Manjunatha K
Quiet often I used to meet a boy in a bike showroom service station and he always used to avoid people.
I used to give my bike for service in the company showroom when it was new and later I started giving for service in the garage near our home. I noticed young man Mr. Shaffi was doing a part time job in the garage after he completes his work in the showroom. I observed a different behavior with him. When he was in the showroom he used to be conservative, used to avoid customer, never used to talk much, any queries I ask about the bike or any clarification, he tried to avoid and redirect to the service engineer or to the reception. It looked like somehow he is completing his time for the paycheck. However the same Shaffi here in the garage is very entertaining and a different person. He speaks with the customers with a smiling face, used explain every work he does with their bikes; offer them to come back for any clarification… I observed him to be very active. Not just him, even other guys in this garage found to be very friendly and charming.
I got confused to see Mr Shaffi’s different behavior in different places. As I understand the showroom used to pay better than the small garage. To confirm whether he is the same person or may be similar one, I visited both place again and to my surprise it was the same person working at both the places.
The showroom workshop has much better equipments that make the life of the service guys easy compared to one in the small garage. Showroom has a better process to handle the customers….
I could not understand the very different behavior from the same person in different places. I could not stop myself to ask him. I got the surprising answer. He said “in the showroom Managers are monitoring us to find out any mistakes we do and catch us immediately for any mistakes to penalize. We always avoid getting in contact with our managers and conscious to avoid them as it is very annoying and uncomfortable. Whereas the garage owner whenever he spots us he asks one question how you guys are doing, are you facing any difficulty, what help you guys need”. If he finds them making any mistake, immediately shows how that can be corrected. This gave them a lot of energy and boosted their confidence. They learn from every mistake while working in the garage and they rarely make the same mistake again, and we are not scared to experiment new things here. These people handle the customers very well, always smiling at customers, assuring them that the bikes are very well serviced, and send them back with the note of “come back to us for any problem ”. In the showroom, they are always scared that they might get caught for the mistakes. Any customer issues they we will be cornered! Day they are not caught for any reason, they are happy…
It is the same person, same work; but the two different work places. What do you think who is responsible for the different behavior of Shaffi?
It is the responsibility of the leader/manager to provide a safe and comfortable work environment where employees can work with their full potential. It is crucial that diligent and responsible business managers provide the best possible atmosphere in which workers can live, work, grow, and thrive. This helps in creating a more focused employees and communicating standard practices and policies for every expected situation an employee might face. It is the responsibility of the manager to enable the team to explore the creativity without any fear. The team members should know that, they can bank on their manager when something goes wrong. It is possible only when the manager builds such a trusted environment.