What is the final type of silence that kills?
Over the last three weeks, we’ve looked at three types of silence (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3) and wa have learnt how to overcome them. Let’s take the final Key Steps together this week and take a stand against…
Deadly silence (Part 4)
- Don’t want to put in the effort. In the retail industry, it is well known that only 4% of unhappy customers complain. Most just keep quiet and don’t do business with you again. Why? Because it takes effort to go against the grain and time to voice your concerns. And, often when you talk up about work issues like lack of processes or procedures, the responsibility for implementing then falls on you. Can we afford to remain silent and put our heads in the sand? Of course not, we need to take Key Steps and…
- Be different. Remember that if you are not part of the solution, you are likely part of the problem. And when you ignore a problem long enough, it can multiply 10 fold. We all know the old adage that ‘a stitch in time, saves nine’. Remind yourself of that the next time you are tempted to fall silent on issues that really matter. I am not suggesting that you talk up about everything going on around you – some things are just not significant enough and we know it’s wise not to sweat the small stuff. But where it counts, put in the effort for ‘one stitch’, you could well save the other nine.
A good example of this came from a client, who recently told me about a problem she had noticed with her company’s quality control system. She spoke-up about it to management and despite the fact that no-one seemed to be really listening, she persisted to put in the effort and outline her concerns. A few months later, there was an incident of fraud and the only reason she wasn’t implicated is because she had put in the effort to highlight her concerns to management. Naturally, she had to take a lie detector test and go through the same processes all employees were subject to, but she felt comforted by the fact that her GM knew she wasn’t involved. In fact, her GM reported that he had newfound respect for her and wished he had listened to her. Putting in the effort really paid off. Will you do it? Will you be like my client and take Key Steps to…
