“Is there such a thing as too much passion?” I was asked.
My client explained that one of her senior customer service personnel seemed to be brimming with passion. “She is always upbeat with customers and associates, and she constantly promotes the positive aspects of our business. But her performance does not match the expressed passion, so I’m frequently disappointed with her and frustrated that we can’t gain more results from all her passionate rhetoric.”
We reviewed the positive nature of her employee’s passion and confirmed the critical role that Passion plays as part of the New 5 Ps of Customer-Partnering in maximizing her company’s Performance. Then we discussed how to help this employee leverage her Passion to produce results.
Passion is a powerful emotional tool that can preserve focus on the company’s vision and mission, but it is Commitment that sustains Passion over time. So, we identified several behaviors that would help this employee demonstrate her Passion and generate results through Commitment, including:
• Being an advocate for customers – learning and sharing her customers’ goals, communicating to customers how proposed solutions are helping to achieve them, acting with urgency, and pro-actively following-up with associates to ensure that promises made to customers are met.
• Demonstrating initiative and resourcefulness – seeking always to learn, consistently refining processes to improve quality, responsiveness and adaptability, being first to step up when extra work is required to meet a commitment, and working collaboratively with customers and associates.
• Acting with integrity – behaving in accordance with the Company’s Core Values, taking responsibility for her words and actions, keeping her promises, and respecting the perspectives and needs of her customers and associates.
How do your personnel demonstrate their Passion?
How do you monitor and acknowledge the Commitment demonstrated by your personnel?
