A fan of plans, this blog takes a bit of a different tone where I’m taking a look at the topic of greed at work. 

Last month saw a revolt not only by football fans from all clubs, but also from the players and managers; against billionaire club owners looking to make more money in the form of a European Super League. Now, I really don’t profess to know the ins and outs of this subject – but in essence this was a level of greed too far for everyone (except of course the club owners). 

Out of touch 

Being this out of touch with your stakeholders is a terrible situation to be in. We know that profit is key to the success of a business, but this shouldn’t be at any cost.  

Customers and employees are a savvy bunch and expect a level of sustainability from the companies they choose to shop with or work for. We want to associate ourselves with organisations that are ethical. So when we are confronted with values that completely jar against our own, we have to take a stand. 

R.E.S.P.E.C.T

Working well requires respect towards our employees, customers and fans. You may have worked hard to win them to your business, but it is entirely up to them whether they stay and remain loyal. Your relationship with these stakeholders is much like personal relationships – you need to work at it to keep them. As soon as you stop trying, or you take their loyalty to your brand for granted, you are in danger of them looking elsewhere and leaving. 

Reach out

By regularly reaching out to your stakeholders and encouraging a two-way dialogue will help you to keep in touch with what they want from you and allow you to remain relevant to what they want. Here are a few ideas to find out that you are still in touch with the needs of your stakeholders:

• Employee focus groups – employee experience is as important as customer experience. It really is no coincidence that organisations that score highly in customer satisfaction surveys also score highly in employee surveys. Focus groups don’t need to be a formal affair, tailor them to the needs of your business. You might want to think about:
  • Coffee drop ins with senior managers - so they can hear first-hand from employees
  • Sticky notes board – some employees might not feel comfortable giving their views face to face, so why not set up a sticky notes board in the break area, where employees can write down their ideas and thoughts for collation. 
  • Use an external adviser – you can get someone from outside the business to talk to colleagues. Employees might feel more comfortable talking to someone who is not directly connected to the business. This trained person will also be able to help work out the best course of action for making improvements to the business. 

• Social media interaction – Increasingly, customer interactions happen on social media and using this to your advantage to not only tell people about your products and services, but to find out what you can do to improve these. You can use polls, ask questions, invite feedback or even offer prize draws for people’s views. 

• Customer mailing list – if you haven’t set one up already, ask your customers if they would like to be signed up to your mailing list. Lots of organisations use this tool to try to gain more sales, but this is also an opportunity to find out what your customers want and give them a feedback loop. 

Keep Listening 

In order to work well, we need to keep listening – find the places that your stakeholders spend time in and find out what they expect to see from you – relate this back to your purpose, vision and values and use this insight to drive your business forward. You need to take your stakeholders on the journey with you. If you don’t – they’ll find another way to go.