Fear of Change...It's 2008 Get Over It!

A bit of a rant for today that needed to get out of my brain....

I am so tired of hearing about how people fear change! And I don't mean the kind of change that rattles around in a plastic cup sitting on the dresser in your bedroom waiting to be taken to the Coin Star machine at Kroger's either. That kind of change has funded some very nice vacations!

This is the kind of fear of change that paralyzes organizations from achieving their full potential and living out their vision. I am convinced that you can do all the vision and mission planning in the world but if you are afraid of changing your organization to live out your mission then your mission statement is worth less than the paper it is printed on. And certainly not worth the cost of having it framed and displayed in every office in your company or printed on every piece of marketing material.

It's 2008 - listen carefully. You cannot allow yourself or others in your organization fear change. This is not simply about embracing change...I mean you really have to get over the fear and using the fear of change as an excuse as to why something should or should not be done.

Change is going to happen whether you like it or not. Change comes in every second, of every minute, of every day of the year. STOP letting fear of change dictate your organization's life.

Fear of change is not what you want leading the direction your organization is going in.
Plain and simple.
Just stop the fear.
STOP!

Targets or Employees

How do you view your staff?

You know, the people that you pay to live out the mission and vision that you have for your organization. The people you hired because of their skills, talents, experience.....yeah, those people.

Do you view your staff as a mechanism to add value to your company? Have you thought about how well you treat, train, pay and communicate with them?

Staff, employees, work teams, sales force - whatever you choose to call them can really make or break any organization. I think that we can agree that employees are important players in any business. So why do we sometimes think of them in a way that appears that we have them walking around with a bulls eye painted squarely on their backs?

I ask this because in conversations over the past month about how bad the economy is and is going to get - I have heard people making recommendations and plans to cut staff.

They are overhead.

An expense.

But these are the same people that you have, hopefully, trained and invested your time and your money in. They have been with you through the tough times, but now as tougher times approach, they are the first to be sacrificed.

Business decisions are hard and business decisions in murky economic times are harder - but let's not enter into these tough times by first strapping targets on the backs of those that have the power, training, skill and experience to lead you to the light.

If you need to cut back on things look at the overhead expenses and things that can be taken away with out effecting your human capital. If you take away or cut back your human capital, service, sales, and your bottom line could potentially suffer a great deal more.

By putting targets on the backs of your staff you could be costing your business a lot more than you will save.

Is that the direction you want to take your business in?

Checking your brain at the door...

Today's topic.....

Dumb sales people say the stupidest things to paying customers......

We are in the process of making some changes to a fitness membership that my husband and I have.

So let's be clear on the facts:

We have a joint membership to a gym
It expires in May 2008
We want to split the membership
keeping my husbands the same
deleting mine
we are paid current and have met the terms of the contract on our end

BUT and here's where it gets good...
The fitness center is being extremely difficult in assisting us with what we want to do. WHY? That I am not sure accept that I think that with the recent grand opening of a newer, bigger more advanced fitness center in town this place is scared to lose customers.

OH yeah...and then that's what a salesperson actually said to me over the phone...that they are not able to discuss letting contracts expire because they are losing too many people to the competition.

Nice.
This poor treatment also shows in how we have been treated and the run around we are getting. I often think in these situations, how can I handle this better? Is it me? Am I not communicating? Am I not seeking to understand the other side?

Well in this case I am confident in my answers...yes to all.
Is fear of competition a reason to get dumb in business? I don't think so. I hope that as business people we are better able and prepared to handle it when a little competition comes our way. If not I guess we are just left with checking our brains at the door.

In this case the brain is one muscle that is not getting a 360 degree work out with these employees!

Mon Ami - Service at it's finest

During our stay in Port Clinton for the weekend we decided to forgo heading over to Put in Bay and opted to stay in Port Clinton for the evening. We had never been to Mon Ami before and decided that is where we wanted to have diner.

After a quick stop at Cheese Haven, who could pass up seeing the selection of over 125 different cheeses, we headed to Mon Ami.

If you have never been there we would recommend that you stop in the next time you are in the PC area. We dined on the patio, enjoyed a wonderful seafood dinner and a couple great glasses of wine.

Now it may not sound like much but it was really a fantastic experience for us. The service was awesome and we truly enjoyed talking with our waitress. She was exactly what you would want in a waitress - funny, engaging, and not afraid to share a little bit of herself with us. Even though we live only 45 minutes away she was sure to share with us all sorts of great stories about the winery, the islands and how great it is to work at Mon Ami.

YES - she loved her job, her co workers, her boss and her customers. WOW. Oddly enough my husband and I were just talking about an experience we had at a local Toledo eatery where we felt like ordering a glass of water was an inconvenience to our waitress. Not Carrie - she brought water, wine, napkins, extra plates, anything we wanted, she delivered.

We all know that waitressing and any type of food service work is difficult. The hours, the people, the overall general stereotyping of cocktail waitresses and bartenders, but Carrie as well as the rest of her team at Mon Ami seemed to overcome that. They were all pleasant.

Makes me wonder - how can we be better at taking some of the more unpleasant aspects of our jobs and every day lives and turn them into a different experience for us, and in turn, a better experience for our customers and clients. Is it possible to overcome these things and love your job, your boss, your coworkers and your customers?