Valuing the Customer Experience

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Customer relationships are the foundation of your business. Those that endure contribute to your sustainability while revealing insights about trends, changing market needs, feedback on strategy, and innovation opportunities – all valuable inputs for decision-making and value creation. But customer relationships are also fragile, and heavily dependent on the service experience that your business delivers, particularly when things don’t go as planned. Your customer-service personnel are your front-line relationship reps, the face of your business. …

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What Do You See?

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What do you see? Is seeing believing? While we see with our eyes, it’s actually our brains that interpret what we see. And, more than one part of the brain is involved. For example, we ‘see’ shapes before we ‘see’ colors, and then ‘see’ context. These first stages of visual processing occur unconsciously, so we actually have no idea what information our brain is initially gathering from our visual images. Scientists have confirmed that existing …

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Assessing Candidate Attitude

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Our search for predictability is ever challenged by the incessant disruption of change. When trying to attract and hire talented people, this is a critical consideration. Job postings cite requirements and experience levels, but most often, the actual performance differentiator for new hires is not what they do, but rather how they do it – their attitude, and how well aligned it is with the culture of your business. This is not news; those who …

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Sustaining Competitive Advantage

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What’s your competitive advantage in the market? How do you preserve it? Sustaining a competitive advantage over time is always a challenge, but doing so in an increasingly dynamic market is very demanding. Time spent protecting an advantage against competitors can turn out to be wasted time. Growth is more likely to be the result of pursuing new opportunities that leverage your advantage to create strategic value for your customer. And on your actions that validate this culture …

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That Moment of Truth

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Every valued customer relationship eventually faces a moment of truth – that moment when something goes wrong. It’s in that moment, when your promise has been broken, that your customer experiences the real culture of your business. What your company truly values is exposed. When a business is young, every customer relationship is precious. Promises made to customers reflect a personal commitment and depth of caring that adds value to your offering and cultivates a …

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Pursuing Progress vs. Change

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Leaders deal with change almost every day.  And rarely is it easy to implement – resistance to change is a normal and expected reaction, because few want to depart a known, comfortable state to move towards a different, unknown one. This sense of uncertainty is amplified when the change initiative lacks a coherent direction that specifies progress from where you are now to where you want to be, towards something better that achieves your goals …

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Effective Pronouncements Answer These 3 Questions

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Pronouncements are common in business. They may announce a new plan, or perhaps a change in policy or procedure. When the ‘pronouncing’ leader’s message is thoughtful, culture-centric, and focused on value creation for customers and the business, a pronouncement can lead to subsequent team dialogue that heightens understanding and prompts action towards the stated goal. For this post-pronouncement momentum to occur, the leader’s script should answer these 3 questions when proclaiming the new approach: 1. Why is it necessary? Include a practical, realistic explanation about why …

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Dialogue Shapes Team Accountability

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The prime directive of leadership is to improve outcomes – by challenging the status quo, by refining strategy and inspiring its successful execution, by developing talent and culture, by strengthening the sustainability of the business – all to achieve goals that enable the business to progress. The leaders’ challenge is to cultivate the ownership and accountability for these initiatives with those they lead, which requires a devoted engagement with their team, and the nurturing of dialogue among its members. Dialogue facilitates positive momentum towards team commitment …

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Effective Team Characteristics

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Leaders may not always get the opportunity to choose their team members, but they can set the expectations for those they lead. Once those expectations are understood, leaders can shape their teams to develop the shared commitment and appreciation for each other that maximizes their effectiveness and is grounded in these three characteristics: How might clarity about your expectations, and these characteristics, strengthen your team?

5 Attributes of Effective Strategy Champions

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The start of a new year often marks the launch or refinement of a strategy. Because strategy typically involves change, leaders need a few champions on the strategy implementation team who understand their role as change agents, appreciate why the strategy is necessary, are advocates for the Company’s culture, and have the critical thinking competency to drive the change required for the strategy to succeed. During the implementation, there will be moments when challenges provoke …

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