Finding Moments of Greatness in a Virtual World by Teresa Sinel, Email: tsinel@vipdesk.com, Phone: 802.334.5321
If you’ve been in the business of serving customers for more than a few years, you are fairly well versed in the ups and downs as well as the ins and outs of our industry. Through thick or thin, we are driven by the value of what we do and hold strong to our mission, which is to provide exceptional service to each and every person who enters our domain.
Many of us work crazy hours because we live in a 24/7/365 world that demands flexibility and ready availability, day or night. This makes it all the more important to stop and smell the roses as much as possible to find those moments of greatness in ourselves and others that can surround us and inspire us when we need it the most.
Over the past two weeks, I have been observing a training class with nine nervous and excited team members, led by one of our company’s top instructors. My goal was to absorb as much as I could about this part of the business, but along the way I’ve been seeing firsthand why we have such a high retention rate in our team.
Our classrooms are virtual, so we don’t have the same visual cues that you would have in a brick and mortar environment. Because we cannot see our students to gauge their reactions or sense their moods, we have to clue into their voices, their level of engagement, and whether or not they respond quickly when called upon. Even simple things like getting everyone back from lunch on time can tell us a lot about the makeup of a class and their prospects for success in our wonderful, virtual world.
The classroom mood is immensely impacted by the instructor, who for most new team members is the first person they get to know in a meaningful way. When you think about it, instructors have a rather daunting role. They are ambassadors, they are role models, and they embody the company in every conceivable manner. If the instructor lacks patience, gets frustrated, or zooms through the material, the students will usually respond in kind. However, if the instructor is engaging, witty, and clearly in possession of their faculties (no pun intended), the students will positively emulate that behavior. We humans are funny like that.
There were many moments of greatness in the classroom these last two weeks that spoke to me. I witnessed a classroom full of engaged and interested individuals working in a shared environment of trust and respect. They embraced a problem solving approach to their learning experience and the foundations of a cohesive new team were being built right in front of me.
I credit the instructor with setting the stage from the very beginning, displaying patience, wittiness, and genuine care and concern for her students’ success. Her reward? Nine new team members who are prepared, informed, and beyond eager to get started in their new jobs this Monday.
I like to think that if I walk away from any learning experience with one or two new nuggets of information to add to my cache, the venture has been a successful one. Let’s just say that this learning experience exceeded my expectations, and based on the feedback I received from a number of the students, my sentiments are well founded.
If I had to give one piece of advice, it would be to share best practices like these with your co-workers and encourage them to do the same. This is the kind of energy that moves businesses forward and keeps teams together.