1:1.2

So my "1:1" meeting (that's "one on one" for those not suffering from familiar with corporate lingo) went completely different than plan.

The meeting was intended for me to set my goals for the month of September, as well as discuss my performance during the month of August.  Normally in these meetings, I would have to face three months worth of performance.  Because I had been temporarily promoted from May through July because one of the Assistant Lundbergs was out on medical leave, I didn't have a three month review to deal with.  What I DID have to deal with was a sorry month of performance for someone who had been "out of the game" a little bit. I was not looking forward to having to answer for that month.

As I sat down with the Assistant Lundberg, I told him straight out that I thought my goals for the month were crap.  I told him that I didn't entirely agree with the pre-formated process that every employee is to use when dealing with a customer.  I told him that none of my coworkers were following the pre-formated process and are only pretending to follow it in order to get the Main Lundberg off our backs.  I was brutally honest.  Of course, it helps that this was the Lundberg I can talk to.  In fact, I'll now refer to him as Mike B.

Mike B is the one manager I can work with.  He's the one manager I can be frank with.  And so, I had no problem venting my frustrations to him.

Of course, it helps that Mike B feels comfortable enough to bitch about our Main Lundberg with me.  And so, he did.  We bitched it up for a little while, and didn't really get to my monthly goals until the very end.

However, I did stick my neck out a bit.  In my three-month experience as an Assistant Lundberg, I developed a theory about how to fix some of the low morale and general disatisfaction within our office group.  Granted, we can't kill off the Main Lundberg, so another theory was developed.

I decided to ignore the customer-facing pre-formated process we're supposed to use.  There's value in what it's saying, but the way the Main Lundberg wants us to follow it doesn't make any sense.  So, I came up with three simple ways for the sales and service force to accomplish the goals of the pre-formated process piece of crap:

1) Find something you believe in concerning our products and share it with our customers.  Testify of it's usefulness.  Let your passions come out.  BELIEVE IN SOMETHING OUR PRODUCT DOES, NOT JUST WHAT IT IS.

2) Know the customer.  I want each of the team members to discover some snippet of information about a customer.  I want an Assistant Lundberg to be able to walk up to one of the customer-facing employees and learn something about their previous customer.  I don't want to know anything about the product we provide them.  I want to know about their Aunt Glynis, their job, their first kiss - WHATEVER, I just don't want to know which Innotech product they use or how they use it.  My intention is for the sales and service teams to KNOW THEIR CUSTOMER.

3) They need to think on their toes.  If a customer tells you they don't want some product, give them an answer to why they might.  This plays off the first thing I want the team to do: come up with a reason TO want the product - don't just give up when the customer says no.  We all need to THINK QUICKLY.

So, after giving Mike B my speech, I got volunteered to present some of this tomorrow in our office meeting.

Great.

Still... maybe someone will listen.