What are they thinking?

I am sure that I am not the only one slightly discouraged by the current lack of leadership in America today. In my travels, I have had many discussions with business executives, support managers and customers on this topic. In most cases, the sense of frustration centers around leadership without vision, purpose, caring and the moral backbone to do what’s right for the customers they serve and the people they lead. It is evident in the recent headlines where major US companies are making decisions and taking a course of action that leaves the rest of saying, “What were they thinking?” I have to assume that the executives making these decisions are certainly capable, so why are we left with a feeling of amazement, disengagement and disappointment?

Every day leaders

In my many leadership positions and interactions with support professionals around the world, effective leadership comes down to one thing – they will care when they know that you care! In recent Gallop Polls regarding the state of the US worker, it is shocking and disappointing to see how many people are truly disengaged in the workplace. In support organizations, the biggest differentiator between the organizations that excel at support, customer service and delivering business value versus the ones that consistently struggle is leadership. Leaders who wake up every day and approach their responsibility with energy, passion, caring and intelligence will make a difference in people’s lives. These leaders never forget where they came from, what it took get where they are and the important lessons they learned along the way. They are particularly resourceful and utilize trusted, experienced mentors for advice, direction and support. What’s even more interesting is the fact that these leaders, who are successful and happy, are humble! They never let their egos convince them that they are the smartest person in the room. In reality, they never let arrogance stand in the way of being a good listener and a continuous learner.

Service leadership

Service leadership is about doing the right thing and making fact-based decisions. It’s about challenging conventional wisdom and having the moral backbone to stand up for doing the right thing for the customers and people they serve. Service leadership is a servant role that looks at the business of service and support creatively and innovatively with a foundation based on industry best practices. They strongly believe that delivering exceptional customer service is not difficult as long as you stand by the customer service principle of treating every customer like they were you only customer. They know that the difficult part of delivering consistent service that meets their customer’s expectations is ensuring that the rest of the organization doesn’t create barriers that make them hard to do business with. I challenge all service leaders to set the bar for your team and constantly measure and continuously improve creating a culture of encouragement and rewards for over and above performance.

I have broken down service leadership into the following five areas: