Human Sigma.. managing the moments where employees interact with customers..

“Quality” is easy to measure and manage in some contexts, and extremely difficult in others. Businesspeople have a pretty good idea how to judge the manufacturing process that yields a snazzy new handheld device, for example. But what about the retail employee’s attempts to sell the gadget? Or the call center employee’s efforts to help the customer navigate its eccentricities? Businesses aren’t especially good at measuring and managing the quality of those processes—or indeed of most work done by non-manufacturing businesses and units.

Yet it’s essential that organizations learn to measure and manage quality in all kinds of business settings. In manufacturing, value is created on the factory floor. In sales and service organizations, and in many professional service firms, value is created when an employee interacts with a customer. Indeed, the employee-customer encounter is the factory floor of sales and services. If these organizations are going to achieve meaningful operational and financial improvements, the employee-customer encounter must be managed with great care. 

Quality improvement methodologies such as Six Sigma are extremely useful in manufacturing contexts, where ingredients with predictable properties are repeatedly combined in the same ways, but they’re less useful when it comes to the employee-customer encounter, with its volatile human dimensions. To address this problem of fit, we’ve developed a quality improvement approach that we call Human Sigma. Like Six Sigma, Human Sigma focuses on reducing variability and improving performance. But while Six Sigma applies to processes, systems, and output quality, our approach looks at the quality of the employee-customer encounter, weaving together a consistent method for assessing it and a disciplined process for managing and improving it. 

As we developed our thinking about Human Sigma, we arrived at several core principles for measuring and managing interactions between customers and employees:

• It’s important not to think like an economist or an engineer when you’re assessing the employee-customer interaction. Emotions, it turns out, inform both sides’ judgments and behavior even more powerfully than rationality does.

• The employee-customer encounter must be measured and managed locally, because there are enormous variations in quality at the work-group and individual levels.

• It’s possible to arrive at a single measure of effectiveness for the employee-customer encounter; this measure has a high correlation with financial performance.

• To improve the quality of the employee-customer interaction, organizations must conduct both short-term, transactional interventions (such as coaching) and long-term, transformational ones (such as changing the processes for hiring and promotion). In addition, the company’s organizational structure often must be adjusted so that the employee-customer encounter can be managed holistically. 

Source: hbr.org

Image Source: barnesandnoble.com

Are you a Leader or a Boss?

While a leader can be a boss, not every boss is a leader. Although leaders and bosses have nearly identical definitions, in effect, they are different in today’s competitive world.

Just the term “leader” evokes more positivity than that of “boss.” However, when people dream of getting to higher positions in life, business or politics, they dream more about being bosses than leaders.

A possible explanation for this is that being a leader requires much more responsibility in a job than being a boss, seeing as being the boss doesn’t necessarily require going above and beyond to impress a superior.

While a boss is mostly concerned with outcomes, a leader feels responsible for the process of that outcome and the people who see it out. Check out some major points that distinguish a leader from a boss:

1. Leaders lead rather than rule.

Throughout history, the best chiefs headed their troops in fights or campaigns or whatever. The troops were not afraid because their leader was right there with them. Leaders are there to lead the team forward and to move together.

2. Leaders listen and speak rather than command.

Bosses tend to give orders; they need their employees to listen and to obey. However, leaders always listen to the opinions of their colleagues and regard them as important.

Leaders are always ready for advising, discussion and any feedback an employee has to offer. This reciprocity makes any individual employee feel stronger and gives him or her confidence to follow the leader.

3. Leaders motivate rather than terrify.

While working on projects, people have their ups and downs. Through this roller coaster, bosses are more likely to intimidate into action while leaders will motivate to action.

One of the best things about leaders is that they offer empathy and prepare a group for the tasks at hand. This is very important, seeing as whenever colleagues are not prepared for certain duties, leaders are there to support, teach and back them up. Leaders know that each employee is on the team for a reason and they have faith in every concerted effort.

4. Leaders teach and learn rather than expect and ignore.

A true leader is the person who has self-esteem, but who is not arrogant nor embarrassed to learn from those with lower titles. They know that it is never late to learn more.

This explains the tendency of leaders to always pay attention to their colleagues, knowing there is always more to  learn from them. Moreover, leaders are not only takers, but givers, as well. A good leader is not greedy for sharing knowledge and experience with someone else; instead, the leader teaches and nurtures new professionals.

5. Leaders take part rather than stay aside.

While bosses choose to stay aside in the job, leaders take initiative. They watch over the progress of work, make adjustments where necessary and aid team members. They choose to be a part of the team rather than bossing the team around.

6. Leaders reprimand rather than scold or shout.

When necessary, a leader offers constructive criticism. However, a leader never scolds or shouts at any individual, especially in public. They do understand that they are dealing with people and no one has right to humiliate others. Rather, the leader talks to the person individually and without any spike in temper.

7. Leaders establish equal relationships.

Anyone who has ever worked on a team knows what it feels like when the manager chooses his favorites and non-favorites. It always causes stress and tension among team members which compromises productivity.

A good leader tries to treat everyone equally and to not allow personal preferences affect the team dynamic.

During your life, you will face two kinds of managers: leaders and bosses. It does not matter how high the position of these individuals; bossy people are more likely to fail while those who lead will succeed.

Maybe the things I mentioned above do not make any sense for you now, but eventually, you will experience the difference and garner a greater understanding of which manager you prefer for your own professional life.

Source: http://elitedaily.com

Live your life before life becomes lifeless..

A boat is docked in a tiny Mexican fishing village. 

A tourist complimented the local fishermen on the quality of their fish and asked how long it took to catch them.  

"Not very long." they answered in unison. 

Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?

The fishermen explained that their small catches were sufficient to meet their needs and those of their families.  

But what do you do with the rest of your time ?

We sleep late, fish a little, play with our children and take siestas with our wives.
In the evenings, we go into the village to see our friends have a few drinks, play the guitar and sing a few songs.   

We have a full life..

The tourist interrupted, I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you!

You should start by fishing longer every day.

You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat.

And after that..?

With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant.  

You can then leave this little Village and move to  Mexico City , Los Angeles or even  New York City !  

From there you can direct your huge new enterprise.

How long would that take ?

Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years...replied the tourist.

And after that...?

Afterwards ?

Well my friend, that's when it gets really interesting," answered the tourist, laughing.

When your business gets really big, you can start buying and selling stocks and make millions!

Millions..?  Really..?

And after that...asked the fishermen.

After that you'll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying your friends.

With all due respect sir, but that's exactly what we are doing now.  So what's the point wasting twenty-five years..? asked the Mexicans....

The moral of this story is: 

Know where you're going in life, you may already be there!

Many times in life, money is not everything.

“Live your life before life becomes lifeless”

Source: Unknown
Pic credits: 4vector.com