Articles

It's always great to see examples of the Marcus Buckingham strengths principles in action; especially in your own environment. 

I try hard to create slides to represent my thoughts that are varied, informative and interesting. But I've found one of the trainers I'm working with in Athens is much better at it than me - especially when the slides are for front line people. He's taken my efforts in slide creation and added just a few tweaks and touches that have transformed them into a deck that is far better at illustrating the key points than my originals. 

It’s obviously a strength for him and wish I could have him by my side whenever I attempt a new slide presentation.

I’ve been having fun with language in Athens. In one restaurant I asked for a cappuccino after dinner and I got breakfast tea. The following morning butter with my breakfast and I got water. We may have borrowed many words from the Greek language but it seems that there are many basic ones that still confuse.

I was at an Indian restaurant in Manchester a few days ago and was handed one of the most biased feedback forms I've ever seen. The choices for response to the various questions about their food and service were - Average, Good or Excellent.  No Poor to balance out the Good. And nothing like Awful to make it completely unbiased and balance out the Excellent! I wonder why they bother? Forms like this are just pandering to their ego. It’s simply a waste of time (and trees) and they will learn nothing of any value to improve things. In my experience this is really common. I find biased feedback forms everywhere. But then I’m ‘tuned in’ to this type of thing. 

So I hope you don't bias your feedback forms. When you do you may learn what you want to hear - but you’ll not learn what you need to hear. So make sure your forms allow people to provide a neutral or average score and then whatever you put on the positive side, make sure you balance with something equal and opposite on the negative side. Then whatever results you get will be a true reflection of how your customers (or colleagues) think and feel.

I was at a great restaurant in Athens during my last visit but what was really impressive was the overall concept. Next door is a wine merchant, owned by the same people. So you have a look at the menu, decide what you want, then go next door to choose your wine, and pay just the retail price for it in the restaurant plus a small corkage charge. Brilliant!