June 2012
Strategies for Success Newsletter June 2012 Issue 78
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Published by Emily Huling Selling Strategies
www.sellingstrategies.com
Copyright 2012 Emily Huling. All rights reserved.
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In this June 2012 issue:
Emily’s mailbag
Thoughts from others
Thoughts from the road
On the road
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1. Emily’s Mailbag
Clarify Your Dress Code Policy
Dear Emily,
I’m an agency owner and hope that you can help me with a dilemma I have regarding appropriate business attire. Our office guidelines call for professional dress Monday through Thursday. Friday is casual day. You’d think casual day would be the problem, but it’s not. It’s the professional attire Monday through Thursday. Some female employees wear Capri pants and either flip flops or Birkenstock sandals. Our office manual doesn’t spell out what’s considered proper business dress. Should it? If so, how do we do it? How do we implement it?
Sincerely,
Tired of Unprofessional Attire
Dear Tired,
Summertime is here, making it a good time to update and properly communicate your expectations for a professionally dressed staff. Yes, your office manual should clearly describe professional attire. I recommend setting up the dress code policy in three sections: General Guidelines, Compliance, and Specifics. Following are some suggestions and wording to use to revise your guidelines.
General Guidelines for Everyone
ABC Agency wishes to provide a work environment that is free of safety hazards, offensive behavior and harassment of any kind. Therefore, the following clothing is not acceptable: spandex; bare feet; flip flops; pants, shorts, or skirts worn below the waistline; sexually provocative clothing; hats in the office environment; clothing with profanity or sexually suggestive images or slogans; exposed midriff; observable lack of undergarments and exposed undergarments.
Compliance
Managers and supervisors are responsible for ensuring their departmental personnel are in compliance and are given the authority to send any person home to change clothes who violates any part of the dress code policy. The time spent away from work for this reason will follow attendance policy guidelines. If you wish to report a non-compliance issue, please report it to your supervisor.
Specifics for Men
Acceptable: Dress shirts, collared shirts, turtleneck shirts, pullover shirts. Dress pants, docker-style pants, corduroy pants. Dress shoes, loafers, boat or deck shoes. Not acceptable: Sweatshirts, T-shirts, sleeveless shirts. Jeans that are ripped, frayed, or have holes. Shorts, sweatpants, athletic attire. Athletic shoes, work boots, sandals, flip flops.
Specifics for Women
Acceptable: Blouses, sweaters, polo shirts, dress jackets. Dress pants, Docker-style pants, corduroy pants. Skirts, dresses, dress skorts, dress jeans. Dress shoes with or without heels, loafers, slides, open-toed shoes, boots, dress sandals. Not acceptable: Tank tops, sweatshirts, T-shirts, halter tops, spaghetti straps. Jeans that are ripped, frayed, or have holes. Shorts, capris, sweatpants, athletic attire, stretch pants, leggings, stirrups. Flip flops, hiking boots, athletic shoes.
Since some offices have a challenge with casual Friday dress, here’s an idea. Allow your staff to select company logo shirts to be worn on casual days to eliminate any potential problems.
With regard to policy implementation, present and discuss it at an office meeting where everyone is present. Most important – remember to enforce it!
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A professional appearance supports professional behavior. EH
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Join the Hundreds of Agents Who are
Improving Personal Success by Listening to Emily’s Three New Audio Programs
Be a Better Boss: 10 Strategies to Develop Top Performers
Be a Better Producer: 10 Strategies to Earn More Money
Be a Better CSR: 10 Strategies to Differentiate Yourself and Delight Customers
Go to www.sellingstrategies.com/beabetter.html for detailed program content and to order.
Who will benefit: Everyone in your agency – Owners, Managers, Personal Lines, Commercial Lines, and Life and Health Producers and CSRs.
How to use: As a group or individually, participants will listen and learn from the audio program. At the close of each strategy described, Emily provides a how-to strategy challenge as a call to action.
What’s in the programs: Each high-content program contains real-world stories and practical, easy-to-implement ideas.
Cost: Each one-hour program costs $59 plus S&H. Save 15% on the complete set by using Coupon Code BETTER at checkout.
Go to www.sellingstrategies.com/beabetter.html for detailed program content and to order.
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3. Thoughts from others
“I believe fully in the power of technology to change the world for the better. And I believe even more fully in the ability of your generation to use that power to great effect — to rule technology. But you can’t let technology rule you. … Take your eyes off the screen, and look into the eyes of the person you love. Have a conversation — a real conversation — with the friends who make you think, with the family who makes you laugh. … Life is not lived in the glow of a monitor. Life is not a series of status updates. Life is not about your friend count. It’s about the friends you can count on. Life is about who you love, how you live. It’s about who you travel through the world with. Your family, your collaborators, your friends.”
Eric Schmidt, Google chairman, commencement address at Boston University
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June’s Energizer Minute
Tune in to hear Leave Behind a Positive Impression. Go to the www.sellingstrategies.com home page and click on the Energizer Minute.
The 2011 Energizer Minute Collection CD is now available! This CD also includes a bonus track The Lost Art of Personal Networking. Get your free copy with any product order over $50.00.
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3. Thoughts from the road
Disney Excellence
This year’s NetVU Conference, once again, hit a home run on the general session program topics and speakers. Capitalizing on being in Anaheim, California, hometown to Disneyland, the conference invited Bruce Kimbrell, site leader for the Disney Institute West Coast operations to speak on a topic second nature to all Disney personifies – business excellence. Through Walt Disney video clips and true cast and customer service stories, Bruce effectively communicated the core principles of why Disney excels. Here are four thoughts I took away from his engaging and inspiring message.
–It’s the behaviors of an organization’s leaders, not words, that convey the message and build the business culture. A leader’s conduct, manners, and looking out for others must be demonstrated 100% of the time.
–Leaders are listeners. Disney employees (cast members as they are called) grasp the pulse of what goes on with their guests because they continually interact with them. Effective leaders know that, so they ask for, listen to, and respond to input from employees. This is the basis of deciding what changes need to occur to exceed both employee and guest expectations.
–Ensure that all new employees are successful. Street sweepers, Disney characters, performers, in fact all employees, go through the same thorough orientation. To understand what working for Disney is about, it’s critical to have emotional buy-in. Everything centers on a positive guest experience. Cast members learn about positive performance expectations as well as non-negotiable behaviors and actions.
— Create guest relationships for life. Each guest is a VIP. Referrals, repeat business, and loyal customers generate long-term success. I remember reading in Randy Pausch’s book, The Last Lecture, his true story about $100,000 salt and pepper shakers. As young children visiting Disney World, he and his sister dropped the ceramic salt and pepper shakers they had just purchased at the gift shop to thank their parents for their trip. Someone saw this incident and suggested that he take them back to the store and ask for a replacement. Randy said he couldn’t imagine they would replace them. He broke them. It was his fault. Nevertheless, he went back to the store and explained what happened. To Randy and his sister’s surprise, the Disney store manager not only replaced the salt & pepper shakers free of charge, he apologized for not wrapping them up well enough! Thus began Randy’s love affair with Disney. So what’s with the $100,000? It’s the total value he calculated from his lifetime supporting Disney in tickets, food, and souvenirs.
A business challenge: Review these points with others in your organization. How do you measure up to Disney’s standards?
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4. On the road
Business travel is taking me to these places. Please call me if you’d like to connect when I’m in your area.
Private client – Providence, RI – June 1, 2012
Agency Management CIC – Lansing, MI – June 21, 2012
Private client – Atlanta, GA – July 10-12, 2012
Private client – Oklahoma City, OK – August 27-30, 2012
Agency Management CIC – Topeka, KS – September 11, 2012
NAMIC Annual Conference – Grapevine, TX – September 16-19, 2012
Independent Insurance Agents of Illinois Annual Conference – Springfield, IL – October 2-4, 2012
NAPSLO Annual Conference – Atlanta, GA – October 8-11, 2012
Private client – Appleton, WI – November 14, 2012
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For Free Stuff, articles, books, and audios to build individual and organization top performance, visit www.sellingstrategies.com .
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Selling Strategies: Strategies for Success Newsletter is published by Emily Huling Selling Strategies. For further information contact emily@sellingstrategies.com.
© 2012 Emily Huling. All rights reserved.