Choosing a Sports Perspective

Maybe it’s our new office basketball hoop, but I’ve recently been reflecting on my past sporting experiences and applying certain lessons in my work environment. For instance, what if you’ve got a manager that started to check in with you more frequently? Giving you more constructive feedback and evaluating your daily performance instead of just the usual four times a year. You might ask yourself, “Is my manager just looking for opportunities to catch me slipping up?” Simply put it’s about your perspective and here’s my “sports perspective” on managers that increase their management opportunities and techniques with employees.

I am reminded of my junior varsity basketball coach (great coach). I was a starter at the beginning of the season and doing amazing; however, about midway through the season I was unfocused (high school boyfriend troubles) and it showed in my basketball play. Due to my consistent poor mental errors I even lost my starting position. My head wasn’t in the game. At practice my coach would point out my mistakes and I felt like he was singling me out. I was already frustrated in my play and I didn’t understand why my coach was being extra critical of my play. One day after practice I approached my coach and was asked, “Coach, why are you riding me harder than anyone else?” My coach simply told me that it was his responsibility to produce the best possible basketball players so that they could go on and contribute to the varsity team. He also explained that the moment he stops talking, coaching, riding me that that’s the moment he’s given up on me and therefore, he only puts his time and effort into coaching those players that he believes in.

In conclusion to my reflection story, the great thing about having a perspective is that we all get to choose the one we take. I choose the sports perspective of, “my manager believes in me.”  Therefore, since your manager believes in you enough to actively coach you into being the best at what you do, consider yourself lucky and take advantage of their feedback.

You’ll do great things today.

A Big Thanks from the MDA

Hi Kelly,

I really appreciate the opportunity to come thank your team for all of their help and support with the MDA Labor Day Telethon this past September! Truly, everyone there was so supportive and great to work with. I looked up how much we have paid for phones in the past, and it looks like your donation was worth about $1350. That sends 1 child to MDA Summer Camp, pays for a year’s worth of repairs to a person’s wheelchair, plus a flu shot. Wow!

Thank you also for taking the time to talk about our upcoming MDA Muscle Walk. We would love to partner with Clear Voice Telecom on that event through a team or a sponsorship – let me know if you have any questions about that event too, and if that would be a possibility.

Either way, I am definitely looking forward to working with you and the Clear Voice team again for this year’s Telethon! Thank you again!

Kindest regards,

Autumn Hume / Executive Director
Muscular Dystrophy Association

Problems, anyone?

I sell what most consider a necessary evil. I was going to be a physical therapist when I left college and took a job in a small telecom company as a favor to a friend of a friend. I was only supposed to be “filling in” for a few days while they interviewed and hired someone to sit in the customer service seat. I have now been in telecom for 15 years. However, those few years in that customer service seat were invaluable. The most pertinent lesson I learned and the one that will stick with me forever is that you can never avoid problems, but you can truly control how they are handled. I found that what most customers want is honesty and to know that you are working on it in the quickest timeframe possible. I have watched problems last and drag out for weeks, only to find they could have been solved in minutes, had you reached the right person in the right department with the appropriate knowledge.  Even if you don’t know what’s wrong, if you are real with your customer and address the issue head on, you will always come out better than if you wait. In fact, I have often called a customer to let them know about an issue before they realized they had one. No better way to gain credibility than to be real and engage them sooner rather than later. Bad news never gets better the longer you wait. It is truly an opportunity for your client to understand how you will react and whether or not you can be counted in case of an emergency.

Exciting News from Clear Voice Telecom

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