You Set The Leadership Standard

One of the toughest challenges any business owner faces is getting his or her staff to serve customers at the same level that made that business successful in the first place. Naturally, leadership starts at the top. However, if you don’t make sure that it trickles down to all levels of your staff, you are bound to disappoint your customers.

In the beginning, if it’s only you who are dealing with customers, you know exactly what level of service they are getting. But for most business owners, the goal is to grow large enough that you have other people serving your customers. So, how do you make sure that your customers are still taking care of, once somebody else is responsible for dealing with them? It all comes down to setting the correct leadership standard.

What that means is, everyone needs to know what to do and how to do it. You’ll need to set written down guidelines. I stress the word, “guidelines,” and not, “rules,” because leadership is fluid and changes all the time depending upon the circumstances and the people involved. You show people how to do it by equipping them during training — not on real customers. Make sure that you are satisfied with their responses. If not, instruct them on what to do differently until they can do it consistently without direction.

In talking with my Hall of Fame client Jeff Bellomo of Bellomo & Associates, we both agreed that it’s not enough for the leader of an organization to do things right and serve customers properly. Part of the leader’s responsibility is to make sure that every person who touches a customer is authorized, empowered, and equipped to take whatever steps are necessary to solve a client’s problem. One of the things that Jeff has done to ensure this happens in his business is to recruit and hire the top people he can find. Of course, that in itself is not enough. You also have to train them and give them the ability to solve the problems without your involvement or interference.

If you want to build an organization that is going to consistently deliver great performance to all of your customers — regardless of who they interact with — you need to become a leader worth following and give your people all the direction, tools, time, and encouragement they need to perform exactly the way you expect them to when they are serving customers in your absence.

“A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others.” – Douglas MacArthur

Let me hear from you.

(This excerpt is taken from the seminar entitled How to Deliver Inspired Leadership.) I encourage you to click here to register for the How to Deliver Inspired Leadership exclusive live Zoom seminar on Thursday, July 25, 2024, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 Noon Eastern Standard Time.