The Trust Ambassador’s Interview with Lauren Dixon
Posted: December 2, 2012 Filed under: Employee Engagement, Leadership, Management | Tags: Best Places to Work in America, Dixon Schwabl, Doug Della Pietra, employee engagement, engagement, Jordan Kimmel, Lauren Dixon, optimizing healing healthcare, radio, rebuilding trust, rochester, Rochester New York, trust, Victor, workplace engagement, workplace fun Leave a commentRobert Whipple, filling in for Jordan Kimmel on the radio segment “Trust Across America: Building Great Business by Rebuilding Trust,” interviewed Lauren Dixon, the CEO of Dixon Schwabl. Dixon Schwabl has ranked in the top 25 of the Best Places to Work in America for 8 consecutive years and ranked #1 in 2008 and 2010. Just 2 miles from my home, Dixon Schwabl is one of the prides of Rochester, NY and a beacon of an example for employee engagement. A special thank you to Robert Whipple for making this segment available through his blog “The Trust Ambassador.”
I had the pleasure of interviewing Lauren Dixon on national radio this week. It was on The Voice America Radio Network in a program called “Trust Across America.”
If you are interested in a benchmark for a group that has the right idea about trust and is reaping huge benefits, then you should carve out the time to listen to this interview. It will inspire you! Here is the link…
http://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/65149/building-an-award-winning-company-culture
Robert Whipple: Engagement and Empowerment
Posted: December 2, 2012 Filed under: Leadership, Management | Tags: employee engagement, empowered, empowerment, engaged, engagement, leadership, management, OD, organization, organizational development, Robert Whipple Leave a commentRobert Whipple does a great job explaining the differences between “engagement” and “empowerment” and offers examples of the “engaged but not empowered” worker and the “empowered but not engaged” worker. I hope you enjoy his blog as much as I did!
Engagement and empowerment are two words that get tossed around organizations and OD circles. These words are often confused. I have heard the terms used interchangeably, which is a mistake. The best way to demonstrate the difference between these words is to contrast two scenarios. I will focus on a specific job (customer service representative) for the description, but you can easily extrapolate the concepts to any job once the distinction is clear.
Engaged but not Empowered
Here the customer service person is fully on board with the goals of the organization. She knows her job and wants to help the customer. Unfortunately, she is constrained by numerous rules that tie her hands from fully providing service. For example, she may not be able to issue a refund until the incorrect merchandise has been returned and verified to be in good shape. She may have to get “approval” from a…
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Posted: November 22, 2012 Filed under: Customer Experience, Customer Service | Tags: Ashley Furness, behavior-based interview, Bill Quiseng, brand loyalty, customer experience, customer service, Diana Oreck, employee retention, empowerment, engagement, inspiration, mission, new employee orientation, orientation, purpose, Ritz Carlton, Ritz-Carlton Leadership Training Center, satisfaction, training Leave a comment
In the blog “Ashley Furness: The Secret to Ritz-Carlton’s Customer Service Mojo,” Furness outlines a few core elements to Ritz-Carlton’s success revealed by Diana Oreck, VP of the Ritz-Carlton Leadership Training Center, in an interview.
In a future blog of mine, I will highlight the core elements outlined by Oreck when it comes to optimizing healing healthcare and the patient experience.
A special thanks to Bill Quiseng for bringing this blog to my attention!
Prior to my present position as resort manager for Marriott’s Ko Olina Beach Club, I served as the charter general manager for The Henry – Autograph Collection (Autograph Collection is Marriott International’s exclusive portfolio of independent hotels) when it was reflagged after 21 years as the Ritz-Carlton Dearborn, MI (Ritz-Carlton is a wholly owned subsidiary of Marriott International). Almost all the associates were former Ritz-Carlton “Ladies and Gentlemen”. Last year The Henry was recognized as one of Marriott International’s Hotels of the Year. I am convinced that while they are now The Henry associates they still would bleed Ritz-Carlton blue. And if you’ve every stayed in a Ritz-Carlton hotel you know there is something extraordinary about the refined delivery of customer service by its associates. So when fellow customer service blogger Ashley Furness offered to share an interview she conducted with Diana Oreck, vice president of the Ritz-Carlton Leadership Training…
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Optimizing Healing Healthcare 