Learning for competitive edge

One thing I learn and verify every day is that, if we want to survive in business, nowadays it is imperative to keep our business, products, and yes, ourselves as well, up to date with new technology, new techniques and strategies, new control processes, and new conclusions regarding consumer behavior and their requests.

Research and development, marketing research, and product/service development are critical in order to respond to the rapid decision making processes and higher quality standards that globalization and IT are providing. The fact that everybody has the possibility to have any information they request available instantly or almost instantly, creates the need for a learning organization.

The learning organization is always finding ways to differentiate from the competition and provide their customers and potential clients of the solutions to their needs. And that is how we see businesspeople reading psychology based books as Blink or Outliers, by Malcom Gladwell.

It is necessary for every organization to learn and discover how their clients think, what they want, and how to create the proper solution that will answer to their needs and give them the value that they were looking for. Only that way a company would achieve competitive edge. Customer service and customer care are more important than ever to sustain that competitive edge.

Overcoming resistance to change to retain talent in an organization

Nobody likes change. It is a fact that change has the more resistance in all of us, no matter how much we would like to improve current conditions. Because of this resistance, many organizations may lose some talent when the company undergoes some change in structure or business processes, as many are currently dealing with due to the existing economic turmoil. However, if managed carefully, change may bring some positive outcome and attract and keep talent in the workforce.

First of all, leaders must allow their workforce to participate and take more interest in the change process. When employees within the organization feel that they matter, and they are part of the change, they also are more motivated to stay in the organization and identify with its goals. Even though this task tends to be difficult to appear within large organizations, it is not impossible.

Another tool to use for motivation is communication. When leaders communicate openly the reasons why the change is needed and “the negative consequences of the old ways” the workforce will also understand and embrace the change much faster.

Finally, it is necessary that all individuals receive the education and support that they need to carry out the new processes and efforts without feeling overwhelmed. Empathy and emotional intelligence are two characteristics that all leaders should count on to assist them in the task of attracting qualifying individuals to work as a team embracing change.

Communication to improve responsiveness

One way that all organizations should do in order to address stakeholder expectations  and improve responsiveness is being “rule breakers”. This does not mean not having a structure, but being flexible and agile enough to respond to customers’ requirements as fast as possible, since this is a feature that is very demanded in companies nowadays. This ability to adapt to the quickly-changing demands is crucial for the success of the company, and the organizations that do not abide to this methodology succumb to the bureaucracy that hinders customer service and the company’s success.

Another way to improve customer responsiveness is through the process called Customer Relationship Management (CRM), in order to have an intimate knowledge of the customers’ needs, wants, and buying patterns. This way organizations are able to understand, as well as anticipate, the needs of current and potential customers.

However, CRM by itself is not sufficient to improve responsiveness. Employees must receive training that focuses in this area as well. This way, it would be possible to improve both employee and customer responsiveness. Additionally, receiving training to improve core competencies allows the learning organization to improve responsiveness and continuing progressing.

All these techniques require a crucial element: communication. This fundamental must be effective enough to receive and process the information about customers and employees that demand change to address expectations. As Karen Greenbaum mentions, communication could be defined as “leading, informing, listening and involving” (Cited in Anonymous, 1998, p. 1).

References:

Anonymous (1998). An international employee feedback system. Communication World, 15(3), 20-23. Retrieved on August 13, 2009 from AB/INFORM Global.

Valuing Diversity

Being part of a minority group, I can see how beneficial is the diversity WinningStance presents, not only for the company itself, but also for our clients and business partners.

First of all, I can see how diversity decreases stereotyping and prejudice, allowing not only other people to decrease the typical stereotype about Latin women,  but also myself to decrease my own stereotypes and prejudice about others. I must admit that living in United States gave me the cultural shock that allowed me to change my stereotypes about people, culture and even jobs or careers. This experience taught me “not to judge a book by its cover”. In addition, this modification and diminishment of stereotypes allowed our company, clients, prospects, and business partners, to develop a wider variety of perspectives, which resulted in a positive progress of our business relationships.

Another value that diversity brought to WinningStance is the possibility of bringing our services around the world, not only by speaking different languages, but also by adjusting culturally the different concepts, since some concepts would not have the same receptivity in United States than in Greece, for example. This resulted in a complete differentiator for WinningStance, resulting in a definite increase in our market positioning and potential revenue, therefore increasing achievement of our goals and productivity.

I am a total believer of the benefits of diversity for any organization, some of the benefits mentioned above. Absolutely this is not a simple task to overcome, since it requires more effort to relate to others. I had this difficulty when I came to United States. However, the progress in my maturity in this regard, and the improvement in my critical thinking and problem solving skills allowed me to understand that the effort was worth it.

A good strategy for increasing diversity is applying to education and coaching people in the fact that if we open our minds and learn more from each other, it is possible to balance and leverage our strengths and, as a result, be more efficient and productive. The result of this kind of mature diversity is a win-win situation for all parties.

A learning organization

Not only WinningStance revolves around learning, since the services we offer are training workshops, but we also understand the importance of being “adept at learning”, as Donald Schon (1973) observes about learning societies that need to transform themselves when there are changing circumstances (cited in Smith, 2001). Definitely, this is what makes my organization a learning one. Not only we are immerse in the constant learning that allows us to the transformation that is needed to overcome obstacles, but we also share values and principles that are exhibited in our organization, and are necessary to obtain the desired results. Furthermore, one of our most important values is that every experience is a learning experience. Every mistake, every success, every obstacle that we face or every step we move towards our goals, we consider them as learning experiences, which makes the organization continually growing and progressing.

One practice that we incorporated in our learning systems is to consider and study not only the best practices, that is the actions that result in the desired outcomes, but also the worst practices, that is the actions that result in the wrong or undesired outcomes. We base this concept in the analysis developed by Jim Collins (2001), who studied the difference between the good companies and the best companies in each industry and concluded that only the best companies make learning and analysis of good and bad practices a priority.

We understand that, in order to build a shared vision and achieve our organizational goals, learning is a process that needs to be constantly present in our organization.

References:

Collins, J. (2001). Good to great: Why some companies make the leap… and others don’t. New York: Harper Collins. 

Smith, M. K. (2001). The learning organization. The Encyclopedia of Informal Education. Retrieved on May 8, 2009 from http://www.infed.org/biblio/learning-organization.htm.

Employee Motivators and Marlow’s Hierarchy of Needs

According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, every individual would be motivated to work if he or she meets the basic needs, in the following order: physiological, safety, belongingness, esteem and self-actualization (Jones and George, 2007, pp. 329-331). Only after satisfying one range of needs, the individual would pursue satisfaction of the next range. In the case of a weak economy, when the unemployment rate is high, individuals that have a salary to provide for food, clothes and housing have the physiological needs met. Workers are more motivated and are more satisfied with their jobs during a recession because having a job allows them to provide to themselves and their families with the means to meet the physiological needs.  Therefore, satisfying the physiological needs is enough motivator to be satisfied with their jobs.

 On the other hand, safety needs are met when the employee has adequate medical benefits. During a recession, a company does not need to consider these medical benefits as a priority. The reason is that as long as an individual feels that his physiological needs are being met, contrary to so many other unemployed people, this creates more job satisfaction than in the past, when the unemployment was not as high and physiological needs were already met by default. When this happened, the motivator was acquiring more medical benefits and participating in better interpersonal relationships at work.

What is very interesting is that most employees find very relevant the ability to improve skills to enhance the employee’s value to the company. I can see that many managers may not have the same perception. However, being able to improve one’s strengths is a powerful motivator in a time of economic turmoil. Because of the lack of job security, an employee may find it important to develop him or herself professionally in order to increase his or her value even in case of being laid off, so he can compete with the high offer of unemployed professionals.  During times when the unemployment rate is high, receiving a benefit such as training becomes more attractive because the employee sees it as an opening to find more job opportunities if he or she loses the current job, in order to continuing meeting the physiological needs. 

References:

Jones, G. R., & George, J. M. (2007).  Essentials of contemporary management (2^nd ed).  Boston:  McGraw-Hill.

Shepherd, Leah Carlson. (2008). Employers adjust benefits in a weak economy. Employee Benefit News. Retrieved May 6, 2008, from   http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1545952181&sid=1&Fmt=3&clientId=74379&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Three Factors in Emotional Intelligence to Improve Communication

Emotions are an underestimated component in a business environment. However, an individual that possesses a high emotional intelligence quotient has the ability to engage in a much more effective communication, managing successfully any crisis and organizational conflict.

Emotional intelligence is a highly relevant component of an effective communication because it involves three aspects that are crucial to achieve this goal. Having high social insight and empathy to listen actively and understanding each of the members of the organization are necessary in order to motivate them effectively. It is also required to have a high level of interpersonal assertion, in order to identify and control one’s own emotions and be able convey the message clearly and proficiently. Finally, leadership is a crucial component to establish a valuable communication, not only in authorities in the organization, but in every member, since leadership allows the individual to influence and persuade others to move towards the achievement of the organization’s goals.

In order to take advantage of the benefits that emotional intelligence embraces, an organization should make it a goal to identify and hire only personnel with a high emotional intelligence quotient. Additionally, the organization should invest in improvement coaching to enhance this ability in their staff. By increasing the knowledge of emotional intelligence and developing these skills, the sensitivity in each member of the organization increases, which, in turn, enhances the value of the organization in its entirety.

The value of good communication

As it was very well observed by Lorenzo Sierra (2003) in his essay “Sierra’s Theory of Communicativity”, the value of good communication is difficult to observe, and it may not be so evident to understand the relevance of communicating our products or services in a valuable manner.

Poor communication carries a higher cost than what we can perceive. In my business, if our communication is poor, then our prospects do not see the value of improving their skills when they are presenting a product. As a result, their presentations end up being forgettable, and their products seem too similar to their competitors’ products, which, in turn, makes their client think that they are hiring or buying a commodity (no matter what kind of product we are talking about) and end up choosing product based solely on price. A product well communicated, brings actual value to the customer, and is perceived as a solution, an investment, and a need to their business. 

 A simple way to measure the success of the communication in a presentation is counting the number of sales versus the number of presentations. Our clients understand the importance of good communication, which creates the differentiation from their competitors, and connects them as consultants and partners, instead of mere sales representatives, and, as a result, increase their sales.

Reference:

 

Sierra, L.  (2003, June). Sierra’s theory of communicativity. Communication World, 20(4), 38.  Retrieved March 24, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 357794181)

 

 

How to handle our business when the economy is rough

I remember a story that I read in one of Zig Ziglar’s books, where he talked about a real estate company meeting, where he was chatting with some people about the low demands in the real estate market. The first person was very upset, shaking his head, stating that with the low demand it was difficult for him to find clients that wanted to buy a house or list, and that it was a waste of time and money to invest anything in marketing. At the same time, another realtor was excited about the situation, explaining that her market share had increased, since there were fewer realtors in the market, nobody was doing any marketing, and the customers that were interested in talking to her were actually serious.

I always have this story in mind, especially because every time we think about this recession and economic turmoil, we think about budget cuts, layoffs, and lower revenues. However, we can always use a spin point, and think of ways to take care of our current customers to sustain retention and loyalty, or create new products to respond to new market needs. This is the time to think strategy again, and look for new venues to maintain the position that we had in the past, so we can keep being the Top Producers we once were, regardless of economic setbacks.

2009: A New Start

The year is ending, and most of us start evaluating the positive and negative situations that we lived throughout the year. This was not an easy year, and some of us reviewed and adjusted our expectations. But my idea is different: let’s just adjust the how, not the what and the why. We have a purpose in life, and our passions are still the same. The fact that we encountered some obstacles on the road can be a blessing in disguise. We just have to keep finding the positive in everything.

Have a wonderful New Year’s Eve and a great start! 2009 is THE year!!!