Productive Apologies

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Customer relationships are valuable, fragile, and not to be taken for granted. It takes time to build trust with a customer; destroying it can happen in just a few incompetent minutes.  Relationships are intimate. People, not organizations, create them – by listening with empathy to one another, and then connecting to resolve a problem or achieve an aspiration. When something goes wrong, these human connections make the difference – it’s when they’re needed most. But too few organizations have trained, empowered or rewarded their employees to invest …

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Discovery Defeats Commoditization

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The market cultivates commoditization – easy access to information, simplistic assessments meant to hastily define you, and alternatives that prioritize price over value. All is done with minimal dialogue, to hasten the transaction, saving time and money for the supplier, and perhaps for you too. If your objective is to be perceived as a commodity supplier, then this process is effective for you.  But if your strategy is to be distinctive, then you must find an …

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Leveraging “Liminal Space”

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Leaders are expected to improve results by driving productive change…to improve processes, to move faster, to increase agility, to make things better.  But before change can occur, a decision to change is necessary. No one can be compelled to change…they must be influenced or inspired to invest time and energy in transformation. But imagine if leaders could pro-actively expedite this decision to help their teams discover elevated capabilities and transform the way their work is done.  Once a …

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Doing Work That Matters

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Doing work that matters is about being vigilant for opportunities to make a difference…for your customers, your associates or your organization. Making something better for one of these groups often creates value for the others.  Doing work that matters is about leading by example… taking ownership of an issue, without authority, in order to make it better. Acting to resolve a problem, rather than complaining about it, demonstrates commitment, generosity and shared accountability that encourages others to contribute.  …

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Improving Innovation Success

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Significant time, energy and money are invested in the pursuit of innovation so organizations strive to improve their success rate. Optimizing the efficiency of their innovation process begins with their expectations about the outcome.  Dr. W. Edwards Deming, the renowned quality and management expert, observed that every process is perfectly designed to deliver the results it gets.  If an organization expects its pursuit of innovation to be imperfect and unpredictable, then its innovation process will …

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Two Paths for Accountability

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The recent celebration of our nation’s birthday prompts reflection about our distinctive idea of individual freedom, and our persistent pursuit of the aspirational vision and values so perfectly expressed in our founding documents. During our journey, we’ve celebrated achievements and suffered failures, but we persevere, continuing to experiment, to learn, to evolve and to improve as we strive to fulfill the promises that sustain our unprecedented liberty.  Being a free people, we have the option of choosing, …

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3 Ways to Help Leaders Coach

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Leaders who invest time to coach their team strengthen the company’s culture, elevate performance and improve results. But in our dynamic, highly competitive economy, it can be challenging to carve out time for the deliberate, sometimes tedious, work of mentoring those we ask to follow our lead. And the process itself can become complicated and prolonged, raising concern about failing. Yet, for leaders, coaching is a crucial priority, and an essential driver of improved performance. Here are …

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3 Factors For Leaders Driving Change

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Three factors enable leaders to drive change:  The leader is perceived as genuine and credible, consistently demonstrating conviction and modelling values-based behaviors, while being positive, transparent and open to feedback.  People trust that their leader has their back – that he or she understands what motivates and concerns them, and keeps this in mind when setting high, but realistic, expectations of them.  People feel respected and appreciated for their contributions, driven by the leader’s confidence …

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Promise Makers and Keepers

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For customers, it’s your sales person who creates the first impression of your business. If that person listens more than talks, probes to discover why resolving a need is important, and proposes multiple viable solutions that address the customer’s aspirations as well as their stated need, then it is highly likely that the customer will want to do business with your company.  The effective sales person appreciates that she or he will continue to be the primary face of your …

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Make Things Better

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The objective of change is to improve something – a product, service, process, etc. – so that value is created for our customers, our employees, our business, or hopefully, all of these.  The positive benefits of changing for the better are evident around us. Our products and services, our food, our environment, our communication tools, our number of options and many other things have improved because someone decided to make them better. Our survival in a competitive world demands …

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