…leverage the strengths of your team to achieve great goals
Developing human resources behind your customer experience agenda is necessary to ensure that you build the right team where the roles complement each other aptly. Therefore, regardless of the job title you can make a positive difference for your customers and stand out as a reputed customer experience change by volunteering to support your organization’s change agenda. Three things are suggested as essential traits for your role as a change agent. Firstly, learn to speak positively about your customers.
This will impact your fellow team members as well; your peers will follow suit by avoiding trash talk. Second, endeavor to fight for the customer at every opportunity. Always advocate for the customer when something doesn’t go right for them, if your company lacks a process for gathering feedback develop one. Third, find time to talk to your customers informally to gain some more insights into their perceptions. Such inquiries reveal service issues that you can take back to the office to resolve.
Each employee potentially can positively impact customer experience. By speaking positively about your customers sets a strong tone to help build a culture of providing great customer experiences. Fish (2021) identifies key roles in Change Agent leadership that will make this quest achievable when you pursue change initiatives as an organization to change mindsets to align with your customer’s needs. He identifies some key roles that need to be assigned for your change initiative to achieve significant outcomes. He recommends the following roles as key to a successful change campaign. The technocrat, ‘rebel’, bulldozer, tactician, and diplomat.
Technocrat
A significant element in CX Change leadership is the technology where tools for Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Customer Feedback Management (CFM) Artificial Intelligence (AI), Application Programming Interface (API), Chatbots, and so on play a major role in fostering strong relationships with your customer. The technocrat adopts the best-fit technology tool to engage customers proactively and work to improve their experience with the brand. With all the changes triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic, the state of customer experience has changed dramatically. Following quarantines, the shift to remote work has scaled up and with it a rise in consumer vulnerability. Consequently, a new relationship has evolved leading to the emergence of new CX standards with powerful enterprise-wide benefits.
I have shared the story before in one of my pieces of a young man who was promoted to the IT manager role in his organization following the retirement of his boss. This was early in 2020, this gentleman lived in Birmingham and commuted to London daily to work. He decided (perhaps for his selfish reason) to implement remote systems so that they could effectively work from home non-disruptively.
His initiative though commendable by all standards fell foul with his employers. They made a decision to fire him as the culture in the organization favoured in-person working (this was a law firm) where face-to-face encounters with clients were preferred. As fate would have it the lockdown following the upsurge of the pandemic made it necessary for his colleagues to work from home including his bosses who had planned to lay him off. Alas, his job was saved by technology as the pandemic lockdown required all to work from home.
However, although technology offers immense benefits and can improve your customer engagement strategy there is also that caveat, we must be aware of that all roads don’t lead to technology. You must develop a reasonable balance between technology and the human element when implementing your change strategy. The technology does well to feed you accurate information about the customer however your response to the information is critical, get the balance right with your decision-making and how you apply your skills to the information provided by your technology tools.
Rebel
The Change leader as a rebel normally wants to go ahead and achieve goals regardless of whether or not there is buy-in. Usually impatient with dissent would go ahead and implement initiatives his/her way. While the Change leader as a rebel can be effective, this approach can lead to what is referred to in Project circles as ‘dead body syndrome’ where a desire to showcase results drives one to adopt extremism as a leadership style leading to unnecessary ‘casualties’, for easy reference this is a phenomenon known commonly as ‘stepping on toes’. However, proponents of this style and approach argue that rebel leadership can bring significant results in Change projects if managed effectively and within the right context. Owing to the pandemic business leaders have been forced to dig deep to grow and thrive. Harvard Business School professor and behavioral scientist Francesca Gino believes that business leaders should encourage rebellion within their workspaces as it makes life more challenging and fulfilling.
She proposes a few principles that one needs to apply to be effective as a rebel leader. They include the need to be the change yourself as a leader. According to her, rebel leadership is an ongoing process that involves a lot of trial and error. To become a rebel leader, the first step you need to take is revamping your thought processes and being cognizant of the messaging you communicate to your followers. No leader has all the answers therefore the advice is that you humbly accept where you have shortcomings and let your team step up as it opens up a platform for others in the team to contribute their ideas or teach something new. This, in turn, can foster agility and growth.
The lesson here is that as leaders we must be bold enough to encourage our followers to express their opinions, especially when they disagree with us. Often, the best solutions emerge from constructive dissent. Whether it is during meetings or casual conversations, ensure that your followers have something new or different to add to what you say. Look for ways to steer conflict, which in turn makes way for insightful discussions. Your best allies here are your front liners. By listening to them you gain buy-in and their full commitment to the needs of your customers. The benefits here are immense, your team is positioned to deliver what your customers want as they have a robust understanding of what they need in the future and why they want to stay with us. So as brutal as the word rebel may seem it has its place in CX change leadership.
Bulldozer
This type of leader characteristically gets many things done. As the name suggests the bulldozer leader is a true planner and pushes the agenda through the organization at a measured but unstoppable pace. The bulldozer leader works relentlessly to achieve goals and is often supported by top management therefore with that mandate they are focused on attaining their goal and are ready to ‘bulldoze’ or run over you if you stand in their way. Bulldozer leaders are passionate people who exude energy and are upbeat and optimistic. They are enthusiastic about ensuring great experiences for their customers. Their energy is contagious. Others notice their passion for CX and are willing to join them in doing things that benefit customers and generate positive results for their business.
According to Dave Fish (2021), the bulldozer style can be very effective yet the ‘resistance is futile’ reputation of this leader can put many off leading to localized ‘insurrections’. In essence, there is a time for bulldozer and there is time for a bit more finesse. Getting the balance right is extremely important if one is to succeed ultimately in the change leadership role. It is necessary to look up occasionally from your steering wheel and chart the right course. Note also that sometimes if everyone is quiet it doesn’t mean they agree with you. Show empathy and try to be flexible in your style.
Tactician
This kind of leader will carefully enumerate tasks and list them out with timelines to match each activity. The tactician is known for getting things done. If you deal with a tactician as a salesperson know that s/he will hunt you down if you fail to meet your deadline. The tactician will send email, follow-up calls and will go into Terminator mode to find you. Simply put the tactician gets things done by sheer tenacity. The downside is that that they get bogged down in the weeds such that when the environment changes, they are not available to recheck their assumptions.
The tactician has great difficulty readjusting and therefore will need the help of the technocrat when things get edgy. Project plans are great however it is necessary to ‘reforecast’ when appropriate and plan. The tactician will be a good complement for others who need a bit of structure in their life such as the rebel.
Diplomat
This is by far the most effective role for a change agent. This person usually has the mandate of senior management and is very influential. They don’t yell, they don’t threaten, they smile, and are confident. They are aware that everyone has an agenda and a goal and can navigate the complexities to make things happen. They are also aware that sometimes there are no deals to be made and that the situation must be escalated. Unlike the crazy bulldozer and the antics of the rebel, the diplomat uses the backroom to get things done. Gracious, consistent, and congenial the diplomat is very effective.
The diplomat is a smooth operator however if care is not taken this person could get wrapped up in all dealing and no doing. So the best option for the diplomat is to team up with the rebel and bulldozer to help activate and collaborate with the technocrat to help in thinking. You can get the deal done but it requires a collaborative effort to complete the full cycle in your change programme.
Avoiding extremism is the way forward therefore it is worth taking a leaf from Belbin and follow his advice when he says ‘If work requires Team Roles other than our own, it is much better to find and work with others who possess roles complementary to our own’. We cannot expect a different outcome if we keep playing by the same rules. It is important to be open to change both professionally and personally.
The Writer is a Management Consultant. He can be reached on 059 175 7205, [email protected], https://www.linkedin.com/km-13b85717
