TJX, the parent company of TJ Maxx, revealed in its most recent SEC filing that hackers may have stolen more than 40 million credit card numbers of customers.

Bad things happen to good companies. At the same time, they cannot hide behind the bad news.

The company learned about the security breach last December and promptly began working with law enforcement. It disclosed the breach when law enforcement officials said doing so would not jeopardize the investigation. This was the right course of action.

The latest disclosure, however, is disturbing. Mistake No. 1: An SEC filing is no way to share bad news with customers, especially something as personal and worrisome as identify theft.

Mistake No. 2: The complete absence of the CEO Carol Meyrowitz. She should be meeting with reporters to apologize to customers for the error, explain the next steps, and tell customers how they can get help. So far, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Security analysts estimate the breach could cost TJX $1.5 billion to fix. The loss of goodwill will be infinitely larger for every day the company buries its head in the sand.

Back to top

Southwest has a history of getting it right. The airline receives high ratings for consumer and business travel. It has succeeded financially while other airlines struggled. And, it’s consistently rated a good place to work.

Add customer service to the list.

Five years ago, the airline initiated a proactive customer communications program when something wrong happens with a flight. Chief apology officer Fred Taylor keeps track of every problem (delays, foul odors, technical issues, etc.) and writes more than 180 letters every year to more than 20,000 customers. The letters usually include free tickets.

Southwest’s program is getting positive attention because of recent negative issues with other airlines. Southwest looks great while its competition struggles to make it right.

Southwest’s program proves that great customer service is systemic not episodic. President Colleen Barrett handpicked Taylor years ago to start the program and has supported him throughout the process. Taylor also says he has to ability to call upon any one at any time in the company to find out what happened in a particular situation.

Back to top

Next time you have any angry client, try taking the H.E.A.T.

Hear them out because dissatisfied client want to know someone cares and is willing to listen. Empathize to show you understand why the client might be feeling the way that he or she does at the time. Apologize for the inconvenience. Finally, take responsibility for action that addresses the client’s practical needs.

Back to top

It seems to make sense: engaged employees are more productive and less likely to leave. Productivity and retention lead to superior financial performance. Financial performance leads to greater market share and shareholder value.

HR giant Watson Wyatt has proved it. More importantly, they have proved that employee engagement is a leading indicator of financial success. The company’s research shows that highly engaged employees lead to 22 percent higher market premium and 57 percent greater shareholder return.

Here’s the engagement formula.

The first step is employee commitment, where employees are motivated to help the company succeed. Commitment results from a number of factors, including confidence in the company’s leadership, confidence in the company’s direction, and frequent communications about the company and its direction.

The second step is what Watson Wyatt calls line of sight. As the name implies, line of sight means that employees can see how the work they do every day impacts the company’s success.

The combination of the employee commitment and line of sight results in a powerful formula where employees are motivated to help the company succeed and know what they have to do to ensure that success.

The report is available on the Watson Wyatt website.

• Effective Communication: A Leading Indicator of Financial Performance - 2005/2006 Communication ROI Study™

Back to top

www.leadershipagility.com

The Leadership Agility website features a 10-minute self-assessment that provides a tailored assessment of your leadership style. The assessment is based on leadership styles identified in the book by the same name by Bill Joiner and Stephen Josephs. The authors contend that agile leadership styles are required to maintain personal effectiveness in times of turbulent change.

Click here to start your Leadership Agility profile

Back to top

StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath

Keeping with the assessment theme…StrengthsFinder 2.0 is the second iteration of groundbreaking research by Dr. Donald Clifton and a team of Gallup researchers.

The research centers around the principles that everyone has certain strengths and that personal success results from capitalizing on strengths rather than focusing on weaknesses.

StrengthsFinder 2.0 begins with an online assessment that takes about 30 minutes. The assessment reveals five signature strengths and provides more than 50 ideas for improving on each. Examples of strengths include Adaptability, Competition, Ideation, Learning, and Relator. In all, Clifton’s research has identified 34 different strengths.

StrengthFinder 2.0 also includes suggestions for exploring your strengths and setting goals based on them.

You can read more about the book, assessment, and supporting research at www.strengthsfinder.com.

Back to top