I don't think it's unfair to expect our team members to come slightly equipped for their jobs prior to being hired.  As a leader, you can't teach everything.  And you shouldn't have to.  Once I applied for a position in my home town as a Special Correspondent for the local newspaper to cover high school football.  In the interview, the editor asked me what I thought was the strangest questions.  Apparently the answers to those questions were accompanied with an expression on my face that encouraged him to apologize.  He said: "Forgive me.  You would be surprised at how many interviews I've held where no one knew how much a field goal is worth." In an interview to be a lifeguard, it is not far-fetched to assume that the applicant can swim and isn't allergic to salt water or chlorine.  In an interview as a taxi driver, I think its fair to assume that the applicant has a drivers license  and knows his left from his right.  Likewise, as an agent of customer service, we should assume many things, one of which is that you possess a smidge of what we call Self-X: self-confidence, self-worth, and self-importance.  It is the absence of or the delusionary sense of the Self-X that causes most disastrous encounters with our customers.

No Self-X:

The absence of Self-X is like being at the bottom of a well or canyon.  While at the bottom you are desperately trying to climb back up- to no avail no matter what you try.  Here are a couple characteristics of No Self-X:

1. They are easily offended.  Their feelings are easily hurt and fragile.  Any hint of a confrontation fires up or displays back at them the diminished sense of self they have of themselves in their minds.
2. In each confrontation they begin the futile pursuit of trying to get out of the canyon, trying to Prove their Self-X by arguing their point and standing firm at all costs.  All in the pursuit to be right or at the very least to be viewed as right in the eyes of the person perceived as a threat.

Too Much Self-X:

In a person with a heightened Self-X, they are the person standing on a cloud, looking down on everyone from their imagined high perch. Here are the characteristics of the person with Self-X:
too much

1. They too are easily offended.  What differentiates them from those with no Self-X is anger.  Those with a heightened Self-X believes that in every confrontation someone is trying to bring them down from their elevated position.
2. The are highly confrontational.  They will volunteer or ignite confrontations.  They welcome multiple opportunities to display their supposed superiority.  They delight in the challenge of being right.

What both have in common are the unmitigated desire to be right.  We must remove the pursuit to be right from Customer Service. Hiring people with a reasonable Self-X will definitely aid in doing so.  A person that is confident in who they are can weather any confrontation.  Their goal will not be to prove themselves right and the customer wrong, but more so how can I resolve the conflict satisfactorily in the mind of the customer.  A strong Self-X removes "me and my" desire to be right and focuses squarely on conflict resolution, customer satisfaction, and customer retention.

Check the pulse of your teams Self-X.  Have a Self-EXpectation for all your new hires and those currently working with you.

• Jeff Staton is a Task Force and Transitional General manager for the 2nd largest hotel management company in the United States. 
• He has over 20 years of experience in the hospitality.
• Jeff is the Principal member and CEO of Sankofa Hospitality and Creator of Pendeza Customer Relations Training.
• Jeff speaks professionally an consults frontline and hospitality leaders across the US.

Contact Jeff at 815-683-8093 or [email protected] to speak to your team and for his intinarary.