Managing My Business at the Pharmacy

I was at my local Kroger pharmacy yesterday and was reminded of how poorly a tech managed my business a couple of months ago, really meaning my prescription over the phone and in person. I asked for auto-refill over the phone and was told it would be taken care of right then and there. Great! Because I need it to be filled at certain time. Now mind you, Rxs will only be filled once a month per health care insurance to avoid abuse. Yes, I know this. However, when I realized I didn't receive a text about it being ready, I went in. The same woman I spoke with on the phone was the same woman at the register about to help me. She had a nasty attitude! I didn't appreciate it that already and explained to her my issue. Then she nicely cut me off! I gave her a rude look and proceeded to continue to address my issue. She then tells me that she can only fill my Rx once a month and will do it at that present time and THEN enroll me in auto-refill. I was furious because things were not occurring as they should and the tech acted as if she really didn't care that it was her fault and was going to do things how she saw fit and I just had to deal with it. ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!


I then asked for the manager, explained the situation, and then said how I will not wait hours for my Rx to be ready when it should have been ready about 2 weeks ago. I wanted them to stop what they were doing and fill my Rx right then. She apologized and hurriedly filled it for me so that I can be on my way. Well, yesterday, I went to the pharmacy and that tech was not there. Thank goodness! I didn't want to waste any more time on her and give her some choice words either. Moral of the story: Manage your customer's business like it was your own and you won't have an issues.


Signed,


Management!

When Managers Ensure Customer Satisfaction

In September, I had a bad experience with a worker at Dunkin Donuts. I paid for a twisted bagel that I asked to be sliced in half with a cream cheese spread. The worker told me twice that she would not cut the bagel because she said it was too hard for her to do. I was shocked that she yelled this at me and in front of others. I told her since that is what I paid for that she is suppose to comply with my request. Again, she said no. The other woman that took my order sliced my bagel as desired and apologized for the other worker.


I was extremely mad that I went straight to my computer to the company website and complained. Then I filled out a satisfaction survey where I complained again. Remarkably within 6 days, I received a call and an email from the franchise owner who continuously apologized for that rudeness of the worker and offered me a free meal and asked for me to continue my business with his location. Due to his approach, I stated I would return. When I did, the franchise owner was actually there. This was great because he was able to speak to me directly, apologizing again and he handled my order personally.


I was pleased with him and made the decision to continue to return to that location in the future. Sometimes management doesn't always behave so nicely ensuring that I know how customer satisfaction is important to management. He could have easily done nothing but understood the importance of the situation. The owner said he reprimanded the worker who was there when I returned and told me that I should never have had such an experience and I should not in the future from any of his employees.


I think my acceptance of his apology and pleasant demeanor aided in our positive encounter. I always believe that it is management's responsibility to ensure each customer has a positive experience when they patronize their establishment. It's good that there are managers that believe the same.

How Do You Feel About Your Manager?

I am sure we have all had managers that we liked and disliked and for various reasons. We like our managers because they are nice to us, motivate us, believe in us, and treat us well. However, we can dislike our managers for all of the opposite to the things I mentioned above. Some are micromanagers, have poor attitudes, belittle employees, and are just difficult to work with. Also, some just seem phony.

How you feel about your manager will affect how you view your working environment and how productive you are. If we see our managers in a positive light, we want to work harder, make them proud, excel and grow, and ensure our managers believe that we have value and they hired a great employee. Of course the opposite is true as well. When we don't like our mangers, we may perform at marginal rates, do the bare minimum, talk about them behind their backs, not trust them, and would overall, have steadfast negative feelings about this manager. Such negativity, will show through your work if you let it.

Never let a manager you don't care for know that you don't like them. They will then view you negatively (more if they do already). After all, we are all human and it is natural to feel in such a manner when you are treated poor and disliked by others. Your main focus should be working hard to perform well, growing with your position and company, capitalizing on the resources your company has to offer to your productivity, and having a positive attitude as much as possible to ensure happiness at work. Nothing will be perfect but it is all how you view things as well. Yes, we will have "bad" days but we can control how we feel too and can change our attitudes around.

So have a different attitude about your manager if you dislike him/her. Don't let them know how you feel. Meet and exceed expectations of that manager. Have a positive attitude and smile. Work hard and grow. Make your situation work in your favor. Then you may see more happiness at work.

Your thoughts?

Managing Teams

There are many environments (work and school) where you have to work on teams and with teams. What is the most frustration part of this? Getting people to agree and ensuring that they all are contributing to the final outcome is what people would say most. How do you best do this, get everyone on board and participating?

Let's see:

• The team leader tells people what they need to do
• Making everyone speak one at a time (making them speak? hhmm. can that really be done?)
• Leaving the one's who don't want to speak alone and move on without them (but do they still receive credit?)
• Letting everyone have the opportunity to make decisions, not just the team leader (delegation!! compromise!!)
• Brainstorming!!!!!

What else? There are so many ways to handle teams but depending on the team members the approach may be different. Also, you must focus on the approach to ensure the final product is accomplished properly.

Your thoughts?

Managing Your Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence? What is that? And why do I need to manage it?

Per Wikipedia, Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to identify, assess, and control the emotions of oneself, of others, and of groups. Why does this matter to you? In the workplace, if you don't know how to control your emotions, you can plainly, be fired! If you are offensive in tone, language, and expression concerning negative emotions, you could be creating a hostile work environment and definitely be seen as rude and unprofessional. Now do things anger us at work? Yes! Do you have the right to express how we feel? Maybe, maybe not. It depends on the organization's take on emotional intelligence.

Bosses, coworkers, clients, partners, suppliers etc. all can put us in a bad space but if you know how to be in tune with your emotions and channel them properly, you will save your self a lot of heartache and keep your job. It is about being smart and not a hot head. It is about understanding yourself well enough to act accordingly to the unwritten rules of the workplace, any and every workplace. If you are great at this,  you can assist others who are not and save them the embarrassment and/or permanent dismal they will face from lashing out to others at work because their feelings are hurt or if they are being ignored or treated poorly. Yes, it is natural for us to want to express how we feel and put people in their place so they no longer treats us inappropriately but at what cost? How do you explain you were fired because you couldn't keep your cool?

Being more emotionally intelligent and you will prosper at work. So managing your emotional intelligence is paramount to your consistent financial survival or it can force you to quickly start your own business even if you never thought you wanted to do this. :-)

Managing Diversity in the Workplace

Diversity is an essential thing to learning and growth for all organizations. However, depending on the diverse, or lack there of, structure of top leadership of organizations, diversity may not be seen as a big issue. As we look at employee frameworks of companies, especially those catering to diverse markets, some are great at ensuring proper representation while others are not. Those of the top echelon of firms tend to want to continue with the tradition of the similar-to-me perspective when hiring and will hire those that look like them (especially when their skills are the same to other diverse candidates; they will get that extra push due to racial and gender similarities).

In Caucasian top heavy companies, you will see more Caucasians employed. The same goes for African-American top heavy firms. Most of the employees will also be African-American. Sometimes companies look at the customers in which they serve and will determine who will be employed to make sure that there is proper understanding and engagement between employees and customers.

What is your opinion on diversity with employee structures and how should diversity be determined? Based on the similar-to-me affect or customer orientation? Or should diversity not be a concern and people only be hired base on qualifications (even when this will make an organization diverse in one racial or gender group than other)?

Manager vs Leader

Many ponder if there is a difference between a manager and a leader. Of course there is! But how does one truly know the difference? In the purpose of both individuals. Managers are focused on daily operations and functions and performance. Leaders look at using all tools, especially people, to move a company from point A to point B and elevating the people in the process. Managers are those working more closely with employees and clients to produce an immediate desired outcome. Leaders are those who look towards a vision and future intent and discover what needs to happen now so that that this vision can occur.

The best leaders are those who chose not to remove themselves from the understanding of daily operations but hold authority and power (these two are different too!) to make certain decisions to change the course of an organization. But again they look at not only transforming the company but transforming the employees along the way. After all, all leaders will soon retire and need someone to fill their shoes. Why not let that be someone they have groom to be an awesome leader too? So while these two terms are often times used interchangeably, there is a difference between the two. Understanding this difference will separate one from a person of just action to a person of continual success and heightened achievement on various levels.

Which type of business professional are you, a manager or a leader?