As a leader in a professional services business, how do you deliver exceptional customer service that sets you apart from your competition? Experience, skills, technology. Yes. The most important, however, is how you engage and motivate your People. All your people – your team, your clients, your peers. How do you increase the impact of your work by the collective alignment, buy in, and effort of the people? Our Vice President, Kim Bloomfield, shares some of her tips!
We know that our clients will never have a better experience than that given by our team. This means when our team is aligned, engaged, and motivated to produce great work, our clients will be the recipient of great service. A high performing team is based on trust. They engage in unfiltered constructive conversation. They commit to decisions. They hold each other accountable and celebrate collective results. So, what can you do as a leader to create a trusting environment for a high performing team?
LISTEN. As much as your job may be to coach, guide and direct your team, it’s equally critical to lean into listening to them as much as possible. Hear what your team needs, what drains them, where they want to grow and where they feel they are excelling and providing exceptional work. Ask questions, remove bias, and be curious so you truly understand each of them. To get the most of your team, they need to have an environment where suggestions and constructive criticism are not only okay, but encouraged. This piece is essential to personal and professional growth and development. The same goes for your clients; listen to their underlying needs, challenges and hurdles and encourage open dialogue where on-going feedback allows for course correction. Afterall, the goal is to hear what the needs of the client and project are, and then align to them to execute effectively!
DELEGATE. Don’t do things on your own because its faster or easier to do it yourself. It’s a disservice to your team and a lost opportunity to educate and raise those around you. Don’t be the bottleneck that everyone is waiting on to move something forward.
FEEDBACK. Give it and receive it. Ask your team (and clients) what they feel you are doing well and where they think you need to improve. Show vulnerability and share any insight you may have on where you think you could improve. Doing so will open the door to meaningful feedback conversations. As you are not a mind reader, it is important to be clear that they are accountable for sharing feedback to you when they feel it’s necessary. If you aren’t given feedback and made aware of something, you aren’t able to correct it. Your team needs to be able to communicate clearly and directly to you, and you need to be able to hear it, to receive it. From there, you can act on it. Nothing should ever be left unsaid. On the swing side, providing your team feedback in the moment (both positive and constructive) will increase your team’s overall success. It’s where true growth and development happen. “Thank you!” or “Great job!” feedback and the high fives are often missed in the moment, and they shouldn’t be. Doing it later, loses impact.
GET DIRTY. When times get tough, and you see your team is struggling, don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty and work through it with them. They need to know you are there no matter how hard and messy it might be. This doesn’t mean taking over and doing it yourself, it means being in the trenches with them so you can coach and mentor in real time.
Are you curious how you can improve your leadership, client and team engagement? We love to brainstorm and help others succeed. Reach out to Kim and the leadership team at BRITT RADIUS!
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