Newsletter Issue 178, January 2010

Sam Young Newsletter

Issue 178, January 2010

Hi guys,

If you haven't heard about shared leadership before, check out Leadership - A Shared Model below.

Read about Canadian company, Global Points Exchange, which is acting as a trading floor for travel points. 

Search All Outlook Folders   TLAs for SMEs        Tips, Short & Hot Keys        Hot Linx

Don't forget, if you want to be taken off my mailing list, click here to send me a reply e-mail and I will remove your name.

Leadership - a Shared Model

James MacGregor Burns said in his 1978 book Leadership that leadership was "...one of the most observed and least understood phenomena on earth”. We still watch leaders and try to work out their secrets; and often we still don't understand why or how good leaders do what they do.

What I find even more interesting is that there is a fashion in what we consider constitutes good leadership.

In the 1970s in New Zealand, and up to the 1940s in the rest of the world, we worshipped the Great Man leader - and some of us still do. This is the person who leads simply because of who they are; their personality traits. We can't emulate them because we can't be them. Great Man Leaders are unique and born to the job, people such as Ed Hillary, Colin Meads or Winston Churchill.

What is difficult about this model is that it holds no hope for those of us with less 'personality' being leaders. So along came a load of American Universities in the post-war period who were totally into leadership being about behaviour. The Behaviourists - Lewin, Likert, Fleishman, Blake & Mouton - thought that leadership was all about what behaviours we show, and all we had to do was behave in a certain way towards others for us to demonstrate leadership. Great idea, and meant that all of us could be leaders, but a very simplistic idea. We don't all behave the same way, and nor do good leaders - one size does not fit all.

So along came an idea whose time had come - Contingency Theory. House, Vroom, Jago, Fiedler, Hersey & Blanchard thought that we should act differently towards individuals; we develop a wardrobe of leadership styles and put one style on to suit the occasion. This made all sorts of consultancy firms lots of money in training, and personality profiling, but the rest of us felt a bit manipulated.

Today we are into Relational Leadership. This idea is that good leadership depends on creating positive relationships. Wheatley describes it as "Leadership is always dependent on the context, but the context is established by the relationships we value" (1992). This covers transformational leadership, servant leadership (Greenleaf), Level 5 leadership (Collins), authentic leadership and shared leadership.

It is shared leadership in particular that I want to talk about, and have taken so long to get to. I define shared leadership as "a dynamic, interactive influence group leadership process that achieves a common group vision and collaborative group goals" (Young, 2009, after Pearce & Conger, p. 1, 2003 and Allen, Morton & Li, p. 4, 2003). I find the shared leadership model really interesting, because it can put the power, equality, strong relationships, shared responsibility and shared fulfilment back into the group.

The idea with shared leadership is that you have a balance of power within the group (ie, you are all equal partners), have a clearly shared purpose, share the responsibility for success and failure, respect each other and are committed through both the tough & the good times to achieving your goals. One of the key differences with shared leadership is participative decision-making - it takes time, but everyone is heard. You have to be a very big CEO to be able to work well with this leadership style; there is no opportunity for ego or grandstanding. It sounds idealistic, but it has worked really well for many well-organised community organisations for decades, and is a new trend in commercial organisations, often sports businesses.

Tennis New Zealand (TNZ) is an organisation which has put shared leadership into practice. This organisation was suffering from falling performance. The governance function was disconnected from the grass roots. There was little trust between the national office, the 25 regional branches and the 477 Clubs - Head Office distrusted the regions, the regions thought that national office was a waste of their time and money. There was little or no sense of ownership at lower levels of the organisation, and a huge power struggle for resources.

However, TNZ recognised the need to change. They adopted a shared leadership model and simplified their governance structure. They centralised functions, clarified branch & national roles, with the national office focused on governing. They recognised that the sense of regional ownership was strong, and placed a high value on “engagement”, creating a good process for “engagement” of all stakeholders. They got collaboration, shared responsibility, a shared vision and goals, learned to respect each other and have been working steadily towards real participative decision-making.

James McGregor Burns would find the Shared Leadership model easier to both observe and understand - but still very difficult to implement. The transition that TNZ has been through was not an easy process. It is scary, difficult, slow, and full of roadblocks. But the result is immensely strong because success is not dependent on only one person.

Everyone at TNZ is the holder of the leadership flame.

Global Points Exchange

In this month's Springwise's newsletter there was a great little article about a Canadian company called Global Points Exchange (GPX) which is setting up a swap-site for airpoints. You can go with your own particular points system, seeking a top up or a swap away and get anonymously matched with someone who is seeking what you have or want.

You can manage your various points systems online, swap your points, buy in additional points to earn a desired reward, or earn more points through signing up for special offers.

Being able to use this website would have been fabulous for me a couple of months ago when I had $89 AirNZ airpoints dollars and couldn't do a damn thing with them - so they expired. I called AirNZ and asked to gift them to my husband but was told I was not allowed to do that - I had to purchase an entire flight for him and I didn't have enough for that... so the points went down the toilet.

I hope this little idea takes off in a big way. I will be keeping an eye on GPX for the day that Star Alliance gets added to the points which can be traded. If there is enough consumer demand to pull the companies in, and enough companies see they get good PR from being listed, it should fly (!).

Hopefully in future I won't be in the ridiculous position of having a "gift" as a "valued customer" from AirNZ that I can't use, which makes me more annoyed about AirNZ for having been "given" it, than if I had not ever received it at all. AirNZ have gained more bad PR about having made this gift to me because I have told all of you about it, I am still cross about it, and every time I contact them I remind them of it (which doesn't seem to worry them). If there was another airline I could use from my hometown in New Zealand, I would be using it (bring back Origin Pacific! But that's another story).

Check it out at https://www.points.com/home/globalexchange.do?method=home. The original Springwise article is at http://springwise.com/transportation/points/

Search All Outlook Folders

Most of us put our email into folders and subfolders, using a structure that makes sense to us - usually with the most important folders at the top. That makes things easier to see, organise and manage.

But sometimes we need to search for an email from a specific person or company, but - if you are like me - you can’t remember where you put it. Outlook isn't so very helpful at showing us how to search all our messages in one hit.

However, you can create a special search folder, which will then search all your subfolders, like this:

1. In the Mail window, select New from the File menu
2. Select Search Folder (or press Ctrl & Shift & P)
3. The "New Search Folder" dialogue box will open. In the Custom section (at the bottom of the list), double-click "Create A Custom Search Folder".
4. Give your new search folder an appropriate name, such as "All Mail".

Just like that :-)

TLAs for SMEs

Here are this newsletter's TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) for you:

• WSD, White Space Device. A US FCC-certified wireless device that can be used without an exclusive broadcast license in the RF spectrum below 700 MHz.

Please feel free to email me with any TLAs that you want to get the bottom (meaning!) of.

Tips, Short+Hot Keys

In this newsletter, we are looking at all the things you can do with Alt, Shift, Ctrl in Windows Media Player. This is our eighth section and the final in this series:

• Windows Media Player "Select or clear contiguous check boxes" Shift & arrow keys, Spacebar
• Windows Media Player "Select the previous area" Shift & Tab
• Windows Media Player "Select or clear a check box" or "Play an item" or "Carry out the command for the selected item or button" or "Go to the selected link" Spacebar
• Windows Media Player "Select the next area" Tab
• Windows Media Player "Select the previous item in the list" Up Arrow
• Windows Media Player "Hide the menu" Alt
• Windows Media Player "Zoom to 50 percent" Alt & 1
• Windows Media Player "Zoom to 100 percent" Alt & 2
• Windows Media Player "Zoom to 200 percent" Alt & 3
• Windows Media Player "Show or hide album information in the Copy from CD feature" Alt & A
• Windows Media Player "Copy tracks in the Copy from CD feature" Alt & C
• Windows Media Player "Show the Add button menu in the Media Library feature" Alt & D
• Windows Media Player "Show video in full screen" Alt & Enter
• Windows Media Player "Show the File menu" Alt & F

Hot Linx

For some brilliant & low impact advertising ideas, check out UK sustainable eco-advertising company, Curb. Find out about them at http://www.mindthecurb.com/what-we-do.asp

If you want to consider the size of your eco-load on the planet, check out the recently released UK's 10:10 campaign. Go to http://www.1010uk.org/people/how_can_we and see what you can do to reduce your footprint.

If you are holidaying in New Zealand and want to take your pets with you, there is a holiday booking website specifically focused on pet-friendly places at http://www.petscancometoo.co.nz/. Also search "pets" on http://www.holidayhouses.co.nz/

Those Terry Pratchett fans out there who have just read Unseen Academicals can read all about Shove in the Roundworld by heading over to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Shrovetide_Football

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                                Catch you again soon!! E-mail your suggestions to me here

Newsletter Issue 177 January 2010

Sam Young Newsletter

Issue 177, January 2010

Hi guys,

Check out Albert Barneto's ideas on how to Get a Customer Service BLAST below.

Is there something that you want the world to come to you about? Check out TradeMe for Retailers below. 

Copy Windows XP Directory Contents   TLAs for SMEs        Tips, Short & Hot Keys        Hot Linx

Don't forget, if you want to be taken off my mailing list, click here to send me a reply e-mail and I will remove your name.

Get a Customer Service BLAST

How does your team deal with complaints from customers? You can find out easily by becoming your own mystery shopper; pick up the phone and do a role-play. Ask yourself; if you were an irritated customer, would you come back?

Albert Barneto is a managing partner of CustomerTrend Mystery Shopping and Customer Satisfaction Surveys at http://www.CustomerTrend.com. He has more than fifteen years of professional experience as a front line manager evaluating the "pulse" of customers and employees. Having worked with KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, A&W, and Long John Silvers, Barneto feels that by using the right responses, you can turn customer complaints into a tool to help build your business.

"BLAST", standing for Believe Listen Apologise Satisfy Thank, is a great tool which teaches the basics of customer complaints handling. Barneto suggests you use this standardised method for dealing with complaints using BLAST:

1. Believe. Your customer believes that your establishment has wronged them. So you believe them too. Barneto feels that belief is the cornerstone for correctly handling a customer complaint. The customer may be lying or be incorrect about their situation, but you believe.
2. Listen. Stop and listen to your customer's complaint. Take time, relax and just listen. Don't start formulating your response back, don't start arguing with the detail, don't start judging, don't defend or justify, don't make excuses. Just listen. Remain calm and level headed, even if the customer is angry, rude or uses bad language. Once the customer has explained as fully as they can, repeat the problem back to them in a calm, non-judgmental tone. Barneto uses a KFC mis-packed order example; "What I hear you saying is that, you came in ordered and paid for 10 Pieces of chicken and when you got home, you [had] only received 8, is that correct?" By summarising the issue, the customer understands that you have heard and understood their problem.
3. Apologise. Always apologise and mean it - even if your people made no mistakes. Apologise because your customer feels wronged. They feel they have a legitimate complaint and an apology will diffuse a lot of their frustration. It could be as simple as "I'm sorry we got that wrong for you" or "I am sorry we have inconvenienced you".
   Critical complaints, such as food poisoning, might be an exception to this, where an apology could be construed as an admission of liability. Refer instead to your company's COPs.
4. Satisfy. Make it right for your customer. Ask them "What can I do to put this right?" (within bounds of fairness of course, but allowing the customer - and your staff - to feel empowered). Sometimes customers may ask for a replacement on their next visit or to let the person who made the mistake know. Barneto sends personalised postcards apologising for mistakes with a couple of handwritten sentences which were well-received, along with a small unexpected something just to show that they cared about their customers.
5. Thank. Barneto makes a valuable point; by complaining, the customer is saying "I care about your business and your success". They are giving you the opportunity to fix the problem, so they can continue to give you their custom. So thank them at the beginning, at the end, in the middle of your interaction; thank them for giving you that second chance, thank them for letting you know that something in your business didn't work like it should have, thank them for giving you the chance to put it right, and thank them for the opportunity to leave the reputation of your business undamaged.

Barneto has some very simple, but great customer service ideas bound up in this one little system. I have experienced the BLAST system second-hand through Restaurant Brands in New Zealand, and was impressed by how much goodwill is created with so little expense to the company.

Read the original article at http://ezinearticles.com/?Dealing-With-Customer-Complaints---B.L.A.S.T&id=263054

TradeMe for Retailers?

Dutch company Trendwatch has just reported on their website "hundreds of millions of consumers maintain some kind of online profile/presence, [so watch this space for] who's going to set up an intermediary representing consumers who are willing to disclose (parts of) their purchasing intentions, and then invite companies to put in bids" (http://trendwatching.com/briefing/#profile).

A great idea. However, one that has been around for a while, and sprung from an ideas called Doymarn on the CambrianHouse website (http://www.cambrianhouse.com/idea/idea-promoter/ideas-id/t6YQz5n/#ixzz0b2cgEAPg) in 2006, who wrote about an idea they called eYAB - "like ebay on its head". The premise was that there was a geographically targeted website where a user posted items they were looking to buy with an indicated price band and any relevant logistics. Suppliers could then browse the website and post reply bids (or have a web-crawler do it for them). Doymarn suggested that suppliers pay a registration fee to submit bids (ie, generating $, not spam). The user could sit back and wait for the best bid, periodically reviewing bids and selecting the best deal. They would contact the supplier through the website (cutting down spam again).

I suggested something similar this to TradeMe as an add-on "search" service a couple of years ago (that I would be prepared to pay for), but they weren't interested in it until Fairfax took over. Now you can save your favourite searches - except it is free - and hopefully run across just that handy little widget that you have been looking for since 1981. And of course, I didn't make any money!

It will be very interesting to see what develops in this space over the next couple of years.

Copy Windows XP Directory Contents

If you need to copy the names of the files in a Windows XP directory (ie, all the names and file extensions of files within a folder), follow the three steps below:

Step 1: Create the Printdir.bat file:

1. Click Start, click Run, type notepad, and then click OK.
2. Paste the following text into Notepad:
   @echo off
   dir %1 /-p /o:gn > "%temp%\Listing"
   start /w notepad /p "%temp%\Listing"
   del "%temp%\Listing"
   exit
3. On the File menu, click Exit, and then click Yes to save the changes.
4. In the Save As dialog box, type the following text, and then click Save:
   %windir%\Printdir.bat

Step 2: Create a new action for file folders:

1. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Folder Options.
   
   Or, click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then click Folder Options.
2. On the File Types tab, click File Folder.
3. Click Advanced, and then click New.
4. In the Action box, type Print Directory Listing.
5. In the Application used to perform action box, type printdir.bat.
6. Click OK.
7. Click OK two times, and then click Close.

Step 3: Edit the registry:

NB: this contains steps telling you how to modify the registry. Ensure you follow these steps carefully as serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it so you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base 322756 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756/) "How to back up and restore the registry in Windows".

After you follow the steps in the previous sections, Search Companion may start when you double-click a folder instead of the folder being opened. Or, if you have associated other actions with file folders, those actions may be performed instead.

To resolve this issue, follow these steps:

1. Start Registry Editor.
2. Locate the Default value under the following registry subkey:
   HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell
3. On the Edit menu, click Modify.
4. In the Value data box, type none.
5. Click OK.
6. Exit Registry Editor.

Very handy, and thanks to Microsoft for this tip from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321379/en-us :-)

TLAs for SMEs

Here are this newsletter's TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) for you:

• BLAST, or Believe Listen Apologise Satisfy Thank. See the article in this newsletter about Albert Barneto's work.
• IM, Instant messaging. Often shortened to simply "IM" or "IMing," is the exchange of text messages through a a software application in real-time.

Please feel free to email me with any TLAs that you want to get the bottom (meaning!) of.

Tips, Short+Hot Keys

This time we have a couple of tricks using the Windows key:

• Open Windows Explorer - Windows key & E
• Open a Search window for finding files or folders - Windows key & F
• Lock your PC - Windows key & L
• Minimise all open windows - Windows key & M
• Maximise all open windows - Windows key, Shift & M
• Open the Run dialogue box - Windows key & R
• Display the System Control Panel applet, open to the General Tab - Windows key & Pause.

Hot Linx

Need to rent a house in New Zealand? Then check out http://www.holidayhouses.co.nz/ for houses to rent around the country. A comprehensive listing and easy to follow.

For those of you who know Ian Robertson's photography (http://www.ianrobertson.co.nz/), check out his brother's, Graeme Robertson's, work at http://www.new-zealand-pictures.com/. The abstracts are very style-y.

To pick up a truly good news story, head over to ted.com and listen to Jill Bolte Taylor's story of personal challenge and recovery at http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

Interesting piece on ag-tracking via RFID at http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/tech/2E80078E34C21EC5CC25768B006CBA36?opendocument&utm_source=topnews&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=topnews

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                                Catch you again soon!! E-mail your suggestions to me here