by Doug Gray | Jul 22, 2013 | change, digital, Employment, global, Leadership, Managers, money, Resources, Sales, Success, talent
Open your eyes! How much time do you spend with millenials? Not only do millenials consume the most products, they also expect results. They are 50% of the workforce in 2018.
To ignore millenials is to commit some form of suicide.
Here are 6 steps for you and your company:
1. Mobile web-based experiences are a $10 billion dollar industry, with over 7 billion phones. We now have nearly 4x more mobile browsers than the number of desk-based browsers. Follow the numbers. Follow the money.
2. We can provide emotionally-provocative experiences that combine digital and physical activities. Here are several examples. When you go to the zoo you can now rent a GoPro or Segway to make your experience unique. When you go to a park you can use your mobile device to geocache. You can have a “Yelp Night” and move from restaurant to bar in any unfamiliar city. When you go to a conference you can tweet about and score the presenters, in real time. However, at most amusement parks and concerts we are not doing anything about the visitors who are standing in a line (bored) or tweeting or Face-booking their friends to “stay away” from your business or event. As a more costly example, we are not doing anything about low compliance with incentive reward programs. In fact, industrial organizational researchers tell us that some 35% of the US workforce is not engaged in their jobs. We sorely lack emotionally-provocative experiences that combine digital and physical activities.
3. In response to these market needs, I have developed a mobile web-based app that can guarantee engagement for any clients. This app enables clients to have a pre-visit and post-visit experience that integrates their event with any content. The event becomes a process. For instance, if a client wants to assign pre-visit training or reading content, the app can assess their engagement. Using a leader board and social media, they can increase accountability. They can market and promote the company. They can include video and photo uploads. They can earn points by doing more activities. They can return to the venue. The app can be delivered in hours, under any name. And it can be scaled for any sized organization.
4. Large corporate clients expect global delivery capacity. Every successful Free Agent has a network of alliance partners. The myth of the solo-preneur as a lone wolf is dead. For instance, the largest provider of leadership development coaches is www.coachsource.com, founded by Brian Underhill and Marshall Goldsmith. Marshall is described as the #1 leadership consultant in the U.S., according to Harvard Business Review. I am the southeast engagement manager, and represent 1,200 leadership coaches in 60 countries. We can provide expert leadership coaching to any clients. A bold claim, but a well validated claim. We can deliver the value of global leadership coaching to your current clients. And we can design programs that include a cycle of regular visits to any location with reinforcements from the very best leadership coaches. Those individual and group agendas typically yield a 500% ROI.
Digital and Global solutions not only satisfy millenials. They lead to results. They are required solutions.
If you are a solo-preneur, develop strong alliance with the smartest partners that you can find. Today.
If you are a business leader, call Doug at 615.236.9845 If I cannot help you I will find someone who can. Today.
Comments?
by Doug Gray | Jul 21, 2013 | Business, Coaching, Leadership, Managers, strengths, talent
Yesterday I met with an economic buyer who did not know the potential of her company.
She was representative. So here are some trends and resources and options for you and your colleagues to consider:
1. Customized leadership development programs are the new norm. (Whatever the phrase “new norm” truly means…) Off the shelf programs simply do not work well.
2. Leadership development programs are a $170 billion dollar industry, according to the ASTD, American Society of Training and Development. Corporate earnings are at an all-time high, and individual wage earnings are at an all-time low. Hence, the market opportunities are in corporations that are willing to invest in professional development.
Most leadership development programs fail because they are events, rather than a process based on assessment, consulting, and coaching.
3. “Training” is dead. Training teaches content to a norm. Training is becoming digital and shorter because our digital workforce demands that change. And most training managers do not resist. They are frightened and struggling for funding. At a recent conference for learning and development managers one presenter shared how her department generated revenue (rather than costs) by video taping and selling training modules for their strategic partners. The audience “oohed and ahhed.” However, no one asked, “What will occur 3 years from now when the modules are all digital and only 30% are being passively used by workers who are mandated to take the modules?” Or, “What about the need for powerful interactions between people that only occurs in a live, synchronous event?” Sadly, training is dead.
4. Some “leadership development companies” have survived to date despite the fact that they are event-based. Most challenge courses have been retired. Most companies regard “team building” as an occasional expense- and send people to events such as a spa, winery tour, amusement park, or golf courses. These events are not integrated into strategic needs for most corporate buyers.
5. Leadership development programs can be integrated into strategic needs, and they can target specific needs and industries. We have done so for years. With metrics and case studies that satisfy any cautious economic buyer.
6. Future business revenue for leadership development companies will come from select alliances/ partnerships with service providers who can a) provide customized content in related subjects, such as assessments, change management, operational efficiency plus b) targeted sales to high growth industries such as health care, technology, and mid-market businesses. The money exists.
Leadership development companies can make big money by targeting those industries.
Call me for details on global leadership development coaching with the largest providers of assessments and coaching and consulting.
And stay away from any providers who are not affiliated with partners who can provide the scope your company needs.
The “next normal” (whatever that phrase means) in leadership development requires smart alliances and partnerships with trusted service providers.
by Doug Gray | Jul 20, 2013 | Business, family, Leadership, Managers, money, Sales, Success, talent
Stuart is an expert sales consultant, recruiter, customer service trainer and technology provider for independent restaurants.
Based near Minneapolis, MN he promotes excellent customer service throughout the world.
Check out this MP3…
Stuart Gray 7.19.13
by Doug Gray | Jul 9, 2013 | Business, change, Coaching, strengths, Success, talent
When I studied decision-making in college, the thinking was linear. Stimulus A caused response B. I wonder, if have we have learned much since then… My undergraduate psychology classes were at Hamilton College, the alma mater of B.F. Skinner, a leader of behaviorism.
My graduate classes in developmental psychobiology were at Dartmouth College, the alma mater of Dr. Seuss and countless global leaders of business and industry.
Recently I read about neural clusters in our brains. Imagine several constellations or galaxies of brainwave activity. Both chemical and electrical activity. Like constellations or galaxies in the solar systems. Now imagine that these neural clusters are both elastic and dynamic. In other words, when we reinforce certain pathways or patterns (called functionalism) then we strengthen neuronal pathways. And when we learn new knowledge (like a foreign language or an insight) then we strengthen the neural constellation so that it can sort through the past memories (called schemas) to create some new sorting system (called data.) We know that some 60% of our behavior is patterned responses, monitored in the basal ganglia. And we know that most new knowledge causes stress.
No wonder humans resist change. Change, defined as any external new stimulus, forces us to re-sort data. Change requires the brain to work in new ways. The larger the organization, the more we resist change.
When faced with decision making options we often think of risk taking vs. risk avoidance. As if the world were so linear… My masters research on risk-taking behavior found that risk-taking is complex, like so many other human behaviors.
What if, instead, we adopted a non-linear view of decision making?
My revised model (of the moment, subject to change) looks something like this:
- We perceive Stimulus A
- We sort through a neural constellation of jumbled data, memories, images, schemas, etc
- We adopt a positive feeling that we have an infinite number of responses
- We select a Response B because it promotes some social good
The positive psychology movement has done extensive research in related fields. Yesterday I learned that the most popular course at Harvard College, led by Shawn Achor, is called “The Happiness Advantage.” Read Martin Seligman. He led a reversal in the American Psychological Association within the last 20 years- away from mental illness and toward mental health.
The coaching client who just left my office is adopting a similar approach.
How about you? How do you describe change?
by Doug Gray | Jul 8, 2013 | book review, Business, change, Coaching, strengths, Success, talent
I wrote this book in 2007 when preparing for a relocation. Yesterday I re-read chapter 1. It provoked me, and it should provoke you.
Here you go:
Passionate Action, Chapter 1
To order the full book, go to https://actionlearnin.wpengine.com/main/page_products_products.php
Please forward this chapter to anyone who may need to be provoked!
by Doug Gray | Jul 2, 2013 | change, Coaching, Leadership, Managers, money, Success, talent
Recently a client was struggling with two related issues: 1. How much to pay his employees and subcontractors, and 2. How to manage his accountant who regularly arrived late for scheduled meetings.
I suggested that he should bill the accountant at least $1.00 per minute that he is late.
“Huh?” He asked.
Then I reached into a day timer and showed him the following image. (I tried to find a better image online but was not successful.)
The column headings are Salary year/ Salary week/ Benefits= 40% Total salary/ Total week/ Value per hour/ and Value per minute.
For instance, if your salary per year is $70,000, your Salary per week is $$1,346, your Benefits are $538, your total week is $1,885, your Value per hour is $47.00 and your value per minute is $0.79.
So why wouldn’t you charge the accountant at least $1.00/ minute for being late? His tardiness is 1) expensive and 2) unprofessional. I urged him to charge a retroactive late fee. And I referred him to other accountants.
The second question is more complex. How much should you pay employees and subcontractors? The market response is “as little as possible, according to their value.” That is why we pay minimum wages and low salaries for remedial work.
For most business leaders, we are slow to pay others for remedial work.
The best business leaders, however, ALWAYS delegate low paying tasks to others. And they refuse to do remedial work.
Back to my client. I asked him, “So, what do you think your time is worth?”
He said, “At least $70,000/ year.”
I said, “OK then, why aren’t you excited about the opportunity to pay others $10-24.00 per hour to do work for you?”
And that, of course, led to a deep conversation about self-worth and the need to delegate low paying tasks to others.
So, what is your time worth?
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