[Originally posted 3/23/2023 on LinkedIn]
The topical arc in my last several articles about support as an integral part of brand and customer experience have covered support within the product strategy and executing operationally with organizational leadership to drive it as a valuable differentiating feature. Good and impactful customer support doesn’t just happen- it’s the outcome of an intentional business strategy, highly functioning operational capabilities, and organizational leadership that can recruit, empower, engage and grow teams alongside customer facing tools and technologies in a cost effective mix to deliver the intended customer experiences
As the third piece of that mix, organizational leadership that creates enduring team engagement is a vital underpinning that binds everything else into a growth synergy of product differentiation, customer retention and brand value.
So how is this kind of leadership created? That’s a million dollar question that thousands of books, hundreds of university programs, and an endless wealth of podcasts, blogs, articles and thought leaders address every day as part of an evolving area of study. I approach leadership as a team sport and as a journey rather than a destination, and I get a lot of energy immersing myself in all these channels to constantly explore, learn, evolve, and feed my curiosity.
While I can’t offer any fit-for-all advice here, I can share some of the things I’ve learned in practice.
A clear and compelling vision unites and excites people
Articulating a compelling vison and strategy rallies teams around a common purpose, motivates them to action and is an important means to ideate together about what’s possible. Tying it to that of broader company/organization also provides a means to connect the dots and understand how individual efforts contribute to the big picture.
Steve Jobs famously set a vision to ”Make a dent in the universe”, and it fueled Apple to unimaginable success. Every company, every team needs that kind of inspiration. At athenahealth, we knew we were part of improving the complex systems of healthcare by building the tools for better provider and patient experiences. By extension, our support teams were critical to facilitating those outcomes by ensuring our product and services worked effectively for customers, and that was a huge motivator for everyone.
The importance of building and developing effective teams can’t be understated
Fostering a strong, shared muscle around recruiting, hiring developing and career pathing produces the skills, competencies, inclusive and diverse collaboration that are essential for problem solving, strategizing, communication, driving results, while being adaptive and responsive to changes when needed. As the need arises to iterate the effectiveness and outcomes of customer support through new solutions, channels, tools and technologies, a well developed and highly effective team built on these foundations is more proactive at foreseeing needs and acting with agility.
As one way to make this part of our team DNA, my team at athenahealth customer support created career development blueprints for every role and every development stage, pulling in business oriented and skill based competencies, development resources and career development templates for managers and employees. These drove employee engagement around career development substantially- employees for whom growth within roles and upward within the organization was a priority felt like they had a tangible framework to help them grow and develop.
Change is a constant- be versatile
Building on the need to learn, adjust and pivot- managing change itself is a universally important competency, like working flour to a baker. Understanding and making the case for change, keeping teams on board with the course and its turns, nurturing change agents and making sure all voices and perspectives are valued and included are all essential as a leader to be able to ensure the tactics, plans and strategies that the team needs to pursue continue to happen constructively.
Rob Kaiser, Ryne Sherman, and Robert Hogan very recently wrote a great piece in the Harvard Business Review about versatility- It Takes Versatility to Lead in a Volatile World, in which they talk about research they conducted in the early stages of the Covid outbreak showing that leaders with a limited range of capabilities were overwhelmed as they struggled to guide their people and organizations through sudden and unprecedented change. On the other hand, more broadly capable, versatile leaders were effective at helping their people and organizations regroup, refocus, and continue to produce despite the upheaval.
As the world has become more prone to disruption, versatile leadership has become an increasingly important determinant of which organizations thrive versus merely hang on — or fall behind entirely.
Never. Stop. Learning
Leadership is a journey, and new ideas, best practices, perspectives, thought leadership and new voices across a panoply of experiences are constantly churning the mix of resources in the space. Availing myself to these as a regular part of my week keeps my own thinking and practice fresh, relevant and impactful. I love when I or someone on the team finds and shares an idea, article or podcast that everyone then weighs in on, as a group we bounce off each other- and when we use or adapt the idea, it connects us in a shared moment of growth.