We human beings are wired for certainty. A lack of it tends to trigger anxiety that drives people to resist anything that may further threaten the status quo…regardless of the cost. Good leaders not only work to dial down fear but to tap the passion, ingenuity and innovation it too often stifles.
Customer service is not a department. It is a philosophy to be embraced by every employee – from the CEO to the most recently hired.
It never ceases to amaze us. Bring up the topic of perfectionism in a room full of corporate CEOs, college presidents, or U.S. Naval Academy midshipmen, and you’ll see the same knowing smiles and nods of the head. Moreover, you’ll hear thinly veiled bravado about who among them is the most-perfect perfectionist. Many of them will extol the virtues of seeking perfection, and more than a few will include the pursuit of perfection among their notable strengths. Work environments that foster a zero-defect mentality often exacerbate this veneration of perfection.
Distrust is rampant. It’s worldwide. It’s pervasive across all types of organizations in the business world. Even though the trust of CEOs is at an all-time low, we can help heal the distrust that may exist in your organization and boost your trust-factor among your tribe.
Are you ready?
If you believe the research, only 55% of salespeople make quota. That means 45% of sales people don’t make their quota, and the reason is we’re flying blind. For years sales organizations have had to use quantitative metrics to determine if a sales person was effective. We’ve measured the number of calls, the number of touches, meetings set, closing percentages, average deal size, emails sent, conversion rates, quota attainment and more, to ascertain a salesperson effectiveness.
We’ve all encountered a micromanager at some point or another. Be it a former job or maybe even a current one, micromanagers are found in every industry and at every level of employment. Micromanagement typically leaves people with a bad taste in their mouth and visions of a boss breathing down the necks of employees may come to mind. This negative connotation associated with the word “micromanagement” is for a good reason – this way of managing kills creativity and stifles alternative ways of thinking that would otherwise be good for business.
At some point, every leader is faced with the challenge of having to rally others around a journey of uncertain change. For most, that challenge is daunting and often goes poorly. Many leaders try to over-sell positive aspects of change, manipulating information and downplaying risks. Others inspire dread with messages of fear. And some just resort to “announcing” change while communicating nothing helpful. Research shows that around 70% of organizational change fails for a host of reasons. How leaders build the commitment of those who must embrace change is pivotal to beating the odds and successfully leading major change.
Corporate culture has arguably always been important, but it’s only become a popular point of discussion in the past 20 years or so. To some, it’s become a buzzword, losing some of its meaning due to the overabundance of content and discussions surrounding it. However, I’d argue that corporate culture was never really overblown, and is actually becoming even more important as the modern workplace continues to evolve.
In most businesses, there’s a huge disconnect between sales and marketing. Because sales teams usually exist as an island, content marketing teams have no way to influence sales. And then apart from sending leads to the conversion funnel, marketing never knows what happens to those leads once they’re sent.
A lack of alignment typically leads to a raft of unintended consequences that pop up throughout the organization—not unlike a game of whack-a-mole. Engaging cross-functional teams to solve problems will significantly reduce the unintended consequences and further drive alignment into the organization.
