Lead at Any Level

Leadership

Learn to Get Comfortable with Change

· ·

Your world is changing more rapidly than ever before, bringing a barrage of industry discussions about disruption, agility, and resilience. Professionals who adapt quickly can seize new opportunities and manage their careers. It’s time for each of us to get comfortable with change.

What Keeps CEOs Up at Night?

Deloitte tells us that 90 percent of CEOs believe their organizations are facing disruptive changes. This is true in your industry, and in every other one, too.

As a professional speaker, I attend conferences in a variety of industries. I hear leaders in every sector of the economy discussing the impacts of blockchain, bitcoin, big data, climate change, future of work, power of robotics, changing demographics, increasing urbanization, technological advancement, and moving regulatory targets.

Taken collectively, these phenomena conspire to change our businesses, our jobs, and our lives in profound ways.

And yet, only 30% of CEOs believe their organizations have the skills to adapt. Make no mistake: CEOs are worried about this. Senior executives live in the future. It’s their job to prepare for coming challenges. And the metrics show a significant confidence gap.

Whatever your role in a company, stand out by showing a willingness to learn. Demonstrate that you are adaptable and responsive to change. Better yet, learn to anticipate or even predict change by getting out in front of trends.

Change Is Here to Stay

The pace of change is increasing. Put another way, the rate of change you’re seeing today is the slowest it will ever be.

We can’t stop it. So, we must embrace it. The only way to do so is to learn what’s new and what’s coming, or to create the future ourselves.

“Pain is the measure of our resistance to change.”

— Source Unknown

Change Is Complicated

Why is this so difficult? For starters, the problems of tomorrow aren’t apparent yet. Think about it. The jobs of today weren’t foreseen a few years ago: Data Scientists, SEO Specialists, Digital Marketers, App Developers. Can you imagine traveling back in time to try to explain “cloud security” to the executives at Blockbuster? For that matter, who would have predicted that someday people would be paid to deliver Taco Bell in the suburbs?

Now, time travel to the future. What jobs and problems will exist in 2040? More importantly, how do we start preparing today to solve them?

The Importance of a Learning Culture

Many people equate learning with going to school, obtaining certifications, or taking tests. Certainly, there are advanced programs that stretch students to innovate. But most of our formal education system is still tied to the needs of a manufacturing economy. Rote memorization, applying known rules, and multiple choice exams will only get us so far. In each these cases, the problems are contrived, and the answer is known. Someone asking a question to elicit a particular (correct) response.

We don’t know the answers to challenging business problems yet. In many cases, we don’t even know the questions! So we need to continue to learn and collaborate across disciplines to build flexible and unique solutions for myriad contingencies.

Learning cultures allow us to prepare for the unexpected. Inclusive leadership that celebrates diverse talent will identify needed perspectives we might otherwise overlook. And capitalizing on each person’s unique strengths will allow us to go further, faster, together.

Tell me, what changes are you facing? How are you preparing to address them?

Why Create a Learning Culture?

· · 1 Comment

Why Create a Learning Culture?

Peter Drucker famously said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” In other words, your strategy will go nowhere if your culture doesn’t support it.

I would take this a step further and say “culture IS strategy.” Any goal that you intend to reach will fail, unless your culture is aligned to that goal.

The Insurance Industry as an Example

If you work in the insurance industry, the purpose of your work is to keep a promise. Whether you work for a carrier, agency, brokerage or service provider, you play a part in fulfilling a past promise made to a policyholder.

Because of this, everything we do has to be aligned to long-term customer service. The best way to support our customers is to stay on top of, or even predict, what they need. We must then continually learn how we can better meet those needs.

Ultimately, insurance does two things:

  1. It makes all economic investment possible, and
  2. It helps people on their worst day.

If we are to maintain our promises in the future, we need to stay out in front of what’s coming. A learning culture can help us do that.

According to the Association for Talent Development, top performing organizations are five times more likely to have learning cultures, compared to lower performing organizations. It’s not hard to imagine that these companies are high performing because of their learning cultures.

The High Cost of Low Engagement

Across all industries, Gallup (“State of the American Workplace,” 2017) estimates that 34 percent of annual salaries lost to disengagement. When employees are disengaged, they are not as productive and not innovative. If employees don’t feel safe, they can’t contribute to their fullest.

Let’s think about what this could mean for a single Fortune 500 company. Consider, for example, a company that has 30,000 employees with an average salary of $56,000. This company spends $1.7 billion in annual salary, exclusive of benefits such as health insurance and 401(k) match. This fictitious company stands to lose $570 million each year due to disengagement!

That’s the impact on just one company. Now think about how much this costs the industry as a whole. The cost goes beyond lost dollars. It also includes the loss of any innovation could have happened with one-third of our staff. Think of the products and services that aren’t being created or implemented, or the number of customers who aren’t being served.

Such a loss is a tragedy for the industry, our economy, and the clients we serve.

Learning Cultures Build Engagement

Providing ongoing learning challenges is essential to employee engagement. Younger professionals, in fact, are motivated as much by learning opportunities as by other benefits.

Based purely on engagement savings, companies can see a tremendous return on a relatively low investment. When you further contemplate the “time value of potential” for these employees, the dividends are immense.

Learning Cultures Represent a Long-term Investment in Talent

It’s no secret that industry leaders are worried about a talent crisis, or talent cliff. Roughly half of our knowledge workers are on the verge of retirement. When they go, they will take institutional knowledge with them. The insurance industry is not alone in this. Other industries face similar challenges.

Folks coming in early- or mid-career have much to learn about the industry. To make matters worse, there are fewer newcomers. It’s easy to see the knowledge gap that looms.

Furthermore, if we are to retain new employees, we need to make sure we’re actively engaging them. How better to engage than in a learning environment where professionals can build skills, knowledge, and confidence in their roles?

Improved Customer Service

Finally, customer service improves significantly in a learning organization.

Bersin & Associates reports that companies with learning cultures are 34 percent better able to respond to customer needs and 58 percent more likely to meet future demand. The combination of these, remember, is the very promise of insurance: to be there for our customers when they need us most, at some undetermined point in the future.

What’s more, Bersin tells us these companies are 46 percent more likely to be first to market and 17 percent more likely to be a market share leader.

Creating a learning culture, then is critical to the top line, the bottom line, long-term growth, and customer satisfaction and retention.

Why would we not to create a learning culture?

 

Deviled Eggs and the Recipe for Success

· · Leave a Comment

My grandma’s deviled eggs were legendary. They were always the first thing to go at family gatherings.

One time I asked her what she put in them to make them so good.

She said “It’s not hard. You just put a little bit of whatever you’ve got in your fridge.”

“But, Grandma,” I said, “I don’t know what’s in your fridge!”

The Recipe for Success

As a new business owner, I look to a lot of experts for their “secret sauce” recipes for success. And it seems like it all comes down to “a little bit of every single thing you’ve got.”

In his autobiography, Born Standing Up, Steve Martin says, “You’ll use everything you’ve ever done.” I think about that a lot. Every skill we’ve learned, every bit of knowledge we’ve acquired, every hard-won lesson that came from a huge mistake. All of it shapes us into who we are and what we offer our colleagues. Our job is to keep learning, keep adding to our recipe.

The Deviled Eggs Are in the Details

One day, a couple years after my Grandma passed away, I got up the nerve to make deviled eggs for the first time. I obediently opened my refrigerator door: pickle juice, pepper juice, mustard, mayonnaise, lemon juice, some sweet relish. I put a little of everything in, just like Grandma told me to do. And, while my deviled eggs weren’t as good as Grandma’s, they weren’t half bad. Turns out, I had the right ingredients all along.

So, what’s in your fridge?

Do you sometimes feel that if you just keep adding more ingredients, you’ll come up with a successful recipe?

What’s worked? What hasn’t? Or could it be that you’re just afraid to get started?

I’d love to hear about your shining successes and spectacular flops. Oh, and if you have a good recipe for deviled eggs, send that along, too!

 

 

Networking Goals: How Much Networking Is Enough?

· · Leave a Comment

After a conference or corporate training event, I try to follow up with each participant. Have they made progress toward their goals? Are they using what they learned? What questions do they have? How can I help?

This week, someone sent me the following response. Their question is one that other people may also wonder about:

After attending your Network Beyond Bias workshop, I have actually been successful at expanding my network and having conversations with people who I haven’t been around as much in the past. I guess the only question I have is: How do you balance networking with the demands of the day-to-day?  I feel like there is always more that I would like to do but struggle to find the time to do that.  I also think that sometimes I am a little too reactive and not as proactive with the networking events.  Do you have any suggestions for how to balance these things?

I think the answer is different for each person, depending on their professional goals, personal strengths, and current situation. For example, someone who is planning to look for a new job in the next 12-18 months should expand their network as much — and as soon — as possible. Someone for whom retirement is imminent should focus on finding mentors who have recently made that transition, as well as a protege network if they want to stay connected to their industry. For mid-career professionals who are not planning a job change, strive to balance both breadth and depth.

Set Networking Goals

Networking goals are important to our professional development. Below are some examples.

  • Each day: Log into LinkedIn to see what folks are up to. In real-world environments, be friendly and open, and look for opportunities to connect, especially with people who differ from you.
  • Each week: Connect with someone new on LinkedIn every week.
  • Each month: Attend one networking event per month, on average. These can be virtual or in-person, and can be new groups or familiar ones. Mix it up!
  • Each month / Each quarter: Re-connect with the people in your CHAMP Network at least once per month. If you have a robust CHAMP network, be sure you have at least a quarterly touch point (email, social media exchange, coffee, etc.) with each one.
  • NEVER get complacent! The best time to build your network is before you need it.

One of the best ways to build a networking habit is to take notes using the Network Like a CHAMP Networking Activity Journal. This is the journal I use to record all my conversations when I meet new people or re-connect with colleagues. Not only do I have a record of what we discussed, I can also assess my CHAMP Network in real time. My initial goal was to fill four journals each year (one per quarter). Now, I fill one about every two months. In 2020, I hope to go through one per month!

What do you think, Dear Readers? Do you set periodic networking goals, or do you let your network grow more organically?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

 

 

“Don’t I know you?” A lesson in inclusion

· · Leave a Comment

A fantastic question landed in my inbox, and I wanted to share it with you.

“If I run into someone I know, presenting in a different gender outside of work, how should I handle that? Do I acknowledge that I recognize them? If so, do I use the name I know them as, or do I ask for a different name?”

Before we get to my answer, let’s think about how thoughtful this question is!

  1. The individual is thinking about how to be inclusive…
  2. …for a situation that hasn’t happened yet…
  3. …with a person they may not know very well…
  4. …and is obviously stretching outside their own comfort zone.

Kudos to this aspiring ally!

There are so many implications wrapped up in this question. I have to admit, this one was a challenge.

So, What Was My Answer?

I would say, “You look familiar to me, but I don’t believe we’ve officially met. My name is Amy,” and extend my arm for a handshake.

Fellow Diversity Expert Elise James DeCruise suggests adding, “My pronouns are…” as a way to be even more inclusive. I love this extra step and appreciate Elise pushing me forward.

What’s Your Experience?

A few years ago, I found myself in this exact situation. Sadly, I was completely unprepared for it. But I’ll be ready for next time!

Cis folks: What would you say? Have you ever encountered this?

Trans and non-binary friends: Can you guide us to a more productive response?