"My coworker was a great salesman but was less skilled at the administrative side of the job. He frequently made mistakes on his reports and paperwork, which impacted the rest of our team. It bothered me because I take such pride in the quality of my work. I decided to approach him respectfully to understand what was going on and found out that he wasn't very clear on expectations or how to do some of the basic aspects of the paperwork for each sale. I mentored him on the process, and he was able to correct his errors and submit paperwork the correct way. It felt good to help someone else, and I believe in addressing a situation directly with that person before taking it to leadership."

"In my current position, I deal with hundreds of customers weekly. I once had a customer who would come in regularly and try to return broken items and items without receipts, and often our manager felt they were items that person stole. I found that when dealing with difficult repeat customers, consistency is key. I made sure everyone on the team followed the same process and delivered the same message to this customer. I calmly reiterated our policies to her and never appeared judging or rude to her. I found that consistently following the same process helped set expectations for this customer, and eventually, this behavior stopped."