Laura,
Wow! Your actions are very positive and demonstrate a commitment to the team. Thanks for your efforts!
Dr. Jean Norris
I work at an institution where morale among staff & faculty has been low at times. We are all so busy that I believe that we don't have enough communcation and connection - "bridge-building" - built into our worklives. This is something that I would like to see us all improve, with work meetings & fun motivating events. I take the time at least each week, sometimes daily, to tell my co-workers how much I appreciate what they do for the school, students & each other. Students can see how we value and respect each other.
The strategies are the toughest part but yet provide the most opportunity. Who else might need to be considered or included in the strategy planning?
Dr. Jean Norris
I also feel we do not serve our internal customers well. It is a continual struggle to understand other departments , how they work, what they do and how everyone works together. Now to develop some strategies to figure that piece out.
That's great self-awareness Lise! Given what you have discovered about yourself, how can you modify your approach at your meetings in the future?
Dr. Jean Norris
We typically have two meetings a quarter with our staff, and there are times when I realize that I am not always so quick to reward good behavior but I am quick to jump on the bad behavior. While making sure that all of us on on the same page, (consistency), I also need to realize that perhaps I am not giving clear expectations of what I want my staff to be doing. I thought it might be perceived as micromanaging, but it is not, it is making sure that all the staff do the right thing all the time.
It looks like you're a person who likes to have the face that goes with the name. I don't think you're alone with that and you may be right that others in the organization may benefit from a meet and greet like you mention. How can you help to facilitate more of these gatherings?
Dr. Jean Norris
Stuart,
It looks like you have an open line of communication at your campus and that everyone is working toward making it a positive environment. Thank you for sharing.
Dr. Jean Norris
I am also program director/ Instructor. Communication is the key. Making sure your Instructors as well as your self communicate effectivley with each other . Weekly meetings is very important. Remind ourselves , we not only service our students but each other as well.
Our school has an online intranet that is used to get communication out to all the departments. To me, as informative as this system is, it is a bit impersonal. On my office hours, I will pop my head into various departments to introduce myself & chat a bit to build personal relationships & exchanging contact information. Now that a face-to-face relationship is made, email & text communication is comfortable because there is a name associated with a face. This is working for me but should be implemented as a whole. Informal meetings & social gatherings may help to build the communication with the departments.
At my campus we hold weekly Managers meetings to review any type of internal struggles we maybe having. From there we try to formulate a better working plan to fix any struggles. With a combined effort from every department we strongly encourage a good working environment within our own departments and cross department interactions. Any type of staff complaints that we get, we address it immediately to avoid any lingering effects. Things that we could improve on though is how we speak each other, sometimes employees have bad days and they seem to bring it to work with them.
Thanks for sharing Diane. It looks like you are proactively seeking ways to improve yourself and your teams.
Dr. Jean Norris
My open door policy goes for students as well as any person/department with in the university. I'm on the management committee to make sure I know what is happening in all departments. I receive minutes from faculty meetings and will attend when needed. I email faculty with important dates and reminders so that lines of communication stay open. I ask for feedback and encourage others to let me know if they see me doing something I should not be doing or if they know of a better way to do something. I'm all for working smarter not harder.
I think an internal survey to all departments about 'how am I doing' would be something I can grow from. I may not like everything I read but I know constructive feedback is the only way to improve.
Excellent point Wayne! I like your approach of needing to work as a team before we can provide amazing customer service to our external customers. When organizations create a shared vision it allows every member of the team the opportunity to follow the road map you mention with both external and internal customers. Ideally, it's great when the goals of the organization include a focus on both the internal and external team members. Thank you for your post.
There's always room for improvement when it comes to increasing the service to "internal customers". How well do you serve? can be questioned and answered many different ways but it should all begin with a common "vision" or organizational road map on who are we, what are we and what do we want? Knowing the answers to these questions will help provide the importance to what we do each and every day.
Continuous improvements specific to interactions are often made when there is an understanding and belief that the value each employee brings to the team is an important one and in the end the team is stronger as a result. Internal customers in many ways are just as important as outside customers. We need to work as a team before we can face any opponents!
We have regular meetings where we brainstorm how to form strong connections with our students that help them feel heard and supported by all staff. We use our own experiences to help us to build better relationships with each other and ultimately this "family like" atmosphere will trickle down into our student population and will help them to connect to each of us as individuals and to feel that they are consistently supported by all members of our team.
So it sounds like there are some opportunities for you to improve your internal customer service. What can you do during those meetings to improve communication with your team?
As the program director, I need to hold more meetings with my instructors so that I know that we are all on the same channel. Communication is key for being successful.
First of all, congratulations on taking the constructive feedback you received and making efforts to improve based on the feedback! It's humbling to take a look at ourselves in that way and to move our ego out of the way to make some changes for the good of the team. You also bring up a very good point about the difficulty communicating with someone when we are upset with them. Your suggestion to focus on the team and looking at the situation from an objective position will help remove some of the emotion and can help to find a resolution to the situation. Thank you for your post Sara.
It's wonderful that you have such great teamwork at your campus! Working with the corporate team has it's interesting challenges for many campus staff members. Keep in mind that though it may appear as if the corporate team doesn't have your best interests in mind, they not only have yours but that of the students and the board of directors, which is a lot to juggle. How or to whom can you provide constructive suggestions for improving the service between the corporate and campus teams?
