Don’t forget the Caregivers at Christmas

You’re a manager. You’re home on Christmas with your family and loved ones. You’ve got all the shifts covered – whew! You can relax, have a cup of cheer and enjoy the festivities.

Great managers remember to honor those individuals whose work gives them the freedom to relax.

Virginia always stops by the building on Christmas day, even for just a few minutes, to say thanks and “Merry Christmas.”

Patty orders in special food, just for the staff, that is available in the break room all day and into the night.

Mandy slips a personal note of thanks and a small gift card into each employee’s locker.

What do you do to show your appreciation for staff who work the holidays? Add your ideas to the comments or email them to me (Sharon@aQuireTraining.com) and I’ll include them in next week’s email.

Today, take just a few minutes to count – out loud, if you can – the things you are thankful for. Don’t forget those staff members whose commitment and dedication make you feel proud to be their manager.

Merry Christmas!

Assisted living and customer service: The holidays are here – and so are the visitors!

Troupes of dancing children. Choirs of carolers. Families you’ve never met before, bearing gifts of cookies and chocolates.

The holidays are here – and so are the visitors!

It’s the perfect time to showcase your community as well as the dedication you and your team have to customer service.

As a manager, it’s important to spend an extra few minutes each day reminding staff about customer service basics. It’s also vital that you model excellent customer service even more than usual throughout your day.

Try holding a short stand-up training session each day at shift change, both in the morning and afternoon. Focus on one key concept each day – only one – and let staff practice this concept on each other or give you examples during your stand-up. Your team will have fun with this, and they’ll really remember the key points.

Here are some of the key points you may want to include in your brief trainings:

• Smile and great each visitor with a sincere welcome. Use their name whenever possible.
  

• Wear your name tag, every single minute you’re in the building.

• Tidy at least one thing every shift, no matter what your job description. Make a point to look around and find one thing to straighten, pick up or clean during every shift.

• Offer coffee, tea, a cookie or water to every visitor, including those who come in groups. Be prepared for a large number of visitors every day, and let staff enjoy any left-over cookies at the end of the day.

• Take personal ownership when answering any visitor’s question. Before answering the question, say, “I can help you with that.”

• Look for something positive and complimentary to say to each visitor. Notice the colorful scarf, the Santa earrings, the furry boots. Be genuine and sincere. It will immediately give your visitor a warm and positive feeling about you and your community.

Have fun with this opportunity to teach your staff about customer service.

And let your community really shine during this holiday season.

Teamwork – achieving uncommon results with imperfect, common people

In our office we talk about the team every week. We don’t have staff meetings, we have team meetings. When a problem comes across our desks, we automatically turn to other members of the team to help us solve it.

Building a team isn’t as easy as hiring a staff, every manager knows. Personalities and egos often take precedence over any sense of working to a common goal. Hard-fought turf battles can disrupt all forward movement.

But hey – it’s not a war. In fact, building a team that likes each other and that can laugh together is one key factor in achieving corporate – group – success.

We believe so strongly in team around here that we actually painted it on the wall: “Teamwork: It is the ability to work together toward a common vision. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.”

In the field of healthcare, effective team functioning has been shown not only to improve the work environment but also to improve resident care and safety. Good people stay where they are valued members of the team, and keeping your best people is ultimately one of the most important things you can do to improve the quality of the services you provide.

Building a good team requires leadership. It that’s you job, keep in mind that it isn’t easy to build a strong team – it takes focus and determination. There will be times for you to patiently listen, and times for you to speak up and take charge.

You’ve also got to set aside time for your team to develop that cohesive, “we’ll solve it together” mind set. Time when no work tasks are required, but food and fun are the order of the day.

Did you know that experts who study team development find four phases that groups go through – before they become cohesive teams? The first phase is the formation of the individuals into a group that has a specific goal or purpose.

The second phase is one when individuals become competitive and the group is filled with conflict. If this is where you’re at, it may give you a small measure of comfort to know that this is a natural progression – leading to the final stages of overcoming conflict and, finally, collaboration and communication.

The final ingredient into good team development? Trust. Trust that if you keep your focus, your team will come together. Trust in the individuals who are composing your team. And belief that, in the end, you can lead this group of common people to attain some pretty significant uncommon results.

A manager's thanksgiving

It's your job to work with people; to get them to do what you need them to do. To behave responsibly and to complete the tasks assigned to them. To work with their coworkers in an adult manner, encouraging and not belittling; supporting the team rather than working for personal glory.

Some days, it feels like a thankless job.

And then - whoops - it's Thanksgiving.

Another holiday to find staff to cover. Another payroll that's higher than budgeted, due to holiday pay and overtime.

What's to be thankful for?

Try these things:

• A chance to model the best in providing care to the neediest of individuals;
• A chance to give someone a boost up and to mentor, nurture and bring out the best in a person;
• A chance to give a family hope for a good night's sleep and relief from continual worry;
• A chance to make a difference.

Happy Thanksgiving. We do, indeed, have much to give thanks for.

Training Passion - aQuire Training Solutions' perspective

In my work I have the privilege of talking with senior care providers all over the country. One theme is constant: there are not, today, enough trained and skilled workers to meet the caregiving needs in senior care.

We all know that today is the easy stuff; its tomorrow and the coming years when we enter into the nightmare scenario for staffing. As one Administrator commented at a work group the other day, “Today’s newspaper has statistics about how many of us will live to 100 – what are we going to do, people?”

As I’m listening to people talk, one thing I hear that surprises me just a little is how many new hires don’t complete their initial training or drop out of the workforce very soon after beginning.

I think what’s been missing in some of our early approaches to training is instilling a “spark” – a seed of the passion that the very best senior care workers have. They may not have it during the first weeks or months of their work, but they may develop it over time if they give themselves that opportunity by staying in the field, and learning to love the people in their care.

I know I didn’t have that spark of passion when I first entered the field. In fact, as my parents were both in senior care, I’d been exposed to nursing homes and residential care as a child. I was determined to do anything BUT work with seniors.

I graduated with a social work degree and began working in the community mental health center in my town, enjoying my work with a variety of individuals and age groups. When our center was awarded a grant to develop mental health outreach programs in the local nursing homes, no one else wanted to do it.

I said, “I’m comfortable in nursing homes – I’ll take the job!” And I found myself, at the age of 22, developing an entirely new program with staff, policies and procedures, and organizational needs with a large group of individuals.

It was a blast. I loved not only the work but also the people. I discovered that I truly loved the seniors, and found that I could make a difference in their lives, every single day.

When I headed off to graduate school a year later my career path was fixed: I was working with seniors, focusing on developing quality programs and services to meet their unique needs.

And here I am, 20+ years later, finding new ways - with new technology - to instill that passion in a whole new workforce of young – and not so young – individuals.

My own daughter, newly graduated from college with a passion and skill in creative photography and communication, spent the past year helping us add “ahhaa” moments into each of our courses – moments that are filled with music, visual images, and inspirational messages, designed not just to educate the brain, but to touch the heart of the learner.

Because if we don’t touch the hearts of our newest, freshest employees and help them get a glimpse of the emotional rewards that come from caring for seniors, we may be missing out on the perfect opportunity to build a passionate, capable workforce to meet the needs of the coming years, not to mention the very real needs we have today.

Dignity through Connection - an administrator's gift

The following is a guest article written by a friend and colleague, Mark J. Cimino. Mark and his family own and operate Cimino Care, an assisted living company in California. I hope you enjoy Mark’s perspectives.

I recently observed one of our administrators conducting a tour with a prospective resident. Sometimes when we stand by and observe from a distance, we see things more clearly than we had before.

As I observed, I could see the interpersonal exchange going on. I saw connection, empathy, genuine interest and concern displayed before my very eyes.

I was awestruck. At that moment, it came to me clearer than ever before. Most of the families and residents move into a facility not because of the fancy chandeliers, bells and whistles, but because of a personal bond with the staff, a comfort level and trust with the people working inside.

Yes, we like to have a nice physical plant, but genuine connection with people trumps all other things.

I recently visited another facility (not one of mine) where the staff was so on edge you could cut the tension with a knife. No smiles, no lightness, no eye contact; sadly no connection with the residents.

I witnessed two ladies sitting on a bench with their hands folded and a melancholy look on their faces, and by nervous reaction, I asked, “Are you having fun?”

I suddenly realized that was a misplaced question.

“About as much fun as yesterday!” one quipped back with sarcasm in her eyes.

We strive for constant clinical and operational improvement even though we realize that such operational perfection often eludes us. But we can achieve a perfect connection with those we care for if we truly stay “in the moment”, with our eyes focused in dignity upon our clients and guests, and our hearts tuned to the notes of empathy and genuine caring.

Holiday gift ideas from my team to yours

Are you the boss they LOVE or the boss they HATE?

Did you know that the number one reason people LOVE or HATE their job is because of their boss?

You can give people more money, more time off, more challenges, but it they don’t like their boss, they’ll be gone.

So how do you be a good boss, and gain the loyalty and respect of your employees at the same time?

You’re the Boss – believe it
One of the biggest mistakes we’ve seen over the years is the person, newly promoted to team leadership, who is still trying to prove him or herself.

There was Delilah who would change people’s schedules just to show them that she could.

There was Nancy who would talk to the people on her team in a confrontational, hostile manner.

There was Bob, who simply laughed and joked with people – he NEVER corrected anyone about anything.

Bad bosses, every single one of them.

None of them had yet accepted the true meaning of being a boss: an opportunity and a privilege.

Being the boss doesn’t mean wielding power in the way someone may have done in your life.

It doesn’t mean being tough – or too nice. It DOES mean seeing your role in a totally different way. Looking at the big picture, instead of just the job. Thinking about what you want your team to become, and how you want to build higher quality in every aspect of the job. It means having the opportunity to help the people who work on your team become better at what they do.

It means feeling gratitude and a sense of responsibility that you have the power to make people love their job – or hate it. You have the power to give someone a job – or take it away. You have the power to make work a rewarding, challenging, great place to be – or a place with constant turnover because it’s boring and unrewarding. Take the time – NOW - to build your skills to become the kind of boss people want to work for – a great boss!

Building the Perfect Team, Part 3

Building the perfect team isn’t a one-step job. It’s a process that takes time, focus and little incremental steps.

Let’s look at some other tips from Disney in building the dream team:

• Tapping into each person’s passion means knowing that person. As you get to know each employee better you’ll get a sense of whether he or she is in the right job – the job that truly fits. Are work assignments one that the person loves? Are they tasks the person feels he/she does well in? Researchers have found that the tasks we say we love are most likely the tasks we’re best at – so pay attention to those complaints and those success stories you hear about.

• Knowing your staff members also means knowing what will reward and motivate each of them, too. One manager tells a story about getting McDonald’s gift cards for everyone on staff and feeling proud that she had a great motivation/reward tool at her fingertips at all times. One problem – about half of her staff didn’t go to McDonalds. For those people, this was less a motivation and reward than a clear indicator that their boss didn’t know them very well.

• Make work fun. Yes, working at Disney seems like it would be fun anyway, until you think about the actual tasks involved. How fun would it be day after day helping people into and out of rides? Serving popcorn and soda pop? What makes it fun is the atmosphere. Is your work atmosphere fun? Do people laugh – or at least smile – throughout the day? Are you being a leader in creating a fun environment for work?

Building the Perfect Team, Part 2

We've talked about the importance of sharing your dream with your team.

Let’s look at how we can develop a dream that the entire team is a part of creating. Here are some ideas to get you going:

Finish this sentence: “I dream of working on a team where:”

You might take a minute to answer this question yourself first. What’s important to you? You might list:

• Everyone puts forth their best efforts
• We reach – and exceed – our company goals
• We have extremely satisfied clients
• We all feel like good friends

How does your team finish the same sentence? Try it – and then be open to a full, rousing discussion about how the team will work together to become the “dream team” we all want to be working with.

Ask your team to finish a couple more sentences, too, and see where that discussion leads. Here are some you might try:

I want to work for a manager who:
I want to work with coworkers who:
I enjoy my work most when:
I wish there was more: here at work.

Get the conversation going – engage your team in the journey and in reaching for the dream!

Building Your Dream Team, Part 1

One of my favorite current books is Fred Lee’s “If Disney Ran Your Hospital:9 ½ things you would do differently.”

I heard Lee speak at a conference a couple of years ago, and was completely sold. If we could capture the team – the energy – the enthusiasm of Disney in our building, people would not only want to live there, people would want to work there, too – in droves. What a nice mental picture that makes!

In the conclusion of the book, Lee poses this question:

“Have you ever worked very hard along side other people and absolutely loved every minute of it, even though you were physically exhausted at the end of the day? Is so, what made it so enjoyable?”

Lee goes on to answer the question for himself, sharing a story of backbreaking work side by side with family members, repairing his mother-in-laws house. Using precious vacation time to do it, too. And loving every minute of the work.

At the end of the story, Lee remarks,

“…I would describe the perfect work environment as finding an unsurpassed level of joy in hard work with good friends, doing something important for someone else who cannot do it for themselves. What comes closer to this picture than being a caregiver in a hospital [or senior care community]? The question is, how does one create such a team, and maintain such a spirit?”

Lee goes on to share some of the ways he believes this can happen.

One of the lessons we can learn from Disney in building the dream team of caregiving staff is simply this: Have a dream.

When either candidate for President today articulates a dream for this country people flock to listen. Whether you are a supporter of that candidate or not, it’s hard not to feel the passion of the dream. One example of this is the Youtube video that Obama supporters created - whether you're a supporter or not, you can feel the passion.

In days past, Martin Luther King shared his “I have a Dream” speech – a speech that lifted our national discussion about race and relationships to an entirely new level.

Goals, objectives and mission statements don’t really motivate people to stretch outside their usual behaviors. Dreams do.

Some days, your dreams may simply include having every shift filled and never having to pull a night shift yourself again.

But to truly motivate your own team to work at their highest level, share the dreams you had when you first began in this field. Did you dream of creating a caring environment that felt like a home? A team that loved every single person in your care? A place where people came together to accomplish more than they could do on their own – and had fun, laughed and hugged freely?

In our office, we’ve written the dream on the wall – literally. Through an inexpensive website we ordered vinyl lettering and carefully applied our dream (borrowing from the words of John Quincy Adams) on the wall: “If your words inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

It is our dream to become leaders by inspiring others to do all of those things.

What are your dreams? How do you share them with your team?

Staff Retention - It's all a Game

Ask any group of managers what their number one challenge related to employees is and you'll hear the same answer: retention.

"I'm spending hours and hours of time, interviewing and selecting just the right people - and then they leave," says one.

"We invest a ton of money in training new employees - and then they leave," says another.

Whether we're talking time or money, they're valuable resources. Finding a way to keep the people we've invested in is crucial to building the "dream team" of employees.

It's time for a little creative thinking. It's also time to look for ways to boost retention that doesn't cost more money, or take more management time. Let's face it: we simply don't have any more money - or time - to throw at this problem.

But wait just a minute. One thing we've learned from the people at the Gallup organization is that people stay, and are more engaged in their work, when they count co-workers among their best friends.

So what if we found simple ways to nurture friendships among our employees, starting with day one?

Perhaps we could match a new employee with an experienced, capable employee. You might call it mentoring - or maybe even "secret pals." You might structure a regular time each month for interaction - maybe a "dollar store only" gift exchange on payday, followed by an unveiling of friends every few months. Or maybe you could provide computer access for trusted staff to send new employees encouraging emails or messages that the new employee picks up when he or she is logging in for online training.

Creatively coming up with ways to encourage friendships - right from the start - may be one simple, low-cost way to improve the most important element of bottom line results - retention.

Do you want to be an "employer of choice?" It's about Leadership!

Today I came across an article on the internet titled "Six Principles for Excellence." It's a great article (here's the link), and the six principles are my favorite kind: a short, to the point, bulleted list.

1. Use your word wisely. It is important to communicate with employees with honesty openness, and respect. Communications should focus on what is possible.

2. Be accountable. Employers should act proactively and be committed to truth telling, focusing on the question behind the question rather than offering excuses or explanations.

3. Focus. By focusing on independent goals, employers can extract the greatest value from the efforts of employees.

4. Mine the gold. Employees and managers should strive to bring out the best in their employees, and be committed to collaboration and cooperation.

5. Strive for balance. Employees will be vital and energetic at work as a result of a balanced life. Employers should therefore give their employees the opportunity to refresh and renew.

6. Lighten up. Perhaps the most difficult of the six principles, employees should not take themselves so seriously. Employers and their employees should seek to bring laughter and joy to the workplace and look for opportunities to make other people's day.

I particularly like the last one. We know from some of the studies on employee engagement that people love to work where they have friends. They perform best where they enjoying working, too.

Do people laugh a lot at your workplace?

Another key point: all of these principles don't just happen. It takes true leadership to set an example, every day, in each of these areas. To reinforce these behaviors, too, in department heads, team leads and middle level managers.

Do people want to work for you? Do they see you as an employer of choice? If you're not sure, or not able to say, "absolutely!", focus on your own leadership style, and focus on these basic principles.

Creating a Culture of Retention - Step 1

Employee turnover and retention-related issues is one of the biggest challenges for providers of in-home and community based care today.

Turnover is costly in terms of dollars, reputation, quality of care and just about every other measure of success. Employers are reluctant to invest in new employees ("They'll just leave, anyway") and so the cycle continues.

PHI, an organization dedicated to "Quality Care through Quality Jobs" has just released a new resource for providers titled "12 Steps for Creating a Culture of Retention: a Workbook for Home and Community-Based Long-Term Care Providers." (Find the workbook on our Resources page)

Step 1: Recruitment and Selection. It's pretty hard to focus on retention if you don't have a good system to help you get good people in the first place. In fact, retaining poor workers is one of the top complaints of good workers - they end up carrying more than their fair share of the workload when companies keep poor workers on board just to fill slots or retain FTEs.

Here are some of the recommended actions to help you improve this first step in building a culture of retention:

Know what you want. Boil down the qualifications of new employees to a short list. We use the rule of thumb we call "clone your best and brightest." What are the qualities of the employees you'd like to clone? Be specific, and think of questions to help you evaluate these areas. In the case study report in the PHI workbook, the recruiters look for"people with some formal or informal caregiving experience who express compassion for other human beings and demonstrate an ability to set priorities and resolve problems."

Know how to recruit. Once you know the qualities you're seeking you need to develop a solid recruitment strategy. In today's electronic age, recruitment strategies need to be re-examined. The way it's always been done is not necessarily the best way to advertise and recruit today. Are you using web-based job boards (craig's list, Monster.com, etc.)? Do you have the ability to accept applications online? (Not just resume's - lots of caregiving candidates may not be resume' savvy, but can complete and submit an application on line.) If you need help with this aspect, ask us about Apply2Care - online applications right to your in-box.

Write your ad. You've got a plan for creative recruitment and selection. Is your ad reflecting your values? Does it somehow set you apart from others looking to hire the exact same people? One of the best ads we ever used focused on our love of humor. We specifically advertised for someone experienced in caregiving with a good sense of humor. We got great applicants, a few new hires, and one caregiver who stayed with us for over 10 years (until we sold the business). Print ads are expensive so we tend to cut them short; internet ads can carry a lot more content. Wherever you advertise, make your ad stand out and reflect you. The PHI workbook uses the term "compelling" to describe the perfect ad.

Involve your team. Those best and brightest people you'd like to clone? Involve them in the selection process. Let them give the quick tour through the building, or just meet and describe a typical day to a candidate. It will give those special individuals a bit of a job perk (they'll look and feel more important), and it will help you set the stage for new employees wondering just what it's like to work for you. Listen, too, to those employees' comments about applicants.


Make sure you're competitive. Are your wages competitve to other options the applicant has in the field? How about your benefits? One area where you can excell is training. That's an area consistently listed on surveys as making a company a preferred employer. Offer extensive training opportunities, and let applicants know what you offer. It'll help you recruit, before you even begin to train. (aQuire Training Solutions can help).

Step 2 - next week.

When Employees are Happy, Everyone's Happy!

You know the saying, "When mama's happy, everyone's happy." Of course, what we're really saying is exactly the opposite: When mama is NOT happy, somehow this unhappiness has a way of trickling down to everyone else in the family.

Think about your staff team. Are they a happy group, for the most part? Have you noticed how their happiness - or lack there of - filters down to everyone else in the building?

Enough research has been done to put it into fact: satisfied (happy) employees have a direct effect on the quality of care, the quality of resident life and business success of the company. Now you're talking not only about staff and resident happiness, but the happiness of the owners and investors - a pretty important factor to consider.

Seems like we'd better pay close attention to what can increase employee happiness, doesn't it? Fortunately, we've got some good research-based information to help us reach that goal.

My Innerview surveyed over 100,000 employees working in nursing homes in the U.S. a couple of years ago. What they found may surprise you: The top two things on the list of what affects employee satisfaction are pretty much up to you. Here's what employees said made the most difference to them:

1) Management who cares about me
2) Management who listens to me

You're probably not destined to stay in management long in senior care if you don't truly care about your team. But do you show it? Do you communicate it clearly? Do you actively listen to employees?

If you do, I'm guessing that mama's happy, and everyone's happy at your "house" today!

On Perfection

My mom used to tell me, "Anything worth doing is worth doing well."

I remembered that advice (sorry for all the other advice I've forgotten, Mom!) when I was painting my front porch for the 4th time with just a slightly different shade of "taupe" the other day, and trying to explain to my daughter why it was important to get it "just right."

As I listen to the voices of senior care providers, I hear the same sentiment echoed by each of you.

By Diane, who has 5 elderly people living in her home 24/7, caring for their every need.

By Dan, who owns several communities, and feels personally responsible not only for the lives of every resident, but also for the 100+ individuals his company employs.

You represent the best of who we are as a profession, and our personal dedication to doing the job we've set out to do, exactly right.

But on those days when things don't go right, do you, like me, tend to feel the stress of missing the mark?

When I feel my shoulders tense up, and my head start to clench into the sure signs of a headache, I remember some other advice I got early in my career.

Five years from now, will anyone remember this one failure? Does it really matter in the big scheme of things?

In reality, our striving for perfection in our work makes each little misstep seem that much worse.

Here's the advice I'm passing on to my eldest daughter, as she departs for college today. I hope she remembers it when she's striving for perfection in her own career some day:

Work because you love your job, not just for the paycheck.

Laugh often, and dance whenever you get the chance.

Enjoy good friends, and good wine.

Never give up. The world needs us, and we DO make a difference.

Customer Service is the Key

We had the pleasure of attending the ALFA conference a few months ago in Orlando.

We also went on a few roller-coaster rides (the water ones are my favorite) but that's another story.

By far and away, the predominant theme of the conference was customer service. Clearly, if we're going to stand out - and thrive - in this very crowded, competitive field, we need to get the customer service element firmly ingrained into our entire approach to service delivery.

Speakers from the hospitality field talked on this subject every day of the conference. The place where the conference was held, the Gaylord Palms, has one of the best customer service programs in the US. They actually answer the phone, "Consider it done." Whatever your problem, question, or need, they work hard to fulfill on that promise.

They know what we in senior care need to see more clearly: the success of a company (hotel or senior living community) will be based on how the employees relate to the customer.

Every day.

Every contact.

How does the Palms make sure that everyone is on board? Their single word answer? They train. From day one, they train every single employee in what it means to be a part of their service team. They train in how to do the assigned job, but they also offer English language classes, among several training options. They celebrate every employee advancement or achievement by throwing a party, complete with cake, balloons and applause. They actively seek ways and times to add to the knowledge and skills of every employee, and to celebrate those individuals.

What are you doing to celebrate your team today? What are you doing to build the strongest, most service-oriented employee group possible?

8 Rules for Great Customer Service

One of our loyal aQuire clients emailed me the other day and said, “We are working on customer service this coming year with our staff – that would be a great class for aQuire!”

You’re right, Paula, that would be a perfect class! In fact, I’ve got about 100 really perfect classes waiting for the time and resources to get published so that your staff can benefit from them. In the meantime, you’ll have to make this do (it’s exactly where blended training comes in!):

Great customer service is sort of like the Golden Rule: there are many, many details you need to know to relate well to others, but at the end of the day there’s just one rule: Treat other people how you would want to be treated.

In customer service, there may be “8 Rules” but there is one underlying principle: Good Relationships = Good Service.

You’re not providing a one-time favor for someone; you’re building a long-term relationship. Treating customers like you’d treat a friend is another way to think about it. Learn (and use) names, learn life stories; treat each person like a special person. That’s the Golden Rule for customer service.

Now let’s look at 8 more rules that will make your customer service stand out – and really, truly work.

1. Be there. When the phone rings, does a person answer it quickly, every time? When someone walks in the door is a person there to greet him immediately? You can’t build relationships by sending people to voice mail or running them through a 5 layer phone tree. Make it a priority to take the first step in customer service, and be there when they call or come in.

2. Be reliable. When you say you’ll do something, do it. Don’t promise anything you don’t know, for sure, that you can deliver. Always follow-up. If a client asks you a question (“Can you find out where my mom’s new sweater went?”), provide an answer (“I’ll look into it and let you know by the end of the week”) and then follow-up (“It’s Friday, and I thought I’d let you know that we have found her sweater…”). Ask for more, too, while you’re at it (“Is there anything else I can help you with today?”). Few things annoy clients as much as someone dropping the ball and not doing what they said they’d do.

3. Listen up. When a client is talking, be listening. The only thing worse than having someone drop the ball on follow-up is someone not listening to you, and asking you for details you’ve already provided. Oh wait, I know something worse: having to tell the full story to one person, only to have to repeat it, details and all, to another person – and another. Remember the last time you were at the doctor’s office with a nurse demanding every single detail? You know exactly what I mean. If you’re not the person to solve the problem (“I have a question about my bill”), don’t ask for any details – refer the client to the right person first.

4. Apologize. Complaints can be tough. It’s easy to say, “Oh well – can’t please all the people all the time!” In reality, complaints are often the way our clients communicate their feelings of anxiety (“I’m really worried about my mom and don’t have a clue what to do about it”) or guilt (“I should really be the one doing this – then it would be perfect”). Listen (see Rule #3) and then, before you begin defending or explaining, apologize. Say, “I’m really sorry you had that experience.” You’ll instantly defuse the situation, and allow real communication – and real problem solving – to start.

5. Be helpful. Do you remember how you felt the last time a stranger held a door for you? Even the smallest helpful gesture changes relationships from stranger to friend. As you work to build relationships, look for ways to be helpful, even if you may not profit from it. Maybe someone on the phone actually needs a completely different kind of service – recommend one you know about. Helpfulness has wings of its own and will return rich reward to you.

6. Empower your team. Train these customer service principles to every member of your team. Give them opportunities to practice and ask them to notice each other’s great service – and share it. Public praise is one of the strongest rewards you can give and will change behaviors. Make sure, whenever possible, your team has the power to do small things for clients – offer coffee, cookies or simply pause to listen to an overwhelmed client. These are the things that build relationships – and create awesome, committed clients.

7. Go the extra mile. It might be enough to tell your client you’ll look into a problem and get back to him. But going the extra mile means not only locating the missing sweater, for example, but making sure it is correctly labeled and re-labeling it if necessary. It means taking the time to call back before the deadline you set and follow up. It means not just pointing to the activity area, but walking with the client to the area, chatting and visiting while you walk. Going the extra mile takes a few minutes of your time, but can pay big dividends when your clients start telling others about you.

8. Throw in something extra. A big smile, a certain saying (“Have a wonderful day!”), a long-stemmed rose from a big bunch on your desk or a cookie pre-wrapped in a cellophane bag – look for ways to add something extra to the service you provide. It can be something very small, but it will make a big, big difference to the perception of your clients (or future clients).

Great customer service doesn’t take a ton of new resources and effort. Little things will add a lot of polish as long as you keep in mind that one key word: relationships. Treat every client – and every prospective client – as a valued friend and you’ll automatically up the level of service you provide.

Culture Change from the Inside Out

When I was in graduate school, still under the illusion that I wanted to become a family therapist, I learned a principle of human behavior that I rely on to this day: if you want to change other people's behavior, you have to first change your own behavior. It's the whole "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction" principle.

Of course, other people don't always change in the way we want, or even expect. Sometimes, especially with our kids, they find a way to respond to our changes that never occurred to us. But I digress.

What I'm thinking about is the whole culture change movement, taken community by community, building by building. Maybe the culture you're trying to change is simply the way your day shift interacts with the evening shift.

Maybe you're trying to get caregivers just to show up on time, and not be such drama kings and queens.

These changes are certainly a part of the work culture. And they don't change, unless we change our behavior first.

How can you change your culture from the inside out? Start by what you focus on. I was chatting with a colleague about one sure way to change our individual cultures: change the way we orient and train new staff. If we train new people, from day one, to act in a certain way, they may get out "on the floor" and see things happening differently from the way they were trained. They may say, "But that's not how we're supposed to do it," challenging "old-timers" to step up and perform differently.

Debbie Buck (Board of Nursing) tells me that when best practice began to recommend gait belts, few nursing facilities had them in use - or even on the premises. As new nursing assistants were trained to use gait belts during initial training, they began asking their supervisors to please provide them. Now, gait belts are common and available nearly everywhere. It probably was a more effective way to change that particular part of behavior much more effectively than mandating that all staff shall now use gait belts.

What if we teach principles of resident care and of working together in the same manner? As we turn out new staff, trained in new ways, we can change the culture from the inside out - from the bottom up.

It might just be the way cluture change really has to happen.

Keep 'em Motivated Idea of the Week!

Team Meetings can be very powerful. However, it can be difficult to keep employees engaged during meetings. Here are a few things to consider the next time you schedule a team meeting:

• Have an Agenda: Outline ahead of time what points will be covered in the meeting. Write it out, and distribute it to participants ahead of time. This will help avoid the "chasing of rabbits," and help participants be more prepared for the meeting.

• Follow the Agenda: This sounds very elementary, but you'd be surprised by the number of people who take the time to create an agenda, and then totally disregard the agenda during the meeting.

• Limit the Agenda to Three Points or Less: Ask yourself, "What are the three most important things we need to cover in the meeting?" Limit the agenda to these three points. The rest of the things you wanted to cover, by definition, weren't really that important anyway, so why waste everyone's time.

• Set a Time Limit: I would suggest setting the time limit for the meeting to be no longer than 30-minutes. In future meetings, shorten the time by five minutes until the time limit is 15-minutes or less. The leader of the meeting will become much more efficient, and the participants will become much more focused as well. When the time limit is up, end the meeting. You may not get to cover every single thing that you wanted to the first couple of times you try this, but within a short time, you will find that the major information points are being discussed and decisions are being made very efficiently.

• Encourage Participation from Everyone, but don't Force Them: Instead of going around the table and asking for opinions or input, just ask a question and let people volunteer their answers. There will be times during any meeting that each person will "phase out" (especially if it is a looooong and BOW-ring meeting.) If we call on every person, it wastes time, and puts people on the spot. Other ways of encouraging participation is to just ask a question, and after someone answers, say something like, "Good, let's hear from someone else." If there are people in your meeting who rarely speak, instead of calling on them directly, you might say something like, "I value the opinion of each of you, does anyone else have something to add." Then, just look at the person you want to hear from. If he or she has something to say, he or she will say it if encouraged in this way. If he or she doesn't, then you haven't embarrassed the person.

Motivating your team is an important part of good leadership. It may also be one of the strongest tools to help you reach YOUR goals, too.

Consider It Solved

What's your challenge?

Getting staff to finish their training? Getting people to a meeting? Keeping one group of employees from picking on another (the newbies, the night shift)?

Whatever your challenge is, try some of these simple - but effective - approaches to building a stronger team and getting it DONE!

• Communicate. If your day is like mine, you're busy with phone calls, emails and tasks on deadline every single minute. Stopping to wander the halls and talk with staff feels like a colossal waste of time. But it's not. It's one of the most important things you can do to communicate your values to your team, and shape them into the team you dream about. Don't forget that communication goes two ways, too. Listening is every bit as important as talking. A minute of praise, a thank-you for a job well done - that's one of the most motivating things you can do. Yes, it takes time. But spending a few minutes every day on this simple task will save you hours fighting a crisis that you may not have seen coming. So shut down your email, don't take any calls, and get out there and talk to your people!

• Spell it Out. What are your goals? That's another way of asking how you would know when your biggest problem is solved. When I asked you the question, "What's your challenge?" what immediately came into your mind? Write it down. Now, write down what you would see if the challenge was perfectly solved - that's your goal. One of the first steps in solving any challenge is knowing where you want to end up. Sometimes we get so focused on the problem, we forget to focus energy and creativity on the solution. So write it down. And focus on the solution; it's your goal.

• Be Positive. We're not really talking about the "power of positive thinking" here, although that certainly has merit. What we're talking about is spending more energy focusing on the goal than the problem. You'll be surprised how that changes your energy level, and how it helps you begin making progress toward achieving that goal.

• Make a Plan. You started by talking more to your team and listening more to them too. You've written down one of your major challenges, and your ideal outcome for that challenge. Now it's time to make a plan.

When my youngest daughter was only 2 we enrolled her in a neighborhood Montessori Preschool. Within the year, she learned that no task is too hard if you just break it down into individual, small steps. It was a good lesson for all of us, as we watched this tiny child learn to cook, clean, read and write - all by breaking each task down into small, easy-to-manage steps.

Learn to write out your challenge, spell out your goal, and then outline, step by step, what needs to happen to achieve that goal.

Pretty soon, you'll be achieving your goals, one by one, and aiming for higher, more exciting goals.

You'll be able to take those challenges and consider them solved.