PrimeGenesis Blog
How to Take Advantage of Coming Changes In Consumer Behavior through Nexting
Anticipate the impact of changes.
Like Zyman, ask “What else is that going to change?” Noticing changes that are already happening keeps you from losing. Winning requires you to get ahead of the next change.
Build the capability to take advantage of what’s going to happen.
Different changes are going to require different capabilities. Take a BRAVE look at the changes happening in your world. (Follow this link for more on BRAVE leadership). Figure out which changes you want to react to (where play?) Match that with your organization’s purpose (what matters?) Then build competitive advantages for the future (how win?) All the while making sure you’re bringing your extended team with you for the journey (how connect?) and driving towards the right behaviors (what impact?)
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer’s New Leader’s 100-Day Action Plan
Hopefully, Mayer has already gotten a head start and completed her new job preparation. She should already be clear on her message and story. If not, she needs to get those right, today.
Following that, like any new CEO, she’s going to need to accelerate strategic, organizational and operational processes by deploying five onboarding building blocks:
Get the core team aligned around yet one more new strategic imperative (accelerating the strategic process).
Put a program in place to manage both short-term milestones and longer-term milestones (accelerating operational processes).
Identify an early win and over-invest to drive that.
Sort the team, getting the right people in the right roles with the right support (accelerating the organizational process).
Over-communicating at every step of the way. This is always important. It was important when Thompson took over. It’s even more important now.
The only thing Mayer can do all by herself is fail. The only possible road to success will require her earning the right to lead before she tries to lead, taking a broad view of her team and deploying many different leadership frameworks at different times.
The Power of Persistence: Author Norb Vonnegut
There’s a high likelihood that this will be my friend, author Norb Vonnegut’s breakout week. His third novel, “The Trust” comes out tomorrow and was positively reviewed by Janet Maslin in The New York Times yesterday. While “The Trust” is a terrific summer read, this is more about Norb’s journey.
Norb is an ex-Wall Street money manager who decided to become a full-time novelist a few years ago. Three novels in, he deserves the success that’s going to come his way because of his talent, because of his courage in taking the leap, because of his disciplined approach, and because of his willingness to stick with it.
Lessons for the rest of us:
Take the leap
Be disciplined
Stick with it
And read “The Trust”
Fear the Randomly Dogmatic Boss or Colleague
New leaders should have an organizing framework and not follow it. In the wise words of Wharton Professor Len Lodish, “It is better to be vaguely right than precisely wrong.” We can break managers and employees into four types, depending on how they approach an organizing framework:
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Random: those who have no framework and are not concerned about it and act in random ways
Randomly Dogmatic: those who have no framework and think they do
Rigid: Those who do have a framework and always follow it
Purposefully flexible: Those who have a framework and don’t always follow it
Purposefully flexible wins.
Leading In An Age Of Decreased Face-To-Face Communication
Be, Do, Say
You will choose your own way of leading. You will likely choose to lead in different ways in different times – from different chairs in different places. Keep “be, do, say” in mind. Make sure your actions match your words and that your words match your fundamental beliefs. The ability to lead from any chair from anywhere comes with a whole new set of possibilities and risks.
The New Leader’s Playbook
Event | SHRM | George Bradt | June 27, 2012
Managing First Impressions In A New Job
Premature cognitive commitment from new staff members, or jumping to conclusions, is always a risk in onboarding. However, it plays out differently with employees and executives. This is one of the takeaways from this year’s Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) 2012 Annual Conference & Exposition just underway this week in Atlanta.
One risk is that new hires will jump to wrong conclusions about the organization. With new executives, the risk is that the organization will jump to the wrong conclusion about the new executives themselves.
Manage Major Business Transformations In Stages
Transformational change requires aligning plans, people and practices around a shared purpose. Tackling those pieces with the right approach and resources step-by-step in stages instead of all at once is often the difference between success and failure. Do four things:
Align plans, people and practices around a shared purpose.
Manage the transition in stages with different approaches and resources at each stage as appropriate.
Jettison each stage’s excess baggage before it gets in the way of the next stage’s success.
Celebrate your early successes.
Survey Highlights Successful Onboarding Strategies for Salespeople
Sales Architects’ 2012 “Salesperson Onboarding Survey” illustrates how comprehensive onboarding programs can increase employee engagement and drive faster results.
Some of the most striking data in the survey, which will be released next week, details how long it takes new salespeople to generate the same revenue as tenured reps in companies with and without comprehensive onboarding programs: 251 days with a program and 381 without.
Key takeaways have to do with the importance of mentors, well-defined “first day programs”, testing and follow through, as well as the advantages of deploying a structured, comprehensive onboarding program that runs for longer than most currently do. It’s important to take onboarding seriously because it is a crucible of leadership.
Every New Leader Faces Recall Elections. Survive Yours.
Every new leader faces recall elections. The key to surviving your recalls is getting the support of the people that vote and the people that influence those that vote.
There’s always a conversation about six months after leaders assumes new positions. Someone asks those leaders’ bosses how they are doing. Don’t kid yourself. Those are recall elections. If things are going well, the leaders survive. If they don’t win the vote, they’re gone. Maybe not right then, but sooner or later. Often the vote is explicit. Other times it’s implicit. But there’s always a vote.
Lead. But don’t lead on your own.
Get clear on your purpose, your vision, your values.
Leverage that purpose, vision, and values to inspire and enable others.
Don’t hesitate to ask for those others’ help when your recall elections come – and they will.