Good Morning,
There is questionable quality in work produced and quality of service performed in many industries today. It is very frustrating being the customer and recipient of shoddy work, but it can also be very frustrating for the leadership of the teams who deliver the subpar performance.
As I was pondering this thought this morning, two separate ideas popped into my head. Two different areas, taking pride in your work, and being accountable for your work jumped out at me. And while each of these areas seems separate and unrelated, they may in fact be tied together.
Have you ever noticed someone doing work that was less than stellar? You know, work that is more like someone randomly slapping sandwich toppings on a sandwich and wrapping the mess up and handing it to you without even looking at you. Or maybe talking to a call center and the agent seems to have no interest whatsoever in helping you.
What is missing is taking pride in their work. Pride that what they do is the best that can be done. Not everyone can be the best in the world, but everyone can do their own personal best. One agent who really impressed me took my call after I had had several months of botched calls from this company. This agent said ‘I will fix it, I know what you have been through, but I will make sure you are taken care of’. He glowed of pride in helping me. And yes, he did resolve my issue.
Then on the other side, have you ever noticed someone who drops the ball on something they were supposed to do? Something that they are responsible for, but take almost no initiative to ensure the job is completed, even remotely in the way it should be. It’s the classic ‘its not my job’ syndrome.
On the one side, folks are not taking pride in their work, and on the other, they feel little or no reason to be accountable for their work.
When we start to take pride in our work, like ensuring the best email message we can write, or completing the task the most efficiently we know how then we improve the quality of our work. With that pride comes confidence and the support from others.
When you bring your car in for repair, do you go to the nearest repair shop? Or do you go to one that you know does a good job. And at that location where they do a good job, don’t they seem to take pride in their work? When these same people, who take pride in their work do make a mistake, more often than not, own up to it and take responsibility to fix the error.
And when others ask you who you use for your car repairs, who do you recommend? I bet is usually the people who take pride in their work and do a good job.
One way to improve quality in any line of business is to find a way to get the staff to take pride in their work, to know that it has value and means something (as a manager, TELL THEM). When people take pride in their work, it invariably improves, so will their accountability, and in the end, the quality of the enterprise will improve.
Enjoy!
http://www.berenberg.net ß Check out the cover of my upcoming book, “Learn And Grow Daily!”
http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
502-533-9336
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