Since we are in the middle of discussing our BHAG I thought I would take a break from speaking about that and talk about how we should be with our employees and clients during a recession.
There are some things we will have to to keep in mind; there is PLENTY of opportunity in a down economy but our competition is going to be fierce. It is important that we all be superior and do so consistently. Our way of interacting with our employees and clients is critical.
If things get depressing out there you have the opportunity to be a source of joy for your clients and it will be important that they will WANT to speak to you. Creating engaging relationships is critical. Do you really know your clients? How intimate is your relationship? Are you leading the conversations and sharing about your own life? What questions are you asking to learn about our clients? Remember people do business with who they like.
Most importantly we it is important that we be excellent in our delivery of our service – we need to send resumes faster and they must all be extraordinary. The days of sending a candidate who is good enough are over. Everything our clients see from Wall Street Services have got to be excellent and we need our clients to expect that from us. Look for the WOW factor in the candidates you send and make sure it is abundantly apparent to our clients.
Be fearless in dealing with complaints and problems. Problems are a part of running a service business and cannot be avoided. It is how we respond that is important. Deal with problems head on and if you sense there are issues ask questions to make sure you are clear on the problem. Listen without defending yourself and don’t stop at merely apologizing but make sure you address the root of the problem. If this takes a meeting with your manager, tell the client or employee that you will do so and make a commitment to get back to them. Keep your word.
The most important issue is leading by example – allow yourself to get passionate about what you are doing and let it show. Remember – most people come to work like zombies. Excitement allows you to stand out.
Have fun!
Peter Laughter
Monday, September 22, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
I love winning…
I f--kin’ love winning. You know what I am saying? It’s like better than loosing
-Tim Robins as Ebby Calvin ‘Nuke’ LaLoosh in Bull Durham
Just a quick mid week post – yesterday we had a major accomplishment with a client. I do not want to go into the details in such a public forum. But there is a lesson in the achievement that I wanted to share.
With this particular client our status improved which will result in a dramatic increase in sales. It has taken years to get to this point and it was not the great candidates and the speed in which we provided them which made the difference. Although Jacqueline has been amazing (Thank you Jacqueline) in getting great resumes quickly we have been using that same tactic for the past 5 years to no avail. We were only getting a small fraction of the positions and the hardest ones at that. It was a difficult game to win.
We needed to change the rules and what put us over the edge is our relationship with the client.
There is an important lesion in this – Without our relationships with our clients our best efforts are insufficient to get us to the promise land.
How are you relating to our clients? What is the next step in the development of your relationships? Who do you need to be to create these long lasting relationships?
Just a quick thought.
Peter Laughter
Monday, September 15, 2008
Loving your job – our journey
Ok – Last week I described the concept of the BHAG. Our BHAG is for everyone in America to love their job. Now I would like to discuss what we as individual team members will need to do to accomplish this goal.
Before we start – take a moment to picture the completion of our BHAG – What would your neighborhood be like if everyone loved their job? Currently less than %15 of Americans love their job. What would your Monday morning commute be like traveling in a subway car of people who couldn’t wait to get to work? What would people’s families be like? I hope this lights you up. I find this to be a world worth fighting for.
So how do we get there? Well to start let’s look at who we need to be as individuals in order to create the type of company that is a force in bringing this BHAG into reality.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about why I love my job and Amanda sent me a response detailing why she loves her job. Thank you for that Amanda. One of the things that she said is that she loves the opportunity to take on things that she has no idea how to accomplish. If you know Amanda – this is something she regularly does. But she does more than take big things on – she accomplishes them and always looks at what is next and makes sure she is challenged.
This is one of the things I love about Amanda – rather than do an about face when stepping out of her comfort zone she dives right in and tackles issue head on.
If we are going to be the type of individuals who participate in this level of transformation of our company and the world we will have to be willing to transform ourselves. We do so by identifying what we are good at and becoming better and knowing where we fall short and aggressively becoming adept. Our BHAG and our current economic situation call us to consistently grow and step out of our comfort zone. We will need to be much better at finding new opportunities and new methods of getting results. We will need to have a commitment to grow as individuals so that we see more opportunities and capitalize on them faster.
This will be hard work but it is incredibly satisfying. Also – It might take decades to have everyone love their job but is important to remember that this is something we can provide for people every day and it makes a difference.
I look forward to discussing this at the all hands meeting.
Peter Laughter
Before we start – take a moment to picture the completion of our BHAG – What would your neighborhood be like if everyone loved their job? Currently less than %15 of Americans love their job. What would your Monday morning commute be like traveling in a subway car of people who couldn’t wait to get to work? What would people’s families be like? I hope this lights you up. I find this to be a world worth fighting for.
So how do we get there? Well to start let’s look at who we need to be as individuals in order to create the type of company that is a force in bringing this BHAG into reality.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about why I love my job and Amanda sent me a response detailing why she loves her job. Thank you for that Amanda. One of the things that she said is that she loves the opportunity to take on things that she has no idea how to accomplish. If you know Amanda – this is something she regularly does. But she does more than take big things on – she accomplishes them and always looks at what is next and makes sure she is challenged.
This is one of the things I love about Amanda – rather than do an about face when stepping out of her comfort zone she dives right in and tackles issue head on.
If we are going to be the type of individuals who participate in this level of transformation of our company and the world we will have to be willing to transform ourselves. We do so by identifying what we are good at and becoming better and knowing where we fall short and aggressively becoming adept. Our BHAG and our current economic situation call us to consistently grow and step out of our comfort zone. We will need to be much better at finding new opportunities and new methods of getting results. We will need to have a commitment to grow as individuals so that we see more opportunities and capitalize on them faster.
This will be hard work but it is incredibly satisfying. Also – It might take decades to have everyone love their job but is important to remember that this is something we can provide for people every day and it makes a difference.
I look forward to discussing this at the all hands meeting.
Peter Laughter
Monday, September 8, 2008
Loving our BHAG and what we need to do get there
Last week some of you asked what a BHAG was and I thought we should discuss. BHAG stands for Big Harry Audacious Goal. It is a concept a guy named Jim Collins, a renowned business author, coined when looking at what the greatest companies in the world did to be so great. Collins found that these “Greats” had a really big goal that inspired everyone the company to see a future that is greater than the one that is right in front of them.
When Collins was working with Starbucks they came to him with the BHAG of opening thousands of stores in 10 years. Collins pointed out that this was just a big goal that would be more of what they are doing. The Starbucks management team went back to the drawing board and came up with “to become the worlds best recognized brand name.” Now this radically changed the results at Starbucks. If opening more stores was their goal Starbucks would never sell drinks, coffee and ice cream in grocery stores, not be served in planes, would not be in the entertainment business.
It was their BHAG which called Starbucks to be bigger than 6,000 stores and evolve in to a company who almost everyone knows.
Wall Street Services’ BHAG is for everyone in America to love their job.
This calls me to be something bigger than I am and I hope it does for you. In taking this commitment I hope to fundamentally alter the way we interact with our employees and prospects. Out of this commitment I hope we see opportunities to grow in ways we currently can not imagine.
I am very excited to be on this journey with you all.
Peter Laughter
FOR NEXT WEEK – I will explore what we (as a company and as individuals) need to do to get to our BHAG.
When Collins was working with Starbucks they came to him with the BHAG of opening thousands of stores in 10 years. Collins pointed out that this was just a big goal that would be more of what they are doing. The Starbucks management team went back to the drawing board and came up with “to become the worlds best recognized brand name.” Now this radically changed the results at Starbucks. If opening more stores was their goal Starbucks would never sell drinks, coffee and ice cream in grocery stores, not be served in planes, would not be in the entertainment business.
It was their BHAG which called Starbucks to be bigger than 6,000 stores and evolve in to a company who almost everyone knows.
Wall Street Services’ BHAG is for everyone in America to love their job.
This calls me to be something bigger than I am and I hope it does for you. In taking this commitment I hope to fundamentally alter the way we interact with our employees and prospects. Out of this commitment I hope we see opportunities to grow in ways we currently can not imagine.
I am very excited to be on this journey with you all.
Peter Laughter
FOR NEXT WEEK – I will explore what we (as a company and as individuals) need to do to get to our BHAG.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
I love my job...
It is good to be back from vacation – I really missed being with you all. The great thing about a vacation is that you have the opportunity to get away from the every day bustle and spend much needed time thinking about the bigger picture. I became very aware of the things that I value most about Wall Street Services and considering our BHAG to have everyone in America love their job I thought I should share my musings with you all.
First of all – I am very pleased with the work you all did to take care of the new clients that had requests while I was away and I am always grateful of when we pull together to do good work for our clients. I love it when we are able to impress clients – this is a crowded industry - the clients we work with are very demanding and work with a small community of services. When we do something impressive we are essentially standing above the best in our industry. For me this is like getting a medal and I love the feeling of knowing I am participating in an organization that is the best in class.
I am most appreciative of our good work we do to take care of our applicants. I remember registering with staffing services and feeling like one in a heard of cattle. The fact that people readily comment on how we are different and how we take care of people leaves me deeply fulfilled. Those who consume without contributing to society develop a profound sense of emptiness. I know the work we do makes a difference with people looking for work (and therefore the world) and I appreciate the opportunity.
What makes this all possible is you all – and I am very appreciative to work along side you all. I so appreciate that we are able to pull together when something is not working and quickly put in a fix. When something is not working we all have the opportunity to be creative and find the solution. This is perhaps the biggest reason I love my job.
Thank you all.
Peter Laughter
First of all – I am very pleased with the work you all did to take care of the new clients that had requests while I was away and I am always grateful of when we pull together to do good work for our clients. I love it when we are able to impress clients – this is a crowded industry - the clients we work with are very demanding and work with a small community of services. When we do something impressive we are essentially standing above the best in our industry. For me this is like getting a medal and I love the feeling of knowing I am participating in an organization that is the best in class.
I am most appreciative of our good work we do to take care of our applicants. I remember registering with staffing services and feeling like one in a heard of cattle. The fact that people readily comment on how we are different and how we take care of people leaves me deeply fulfilled. Those who consume without contributing to society develop a profound sense of emptiness. I know the work we do makes a difference with people looking for work (and therefore the world) and I appreciate the opportunity.
What makes this all possible is you all – and I am very appreciative to work along side you all. I so appreciate that we are able to pull together when something is not working and quickly put in a fix. When something is not working we all have the opportunity to be creative and find the solution. This is perhaps the biggest reason I love my job.
Thank you all.
Peter Laughter
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