The leaders who excel at leading authentic customer engagement are those who excel, as well, at people engagement. Of course, this is an oversimplified statement, there’s a lot more to excelling at customer engagement than just people engagement skills. However, I do contend that one cannot be good with either individuals or customers, if one lacks a rudimentary understanding of human nature.
I cringe when I interact with employees who complain, with good reason, that their senior supervisors and managers lack human interaction skills. The litany of woes include disrespectful language, dismissive styles of communication, lack of considerate behaviour, poor listening skills and…….well, you get the point.
The leaders who excel at leading people, are tethered to a commitment to building a workforce where employees are not simply team members to each other, they are team mates.
A point to be noted is that often, the leaders who excel at leading people, are tethered to a commitment to building a workforce where employees are not simply team members to each other, they are team mates. Team members can be a gathering of individuals, tasked with executing specific deliverables and may not ever have a relationship beyond the task parameters.
Team mates, on the other hand, go beyond the task and develop enduring relationships that ensure that everyone on the team succeeds. The difference between a team member and a team mate, differentiates how a team functions. Leaders who excel at leading people, understand this difference and more importantly, understand how powerfully a successful team mate relationship can influence positive customer engagement outcomes.
If you look a little more closely, you’ll see that these leaders engage individuals with a sense of purposeful joy.
If you look a little more closely, you’ll see that these leaders engage individuals with a sense of purposeful joy. Have you ever interacted with someone who is genuinely joyful? There’s a sense of authenticity about the individual, he or she is not fake and exudes a charm that makes it a delight to interact with him or her. People are drawn to these individuals in an inexplicable way. Not only do these leaders possess this special trait, they make it their mission to create workplaces that radiate the same energetic nature. Again, when this blueprint is released on the inside of a business, positive customer engagement becomes a natural outcome.
Leaders who do well at leading customer engagement, know that their first point of reference for customer engagement excellence, is at the point where employee brilliance meets the customer’s needs, and so the leaders make it a point to release brilliance across the business. Now, all of us are familiar with leaders who believe that their light will be dimmed if they allow someone else’s light to shine. Not so with engaged leaders. Their candles are always lit and they make themselves available as sources of light.
The leader who understands, rather, that he or she is the architect of excellence, overseeing construction of the infrastructure and the superstructure that will support the release of customer engagement brilliance.
These leaders feel a deep sense of pride when employee brilliance and customer happiness collide. The outcomes become a win for the business, its employees and its customers. What’s laudable is that the leaders do not ascribe glory to themselves as the architects of the outcomes, but shine the light on the heroes of the moment……the employees who excelled at customer engagement.
Now, it takes a wholesome leader to understand and accept that he or she is not necessarily the instrument of excellence in those business environments where customer engagement excellence resides. This is the leader who understands, rather, that he or she is the architect of excellence, overseeing construction of the infrastructure and the superstructure that will support the release of customer engagement brilliance.
In this scenario, the leader does not take a bow when things go well, but steps aside and allows the real heroes and heroines to bask in the spotlight. Conversely, when things do not go well, the leader steps up to take the whipping on behalf of the team. Not because he or she wants to be virtuous, but because when situations become perilous, authentic leaders provide cover for their teams. To further underscore my point, when athletes excel, coaches (leaders) do not join them on the awards podium, however, when athletes stumble or fail, their coaches materialize to provide care and support.
Engaged leaders are empaths who build powerful employee coalitions around principles and behaviours that support values such as respect, trust and decency, that never go out of style.
Engaged leaders are empaths who build powerful employee coalitions around principles and behaviours that support values such as respect, trust and decency, that never go out of style. These coalitions then demonstrate customer-friendly practices that, in turn, build strong customer coalitions.
Basically, an engaged leader is just good for business. He or she releases a stream of consciousness that captivates the workforces that he or she leads, sets the tone for releasing a stream of behaviours that customers love and ultimately, influences the stream of business income. The connection between engaged leadership and revenue generation is undeniable.
The good news is that the recipe for getting the engagement co-ordinates right, is available to all businesses.