Short-cut to Your 5 Most Important Issues at Work

I realized from our How to Be a Better Manager and Sales Power courses that most people need a shortcut on the 5 most important concepts at work.  They are now summarized as follows:

1.  Customer Service
Customer Service is not about niceties or doing everything to please the customer.  It is also not about over-servicing until the business makes a loss.  Services that are way beyond your core business are not considered customer service but entertainment service.  

Successful companies will tell you that customer service is nothing but solving customer's problems and make them feel good with a profit.  It is about service from the heart and not serve from head to toe. 

2.  Teamwork
Many people thought that if the staff get along well with little conflicts, teamwork is good.  Some people even think that if they go for offsite teambuilding training, teamwork will be improved automatically. There are even those who think that as long as there is harmony, teamwork is excellent.

Nothing can be further from the truth. Teamwork is defined as nothing but Together Everyone Achieve More, with Achievement as the main criteria.  So if the team get along well but the performance is mediocre, there is simply no teamwork!  On the other hand, if the people quarrel but together can beat the competition, teamwork is good! 

3. Sales and Marketing
Sales and marketing are never about selling more and more goods and services to people.  Sales and marketing is never about selling but about buying.  It is about creating the conditions for customers to buy by themselves.  The best salespeople don't sell, they simply plant the seeds and nurture the plant and attract customers to buy the plant.  

4. Management
This is the most mis-understood concept.  Management is never about managing people but managing time, resources and energy.  People can never be managed but their energy can be managed.  You manage people's energy by inspiring and motivating them to greater heights and make people better than themselves. 

5. Delegation
Many people think that if I delegate the work to you, it is your responsibility to get it done right.  Also, many people do not do anything other than delegating the work.  For example, they do not teach and guide people how to do the work.  Most importantly, they do not give people sufficient authority to the person to do the job well.  So in reality, they are not delegating but simply abdicating! 

Truth is that delegation is about delegating the task but the responsibility stays with you.  Also, you have to consider if the person that you delegated the task to is competent and has the time to do the task.  If not, there is simply no delegation as the task will be thrown back to you later!

By Andy Ng of Asia Trainers, details at here. Related articles in management include:

• Becoming a Better Manager and Leader in 4 Weeks and not 4 Years
• Doing the 6 things that you're supposed to be doing
• The most overlooked element in sales training
• The 6 Secrets of the secretive Leader Genghis Khan
• Beware of the 'Save Money' Trap in most companies
• How to massively increase your learning retention