Deep Thinking

Thanks to Alice Yuct, I have learned about the Johari Window. From their website:

The Johari Window was invented by Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham in the 1950s as a model for mapping personality awareness. By describing yourself from a fixed list of adjectives, then asking your friends and colleagues to describe you from the same list, a grid of overlap and difference can be built up.

I decided to try this out and clicked on five words that I decided I wanted to be me today (okay, I’m nothing if not honest!). You can try this out by clicking words that you think describe me. I can’t believe they left out practical!

Unfortunately there is a darker side if you can take it called the Nohari window. Go back and unclick brave on my name above in the Johari window, because I am NOT brave enough to open myself to that kind of criticism. I’d prefer concentrating on the positive and what I’d like to be than trying to read between the lines to try to determine why someone focused on one particular failing of mine over another. I think I counted at least 10 negative traits or failings before I quit, so I have made the choice to be positive.

Several years ago at my school we opened the year with every staff member having to fill out three positive comments about 3 different random people. The assistant principal then compiled all of these, typed them on beautiful stationery and put them in a frame to present to us. We loved reading about ourselves, but I can remember thinking about traits that I valued in myself that others didn’t appear to. For instance, I valued my own intelligence (yes boastful would be one of my failings), but the teachers and staffed valued my helpfulness. This activity changed how I viewed my dealings at school. No longer did I worry about always projecting the smartest answers with the most details, but I concentrated on customer service and making sure that my patrons perceived my staff (of the best library assistant in the universe (AKA Dorothy Reed), my volunteers, and me) as helpful.

I will be sending my principal this link to see if we’d like to try something new. My principal will be retiring this year. I am hoping we get an excellent new one who is open to creative and thoughtful instruction. Perhaps we’ll have the faculty try this next year as an inservice activity.

I truly believe we are the customer service center for instruction in our schools. The secretary and the front office staff are the customer service center for general information for parents, but we provide the detailed information about academics for teachers, parents, students, and administration.

Joel Polsky posted on Customer Service with Seven Steps to Remarkable Customer Service.
1. Fix everything two ways
2. Suggest blowing out the dust (my personal favorite)
3. Make customers into fans
4. Take the blame
5. Memorize awkward phrases
6. Practice puppetry
7. Greed will get you nowhere
8. (Bonus!) Give customer service people a career path

Having worked in retail I have a few extra comments on Customer Service. I was essentially THE first person customers dealt with when they had a problem. I learned very quickly not to take it personally by memorizing phrases while actually meaning what I was saying. So here is my list:
1. Be part of the team. (company, project, school, student support team)
2. Be part of the solution. Make finding a way for everyone to be happy foremost and communicate your intent during the process. Creativity is a plus. Dogmatism is a minus.
3. Be honest. I admit that it is very easy to make mistakes. I appreciate parents taking the time to let me know when one may have occurred so together we can fix it. If I am honest about my mistakes, others feel free to be honest when they make a mistake. I do have phrases I memorized to use in retail, but I make sure that I wasn’t being superficial.
4. Respect the other person. I respect the parent who contacts me and takes their precious time to follow up. I respect the teacher who wants to improve situations even if I don’t agree with them. I respect the administrator who wants a better-run school and I will share my expertise with them.
5. State it positively. See Joel’s hint #2 above. I may have more expertise in some technology troubleshooting, but making someone else feel badly about their role will not help in the long run.