uno nward for U'Elia lUarrenInside

volnmc 11, Number 3 Summer 2000

QUIPS

New EmployeeOrientation Program

Recognition Review

The RQT-Stayin' Alive

RAn Traveling Show

Lead Team QuarterlyEvent-June 22, 2000

Facilitator Training

Kudos

Training Schedule

Summer Event

Enthusiasm-It IsContagious

The First Impression

Chris Malins, Treasury Office

On July 28 t h, a contingent of nearly 100people gathered in 280 Gerberding tojoin V'El1a as she was honored with a

LINQ award. This award was special for anumber of reasons. First, V'Ella Warren is thedriving force behind the Total Quality Man­agement program here . Second, it was for allfour of the qualities desired of a leader:Trustworthy, Trusting of O th ers , Ap­proachable and Inspiring. Third, thenominators , the interviewees and the staffbroadly supported the recognition, as evi­denced by the large outpouring of supportfrom everyone in attendance at the awardceremony. Finally, the award was a completesurprise to V'Ella, which was no small featfor someone as well connected to all goings­on in the division .

The behaviors under the Trustworthyumbrella include technical competence andcommitment to personal growth and develop­ment. V'Ella demonstrates technical compe­tence through her vast and varied knowledgeof the division. As stated in the nomination,"V'Ella has the knowledge and capability todeal with and respond to questions and issuesin all areas of FM-Treasury, Payables, Grantand Contracts, Payroll , Indirect Costs andTax. She inevitably understands the issue andquickly and accurately evaluates the impactof the issue on the UW, no matter what area ,no matter how complex."

The words were similarly positive whendiscussing V 'Ella 's commitment to personalgrowth and development: "V'Ella has regu­larly asked for feedback about her leadership .

In terms of Trusting of Others, thenominators focused on V'Ella 's ability toinvolve the right people in decision making.An example cited was her creation of the TaxStrategy Team , a group dedicated to respond­ing to the IRS audit of a few years ago.Another highlighted behavior under this

var 8

V'Ella at her UNQ awards ceremonyon July 28, 2000

DIRECTions. ..Summer 2000

Duality ImprovementProgram Shorts

An update 011 the

allahfJ ' lntprovcment Pro..orain

from the

Senior ()ualifF [1Jlj1nJI'ClJICllt ~ipcciolist,

Katt' RiltJI

"6 reat event." "Solid output." "Timewent fast."

What cou ld these descriptions bereferring to'? Would you believe the annualEIT retreat'? The retreat was again held atPack Forest, near Mt. Rainier, on October 4th

through 6th• This year the retreat was longer,

by a half day, and the agenda was moreambitious than in previous years.

Our goal for the retreat was to produce an"operational dashboard." What's that, youwonder'? Think of the dashboard in your car.A few dials provide essential information­how fast you're going, how much gas is inyo ur tank, what your oil pressure is. Hard todrive your car without this "data." Ourobjective was to identify comparable, essen­tial measures for Financial Management.

W here do you begin to do that'? Weinv ited an external consultant, Kris Box, tohe lp us. Her roadmap for building thedashboard bega n with identifying our cus­tomers and their priority needs. After takingseveral runs at categorizing our customers, wecircled back to a position the division haslong held : our primary customers are stu­dents and research faculty. Their needs, we

Number of days betweeninvoice date and receiptdate in PayablesAdministrationQoalS days

Percent of invoices paid within30 days of invoicedateGoal 90%

agreed, are that our processes become increas­ingly faster, better and chea per.

Next on the trip was identifying our majorprocesses. After a flurry of writing on a slewof stickies, we narrowed the key processes inFinancial Management to 10. You'll see themlisted in the accompanying side bar.

Time now on our agenda for a brief, just­in-time training sessio n on measuremen t.What is a measure, after all'? We learned thatit is data that either helps control a processor measures the result. W ith this informa­tion, our next step was to deve lop bothprocess measures, an indicator that te lls ushow things are going, and an outco memeasure, an indicator of what the customersees. Using the fishbone approach, meas ureswere created for all 10 processes. For anexample, see the fishbone diagram developedby Ann Anderson for the key process, "PayBills."

And by the end of the retreat'? We had adraft one-page report that displays outputmeasures for our key processes in an easy toread format. Back at work, each EIT memberwiII be reviewing these measures with staffand developing inp ut for the report. We haveset a November 21 5t deadline for a das hboardthat has both dia ls an d data.

Great retreat, we all agreed, and madepossible by all of the work done by so many

i OutQut Measure I peo ple since strategic-' --_.._.-- ----.-.----..-' planning began early in the

year. Tha nks, everyone.

Process MeasureL

Hey Processes1. Pay bill2. De ' lop indirect

cost rate3. Pay people4. Manage debt5. Issue financial aid6. Manage

inv st nents7. Bill . collect

tuition8. Create financial

reports9. Manage grants &

contractsO. Dev lop FM staff

Number of ATAsQoal SO% reduction

2 DIRECTions . . .Summer 2000

The EIT at Pack Forest October 4-6, 2000

nern ~mployee OrientatIOn Programby Heather Norberg, Payroll

Sue Camber at Pack Forest

The Inciters Team is very excited aboutits current project, developing a NewEmployee Orientation Program for

Financial Management. After interviewingsupervisors and newly hired staff, it wasobvious that a standard orientation wasneeded for all employees. A consistentprogram will not only provide thoroughtraining, but also present a better overallimpression of Financial Management and theUniversity.

The orientation program will occur overfour phases and a key player will be thesupervisor of the new employee. The orienta­tion wiII begin at the initial interview withan introduction to the Financial Manage­ment Quality Improvement Program. At thetime of hire, a confirmation letter will besent to all new employees, welcoming themto the University and highlighting generalinformation about benefits , probationary

DIRECTions . ..Summer" 2000

periods, and salary increases. The completeorientation prograln will be on the web foreasy access and links will be available toanswer the most common q!1estiQ!1s newemployee have. The supervisor can go oversome of the available links and give theem ployee time to explore at his 0 ); her ownpace . This progran1 will not only cover theusua l first day questions , but will also high­light the Quality Improvement Program andlay the foundation for the training to come.The orientation program will conclude with afollow-up session two weeks after the startdate.

W hen will this exciting program be avail­ab le? The Inciters plan to have a trial pro­gram in place early in the new year and acompleted program for all of FinancialManagement by spring 2001 . Watch comingDirections for more developments.

-..

Lino

In addition to V 'Ella Warren receiving aLINQ award (see cover story ), DianeCooley (Student Accounts) was recognizedfor the quality of Approachable on July 6t h

•

Some comments from th e nominationform : "I know that anything I tell Diane istreated with discretion and confidentiality""She is very supportive of my EDP and mydevelopment plans and frequently suggestsways to supplement them." "Her door isalways open and she will gracefully interruptwhatever she is doing to help out." " ... Dianealways considers all the people involved andgets input from others... " "Diane trusts herstaff to perform their duties in the bestpos sible manner and she trusts our judge­ment."

OSTEPLindsay Hendrix (Student Accounts) was

celebrated for the quality of Collaborative atfestivities on July y h. According to thenomination form, "Lindsay is the kind ofperson who takes th e initiative to learn newprocesses; she is equally willing to challengeold procedures. Lindsay works well withcoworkers and other department personnel.She helps out whenever needed ."

On July l S'", Tess Domingo (StudentAccounts) received a QSTEP for the qualityof Committed. In th e opinion of th e nomina ­tors , "Tess is a great example of someone whois willing to learn new' skills. When Tess sees

an opportunity for improving a process... shemakes sure she involves others.. .so deci sionsare based on complet e facts. l e ss is verydedicated to her job . She demonstrates

OSTEP [cant'd)this in everything she does . She looks forways to improve her processes and makessure ever ything she does is quality work."

Sue Vadm an (Payables Administration)was honored for the quality Trusting ofOthers at festivities on July 2 7th

•

Sue was specifically lauded for the behav­iors of Shares Information Willingly andOpenly, Values Others for Their Varied andUnique Abilities , Tolerance of Others ' Mis­takes , Maintaining Confidences and ShowingCourtesy in Working with Others.

Sue 's many attributes are perhaps bestsummed up in this statement, "She alwayslistens .. .she seems to keep an op en mind.She expresses her opinion ...but makes sureothers know it is just her opinion ."

Rae Ann Laubenstein (Controller'sOffice) was recognized for the qualities ofTrustworthy and Committed in a ceremonyheld September 7th

•

Under the Trustworthy behavior, thenominators opined, "I never even have tothink about any commitment she makes tome; it' s always done well and in advance.When Rae Ann makes a mistake .. . she feelshorrible ..; and tries to remedy the situationquickly She is committed to learning moreabout herself, takes as many classes as shecan and likes to share what she learns. "

When it comes to Committed , "Rae Ann iscommitted to doing her job to th e best of herability " "she is ver y committed/efficient andwants to avoid processes th at prevent ...work from flowin g smoothly "

Congratulations to all awardees!

DIRECTions . ..Summer 2000

The ROT e Staym' nhue RnTT Trauehng ShowKate RiI0J, Quality Improvement Program

The RQT is the longest-lived QI team inFinancial Management history. The firstawards were made in January, 1992, to

V'Ella Warren , Ann Anderson and the IRQand ARQ teams. Since then, 127 validatedawards have been given to individuals andteams for a wide range of contributions. Overtime, the mix of awards has varied each year.(See the graph in the side bar.) The QSTEPaward, introduced in 1999, has been wellreceived-9 of the 13 validated awards so farin 2000 have been made to staff. The num­ber of nominations also varies across thedivision. SFS has , by far, been the most activedepartment in recent years with 49% of thevalidated awards since 1997.

In August, the EIT reviewed these resultsand asked:

Are teams or people doingprocess improvementwork but not beingrecognized?

Wlry have some departments fallen out of thepractice of recognizing each other?

Does epe'JJone understand how to make anomination?

From the discussion, the EIT decided thata first step would be to re-familiarize FMstaff with the RQT program and how thenomination process works. While newemployees receive training within their firstsix months , long-term staff may have losttouch with how the program works. The EITrequested that the RATT team (RecognitionAwareness Training Team) present its revisedtraining program to departments throughoutthe division beginning in September.

You may have already attended a RATTtraining in your department. If not, watchout for one. See the adjacent article for adescription of the new RAIT training.

Lindsay Hendrix, Student Accounts

The RATT (Recognition AwarenessTraining Team) is constantly seekingways to improve the way we communi­

cate to new em ployees how importantrecognition is. W ith this in mind, the teamrecently discarded the Financial Manage­ment-produced video as it had becomeoutdated and sought new ways to jazz up ourmessage.

We've put Powerpoint and the new Recog­n ition digital camera to good use. The newRATT training now includes photos taken atrecent recognition events at wh ich we'vecelebrated the principles that we all abide by.The training also includes games whichdepict various scenarios that cou ld be recog­nize d. Staff have a chance to discuss amongthemselves what they would like to receive asrecognit ion, as well as what is appropriate fora particular situation.

The new program was presented to the EIT'who were enthusiastic trainees. So enthusias­t ic, we have been asked to provide refreshertraining in each area, focused at all employ­ees. If you haven't already had the newpresentation at your staff meeting, don'tworry because you are on our schedule.

Ratio of QSTEP & LI NQ Award to TOPS Awards1997-2000

75%

DIRECTions . ..Summe.... 2000

1997 1998

QSTEP & L1N Q

1999

TOPS

2000

5

Lead Team Ouarterly Euent e June 22. 2000Tim Lavin, Grant & Contract Accounting

rinancial Management leaders gathered atthe Faculty Club on June 22, 2000, forthe Lead Team's quarterly event. The

topic of the presentation was strategic plan-

ning.

Following a brief introduction by V'EllaWarren and comments from Dr. EdwinaUehara, Associate Dean of the School of So­cial Work, Kate Riley led a very vibrant stra­

tegic planning exercise.

Prior to the event, each department inFinancial Management had constructed col­orful poster boards that depicted specificinformation about their department and stra­tegic initiatives. These boards were used asthe focal point for presentations put on bythe seven departments at the event. Each

faCIlitator Trammg

leader was afforded the opportunity toattend these "mini talks" that went on simul­taneously. This activity lasted about half anhour, and was followed by a question and an­

swer session.

Everyone gathered together afterwards andshared information that they had learnedcentering on C0111l110n themes and initiatives.The energy level was high and the informa­tion sharing was immensely valuable to all at­

tending.

As a result of this exercise, Kate has beenable to construct a summary of strategicinitiatives crossing departmental boundaries.This SU111mary will be a valuable tool as theEIT goes forward in its strategic planning

process.

No matterwhat role youhave ... Facili­tator Trainingwill give youthe tools andexperience to

succeed.

Tracy Mcintyre, Office of the Executive Vice President

nre you currently on a team? Are you ateam leader? Do you want to learp moreabout team dvnamics and development?

Are you a people person? If you answered yesto any of these questions , then you shouldsign up for Financial Management's Facilita­

tor Training.

Facilitator Training is a two-day experience.It is not a training class, seminar or work­shop. It is 16 hours of interacting, experi­meriting, and learning in a fun, safeenvironment. Ruth Johnston and Kate Riley,seasoned facilitators themselves, led ourgroup of 19 through this learning process.

To lay the ground work, we started withteam dynamics , decision making processesand team roles - clarifying the differences be­tween a leader and a facilitator (hint: a facili­tator is a process, not a content expert). As

we carne to understand the role and responsi­bilities of a facilitator, group activities anddiscussions focused on Myers-Briggs andteams, creative thinking, and conflict man­agement. Then it was time to practice. Yes,that's right. Each of us got the opportunity tofacilitate a team. It was a challenging and en­

lightening experience.

By the end of the second day, we all hadrenewed respect and admiration for facilita­tors. Most importantly, we were all excited tostart using our new found skills. As a result ofour enthusiasm, a program is in the workswhere new and experienced facilitators cancome together and share their experiences.No matter what role you have now or mayhave in the future (team member, team leaderor facilitator) Facilitator Training will giveyou the tools and experience to succeed.

DIRECTions . ..Summer 200

nnn Anderson: I'd like to take thisopportunity to thank you for the recentchanges with UW Payables Administra­

tion. I've heard a lot about your efforts tomake better customer service and qualitycontrol. Kicu Luong, Assistant Director; Finance

& Administration , ](UOW Radio

Perkins loan p rogralu FYOO cohortdefault rate drops again. This is an impres­sive outcome and I appreciate receiving wordof it . Congratulations to all on a job welldone! Eric S Godfrey Hey, this is an impressiveperformance. One of the lowest default ratesI have seen at a major university. Great workSandie! You and your team are to be thankednot only for the UW, but also for the manystudents who benefit from successful collec­tions of outstanding loans so new loans can

be made. Wcldon E. Ihrig

Heather Norberg: I just wanted to thankyou again for all your help . You've been sopatient and cooperative. Our payroll is socomplex, but it takes a person like you toease the pain. Beth Mesina, UWMC Payroll

Managcr

Eva Grue1ich: I'm writing to thank you forcoming here on June 29 ,2000 to show us

. how to enter PTR for hourly and students .You were very good in communicating withus , you listened to our needs and you an ­swered questions in detail and by dernonstra­tion and handouts . Hyang-]a Kwon, Office ofDevelopment

Ashley Tam: Re: SSW Espresso CartChange Fund-Management Summary, Wealso want to thank you for doing the audit ofour cash handling practices at the cart andfor the sound, helpful suggestions you

provided. MmJl McMahon

DIRECTions . ..Summer 2000

Compiled IJ)' Diane CO{l/~JJ, Student Accounts,

[rom e-nutUs & notes received I!Jl FAt staf]

V 'Ella , I wanted to take a moment tothank you for your unusual, very proactiveeffort to get our public endowment fundsinvested while we all figured out the bestinternal university procedures for creatingand managing the fund. Marc Lindenberg,Dean and Professor; Evans School ofPublicAffairs

Jane Wiseman, Brion Norton, FrankMontgomery : Re: Roosevelt I on campusrate. Tha nks very much. Dean Pat Wahl andstaff in the School of Public Health appreci­ate all the hard work this is causing you.

Kenneth Anderson

Wayne Teeias: I'm writing to pass on toyou my compliments on the service providedtoday. Nal10' Dosmann, Administrntor; School ofCommunications

[on i M cDon ald, Eva Gruelich, TahalitaIGa: I want to express my thanks for theprofessionalism, expertise, and patience ofyour On-line Distribution training team.Susanne Recordon, Dance Program Advisor

Lindsay H endrix: You are absolutelyincredible!! Thank you for making suchefforts to help us . Jason Nicbler; Graduate

Student

Ann Anderson and CeCe Redila: Thanksto you and for the excellent work on thissettlement (unclaimed property audit finding)and an excellent approach to a more rebrularresolution of uncashed checks going forward .

Weldon E. Ihrig

[oni McDonald and her team: I justlooked at the web site, and it (Non-ResidentAlien Seminar) is very well done. Excellentjob, especially tying the how to informationto the sections of the forms . Weldon E. Ihrig

Hey, this is an. .llnpreSSIVe

performance!One of the

lowest defaultrates I have

seen at a majoruniversity.Great work

Sandie!Weldon E. Ihrig

Ij

I

II

I

"Here are the minutes of our last meeting.Some events have been

fictionalized for dramatic purposes."

"I don't knowhow ll1any

times I havediscussedprocess

improvementwith V'Ella.She is always

the first to ask'how does this

benefit thecustomer andhow have youincluded them

in theprocess?'"

U'Elia [ennt'dlquality is sharing information willingly andopenly. Examples of this are the creation ofthe Directions newsletter and sharing minutesof EVP staff meetings.

The quality Approachable can sometimesbe difficult for people in upper managementpositions to achieve, due largely to how a vicepresident or director is perceived in a largeorganization. V'Ella challenges this stereo­type by working hard to make herself visibleand available to all levels of staff, as a men­tor, advisor or just a good conversationalist.From the nomination: "... any staff membercan initiate an e-mail or call to V'Ella with­out concern ."

The final quality that V 'Ella was honoredfor is Inspiring. As a tireless advocate ofcustomer service, V 'Ella was a shoo-in for the

Hudos [cant'd]Julie Taylor: I wanted to let someone

know how much I have appreciated Julie overthe vears . She has alwavs had the best

./ ./

attitude and has helped me in so many ways .She never gets frustrated or short with themany questions. Susan Worden, Fiscal Adminis­

trator; Division of General Internal Medicine

Judy Wilson and Ann Sarna: Thank youfor meeting with the Group Health staff. Itwas a great discussion and we all very muchappreciated the detailed material you pre­pared. Laura Rehrmann, President & CEO,

Group Health

Kendra Yoshimoto is wonderful: She did

a great job. Viclry M . Peltzer; Chiefof Police

behavior of keeping the primary focus on thecustomer. The nomination said it best: "Idon't know how many times I have discussedprocess improvement with V'Ella and eachtime, the question of the customer comes up .She is always the first to ask how does thisbenefit the customer and how have youincluded them in the process?"

The award ceremony was well attendedand sincere. EVP Weldon Ihrig led it off bybringing V'Ella out of a "meeting" into thereception area where the enthusiastic crowdapplauded her achievements. What made the

ceremony particularly meaningful were thethoughtful comments from people from alllevels in the organization. These off-the-cuffkudos showed without a doubt how V'Ella 'spositive leadership style has permeatedFinancial Management and the University, allthe way from the desk of a new hire to theOffice of the Executive Vice President.

Trammg ScheduleTraining Schedule for II & 12/2000

Class: EDP WorkshopDate: 11/15 & 12/1 (2 sessions)Time: 12:30 - 4:00Location: Faculty Club

Class: MBTI Feedback SessionDate: 11/28Time: 9:00 - 10:30Location: FM Conference Room

Class: QI Awareness TrainingDate: I 1/29 & 11/30 (2 sessions)Time: 8:30 - 12:30Location: Faculty Club

Class: Process Improvement/ProblemSolving

Date: 12/12, 12/13 & I 2/1 4(3 sessions)

Time: 8:30 - 3:30 & 8:30 - 10:30on 12/14

Location; 'Ethnic Cultural Center, BlackRoom

8 DIRECTions . ..Summer 2000

Enthuslasm~lt Is ContagIOusShep Hy ken, CSP

10

Who would you rat her be with at work?Someone who hates what they aredoing, or someone who loves what they

are doing?

The answer is obvious. People who lovewhat they do seem to have a charisma orenthusiasm about them . The ir attitudes arecontagious, and for obvious reasons, they aresimply more enjoyable to be around.

Remember differ­ent teachers youmight have had inhigh school orcollege? I rememberteachers that lec­tured-or should Isay read from notesor a manuscript-totheir classes . Theynever even looked upat their students. Ialso rememberteachers who spokefrom their hearts.They encouragedquestions andclassroom participa­tion. They weren'tnecessarily funny,but somehow their

classes were fun and exciting to be in .

What's the difference between the two?Well , part of the answer is enthusiasm. Oneteacher is simply doing the job , just goingthrough the motions. The other teacher isimmersed in his or her job , involved with thestudents and creating a learnmg experience.The first teachers educate the students bylecturing. All information is going one way,from teacher to student. Either the studentgets it or doesn 't. They try to take notes andlisten, with every attempt not to fall asleep.The other teachers are encouraging two waylearning. They interact and communicatewith students .

Isn't it almost the same in the workingenv ironment? Some people just work fortheir paycheck. Others work for their com­pany and personal fulfillment.

This reminds me of a story that I firstheard Zig Ziglar te ll at one of his seminars.There were some employees of a majorrailroad company standing around the tracks.A large limousine pulls up to the workers andout steps a well-dressed man, the president ofthe railroad company. The president walks upto one of the workers and says , "Hello Bob ,how are you? " Bob says , ''I'm doing great,Gene. Thanks for asking."

When the president of the companywalked away, the workers were impressedwith Bob and asked him how he knew thepresident of the company on a first-namebasis. Bob told them that twenty year's agothey started working together.

The workers asked Bob , "How come he 'spresident and you still work out here in theyard?"

Bob replied, "Twenty years ago when westarted together, I went to work for thepaycheck. Gene went to work for the railroadcompany. "

Gene obviously loved what he did andmanaged to work his way up to becomingpresident of the cOlnpany. He didn't get thereby not caring or not having a passion forwhat he did. To get to the top from whereGene started took a lot of hard work andenthusiasm in his job and his life.

Enthusiastic people tend to be moresuccessful. And people like to be aroundenthusiastic people. If you can't get excitedabout what you do and what you and yourcompany sell, then you won 't get anyonearound you excited either.

It is also important to understand thatenthusiasm doesn't mean you have to be

~

DIRECTions . ..Summer 2000

-physically excited about what you do. Afriend of mine is a speaker. Technicallyspeaking, he is a terrible speaker. He standsbehind the lectern and speaks to the audi­ence in a dull and monotone voice. When hestarts a program his audience membersimmediately look at their watches to seewhen the next break will be.

What makes him different from theteachers we talked about above is that hereally does have enthusiasm, he is just notcapable of physically showing it. After just afew minutes the audience starts to pick up onit, and within fifteen to twenty minutes theyare sitting on the edge of their seats, soakingup his information.

Every once in a while there is a twinkle inhis eye. You can tell he loves what he istalking about. He is just not a good speaker.And , that is okay. The audience accepts that,and picks up on his passion for the subjecton which he is presenting. While notphysi­cally evident, he does have the enthusiasmthat it takes to get others excited.

Enthusiasm is contagious. And a fellowprofessional speaker, Danny Cox, says that ifenthusiasm is contagious, and what you haveis not enthusiasm, that is also contagious!

The First lmpressmnShep Hyken, CSP

Some of my clients ask me if there is one

simple thing they can share with thei.remployees that will make the biggest

impact for better customer service. This isnot easy, as there is no quick fix for problemservice or some miracle elixir that by magicwill transform an organization into a firstclass customer driven company. It is a combi­nation of many things put together. But thereis a simple concept. It falls back on theoriginal concept of managing the Moment ofTruth and creating Moments of Magic.

The simple concept I am talking about ishas to do with managing the first impression .I am not talking about meeting someone for

ECTlons .. .Summer 2000

the first time, although that is obviously afirst impression. I am talking about the firstimpression we make that may set the tone forany interaction that is to follow.

Here is a very basic example. When youwalk into work in the morning, how do yougreet your coworkers? Do you strive for apositive early morning greeting? Or, are youone of those people who claim not to be an"early morning" person-at least not untilyou have had your three cups of coffee? So,what if you are not an "early morning"person. Your goal isto make the peopleyou work with wantto be around you therest of the day. Yourearly-morninggreeting is simplysetting the tone forany interaction thatis to follow.

How do you dressfor success? Dressingfor success does notmean weari ng abusiness suit, tie, etc.It means dressingappropriately for thesituation.

What do yourbody language andfacial expressions tellpeople? Body language, eye contact, facialexpressions are read, sensed and interpretedby those around you.

How do you answer the phone? Do thepeople calling you feel that you welcome theircall, or do they feel as if they are an interrup­tion?

All of these, and more go toward setting apositive "first" impression.

My assistant, Lois Creamer, called tocongratulate a business associate on anoutstanding news article that appeared in the51. Louis paper about his company. Let's callthis person Bob.

~ 12

"

lmpressinn [cnnt'd]Bob answe red Lois ' phone call curtly. Lois immediately

knew he was busy and started to feel uncomfortable. So,she just said , "Hi Bob , it 's Lois Creamer from Shep 's

office ."

Bob said in a sharp , almost angry tone of voice , "Lois, I

am real busy and I can 't talk."

Lois said, "I can te ll. All I wanted to do was congratu­late you on the great article in the paper. Good-bye."

There was a moment of silence as Bob realized that allLois wanted to do was compliment him. He sheepishly

said, "Good-bye."

In this case , Bob got a double whammy. He not onlygave off a negative first impression with his curt greeting,but he also caused himself a lot of embarrassment.

By the way, Bob called back later to apologize about

the way he acted on the phone.

What if the person calling Bob hadn't been Lois, butinstead an important customer'? Would he or she havebeen as forgiving as Lois'? Imagine the "back ped dling"Bob would have had to do to get the client to feel com­fortable with having called him.

up earne a esson at. ay. e was toobusy to answer the phone he should let a receptionist or

his voice mail pick it up .

EditorsDiane Cooley543- 8682dian ec@u.washington .edu

Kate Riley543-8766kater@u .washington.edu

As mentioned before, these first impressions come inmany forms beyond greetings. Pay attention to what yournonverbal actions are saying. Managing the first impres­sion simply lets you start off on a positive note. Whyshould you start a conversation or a meeting at a psycho­

logical deficit'?

It has been written that it takes many more goodthi ngs to make up for a single bad thing in business. Mostof the statistics range between eight to twelve good thingsto make up for a Moment of Misery. One good thi ng doesnot fix a bad thing or make things even. You have to gomuch further than getting back to even to renew theconfidence in a customer.

Managing the first impression is so simple, so whymake it hard on yourself'? Simply manage the impressionand set a positive tone for any interaction that is tofollow. It all he lps toward creating those Moments OfMagic for your customers .

Shep Hyken, CSP is a professional speaker and author specializ­ing in the areasof customer service and customerrelations.

Design 0

ProductionMi chael Fero543- 405 8mfero@u .washington .edu

This newsletter is publish edseasonally by the Offi ce ofFinancial Man agement,University of Washington .On -lin e editions, in pdfformat, are available athttp :/www.washington. edu/admin/finmgmt/qilforms.html.

Cooley, Diane L355870

DIRECTions . . .Summer 2000