Leadership Archives - Page 4 of 4 - Etech Global Services

Live Chat Etiquette: Making It Work

Giving and getting help via a live chat doesn’t have to be awkward. In fact, the experience can be an overwhelmingly pleasant one with the right etiquette. Fast and painless communication is made significantly easier when the chat operator and guest have overlapping goals. Here are some basic guidelines for operators and customers to follow for a smooth live chat support experience. Tips for the Operator As an operator, your main objective is to help a customer in need, whether they’re seeking assistance with troubleshooting, placing an order, or something else entirely. One of your priorities should also be to gain customer satisfaction. There are many ways to add value during the live chat experience, including: Super fast responses Friendly attitude One-stop service Unexpected extras Achieving Customer Satisfaction There are many different tactics for creating the perfect customer experience, but it boils down to excellence in three different categories: Knowledge: Know your offer, product, or service and be prepared to discuss in great detail. You should also know what your other resources are for telling customer about products, like where they can go on your website to learn more. Behavior: Be calm, clear, honest, and polite. Expect to listen patiently as find out what the root problem is so you can focus on solving it. Don’t panic if you need to transfer the customer to another agent; simply reassure them that all of their details will also be transferred. Technical: Simple is better. Refrain from using technical jargon and make sure to use proper spelling and grammar. Be sure to use a real photo as well as your real name in order to build trust.By honing in on these three core areas, you’ll be able to wow customers as you solve their problems. Tips for the Customer As a customer using live chat support, your main objective is to get your problem resolved. While you are relying on the operator for support, there are several actions you can take to simplify the process and make it easier for the operator to help you. These include: Knowledge: Gather any information that may be useful during your chat including order numbers, items purchased, or technical glitches encountered. Behavior: Follow all of the operator’s instructions and don’t hesitate to ask for clarification. Remain calm and patient as you wait for assistance. If you had a positive experience, it’s good etiquette to express gratitude to the operator. Technical: When it comes to troubleshooting, the details matter. Provide as many as you can and ensure that they are accurate. Answer questions honestly and be ready to elaborate if needed. It’s also considered a common courtesy to rate the assistance you received, typically in a follow up survey. Creating a Win-Win Experience The bottom line is that, when it comes to creating a perfect live chat experience, both parties should do everything in their power not to make things more difficult for the other side. By staying positive and trying to reach a common understanding, you’ll be on the fast track to live chat support success.

5 Ways to Boost Employee Loyalty

Your employees are your first line of defense. What do you do with your first line of defense? Think about the US Army, the country cares for our soldiers, protects and equips them to defend the country. Because of their loyalty to the country, they put their lives in danger just to ensure that the entire nation is safe. They are proud to be soldiers and to be associated with the United States of America. How then can you get your employees to that level of loyalty? That no matter how tough the situations get (and they do get tough), they will stand united with the company? Without any doubt, employee loyalty will lead to advocacy. Employee advocacy is when employees promote the organization through various channels from social media to word of mouth. By doing so, they become brand ambassadors. Here are 5 ways that you can boost employee advocacy to fuel your company growth beyond your wildest dreams. 1: Increase Engagement An engaged employee will want to talk about their company at all times, and the opposite is true. All your employees should be actively engaged, not just engaged for you to see real results. Tips on how you can increase employee engagement: Carry out an internal survey on engagement levels. Why the employees feel they are at that level. Address the issues that come up from the survey. Be careful not to confront an individual employee about a situation, find solutions that will rectify what is wrong. Implement the recommendations gathered after meeting with the employees. Make the surveys a continuous process; you need to gather feedback at all times to ensure that your staff is engaged. Employee engagement has a direct relationship with performance. Actively engaged employees are the highest performing employees. 2: Give them all information Provide your employees with all relevant information. Advocacy is about communication; you do not want a scenario where by your employees are passing on wrong information. Providing your employees with all the information shows that you trust them. You know they will use the information well and to the benefit of the company. This kind of trust empowers them to do the right thing. 3: Create a Content Sharing Plan Creating your plan starts with a set of clear objectives. What is the goal of employee advocacy? What results do you want to achieve? For example, you may want to create awareness of a new product, service or community event you recently participated in. With the objective in place, you need to create a plan on how the employees will share the content. If you do not set these, you will send your employees out in the world without a compass. The plan should include the messages to be shared. An elaborate plan will also help you measure the success of the advocacy program. 4: Be Consistent Consistency is very important to the company reputation. If your employees are active advocates on social media they should continue doing so, if not people may start to wonder why there are gaps. Consistency keeps you customers engaged and in touch with your organization. You can assign managers to be in-charge of employee advocacy program. They should be accountable to the organization and the employees they are leading. These managers will coach the employees. 5: Have Brand Champions Not all employees are motivated and engaged equally. You will have some who are actively engaged, and they should be your brand champions. The brand champions will help the other employees who are not engaged to follow suit. The success of the brand champions will motivate the other employees to become brand advocates and in no time join the brand champions. In conclusion, increasing employee engagement, giving employees all the information, creating a plan, being consistent and having brand champions are five ways that when used together will boost employee advocacy. Remember that employee advocacy is a cost effective way of communicating with your customers.

Importance of Ethics and Values for a Leadership Team

A team works together to accomplish a common goal. A leadership team takes that definition several steps further and incorporates the various goals of the individuals that those leaders are guiding. Thus a leadership team is quite important in itself. However, there are specific elements of a leadership team, such as ethics and values, that must be understood and implemented. Ethics and Values Ethics and values tend to go hand in hand. The values that a business adopts tend to lead its moral compass and determine how ethical its practices will be. Visa versa, an ethical company usually holds high values. Whichever way you look at it, a consumer looks to a company’s ethics and values to determine if it is a respectable business worthy of patronage. Importance Ethics and values give consumers a standard to hold the business to, which can help to build their comfort level with the company. This can help to strengthen business relationships with both customers and other companies. By the same token, the ethics and values in a leadership team give employees a standard to hold the leaders to, as well as a model that they as employees should strive to follow. Without proper ethics and values in place a business could succumb to or be accused of unethical practices, which could come with legal ramifications and even business closure. Considering this, it is easy to see why it is important to set high ethics and values and keep them in place. Implementation It is not only critical that you understand the value of ethics in leadership, but that you also understand how to implement these principles. There are four key steps that you can take: Brainstorm a value statement: You should take your time with this step and gain input from your employees, management staff, shareholders and anyone else expected to adhere to the values. Develop the value statement: Take all of the input you received and create a value statement that incorporates the majority consensus. Implement your values: It is not enough to just erect the value statement; you must incorporate it into the daily operations of your company. Take time to lay out expectations that coincide with the values. Evaluate: Periodically, you should survey your employees, management and shareholders to determine how effective the implementation of the values has been. As you do, take into consideration any suggestions or objections that you come across to help you fine-tune your company values so that they do not isolate or deter anyone expected to uphold them. By taking these steps you can effectively create, implement and evaluate your value system, starting with the leadership and going all the way down the ladder. There is a common saying that, “Where the head leads, the body will follow.” That saying is especially true in businesses. If the leadership does not practice and uphold strong values, neither will the employees. By understanding the importance of and implementing quality ethics and values, you can position your company for ethical dealings and a strong reputation.

The Decisive Tests of Leadership

As most readers are aware, there is an abundance of information out there concerning leadership which can only prove how important it is to company growth. Dwight D. Eisenhower captured it perfectly by quoting, “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” Every waking moment, as you get things done through others, those around you are testing what you do as a leader; more so if you are in senior management. Everyone from the founders, stakeholders, fellow managers, and employees are testing your leadership capabilities and the impact you have to the organization. It is easy to lead willing people, they will follow your steps to the battlefield and anyone can do it. However, a real leader will lead different and challenging employees too. A genuine leader puts their best foot forward and leads every individual in their scope of influence well, without discriminating. Decisive or acid tests will not only challenge your self-concept as a leader but also expose your influence at work. What decisive tests can differentiate between a genuine and a non-genuine leader? Here are three exercises that I believe will test your leadership. No Title Test This is on a personal level, and you start by taking your own notes. Imagine you have no title or rank at the office. Imagine you have no powers or authority to reward good performance or punish under performance. Will you still be influential? Will you still have followers? If your answer is yes, you are a genuine leader. If no, you need to evaluate your leadership style. To take it a step further, ask a few trusted colleagues the above questions. If they would still follow you, you are an authentic leader. If not, seek to find out why and how you can improve. Vacant Chair Test This test targets the entire management team and is best when tried on the senior management. For example, a key member of the leadership team is unavailable for one year. The reasons for his or her absence can range from moving companies, taking charge of a new branch subsidiary in a different country, sick leave, or vacation leave. Whether the reason is good or bad, it does not affect the outcome of the test. His or her position is vacant and someone has to step in and take charge of that department. The test is… what will you do? Will you move on with current responsibilities without caring what will happen in that department? Or Will you step in and take charge of the functions that you can? Taking the second option shows your genuine concern for the company growth and not just what is spelled out in your job description. This test also shows how strong your collective leadership is as the whole management team. Humility Test This is a big one because it means putting your teams needs above your personal comfort. Another definition that brings this to perspective is the ability to give credit to others for your successes. Important to note is it does not mean denying your strengths. Look back at an instance your team performed very well. When congratulated, did you take in the praise? Or did you take the opportunity to mention how your team’s efforts made it possible for you to win? It is a character thing and once you get to understand its impact on your team morale, you will develop it. These simple tests –no title, vacant chair, and humility test – will help you to look inward and understand yourself better. This understanding will guide you to pursue your leadership passion and establish meaningful relationships. This blog was written by Dilip Barot, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Etech Global Services, and founder of Creative Choice Group, headquartered in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Etech employs 2,700 team members across the US, India and Jamaica. If you would like to learn more about Etech, contact info@etechgs.com for more information.”

Tips to Boost your Social Media Engagement

Building a social media presence for your company or brand is increasingly an essential part of doing business in the modern corporate world. Chances are good that you have already taken the plunge and started building your brand in the social channel of your choice. However, you may not be getting the results you had anticipated. If customer and employee engagement is down on your social media accounts, the problem may not be with your customers or clients. There are several steps you can take to boost social media engagement, most of which can be done with relatively minor adjustments to your regular posting routine. Include Pictures and Other Media Pictures, video and other visual media are an essential part of the social media experience on virtually every platform. Not only can you convey more with a a picture than with a long text post that people are less like to read, you can also use images as a clever way to get around character limits on platforms like Twitter. Just remember that including too much information in an image can cause access issues for customers who use screen readers. Blog at the Right Times Make social media posts when your customers are most likely to read them and don’t hesitate to repost content a couple of times to reach a larger audience. The ideal time to post varies between industries and customer demographics, so analyze the data you have before working out a posting schedule. A social media consultant can help you make sense of a large amount of data. Let Your Personality Shine Through Social media posts aren’t meant to be stiff and formal like press releases. Use humor and personality to engage your readers and make them feel like they are interacting with a real human being rather than a corporate-branded robot. Make your followers laugh, think, or even just smile and they will be much more likely to keep coming back. Engage with Your Audience If you want your audience to engage with your posts, consider just asking them. While asking for followers to like or share content may seem a little desperate, it works more often than you might think. However, make sure to take control of your intellectual property. If you create an image to share, watermark it or sign it with your company name so that it doesn’t become lost once it has been released into the social media wilds. Respond to Comments and Blogs Always make your customers and followers feel valued. Respond to posts on your social media pages, even if it’s just to say a quick thanks. Longer comments or questions may require longer responses, so make sure to carve out a little time each day for responding to posts. While you may get a little tired of typing out the same response multiple times, remember that each response is unique to the person who receives it.

Are You Prepared to Face Inconvenient Truths?

There are a number of inconvenient truths in today’s business world, particularly around leadership. One truth is that if team members are depressed, unfocused and/or underperforming, it is often due to their leadership. By facing this truth directly you have taken the first step towards improving your team’s work environment, morale and productivity. What is True Leadership? Studies have shown that many team members feel their leaders have a distorted sense of what true leadership is. Many times those in leadership will mistakenly fill the role of manager over that of a leader. This is most evident in the authoritative way they treat their team members. A true leader should be a role model of behavior, serve as a mentor, and be the first to provide motivation and constructive feedback for performance improvement. What Qualities Do Team Members Desire in a Leader? There are certain qualities that team members respect and admire from a leader. When they see and recognize these traits, they are more likely to follow the lead and tend to be happier in their work life, which in turn makes them more productive. Some of the most important qualities for leaders to consistently demonstrate are: Integrity and fairness Honest and trustworthy Open-mindedness Vision, wisdom and rational thinking Decision Making Creativity Leaders who remain conscious of these qualities and constantly strive to display them will find it easier to maintain a positive and productive team. How Do You Inspect Yourself? If you are in a leadership role I encourage you to consistently seek feedback to ensure that you are contributing positively to your teams’ morale and productivity. There are a few ways that you can accomplish this: Written evaluation: Request 360 feedback from your team members to evaluate your ability to consistently demonstrate important leadership qualities. Compliance evaluation: Some companies will bring in an outside party or have a department designated to ensure that leaders are properly fulfilling their roles. Self evaluation: Take some time to research different leadership tactics and establish a plan of action to implement. Set aside time to reflect on how well you have executed on your plan utilizing performance results and employee morale as your gauge. Whatever approach you take, it is important that you remain open to assess your progress and remain open to change. Remember there is always room to grow, and a great leader is critical to creating and leading a great team. Facing the inconvenient truth is not always easy; however, it is necessary for growth. Today’s leader must be capable of establishing positive morale and building high performing teams. By recognizing areas for improvement, implementing necessary leadership tactics and evaluating your effectiveness along the way, you can create necessary change and become the exception to the inconvenient truth!

Develop Your Employees for a Strong Company

You are as good as your successor. Real leadership is about empowering your team to lead as you do, or even better. Your commitment to foster employee development determines your company growth. Develop your employees on a daily basis; do not wait for the monthly or bi-monthly staff training. I believe this is an investment that yields fruits in the short and long term because employees will perform better as you lead, and will then lead well after your exit. When you don’t take the time to develop your employees, they become disengaged feeling unsupported. Disengaged employees waste a lot of time in the office sifting through Facebook and emails instead of being productive, and it takes a lot of effort to change this detrimental behavior. For that reason, it is best to empower employees from the onset of their employment. The following are just a few tips on how you can develop your employees: 1: Create a Strong Company Culture A strong company culture glues your team together. To help employees focus on the company vision and mission, set clear values that care for everyone. Important to note is that every employee has a responsibility for building a strong culture. Yes, the leadership will set the direction for this, but the staff has to uphold it. When involving all employees in the creation of the company culture, they will own it and you will begin to notice how more engaged and efficient they are with their work. The result is a feeling of shared connection to the culture which fosters productive, high employee morale and a stable company. Employees are looking for companies that have strong conducive cultures they can easily plug into and grow with. Be that company. 2: Set Measurable Goals As a leader, it is your role to set goals for your team. The key to achieving these goals is ensuring they are measurable and relevant. Keep in mind to not set unobtainable goals or goals that do not link to the company vision. We all enjoy working with a clear direction. Instead of only focusing on the long-term goal that is the company vision; also set some quarterly goals to keep track of your staff performance. Quarterly goals bring the vision to life, everyone will always remember them. The feedback you gather as you evaluate your employees’ progress will aid in building the company in the right direction because you will not only continue working on the relevant goals that yield results, but also eliminate the redundant goals. Your employees will also get an opportunity to evaluate their progress. As opposed to waiting twelve months to know how they are performing, three months, quarterly, intervals keep them engaged. 3: Believe In Your Employees’ Potential When you believe in your employees, you provide them opportunities for development. It is difficult to promote an individual whom you have no faith in. You are essentially setting them up to fail. A strong company is built on trust by all members. Believing in your employees’ potential and grooming them into leadership positions will build their trust in you. Offer training programs to develop them further. Don’t limit your training to work related courses, include personal development programs as well. When you believe in an ambitious staff, you fuel their desire to excel. You should even recommend external training programs that can advance their skills further. 4: Empower Your Employees Empowering means letting others take ownership and responsibility for their decisions. For empowerment to be effective, employees need to get to a point of empowering themselves. As a leader you should encourage and support their initiatives when they make that step. At the initial stages of empowerment walk beside them, and then let them fly. We understand most people learn best from their experiences. Therefore, making every decision for an employee will not lead to empowerment but dependency. If you are a “hands on” leader, you will need to take a step back and let your team learn. When an employee comes with a challenging task and wants your help, provide them with the resources to solve the task without taking over the project. Provide employees power and autonomy to execute business strategies. Be patient and do not second guess their ideas, you will kill their confidence. Create an environment that encourages them to produce creative solutions for business growth. In summary, developing your staff is a process that takes time. You can start today by creating a strong culture together, setting measurable goals, believing in your employees potential, and empowering them. You will build a strong company together when you focus on the right beliefs. How have you been developing your employees? This blog was written by Dilip Barot, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Etech Global Services, and founder of Creative Choice Group, headquartered in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Etech employs 2,700 team members across the US, India and Jamaica. If you would like to learn more about Etech, please contact us at info@etechgs.com for more information.

4 Tips to Rebuild Trust in the workplace

“The glue that holds relationships together – including the relationship between the leader and the led – is trust, and trust is built on integrity.” Brain Tracy Some of the most significant relationships in my life began at the office. However, even the friendships I forged in my personal life were all based on one thing; trust. Trust is that thing that makes you believe what the other says, and it is two-way, when you trust the other person, you believe them. You get along with them regardless of the situation. Merriam-Webster defines trust as a firm belief in the character, strength, or truth of someone or something. To bring it closer to today’s topic, in the workplace, trust validates your leadership. Have you ever experienced a situation where an employee takes another employee more seriously than the appointed leader? The reason may be they trust him/her more. I recently saw this happen at work. I know you may ask how does this happen? In my opinion, I think a leader can destroy the trust the employees have in him/her by doing any of the following things; Overpromising and not delivering. Under communicating. Not demonstrating trust first. Worried more about processes than coaching and developing. Spinning the truth. Having personal conflicts with employees. Any of the above could make your employees mistrust you, and that leadership is based on trust, if you lose it, you lose your credibility. All is not lost if you are in such a predicament, because slowly but surely you can rebuild the trust and fulfilling relationships you once enjoyed. Here are four tips that can help you start the rebuilding journey: 1 Promise and Deliver If you had a habit of over-promising and under-delivering, you can redeem yourself by making promises that you can keep. A common saying in the business world that I think works well in personal matters is, it is best to underpromise and over-deliver. Don’t mistake the under promise to mean any promises. To rebuild your trust, you need to be deliberate in your words and actions. For instance, if you are planning to reward the best sales representatives, and someone is still not helping you get what was promised, constantly inform the sales reps, and when it is ready, reward them in public. 2 Trust Your Staff As mentioned above, trust is two-way. If you show your employees that you trust them to do the right thing, they will trust themselves and you. Lack of trust in your employees manifests itself through micro-management. Now the employee must also show their willingness to trust their leader as well. When you delegate an assignment, give the employee room to make their own decisions on the best way to achieve the set goals. Showing them that you believe in them and their ability to take care of business will increase their confidence and rebuild the lost trust they once had in you. 3 Own your mistakes At times things don’t go as planned, and you have the task of communicating hard messages to the staff. If either you made a mistake or misinformed each other for whatever reason, you need to come forth and admit that you were wrong. In my experience I have seen by owning my mistakes it shows humility and more importantly shows your staff that you too are human. By owning your mistakes, you are showing them respect as adults and that you are remorseful. Your staff will see that you are sincere and can believe in you once more because you have told the truth. Show me a person who said they don’t make mistakes and I will show you a person who has not grown as a leader. 4 Resolve Issues with Employees Due to group dynamics, you cannot avoid conflicts completely. The secret is how you handle them when they arise. If in the past, you got into a nasty conflict and tempers flew all over, you can be the bigger person and call a meeting. In the meeting, apologize to the employee and make peace. At the end of the day, your working relationship will improve because there will be no more tension. The employee will also see where they went wrong. Even if you do not get along 100%, you will start rebuilding the lost respect and trust. In summary Trust is the currency of leadership; you cannot get anything or anywhere without it. Practice these four strategies- promise and deliver, trust your staff, own your mistakes and resolve conflicts with employees- to win back the trust of your employees. It might take you time to mend fences but you will enjoy the results. I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic and how you dealt with it.

Do you Attract Leaders or Followers?

There is a huge difference between attracting leaders and followers. The ability to attract leaders who can take over your role is indispensable. How many times have you encountered someone who was strong in their role, but had no one to back fill their position? It happens more often than not when someone attracts followers VS attracting other leaders. Your true leadership is not only measured by your performance and the value you bring to the company through innovation, productivity and profitability, but also by the successors you leave behind. Ask yourself, will they emulate your leadership style and continue to grow the company through their future successors or will they pack their desks and follow you? Every organization needs followers, and they have a specific role they play in achieving the organizations goals. However, in the end the leaders you attract and develop will be the ones who continue to carry your and the company’s vision forward. Take a moment to breakdown and evaluate your leadership style. Is it conducive to attracting and creating leaders or followers? Traits of Leaders who attract followers: They focus only on the opportunities of othersWhen you realize that you are focusing primarily on the opportunities of those you work with it is an indication that you will most likely attract followers. Leaders want to work with leaders willing to build up and encourage performance through coaching and developing strengths, as well as, areas of opportunity. They want recognition for themselves VS their team If you are only focused on your success you will overlook the efforts of others and fail to value their input. While your team may enjoy the success and recognition that comes they will do so by following your lead rather than being willing to take the lead. Long term this is not a recipe for success. The team cannot perform without you present Without you the team cannot perform. They are in constant need of direction VS being willing to make decisions, share ideas and grow beyond that direction. Thus your successes are limited. Without you the team cannot move forward and a result many times nor can you. Traits of Leaders who attract leaders: Focus on the strengthsWhen you focus on the strengths of others, it means that you believe in their potential and want to see them succeed and reach their personal and professional goals. Leaders will draw to you because they know that you will take a vested interest in their growth. Invest your time in othersInvesting your time in others strengthens the foundation of your organization. By developing talent, looking for best practices and nourishing other’s passion you breed success. It is those successors that will ultimately build from the foundation to create new experiences through fresh ideas, innovation and successors of their own. You deposit in them your beliefs, vision and strategies. Like any investment, in due time, the outcome will be amazing. They experience success through and with othersRemember it is not about you, but about the team you create around you. Recognizing the success of a team is showing others the type of leader they can be to deliver those same types of results. The ripple effect increases the level of success when everyone is able to share in that success together. So are you an attractor of leaders or followers? There is a clear difference, and you have the control of choosing who you want to attract. In the long run the more leaders you attract the more followers you invest in as those leaders will bring their followers with them. As a result you create an environment of succession and growth and who wouldn’t want to work with a leader like that! Enjoy!

The Importance of a Leader’s presence on Social Media

CEOs and other company leadership often serve as the public face of their businesses. This is increasingly true in the tech and start-up sectors, where businesses are smaller and company owners are required to do more diverse jobs. With this in mind, it may come as a surprise that so few CEOs maintain a social media presence related to their businesses. A 2012 poll conducted by IBM found that only 16 percent of CEOs use social media, and the number of CEOs who use these services for business rather than personal purposes is even smaller. Maintaining a cultivated social media presence is an important part of building a company brand, and there are few people better qualified to do that the company CEO. Here is everything you need to know about becoming a social media leader for your company and beyond. Use the Full Range of Social Media Getting your name out there on Facebook is a good first step towards developing a social presence. However, there are lots of other options for those looking to get on social media. You don’t have to be on every social media network, but do make an effort to get on several that are used by many members of your customer base. Remember that there are different rules for each social network, so don’t hesitate to get a consultant to show you the ropes if you’re unsure. Be Visible and Authentic When you are on social media as the CEO of your company, your social presence should be professional and polished. However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t have a little fun while you’re there. In general, social media is less formal than other types of corporate communications, so you can feel free to joke around a little or let your personality shine through. If you make friends on social media, you can also chat with them, especially about industry topics. Building relationships in a public social media platform makes your business seem more friendly and approachable to potential customers. Stay Connected to Others in the Industry Social media is also a great place to network, without the hassle of handing out dozens of business cards. You can connect with other professionals in your field who you have heard of but haven’t had the chance to meet. Social media is also a great way to keep an eye on emerging talent and make them an offer quickly before one of your competitors does. Finally, once connected, you can more easily follow trends in your industry. Cultivate a Public Persona While there is a lot of room on social media to be yourself, keep in mind that you are still acting as the face of your company. Keep any jokes clean and avoid taking stands on political and social issues that aren’t directly related to your industry. If you can’t live without discussing your views on social media, consider making a separate personal account that can only be accessed by friends and family. For help building your social media brand, contact one of our knowledgeable consultants today. This blog was written by Jim Iyoob, EVP Customer Experience for Etech Global Services. If you would like to learn more about Etech, please contact us at info@etechgs.com.

How to Replace the Threat of Fear with Fearless Leadership

Matthew Bellows, the Founder and CEO of Yesware, recently posted this on his blog: “The threat of firing is not as powerful as the human desire to unlock potential.” Anyone who has worked under people with great leadership skills can attest to the truth and strength found in that statement. When people are placed under great leaders, their potential can be lit from within and turn into a raging fire that cannot be quenched by anything but success. Additionally, a leader’s well-placed faith can foster growth in areas that some people may have never previously considered before. Unfortunately, some managers use fear as their main tool instead. In some cases, people are forced into job positions that they do not want, simply out of fear of losing their jobs completely. This is a common tactic among managers to lazily fill positions they need filled, or even to punish those under their “command.” All too many individuals have tried to turn down a dubious position that they do not want only to hear the words “I could force you, but you won’t make me, will you?” Using a person’s job as leverage to get them to comply with your wishes is a clear example of a lack of true leadership skills. Avoid Bully Bosses Why do so many bosses choose to manipulate, coerce and even bully their workers when the opposite approach is such a clearly superior method? Sadly, bullying is simply an easier tactic. Too many bosses understand that real leadership takes a ton of work. However, with the work comes benefits that true leaders are not likely to forget, such as increased strength in political, personal and professional areas. In the alternative, the strong-arm boss only needs to apply brute force with the smallest amount of tact. According to Chuck Gumbert, founder of the Tomcat Group, if you want to know how harmonious a company really is, you simply need to ask the shop floor workers. Their answers will give a clear indication of whether or not your organization is dysfunctional. Alternatively, if workers don’t mention a single issue, they may be under the watchful eye of an intimidating boss who has made transparency and honesty impossible. This also indicates a dysfunctional organization. Put Employees First The company leader is ultimately the one responsible for functional or dysfunctional employee conditions. Leaders set the tone for how others within an organization act. If fairness is the rule, favoritism is not possible. Devote Time to Listening In some cases, serious dysfunction can go ignored simply because top dogs refuse to listen. To avoid this, real leaders employ the following tactics: They take the time to listen to what their charges tell them instead of simply reacting to it. They value worker feedback They use fearless leadership instead of the threat of fear. When you have created an environment of fearless leadership where workers know their opinions matter, they are more likely to lock onto and believe in the company’s vision. Ed Oakley and Doug Krug effectively showed in their book Enlightened Leadership that a great leader gathers all the best ideas in the room, regardless of who came up with them. That is how dysfunctional companies effectively turn themselves around. This blog was written by Dilip Barot, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Etech Global Services, and founder of Creative Choice Group, headquartered in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Etech employs 2,700 team members across the US, India and Jamaica. If you would like to learn more about Etech, please contact us at info@etechgs.com for more information.

Build Employee Loyalty for Business Growth

Today’s workforce is very different from the 20th century workforce when it was once common for an employee to work 10+ years with the same company. They would do this with their best interest to the company because of the long-term employment benefits such as pension, job security, career progression and medical insurance. I believe employers are still offering these rewards, but something has changed. It is increasingly difficult to find an employee with five years experience in one company. My thought is employees are just not as loyal today, they tend to move to the proverbial greener pastures the moment something opens up. Employee loyalty can be defined as an employee being devoted to the success of the company and is not seeking any alternative employment. Why is employee loyalty important? Increased productivity – productive loyal employees lead to rapid business growth. Low turnover costs – it is expensive to keep recruiting and training new employees to replace the ones who leave. A low turnover decreases this cost significantly. Customer satisfaction – an experienced employee creates value for the customer leading to higher satisfaction. Profitability – when customers are satisfied, they bring in more business. Healthy work environment – employees spend a lot of time together, and they can either build or destroy each other which affects the business. With this in mind, build loyalty among your employees despite its intangible nature. These five tips on how you can easily build employee loyalty will give you a head start: 1. Increase Employee Confidence in Leadership Employees look up to the leadership team for direction in everything. If a manager is not loyal to the company, employees will pick it up and follow suit. Nevertheless, when employees are confident with your leadership, it builds their loyalty. You can increase confidence by continually communicating and implementing the company objectives. In doing this, employees will understand you know where you want the company to go and how to get there. Loyalty towards the company starts with you as a leader and trickles down to the employees in equal measures. Lead by example. 2. Create a Pleasant Working Environment Employees spend approximately 90% of their day in the office working. They need to feel comfortable being there every day. A healthy work environment fosters open communication, work-life balance and active team spirit. When you add regular training and development programs to a great working environment, you win your employees’ loyalty. Creating a pleasant working environment shows your employees you care about their wellbeing and are willing to do all it takes to ensure that. 3. Empower Your Employees One way to kill employee loyalty is micromanaging them. Doing this communicates mistrust in their ability and work output. What you need to do is empower them and give them room to practice what they have learned. Empowered employees take initiative, make decisions, and accomplish more with less guidance from you. You can empower them by training them well and supporting them as they embrace their responsibilities. A mentorship program can also be a great addition, especially for mid-level managers. 4. Reward, Reward, Reward Rewarding employees is always a great motivator and can build loyalty. Who doesn’t like a reward after accomplishing something? A point of caution though, you need to reward appropriately. Plainly lay out the reward system and explain how it works to all employees. Otherwise some may feel you favor others even when they are clearly not performing which can result in contempt among employees, which destroys loyalty. Although money is important, rewards do not necessarily mean money. Acknowledging an employee in front of others, or giving them a gift publicly, works well too. 5. Hire the Right People Start on the right foot by hiring the right people for the job. An employee who fits well with the job will naturally be loyal as compared to one who struggles in that position. Check for job compatibility during the on boarding process. This can help you pick only those with a good match. Increasing employee confidence, creating a pleasant working environment, empowering employees, appropriately rewarding them, and hiring the right people will steadily build loyalty in your employees. All you need to do is start, and within no time you will see the results. What tips and tricks have worked for you? This blog was written by Dilip Barot, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Etech Global Services, and founder of Creative Choice Group, headquartered in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Etech employs 2,700 team members across the US, India and Jamaica. If you would like to learn more about Etech, please contact us at info@etechgs.com for more information.

Saying Yes or No? Exercise Your Power of Choice

Every day, each person on earth is presented with hundreds of yes or no decisions that have unforeseen consequences. Unfortunately, the fast pace and demands of the workplace may combine with daily distractions to easily cause individuals to make hasty decisions without first thinking about the consequences. Without fully realizing the implications of these decisions, many people are proverbially shooting themselves in the foot by not consciously making choices that align with their personal goals and commitments. Consider the following example: Sherry was inclined to say no to a commitment of holding one-on-one meetings with a new direct report because she did not believe that she had the time. She felt that her competing priorities were too much to add upon. She also had a deep desire to take on another complex project that would help her professional development. After discussing the impact of her commitment to a weekly one-on-one meeting and how it might benefit her, her department and the new direct report, Sherry realized that it was her responsibility to provide direction, leadership, and support to her direct report. Without that support, the direct report would either have to flounder along and eventually figure things out on her own, or she would fail. This would not only affect the direct report, it would also affect Sherry. Sherry realized that this was a clear and simple way for her to become more successful, and saying no to the meetings would impact both her and her direct report. Moreover, she realized that the increase in communication that comes from one-on-ones could possibly help her eliminate some of the issues arising between her and her direct report, such as challenges on Sherry’s requests and continuously missing deadlines. At that time, Sherry committed to weekly one-on-ones with her new direct report in order to increase the worker’s competency in certain tasks. Saying yes instead of no directly led to the direct report’s growth and development as a valuable member of the team, and thus helped the department reach its goals. Over time, Sherry’s direct report required less and less direction and support from Sherry, which allowed Sherry to take that newly vacant time to work on the complex project that she wanted to use to increase her own skills and development. Thinking through the implications of our choices before we react can greatly influence the direction of our personal and professional lives. Consider the following questions that you should always ask yourself before making a split second decision that may take you in a direction you did not really want to go: How much time will I really need to invest if I say yes? Will I benefit from this decision? Will others benefit from this decision? What limitations on tasks will I face if I say yes or no? Will this choice help me reach my goals, or will it decrease the time I am able to work towards achieving my goals? If a choice will not actively help you work towards reaching your goals, then the choice should be clear. However, it is vital that you take the time to determine just what the consequences of these choices will be instead of making an emotional, knee-jerk reaction that may not serve you well in the end.

3 Leadership Strategies That Improve Sales Performance

Being a leader is challenging enough, but being the leader of a sales team can mount even more pressure on your shoulders and the shoulders of your team. Rather than become mired in short term goals as a reaction to your accountability and visibility, implement three leadership strategies to strengthen your sales performance as well as the performance of your team. 1. Communicate Your Mission and Philosophy Take a lesson from the Book of Steve Jobs and learn how to properly and effectively communicate your vision to your sales team. While you’re at it, you can also use this strategy for the people buying your products or services. Make sure everyone on your team and everyone associated with your team is well aware of what’s going on and is aiming at the same target, otherwise there are bound to be redundancies and miscommunications. Let each individual member of your team know what his or her goals are and how those goals are connected to your company’s mission and philosophy. Show your team the road they’re on before you send them on their way down that road. 2. Constantly Work on Improving Talent While you’re working on yourself as a leader and achieving the company’s vision, make sure you take out time to help the members of your sales team to develop their own skills. Look up from the spreadsheets you might have on team performance and actually sit down with team members to discuss their skills, personal goals and what they expect from you as a leader. Clear communication and understanding are beneficial to all and ensures that everyone is working to their full potential. Just as you make efforts to improve yourself as a leader, you should also make sure you make efforts to improve your sales team. Ask yourself if there is any type of training or seminar that can benefit your team. While such training and seminars might cost money, you’ll be improving your team’s skillset. Look at long-term goals rather than become fixated on short-term costs. Even if the training only benefits one member of your team, it makes that individual that much more adept at his or her job and benefits the team as a whole. 3. Give Thanks Once you’ve communicated your mission and have sat down with the members of your team, make sure you show your team thanks whenever they reach their own goals as well as the team’s shared goals. It’s common for sales teams to not receive the thanks they deserve, which can make members feel as if they aren’t appreciated, which can negatively impact future projects. Take out time to write each team member a personally tailored thank-you note rather than a single note of thanks you send out to everyone. Writing individual letters takes longer, but is much more appreciated. You don’t want to lose valuable team members because they feel looked over. Sales performance is something on which you’re constantly working, which makes it vital that you spend your energy as well as your team’s energy on effective strategies. No matter what your sales goals might be, make sure they’re rooted in proper communication, an effort to improve talent and giving thanks. This blog was written by Dilip Barot, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Etech Global Services, and founder of Creative Choice Group, headquartered in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Etech employs 2,700 team members across the US, India and Jamaica. If you would like to learn more about Etech, please contact us at info@etechgs.com for more information.

3 Ways to Start Turning Soft Skills Into Core Skills

What makes a great leader? Is it the ability to turn goals into accomplishments? Is it a strong command of hard, technical skills? While technical capabilities are certainly important, even more so are the less tangible qualities like ease of communication and the ability to empower and engage others. Unfortunately for many businesses, these important virtues often get the label “soft skills” and therefore take a back seat to measurable traits like conversion rates and new leads generated. It’s much more advantageous in business, and in life, to think of these invaluable, central characteristics as core skills. Remember that people are always an organization’s greatest investment and its greatest asset. When you make skill like good communication, transparency, and the capacity to motivate others priorities, you give leaders the resources they need to help their teams achieve success. Here are three ways to start shifting the mindset at your company from soft skills to core skills. Assess Your Present Situation Making core skills part of the culture at your organization starts with assessing your present circumstances. First, determine the extent to which your organization places importance on developing core, people skills. Does it find traits like empowerment integral to its success, or do these so-called “soft skills” play second fiddle to measurable things like sales and marketing? Once you know where your organization currently stands on core skills, take a look at its larger objectives and goals. Determine if these could be achieved more effectively with an increased emphasis on core skills, as well as whether or not you are positioned to create change. Determine the Necessary Steps to Develop a Core Skills Culture If you think you’re in a good position to start changing the conversation from soft skills to core skills, it’s time to create an action plan. Begin by assessing your organization’s current leadership climate. Take a look at some of your leaders and evaluate their: Ability to reach immediate goals Ability to meet future goals Core and hard skills Competency needs After taking a look at the current leadership culture, identify how a shift in emphasis on developing core skills would help leaders better meet current and long-term business objectives. Take Action to Foster Core Skills in the Workplace Now that you’ve done the legwork, it’s time to take action. Be prepared to share your analysis with colleagues, especially upper management. Seek their support in making core skills training a chief priority for your organization, so that you can begin to create a company-wide culture of learning. Next, work with individual departments and senior leaders to create a core skills training program. Determine what kinds of resources you will need in order to develop implement these training sessions. It’s also a good idea to create a thorough game plan with specific deadlines and goals in order to see your new core skills training program through to success. Core skills are too important to waste, as entire businesses can crumble when their leaders don’t have the right resources to engage, inspire, and connect with their teams. Instead, give your leaders the tools they need to succeed by making an investment in people and people skills.

Generosity and Leadership

Life’s lessons are often taught to us in very unexpected ways. In some cases, this means that those lessons are also taught by unexpected individuals. While we may believe traits such as leadership and generosity are learned over years of hard work and discipline, there is living proof that is not necessarily always the case. Consider the story of a young woman we shall call Sarah: Sarah is, simply put, an incredible girl. At just 17 she has exhibited many of the qualities and traits that some people work their entire lives to achieve, and in many cases still fall short. She took a job at the mall working in a retail position. These often thankless, brutal jobs have allowed her and countless others the opportunity to be exposed to everything human behavior has to offer. Anyone who has worked retail understands that this often involves a large amount of bad with a spattering of good. Sarah recently shared a conversation she had with a friend. A fellow coworker at the mall had experienced more bad than good and was commiserating with Sarah about how terrible her day had been. It was filled with an angry manager, rude customers and missed sales goals. Her coworker felt anxious and defeated at the end of the day. Although Sarah had no power to make customers choose kinder words, calm the angry manager’s temper, or increase her friend’s low sales numbers, she was not completely powerless in the situation. Sara knew that she could listen. She also knew that after she had listened, she could more fully examine the situation to determine just how she could help her friend get through her difficult day. This intentional, service minded attitude gave Sarah both the opportunity and the ability to assist her friend when she needed it most. In this case, the simple, kind act of treating her friend to a smoothie and chatting made Sarah the perfect example of generosity and leadership. According to Hilary Davidson and Christian Smith, the authors of The Paradox of Generosity, when people engage in generous acts, it actually results in an improvement of the generous individual’s well-being. While Sarah’s friend was certainly cheered by their encounter and Sarah’s kind, understanding words, Sarah also received something for her unselfish act. When asked about her experience, Sarah stated with a bit of surprise that she felt a strong sense of contentment when she thought about what she had done. As a leader in business, you are given the chance each and every day to make a difference in the lives of those around you. One of the clearest ways that superior leaders can show they value their coworkers is by holding regular one-on-one meetings. This is a great time to give direct reports, listen closely, and offer the direction, support, and praise that most workers crave from their leaders. It not only shows that you care about their role within the company, but that you care how they fare as a person. This type of interaction usually results in stronger working relationships, increased job performance, and an overall greater morale in the workplace. Like Sarah, leaders may also come away from the meetings with a great feeling knowing they have done something worthwhile. Making a positive difference in your workplace is as simple as being generous with your time. It’s beneficial for all involved. This blog was written by Dilip Barot, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Etech Global Services, and founder of Creative Choice Group, headquartered in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Etech employs 2,700 team members across the US, India and Jamaica. If you would like to learn more about Etech, please contact us at info@etechgs.com for more information.

4 Rules on How to Improve Leadership Skills

Anyone who is a leader is also a student, one who never stops learning no matter how far out the career road stretches. It makes no difference if you’ve been a leader for a short while or if it seems as though you’ve been leading people your entire life, there are several things you can do to make yourself a better and more effective leader and student. 1. Constantly Work on Improving Yourself No matter how hectic work and life get, you should always be striving to educate yourself on the developments taking place in your industry. Read business books and magazines when you have a few minutes, and attend conferences whenever possible. If you can, engage in discussions with other leaders as well as the individuals you’re leading. You have just as much to learn from them as they do from you. 2. Recognize the Leadership Qualities and Skills You Don’t Posses Nobody’s perfect. There are bound to be plenty of skills and qualities you lack as a leader, but what you should focus on is recognizing those qualities and working on them. Take a long and honest look at yourself and your leadership capacity and determine where you can make improvements. Know that you may never gain each and every skill a leader should have, but all that matters is that you’re making an effort to improve yourself. 3.Know How to Make Yourself Better As you’re working on the leadership qualities you lack, know that you should always be looking forward to where you’re going rather than looking back at the mistakes you’ve made and opportunities you missed. Turn those blunders into learning opportunities.In addition to leadership skills, there might be personality traits you lack. Such traits include delegation, integrity and patience. Making yourself a better person in everyday life is bound to make you a better leader in business. Knowing what you want is also key to becoming an effective leader. While accomplishments are great, they’re better when you have a target or goal to aim for, otherwise you may never know when you’ve reached your goal or hit your target. 4. Properly Cultivate Your Leadership Skills On your journey to embodying the leader you know you’re capable of becoming, you should do more of the things that matter to you and less of the things that can impede your success and forward movement. Throw out, abandon, walk away from and eliminate anything that keeps you rooted or anchored down in negativity. Take a look at how you spend your time and how you’re living your live. Are there activities that are a waste of time and energy? If so, they’ve got to go. There are only 24 hours in the day, and each of them should be spent on something positive and worthwhile. You don’t want to wake up five years from now and realize how much of your life and effort you’ve wasted on fruitless endeavors. Start laying down the proper foundation for the future of your career and your leadership abilities. Things may not always work out according to plan, but as long as you’re learning and making an honest effort, everything else is sure to fall perfectly into place. This blog was written by Dilip Barot, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Etech Global Services, and founder of Creative Choice Group, headquartered in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Etech employs 2,700 team members across the US, India and Jamaica. If you would like to learn more about Etech, please contact us at info@etechgs.com for more information.

Leadership

Subscribe To Receive Our Latest Updates

Connect With Us

Copyright © Etech Global Services. All Rights Reserved

Contact Us

Thank you for sharing your details. Your Brochure is ready to Download.

Download E-Book

Download E-Book

Download E-Book

Free Download Presentation

Free Download Presentation

Free Download Presentation

Free Download Presentation

Free Download Presentation

Free Download Presentation

Free Download Presentation

Free Download Presentation

Free Download Presentation

Download Presentation

Free Download Presentation

Free Download Presentation

Download Brochure

Download Brochure

Download Brochure

Download Brochure

Download Brochure

Download Brochure

Download Case Study

Download Case Study

Download Case Study

Download Case Study

Download Case Study

Free Download Presentation

Download Brochure

Thank you for sharing your details. Click below link to watch.

Thank you for sharing your details. Your Ebook is ready for Download.

Thank you for sharing your details. Your Ebook is ready for Download.

Thank you for sharing your details. Your Ebook is ready for Download.

Thank you for sharing your details. Your Presentation is ready for Download.

Thank you for sharing your details. Your Presentation is ready for Download.

Thank you for sharing your details. Your Presentation is ready for Download.

Thank you for sharing your details. Your Presentation is ready for Download.

Thank you for sharing your details. Your Presentation is ready for Download.

Thank you for sharing your details. Your Presentation is ready for Download.

Thank you for sharing your details. Your Presentation is ready for Download.

Thank you for sharing your details. Your Presentation is ready for Download.

Thank you for sharing your details. Your Presentation is ready for Download.

Thank you for sharing your details. Your Presentation is ready to Download.

Thank you for sharing your details. Your Presentation is ready for Download.

Thank you for sharing your details. Your Presentation is ready for Download.

Thank you for sharing your details. Your Brochure is ready for Download.

Thank you for sharing your details. Your Brochure is ready for Download.

Thank you for sharing your details. Your Brochure is ready for Download.

Thank you for sharing your details. Your Brochure is ready for Download.

Thank you for sharing your details. Your Brochure is ready for Downloads.

Thank you for sharing your details. Your brochure is ready for Download.

Thank you for sharing your details. Your Case study is ready for Download.

Thank you for sharing your details. Your Case study is ready for Download.

Thank you for sharing your details. Your Case study is ready for Download.

Thank you for sharing your details. Your Case study is ready to Download.

Thank you for sharing your details. Your Case study is ready to Download.