Debbie Laskey's Blog

Welcome to Debbie Laskey's insights and commentary about BRANDING, MARKETING, LEADERSHIP, SOCIAL MEDIA, EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT, and CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES. Debbie has worked in high-tech, the Consumer Marketing Department at Disneyland Paris in France, nonprofits, and insurance. Expertise includes strategic planning, brand development, marketing plans and audits, competitive positioning, websites, communications, public relations, employee engagement, customer experiences, and social media marketing.

Wednesday, November 8, 2023

The UPS Store Cannot Do Everyth-ing

When it comes to outstanding customer experiences, what retail stores stand out? While Nordstrom probably appears in most people’s top five list, there is one retail store that wishes it could be included.

With all the television advertising that the UPS Store does to promote its “-ing” capabilities, such as, copying, faxing, printing, packing, shipping, shredding, moving (supplies), notarizing, etc., what about simple CARING for customers in a polite manner?

Check out a 2018 press release released by the corporate office based in San Diego, California:

“The new “Beyond Shipping” campaign was inspired by a nationwide research effort that revealed small business owners know The UPS Store takes care of shipping, but were surprised to discover the extensive range of business services the locally owned and operated locations offer. Lighthearted and humorous, the fully integrated campaign features fast-paced commercials and videos showcasing the breadth of existing services available at The UPS Store as every “ing” a small business owner might need.”

However, read about my recent experience at a UPS Store in a suburb of Los Angeles, and I guarantee that you’ll cringe with me.

I walked into the store with a pre-packaged and labeled box to be returned to Amazon. While I did not have to wait in line, I chose to wait for the employee, who was assisting another customer, so that I could get a receipt showing that the box had been scanned into the UPS system, aka, received. This scanning receipt would serve as proof to Amazon that I had dropped off the package - and I would be entitled to my refund for the item being returned.

After waiting several minutes, the employee took the box from me and said, “I don’t give paper receipts. They just go into landfills anyway. Consider the box scanned.” Then he dropped the box on the counter behind him and engaged the next customer.

I asked when he would scan the box to show me that the box was, indeed, entered into the UPS system, and he rudely said, “I’ll get to it later.”

Wow!

What happens if my box gets lost? UPS cannot and will not guarantee my refund from Amazon if the box gets lost without being scanned.

And who appointed this particular UPS employee as National Environment Czar to determine that no one gets printed receipts? I know for a fact that EVERY OTHER UPS STORE PRINTS RECEIPTS UPON REQUEST, because I have requested and received them.

This experience got me thinking...I wonder if the UPS Store’s corporate office approves each franchise’s business practices, because this one definitely has no idea how to interact with customers nor how to align with the corporate brand’s advertising messages.

On a final note: the irony is not lost on me that if this particular employee is such an environment lover, he should not work in a store that deals with paper and packages!

Image credit: The UPS Store.

Monday, November 6, 2023

FALL BACK TO READING SERIES – Featuring Stacey Danheiser

Be Proactive
Begin With the End in Mind
Put First Things First
Think Win-Win
Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
Synergize
Sharpen the Saw

QUESTION: Do you intersperse fiction with your business reading? If yes, what was the last work of fiction that you read, and what caught your attention about it?
STACEY DANHEISER: Yes! On my nightstand, I have at least 3-4 books open at any one time. I love sci-fi and books about time travel because I love to think about the future and envision 'what if' scenarios.

The last work of fiction that I read is a three-book series starting with Before the Coffee Gets Cold, by Japanese author Toshikazu Kawaguchi. It’s about a back-alley café that provides patrons with a unique opportunity – to go backwards or forwards in time just long enough to drink a cup of coffee. It’s a thought-provoking and imaginative read!

QUESTION: If you created a nonprofit organization to promote reading to children and young adults, what would you name it, and why?
STACEY DANHEISER: Naming a business is harder than naming your child! I think I’d call it "Lifelong Learners," because reading is about experiencing something new and different. It can be a way to escape to another world or put yourself in the shoes of someone else...and it’s a process that never ends.

Friday, November 3, 2023

FALL BACK TO READING SERIES – Featuring Katherine Spinney

This year, as the seasons change and we enjoy fall, I’ve launched my FALL BACK TO READING SERIES. The series will feature two dozen leadership and marketing experts, who will share their inspiration in both fiction and nonfiction, and hopefully, provide the impetus to read more. To quote New York Times Bestselling author Kristin Harmel, “If you give a person a book, you give him the world.” For today’s post, I’d like to introduce Katherine Spinney.

Katherine Spinney combines her background in education, social work, leadership, and coaching to support new, aspiring, and growing supervisors to become the leaders they strive to be. Through a powerful, research-based combination of training and coaching along with a robust virtual community in The Supervisors Circle, Katherine helps managers build the confidence and skills they need to better support their teams and ultimately their clients. As a former struggling supervisor who had to teach herself how to become a successful leader, it is Katherine’s life’s mission to help others learn and grow leadership skills.

QUESTION: Which three business books have made the biggest impact on your career?
KATHERINE SPINNEY: Here are my three:

Quiet by Susan Cain: Before I understood what an introvert was or that I was one, I simply felt out of place and unsure of how I fit in as a person and as a leader. Susan Cain’s seminal work opened my eyes and my understanding about what it means to be an introvert, and more specifically, what it means to be an introverted leader. It was life-changing for me, and I recommend this book to everyone. If you are an introvert yourself, it will help make sense of some things and potentially help you navigate some areas of work life that may be challenging for you. If you do not consider yourself an introvert, it can provide a much better understanding of how to more effectively work with, for, and alongside introverts.

First Break All the Rules by Curt Coffman and Marcus Buckingham: This is another book I recommend to everyone, especially managers. It provides a different way of working with people by focusing on strengths. It really helped me approach my work in a different way and made me a much stronger manager because.

The Renaissance Soul by Margaret Lobenstine: Since I was in school, I was asked about and told to choose that one thing I wanted to do. I couldn’t ever do it because there were always so many different things I was interested in. This remains true today, and this book helped validate how that can be a perfectly wonderful way to approach work and life. A great read if you consider yourself to be a renaissance soul and/or to better understand those who do.

QUESTION: Who is your favorite author, and why?
KATHERINE SPINNEY: I don’t have a favorite author, and my interests are a bit all over the place (see The Renaissance Soul above!)

For fiction, I appreciate a good story that is well-written. Some of my all-time favorites are Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, White Oleander by Janet Fitch, Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, and The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.

For non-fiction, I appreciate insightful, well-researched content. My non-fiction tends to be focused on my work, so somewhere in the world of leadership, management, coaching, nonprofits, human service, etc., but as with fiction, I appreciate good, well-written content. That has taken me any and everywhere from Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow to Stiff by Mary Roach, from Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich to Motley Crue’s The Dirt, from Dear Sugar by Sheryl Strayed to the Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley.

Reading not only improves vocabulary and our ability to express ourselves, but it has also been shown to improve our understanding of others, and of course, our empathy. As relationships are at the core of our work and our leadership, we do not always have to read books about leadership to improve our ability to lead more effectively.

Monday, October 30, 2023

FALL BACK TO READING SERIES – Featuring David Beaumont

This year, as the seasons change and we enjoy fall, I’ve launched my FALL BACK TO READING SERIES. The series will feature two dozen leadership and marketing experts, who will share their inspiration in both fiction and nonfiction, and hopefully, provide the impetus to read more. To quote New York Times Bestselling author Kristin Harmel, “If you give a person a book, you give him the world.” For today’s post, I’d like to introduce David Beaumont.

Known for delivering outstanding customer support to clients, David Beaumont is a knowledge seeker and results driven visionary who builds relationships with clients and peers by aiding the end-user through training and development tasks. David is a qualified support professional, HDI Certified, and holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Finance from The Ohio State University. He has more than 15 years of experience in customer service, equality/diversity/inclusion (EDI), and client support.

QUESTION: Which three business books have made the biggest impact on your career?
DAVID BEAUMONT: Here are my three:
(1) GRIT by Angela Duckworth
(2) Mindset by Carol Dweck
(3) Everybody Matters by Bob Chapman

These books have provided insight on helping me to learn from my fails, to take more risks and to understand that if a task does not work out, that there is always a learning opportunity to be gained. The books have inspired me to be comfortable with the uncomfortable, because this is where growth is obtained. The mindset I carry with me is: "I have not accomplished it yet!" Also, that comfort and growth cannot exist in the same space. With all that, these books have reinforced my belief that kindness, compassion, and civility are what will keep people inspired and engaged with the work they do.

QUESTION: Who is your favorite author, and why?
DAVID BEAUMONT: I have to say Stephen King.

I enjoy reading Stephen King's books because his writing keeps you on the edge of your seat. He makes you feel like what you are reading is so real. There are some books I have read where I had to close the book and take a break, because the thrill was getting so intense. Reading his books allows me to break away from the daily grind and enjoy a thrill. The one caveat though, some books by Steven King (some I have read, and some I have not): I would not see them if they were made into a movie. LOL!

QUESTION: Do you intersperse fiction with your business reading? If yes, what was the last work of fiction that you read, and what caught your attention about it?
DAVID BEAUMONT: Fairy Tale by Stephen King. Well, I like how he writes, and when I saw the book cover, I wanted to read it. (I know, you can’t judge a book by the cover.) Well, I have an Audible subscription, and that book was one that I listened to.

It was enjoyable, one where when I would be out cutting the grass, I would stop at certain points just so that I could focus on the story - because I felt something shocking was going to happen next. Fairy Tale is one that I would go see at the movies, if the book were made into one.

QUESTION: If you created a nonprofit organization to promote reading to children and young adults, what would you name it, and why?
DAVID BEAUMONT: A View into Possibilities.

This would be an organization to encourage reading for stimulating the mind. We would show all the benefits of reading where a positive impact could be obtained. By reading regularly, you can become proficient in different subject matters and hold intelligent conversations with others. Reading can also be inspirational for the young minds, allowing them to venture out and do something they may have never thought they could have done before. Reading about something great, inspirational, and encouraging could allow that young person to say, "Why not me?" or "It’s possible for me to do a great thing."

Friday, October 27, 2023

FALL BACK TO READING SERIES – Featuring Leanne M. Dzubinski

This year, as the seasons change and we enjoy fall, I’ve launched my FALL BACK TO READING SERIES. The series will feature two dozen leadership and marketing experts, who will share their inspiration in both fiction and nonfiction, and hopefully, provide the impetus to read more. To quote New York Times Bestselling author Kristin Harmel, “If you give a person a book, you give him the world.” For today’s post, I’d like to introduce Leanne M. Dzubinski.

Leanne M. Dzubinski is professor of leadership and director of the Beeson International Center at Asbury Theological Seminary. She has published many scholarly articles on women in leadership along with practitioner articles in Harvard Business Review and Fast Company. Her books include Women in the Mission of the Church: Their Opportunities and Obstacles throughout Christian History; Playing by the Rules: How Women Lead in Evangelical Mission Organizations; and most recently Glass Walls: Shattering the Six Gender Bias Barriers Still Holding Women Back at Work.

QUESTION: Which three business books have made the biggest impact on your career?
LEANNE M. DZUBINSKI: Here are my three:

One would be Ann Crittenden’s If You’ve Raised Kids, You Can Manage Anything. For many women who juggle paid work and childrearing, whether simultaneously or sequentially, it can feel like the energy we invest at home detracts from progress at work. Crittenden flips that message on its head and says that all the skills women develop at home make them stronger leaders at work.

Next is Sex and the Office by Kim Elsesser. She tackles head-on the worries about romance and sex in the workplace. Setting up a "glass partition" to keep men and women separate may seem logical, but really, it just limits women’s opportunities because they’re excluded from networks, mentoring, and access to crucial organizational information.

Last, I just stumbled across Switch by Chip and Dan Heath. It’s old but offers good basic principles about how to bring change. In my work on gender bias, the big question that people always ask is “"How do we change things?" The authors lay out a simple three-pronged approach that is memorable and actionable for any type of change we want to create at work.

QUESTION: Who is your favorite author, and why?
LEANNE M. DZUBINSKI: At the risk of sounding snarky, it’s the one I'm reading when asked that question! Seriously, though, there are so many good authors and good books I wouldn’t know how to pick a favorite. If the author I’m reading is addressing a topic I’m interested in and writes well, then they’re my current favorite. That happens over and over as I read.

QUESTION: What book did you read in high school or college that, to this day, you still remember vividly, and why?
LEANNE M. DZUBINSKI: In tenth grade, my English teacher had me read Native Son by Richard Wright. It wasn’t a class assignment, just something she gave me to do. The writing was compelling, the story was riveting, and the events horrifying. It gave me a clear exposure to racial injustice in American society. Looking back, I’m so grateful that she had the courage to assign me a challenging book to expand my understanding and imagination.

QUESTION: Do you intersperse fiction with your business reading? If yes, what was the last work of fiction that you read, and what caught your attention about it?
LEANNE M. DZUBINSKI: Absolutely! I love reading fiction. It expands my horizon and my imagination; it helps me develop empathy for others who are not like me; and a good story can lift me out of any kind of emotional distress. I just finished Steeltown Magnolia by Melissa Miller. Miller is prolific, and most of her books have a strong female lead who deals with tangled, difficult situations at work as well as whatever is happening in her personal life.

Monday, October 23, 2023

FALL BACK TO READING SERIES – Featuring Gail Robertson

Here's how Gail writes her bio...Everyone has a unique story. GailNow’s mission as a Public Relations Strategist is to help deliver those stories to the world. She helps manufacturers, specifically those in moldmaking, to tell AND share their stories. Gail provides virtual and in person coaching (in workplaces, events, and tradeshows) to "break the mold" of traditional marketing. She is also the host of Curious Minds on her GailNow YouTube Channel, where she shares ideas without prejudice, opinions without criticism, and the philosophy and reasoning behind her mantra: "Sign Up, Suit Up and SHOW Up." She is also a keynote speaker on curiosity, media, and public relations, and how everyone has a story worth sharing...maybe even a book!

QUESTION: Which three business books have made the biggest impact on your career?

GAIL ROBERTSON: Here are my three:

(1) The Wealthy Barber by David Chilton

(This book should be required reading for all students too...life-changing!)

(2) The Tao of Twitter by Mark Schaefer

(3) High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way by Brendon Burchard

QUESTION: Who is your favorite author, and why?

GAIL ROBERTSON: Bryce Courtenay.

I read his book, The Power of One, while on a plane travelling to Australia in the 1990's. Then I looked him up while there, met him, and he was a great host, a charismatic storyteller and very true to his writing style. It was life-changing for me, since it also showed how powerful it can be when we take risks, when me make calls that scare us! That one phone call led to my meeting him and having a delightful discussion over tea at his office in North Sydney! A memory I will never forget! And his book: The Power of One is equally memorable.

"The Power of One is a novel by Australian author Bryce Courtenay, first published in 1989. Set in South Africa during the 1930s and 1940s, it tells the story of an English boy who, through the course of the story, acquires the name of Peekay. The author identifies "Peekay" as a reference to his earlier nickname "Piskop": Afrikaans for "Pisshead." It is written from the first-person perspective, with Peekay narrating (as an adult, looking back) and trusting the reader with his thoughts and feelings, as opposed to a detailed description of places and account of actions."

The novel had an impact on me because the message was all about believing in yourself to overcome adversity and many difficult things we may experience everyday. Interestingly, today, my favorite show is Ted Lasso, that also focusses on how much we need to believe in ourselves. Even my 3-step process of "Sign Up. Suit Up and ShowUp" starts with the power of mindset. We must first sign up and commit to taking action. And for that, we must believe that we can do something.

QUESTION: What book did you read in high school or college that, to this day, you still remember vividly, and why?

GAIL ROBERTSON: The Diviners by Canadian author Margaret Laurence.

It was actually on a banned list, so that made it even more appealing, I think. The teacher made it optional reading, so of course, many of us added it to our list. Phenomenal writing and storytelling.

Here's an excerpt from Wikipedia:

"The Diviners is a novel by Margaret Laurence. Published by McClelland & Stewart in 1974, it was Laurence's final novel, and is considered one of the classics of Canadian literature. The novel won the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction in 1974. The protagonist of the novel is Morag Gunn, a fiercely independent writer who grew up in Manawaka, Manitoba. Morag has a difficult relationship with her daughter Pique and her Métis lover Jules Tonnerre, and struggles to maintain her independence. The book has been repeatedly banned by school boards and high schools. It is a regularly featured book on the American Library Association's Freedom to Read campaign."

QUESTION: Do you intersperse fiction with your business reading? If yes, what was the last work of fiction that you read, and what caught your attention about it?

GAIL ROBERTSON: I read fiction when on holiday, usually John Grisham and Canadian Rick Mofina (highly recommended, since as a former journalist who covered the police beat, his descriptions are well-researched). Love me a good crime fiction book!

QUESTION: If you created a nonprofit organization to promote reading to children and young adults, what would you name it, and why?

GAIL ROBERTSON: Curious Minds.

This is also the name of my YouTube show: Curious Minds with GailNow. While my goal for the show is this, reading can also encourage curiosity, critical thinking, and convince us to get outside our echo chambers. I want to hear different views. I am against censorship and advocate for free speech (of course, with limits).

Reading as a child was a major part of my growth and my ability to better understand the world. I also travelled as a young adult, and that further confirmed for me the value of exploring different ideas, different views, and different perspectives. Lastly, my son also attended a local library reading group at age 4, and I have always supported local libraries!

Friday, October 20, 2023

FALL BACK TO READING SERIES – Featuring James Strock

This year, as the seasons change and we enjoy fall, I’ve launched my FALL BACK TO READING SERIES. The series will feature two dozen leadership and marketing experts, who will share their inspiration in both fiction and nonfiction, and hopefully, provide the impetus to read more. To quote New York Times Bestselling author Kristin Harmel, “If you give a person a book, you give him the world.” For today’s post, I’d like to introduce James Strock.

James Strock is an independent writer, speaker, reformer and entrepreneur, based in California. He's the author of several books about leadership, politics, Ronald Reagan, and Theodore Roosevelt.

QUESTION: Which three business books have made the biggest impact on your career?
JAMES STROCK: Here are my three: Peter Drucker’s The Effective Executive; Dynamic Administration: The Collected Papers of Mary Parker Follett; and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Collected Essays and Lectures.

I’m also a dedicated Tom Peters stan. What each of these books share is a focus on the human dimension of business enterprises as well as other organizations. Follett and then Drucker urge a focus on the human angle, in part, in response to the over-reliance on quantification spurred by Frederick Winslow Taylor and others in the mass-production phase of the industrial-age economy. Emerson, by contrast, might be seen as speaking more to the spirit of an entrepreneurial American in the mid-nineteenth century. In the Information Age, when entrepreneurship is reviving, Emerson has found new relevance.

QUESTION: Who is your favorite author, and why?
JAMES STROCK: At the moment of global and national discord and division amid breakneck change, I find great inspirational, practical value in the work of George Orwell and heartily recommend his collected essays and related Everyman volumes.

QUESTION: What book did you read in high school or college that, to this day, you still remember vividly, and why?
JAMES STROCK: Samuel Johnson: Selected Poetry and Prose. Johnson’s moral writings are timeless gems of observation of the human condition. Not incidentally, his writing is so polished and piercing that to read it with the care it merits is to improve oneself.

QUESTION: Do you intersperse fiction with your business reading? If yes, what was the last work of fiction that you read, and what caught your attention about it?
JAMES STROCK: The End of Asquith, by Michael Byrne. This is a fascinating, historically-grounded account of the political machinations resulting in the accession of David Lloyd George, succeeding Herbert Asquith as British Prime Minister in the midst of the Great War.

QUESTION: If you created a nonprofit organization to promote reading to children and young adults, what would you name it, and why?
JAMES STROCK: Read Today, Lead Tomorrow.

Reading is the master key to everything important in life and work. It holds the promise of opening the minds of readers far beyond their own circumstances. In our moment of rampant solipsism* — where many assume that the best and only necessary source of understanding is their own lived experience — the need for reading in order to extend one’s comprehension is acute. (*We cannot thank French philosopher Rene Descartes for this term, but instead, Venetian scholar Giulio Clemente Scotti in 1645.)

Debbie Laskey's Blog

Wednesday, November 8, 2023

The UPS Store Cannot Do Everyth-ing

Monday, November 6, 2023

FALL BACK TO READING SERIES – Featuring Stacey Danheiser

SHARE THIS: Reading can be a way to escape to another world or put yourself in the shoes of someone else...and it’s a process that never ends. ~@Shakemktg

Friday, November 3, 2023

FALL BACK TO READING SERIES – Featuring Katherine Spinney

SHARE THIS: We do not always have to read books about leadership to improve our ability to lead more effectively. ~@CoachKat2017 #Reading #Leadership #DebbieLaskeysBlog

Monday, October 30, 2023

FALL BACK TO READING SERIES – Featuring David Beaumont

SHARE THIS: By reading regularly, you can become proficient in different subject matters. ~@dbeaumont266 #Reading #DebbieLaskeysBlog

Friday, October 27, 2023

FALL BACK TO READING SERIES – Featuring Leanne M. Dzubinski

SHARE THIS: Fiction expands my horizon and my imagination - and helps me develop empathy for others who are not like me. ~Leanne M. Dzubinski #Reading #DebbieLaskeysBlog

SHARE THIS: Reading is a wonderful lifelong practice...it is perhaps the most fundamental skill people need to succeed in life. ~Leanne M. Dzubinski #Reading #DebbieLaskeysBlog

Monday, October 23, 2023

FALL BACK TO READING SERIES – Featuring Gail Robertson

SHARE THIS: Reading as a child was a major part of my growth and my ability to better understand the world. ~@GailNow #ReadingOpensMinds #DebbieLaskeysBlog

Friday, October 20, 2023

FALL BACK TO READING SERIES – Featuring James Strock

SHARE THIS: Reading is the master key to everything important in life and work. ~@jamesstrock #ReadingOpensMinds #DebbieLaskeysBlog