Your
Mother Was Right…
…
you catch more flies with honey. Just in case your mother didn't say
that to you, the saying means that by being nice, you're more likely to
get what you want.
Our
customer service email gets hundreds of emails a day, with members
emailing about everything from password issues to registrations for
conferences to how to find things on our site.
There's
an interesting variety of approaches, from people who say, 'it must be
me, but I can't find/do this thing I'm trying to do', to people who say
'your system isn't working'.
Maggie,
who answers our customer service queue, treats them all equally and is
fantastically friendly and patient with everyone - which just goes to
show we hire well :-)
It's
not true everywhere though. As we say relatively often, it's all about
people. No matter what you're doing, especially at work, people are
involved. And people respond better with a gentle approach.
Don't
start a conversation with what someone else did wrong – even
if you're frustrated. Begin with 'I'm trying to do x and I'm getting
outcome y. Can you help me?'. If necessary, write it down to remind
yourself.
If you
approach a conversation by telling someone else what they did wrong,
you force them into a corner – nearly every human being will
feel the need to defend themselves, creating an escalation of
aggression which does not foster easy resolution of the problem.
Approach
it by asking for help, and you start with collaboration –
which is much more likely to result in the outcome you want.
Newsletter
Frequency
This is
the last of the newsletters to be produced weekly. Back at the
beginning of August, we promised you weekly newsletters to celebrate
the launch of Individual
Licenses and the Interview
Creation Tool.
The
next newsletter will be on 11 October. We hope you've enjoyed the
additional editions and found the extra content useful and
thought-provoking.
Please
Forward This Newsletter
Those
of you who have premium content know that use of that content is only
for that particular member. This newsletter is not licensed material,
and
we'd love for you to forward it to anyone who would find it interesting
and useful. You just need to click the link at the bottom of the page.
If
someone
forwarded it
to you, and you'd like your own copy in future, become a Manager Tools
member here.
It's free!
|