Appreciation
It’s important to recognize and enjoy the impact of others in your company. And more important to express the full understanding of their work openly through regular shoutouts.
Author: Petros
Head of Support at @GitBook where I build a calm Support team. Learning Elixir. Writing 2D retro games. Previously @GitHub.
How to give me feedback
I don’t like the sandwich method of receiving feedback. Keep it short and to the point. Talk about my behavior and what it caused. Give me the opportunity to figure out how to fix it moving forward. I wont dwell on why it happened. Energy best spent on the future.
Can I end a meeting sooner?
Work related meetings and drag forever if not well run. Can you end them sooner though? Let’s found out.
Out of scope support requests
All customer support teams receive out of scope support requests. What sets a team apart is how they handle them.
Gratitude
How often do you express your gratitude to your peers and direct reports about something they did? In a genuine way. I bet not that often. Go do it now.
Ask permission to give feedback
Ask if you can give neg/pos feedback. Only go ahead if they say yes. They have to decide if it’s a good time for them to receive feedback. Allow them to say no if they are not in a good state or they need to get work done.
Words matter
As a people manager of customer support teams for quite some time now I am obsessed with giving feedback. Feedback that’s actionable and can help folks improve and grow. I enjoy reviewing responses and finding opportunities to discuss them. The goal is to raise the quality.
Offering great support is a piece of cake
There are problems with customer support that are trivial to fix. I wonder why so many companies get it wrong. We have been conditioned to believe offering great support is extremely difficult. I have found the opposite in my experience.
Unrealistic programming job posts
Writing great job posts is not an easy job. Many companies merge two or more roles into one. That creates unrealistic expectations. Developers learn to exaggerate their qualifications and experience. Everyone ends up in a vicious cycle.