Telephone Excellence by Mike Mitchell

Focus on Excellence in Telecom: Part 2
by Mike Mitchell

In 1998 ivillage.com conducted an online survey including this question: What is most important for getting ahead in the workplace? Of the 7760 participants, 55% listed initiative as the most important.

In Focus on Excellence in Telecom Part 1, I mentioned A, B and C employees. Here is the difference:

A employees always have excellence attitudes and take initiative

B employees have good attitudes but seldom, if ever, take initiative

C employees have poor attitudes and complain if someone else takes initiative

Taking initiative is more than just having an idea. It’s working with that idea, getting input from others and then, if approved, implementing that idea. When the Information Desk was moved to the Telecom Department, there were several suggestions as to how to improve the customer service and the desk area. For instance, the Info Desk business cards were printed and seem to be a big hit. But that wasn’t an example of initiative. That was a simply a suggestion.

The first step of taking initiative is defining a problem. The B and C employees stop here. They make someone aware of the problem (either by constructive suggestion or by complaining) and then wait for someone else to take the initiative to fix the problem.

The 'A' employees not only define a problem but take steps to correct the problem. For instance, if we need to have meeting information to give to our callers and guests, then an A employee will take the initiative to find out from whom to get that information. Then set up a process by which that information is distributed weekly to our department so that everyone has access to it.

Let’s all start thinking like A employees. Remember the A employees are rewarded by:

The way it makes you feel about yourself

The way your customers respond to you

The yearly evaluations

An Excellent Employee sees a need and takes action to correct that need.

Mike