Infinite
team is happy to announce we were recognized as one of “Chicago’s Best and
Brightest Companies to Work For” for second year in a row!
This recognition is given to companies that are dedicated
to the well-being of its employees and demonstrate best practices in human
resources. Multiple criteria is considered including compensation, benefits and
employee solutions; employee enrichment, engagement and retention; development,
employee achievement and recognition; among others.
Of the hundreds of nominations received, Infinite was
considered one of the top 101 companies awarded in the entire Chicago region.
Infinite is pleased to receive such an impressive
recognition again this year. Infinite’s goal is to provide an excellent work environment and
demonstrate appreciation to its team members for all the hard work they do.
Elizabeth Gouwens was recently promoted to leadership. This is no
surprise a result of her hard work and dedication. Elizabeth shared:
When I got promoted to
leadership I felt extremely honored. My consistency in the field and hard work
has shown through and I proved to myself and others my capabilities.
What motivates me in the
field is knowing I am competing against everyone else in the office. I know
that my goals are entirely up to my work ethic and mentality.
My future goals are to
finish my senior year at Saint Joseph’s College this fall, and then move to the
city working at a job pertaining to marketing and/or public relations.
I wanted to thank Infinite for giving me this opportunity to
experience the ins and outs of the business and to further develop my work
ethics. I have already prospered in many ways this past month and look forward
to the challenges that I will face.
Again, congratulations
on your promotion Elizabeth! Keep showing us what you are made of!
Infinite is happy to announce Haajra Narmawala
was promoted to “Leadership” this past week. We are very happy for Haajra's
opportunity and Infinite wanted to share some of Haajra'swords:
It feels incredible to
be promoted to leadership as a result of hard work and staying consistent in
the field during training. As a leader, I am even more motivated to compete for
success among the other leaders and work harder than the rest. It is a great
opportunity to learn and build up management skills that set you up for success
in every field. As a leader, it means that I will be taking more initiative to
set myself as a good example for the trainees by working hard, following the
system and being prepared that will allow me to stay consistent in the field. I
plan to stay consistent in the field and gain responsibilities and opportunities
to build a successful team. Through the process, I will also be developing
training and interviewing skills. This promotion is not the last milestone; it
is an opportunity to collaborate with other leaders, learn from them and
enhance their leadership skills.
Great job Haajra! Team
Infinite is very excited for your opportunity and we know you can accomplish
anything you set your mind into. Keep it up!
March Madness got its name because the NCAA basketball tournament
provides stunning upsets each season. Unpredictability is big part of
the tournament’s appeal. At any point in the competition, an unknown
squad can suddenly catch fire, hitting shot after shot, to knock off a
heavily favored opponent.
However, if you were filling out an NCAA tournament bracket from 1967 to
1973, then you should have chosen the same champion every single year.
Coach John Wooden’s UCLA Bruins won seven consecutive titles! No other
men’s collegiate team has won more than two NCAA tournaments in a row.
Why did John Wooden’s teams win so often? Obviously, they had talented
players, but what set UCLA apart from the competition was their
commitment to loyalty. UCLA’s players were intensely loyal to their
leader, Coach John Wooden, as well as to their fellow teammates.
How to Earn Loyalty:
1) Make your values visible.
Leaders attract who they are. If you want a cohesive team, one that’s
loyal to a common cause and to one another, then be clear and candid
about your values. John Wooden arranged his values into a visual aid
that he called the “Pyramid of Success.” The pyramid consisted of
fifteen building blocks Wooden believed were essential to success in
life, and he taught these values to his players. He placed loyalty as
the building block at the center of the pyramid’s foundation.
2) Be loyal to yourself.
Coach Wooden liked to quote a line from Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “To thine
own self, be true.” His coaching philosophy wasn’t just a strategy to
win games; it flowed directly out of his deepest beliefs about life.
John Wooden not only believed in the principles of success he instilled
in his players, he also exemplified them. He inspired loyalty because
his players knew that he was the real deal—he authentically practiced
the values he professed.
3) Give loyalty to your people.
Leaders cannot demand loyalty; they have to earn it. However, leaders
should give 100% loyalty to their people from day one. People need to
feel your trust, care, and commitment to them. As Wooden wrote, “People
do not arrive at your doorstep with loyalty. It comes when those you
lead see and experience that your concern for their interests and
welfare goes beyond simply calculating what they can do for you—how you
can use them to your advantage.” Once you give loyalty, you open up the
channel to receive it in return.
Thought to Consider
In an economy where individuals bounce from job to job, quickly
moving in and out of relationships, how can a leader be expected to
build loyalty? Coach Wooden is proof that loyalty doesn’t take a decade
to develop. He led in a climate of constant turnover, where players
stayed only a few years, at most, before graduating and moving on. To
inspire loyalty, a leader simply must dare to go against the grain of
contemporary business culture. Look to invest in people rather than to
wring productivity out of them. Instead of asking, “what have you done
for me lately?” inquire: “what can I do to add value to you?”
Having a great idea, and assembling a team to bring that concept to
life is the first step in creating a successful business venture. While
finding a new and unique idea is rare enough; the ability to
successfully execute this idea is what separates the dreamers from the
entrepreneurs. However you see yourself, whatever your age may be, as
soon as you make that exciting first hire, you have taken the first
steps in becoming a powerful leader. When money is tight, stress levels
are high, and the visions of instant success don’t happen like you
thought, it’s easy to let those emotions get to you, and thereby your
team. Take a breath, calm yourself down, and remind yourself of the
leader you are and would like to become. Here are some key qualities
that every good leader should possess, and learn to emphasize.
Honesty
Whatever ethical plane you hold yourself to, when you are responsible
for a team of people, its important to raise the bar even higher. Your
business and its employees are a reflection of yourself, and if you make
honest and ethical behavior a key value, your team will follow suit.
As we do at RockThePost,
the crowdfunding platform for entrepreneurs and small businesses I
co-founded, try to make a list of values and core beliefs that both you
and your brand represent, and post this in your office. Promote a
healthy interoffice lifestyle, and encourage your team to live up to
these standards. By emphasizing these standards, and displaying them
yourself, you will hopefully influence the office environment into a
friendly and helpful workspace.
Ability to Delegate
Finessing your brand vision is essential to creating an organized and
efficient business, but if you don’t learn to trust your team with that
vision, you might never progress to the next stage. Its important to
remember that trusting your team with your idea is a sign of strength,
not weakness. Delegating tasks to the appropriate departments is one of
the most important skills you can develop as your business grows. The
emails and tasks will begin to pile up, and the more you stretch
yourself thin, the lower the quality of your work will become, and the
less you will produce.
The key to delegation is identifying the strengths of your team, and
capitalizing on them. Find out what each team member enjoys doing most.
Chances are if they find that task more enjoyable, they will likely put
more thought and effort behind it. This will not only prove to your team
that you trust and believe in them, but will also free up your time to
focus on the higher level tasks, that should not be delegated. It’s a
fine balance, but one that will have a huge impact on the productivity
of your business.
I structure my career and life around a simple sentence:
Be generous and expert, trustworthy and clear, open-minded and adaptable, persistent and present.
To keep this sentence in the front of my mind, I look for specific
tips that support these qualities. Here are some of my favorites:
1. Day after day, be a little bit kinder and a tad wiser than you were the day before.
2. Both for your company and your family, be better at saving money than you are at spending it.
3. Contrary to how some misinterpret what Jim Collins says, it is a
better strategy to be consistently good than occasionally great.
4. Read more. Nothing else will so quickly make you wiser.
5. The more interconnected our world becomes, the more important your
reputation will be.
Always do the right thing, even when you think no
one is watching.
6. Never forget that most people will do what you pay them to do, not what you tell them to do.
7. It is okay to be more generous than other people, just as it is okay to feel better about yourself than you used to feel.
8. Most of the answers you need already exist in someone else’s head; find those people.
9. The greatest challenge each day is to regulate your ego; too
little of it, and you waste your potential, but too much of it and you
waste everyone else’s potential.
10. Sometimes technology is going to hurt you, and other times it is
going to help you. Be sure you are fully aware which is most likely at
the present moment.
DES PLAINES, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Infinite, an outsourced sales and marketing company headquartered in Illinois, announced that they have earned a prestigious sales trophy for their excellent performance on behalf of a major national telecommunications client during the third quarter of this year.
“We are honored to be recognized for our dedication and hard work.”
Infinite was chosen to receive the campaign trophy based on their leading quality indicators and sales performance. Selected among 13 offices eligible for the award, Infinite is planning to meet the winning criteria for the final quarter of this year. Infinite was also the recipient for the fourth quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013.
“Our team is happy to receive this award,” said Kaitlin Moore, Director of Human Resources at Infinite. “We are honored to be recognized for our dedication and hard work.”
Specializing in marketing and sales for leading clients in various industries, Infinite works to bring long-term customers in on behalf of the client. Infinite employs an in-person, business to business approach to sales, providing dependable growth opportunities for the client. Infinite was nominated as one of Chicago’s 101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For in 2013.
Like Infinite on Facebook and check out their blog.
About Infinite
Infinite is a premier outsourced sales and marketing company that provides cutting-edge solutions to their clients. Representing well-known companies across North America, Infinite is committed to providing outstanding service and results to the client, effectively growing their customer base. For more information, call 224-567-8502 or go to http://www.myinfinite.net/.
By Mandi Woodruff | Business Insider – Tue, Sep 4, 2012 10:50 AM EDT
World's richest woman Gina Rinehart is enduring a media firestorm over an article in which she takes the "jealous" middle class to task for "drinking, or smoking and socializing" rather than working to earn their own fortune.
What if she has a point?
Steve Siebold, author of "How Rich People Think," spent nearly three decades interviewing millionaires around the world to find out what separates them from everyone else.
It had little to do with money itself, he told Business Insider. It was about their mentality.
"[The middle class] tells people to be happy with what they have," he said. "And on the whole, most people are steeped in fear when it comes to money."
Flickr / C. Pajunen1. Average people think MONEY is the root of all evil. Rich people believe POVERTY is the root of all evil.
"The average person has been brainwashed to believe rich people are lucky or dishonest," Siebold writes.
That's why there's a certain shame that comes along with "getting rich" in lower-income communities.
"The world class knows that while having money doesn't guarantee happiness, it does make your life easier and more enjoyable."
2. Average people think selfishness is a vice. Rich people think selfishness is a virtue.
"The rich go out there and try to make themselves happy. They don't try to pretend to save the world," Siebold told Business Insider.
The problem is that middle class people see that as a negative––and it's keeping them poor, he writes.
"If you're not taking care of you, you're not in a position to help anyone else. You can't give what you don't have."
Getty Images3. Average people have a lottery mentality. Rich people have an action mentality.
"While the masses are waiting to pick the right numbers and praying for prosperity, the great ones are solving problems," Siebold writes.
"The hero [middle class people] are waiting for may be God, government, their boss or their spouse. It's the average person's level of thinking that breeds this approach to life and living while the clock keeps ticking away."
4. Average people think the road to riches is paved with formal education. Rich people believe in acquiring specific knowledge.
"Many world-class performers have little formal education, and have amassed their wealth through the acquisition and subsequent sale of specific knowledge," he writes.
"Meanwhile, the masses are convinced that master's degrees and doctorates are the way to wealth, mostly because they are trapped in the linear line of thought that holds them back from higher levels of consciousness...The wealthy aren't interested in the means, only the end."
I Love Lucy screencap5. Average people long for the good old days. Rich people dream of the future.
"Self-made millionaires get rich because they're willing to bet on themselves and project their dreams, goals and ideas into an unknown future," Siebold writes.
"People who believe their best days are behind them rarely get rich, and often struggle with unhappiness and depression."
6. Average people see money through the eyes of emotion. Rich people think about money logically.
"An ordinarily smart, well-educated and otherwise successful person can be instantly transformed into a fear-based, scarcity driven thinker whose greatest financial aspiration is to retire comfortably," he writes.
"The world class sees money for what it is and what it's not, through the eyes of logic. The great ones know money is a critical tool that presents options and opportunities."
7. Average people earn money doing things they don't love. Rich people follow their passion.
"To the average person, it looks like the rich are working all the time," Siebold says. "But one of the smartest strategies of the world class is doing what they love and finding a way to get paid for it."
On the other hand, middle class take jobs they don't enjoy "because they need the money and they've been trained in school and conditioned by society to live in a linear thinking world that equates earning money with physical or mental effort."
8. Average people set low expectations so they're never disappointed. Rich people are up for the challenge.
"Psychologists and other mental health experts often advise people to set low expectations for their life to ensure they are not disappointed," Siebold writes.
"No one would ever strike it rich and live their dreams without huge expectations."
BarackObamadotcom via YouTube9. Average people believe you have to DO something to get rich. Rich people believe you have to BE something to get rich.
"That's why people like Donald Trump go from millionaire to nine billion dollars in debt and come back richer than ever," he writes.
"While the masses are fixated on the doing and the immediate results of their actions, the great ones are learning and growing from every experience, whether it's a success or a failure, knowing their true reward is becoming a human success machine that eventually produces outstanding results."
10. Average people believe you need money to make money. Rich people use other people's money.
Linear thought might tell people to make money in order to earn more, but Siebold says the rich aren't afraid to fund their future from other people's pockets.
"Rich people know not being solvent enough to personally afford something is not relevant. The real question is, 'Is this worth buying, investing in, or pursuing?'" he writes.
11. Average people believe the markets are driven by logic and strategy. Rich people know they're driven by emotion and greed.
Investing successfully in the stock market isn't just about a fancy math formula.
"The rich know that the primary emotions that drive financial markets are fear and greed, and they factor this into all trades and trends they observe," Siebold writes.
"This knowledge of human nature and its overlapping impact on trading give them strategic advantage in building greater wealth through leverage."
12. Average people live beyond their means. Rich people live below theirs.
"Here's how to live below your means and tap into the secret wealthy people have used for centuries: Get rich so you can afford to," he writes.
"The rich live below their means, not because they're so savvy, but because they make so much money that they can afford to live like royalty while still having a king's ransom socked away for the future."
richkidsofinstagram.tumblr.com13. Average people teach their children how to survive. Rich people teach their kids to get rich.
Rich parents teach their kids from an early age about the world of "haves" and "have-nots," Siebold says. Even he admits many people have argued that he's supporting the idea of elitism.
He disagrees.
"[People] say parents are teaching their kids to look down on the masses because they're poor. This isn't true," he writes. "What they're teaching their kids is to see the world through the eyes of objective reality––the way society really is."
If children understand wealth early on, they'll be more likely to strive for it later in life.
14. Average people let money stress them out. Rich people find peace of mind in wealth.
The reason wealthy people earn more wealth is that they're not afraid to admit that money can solve most problems, Siebold says.
"[The middle class] sees money as a never-ending necessary evil that must be endured as part of life. The world class sees money as the great liberator, and with enough of it, they are able to purchase financial peace of mind."
Kim Bhasin / Business Insider15. Average people would rather be entertained than educated. Rich people would rather be educated than entertained.
While the rich don't put much stock in furthering wealth through formal education, they appreciate the power of learning long after college is over, Siebold says.
"Walk into a wealthy person's home and one of the first things you'll see is an extensive library of books they've used to educate themselves on how to become more successful," he writes.
"The middle class reads novels, tabloids and entertainment magazines."
16. Average people think rich people are snobs. Rich people just want to surround themselves with like-minded people.
The negative money mentality poisoning the middle class is what keeps the rich hanging out with the rich, he says.
"[Rich people] can't afford the messages of doom and gloom," he writes. "This is often misinterpreted by the masses as snobbery.
Labeling the world class as snobs is another way the middle class finds to feel better bout themselves and their chosen path of mediocrity."
Flickr / Wei Tchou17. Average people focus on saving. Rich people focus on earning.
Siebold theorizes that the wealthy focus on what they'll gain by taking risks, rather than how to save what they have.
"The masses are so focused on clipping coupons and living frugally they miss major opportunities," he writes.
"Even in the midst of a cash flow crisis, the rich reject the nickle and dime thinking of the masses. They are the masters of focusing their mental energy where it belongs: on the big money."
18. Average people play it safe with money. Rich people know when to take risks.
"Leverage is the watchword of the rich," Siebold writes.
"Every investor loses money on occasion, but the world class knows no matter what happens, they will aways be able to earn more."
Flickr / Ibrahim Iujaz19. Average people love to be comfortable. Rich people find comfort in uncertainty.
For the most part, it takes guts to take the risks necessary to make it as a millionaire––a challenge most middle class thinkers aren't comfortable living with.
"Physical, psychological, and emotional comfort is the primary goal of the middle class mindset," Siebold writes.
World class thinkers learn early on that becoming a millionaire isn't easy and the need for comfort can be devastating. They learn to be comfortable while operating in a state of ongoing uncertainty."
20. Average people never make the connection between money and health. Rich people know money can save your life.
While the middle class squabbles over the virtues of Obamacare and their company's health plan, the super wealthy are enrolled in a super elite "boutique medical care" association, Siebold says.
"They pay a substantial yearly membership fee that guarantees them 24-hour access to a private physician who only serves a small group of members," he writes.
"Some wealthy neighborhoods have implemented this strategy and even require the physician to live in the neighborhood."
Getty Images21. Average people believe they must choose between a great family and being rich. Rich people know you can have it all.
The idea the wealth must come at the expense of family time is nothing but a "cop-out", Siebold says.
"The masses have been brainwashed to believe it's an either/or equation," he writes. "The rich know you can have anything you want if you approach the challenge with a mindset rooted in love and abundance."
From Steve Siebold, author of "How Rich People Think."
We are so proud of our team here at Infinite. The company has been recognized as the nation's most profitable, productive vendor for our client.
Throughout the last few months, the team at Infinite has been in negotiations to continue to evolve the relationship with our client. Due to these negotiations, we were able to outperform every other vendor in the nation.
We doubled in size in the last month and the new promotion to our executive team, Alex Huynh, will allow us to take on an even larger client load. We expect to open an additional location in the next few months.
We
are very excited to have promoted Alex Huynh to Assistant Management
today!! We were overwhelmed by all of the wonderful things the team had
to say about his hard work, dedication, and how much he genuinely cares
for people. We are very proud and can't wait to see him perform at a
higher level.
What are you going to do to make your company better in 2013? Shooting for financial targets is hardly enough. Chasing financial goals is futile if the company lacks the human talent necessary to achieve such goals. In brief, making any company better depends on how leaders retain and leverage their human assets as a distinctive competitive advantage.
Our research has shown how entangled companies sustain distinctive competitive advantages in various industries by building unique and enviable cultures that stimulate creative thinking, constantly generate new ideas, motivate high performance, and consistently delight customers. Leaders of high-performing companies view their business as a system that requires the synchronizing of key subsystems. Great leaders know that the future success of any enterprise rests on the strength of their leadership subsystem, which includes the current and future direction of the enterprise and their leadership pipeline—how tomorrow’s leaders are being developed today.
The leadership pipeline is a lot more than merely planning for leadership succession. The pipeline is a set of integrated steps that begins with having the right people on board, extends to daily reinforcement of right behaviors, and manifests itself in discretionary thinking and exceptional performance. If you want to do better in 2013 and beyond, assessing your leadership subsystem is a good place to start. The following questions spanning eight key areas can help you begin:
Core values. Does the company have a set of explicit core values? Was staff from all levels of the company involved in creating these values? Are the values easy to understand? Does the set of core values, taken together, convey the spirit of the company? Are the values conspicuously displayed throughout work areas to remind employees about the values the company holds most dear?
Code of conduct. Have employees created a code of conduct that exemplifies how core values appear in daily behaviors? Do employees hold themselves and others mutually accountable for right behaviors? Does the performance evaluation and management system recognize and reward employees for exemplifying core values?
Organizational Purpose. Does the vision for the company’s future inspire suppliers and key partners as well as employees? Does the company mission clearly state daily commitments in serving the stakeholders? When employees meet formally to conduct company business, do they review and reinforce the organizational purpose (values, vision, and mission)?
Leadership Philosophy. Does each employee understand the difference between leadership and management? Is every employee viewed as a leader who has influence upon others? Does each employee have a defined circle of influence through which he or she can affect change?
Trust and Caring. Is each employee trusted to act as a responsible adult? Have the company shed a 20th century command-and-control management approach for a 21st century trust-and-track leadership approach? Does each and every leader work on building relationships based on trusting and caring for others? Does the performance evaluation and management system recognize and reward leaders for relationship building? Are leaders who fail to meet this standard assessed, counseled, and coached to develop these skills? Are leaders who fail to respond to positive development efforts relieved from duties and encouraged to find employment elsewhere?
Learning and Growth. Are employees at all levels taught how to read company financial reports and to assess functional performance related to cost and expense management and revenue generation? Does each employee understand how his or her daily performance contributes to company goals and objectives? Does each employee have an individual development plan that identifies three strengths to be leveraged as well as three improvement areas for the next performance year?
Transparency. Are employees receiving all the necessary daily and weekly information from which to make decisions? Do employees receive routine, comprehensive reports of company operations they can use to improve service to their internal customers? Are employees engaged in decision-making at the lowest levels related to cost and expense management as well as revenue generation, if appropriate?
Accountability. Is each employee held accountable for meeting objectives? Does each employee provide a formal accounting of performance, such as weekly huddles (The Great Game of Business -1992 – by Jack Stack and Bo Burlingham, New York: Currency-Doubleday)? Responsibility without accountability results in less than optimal performance!
Although answers to some of the above questions may not be easy, they provide a starting point for improving the leadership system within any company. The eight areas above serve as a framework through which leaders can work during the course of a year. Some areas are sequential, such as the code of conduct following establishment of core values, while others can run concurrently, such as learning and growth along with transparency. The keys to success are doing honest assessments, confronting the brutal facts, and pursuing solutions for each response that lacks a definitive “Yes!”
Dr. Ray Benedetto, DM, is a retired USAF Colonel. He founded a consulting firm that helps leaders build high-performing, character-based cultures in addition to his teaching leadership and strategic planning for the University of Phoenix Chicago Campus MBA program. Tom Walter is a serial entrepreneur and nationally recognized speaker on entrepreneurship, leadership and business culture. They are the co-authors of It’s My Company Too! How Entangled Companies Move Beyond Employee Engagement For Remarkable Results. For more information, please visit, www.ItsMyCompanyToo.com.
The third season of the hit series The Voice just ended this week, and I’ve been sitting on a blog post for my “Customer Experience Lessons… ” series since the previous season. For obvious reasons. I started to create my own TV series about The Voice (of the Customer) for the post; that didn’t quite work but isn’t dead yet! I’ve rewritten the post three times! Here’s what I’ve ended up with. Constituents There are three key constituents of the show: (1) coaches/mentors, (2) artists, and (3) the audience. Each one plays an important part in the show. In your business, there are many stakeholders, but the three key constituents of the customer experience are (1) employees, (2) customers, and (3) leadership/executives. You could make the connection that the coaches/mentors are the leadership or management team, setting the example for the rest of the organization, driving the customer focus and culture; the employees are your artists; and your customers are your audience. Coaching In the early stages of the show, the coaches each choose the artists that will be a part of their teams. Once the teams are set, they coach and mentor their team members, giving them advice and sharing best practices and secrets to success. Coaching is critical to the growth of your employees, as well to their alignment with the customer-centric focus. Role playing, sharing your expertise, providing feedback, offering opportunities for career development, and recognizing a job well done are all part of coaching. In addition, creating a relationship of mutual trust, showing employees that you stand behind them, and expressing your commitment to their success will improve the employee experience, which, in turn, yields a much better customer experience. Training The artists spent a lot of time doing their homework, learning their songs, and practicing in preparation for the show every week. Your employees must and will do the same. Don’t assume that they know how to deliver great service, especially to your company’s standards. Assume that you need to clearly spell out for them your expectations on how they will interact with your customers and then train them on those expectations. Employees should constantly be learning about your products and services and updating their skills in general, as well, evolving and growing with the business. Teamwork While only one person wins The Voice, the artists are split up into teams. Each individual on a team forms a close bond with the other members of their team over the course of their time on the show, as well as with their team leader, their coach. The same is true for your employees. They are part of a team, whether its their individual departments or the company as a whole. A team collaborates and works together toward a common goal. Backstory Every artist on The Voice has an interesting life story, whether it’s a personal tragedy or just an awesome lifelong dream to become the next big pop star. The backstory is part of what creates that connection for the audience with the artists. In the customer experience world, there are two types of backstories: The Customer’s Story. Know your customers. Every customer is unique. Tailor experiences to the customer. You can’t meet their needs until you understand who they are and what their needs are. The Company’s Story. Your company’s story is its history, it’s purpose, its reason for being. Everyone, both customers and employees, need to understand the company’s story. As with the artists, these backstories also for the foundation for the connection between the customer and the brand. Competition The show itself is obviously a competition. Artists compete with other artists, but they also compete against themselves, striving to always do better than the previous performance. Coaches and the audience remember. Customers have choices. Customers remember. Don’t dwell on what your competition is doing; instead, dwell on what you’re doing. Performance The Voice is all about the performance, about artists giving their best performances every time they’re on stage. Your customer experience is only as good as your weakest link, right? Make sure every link, every touchpoint, is delivering a perfect 10 performance. Just like in The Voice competition, consistency is only important once you’re performing at your absolute best, better than everyone else. Once you reach that level, the experience your customers have with your organization must consistently exceed their expectations. Focus The artists were missing their families and friends, but they needed to remain focused on the task at hand. For your business, that focus needs to be on delivering the best customer experience possible. End of story. Goals Every single competitor had a goal: to win The Voice. They had dreams of being the next big thing. Many overcame obstacles to be there, to stay true to their dreams, and to achieve their goals. The goal of a customer-centric organization is to not only meet but to exceed customers’ expectations. Turning customers into raving fans is the ultimate goal. Make sure employees are in alignment; to do so, fall on your brand promise. As I wrote previously: “The brand promise aligns all of the activities of the organization; that promise guides people, processes, products, systems, etc. Everything you do must support and reinforce the brand promise: every product, every person, every interaction, every touchpoint, all of it. Every time.” Listening An important component of a music competition is listening, i.e., for the coaches and the audience alike. Coaches are typically listening for pitch, tone, runs, etc., while audience members are listening for great-sounding voices and songs that make them feel something. You cannot have a customer-centric culture without listening to your customers. Or without really hearing what they are saying. Feedback The Voice contestants were constantly receiving feedback about their performances from their coaches and from others around them. As an organization, you should be encouraging and receiving feedback from your customers. As an employee, you should be receiving feedback from your mentor/manager and from your customers. The Voice The name of the show is, obviously, The Voice. Ultimately, the coaches and the audience are looking for the winning voice, the best-sounding artist from all the choices they have. The coaches’ initial votes are truly about the individual voices, as they have their backs turned to the contestants and cannot see them. They hit their buttons to weigh in, to select an artist for their teams. Artists have a choice, if multiple coaches hit their buttons. Your customers have a choice. Actually, they have lots of choices. They don’t have a button, but they get to weigh in. They get to vote with their wallets. Your customers have a voice. Bring that voice into all aspects of the organization, to every touchpoint. Make sure it’s heard. And acted upon. The Journey The artists who make it into the top 10 have quite the journey – behind them and ahead of them. The journey behind them is much shorter than what lies ahead. Even if they didn’t win the show, they have built a fan base over the weeks and months that will stay with them well into the future. Those artists in the top 5 – 10 will do well and have great careers ahead of them. The customer experience is a journey, as well. And just like the artists, your company’s journey behind is much shorter than what lies ahead. What lies ahead is a lot of hard work and focus, a lot of learning and improving, a lot of adapting, a lot of communicating and sharing. It’s never-ending. It’s not an easy road, but those that stay the course find that the reward far outweighs the effort to get there. When people talk about successful retailers and those that are not so successful, the customer determines at the end of the day who is successful and for what reason. -Jerry Harvey Read more at http://www.business2community.com/customer-experience/customer-experience-lessons-from-the-voice-0362962#Df2SP95KZ24UmVg8.99
‘Tis the season to do good. You might not believe it if
you’ve just come from the Mall, but the spirit of good is out there.
Perhaps unexpectedly, good deeds and real social change are coming from
business leaders who understand that success carries with it the
opportunity to exercise social responsibility without the burden of
government mandate.
The path to becoming a socially-responsible leader is not as
difficult as one might think. It’s a logical extension of the passionate
leader’s journey. Not all leaders take it, of course; I could find no
real good numbers as I researched this post but my instinct tells me
less than 50 percent of successful business leaders go on to contribute
to social good in a meaningful way. I’m hoping these numbers continue to
increase. Todd Warren, my fellow Forbes contributor, educator and thought-leader on startup culture, has proposed an
awesome post about five attributes of entrepreneurial leaders: vision
and dissatisfaction with the present, knowing and taking advantage of
one’s unfair advantages, ability to recruit people to extend your
vision, flexibility and ability to learn and adapt, and persistence and
execution. These attributes are, in my view, the basic requirements for a
socially-responsible leader – but wait, there’s more. Warren’s
five attributes may make a good entrepreneur but they don’t go far
enough to explain why some business success stories – for example Bill Gates
– go beyond business success to become social activists and
philanthropists. For every Bill Gates there are 20 or 30 Carl Ichans,
Mark Cubans, even – and I am a fanboi – Steve Jobs,
who achieved enormous personal success and wealth but have not
contributed back significantly to society. So how does a business leader
transcend personal success and extend his or her skills to the realm of
the do-gooder?
I’d argue there are an additional five traits necessary to be a socially-responsible leader:
1) Heightened situational awareness. It’s one thing
to be focused on being aware of the business landscape by staying open
to ideas to extend and perfect your vision. It’s a different skill to be
aware of the world around you. In the movie Scrooged, Bill Murray is
completely unaware of his assistant’s life challenges until the ghosts
visit him; once his awareness is engaged and the focus expanded from his
wants and needs to encompass those of others, he is transformed into a
socially-responsible, charitable soul. To become socially responsible,
leaders must look beyond themselves to see what motivates, or holds
back, those around him. Then he or she can see the need in others – in
the world – and turn the intense focus of the entrepreneur to solving
larger social problems.
2) Emotional intelligence. Yes, this is one of my
favorite themes, for a reason. Until a leader opens
his or her heart and
mind to others, turns what is undoubtedly prodigious intelligence and
focus outward to understand the challenges of others, there can be no
authentic social leadership. If you see an emotionally limited leader
doing good works, look for a smart tax advisor standing in the wings.
3) Empathy. This isn’t the same as emotional
intelligence. I know lots of emotionally intelligent people who are more
cerebral than they are empathetic. They can understand why people
behave a certain way, and adapt, but at some level it does not reach
them. Empathetic people are open to the world of hurt that exists on the
periphery of the world of things; they know not only why people have
needs, but also why it is important to meet those needs.
4) Media savvy. This might not seem like an attribute but it is. Look at Bill Gates then look at Steve Ballmer.
‘Nuff said. The media savvy leader has an advantage when he turns his
attention to social good. Bono, no stranger to the media or financial
success, has done tremendous good because he knows how to work the media
to advance his cause. And some media, notably HuffPo and Mashable, are
making it much easier for socially-aware leaders to do good. HuffPo’s
HuffPost Education Section is a media hub for all things relevant to the
country’s failing education system. The brain child of Brian Sirgutz,
SVP of Social Impact at The Huffington Post/AOL, HuffPo’s Education
Section came about after the media channel’s executive leadership
watched the movie Waiting for Superman. It’s a content channel
devoted to charting what’s wrong – and what could make it right – in our
education system. It may not meet your criteria for doing good, but
when you’re a media channel, access is your gift and your gold. Then
there’s Mashable’s Social Good content channel. The editors of Mashable, led by Meghan Peters,
Community Manager for Mashable, scan the Interwebs for news and
evidence of individuals, leaders and organizations dedicating resources
to social good. Sometimes all it takes is a light shining on a good act,
or a horror, to alert society (and leaders) to the opportunity for
social good. PS: My #TChat World of Work Community will be featuring both the talented Meghan and talented Brian this week as we celebrate via social media channels.
5) Selflessness. This is the tough one. Some
entrepreneurs and successful (wealthy, not merely well-off) people are
not acquainted with selflessness. They do things because their personal
calculus tells them there’s a benefit. Maybe it’s the unreconstructed
Catholic in me but by my reckoning, you haven’t done a social good if
you expect to deduct it on your taxes. You do a social good when you
have no expectation of repayment of any kind – we’re not buying indulgences here.
Non-profit, for-profit, individual or business leader – we can all
learn a lesson during the festival of light, the season of charity and
goodness. Open your hearts and minds before you open your wallets.
Charity doesn’t count if you don’t understand the motivation.
Key leadership success secrets set the great leaders apart from the so-so leaders in today's organizations. Leadership style is learned from mentors, learned in seminars and exists as part of a person's innate personal leadership skill set developed over years, and existing possibly, from birth. Nature or nurture is a question often asked about leadership. I answer, "yes," because I believe the combination of natural leadership skills and nurture through leadership development defines your leadership style.
Working from personal experience and research, I will define the characteristics of leadership that make great leaders. I envision a series of interlinked articles, each of which focuses on one aspect of leadership.
Leadership differs from management and supervision although some people and organizations use the terms interchangeably. While the definitions of the terms differ, an individual may have the ability to provide all three.
Supervision means that an individual is charged with providing direction and oversight for other employees. The successful supervisor provides recognition, appreciation, training and feedback to reporting employees.
Management means to conduct the affairs of business, to have work under control and to provide direction, to guide other employees, to administer and organize work processes and systems, and to handle problems. Managers monitor and control work while helping a group of employees more successfully conduct their work than they would have without her. A manager’s job is often described as providing everything his reporting employees need to successfully accomplish their jobs. One famous quote from Warren Bennis, Ph.D. in On Becoming a Leader distinguishes management from leadership: “Managers are people who do things right, while leaders are people who do the right thing.”
While a supervisor and a manager may also exhibit leadership skill or potential, true leaders are rare. This is because the combination of skills, personality and ambition essential to leadership are difficult to develop and exhibit. According to Don Clark, on his excellent leadership resource, Big Dog's Leadership Page, Bernard "Bass' theory of leadership states that there are three basic ways to explain how people become leaders. The first two explain the leadership development for a small number of people. These theories are:
Some personality traits may lead people naturally into leadership roles. This is the Trait Theory. A crisis or important event may cause a person to rise to the occasion, which brings out extraordinary leadership qualities in an ordinary person. This is the Great Events Theory. People can choose to become leaders. People can learn leadership skills. This is the Transformational Leadership Theory.”
The Transformational Leadership Theory is the one I believe is correct for most leaders today. This belief forms the basis for my thinking about leadership. The Key Leadership Trait
The first, and most important characteristic, of a leader is the decision to become a leader. At some point in time, leaders decide that they want to provide others with vision, direct the course of future events and inspire others to success. Leadership requires the individual to practice dominance and take charge. If you choose to become a leader, whether in your workplace, community or during an emergency, the discussion of these characteristics will help you formulate the appropriate mix of traits, skills and ambition. Successful leaders choose to lead. Unlike Keanu Reeves as Neo in 1999’s smash hit, The Matrix, you get to decide whether you are “the one.” The first characteristic of a leader is Choice - leaders choose to lead. Characteristics of a Successful Leadership Style
Much is written about what makes successful leaders. I will focus on the characteristics, traits and actions that, I believe, are key.
Choose to lead. (Current article - you are here.) Be the person others choose to follow. Provide vision for the future. Provide inspiration. Make other people feel important and appreciated. Live your values. Behave ethically. Set the pace through your expectations and example. Establish an environment of continuous improvement. Provide opportunities for people to grow, both personally and professionally. Care and act with compassion.
Much of the post-Petraeus talk has
centered on the crisis of leadership in the military's top echelons. But
on the ground, innovation doesn't spring from "command and control,"
but from mission leadership, something commando-turned-consultant Damian
McKinney can teach you a thing or two about.
There seems to be a misconception that the military
operates strictly by way of a rigid hierarchy, as if every last move on
the frontline is orchestrated from atop the chain of command and those
in the thick of it wait for the orders to trickle down. Not
so--especially in the post-9/11 era of uncertainty.
In fact, when Damian McKinney entered the private sector after
serving 18 years in British Royal Marines, the
commando-turned-consultant found the business world to be more rigid
than the military and that in many cases, corporate soldiers were not
empowered to carry out their missions.
Shake-ups like the financial
crisis only served as a reason for leadership to tighten their grip. In
the military, this top-down management system is referred to as "command
and control." You might call it micromanagement.
But the nature of conflict has changed significantly since the trench
warfare of World War I and II. To reflect this, McKinney says a massive
cultural shift took place among NATO forces during the 1980s.
“Suddenly
you’ve got this guy called a terrorist appearing. And a terrorist
doesn’t operate like a conventional soldier,” says McKinney. “So you’ve
got a situation where an 18- or 19-year-old is faced with this guy
standing in front of him and he does not have time to go through the
normal chain of command and ask for permission to do something. So we
had to turn the system on its head.”
Turning the system on its head meant transitioning from command and
control to mission command. With mission command, everyone is closely
aligned to the mission, trained to make appropriate decisions, and given
the trust and support from leadership to follow through. The mission
dictates what is to be done, but the how is, to a greater extent, in the
hands of those tasked with execution.
Upon entering the private sector, McKinney quickly saw an opportunity
to bring mission command principles to corporate leadership. In 1999,
he founded management consulting firm, McKinney Rogers, which counts
among its clients Walmart, Bacardi, and HBO. And this year, he publishedThe Commando Way: Better Business Execution.
In a nutshell, McKinney thinks that commando thinking is ideally suited
to meet an unstable, uncertain business world. And so as to avoid the
proscriptive connotations of the term "mission command," he calls it
mission leadership. Here are its fundamentals.
Mission Leadership Requires A Deal
McKinney recalls an anecdote from 1990 when a young major was
explaining to a mixed audience of generals and young Marines why
adopting mission command was a good idea. A general stood up and
expressed his doubts that those with less experience and a lower rank
could make the critical decisions that this empowerment calls for. “One
of these young Marines stood up and said, ‘With all due respect,
general, you’re asking me with this new doctrine to make these big
decisions. How can I trust you to support me?’”
Empowerment is a two-way street. If leadership can provide a clear
mission, reports should be trusted to carry out that mission with
greater independence. “Essentially, it’s a deal. You’re gonna say,
“Look, guys, I need to make sure we’re really clear that you all
understand why we are doing what we’re doing, what we need you to do,
and the boundaries within which you have to operate. You’re going to
hold yourself accountable for that. But in exchange, I have to give you
the freedom.”
And McKinney has all the confidence that given the opportunity to
operate with more discretion, employees will thrive. “If you do that, it
never ceases to amaze me how successful people can be and how
innovative and creative they can be.” He suggests taking a lesson from
the military, where everyone is expected to be able to operate at one or
two levels above their rank, because if someone falls in battle,
there’s no time to run off to management training while the enemy waits.
“It has to happen there and then. So it allows you to be thinking and
operating at a very different level. And so you get high levels of
performance with smaller groups of people.”
Have a Vision for Success
When McKinney resigned from the military in 1997 and decided to
go into business, he fully expected to leave the military mindset
behind. But on morning one as a consultant, he was listening to a
project presentation and at lunch asked someone to explain the “end
state” of the project. “In other words, what does success look like and
why are we doing it? The senior partner looked at me and said, ‘You’ve
clearly been in the military too long. There is no such thing as an end
state.’” McKinney was shocked: “For me it’s just an excuse--poor
planning and poor understanding of what success looks like.’”
McKinney’s takeaway was that leaders should be less concerned with
controlling every aspect of a project, and more concerned with outlining
a clear outcome for a mission. “There’s a very simple human need here:
Tell me where we’re going, tell me what part you’d like me to play--in
other words, a plan--tell me the boundaries within which you want me to
operate, and then just let me go.”
McKinney continues: “The one I use always because I just think it’s
the best I’ve ever come across, is Kennedy’s 1961 vision. Where he stood
and he essentially said, we’re going to put a man on the moon and
return him safely by the end of the decade. It was powerful because it
was really simple. You could listen to it and see a man standing on the
moon and I can see him coming back. It was also time-bound. So I say to
all these companies, everyone needs a destination. So the starting point
is what is the vision for success.”
Also, Have a Purpose
What most companies call a mission statement is actually their
purpose, says McKinney, and most of them are poor. A strong purpose is
something you can always come back to. It’s the reason why a company
exists. “Having a purpose is really important because it defines who you
are,” says McKinney. “Your visions may change over the years, but your
purpose should never change.”
McKinney has worked extensively with Bill Simon, president and CEO of
Walmart U.S. In his work with Walmart, the company’s purpose
consistently informs their strategy. Their purpose, “Saving people money
so they can live better,” actually led to the company’s game-changing
$4 generic drug program. “What we did is start off by saying, ‘What
effect can we have on medical health care in the U.S. that actually
drives costs down? Where do people pay a lot of money? They pay on their
prescriptions, particularly old people. Well, then why don’t we try to
drive the price of that down?’ So we literally went from $20 to $4. A
massive change. We did a whole vision and strategy over four days, we
launched it a week later, we went right through the U.S. in four months,
and we saved the average middle-aged patient $200 a month.”
Empowerment Leads to Innovation
The most basic tenet behind mission leadership that is once a
mission is laid out to an individual or team with absolute clarity, they
should be allowed to run with it. “An individual needs to know the what
and the why--the mission, the boundaries within which they operate, and
then frankly, you never tell somebody how to do their job. You should
just let them go.”
McKinney cites Diageo, the maker of Johnnie Walker, Guinness, and
Smirnoff, as one company that’s had success with mission leadership
tactics. For example, as the tastes of vodka drinkers started to shift
from Smirnoff to premium brands like Grey Goose, Diageo knew it needed
to move into that space. At the time, Steve Wilson, was the global head
of innovation with Diageo, (Wilson now serves as an advisor to the
McKinney Rogers board), and he tasked his product development team to
come up with a new brand.
The key to success was empowering the team to to be creative with
their solution, says Wilson. “Empowerment where you actually tell people
what you want them to do, but you don’t tell them how they’ve got to do
it.” As a result, the company ended up with the very successful vodka
brand, Ciroc, which is different from most vodkas in that it’s derived
from grapes, rather than the more common grain alcohol.
Given the freedom, the team came up with the answer: “The answer was,
‘Let’s go do vodka that’s made from grapes.’ Why grapes? Quite simply,
what is the most luxurious product that you can drink? It’s probably
Champagne. So what about a vodka that’s made from Champagne grapes?”
Without telling the team exactly what to achieve, but sticking to the
mission, Diageo ended up with a winning vodka. “You get a good mix of
people,” says Wilson, “Tell them what it is you want them to do, tell
them when you need it by, then you just give them the freedom. And
they’ll make it happen.”
This article is by Nathan Bennett, a professor of management at the Robinson College of Business at George State University.
The time for resolutions is rapidly approaching. You should take deciding what to resolve seriously, so it’s not a bad idea to begin thinking now about what you might want to accomplish as a leader in 2013.
To help you focus your self-reflection, I conducted a strictly unscientific survey of my social network on Facebook and LinkedIn. I’ve been a professor for more than 20 years, so my networks are made up largely of former students. I’d guess the preponderance are working individuals between 27 and 47 years old who have MBAs. I suspect that makes them quite a bit like the teams you lead. I simply asked them what New Year’s Resolution they’d like to see their bosses make—and keep—during 2013. Here are their top five.
5. Resolve to be the kind of leader we want to follow.
Be consistent. We can tolerate even a poor leader if he isn’t channeling a different sort of poor leadership each day. Be real. Let us see how you as a leader effectively manage emotions and frustration at work. Show us what excites you about the challenges ahead. Help us celebrate when we overcome a perplexing challenge. Set an example. Everyone watches you—how you dress, how you treat others, when you come to work, and when you leave. Your behavior is the best argument for how you would like us to behave.
How To Pick And Stick To Career Goals Susan AdamsForbes Staff
Oops... Assumptions Can Make an Ass of You and Me! John BaldoniContributor
4. Resolve to help us understand how we can develop.
This helps us be better in many ways. It allows us to understand our future with the company; it gives us a way to structure our efforts to learn more about our jobs, our company, and our industry; and it shows that you have a personal interest, because you have made an effort to know our individual strengths and weaknesses.
3. Become a better listener.
We have ideas. They won’t all be great ideas, but if you listen to us you can coach us to develop our ability to better vet and sharpen the next one. Listening is one of the most considerate things one person can do for another. What better way to earn loyalty and respect than by being a genuinely interested listener?
2. Hold the micromanagement. Let’s talk trust.
Nothing is more frustrating than to be prevented from just doing the job you hired me to do. We understand that it can be uncomfortable to delegate work. We understand that in many cases it is your reputation on the line when our team fails to produce something to our standard. We get the risk to you. But when you micromanage, what you are saying is that you don’t trust me. Was I a hiring mistake? Did you get stuck with me on your team when you really wanted someone else? These are not thoughts that are going to help me become a better employee. Instead, let’s get the issues of risk and trust on the table. Let’s acknowledge what’s real and then work together to find a plan that allows me to make steps every day to earn your trust. And let’s make sure that plan gives me room to contribute and to grow.
1. Hold poor performers accountable. If they can’t improve, pay the price necessary to cut them loose.
What could be more damaging to the morale of the team than the struggle associated with carrying dead wood? We understand that you may not want to lose a position, that you may have some hope that you can magically restore someone’s motivation or suddenly implant some talent, or that politics may provide the poor performer with protection. We don’t care. Those are your problems, not ours. Our problem is that we see the ironic truth in the expression “addition by subtraction.” We would all be better with this person gone. The fact he or she remains does a lot to erode your credibility, and broadly, not just in regard to what you might consider an isolated situation.
These top five resolutions are not that surprising. They are frustrations I hear repeatedly in class and have heard for more than 20 years. So they are formidable challenges. But I don’t think they need to be destiny. Let’s make a start this year. I invite you to take some time during this last month of the year to think about the resolutions above. What would your team think if you were to announce that your goal for 2013 was to improve on one of them? How much might a real effort to improve make your life as a leader more enjoyable?
What will make your resolution work? We know that promises that are made publicly and negotiated with others involved are the most likely to be kept. You can talk with your team about the list above. There may be one item that will provoke smirks and chuckles around the table because it clearly is your Achilles heel. Or maybe your team would prefer you work on something else. Once you’ve identified your assignment, work with the team to agree on what success looks like. Make sure that process includes agreement on metrics and milestones. You all know how to manage a project. Make this a project. Your team will thank you, and I expect you will be surprised at how much easier they become to lead.
And, team members: This doesn’t have to begin with the leader. The conversation can begin with you. Make it one of your resolutions to share this article with a leader you’d like to see get better.
