I asked the waiter in a downtown hotel, “What are the hotel rooms like, are they spacious?” The response…“I don’t know I’ve never seen them.”

In another town, I asked the room attendant outside my room, “what is the best thing on the menu in your dining room?’ The response…“I don’t know I’ve never eaten there.”

I walked across to the shopping mall and spoke with the customer service representative (that’s what her name tag said) about the extended mall hours I’d heard about from a friend. Her response…”I’ve no idea perhaps you could ask in one of the stores”.

I asked the check-in clerk for my transatlantic flight what movie would be shown on the flight and he said…  “Not a clue”, and without a hint of interest in finding out either.

Do you see the problem? These employees had an opportunity to add value to a customer’s experience, to provide information that might have increased income, but even though they both worked in these establishments they had only a narrow slice of knowledge about their place of employment. In today’s economy it is simply not good enough.

As a consultant in the 80’s I saw only too often the result of a slipping economy on the employees - they felt helpless as they watched to see if their jobs were in jeopardy  - they worried.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

In the mid 80’s, an employer brought me in to help them make adjustments to their operation, which was threatened by a poor housing market, I helped them fine tune their way of working, so they could extract the highest return for every dollar they spent. Specifically, I showed them the value to be achieved by focussing the employees’ efforts on one significant high priority goal – just one.

Their goal was articulated like this - when others close their doors we will still be running because we’ll be the lumber mill with the best productivity in the province.

It made an astounding difference.

These skilled trades’ people, with a tough union, found a new purpose, they had a challenge, and it improved their attitude, their workplace harmony, safety, and their bottom line. In the end, after several days of on-site leadership coaching and a focussed effort, they emerged as an industry leader with a solid, stable client base. These employees watched each other operate the equipment so they could fine tune their own performance, they attended financial management sessions put on by the accountant, they rejected their own lumber if it didn’t meet their own high standards, the wrapped the lumber in a new manner to protect it during shipping to name just a few of the things they adopted. The approaches used there can be used anywhere, in any business, in good times and in tough ones.  Those employees said, “If we make this place a roaring success, then our jobs will be saved for a bit longer, and in the meantime I enjoy the challenge of trying to find another way to improve the bottom line”. **

Are your employees saying that?

Your employees need to have a lofty goal, a serious challenge worth working for, and they need to be given the opportunity to be ambassadors by knowing as much about your business as you can possibly give them.

It starts with a vision, one that must be presented, sold and reiterated time after time. It needs to show up on every agenda, at each department meetings and on all of your notice boards. It needs to be talked about day after day, after day, so it becomes part of the culture. It must be championed and modeled from the top so it takes root at the bottom.

The leaders need to connect with their employees to listen. This is the time to ask for insight from the people doing the work, with a determination to learn everything possible.

Do our policies help or hinder the service of our customers?

Why do we get great sales when these four people work together? What are they doing differently that we could all learn?

Forget how we do it now – tell me how you think it could be done?

What are we doing well and what are the approaches are we taking that make it work so well?

You get the idea?

The Solution: Cross train, mix and mingle, educate - beyond the job requirements; make sure every employee is equipped with as much information about your business as possible, so they can problem-solve as well as act as knowledgeable ambassadors.

Then you can say with pride, “All of our employees are active ambassadors for our business, not just our sales and marketing people, the y know that if we thrive, so will they”.

Heather Hughes is a management consultant who has been helping organizations thrive in good times and in bad.

**Heather was invited to speak at the Oxford School of Mentoring and Coaching in the UK, based on the work she did with this remarkable lumber company – to tell the story of these remarkable employees. She can be reached at 250-708-0464 or 250-857-5833