Jack Adams and I were talking about staffing during a break in one of our workshops. He had recently added to his team and was expressing his frustration that he still seemed to have to take personal responsibility for getting things done to his liking.

“I can’t believe how hard it is to find and keep good staff,” he lamented.

“You’ve hired some people recently who looked good on paper, Jack,” I said. “Haven’t they worked out?”

“Sort of,” he replied “They are technically capable of doing their jobs — and I know they are trying. But they just don’t seem to have the standards that I have. Perhaps I expect too much, but I think having things done correctly, on time and fully is important. Am I wrong?”

“I know you hold yourself to a pretty high measure, so I wouldn’t expect you to do much less for others,” I said. “Give me an example of someone you have recently hired whom you feel isn’t performing as you’d like.”

“Well,” Jack offered, “Ginny joined us about two months ago as our receptionist. She is very friendly, pleasant on the phone and seems eager to please. The other day, though, I was waiting for a client to come into the office for an appointment and, when he hadn’t shown up 10 minutes past the scheduled time, I went out to the reception area to see if he had called to say he was going to be late. The client was sitting there, all alone. Ginny was nowhere in sight. I apologized and asked if he had been there long. He told me he had arrived about five minutes late, but there was no one at the reception desk so he was just waiting for someone to come to get him.

“We conducted our meeting and, after I escorted him out of the office, I asked Ginny, who was now at her desk, why she hadn’t been there to greet the client. She explained that when the client hadn’t arrived on time, she went to use the photocopier but it had jammed and it took her a few minutes to clear it. When she returned to the reception area, she could see that the client was in my office and assumed everything was all right.

“You see,” he said, “it’s that kind of thing that drives me crazy! Greeting clients is part of her job, and she should have known how important it was to be there to do so.”

I asked, “Is running the photocopier also part of her job?”

“Yes, it is,” Jack replied. “But it is far less important than making our clients feel welcome.”

“Of course, it is,” I agreed, “but my question to you is: does Ginny have the same understanding of what’s a priority in her role as you do?”

“She should, don’t you think?” Jack answered.

“Depending on her experience, perhaps she should,” I continued. “However, did you have a specific conversation with her upon her hiring about your expectations for her work?”

“It’s a receptionist’s job: answer the phone, greet clients, etc. How difficult is that?” Jack retorted.

“Let me role-play a discussion you might have had with Ginny that may have avoided the frustration you are feeling,” I offered. “What if you had said something to her like this? ‘Ginny, our clients are the most important part of our business. Many of our relationships go back a long time, and in some cases we are working with the grandchildren of our original clients. They place an enormous amount of trust in us because they know we will always act in their best interests and that we truly care about them. We treat them with respect and are grateful for the confidence they have in our abilities. Most of our new business comes as a result of referrals from our existing clients.’

“‘Because of the type of relationship we enjoy with our clients, your job as receptionist is one of the most important in this office. You are the first point of contact for them; you are the person on whom they count to direct them to the right place to assist them with any issues they have. They will come to see you as their friend. Given the importance of your job to this business, we have certain standards around it that we need to meet.’

@page_break@“‘For example, we cannot allow the reception area to be unoccupied because we never know when a client might drop in. If you have to leave the area for whatever reason, you can ask Joanne, who also covers for you at lunch, to take over for you for a few minutes.’

“‘The telephone is to be answered in no more than three rings, and our greeting is: “Good morning/afternoon, ABC Financial, Ginny speaking. How can I help you?” Once you have identified the caller, greet the person by name. Handle his or her requests and conclude the call by saying: “Thank you for calling today, Mr./Mrs. Client. Is there anything else I can do for you? If not, please call me anytime you need something from us”.’

“I won’t belabour this, Jack,” I continued, “because I’m sure you get the point. Even something as straightforward as answering the telephone should have a standard of performance attached to it that is clear to everyone.”

“How am I going to remember to do that every time?” Jack asked. “You clearly have practised this.”

“In fact, I haven’t,” I countered. “I just followed a simple formula for assigning tasks: CP/QQRT. And once you use it a few times, it will become automatic.

“The C stands for ‘context.’ Recall how I set context by describing how important our relationships with our clients are. The P refers to ‘purpose,’ and that was disclosed when I indicated that we had a standard of performance for the receptionist’s role in order to ensure that our clients receive the attention they deserve and expect. The two Qs are for ‘quality’ and ‘quantity,’ and were demonstrated in the specifics of answering within three rings, greeting clients by name, signing off on the call with an invitation to call again, and so on. The R represents ‘resources.’ You’ll note I gave Ginny additional resources, in the person of Joanne, to carry out her responsibilities if she wasn’t able to do so herself. Finally, T stands for ‘time,’ and while there was no specific deadline associated with this assignment because it is ongoing, the timeliness of it is apparent from the statement: ‘We cannot allow the reception area to be unoccupied’.

“What do you think, Jack?” I concluded. “Is this something you can do for just about any task you want done, including those you assign to yourself?”

“CP/QQRT. It has a nice ring to it,” Jack replied. “But what if the job still isn’t getting done?”

“In that case, there are two possibilities,” I answered. “One, the person is not right for the job and you should follow due process for dealing with that. Two, you haven’t provided sufficient resources or allowed enough time for staff to do their jobs. If that is the case, you must make it clear to employees that they have a responsibility to tell you that they can’t perform as expected because of lack of time or resources. In a later session, we are going to talk about leadership and much of this will become clearer. For now, however, what are you going to do?”

“I am going to think about the people whose performance I have been criticizing and see if I’ve been fair to them in describing my expectations,” Jack replied. “Then I’ll use this formula as a basis for a conversation with them. I think I’ll see immediate results.” IE

George Hartman is a coach and facilitator with the Covenant Group in Toronto. He can be reached at george@covenantgroup.com.