JIM Arenovski, longtime resident and president of Island Training Solutions, talked about community and economic development during the Rotary Club of Saipan’s weekly luncheon meeting at the Hyatt’s Giovanni’s Restaurant on Tuesday.
With wit and humor, Arenovski pointed out the connection between economic development and individual attitudes.
In the CNMI, he said, the economy relies heavily on tourism, and tourists have customer service needs.
“Let me connect the dots,” he added. “I believe having staff, a community and an island with a great attitude will lead to friendly people and improved customer service and help our economy grow.”
Arenovski said a positive attitude is important and “can work for you and I.”
Every great notable businessman, salesman and professional development person, he said, has spoken or written about attitude and its importance in one’s professional and personal success.
He recommended books by Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie, Jim Rohn, Brian Tracy, John Maxwell and Jeffrey Gitomer.
“It’s time to go to the library. You have some great reading to do,” Arenovski said.
Choose better
“So how is your attitude?” he asked. “I assure you it probably can get better, including mine. In essence it is not what happens to you but how you deal with what happens to you. You always have a choice on how to react, negative or positive.”
Arenovski believes that attitude makes up 50% of a person’s personal and professional success.
So “why are we not more focused on attitude? Where are the classes on ‘Attitude’? Why don’t human resources and hiring managers place more focus on soft skills (attitude) than hard skills and experience?”
Arenovski noted that people are usually hired for their hard skills and fired for their lack of soft skills.
“If you have a business, how confident are you that your staff are delivering at 100% positive attitude, great customer service and going the extra mile for your customers? What have you done this week to improve the attitude of your staff? How do you think the attitude of your staff is right now? Are their interactions with customers great or indifferent or worse, causing customers to look at your competition? Oh my, I have got you thinking about the importance of attitude now,” Arenovski said.
He said, “No employee wakes up saying, ‘how can I screw up at work today?’ Or ‘what can I do so my boss yells at me?’ Or ‘how can I get a customer so upset that they will look at the competition?’”
Arenovski said he continues to see supervisors, managers and owners fail at encouraging and motivating employees.
Instead, they provide negative feedback and criticism when their employees make simple errors. “It’s hard to have a positive attitude when the boss is bringing employees down. Don’t you think?”
He said there is instant negative attitude, but not instant positive attitude.
One’s pre-verbal attitude, he added, “flows downhill and whatever management is dishing out [to an employee] will be served directly to the customer. Businesses need to take a hard look at management and staff and their attitude.”
Arenovski said a positive or “yes” attitude allows people to be friendly and open — not defensive.
“And ‘friendly’ is the foundation of great customer service. Grumpy people do not deliver great customer service, period. Never have and never will. Yet businesses still hire them and then do little to help improve their attitude,” he said.
In contrast, people with a “yes” attitude will look for ways to help a co-worker or a customer.
“Kind of like a fireman — ‘yes’ attitude people run towards the problem, not away from it,” Arenovski said.
“When people say they are bored at work, they are mostly ‘no’ people. ‘Yes’ people are never bored. They are too busy creating loyal customers…customers for life. They work with the intent of solving customer issues effectively and with speed. In the unlikely event that ‘yes’ people cannot solve the problem, they come up with alternatives and work with their team to get a positive result. ‘No’ people are pretty much self-absorbed. It is all about them. ‘Why did this have to happen on my shift? My boss is going to get mad at me.’ The ‘no’ staff would rather have the customer disappear than have to explain there was a problem to management or have to work to solve that issue.”
People with bad attitudes like to blame others, which is the opposite of being responsible, he added.
Improving tourism
Arenovski said the CNMI has a service and tourist-based economy, “and it will stay that way for the foreseeable future.”
To improve tourism, he added, “I hear a lot about destination enhancement, and this usually comes in the form of [renovations] or cleanups, etc. I agree, but in my opinion, it cannot be all infrastructure related. I have been around long enough to know paint is not the whole answer. People are the answer. They always have been and always will be. I rarely hear efforts involving ‘people enhancement.’ Ever gone to a beautiful, shiny restaurant that had great food but crappy service?”
He said businesses and the government could spend some of their time, money and effort on people.
“Painting the railings at Mt. Tapochao or having shiny trash bins is not going to overcome the bad service tourists get at a restaurant or the lack of friendly greetings when checking in at the hotel,” Arenovski said.
“Have you ever gone on vacation and said, ‘Wow, they really have some great paint job on that fence and cement wall!’ Instead you talk about your most memorable experiences and they usually involve people. It looks good — your staff out there painting and cleaning. Yeah, community service. There is nothing wrong with that, but it’s ironic that businesses don’t spend equal time and money on improving the service and attitude of those same employees.
“If we collectively spend more time improving attitudes and service knowledge with the people who represent the image of our business/community/island, this will help make the guest’s experience great and, in turn, our community will have better employment, better opportunities, and if they are great at customer service — great upward job mobility. We have to remind everyone about the importance of our tourists having a great experience. And we just need a better attitude. It would be a great start,” Arenovski said.
He said greeting people better or offering to help while smiling are the things done by people with a “yes” attitude. “And those who don’t, can be taught,” he added.
“I am a believer in people and especially the people of the CNMI. I have trained, employed, developed literally hundreds of people. There is huge raw talent in our local workforce just waiting to be tapped, they just need developing. Many people I have worked with have become successful, whether in getting a college degree, working their way up to a great position or opening their own business. These folks did not always start with great attitudes, but they eventually got it,” Arenovski said.
Providing workers with attitude/customer service training and awareness will help tourists and residents alike, he added.
“When a tourist returns to Korea and sits around the table with friends and family and speaks of their experience on Saipan, we want them to mention how friendly and helpful the people were,” Arenovski said.
It’s the same with a resident from Kagman talking with their family about a new restaurant.
“We want them to share a great positive experience. Could having a great service experience attract more residents to employment in that industry? I can tell you that a bad one will certainly not.”
Arenovski said we should “choose to help ourselves and others have a better attitude. A ‘yes’ attitude will improve one’s outlook, a company’s outlook, an island’s outlook.”
And this, along with more traditional destination enhancement efforts, will help transform the CNMI into a top tourist destination in our region, he said.
Island Training Solutions President Jim Arenovski, center, poses for a photo with Rotary Club of Saipan President Wendell Posadas, third left, and other Rotarians Tuesday at the Hyatt Regency Saipan’s Giovanni’s Restaurant.
