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Creative People - How to Handle A Bad Client
A client with a creative business called me one day and asked the following question. It's a question I get asked frequently, so rather than write an entire article, I decided just to tell you exactly what I told her.
Kirstin --
Do you have a...
Get Rid Of The Clutter
You really can have a successful business and a great life. Often we get caught up in growing our business or climbing the corporate ladder that we put our personal lives on hold. Rather than filling up your calendar with work, organizations,...
Secrets To Successful Publishing
Have you ever wondered what would it take to compete successfully with the “big guys” like Simon & Schuster and even get to the top of the heap? If there is such thing as a magic formula for success, then the story of Geela, the author of the...
The "Industry Standard" for Charging is Probably Wrong for You
If you are having difficulty knowing what to charge, then check out your competition and find out what they’re doing. Find out if they post prices or fees on their website or if they have "packages" or deals. Do they have payment options?
...
Time Management Training - A Necessary Investment or A Waste Of Money?
Many organisations view time management training as something they'll spend their money on, only if they have to. Usually when pruning the company or department budget, training is often the first area that gets the chop. And yet can you really...
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SETTING NON-NEGOTIABLE STAFF STANDARDS
When a person seeks employment with your company, he or she is
basically saying, “I want to work for your company.” What this really
means is “I will give up doing whatever I please, show up for work
and behave the way you want me to behave, so long as you pay me
in exchange.”
Now, that gives you the employer, the opportunity to set some standards
of behavior that are non-negotiable. That doesn’t mean you are taking
away any creativity from your employees. After all, it is important for
staff members to have some flexibility and to project their own personality
into their job. With that said; it is also a good idea for the employer to be
inflexible with some things. In other words set non-negotiable standards.
This is no different from every day life. Society has rules. Imagine,
for example, if there were no road signs or laws to guide us on how
to behave. Imagine if there were no rules in sport… it would be a
shambles, right?
The truth is, most of us like to know our boundaries, because that way
we know what we can and can’t do. If we break the law we get
fined or arrested. If we don’t play fairly in sport we get penalized in
some way. We are use to non-negotiable standards.
Why should it be any different when running a business? It shouldn’t!
To run smoothly, every business needs rules and policy. Although staff
members may not always agree with the policy, they can and usually
will comply.
I will give you a couple of examples of what I mean -
When I ran my retail stores I had a staff uniform designed. Staff members
were required to wear the uniform – that was non-negotiable. However,
it wasn’t quite like being in the military. There were various acceptable
combinations, so the staff could adjust the uniform to suit their own
personality.
Here’s the deal: It was a non-negotiable standard that staff members
were required to wear the uniform. Furthermore, it needed to be within
the agreed guidelines using any one of the approved combinations.
Anything else was unacceptable. Now, that's not unreasonable.
Another example was the handling of money. Banknotes were required to
be put into the cash registers in the correct compartments and all facing in
the same direction. I had worked out that it took the same amount of time,
to put the money away in a tidy
order, as it did to shove it in any old way.
This kept the cash registers tidy and made counting the money much easier.
This was a non-negotiable standard and it worked well.
I’ll give you yet another example. As anyone in retailing will know,
meeting and greeting customers is critical. If you ask, “can I help you”,
the inevitable response is “no thank you, I’m just looking.” So why ask a
question that you know will get a predictably negative response.
The answer is you shouldn’t! So, one of my non-negotiable standards
was that staff members never, never, ever asked, “can I help you.”
Instead staff members were given intensive training on exactly how to
meet and greet customers. They were given lots of ideas and the flexibility
to inject their own personality into what they said.
When greeting a customer, staff members were encouraged to begin by
talking about anything except making a sale. They could comment on the
weather, something happening outside the store, the fashionable coat the
customer was wearing… anything except making a sale.
The reason for this was simple. The first objective was to always try to
relax the customer before attempting to make a sale. So “can I help you”
was a definite “NO-NO”.
I believe that, in setting non-negotiable standards, it is important to put the
policies in writing. Although verbal instruction will be necessary on occasion,
it is much easier to hold people accountable for something that is written.
Finally, it is really important to ensure that employees know and fully
understand the meaning of the non-negotiable standards. They need to
be thoroughly trained on what’s required, or how to do the particular
task. I’m a strong believer in asking people “do you understand” and
in some cases following up with “show me.” This way there can be no
misunderstanding as to exactly what’s required.
Although setting non-negotiable standards might sound very disciplined, it is
really about running a business at maximum efficiency. And, in no way should
that stop everyone from having a lot of fun. Besides, most employees will try
hard to please... and they have a right to know what’s required of them and
their boundaries.
About the Author
Noel Peebles. Market Leaders Limited.
http://www.instantsellbusiness.com
http://www.instantsellhome.com
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| Creativity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| Creativity (or creativeness) is a mental process involving the generation of ... Wallas considered creativity to be a legacy of the evolutionary process, ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
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| Creativity For Life |
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| AdCritic.com: Commercial Ads |
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| National Curriculum in Action - Creativity - |
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| www.ncaction.org.uk |
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| Ten Steps for Boosting Your Creativity |
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| www.jpb.com |
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| Category:Creativity Techniques - Mycoted |
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| Creativity at Work: The interplay of business, art and science |
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| www.creativityatwork.com |
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| Crayola Creativity Central |
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| Pages tagged with "creativity" on del.icio.us |
| All items tagged creativity ??? view popular ... Perspective for Creative Leaders · save this. by aromay to creativity business management ... 1 hour ago ... |
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| Creativity Web - Resources for Creativity and Innovation |
| Creativity Web Home Page Resources for Creativity and Innovation ... The Creative Process · Multiple Intelligences · Idea Recording · Your Creative Space ... |
| members.optusnet.com.au |
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| gapingvoid: "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards": how to ... |
| So you want to be more creative, in art, in business, whatever. ... Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion ... |
| www.gapingvoid.com |
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| Quotes on Creativity - part of a larger collection of Wisdom Quotes to challenge and inspire. Find Creativity quotations and links to quotes on other ... |
| www.wisdomquotes.com |
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| Ideas by Creativity Pool |
| A free database with new ideas and possible inventions. Add your own, or bring an existing idea to life. |
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| CREATIVITY |
| Creative problem solving depends on using the right tools, tricks, ... Search for the latest books on Creativity (or anything else) in the Quantum Books ... |
| www.quantumbooks.com |
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| Creativity Tools, Creative Solutions & Creative Problem Solving ... |
| This page explains a wide range of techniques which can help you generate creative solutions to your problems. |
| www.mindtools.com |
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| The 6 Myths Of Creativity |
| A new study will change how you generate ideas and decide who's really creative in your company. |
| www.fastcompany.com |
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| CreativeClass.org |
| Richard Florida's "The Rise of the Creative Class" examines creativity and its effects on economic development. |
| www.creativeclass.org |
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| TIP: Concepts |
| The relationship between creativity and intelligence has been always been a central concern of psychology ( Guilford , 1950). Much effort has been devoted ... |
| tip.psychology.org |
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| American Creativity Association (ACA) |
| An incorporated non-profit organization promoting personal and professional creativity. Association membership is represented by four multidisciplinary ... |
| www.amcreativityassoc.org |
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| CREAX - Portal for creativity and innovation |
| A resource for links on creativity and innovation on the web. A selection of 690 links is divided into 67 categories for the visitors convenience. |
| www.creax.net |
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