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The news is tough these days for organizational managers!  They need to redefine the workplace for a more virtual remote workforce; they face daily supply chain uncertainties and constraints; and turnover seems to be at an all-time high.

Communication is essential for most human-to-human interactions, and customer service is a key example of these interactions.  Effective customer service involves “reading” the other person, gathering information, and responding to those needs.

The pandemic has fundamentally changed many businesses, and the expectations and needs of many customers. How can a business learn from and use these changes to improve customer service?

Recent news stories have described the challenges that many customer service professionals face in today’s environment.  These stories capture customer impatience with understaffed businesses, objections to public health guidance and irritation about missing items due to supply chain shortages.

Preparedness takes different forms and needs different tools depending on who is impacted and when.  Here are two scales to consider:

There has been a significant shift towards work-at-home arrangements over the past couple of years, and many see the remote workplace as a permanent feature in the future.  For organizations, this is a good time to think about new workplace safety needs in this virtual environment

For National Preparedness Month, it is useful to assess your readiness for an emergency.  If you were notified you had to leave your home within the hour, what would you do and what would you regret not having in place? 

There is a tough balance between authentic leadership and situational leadership.  We ask leaders to be true to who they are, while also asking them to adjust their approach to fit the situation or person at hand.

We recently worked with an organization with two important teams. One was an “operations team,” focused on basic case management—where consistency and steady thruput were important success factors. 

Leaders and managers are responsible for leading teams to success—but what does that look like in these uncertain times?  In some parts of the country, leaders are navigating the realities of returning to the office after long-term telework.