A few weeks ago our family was deciding what movie to watch on television for the night.  The choice boiled down to Ice Age 2, which my children love, and The Princess Bride, one of my favourite flicks.  I am sure it is no great surprise to say that, backed by the influences of their mother, the children won out and I will have to find some other way to satisfy my awakened “The Princess Bride hunger”.  While I think the film as a whole was enjoyable, I don’t think that I am all that unique when I say that it is a certain scene that I enjoy which makes the film most worth watching. (more…)

My last assignment as an independent head-hunter, before rejoining the ranks of the employed, was to find a new VP of Engineering for a research oriented high tech company.  The ideal candidate would have a PhD in Physics, preferably quantum optics, preferably at the top of his or her class, preferably well published and well respected in the research community, preferably fluent in both German and English, and preferably with a few years experience leading engineers in similar environments.  Suffice to say, I began to acquaint myself with individuals who maintained an exceptionally high intellectual standard, people who knew more by the age of 14 than I will probably understand throughout my entire life.  It was an exceptionally pleasant as well as eye opening experience. (more…)

A few decades ago, when I first started working in the Customer Service business, there were a few misunderstandings that I had to eventually clear up before I could become truly effective in my profession. Perhaps the most obvious roadblock was my attitude towards what my employer and customers should expect of me and what I should expect from them. Although I was technically very strong, I was often referred to as a “bull in a china shop”. For quite some time I didn’t fully understand what my colleagues and superiors were getting at. I was always capable, polite, punctual, never deliberately aggressive or demeaning towards a customer and did my utmost to deliver on my commitments. Those characteristics alone, I felt, should land me firmly in the 90th percentile. (more…)

Years ago Japan made a significant name for itself in the manufacturing environment for the practice of asking “Why?” five times in succession in order to get to the root cause of a problem.  When a system failed, one asked “Why?”  If the answer was that a component of that system was faulty, “Why?” was asked again.  The answer to this question was again put to the “Why?” question and after five iterations one often discovered systemic issues which, when addressed, could have far reaching consequences. I would like, however, to suggest that for the soft skills business sector we turn the question on its head. (more…)

When I first moved to Germany some 15 years ago, the telecom environment was dramatically different than today.  There was only one provider for telephone service and although the telecom infrastructure was absolute tops, customer service was what you would expect to receive in a monopoly environment – abominable.  Not only did you have the honor of paying for your call – toll free numbers still aren’t quite the rage in Germany – you were usually treated like fingernail dirt.  Every interaction was a test of nerves and they made so many mistakes so consistently, that I came to believe that the mistakes were deliberately programmed.   No organization could be so thoroughly and consistently incompetent. (more…)

Many companies promote and are proud of the fact that they have a very flat management hierarchy.  This has both its good and bad sides.  Clearly, flat should mean a shorter path to key influencers and decision makers.  It can also mean more efficient.  On the negative side it masks reality, as organizational hierarchies will develop on their own and lack of their official documentation doesn’t serve the organization’s need for transparency.  (more…)

This weekend I ran in my first 10k.  Well, it wasn’t actually 10k.  Because the path through the woods that we ran didn’t quite come out to a conveniently round number, it was a 12.8k run. When I got back home after the run I tried to explain to my children what I had just done, however running 10 kilometers is not yet in the realm of their understanding.   So instead of saying that I ran for 90 minutes (yes, I was one of the slowest in the pack…), I said that I ran “to the Lollyhop (Bavaria’s answer to Chuck E. Cheese) and back, twice”.  My 10 year old daughter turned to me with a very critical look on her face and said “Daddy, du lügst!” (more…)

When designing compensation programs in the service management environment, one of the most common questions asked is “Which behavior do we want to reward?”  A large percentage of managers answer with “efficiency” and “throughput”. From my view and experience, rewarding for transaction efficiency is a huge mistake. (more…)

Tina Turner is one of my all time favorite performers.  I don’t know if I like her for her personal history, in which she showed courage and stamina by leaving an abusive relationship and striking it out on her own, or for her choice of songs – often rough and aggressive, positive and forceful.  Regardless of my rational, I was surprised to learn that she had her birthday last week.  Okay, it wasn’t her birthday that surprised me as much as it was learning that this is her 70th birthday.

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Like most human beings, I have weaknesses.  Perhaps my greatest weakness is that I detest being lied to by businesses.  For some reason I can accept that individuals in personal circumstances will lie to save face or make things more convenient for themselves, however my internal organisms tighten and my skin gets thinner when a company, especially a service organization, decides to feed me a line of BS rather than simply tell it like it is. (more…)