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Do You Need to Fire a Top Performer? Here Are 4 Things to Do First

No one wants to lose a top performer. When someone is doing a great job in a critical role, replacing them is difficult, time consuming, and expensive. Depending on your business, they may even take clients with them. Performer But if a top performer is toxic to your company’s culture, the difficult choice is often the best one. Research from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management shows that one bad apple actually does spoil the whole batch. Toxic employees spread negativity and often have a prima donna attitude, requiring too much of your precious time and attention. Furthermore, teammates of a toxic worker are 47 percent more likely to become toxic themselves, according to Kellogg. And replacing them ultimately yields $12,800 in cost savings. The reality is, replacing a top performer is a real struggle, but rebuilding a damaged company culture is a much taller mountain to climb. I have faced this challenge at Peak Support — thankfully, not that often. It’s never easy to fire someone, and it’s even more difficult when clients are happy with the person’s performance. But when I’ve made the decision, I’ve never regretted it. It’s lifted a weight off my shoulders, removed a toxic influence, and often created […]

Want To Deliver Great Customer Service? Do These 7 Things

Delivering great customer service is hard. But it’s critical for a company’s success. Nearly two-thirds of people say customer experience is more important than price when they make purchasing decisions. Yet companies still manage to disappoint their customers on a regular basis. “We’re living in a crisis of customer service,” says one etiquette guru. Half of all U.S. adults have taken business elsewhere because of a bad customer service experience, according to a survey from NewVoiceMedia. So many companies get this wrong … so how does Public Rec, a men’s apparel company, manage to deliver great customer service week after week? Full disclosure – Public Rec is one of our clients. But we’re not just basing this on our own personal opinion. Public Rec regularly sees 100 percent scores on its weekly customer satisfaction report. That means everyone who responded to a customer satisfaction survey had a great customer service experience with the Public Rec team. Of course, sometimes the company receives bad ratings. But often, the entire team closes the week with a 100 percent customer satisfaction score. And in their comments, customers say things like “Your customer service is second to none,” and “I have never had such a good […]

Why Google’s AI Assistant Will Not Replace Humans Any Time Soon

A few weeks ago, I woke up to find that many people on my Facebook feed had shared this video of Google’s new AI assistant. The article accompanying the video called it “jaw-dropping.” It was shared thousands of times, with many calling it “amazing.” In the video, recorded at Google’s I/O developers conference, CEO Sundar Pichai played a recording of a Google Assistant calling to make a haircut appointment. The audience seemed enthralled, oohing and aahing at all the appropriate moments. The announcement isn’t a surprise; we knew AI would dominate the conference. But in reality, it’s much less impressive than it seems. The main factor driving the audience reaction — and many of the positive comments — is the fact that the Assistant actually sounds like a human. Her voice has natural intonation. She says “umm” and “hmm.” But if you look beyond that, there is nothing particularly new or special about the Assistant’s ability to schedule a basic appointment. It’s a basic task, that is not that useful, and Google’s Assistant doesn’t even do a particularly good job. I learned a lot about this space at a previous startup, TalkTo. We had a global network of human call center […]

How I Improved My Communication Skills By Following One Simple Rule

All entrepreneurs are professional communicators. It’s how we spend almost all of our time. Communication According to a recent study, CEOs spend 61 percent of their time in face-to-face meetings, and 24 percent on electronic communications. The remaining 15 percent is spent reading or responding to written correspondence. Yes, that’s right: When you’re not reading, you’re communicating, either verbally or in writing. I’ve always thought of myself as a skilled communicator. I went to journalism school. I’ve even written for a few high-profile business publications. When my wife came home one day from business school and shared what she’d learned in her communication class, I initially scoffed. Her professor said there was one secret to good communication: “Say what you’re going to say. Say it. Then say what you’ve said.” How rudimentary, I thought. Sure, that seems like a decent rule for all the mediocre communicators out there. Maybe it’s a good way to teach fifth graders to write essays. But me? I’m a sophisticated communicator. I understand all the nuances of good communication, and I know how to structure each communication according to the content and the audience. Then I tried it, and realized I was wrong. It’s an incredibly valuable insight. Studies pioneered by […]

GIVE: A New Leadership Framework

The most important lesson I’ve learned about leadership didn’t come from a boss or CEO. It didn’t come from a leadership guru. It came from a someone I was interviewing for a job. Our now Senior Team Lead, Don Bagnol, was applying for an assistant team lead role. Our company was less than a year old. We were building a new team for a big client. I don’t remember what I asked in the interview. Maybe I asked him to explain his approach to leadership. Maybe I just asked why he wanted the job. But I clearly remember his answer: “A team doesn’t work for a manager. The manager works for the team.” It’s a very simple idea. I’m sure that Bagnol wasn’t the first person to say this or something similar. But it resonated with me in a way that no book or article on leadership ever has. The manager works for the team. That means my team doesn’t report to me. I report to them. My job is to make sure my team members have the direction, tools, training and resources they need to succeed. My job is to maintain the stability and growth of our company so […]

1 Powerful Team-Building Exercise You Can Do This Week

I have been working with most members of my leadership team for more than five years — since before I started my current company, Peak Support. But we recently did an exercise that helped us get to know each other better than ever — and helped us all become more effective leaders. We call it a Feedback Circle. We didn’t invent it (one member of our leadership team learned about it in business school). But I’d never heard of it before, which was surprising, given how simple — and powerful — it was for our team. Here’s how it worked. We set aside two two-hour sessions for the activity. Each person prepared feedback — both positive and constructive — for every other member of the group. During the session, we took turns receiving feedback. Each participant received all of their feedback, from everyone in the group, at the same time. The feedback receiver was asked not to respond, argue, or explain anything, but just to listen and absorb. The feedback was incredibly valuable. I learned that I have a tendency to interrupt members of team, which I never knew. But more importantly, the activity broke down barriers and enabled us […]