Dear Madeleine, I am an experienced manager but I am in a situation that is stumping me. I have a large team, and we have a reputation for getting a lot done, very efficiently. One team member—L— has been with the team since before I took it over. She is in her early 40s, a…
As a part of onboarding, Mike Rognlien, builder of awesome people at Facebook, would always ask new employees if the culture at Facebook was a deciding factor in their decision to join the company. “Every time, in more than six years of asking that question, almost every hand would go up,” says Rognlien. “Then I would…
For about a year now, it seems everywhere I turn I hear people talking about the power of mindfulness. To me, mindfulness means paying attention to your experience from moment to moment. Because I keep hearing and reading about this topic, I figure the universe is telling me this should be my development focus right…
Dear Madeleine, I am a sales leader in charge of half of the US and I have a counterpart who runs the other half. We have a good relationship. We support each other and share ideas and information. I recently figured out that our newish boss, the EVP of sales and marketing, is playing us…
What are your beliefs about customer service—and how are they driving the customer experience in your company? That’s one of the key questions Kathy Cuff and Vicki Halsey, coauthors with Ken Blanchard, explore in their book Legendary Service: The Key Is to Care. Cuff and Halsey share a four-part CARE model to help readers and…
Think about a leader you admire. Maybe it is the CEO of your company, the principal of your local high school, or the president of your alma mater. If I asked you about the specific qualities that made them successful, you’d probably tell me about their hard skills—teachable abilities such as vision and strategic thinking.…
Dear Madeleine, There is a person on my team—a peer of mine—who rubs me the wrong way. Frankly, I just can’t stand her. She is a know-it-all, she talks incessantly, and she’s way too loud. She is constantly on the phone (not really required for the job), cracking her gum and throwing out commentary on…
There are three groups of people you need to take care of if you are going to create a customer-focused organization—but most companies only focus on one. That’s a big mistake, say Kathy Cuff and Vicki Halsey, co-creators of The Ken Blanchard Companies’ new Legendary Service training program. “Every organization knows they need to focus…
“Don’t forget managers are key to creating a culture of service,” says Vicki Halsey, coauthor with Ken Blanchard and Kathy Cuff of the book Legendary Service: The Key is to Care. “Managers are directly responsible for translating a customer service vision into the goals and tasks frontline service providers need to focus on and be…
Dear Madeleine, I have a great job that I love. My problem is a colleague—let’s call him H—who is spreading rumors about me. When I first started, he was super friendly and I thought we would be friends. We went out for drinks after work a couple of times and he gossiped about people…
An increasingly complex business environment requires an engaging and easy-to-understand service vision says Vicki Halsey, co-author of Legendary Service: The Key Is to Care. In a short, one-minute video featuring key concepts from The Ken Blanchard Companies new Legendary Service training program, Halsey shares a great story about how one major league baseball stadium…
Dear Madeleine, I am a senior executive in a big global company. I am not an American, but it is an American company. With each rise I achieve in the ranks here, the more I realize just how not-American I am. Here’s my problem. I am a large person physically—I was an athlete in my…
New survey results from more than 560 business leaders and human resources and training professionals identified the top nine most important customer service issues. By combining the ratings of issues rated as very important or extremely important, researchers at The Ken Blanchard Companies were better able to rank the issues presented. For example, 69 percent…
“If you’re always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.” –Dr. Maya Angelou It is so rewarding to coach clients who want to be amazing and who dare to rise! They are fully aware of their current reality of operating in the normal status quo and are now ready to…
Dear Madeleine, I lead a business unit in a global services company. Our sector is highly competitive and it is “go go go” all day, every day. Our company recently instituted an internal survey designed to measure employee experience and asked business units and departments to give feedback on each other. Our business unit got…
