I wrote a column at the beginning of the year and raved about the excellent customer service experience I had on a cruise to the Pacific. I talked about delayed service that we had gotten in the dining room and how the head of food services had sought us out the following evening at a different restaurant and apologized profusely, sent chocolate covered strawberries to our cabin, and invited us to a special lunch with other passengers who had been similarly inconvenienced.
Clearly the response was above and beyond what I expected. I recently took a subsequent and shorter cruise with the same line, a little smaller ship, and we also encountered a few “service” problems. This time, there was a very different response. Why would that be? It was the same company, same product and same policies, so why was one situation so positively memorable and the subsequent situation so average and disappointing?
The difference is leadership. One leader set a tone that was very different than the other. That style of leadership created a very different environment or climate for employees and passengers, and led to very different results.
Let me back up a minute to explain that I teach senior managers about leadership and organizational climate. Organizational climate is the environment a manager creates for his or her people that sets the tone for how things get done. The approach I use in my work says that climate consists of six dimensions: flexibility, responsibility, standards, rewards, clarity and team commitment. Each can be defined on a continuum from low to high, and higher is better. They can be measured, changed and directly affect employees’ performance.
Here are my definitions for each of the six dimensions:
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