i will apreciate if you can share with me any program that help with molding front-line employees attitude

Have you read the book Fish! Its very cheesy but has some good points in it. I introduced my frontline staff to it and let them "have fun" in a very boring job. Doesnt work for everyone but the majority ruled eventually.

Good luck

The answer you need is not in any program or book, the answer lies in and with you. In dealing with colleaques who had attitude, i learnt that i had to firstly deal with self: ensure that I was not over reacting to them. we all are from different environment, backgrounds, had diverse upbringing, exposure, etc the list is endless. In pursuance of survival or gainful employment, we were holed up in this pretty work house to perform miracles - deal with customers who see no reason for your service(s) or not so good product (until you are able to prove otherwise), who may not be in the mood to supply adequate information for you to offer the necessary assistance. Do not get me wrong, a number of our customers are lovely people and are willing to give the required support.
the picture i am trying to paint here is that you are already in a lose position before the client comes in (complaint) and in a defensive position (enquiry), in both scenario, you are under some pressure - to satisfy the ego of this person in front of you.
Learn to be firm, soft, playful, sweet, joke, smile, laugh, snobbish, ready to constantly change personality by the second. Exhibit confidence, let them know they can trust you, show them the correct thing to do when they are wrong and do not be tired of repeating yourself. empower them with knowledge, let them understand the expectations of management, communicate (gradually disseminate useful information to them being careful not to release sensitive details and ensure it is the truth), your actions and decisions must be human. You can never be given all you require, whilst trying out some of these tips other good ideas will surface.

Best regards

Hi

I agree that a big portion of this comes from the attitudes of the leaders in the team. However I also think everyone needs to understand what kind of attitude is acceptable from them.

We have started a program of introducing Values and Behaviours. The idea being that we adopt values as a team that we will all abide by. The team have selected the values and then we are working through each one and defining what the actual behaviours are that make that value become reality.

For example this month our key value is "We take Personal Responsibility". The behaviour actions linked to that are: We will challenge negative behaviour and phrases, we will do what we say we will do, we will actively participate in improvement projects and we will provide an atmosphere where people can admit mistakes without fear of retribution".

We have game sand excercise to use in team briefs to emphasise these points.

It's not going to change things overnight, but you can see it start to have an impact (i.e. people saying to each other "that doesnt fit with our values" often jokingly).

Let me know if you want more info as I would be happy to share.

If you can find this book - it is out of print - get it. It is called "Managing By Influence" by Ken Schatz. It has been the cornerstone of my management philosophy for the past 20 years.

Good luck!

Chuck Dennis
www.AngryCustomerExpert.com

This is tough to answer, because "attitude" is so broad a topic. My belief is that attitudes that don't seem good enough are owned by people that actually have something important to offer. There is a difficult attribute in them, but there could very well be a skill in that person that is just remarkable and does provide an important ingredient to customer satisfaction.

I have experience in people that are not comfortable with the "place" they have reached in their lives, yet who make the best of it and gain access to a position through their intelligence. There is a dissatisfaction within them that has not been resolved, and this can lend itself to improper handling and occasional beating up on peers or even customers, because their innate and not always recognized talent is not recognized or built upon.

When someone cannot get into the right frame of mind, then there is of course the fork in the road that involves having them leave the organization. But there are ways to find something in a person that can be built upon, and that does not have to take a lot of creativity. It comes down to finding out what a persons wants to spend energy on and creating a program between the person and the manager that plays out how this person's attributes are things that contribute to group success.

In some cases, the employee who needs help with attitude in order to meet company goals will find a way to be happier and give you what you need. If it doesn't happen, when you have sought ways to make them find ways to make shared values a personal benefit to them, then the help they need is not in your organization, and you should help them to leave and find happiness outside.

naddydavis
I am very interested in learning more about introduing values and behaviours. Is it a book? I have used the "FISH"! program for several years. It teaches you and helps you to foster positive attitudes by making employees responsible for their behaviour. It's worked well, but we've been slack lately (past 4-6 months) and I have 1 employee that is a major influence over everyone and she can be negative and then there goes the office.
Any help would be great.
Thanks,
Kym

If you liked FISH! and want a change, check out Give 'em the Pickle. There's a section about attitude that talks about the connection between how you think about customers and how you treat them. With humor and anectdotal stories, the video helps employees see that they can change the way they think or feel and positively impact the outcome -- for example, by changing their attitude about customers they can make work more fun and improve customer service at the same time.

Michele Eby
Writer and Training Advisor
Media Partners Corporation
www.media-partners.com

I think there is a range of approaches to this topic and many others, and using media tools is one way to address it. "Customer Service Week" is another such thing--to some degree it might be constructive, or simply a reason to party and a message can be lost. It's something to utilize as an aid in a larger picture. Since the original question was about a search for media tools, then a media answer is where that person needed to be headed.

But I also think it is worthwhile to emphasize a look at the brass tacks management approach, as managers need to be able to know how to handle things in the "ongoing" tense, and there will not always be opportunities to spend time on viewing educational media. And given that employees tend to want to find the majority of the answers they are looking for in the person they report to directly, I find a lot of value in the approach to Attitude that involves manager self-development without the availability of media for the staff to view, as a minimum. I'm not crystal clear on Ruth's setting, but I think we're in the same ballpark philosophically.

Peoples attitude are managed by how we as an individuals react to each other to recieve a certain attiude from another an idividual or each other . Not only is reaction apart of managing people's attitude but also atmosphere and setting within the home or in an organisation , this is also another way of managing peoples attitude.

Naddy, thanks for the feedback.Can you give more insight into the Values and Behaviour program.

Regards