A former teacher told me about the difficulty that she faced in dealing with a naughty student in the class who refused to listen.
It disrupted her mood and affected her ability to teach the other students.
I gave her my view on this matter.
In all jobs, there will be the exceptions that are difficult to handle. It could be a teacher dealing with a difficult student. It could also be a customer service officer dealing with a demanding and difficult customer.
We need an effective way of dealing with exceptions.
In each school, there will be a discipline master that handles difficult students. The teacher can just ask the discipline master to deal with the difficult student. She can focus on teaching the other students.
In the customer service situation, the officer can ask the supervisor to take care of the customer. It is called "escalation".
I have adopted the escalation approach. It is simple and works effectively.
The problem faced by most workers is that the SOP (standard operating procedure) usually do not provide for escalation. It forces the front line worker (i.e teacher or customer service officer) to deal with the exceptions. This approach does not work. The front line worker should deal with the normal cases.
It is the job of the supervisors or specialists to deal with exceptions.
The former teacher also told me about the difficulty of dealing with demanding parents. I told her the same approach. The teacher can pass the difficult parents to be dealt by the vice principal. They are trained to handle this task.
When I was running a large insurance company as the CEO, I was at the top of the escalation chain. It works well. It is easy for me to handle the very difficult cases.
When the customer reaches me, the customer is already tired of dealing with three levels below me. They become quite reasonable, when it reached my level.
I recommend this approach of dealing with problems.
Tan Kin Lian
It disrupted her mood and affected her ability to teach the other students.
I gave her my view on this matter.
In all jobs, there will be the exceptions that are difficult to handle. It could be a teacher dealing with a difficult student. It could also be a customer service officer dealing with a demanding and difficult customer.
We need an effective way of dealing with exceptions.
In each school, there will be a discipline master that handles difficult students. The teacher can just ask the discipline master to deal with the difficult student. She can focus on teaching the other students.
In the customer service situation, the officer can ask the supervisor to take care of the customer. It is called "escalation".
I have adopted the escalation approach. It is simple and works effectively.
The problem faced by most workers is that the SOP (standard operating procedure) usually do not provide for escalation. It forces the front line worker (i.e teacher or customer service officer) to deal with the exceptions. This approach does not work. The front line worker should deal with the normal cases.
It is the job of the supervisors or specialists to deal with exceptions.
The former teacher also told me about the difficulty of dealing with demanding parents. I told her the same approach. The teacher can pass the difficult parents to be dealt by the vice principal. They are trained to handle this task.
When I was running a large insurance company as the CEO, I was at the top of the escalation chain. It works well. It is easy for me to handle the very difficult cases.
When the customer reaches me, the customer is already tired of dealing with three levels below me. They become quite reasonable, when it reached my level.
I recommend this approach of dealing with problems.
Tan Kin Lian
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