Grolistic

Who Are You Competing Against?

by

In this dynamic market, the most agile, growing businesses compete more against themselves than against any competitor. Competing companies, offering comparable solutions, struggle to differentiate themselves over time, resulting in declining prices and margins which impede sustainable growth. Your customers care only about the value you produce for them, and however you accomplished this last time, they will expect more next time. Producing more value than last time, without just reacting to what your competition is …

Read more

Craving Dialogue

by

Without dialogue, there can be no conflict resolution, no shared commitment, no progress.The word dialogue implies a two-way conversation as opposed to monologue. But this is misleading because dialogue is actually a contraction from the Greek words for “through” and “words” which suggests a focus on discovering meaning. The ancient Greeks learned that people reasoning together, rather than as individuals, are more likely to uncover the truth about an issue. By questioning each other, carefully …

Read more

Employing Empathy

by

Empathy, the capacity to understand another person’s perspective and feelings, is often described as the ability to put yourself in another person’s shoes. But don’t confuse empathy with making people happy or being nice. Empathy is a skill that enables leaders to scan large sets of data and establish priorities, sorting out what’s noise and what’s essential information by assessing signals, anomalies and novel patterns that compel their attention. For those who master it, employing …

Read more

Resilience

by

Today’s tech driven world tends to increase our sense of predictability, helping us complete our functional tasks on a timely basis, sustaining our competitive posture. Starbuck’s coffee is the same worldwide; Amazon will deliver your package as close as possible to tomorrow. But working against this predictability, and undermining the expected outcomes, is the continual disruption of routine, perpetual change that challenges us to reassess what is valuable. Change willcontinue to occur, with increasing frequency, …

Read more

Doing To Improve

by

In their pursuit for improved performance, leaders nurture a team culture that is comfortable challenging the status quo, and sharing the commitment and accountability for embracing change.  Recognizing their responsibility to develop those they lead, these leaders counsel that natural talents can only take a person so far. They promote change initiatives as learning experiences that expand knowledge, strengthen skills and open opportunities to make a difference. From their own experience, they appreciate that beneficial learning is best accomplished by …

Read more

Assessing Culture

by

Emerging from months of virtual-only connectivity, many businesses are discovering that the long-term lack of in-person interaction among their staff has compromised their culture.   Control, dependence and short-term thinking have grown more dominant over collaboration, risk-taking, initiative and more strategic thinking.  Businesses are living entities, with cultures built and nurtured by all those whose energy and commitment have produced the company’s progress. Their culture is what binds them to one another, enabling their execution of strategy …

Read more

The Customer Experience Advantage

by

The customer-driven market grows stronger every day, propelled by relentless disruption and change. Those who thrive in this market deliver exceptional customer experiences, synced with their product or service, and based on their awareness of customer goals, as well as needs.  Such experiences build enduring relationships which subsequently provide awareness about trends, changing customer demands, feedback on strategy, and innovation opportunities – all valuable inputs for decision-making and value creation.  Your company’s customer-service personnel, serving as …

Read more

Consensus Is Not Commitment

by

Achieving goals requires a team commitment. Consensus is not commitment, but leaders can confuse the two outcomes in the pursuit of collaboration.  Fostering a culture of dialogue in which teammates are encouraged to share their opinions, suggestions and concerns is a necessary first step towards commitment and shared accountability. But the objective is not to build team agreement or to create harmony versus conflict. On the contrary, the objective is to discover and assess differing perspectives that enable …

Read more

Faster ROI on Leadership Development

by

Measuring ROI on leadership development is elusive. At the strategic level, it can take time to generate the improved results expected from leaders in whom such an investment is made. But achieving those results is actually the culmination of multiple, interim actions, taken by the leader’s team who were motivated by the leader to do more than fulfill assigned responsibilities, to invest their energy and talent in making something better. Each change initiative included KPIs which identified …

Read more

Pursuing Agility

by

At the nexus of urgency, efficiency and reliability lies agility, the competence of a business to promptly respond to change or challenge.  The rapid evolution of technology continues to heighten complexity and unpredictability in the marketplace, increasing uncertainty about changing customer needs and goals. Pursuing agility enbles a business to respond quickly and effectively to opportunities, as well as to changes or threats. While characteristics like apodaptability or flexibility convey a passive, reactive strategy, agility implies an …

Read more