly service providing summaries of major publications and books on various management and customer relationship topics.
Loyalty Factor has been instrumental in helping companies:
- Increase Customer Satisfaction by 20 – 33%
- Increase Revenues by 50% in 18 months
- Increase Manufacturing Production by 200% in 18 months
- Simplifying mergers and acquisitions
Our information exchange this week highlights the book, “The Advantage – Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business” by Patrick Lencioni.
The Advantage
The single greatest advantage any company can achieve is organizational health. That is the premise of, The Advantage, by Patrick Lencioni.
The Four Disciplines Model:
1: Build a cohesive leadership team that trusts one another. They are completely comfortable being transparent where they say and genuinely mean things like, “I screwed up,” “I need help,” “Your idea is better than mine,” and even, “I’m sorry.”
2: Create Clarity. The leadership team of a healthy organization must be intellectually aligned and committed to the same answers to six simple but critical questions:
- Why do we exist? (An organization’s core purpose.)
- How do we behave? (Core values that are the heart of the organization’s identity.)
- What do we do? (The organization’s business.)
- How will we succeed?
- What is most important right now? (When executives agree on their top priority, they must take collective responsibility for achieving it and dissolve silos.)
- Who must do what? (Regardless of how clear or confusing a company’s “org” chart may be, it is always worthwhile to take a little time to clarity so that everyone on the leadership team knows all critical areas are covered.)
3: Overcome Clarity. Once a leadership team has established behavioral cohesion and created clarity around the answers to those questions, it must then communicate those answers to
employees clearly, repeatedly and enthusiastically.
4: Reinforce Clarity. In order for an organization to remain healthy over time, its leaders must reinforce clarity in every process that involves people.
The single biggest factor determining whether an organization is going to get healthier – or not – is the genuine commitment and active involvement of the person in charge.
For tips and strategies on how to give your organization a competitive advantage, contact Loyalty Factor at 603.334.3401. Loyalty Factor has helped numerous organizations grow beyond expectations by embracing the above disciplines.
Posted in Leadership Management, ~ Loyalty Factor Information Exchange ~ | Tags: Clarity, Trust | Comments Closed
Info Exchange – Dreamforce Conference Jeff Immelt
October 17, 2012 | Author dmdurkin
Welcome to the Loyalty Factor Information Exchange, a bi-weekly service providing summaries of major publications and books on various management and customer relationship topics.
Loyalty Factor has been instrumental in helping companies:
- Increase Customer Satisfaction by 20 – 33%
- Increase Revenues by 50% in 18 months
- Increase Manufacturing Production by 200% in 18 months
- Simplifying mergers and acquisitions
Our information exchange this week highlights the presentation by Jeff Immelt, Chairman and CEO of GE at the recent Dreamforce Conference.
Dreamforce Conference: GE CEO, Jeff Immelt
Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric, spoke at the recent Dreamforce conference and had a number of thoughts on leadership, as well as what is important in building a company for the future.
Below are his leadership tips:
1. Be purposeful about what you are there to do. Clearly understand what is the added value and purpose that you add to the world.
2. Always work on what is important. So many times we get caught up in daily activities and forget the important parts of our jobs.
3. Adaptability is key in this global economy. Things can change on a moment’s notice and we need to be ready for these changes.
4. Form teams, work as a team, and treat everyone within the organization well.
5. Always be prepared for the unexpected.
Building a Company of the Future
According to Jeff, infrastructure creates jobs and we need to educate our children for the jobs of the future. In addition he spoke about tone. Jeff was very clear about one point: When delivering a speech or trying to make a point, tone is most important. You can polarize an audience just based upon the tone.
Questions he suggests you ask:
- Did that speech motivate me?
For example, when delivering a speech on creating new jobs, “Did that speech motivate you to create new jobs in your particular factory?” It is all about the tone and how you present your particular ideas.
Dianne Durkin, our Founder and President, was privileged to also speak at the 80,000 attendee Dreamforce Conference. Her presentation comments will be the highlight of our next Info Exchange.
For a strategy on how to give your organization a competitive advantage, contact Loyalty Factor at 603.334.3401. Loyalty Factor has helped numerous organizations grow beyond expectations by embracing the above disciplines.
