Psychology of Customer Success
Humans don’t think and act like computers. So why are you setting your CS strategy based solely on logic?
Join Customer Success Expert turned Brain-based CS Leadership and Strategy Coach, Rachel Provan, each Wednesday as she pulls back the curtain on how to use Cognitive, Behavioral, and Evolutionary psychology to create positive influence with your customers, and your internal teams.
So if you want to unlock customer-led growth, get buy-in from the C-suite, and skyrocket your career - this show is for you.
Psychology of Customer Success
It's Just Easier If I Do It
Do you feel completely overburdened with work - but can't begin to imagine how to show someone else how to do it?
Worried it won't get done correctly and you will be blamed?
Learn how to stop choosing short term benefit over long term success in this episode:
It's just easier if I do it...
BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU’LL DISCOVER:
- How to delegate tasks in a way that your team will thank you for
- What to delegate - and what to keep for yourself
- How to create a culture of empowerment
- The foolproof template I've used to delegate for over ten years
Grab the template here!
🎬 This content was edited by Lifetime Value Media.
Learn more at: https://www.lifetimevaluemedia.com
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💎 The Ultimate Onboarding Checklist for Customer Success Leaders - The Step-by-Step Checklist to demonstrate your leadership, value, and strategic expertise.
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Hello, hello everybody. We're going to be talking today about one of the most popular lies that I hear in customer success, especially among leaders, which is it's just easier if I do it. How many times have you said that to yourself this week alone? And look, I'm not going to argue with you. It is easier if you do it for that particular moment. It is not easier for you over time. It's a very bad strategy and it's a holdover from when you've been an individual contributor.
Speaker 1:If you're a relatively new leader, or if you're looking to become a leader sometime soon, you need to learn to get good at teaching others how to succeed at something, not just doing it yourself or telling someone how to do something just the way you would. You have to get good at helping others do things successfully, not just being able to do everything yourself. So if you find yourself saying that from time to time, or maybe even a little bit more often than that, you probably want to stick around. Humans don't think or behave like computers. You can't just run a command and get them to do what you want them to do. So why are you still basing your CS strategy based solely on logic? I'm Rachel Provan, cs Leadership Coach, award-winning CS strategist and certified psych nerd, I teach CS leaders how to build and scale world-class CS departments using a combination of strategy, leadership and mindset. Using my secret weapon, psychology. Come join me every Wednesday for Psychology of Customer Success, where we'll dive into why people do the things they do, what motivates them and the effect that has on your CS strategy, team dynamics and executive presence. We'll dig into subjects like the helper personality, how thought errors like it's just easier if I do it keep your department stuck in reactive mode, and how cognitive bias can really screw up your customer journey. Plus, much more. Make sure to subscribe on Apple Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts and make sure to share it with your CS bestie. Talk soon, and here's to your success.
Speaker 1:So why do we say this to ourselves? First of all, there is a short-term benefit. I'm not going to argue that Quick task completion. It's going to get done faster. Everybody can get back to doing what needs to be done. When you already have so much on your plate, it can feel like you don't have time to stop and correct someone or stop and explain how something needs to be done. You just need to get it done, get on to the next, but it does end up with the consequence of then you're always the person who has to do that. You're always the bottleneck. It also has the other unintended consequences of your team doesn't get developed, they get frustrated. There's no real scalability.
Speaker 1:As a leader, it's your job to be. Yes, while things are crazy, everybody it's going to be all hands on deck, but you have to be spending some of that time teaching others to take on some of that work and building strategies so that you can dig your way out of a reactive situation. And that's never going to happen by. You're just digging in and doing the work every day. You have to be working on the higher level strategy to dig, and that takes some time to get used, to be able to step back and say, yes, this all feels like an emergency, but I have to understand that what's really going to improve us long term is for me to be able to work on that and other people to be able to work on this kind of task based stuff. So the other long term consequences is your team doesn't really feel like you trust them to do anything. They don't feel like they're learning and sooner or later they get frustrated and go elsewhere, and I know a lot of CS leaders really feel like they're amazing at leadership. They're great with people. The fact that you care about your team is not the same as being a great leader. The fact that you're being nice to them is not the same as being a great leader. I'm not saying be a jerk. I'm saying you need to let them take on some responsibility. So part of the impact on customer success departments is that people can feel undervalued and they can feel demotivated. But beyond that, there's a real missed opportunity, because when you have multiple people weighing in on things, multiple people trying things, it's gonna be different than the way you do it, and that doesn't mean it's going to be worse.
Speaker 1:Oftentimes, if we're just doing the same things the same way we've always done it, if we're only having our opinions, that is a very limited perspective. It's an echo chamber and it can really lead to stagnation, whereas if you have other people's opinions, if you have other people trying things, it brings much more innovation. You're gonna have different ideas. You're gonna be shocked. Some of these people are going to be better at doing things than you were, and that's not a bad thing. It's incredibly important to learn how to do it. It's something we cover extensively in the Customer Success Leadership Academy. It's an entire module, so I can't go into the whole thing here. But asking them what their strengths are, giving them opportunities to do projects and tasks that utilize those strengths, will help your entire team out and really motivate your team much more. Understand their strengths and have just open communication. Hey, here are a few things that need doing this week. Who's available?
Speaker 1:You want to build a culture where everybody feels empowered and show that you trust them. You're willing to give it to them and assume that they can do it right. And here's the thing it's not dumping more work on people. It's giving them a chance to shine. But your job in this, beyond guiding them in what they need to do and giving them guardrails, is also really shouting it out and saying their name in rooms of important people when they're successful. So it's helpful for their career. It shows that you're doing good jobs as a leader. But it's important. It's incredibly motivating for them to hear oh, they gave me credit for them. That's important if you're gonna be asking people to do things that aren't just the basics of their job, but most of the time, people really are hungry for growth. So basically, you want to embrace the power of empowerment. It is one of the foundational parts of leadership is being able to delegate work and trust other people and guide them to do the best that they can do. It's not for you to be responsible for everything. It is not just easier if you do it. It's time to get out of that mindset and get into really leading people and empowering them to do more than they ever think they could do.
Speaker 1:I think a lot of this issue is that people haven't really been taught how to delegate. Delegating is not just give someone else your work. It's understanding that other people might do that work differently, and that's okay. You don't have to be the one to teach them how to do every little bit of it. You just have to get really clear on your expectations and at the end of this podcast, if you wanna go to the show notes, we do have a resource for you that's a delegation worksheet that can help you get really clear on what you need someone else to do, how you're gonna describe that to them, how to review that work together and how to do a debrief after to make sure that you're continuously improving.
Speaker 1:But most people just haven't been taught how to delegate, so let's get into it. The very first and most important thing that you're going to have to talk to them about is what outcomes are you looking for? What would success look like? How can you make what's implicit to you explicit? Say the quiet part out loud. If you need it to be five pages long for some reason, say it needs to be five pages long If you need 93% of people renewing instead of 89, you need to say that people aren't going to know that's what successful means to you. So what outcomes? What specifically? Why is it important? Why have you assigned it to them? Why does it matter that they get it done? Why this and why now?
Speaker 1:When does this need to be completed by? If you just leave it open, oh, when you have time because you're trying to be nice. That's not being a cool boss. That's being confusing. Clear is kind. If they can't do it in that amount of time, try and figure out. Why Is there too much on their plate? Do they need to put something else aside because this is more important? Definitely, be clear. This needs to be done by X time, or why don't you get started on this. Have this much ready within a week and we'll check in and just review where you are and do next steps.
Speaker 1:So when does the need to be completed? What are some benchmarks along the way? Are there going to be times where you're going to be checking in, making sure it's moving in the right direction? For a short test, hey, write an email to this person. For me that is not going to be necessary, but if it's a large project or strategic initiative, which I do recommend passing on to people, yeah, you're going to want to review slices of their work and that's going to be reassuring for them to hear yes, I'm on the right track. So, knowing that they're not going to have to just fly by the seat of their pants, they're going to be times where you're going to be checking in. It's reassuring to them too.
Speaker 1:And where can they go for resources, examples, advice, what's worked well before, what hasn't worked well before? You don't have to tell them every single way to do it, but you do need to give them some guidance in some direction. So how are you going to make sure that you are aligned on these things? You can have them repeat back to you, not saying repeat what I just said, but saying okay, so tell me how you understand this, just to make sure that we're on the right page. To make sure that I've been clear, you can have them write it down and send it back to you. Okay, so this is what I'm clear on what I should be doing. Or you can have another way of doing it, but make sure that you have a way that it is communicated after you've said it by them, either in writing or verbally, to make sure that you're both on the same page. So that is how you would instruct someone how to do something.
Speaker 1:The other thing is, if they have questions, you don't necessarily need to give them the answer. This is all about teach a man to fish instead of give a man to fish or woman. Just, we're going to be doling out some fishing rods, is what's happening. And one of the best ways that you can do that is to start coaching instead of instructing. And the difference here is you ask questions instead of give an answer. So if someone says, hey, I'm having this problem, instead of saying, oh sure, I know what to do about that. I've had that problem, I did this and it works really well, which is very tempting, and I still do that. And then yell at myself afterwards which we don't have to yell at ourselves. See, even I do it. We're all just trying to get better day by day.
Speaker 1:But with coaching, instead of saying if someone says, oh, I'm having a problem with this, instead of giving the answer that you would ask them Okay, what are our options here? And if none of them seem good, what do you see as our options? And then let them spell that out Okay, so which of those are you leaning towards? Act as if you are not the expert on this. Act as if they have the answers you're just waiting for. Yes, you can guide them if they're going down a wrong path. If they say, all right, this is the path I'm gonna choose, you can say, oh, that does sound great.
Speaker 1:One question what about this one part of that? Oh, you wanna take that bridge across? Okay, great, what is your plan to deal with the alligators that guard that bridge? Random, I don't know why. That's my example, but it is. It's just there might be things they're not aware of. And if they say, oh, didn't know there were alligators, yeah, do we have a plan for that, or do we wanna go a different way.
Speaker 1:Again, it's always asking these questions and it's hard and it takes practice. Definitely try practicing on other people. Try saying things like tell me more, instead of jumping in with your thoughts. People love this. I can't tell you how much. When was the last time someone told you to tell them more? It's very validating and it allows them to get some confidence in what they're talking about, because that's gonna be another part of it. It's just a lack of confidence if people haven't done something before. You have to get confident that they are capable and you have to help them be confident that they're capable. The other part of this with the whole, it's just easier.
Speaker 1:If I do it, if you're the only one that can do these things. That kind of makes you a gatekeeper, not just in the sense that it can make you feel more secure in your job. What the heck would they do without me, because I'm the one who does all these things. I hate to break it to you. They would figure it out. I've been in that situation before where I'm like I do freaking everything here, good luck if I'm not around. And guess what, when I left that job, the entire company did not crumble to the ground, which kind of shocked me and felt mildly insulting.
Speaker 1:But yes, you may be doing many important things, but that's because you're choosing to and not necessarily because it's essential. Does everything have to be done by you? Why, most things can be done by someone else. You have to think about what is your responsibility to impact and are you doing that strategically? If you are responsible for impacting NRR, are you doing that in a big picture way, by creating new systems and processes that are gonna make a bigger difference? Or are you doing that tactically, where you're just really staying in the weeds and doing the little things because, oh, if I don't do this, it's going to impact NRR. Guess which one is more effective? And look, if you don't sit down and stop to think about these things, of course you're going to go with the reactive, because it's right in front of your face and if you don't do it, it feels like you or your team as a whole is going to get punished. And NCS, which is a field of lagging indicators, sometimes you have to be willing to take the long view and go for what's better long term. I'm not saying let all of your accounts crash and burn. I'm saying if someone's a little upset. They can wait an hour. They're not going to turn just because you didn't get back to them in one hour.
Speaker 1:So the benefits of delegating is that everything gets more efficient. You're able to focus on strategic tasks and you're using your resources more effectively. Your team is more than just cogs in a machine. Lean into what they're good at. Find out what they're good at. What are your strengths? Play to those A lot of the time. You'll find they're really good at a whole bunch of different things and you can use them for those kinds of particular tasks and it will be really satisfying to them, because it's really satisfying to do what you're good at.
Speaker 1:One way to implement change, to overcome this mindset of that. It's easier if you do it. Figure out which tasks are right for delegation, figure their strengths and have some open communication when you are in your weekly team meeting. That doesn't need to be all updates. That can be brainstorming. That can be strategy. That can be saying, all right, what are you good at? I have something that needs to be done. Who wants to grab it? Who would be great at this? This is your chance to shine. It really does start to build morale. I'll tell you, when I started acting like this, it tripled the efficiency of my team. I was shocked. I really was. I knew they were good. I just thought I would be overstepping if I was asking them to do anything other than what was already on their plates in their day to day. That's just not the case. People want to grow. What I look at in a lot of these things is evolutionary psychology. It always fascinates me how basically immature our brains are, how little they've changed since Cape Mandays.
Speaker 1:The way we look at our employment is it's something that can trigger fight or flight. It is tied to our survival because we equate it with something that provides us food, provides us shelter. If absolutely anything threatens that, we immediately go into fight or flight. You're just going to feel uncomfortable, you're going to feel nervous. You're going to want to do something, in this case, jumping on this, doing it, making it okay. Now my job is okay. Now I am secure. I don't have to worry anymore.
Speaker 1:If you've ever noticed, there's a lot of anxiety with work that you can't quite pin your finger on. It's something vaguely around. Oh my God, I'm going to get fired, even though you're not really. That that's a little bit extreme, in the same way that our bodies aren't programmed to look at the bright side. If we did that, evolutionarily that wasn't a good idea. Looked at the bright side, you assume things were going to be fine. You got eaten by a tiger. You can't be like, oh, I'm sure that noise was nothing, I'm sure it's just a sparrow. No, you're getting eaten by a tiger, because that kept us alive this whole time. Our brain says, well, that's an important thing to be able to do, to freak out over pretty much everything. That's going to continue.
Speaker 1:One of the things that I have found helpful is just knowing why I'm feeling the way that I'm feeling that it's just my body trying not to get eaten by a tiger. It's not necessarily that everything is falling apart. Things are not necessarily that serious. Just, first and foremost, getting that anxiety part out of the way, because I think that's what trips a lot of us up. I need to hold on to this because I need to hold on to the security of my job, the security of keeping my family safe, security of food, security of shelter.
Speaker 1:If you are in a leadership position, no one expects you to do every single little thing yourself. That is not doing your job. That is, reacting out of fear rather than leading. So just wanted to put that out there. Now that we know why we do that, sometimes it gets a little bit easier to say all right, I know what I'm doing. This is my nervous system freaking out, and there are a number of things you can do to relax your nervous system If you have that sort of fight or flight. Alternate nostril breathing you can do, box breathing you can do. This is actually really useful for panic attacks, but it works for lower level anxiety. Check in with each of your senses something that you can feel physically, something that you can smell, something you can see, something that you can hear, and what taste is there in your mouth? Can you taste your coffee from before? Can you taste your lunch? I don't know? Gross, but it works. It's just very grounding. So doing that tells your body all right, if we're checking in with these things, we're probably not running away. It's probably okay to chill out now. So those are all a few cool techniques to help if you are feeling jumpy on these things.
Speaker 1:So one of the big things that I see CS leaders fall into is not just with their teams, it's with other teams where the other team will make a mistake, you'll tell them about it, say, hey, this impacts the customer. Could you not do that? Could you do it like this? They say yeah, yeah, and then they do the mistake again and again and you realize that it's going to impact the customer and that is going to impact your metrics, your bonuses, your job. So it feels, yeah, it's their job. But I don't really have a choice. It's just easier if I do it than it is to fight them and it feels like an excuse if I'm just carrying that up the line every time, saying it's their fault, it's their fault.
Speaker 1:That said, that's another way in which you're shooting yourself in the foot, because if you are fixing something for other departments, it's like putting your finger in a day. You only have so many fingers, you only have so many hands and those need to be working on your work, not somebody else's. So if there are flaws, you need to call them out. You need to tie it to revenue. You need to say this team, they're selling to people who aren't ICPs, or this team, they're not doing the implementation fully. And as much as it sucks to call someone else out on that, you can't be forced to fix all of these things yourself.
Speaker 1:So being able to say they're doing this and this is how much revenue is at stake due to that, counting up all the accounts for which that's relevant, tying it back to accounts that have churned who have had that same flaw, and we're even just tying it to look, this is the amount of time we're spending fixing this so that people don't churn, and with that time, we could be doing this, we could be upselling, but we're not, because we're stuck doing these other people's work, always want to tie it to revenue. That's what's going to get people to do something about it. That's one of the ways that you learn to operate in a leadership role. All right, so give that a try. Delegate one thing this week. Look at something that you have done more than once where you think it's just easier if you do it and teach someone to fish I'm mixing all my metaphors all over the place, but figure out one thing you can delegate this week. Give it a try, let me know how it goes, and here's to your success.