Skill vs Attitude

You may or may not have heard about Aston Villa’s recent relegation from the premier league to the championship. But, the main question I’ve have been asking is how has one of the UK’s most popular clubs with an incredibly passionate fan base got it so wrong this season?

In contrast, take a look a Leicester City who are currently set to win the premier league when only last season they were struggling in the bottom three with their toes in danger of being tagged for the relegation morgue.

So what has been the difference between these two teams at opposite ends of the league table? On paper, they have similar assets, players with similar skillsets and a good fan base cheering them on (or not) each week.

After speaking with Sian Belfield, Customer Services Director of WST travel, it’s clear that to be successful you need to recruit people with the right attitude before solely hiring based on skill.

She said:

“When we recruit at WST, we are a value based company, so in other words we don’t necessarily go out to attract people with the skills that we need, but we attract the people with the values we need…”

“Ultimately you can’t really give an employee a value. You can’t give them the value of being an honest person – they will come with that. You can’t give them professionalism – You can demonstrate it, whether they take it on or not is up to them.”

Going back to the example of Aston Villa and Leicester, we see two teams with two very different attitudes. On the one hand you have a team led by a captain who takes off to Dubai when in reality he should be motivating his team to work harder in training to get a win for their customers (fans). On the other hand, you have a team of players who work tirelessly for one another and it shows. Their customers (fans) are happy and they understand they have a duty to please their loyal supporters – Aston Villa I’m sure is a stark reminder that keeping your customers happy relies on having the right people in the squad.

Watch Sian Belfield share her views on customer service, people and business growth: