6

Competency Meets N. Ept

after the Leadership team meeting, Competency went to the ladies’ room to splash her face with cool water and attempt to relieve her stress. “What have I been doing?” she thought. “Have I in some way contributed to this situation? My job is to ensure that our employees are at their best in their technical work and in how they interact with customers. We have a decent orientation program, and I connect every new employee with a mentor. The budget has been tightening over the past few years, and it seems as if I am the first one they come to for cost reductions. Have I compromised for the sake of Excellence? Maybe I have not paid enough attention to Excellence in our training initiatives. Perhaps I have failed to set up the correct expectations concerning how we deal with customers and with each other.”

Looking into the mirror and drying her face, she said aloud, “But Excellence’s kidnapping is not my fault.”

“That’s right,” the reflection in the mirror calmly said, “It’s not your fault.”

Startled, Competency wiped her eyes again and peered more closely into the mirror. What she saw staring back was a likeness of herself. However, the image was distorted. Attributing the occurrence to the fact that she was feeling stressed and upset, she tapped lightly on the mirror and smiled.

The image did not smile back.

“You’re not hallucinating,” N. Ept said, again startling Competency.

“Who are you?” Competency demanded.

“My name is N. Ept. But that’s not important,” she said coolly. “What’s important is that your last statement was correct. It’s not your fault.”

“But—” began Competency.

“Now, now,” interrupted N. Ept. “You do not give yourself enough credit.” She knew she had Competency’s attention and offered empathetically, “You can only do so much.”

“I do work hard,” Competency asserted.

“Certainly you work hard,” N. Ept agreed. “But you can’t control everything. You have boundaries established by the higher-ups, do you not?” Competency nodded in agreement, and N. Ept continued, “You barely have the resources to get the employees to know the technical aspects of their jobs. And shouldn’t employees understand how to create great customer experiences? I mean, it’s not that hard.”

“But our Excellence is missing in every aspect of our business, and it shows most clearly in customer service,” Competency said with concern.

N. Ept smiled. “She’s not missing. They’re trying to distract you from your real job. Just go back and do what you do every day. You don’t deserve this stress. You’re doing the best you can under the circumstances.”

Competency ran the water in the sink and splashed her face again. When she looked up at the mirror, all she saw was her own reflection.

Special Delivery: COMPETENCY

Avoid competency traps. Do not stay only where you are good at things. Go out and be challenged. —Andrew Creighton

The next day, Dave practiced his renewed Dooley philosophy. He was at Anderson Inc., his next-to-last stop of the day, and Mrs. Gonzalez was signing for their packages. “How are the children?” Dave asked cheerfully. “You have two, correct? Forgive me, but their names escape me.”

“Juan and Christina. They are doing OK,” Mrs. Gonzalez said, not meeting Dave’s eyes. It seemed to him that she was holding something back.

In the past, he would have said something nice, thanked her, and left. Instead, he said tentatively, “You seem down.”

Mrs. Gonzalez reached for a tissue from her desk and wiped away a tear. Finally, she said, “I admit, I’m struggling right now. I’ve been the administrative assistant here for almost a year, and … and my annual evaluation is next week, and I don’t think it’s going to go well.”

Dave was acutely aware of time. One of the core competencies of his job was getting packages to customers on schedule. He had only one more delivery today. Quickly he glanced at the clock on the wall and was relieved to find that he had a few minutes to talk with Mrs. Gonzalez and still get the last package delivered on time.

“I don’t get along so well with two of the senior management people,” she admitted, her cheeks turning red.

As he and Mrs. Gonzalez spoke together, Dave quickly realized that she had two areas where she could improve. One was the technical aspect: what she was to do, how to do it, and when to do it. The other concerned her interpersonal relationships with the many people she interacted with. He did not feel qualified to give her advice regarding the technical aspects of her job except for encouraging her to find the right resources, training, guidance, and support systems to improve, but he did have advice about her relationships. “Who do you consider to be your customers?” he asked her cheerfully.

The question obviously took her by surprise. “Customers?” she repeated.

“Yeah. Who do you consider your customers?”

Mrs. Gonzalez thought for a moment. Finally, she said, “Well, the people who buy our products and services. They are our customers.”

“But that wasn’t my question,” Dave said lightly. “My question was, who are your customers?”

Before she could answer, he said, “Let me tell you a story that my boss told me many years ago. What he learned from the situation he told about had a strong effect on him, and it has certainly influenced me.”

Mrs. Gonzalez smiled and said, “Please, anything you can do to help will be appreciated.”

“Some years ago,” Dave began, “my boss was working on his graduate degree in management. He was working full time and going to school at night. One evening the professor told the class that he was going to show them how Japanese management philosophies define the word customer.”

Mrs. Gonzalez, clearly intrigued, said, “And?”

“The professor simply said that they see the customer as the next person in the process,” he continued.

“’The next person in the process?” Mrs. Gonzalez repeated, looking puzzled.

“Yeah, and the professor went on to tell the students that their assignment was to go back to where they worked and identify a process that was not working well. And instead of viewing the next person in the process that was not working as a problem or a barrier, the students were instructed to view this person as a customer and to ask the person in that context to help them improve the outcome of the process.”

“Very interesting,” Mrs. Gonzalez said.

“Wait until you hear this!” Dave said. “My boss knew exactly what he was going to do. And remember, this was a long time ago—long before there was e-mail. He was in middle management then, and he had nine departments that reported to him. The major form of written communication at the time was the memo.”

Mrs. Gonzalez laughed. “Hey, that wasn’t all that long ago.”

“My boss said his issue was that he would dictate his memos, and there was an administrative assistant, Claudia, who transcribed them. He said he had never gotten a correctly transcribed memo back the first time.”

“Really, never?” Mrs. Gonzalez said with disbelief.

“Yes. And so he sat down with Claudia, stated the problem, and informed her that he was now seeing her as his customer. He then asked her if she would, as his customer, help him solve this problem.”

“I am impressed. How did she respond?”

“Now we come to the pinnacle of the story,” Dave said excitedly. “Claudia looked him straight in the eye and stated emphatically that he mumbled, which made it difficult for her to understand him.”

“You are kidding me,” Mrs. Gonzalez said.

“No, I am not kidding,” Dave responded. “But that’s not the entire story. You see, my boss worked in the chemical industry back then, and his undergraduate degree was in chemistry. Claudia went on to tell my boss that she did not have a chemistry degree like he did, so when he dictated a complex chemical name, couldn’t he just spell it out for her?”

“She didn’t.”

“She did,” Dave replied. “And do you know what happened?”

“What?”

“The error rate went down to almost zero, starting that day,” Dave said proudly, as if it had been his accomplishment.

“That’s amazing,” Mrs. Gonzalez said.

“So,” Dave offered, “too often, we confine our definition of the customer to the one who is buying the product or service. We need to broaden it to this:

The customer is the next person in the process.

He continued, “Then our perspective of customer-service excellence would be enhanced. So, when I asked you who your customers were, I was wondering whether you were considering those two senior management people to be your customers.”

“I’ve never thought about it like that,” she said.

“I can’t help you with the technical aspects of your job,” Dave said, “but this is a way of thinking that may help you. If you can develop a way of seeing ‘the next person in the process’ as your customer, then you can give them your best. When you approach them from that perspective, communication begins to flow. I encourage you to sit down with the two senior management people you mentioned, tell them that you view them as your customers, and invite them to tell you what you can do to better serve them.”

“Wow!” Mrs. Gonzalez stated, wide-eyed. “I’ll do it!”

Shaking her hand, Dave said, “I need to go. Let me know how it goes.”

“I will,” Mrs. Gonzalez said, smiling, “And thank you, Dave. Thank you for taking the time to help me.”

As he was driving to his last drop of the day, Dave looked in the rearview mirror and thought, “I’d better start practicing what I am preaching. It’s easy to tell someone else to view and treat others from a customer perspective. Mary’s the most important next person in the process in my life, but I have failed to treat her as such.”

He glanced again in the rearview mirror and said out loud, “I hope she can forgive me. I can only hope she will. I can’t lose her. I will ask for her forgiveness tonight.” And, he thought, “I will commit to giving her my best in the future.”