The 7-T Success System
In the first blog of this series, I introduced The 7-T Success System, an easy-to-use guide for leaders at all levels of the organization, from supervisor to CEO. As a reminder, the seven T’s are:
- Targets
- Talent
- Technique
- Tools
- Tone
- Training
- Tracking
“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” – John C. Maxwell
The 7-T Success System is designed as a guide for those who have the desire and drive to become a leader who inspires others to work toward a common goal. The 7-T Success System provides a comprehensive framework to help leaders identify the right things to focus on and provides a roadmap for doing those things in the right way. The 7-T Success System helps employees at all levels identify what comprises great leadership, how to achieve it, and how to leverage it to drive accomplishment and build high-performing teams.
In the last blog, we focused on the second T – TALENT and discussed the importance of hiring, cultivating and retaining the right people for your organization, and ensuring your organizational structures are effective and efficient. It is your talent that makes the other T’s either succeed or fail. If you have the right people, in the right places at the right times your chances of success are much higher. But having the right people only works if they are doing the right things. That is where TECHNIQUE comes into play. TECHNIQUE includes all the things that your team does each day to get the job done. Each task that is executed by your talent needs to be analyzed to ensure it is the best way to get the job done. Is the task necessary? Is it being done in the most efficient way? Are you testing other options against your current process to see if there might be a better way of accomplishing your goals?
“Efficiency is Doing Things Right. Effectiveness is Doing the Right Things” – Peter Drucker
TECHNIQUE
Once you’ve set your Targets and have your Team in place, ensuring that they are doing the right things, the right way is critical to the success of the organization. The things your team does throughout the day, to achieve your targets are TECHNIQUE. It’s the processes and tasks you and your team execute each day and how effectively and efficiently you complete them. The best overall TECHNIQUE I’ve used during my career can, and should be applied to all others that you use: DEPI. This acronym is used when discussing the four goals of psychology, referring to what psychologist attempt to do when working to help their patients make a behavioral change:
D – They must describe the behavior
E – They need to explain why the behavior is happening
P – They attempt to predict what will change the behavior
I – They attempt to improve the behavior by making positive changes
Leaders in all types of organizations have learned to use this DEPI methodology to improve performance
“Progress should be the Product of Process” – Yohann Dafeu
Your TECHNIQUE should align with your targets. So often it is the case in organizations that some (or many) of the daily activities and tasks have little or no direct impact on the set targets. In these cases, either the targets need adjusted, or the techniques being executed by the employees need modified. In contact centers, I’ve seen over and over agents scoring 100% on their QA (Quality Assurance) scores, yet receiving a poor NPS (Net Promotor Score). In these cases, the QA department/process should be modified so that agents are being monitored, graded and subsequently coached in areas that will actually have an impact on the NPS, not just to achieve a higher Quality score. Another TECHNIQUE that can be used to improve efficiency is to continually ask, “what if we didn’t do that anymore?”, “What would be impacted?” Many times the answer is nothing. In those cases, stop spending time and energy on things that don’t really matter.
“It’s not enough to be busy; So are the ants. The question is: what are we busy about?” – Henry David Thoreau
Another rule of thumb to use when evaluating TECHNIQUE is KISS. Most people know that KISS stands for Keep It Simple, Stupid. The phrase originated at Lockheed Martin, when one of their engineers was designing military equipment to be used on the battlefield. Originally the equipment designs were complex, which made it very difficult if not impossible for a soldier to fix the equipment in the heat of the battle. The engineering team realized this, and changed the designs to make things simple enough that in the event a piece of equipment failed, it would be easily fixed by a soldier with very little training. This was a practical, thoughtful TECHNIQUE that ultimately saved lives.
The Gamification Element
Recently, “gamification” has been introduced to many organizations—applying game-design elements and game principles activities or processes used to solve problems. As a contact center leader, I’ve used various gamification solutions to engage employees and improve performance. The games themselves are valuable tools for teaching, motivating, and focusing employees on productive behaviors. Perhaps even more valuable is the added attention employees receive from their supervisors and managers while participating in games, especially team-oriented versions. This added attention results in the employee’s heightened focus, morale, and subsequently better performance.
“A relentless barrage of ‘whys’ is the best way to prepare your mind to pierce the clouded veil of thinking caused by the status quo. Use it often.” – Shigeo Shingo
In business, hundreds of techniques are used and executed each day. The 7-T Success System itself is a Technique, used by leaders to build winning teams. Techniques should be evaluated and optimized continuously. Sometimes that means discontinuing ones that aren’t working and replacing them with new ones. On other occasions, it means doing a better job executing the existing techniques. Again, it’s important to both do the right things and do things right.
Leaders should constantly evaluate their organization’s TECHNIQUE to ensure they’re both effective and as simple and efficient as possible. Whether it’s your organization’s website, IVR, chat, agent scripting, coaching processes or any other TECHNIQUE used to achieve your targets, a leader should ensure that it’s the best technique for the job. Always ask if the TECHNIQUE being utilized is the right thing, and is it being executed the best way possible (being done right).
“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” – Warren Bennis
If you are already a leader, or are an aspiring leader, you do not want to simply manage your team or organization; you want to lead it and build a winning team. The fact that you have taken the time to read this blog means you are ready to accelerate your organization’s success journey and demonstrate your value as a leader. The 7-T Success System can help you accomplish that. Let’s go, leaders!
The 7-T Success System book can be purchased at www.7tsystem.com, and inquiries regarding 7-T Success System consulting services can be made by writing to info@bizjuice.com.
Casey Kostecka is an award-winning thought leader and expert in sales, customer experience management and contact center operations within BPO/outsourcing, healthcare, travel/hospitality, and government arenas. His proven track record in leading $500M+ organizations to record-breaking growth and profitability makes him a sought-after speaker and consultant. Casey’s extensive experience with process engineering, leadership cultivation, and team and customer engagement led him to develop unique, highly effective tools. Casey is the founder of TouchPoint One and its award-winning ACUITYTM Performance Management System, multiple proprietary gamification applications, and the 7-T Success System™ are all of which are employed by Fortune 500 companies throughout the United States. Learn more about his work at www.touchpointone.com and www.7TSuccess.com.