Companies spend more per capita on sales training than any other function, but the return on investment (ROI) is disappointing. A recent Training Industry article indicates “that 85-90% of sales training fails to translate into a lasting improvement in productivity.” One big reason is altered business-development requirements in a changing economy.

For decades, selling was framed in terms of moving a prospect from awareness to interest to desire to action. The attention-interest-desire-action (AIDA) formula and its variants are the basis (often, the unconscious basis) for the “pipeline” or “funnel” activities that dominate talk about sales in books, blogs and training sessions. But buying in most markets is now a dynamic, omni-channel process, not a linear funnel. Prospects are online and offline at multiple times during buying journeys, contacting influencers, web sites and buyer forums as well as sales reps. Understanding where customers are, how they...

So why is business transformation so difficult to achieve? One reason is the invisible fears and insecurities that keep us locked into behaviors even when we know rationally that they don’t serve us well. Leaders can change processes, policies, seating arrangements, and other external factors, but until they change people’s internal feelings, assumptions, blind spots, and fears, they’ll struggle to make change stick. This kind of transformation should start with the leaders themselves, since its their personalities that often shape corporate culture.

 

Innovation is all about finding and filling people’s unmet needs. But even innovators and organizations renowned for their scanning capabilities often have trouble perceiving and correctly interpreting those needs. Drawing on their work as researchers, teachers, and consultants, the authors outline a four-part framework to help innovators diversify how and where they look. It involves two main strategies: improving your vision (seeing in greater detail) and challenging your vision (looking at people other than mainstream users). Within each you can adopt a narrow focus or take a wider view. You can zoom in on individual mainstream users and their everyday experiences (what the authors call a microscope strategy) or pull back to discover patterns in their aggregate behavior (a panorama strategy). Likewise, you can take a look at users outside your core (a telescope strategy) or seek a broader view of the patterns they exhibit as a group (a kaleidoscope strategy)....

For many of us, uncertainty can be nerve-racking. That reaction, however, obscures a crucial fact: Uncertainty and possibility are two sides of the same coin. Chances are, your biggest achievements and transformational moments all came after a period of uncertainty—one that probably felt stressful but that you pushed through to accomplish something great.

Uncertainty doesn’t have to be paralyzing. After studying innovators and changemakers who handle it well and reviewing research on resilience and tolerance for ambiguity, the authors have found that the following four principles can help: (1) Reframe your situation by focusing on the potential upside. (2) Prime yourself by taking small risks and reducing uncertainty in other areas of your life. (3) Take a series of modest actions instead of making bet-the-farm moves. And (4) sustain yourself by recasting setbacks and focusing on things that have true meaning for you.

What should you do if you’re managing an underperforming team and receive a problematic performance review? It can feel like you’re on an island, writes the author of this piece. She offers advice for what to do next. First, it’s important to realize you’re not alone. Check in with mentors or other leaders and peers you respect and ask: “If your team underperformed and you got a bad review, what would your next move be?” You should also ask for more clarity and support from your manager. When you’re clear-headed, email and set up a follow-up meeting. Create space for your manager to give you more feedback. And remind your manager why you’re the right person to fix the group. Remember that your boss is extremely busy and may not spend time recognizing things that are going well; remind your manager of the positives in an authentic, meaningful way.

Leaders face a daily barrage of competing demands and multiple stakeholders with different opinions and incentives. To navigate the chaos, most people’s brains default to “either-or” thinking when “both-and” thinking would lead to more creative and novel solutions. Drawing on 20 years of research, the authors provide a three-step process for solving tough problems by adopting a paradox mindset — a comfort and willingness to accept competing demands as a potential source of new ideas and opportunities.

Many of us approach decision making from the same perspective over and over. We use the same tools and habits every time, even if the decisions are vastly different. But following the same strategy for every problem limits your abilities. To make better decisions, you need to break out of these patterns and see things differently, even if it is uncomfortable.

First, you need to understand your own decision-making strengths and your blind spots. You must identify the mental mistakes or cognitive biases that tend to get in your way. Once you do that, you can better check and challenge those biases, adjust your approach, and bring out a more holistic understanding of a situation, better ensuring that you are solving the whole problem.

An insightful and inspiring book on using "both/and" thinking to make more creative, flexible, and impactful decisions in a world of competing demands.

Life is full of paradoxes. How can we each express our individuality while also being a team player? How do we balance work and life? How can we improve diversity while promoting opportunities for all? How can we manage the core business while innovating for the future?

For many of us, these competing and interwoven demands are a source of conflict. Since our brains love to make either-or choices, we choose one option over the other. We deal with the uncertainty by asserting certainty.

There's a better way.

In Both/And Thinking, Wendy Smith and Marianne Lewis help readers cope with multiple, knotted tensions at the same time. Drawing from more than twenty years of pioneering research, they provide tools and lessons for...

Most of us begin a new position with energy and a desire to impress. Our effort is high. Our passion is infectious. Our enthusiasm helps us to excel quickly.

But for some, work becomes mundane and repetitive. They lose some of their passion, and their work can begin to feel like a chore. Eventually some of those executives who had initially loved their careers enter the dimension we call the “day prison.” As they enter their workspace, they feel the metaphorical bars close around them in a zone where they are unmotivated, dissatisfied, and much less productive than they could be.

To better understand this phenomenon we examined data from 970 such people in a single organization. They were between 35 and 44 years old (the typical range for the onset of a mid-career crisis), and they all rated their engagement at work in the bottom 10%.

How did these “day prisoners” compare with the rest of the organization?

Each year, over one hundred CEOs retire from the S&P 1000. Even in the most well-oiled CEO succession processes, one piece is almost always missing: preparing the current CEO for the next phase in his or her career. On average, CEOs step down at age 62, relatively young by today’s standards. Few have to work for living. But almost all want to work, and they do. A look at the post-CEO careers of 50 Chief Executives in the Fortune 500, and interviews with 13 of them, reveal that no one wants to retire to the golf course. Instead, these newly retired CEOs are acting as mentors, finding ways to give back, reconnecting with their partners, and pursuing long-held dreams. A structured approach to semi-retirement makes the transition smoother and more fruitful.

All too often, promising employees fail to step up when leadership opportunities arise. What is it that holds so many people back? The authors describe new research that sheds light on three of the most common perceived risks that are associated with leadership: the risk to your interpersonal relationships, the risk to your image, and the risk of being blamed for failure. They go on to suggest several tactical strategies for managers looking to nurture leadership at all levels, including going the extra mile to identify and support your most risk-sensitive employees, proactively addressing interpersonal disagreements before they escalate into uncomfortable conflicts, and finding low-stakes opportunities for people to try out leadership. Ultimately, empowering people to lead starts with acknowledging — and mitigating — the reasons they may be hesitant to step up.

If you’re thinking about quitting your job, first do a quick analysis. Is the organization you work for the source of your concern? Then, you might look for a similar job with another employer. Is the job the problem? Then, you should consider making a move within your company before you decide to leave. And, finally, are you prepared to make your next move? Build your personal career assets to position your career for the future.

Sometimes the perfect job isn’t down the street, but thousands of miles away. Whether or not you’re willing to relocate for it, however, is not always a straightforward calculation. There’s a temptation to weigh the pros and cons on an Excel spreadsheet, but you need to think holistically about your personal and professional satisfaction. Consider the lifestyle the new location affords or lacks. What will the change mean to your family? How difficult will it be to find a community in the new place? Will your spouse or partner be able to find meaningful work? If not, how big a setback will it be? Think, too, about the opportunity within the context of your long-term career path. What’s the next move after this? Finally, it’s important to have an exit plan if the worst-case scenario — you and/or your family are miserable — materializes. You need an escape hatch.

At work, comparisons are commonplace. Sometimes we’re envious of a colleague’s great presentation or jealous that someone else got picked to work on project. Sometimes we face jealousy after our own successes. But what if the jealous person is your boss? You may need to manage their emotions to manage your career.

It’s time to retire the saying “Don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions.” Even though advocates of this approach believe it increases empowerment, helps employees manage up, and boosts careers, it’s fraught with challenges. Not every problem has an easy solution, and some require diverse points of view. Requiring solutions can breed a culture of intimidation, and prevent some problems from surfacing until they’re full-blown crises. Many managers demand solutions to avoid a culture of complaining. But you can encourage your team to communicate about problems in a more productive way. Follow these three steps:

Are you successful at coaching your employees? Many executives are unable to correctly answer this question, because they think they’re coaching when they’re actually just telling their employees what to do. This behavior is often reinforced by their peers, and is hardly an effective way to motivate people and help them grow. Instead, research suggests, coaching leaders in how to be coaches can pay dividends, but only if you start by defining “coaching” and give ample room for self-reflection and feedback.

Organizations are pretty good at solving specific problems as they arise, but many lack a set of criteria and goals to meet in order to maintain their ability to compete and grow. The author identifies 10 research-backed principles from the field of organization development to guide companies: 1) Encourage cooperation, 2) organize for change, 3) anticipate the future, 4) remain flexible, 5) create distinctive spaces, 6) diversify your workforce — and create an inclusive environment, 7) promote personal growth, 8) empower people, 9) reward high performers, and 10) foster a leadership culture.

Many companies today fail to see the threats and opportunities that new digital technologies represent. They fail to recognize that customers are increasingly being drawn to data-driven services and experiences, and they fail to appreciate the growing value of data and digital ecosystems for their business. Five traps in particular create this digital myopia: the product trap, the value-chain trap, the operational-efficiency trap, the customer trap, and the competitor trap. The author discusses each, along with ways to avoid them.

Investment in what is typically called “FemTech” – defined as diagnostic tools, products, and services related to women’s health — has exploded over the past decade. Some of the most promising ventures have been focused on reproductive care. Then came the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The legal and policy restrictions on reproductive health care that result from this decision will not only have swift impact on people who can get pregnant and their families, it will also undermine critical areas of research, innovation, and progress toward more equitable health care outcomes. Among the areas of concern: fertility treatments like IVF; personal data collection and the ability to drive research; a limiting of new investment and curbing of health care innovation more broadly; and the introduction of new obstacles for women founders.

Nailing a job interview takes more than preparation and practice. If you want to get hired, you need to tell a story about why you’re the perfect person for the role. Here are five pieces of advice to help you.

We’re upgrading our systems so we can better serve our subscribers. Unfortunately, that means we have to temporarily suspend subscriber syncing. We apologize for the inconvenience.We’ll be back up and running within 48 hours.

Planning was one of the cornerstones of management, but it’s now fallen out of fashion. It seems rigid, bureaucratic, and ill-suited to a volatile, unpredictable world. However, organizations still need some form of planning. And so, universally valuable, but desperately unfashionable, planning waits like a spinster in a Jane Austen novel for someone to recognize her worth. The answer is agile planning, a process that can coordinate and align with today’s agile-based teams. Agile planning also helps to resolve the tension between traditional planning’s focus on hard numbers, and the need for “soft data,” or human judgment.

Leaders are often hesitant to acknowledge their weaknesses but this counter-productive for two simple reasons: One, it’s unsustainable. Life inevitably catches up to us and then, eventually, we must face the inescapable reality that we are human, with weaknesses, flaws, and faults. Two, it’s poor leadership. Leadership is about connection. People will only follow you, work hard for you, create and risk and sacrifice for you, if they feel connected to you. Will anyone ever be able to truly connect with you, really trust you, honestly give you their all, if you only reveal to them the parts of you that you think will impress them? How long do you think you can keep that up? How long before they become disillusioned? In other words, hiding our weaknesses in an attempt to be strong leaders makes us weak leaders. Our vulnerabilities make us most vulnerable when we pretend they don’t exist.