People Focus

Transformational leadership is needed and it is needed now – Leadership in the digital transformation world is purposeful in its approach to creating a long term sustainable change. Change efforts will be designed in a top-down approach in some cases. And they will be constantly refined from the bottom-up. Employees are not expected to conform as much as they are expected to be involved and engaged. The communication approach of digital executives is more like a campaign rather than a carefully refined command and control approach. Change activities are more likely to be a refine and reinforce approach. Read more here …

Is it about checking the box called training or is about learning? –  It is actually about both but many times we think of it as a training problem when the real issue is about learning how to create great experiences for our customer. The digital executive knows that learning to focus on the customer is more important than training on customer service and then moving on. Learning is then not about “what to do” but includes at it’s core, why it is important  to have great customer experiences and how to continuously improve. Read more here …

Do you have a talented user experience team?  – There is a revolution going on with customers. The relationship they may have had with your mission and brand in the past has probably already changed. New technology (from a customer point of view) promises a new era of engagement, two way conversations, shared experiences and community. The relationship you want to have with your customers through these new devices and platforms and the actual state of customer engagement are not one and the same. In fact, it may be one sided and skewed towards you and not your customers. Read more here …

“Without courage, compassion falters. Without compassion, courage has no direction.” ~ Eric Greitens – Compassion is a huge thing as a leader. That it is lacking in so many cases today is stunning. We hear a lot about freedom to make mistakes but what is the response if someone makes one, admits it and learns from it? As a leader, what is your response? Think about it. So, what is courage? Can you lead from the heart? Do you have courage to forgive? Read more here …

As a leader, what should you stop doing today? – I am a big fan of list of things “to stop” doing. We all have “to do” lists but we all need more “to stop” lists. Here is a good one for leaders. Which is your favorite? Read more here …

How great leaders inspire action – Why is important. It is in fact the starting point. Without it, our business is just another commodity. Plenty of companies do what we do. Some do it how we do it. It will be rare that any can beat us at the why. Why? How? What? This little idea explains why some organizations and some leaders are able to inspire where others aren’t. Let me define the terms really quickly. Every single person, every single organization on the planet knows what they do, 100 percent. Some know how they do it, whether you call it your differentiated value proposition or your proprietary process or your USP. But very, very few people or organizations know why they do what they do. And by “why” I don’t mean “to make a profit.” That’s a result. It’s always a result. By “why,” I mean: What’s your purpose? What’s your cause? What’s your belief? Why does your organization exist? Why do you get out of bed in the morning? And why should anyone care? Well, as a result, the way we think, the way we act, the way we communicate is from the outside in. It’s obvious. We go from the clearest thing to the fuzziest thing. But the inspired leaders and the inspired organizations –regardless of their size, regardless of their industry – all think, act and communicate from the inside out. Read more here …

 Are we denying the facts? — This happens way too much. It clearly isn’t helpful to deny the facts. It is also important to actually know the facts. Transformation starts with reality. It doesn’t stop there. It moves to, despite our reality, what kind of world do we want to create. True transformation requires both. Let’s advocate for “the facts” and “a vision”. Read more here …

Make employee engagement a key metric  — Employee engagement is foundational to customer engagement. It is highly unlikely that an employee who hates their job or who is disengaged from what they do will create a great customer experience.

When employee engagement becomes foundational to how you do business, it will become a key metric for organizational planning. There could be a goal, something like “Improve employee engagement from X to Y by DATE”. Establishing lead indicators will drive change as well. Clear dashboards with weekly accountability sessions will make improvement real for management. With the clear link to customer engagement established, customer engagement will improve as well.

According to an article by Bruce Temkin, since 2007, “Bombardier Aerospace’s annual employee engagement and enablement survey has given all employees a voice within the organization. In 2012, 93% of employees completed the survey. Managers are evaluated based on the engagement levels of their employees. To create an environment that ensures performance, every leader has an annual target for employee engagement.”

Employee Engagement Define It, Measure It and Put It to Work in Your Organization – Research by APQC, one of the leading proponents of process and performance improvement, has yielded key insights into what engagement is, how it can be measured and how it can be integrated into organizational culture.

‘The lost suitcase and a grumpy old man’ – a story about employee engagement – Blog post by Ian Golding  – Customer centric organizations tend to have a number of things in common. They typically have management teams who collectively believe in the importance of doing things with customer’s interests firmly in mind. They usually design their customer journey(s) to meet and exceed customer expectation. They often recognize that getting things wrong may happen, but that correcting them is a vitally important skill. One thing you can guarantee, is that customer centric organizations do not just put customers first – they also put their employees first as well.

Customer Experience Leadership Requires Engaged Employees – One of the Six Laws of Customer Experience is “Unengaged employees don’t create engaged customers.” That’s why Employee Engagement is one of Temkin Group’s four customer experience core competencies.

The 5 Factors that Ruin Employee Engagement – Experts outline the five main drivers of employee disengagement that business leaders need to steer clear of at all costs. Employees are the backbone of organizations. But despite having the knowledge that an engaged workforce correlates to positive customer experiences and growing sales, high levels of disengagement still plague many organizations. In fact, the latest Gallup report on the State of the American Workplace notes that despite changes to the U.S. economy since 2000, these have not been translated to the American workplace. The recent recession led to a decrease in employment opportunities, making workers less inclined to leave their job because of low engagement and employers less incentivized to ensure that their staffers were happy. However, while the tide is slowly changing, many workplaces are not changing their practices and investing in initiatives that ensure a high level of employee engagement.

What engages employees the most or the ten C’s of employee engagement – A professor in a recent executive education program on leadership elicited a lot of laughs by telling the following joke: “A CEO was asked how many people work in his company: ‘About half of them,’ he responded.” After the session, several participants put a more serious face on the problem when, while chatting, they bemoaned the fact that, in their organization, a significant number of people had mentally “checked out.”