Net Jets

131: Diana Oreck: I was so obsessed with work

Intro: Welcome to the Fast Leader Podcast, where we explore convenient yet effective shortcuts that will help you get ahead and move forward faster by becoming a better leader. And now here’s your host, customer and employee engagement expert and certified emotional intelligence practitioner, Jim Rembach.

The number one thing that contributes to customer loyalty is emotions. So, move onward and upward faster by gaining significantly deeper insight and understanding of your customer journey and personas with emotional intelligence. With your empathy mapping workshop you’ll learn how to evoke and influence the right customer emotions that generate improved customer loyalty and reduce your cost to operate. Get over your emotional hump now by going to empathymapping.com to learn more. 

Okay, Fast Leader legion, today I’m excited because the person that I have on the show today knows how to build a legendary customer experience. Diana Oreck was born and raised in Mexico City, Mexico along with her younger brother Paul. Her father was a real estate developer and her mother was a correspondent school owner. Before her father passed away in 202 her parents had been married 7 years. Growing up in Mexico her parents had many friends in the hotel business this inspired Diana to attend Hotel School in Switzerland this led to a decade’s long career in customer service. 

Diana Oreck is now the Executive Vice-President Owner Experience and reports directly to the NetJets Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. In her role Diana is responsible for overseeing all customer service functions and ensuring that Net Jets provides legendary service with every Owner and every travel experience.  Diana brings over 30 years of experience in the hospitality industry to her role. Diana joined NetJets from Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center, a corporate university open to the public to provide opportunities to leadership and learning professionals from a variety of industries. Under her leadership the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, was named the best Global Training Company in the world in 2007 as ranked by “Training Magazine”.

Diana was named one of the top 100 people in Learning and Development by “Leadership Excellence Magazine”. In May 200, Diana’s case study on “Radar On, Antenna Up, Fulfilling Even the Unexpressed Wishes and Needs of Customers” was accepted by Cornell University’s Hospitality Research Center.  The legacy she is proud to leave behind is even when events or people become very difficult it always pays to be gracious. Diana currently lives in Columbus, Ohio with Chuck her husband of 2 years and her miniature schnauzer Jets. Diana Oreck, are ready to help us get over the hump?

Diana Oreck:   I am, Jim. I’m totally ready.

Jim Rembach:  I’m glad you’re here. I’ve given our listeners a little bit about you but can you tell us what your current passion is so that we can get to know you even better?

Diana Oreck:   Absolutely. Professionally, my current passion hasn’t changed in decades, I’m really fascinated by organizational culture and fabulous service. Because we’re all consumers Jim and when we get great service it’s like poetry in motion it’s like a choreographed ballet and when we don’t it’s right out of Stephen King. And I do believe that providing, extending legendary service it is a true art form, so nothing has changed there. Personally, my passion right now is my puppy Jets and I always love jazz.

Jim Rembach:  I had the opportunity to see you do a keynote speech at the IQPC Call Center Week—Winter in New Orleans and for me a lot of the things that you were talking about for me I was just like head nodding, I think I actually might have sprained myself a little bit, you started talking really about emotional intelligence types of things in order to be able to create that legendary customer experience and that really what draw me to you. And I chatted with you afterwards like—oh, I can talk about this emotional intelligence stuff all day. 

Diana Oreck:   I could. 

Jim Rembach:    But when you start thinking about emotional intelligence and leadership and things like that, what is the most intriguing to you?

Diana Oreck:   The most intriguing to me about service is the way so many companies, Jim, are overthinking it. The good news is at the end of the day it really comes down to four C’s. And that’s showing care and concern, common sense and common courtesy and I am just so intrigued by how many companies find it so difficult, it’s a mystery to me. Because I do think that you can learn how to extend legendary service. A lot of people say, well it costs millions and billions, it really doesn’t. Some of it does, but looking people in the eye, giving a firm handshake, smiling is a universal language so that intrigues me. 

Jim Rembach:  For those that may not be aware could you give a quick explanation of what NetJets is.

Diana Oreck:   Yes, absolutely. NetJets, we are a private aviation company. If we were commercial we’d be the fourth largest airline in the world and we’re almost like a timeshare in the sky. We sell aircraft to owners on a timeshare basis we also have a card product so you can buy a certain amount of hours to fly. Total we have about 700 aircraft worldwide. Our corporate office in the US is here in Columbus. We have a smaller one in Lisbon, Portugal.

Jim Rembach:  Essentially you’re talking about leasing, time sharing and ownership and chartering jets. 

Diana Oreck:    And cards exactly. We don’t charter we just have the fractional and the cards and we lease, and we lease. 

Jim Rembach:  Of course we talked about you being from the Ritz-Carlton as well. Somebody could sit here and say that—Huh, if we’re talking about Ritz-Carlton we’re talking about NetJets being your owners are people who are of wealth, is that required in order to be able to give this service? But you’re saying no it’s simple.

Diana Oreck:   No. I don’t think it does. I think you can be in a supermarket and extend legendary service it is absolutely about connecting with people. I’ll give you a great example, I was in a supermarket recently and I was reading, for relaxation I like to read trash The National Enquirer just boggles the mind. I’m in the line and I can’t remember the headline but it was so cool because my cashier, she made a connection with me, whatever the headline was. She said, oh my goodness isn’t that silly? She could have been just focused on the machine or whatever we can all do that that’s creating these emotional connections. This is what’s interesting in my world, Jim, yes the majority of the people that use NetJets are extremely wealthy, billionaires, millionaires they don’t need anything material from us they can buy their own aircraft, their own mansion, their own jet they do want that personal touch. 

Let me tell you a very funny story. Obviously, when I get called out of a meeting it’s not because one of our owners wants to ask about my health I know something’s gone really bad. I get called out of a meeting recently and I’m looking in all of our charts to see do I have a record of poor service for this lady that I’m about to speak to? I don’t. Everything looks great we’ve not had issues mechanicals her on-time departure has been fine. And so I picked up the phone and I say, “Good afternoon, Mrs. So-and-So” and she’s laughing. She said, Diana got you I made you scared didn’t I? I said, yes, how can I help you? She said, Diana I myself have a new puppy she’s been flying with me for four months now and I was so touched that the pilot took the time to put a blanket on my puppy. Think about that. She gets me out of a meeting to tell me that she was so wowed by this kindness. So, I love it, that’s why I love service. 

Jim Rembach:  I have to presume—and thanks for sharing that story, I have to presume that based on the story that you told and also seeing your keynotes speech is that you’re not really giving people the tools and the support to essentially create a legendary experience per se . What I mean by that is it’s all these little mindful points, these interaction points—call them touch what you want to call them, that ultimately lead to that outcome.

Diana Oreck:   Correct. And what we’re giving, what I am giving is opening people’s eyes up to the fact that service is all about psychology. And in service don’t sweat the small stuff does not apply it is all small stuff, it’s just a different way of looking at things, so that’s what we’re giving. Now we do have what I have created, we have a framework a culture framework called our 20/20 Flight plan. And it does give guidance such as for our owners, us as the staff we need to see ourselves through the lens of the owners through the eyes of our owners. Some of the tactics to get there are things like provide on-time performance,  make each travel experience special and personalized, attract and retain owners, so we do teach the how to’s under those buckets. But it really it’s just about common courtesies at the end of the day and in any industry can do that. 

Jim Rembach:  What you’re just explaining—I see where a lot of organizations kind of struggle with the whole process piece and the ability for individuals to do some creative thinking. 

Diana Oreck:   Yeah. I would like to say this to your audience, Jim, there is a misconception out there most people think that it’s just all about giving the great service. That’s only part of the equation you have to have something called the systems behind the smiles. Your company has to have robust systems and processes that your employees can rely upon to deliver your brand promise, whatever your brand promise is, and that gets overlooked a lot.

Jim Rembach:  When I start thinking about a lot of the folks that are in the workforce and the  educational process that all of us have gone through is that the whole creative thinking element inside of us is actually squashed and there’s research that has proven it over and over—is that we’re more creative—

Diana Oreck:   I would agree with that. 

Jim Rembach:  –and so when you start thinking about some of the process behind those smiles, and I totally agree with you having that framework and that support system so that people can have trust in what they’re doing is important, but how do we keep them from not being so processed driven that they forget the mindfulness piece—the emotional intelligence piece the small stuff that’s really going to make ultimately that fantastic and legendary service experience?

Diana Oreck:   This is where we’ve come full-circle. We’ve started our conversation around emotional intelligence and the reality is this Jim I am not convinced that you can be a good service provider without having empathy as a human being. You’ve got to be able to do this. See yourselves through the eyes of your customers, patients, owners, members so that’s where it gets very difficult. You’ve got to have empathy. 

Jim Rembach:  For me there’s two things there. First of all, I have to screen for people who have that ability that aptitude if you even want to call it that we can actually develop that competency even further. But then we also have, especially when I start thinking about your industry and what you’re doing, we don’t have a huge abundance of people who can fly.

Diana Oreck:   No. It’s a tiny, tiny market. 

Right. I’ve got to work with what I have as far as my workforce. How do you go about actually getting those people to develop those emotional intelligence skills because we know they can be developed? 

Diana Oreck:   Look, the reality is this I will give you an umbrella statement. In my opinion when I look at the selection process in companies and the training processes think of a dollar I would always say put $0.90 cents towards your selection process and $0.10 cents towards training because you nailed it. If you can bring the right people into your organization that have it in their DNA that have the service, a heart you’re way ahead of the game. Now, there are many companies out there that do this behavioral selection process where they are looking to see if you’ve got a service heart, so it can be done, it’s costly though not every company can afford that. Let’s pretend you can’t do that then you can role model empathy, you can teach empathy, you can teach the five components of emotional intelligence. That is self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy motivation and social skills. What I would have to say is you have to make sure that your department heads and your managers are walking the talk and are teaching these elements. 

Jim Rembach:  Definitely. For me I’ve learned over the course of my years they say the good Lord doesn’t give us youth and wisdom at the same time. 

Diana Oreck:   No they don’t. 

Jim Rembach:  For me I’ve seen that a lot of the things that we’re talking about here has to do with being in forefront of mind having to be primary and not secondary or tertiary or not even on a plate. And so you—I think that’s where you’re—what I see is that’s where your systems piece comes into play is that the systems helps folks keep it in the forefront of their mind. 

Diana Oreck:   Correct. Correct and this is what’s interesting too and a great big shout out to Ritz Carlton because I spent many, many twelve very happy years there and they are just phenomenal on the culture piece. They keep it top of mind because they align back to their culture every single day 24/7 and they don’t spend hours talking about it they do something called the lineup where every day in every department they’re aligning back to one piece of the culture. So you’re right you’ve got to keep it top of mind because most companies have vision, mission stuff but it’s often just a piece of paper with the gold frame, the employees aren’t living it every day. Culture and service is not a once and done. You don’t get to teach it once and not constantly reinforce, you’ve got to reinforce it. 

Jim Rembach:  You’ve kind of really have uncovered the issue with others and why they can’t deliver this type of services because their focus is on—hey, we have to cut we have to you know become more lean. Or their focus is on—hey, we’ve got to meet our numbers. Or you’ve got to meet your numbers. 

Diana Oreck:   I will say this for having studied it for over 30 years, you cannot give great service if you’re not appropriately staffed. I’m not saying over-staffed, appropriately staffed. 

Jim Rembach:  There is such thing as being too lean. 

Diana Oreck:   And you cut into the muscle, right? 

Jim Rembach:  Absolutely. I just saw a piece on my local news which was talking about our national weather service here in the states and saying how they’re understaffed by a 160 positions. I can imagine from your industry that’s frightening. 

Diana Oreck:   Terrifying. Terrifying. And again in our world plus the fact we couldn’t do that because we’re all about safety as you can imagine and we would never jeopardize safety we can’t. 

Jim Rembach:  Right. But the two lean thing can have far-reaching impacts. All of what we’re talking about legendary experience, not providing that or even an adequate one, there’s a lot of emotion associated with that and on the show we look at quotes in order to help us focus. Is there a quote that you can share? 

Diana Oreck:   This is my favorite quote and I don’t know if it’s a Diana quote or it’s anonymous or where I got it. It is, I love drama but only in the theater. I cannot stand it when managers create psychic turbulence for their employees. I also don’t like it in the past when bosses I’ve had created psychic turbulence for me. Because when you are worried and your head’s not screwed on you’re not concentrating on delivering the service. So, keep the drama down let’s just try to have no drama please. 

Jim Rembach:  It’s a really good point. There are studies associated with that whole fear and drama and stress and tension and how—of course we know that it’s going to impact your emotional intelligence because you’re not really being mindful in the moment but they also have revealed that it impacts people’s IQ, they just can’t think well. 

Diana Oreck:   No, and what happens is they get paralyzed. I live by that one every day and all the people I’ve led over the years know that about me. 

Jim Rembach:  I had the opportunity to look at a quick video while you’re still with Ritz Carlton and you were explaining how the whole forefront of mind and the communication process and all of those ladies and gentlemen are meeting in the morning and they’re talking about some of these values that are part of the organization. And you said one thing to me that was really important is that, you said, then all the managers take it and localize it. 

Diana Oreck:   Yes. 

Jim Rembach:  Your background and your experience living and being exposed to multiple cultures I think gives you an experience and an insight into the localization and relevancy piece that others just don’t have an opportunity to obtain. With that there’s also a lot of humps that we have to get over. Is there a time where you’ve had gotten over the hump and it really made you a better person that you can share? 

Diana Oreck:   I can. It’s an interesting one. Being a Type-A person this happened, it’s been about seven years now, what happened to me Jim is I was not sleeping enough. I got to a place where I was so obsessed with work that maybe for long periods of time I’d be getting three or four hours of sleep a night, in a very stressful environment. What happened is ultimately my body started to shut down through dehydration, lack of sleep and I ended up in the hospital for about five days and it changed my entire life. Because one thing that I will not do today is I never get less than eight hours of sleep and I’ve got to tell you it’s changed my whole life. Now, getting more sleep doesn’t mean that you’re not going to have all these issues and dramas to deal with but it absolutely changes your outlook, your problem-solving. I’ll be candid with you it scared me very badly. 

Jim Rembach:  Wow! I’m glad you brought that up because it’s a conversation and I even have in my own home with my superwoman wife, other than her having to be in the hospital which she has been in for other reasons which I think are lack of sleep and stress-related. How can one, because I think the fear is, how can i still be productive? How can I still get my job done? How can I do all those things and not essentially burn the candle at both ends? 

Diana Oreck:   You know something I am a great believer, Jim, in self-reflection. I really do believe there are no perfect human beings were just all frail human beings with different frailties. I think you need to be very comfortable in your own skin and say, look I’m doing best I can with the tools I have but self-reflection is important. I used to do a lot of work with hospitals and doctors at Ritz-Carlton and I was working with the doctor and he said to me one day, you know Diana people are like batteries you either recharge them or you have to throw them out. And so now I’m careful and the sleep thing honestly, it’s the biggest change I’ve made in my life. 

Jim Rembach:  I can only imagine going through that transition process. Of course, you had the scare which I’m glad you made it through it. You had to do some things a little bit differently maybe even dramatically differently than you had been doing prior. What are some of those things that come to mind that you did? 

Diana Oreck:   Well this is exactly and it’s a great lead-in, this is what changed. I used to have terrible problems in delegating and that I’ve learned to do that well. I’ve learned to surround myself with awesome talent and then you’ve got to hold them accountable but delegate. Someone that I was leading some years back said to me, Diana I don’t feel when you don’t delegate to me it makes me feel that you don’t trust me, it was totally the opposite, that was the light bulb. Get yourself good people around you and then hold them accountable. 

Jim Rembach:  I think that’s a really good point. We often talk and I have the opportunity to interview a lot of folks in a couple different disciplines and there’s a lot of people who have written books on leadership and I think just about every single one of them there’s some element of trust associated with it. But I think what people and including myself forget is that foremost you have to give it in order to receive it. 

Diana Oreck:   Yes, yes. Absolutely. And when you’re not delegating unbeknownst to you, A: You’re not developing and that’s how they get that they’re saying exactly that, gosh, she doesn’t trust me that was an eye-opener for me. 

Jim Rembach:  And in that you’re going to get that back—they’re not going to trust you. 

Diana Oreck:   Absolutely, absolutely. 

Jim Rembach:  As one of those things that being a father of three I’ve always said and I’ve shared many of those in the show but one of them I might have not shared in a while is that you get what you give. 

Diana Oreck:   Hmm-hmm, absolutely. 

Jim Rembach:  Especially with kids, I’m like, do you want to be loved? Do you want to be shown love? Yes. Then you have to give it, quit being so nasty. 

Diana Oreck:   Yes. What is the age range of your children, Jim? 

Jim Rembach:  Right now I have 14, 12 and 8. 

Diana Oreck:   Oh, boy, you’re busy. 

Jim Rembach:  Oh, yes. 

Diana Oreck:   Very active at that age.

Jim Rembach:  Absolutely. So, for me I’m trying not to burn that candle about them. 

Diana Oreck:   That’s good, that’s good. 

Jim Rembach:  I know you’ve got a lot of things going on. We talked about a couple passions including Jets and I know—I even have to ask, but you don’t have to share it—you went from Ritz and you said you loved it and now you’re with NetJets and how all that happened is of course something you’ll need to share. I know you got a lot of work to do before anything else comes wherever that may be, we wish you the best. What are some of your goals? 

Diana Oreck:   The great news is this, I loved the Ritz Carlton and I’m over the moon here when I look at our flight plan here I’ve got about five to eight years of a lot of hard work here and continuing to build our cultural service. My goal here is to develop people we’ve got some fantastic people at all levels here at NetJets. So, it really is around that mentorship, that developing, that teaching emotional intelligence, so that’s what the goals are and of course, making course making sure that our aircraft owners get that very, very nuanced service. 

Jim Rembach:  And the Fast Leader legion wishes you the very best. Now before we move on let’s get a quick word from our sponsor. 

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Alright here we go Fast Leader listeners it’s time for the Hump Day Hoedown. Okay, Diana, the Hump Day Hoedown is the part of our show where you give us good insights fast. So, I’m going to ask you several questions and your job is to give us a robust yet rapid responses that are going to help us move onward and upward faster. Diana Oreck, are you ready to hoedown? 

Diana Oreck:   I am. 

Jim Rembach:  What do you think is holding you back from being an even better leader today?

Diana Oreck:   Impatience. 

Jim Rembach:  What is the best leadership advice you have ever received?

Diana Oreck:   Surround yourself with people that are more brilliant than you and let them go. 

Jim Rembach:  What is one of your secrets that you believe contributes to your success?

Diana Oreck:   I’m very calm under pressure. 

Jim Rembach:  What do you feel is one of your best tools that helps you lead in business or life? 

Diana Oreck:   Positivity and sense of humor. 

Jim Rembach:  What would be one book and it could be from any genre that you’d recommend to our listeners?

Diana Oreck:   It is called, Managing Transitions. 4th edition Making The Most of Change by William Bridges. 

Jim Rembach:  Okay, Fast Leader listeners you can find links to that and other bonus information from today’s show by going to fastleader.net/Diana Oreck. Okay, Diana, this is my last Hump Day Hoedown question. Imagine you were given the opportunity go back to the age 25 and you’ve been given the opportunity to take the knowledge and skills that you have now back with you but you can’t take everything back you can only choose one. What skill or piece of knowledge would you take back with you and why?

Diana Oreck:   Learning how to keep things in perspective. When I was in my 20’s and 30’s I used to run around pleasing everybody and everything was a crisis. I’m very good at keeping things in perspective today. 

Jim Rembach:  Diana, it was honor to spend time with you today, can you please share with the Fast Leader Legion how they can connect with you? 

Diana Oreck:   Absolutely. The best way to connect with me would be email, doreck@netjets.com. I’m also on Twitter and I’m on Facebook and LinkedIn. 

Jim Rembach:  Diana Oreck, thank you for sharing your knowledge and wisdom the Fast Leader Legion honors you and thanks you for helping us get over the hump. Woot! Woot!

Thank you for joining me on the Fast Leader show today. For recaps, links from every show special offers and access to download and subscribe, if you haven’t already, head on over a fastleader.net so we can help you move onward and upward faster. 

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