Only make promises you can deliver

Have you ever visited Disney World or Disney Land and stood in line for some of the attractions? In the UK we call it queuing and we’re particularly good at it. We wait patiently, we don’t complain and we certainly wouldn’t think of cutting in. Some people will even join a queue even though they don’t know what it’s for. (You may note a hint of sarcasm here) However some people and certain nationalities don’t like to stand in line or queue at all.

I read recently that a woman in Florida had been charged with beating and kicking another woman she said cut in line at a Walt Disney World attraction!

Perhaps she didn’t need to get so worked up because the lines at Disney may not be as long or as time consuming as you think. Apparently the lines are engineered to go faster than the signs say. The signs are designed to say that a line will take15 minutes longer than it does. It’s a case of ‘under promise and over deliver’

When you’re dealing with a customer, particularly an unhappy one, or a member of your team; you may be tempted to make promises you can’t deliver. You may say things like: “I’ll phone you back in 5 minutes” or “I’ll post that to you today” or “I’ll get this sorted this afternoon and phone you back.” It would be far better to say: “I’ll get this sorted by tomorrow midday.” Then phone them back that afternoon or early the next morning and they’ll think you’re great.

Just some food for thought; before you make a promise to a customer or one of your team, stop for a second and think before you speak. Customers and your team will hold you in high regard if you ‘under promise and over deliver.’

How to run Motivational Manager meetings

How many times have you phoned someone to be told, “They’re in a meeting!”

At least 60 per cent of manager’s time is spent in meetings. Research in one large organisation discovered that the figure could be as high as 90 per cent. And another survey found that many managers consider meetings they attend to be a waste of time.
In fact, some managers say that – “meetings take minutes but waste hours.”
If you are a manager or a team leader then you will have to hold meetings; so here are 4 steps to make them motivational:

Don’t hold a meeting unless you really have to. Be really, really sure that the meeting is needed and that it has a clear objective. By the end of the meeting, however long it takes, the shorter the better; you have to be sure that you’ve achieved that objective.

Start the meeting on time; don’t wait for anyone and don’t go over what’s been discussed for latecomers. Of course, you really shouldn’t have latecomers and if you do, speak to them individually after the meeting and sort it out.

Have a structured agenda showing start time, breaks and finish time. Don’t schedule meetings to start on the hour; say 1.20 rather 1 o’clock. And if it’s a half day meeting, start in the afternoon rather than the morning; people will keep moving if they think they will be late leaving work. Ruthlessly stick to that agenda, don’t allow people to ramble or talk about things not on the agenda. If you want to have chit-chat time – put it on the agenda! Keep people moving and even get them out the door before the finish time on the agenda.

Make meetings fun; supply snacks, drinks, fruit and chocolate. Start the meeting with a fun energiser game or a quiz. Let one of the team chair the meeting occasionally (as long as they control the agenda). Allow people to have a laugh; create energy and enthusiasm.

So there you have it; Motivational managers run structured meetings with clear objectives where people have fun and resultantly contribute and get things done.

A New Venture

This is a new venture; I've produced a blog before but didn't keep it up. Let's see if we can make this one work.