Winning Vs. Success: Five Ways to Focus on Real Impact

by Justin Bookey

If you “win” a negotiation but end up alienating the other players, the long-term benefits are negligible. Focus on the real prize.

In sports, business, arguments and relationships, “winning” often implies a zero-sum game, where there’s a clear victor and a defeated opponent. Winning certainly feels great in the moment, and can bring material gains, status and a surge of dopamine. But if there’s only one winner, where does that leave the others? They may feel dejected, envious or hollow.

“Success,” however, can benefit everyone involved. Consider breaking your personal best time in a 10K race, but finishing 12th in your age group. In a national championship, that would be recorded as a distant loss. But you made it to the Nationals, achieved a personal best, and forged great relationships. These are all significant successes.

Success is Inclusive and Lasting

Success encompasses winning, but also recognizes everyone who advances in their own challenges. This isn’t about participation trophies; it’s about acknowledging the efforts of all participants who overcome meaningful hurdles. Whether it’s a company bonus, a check-mark on a goals chart or an ice cream cone after a game, everyone who contributes their best effort and achieves some positive result deserves to enjoy some reward. (more…)

Client Partners

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We are recruiting for Client Partners one located in Minnesota and the other Cincinnati in professional banking, Financial Services domain who will be responsible for leading sales activities in his/her respective region for our banking and financial services business. Activities include lead generation towards hunting new logos, identifying opportunities and closing the same. Key to the role is to inspire customers on their enterprise journey and how Persistent could play an integral part in that journey. Thinking out of the box and demonstrating the art of the possible is key to this role.

What you will do –

Passionate about the innovation economy, love to dabble in new age technologies and excited about the future that technology is shaping – Cloud, Mobility, IoT, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Blockchain for BFSI industry.
Manage and grow existing customer business in Insurance segment with Strong focus on understanding lines of business across the insurance portfolio.
Demonstrable experience in achieving annual revenue targets.
Able to communicate and manage senior client stakeholders (CXO -1, -2, -3 levels).
Eagerness and experience in successfully growing and partnering with clients.
Highly motivated to sell services, solutions and platforms to BFSI customers.
Excellent Relationship Building Skills.
Building and managing a strong Sales Pipeline.
Customer profiling, sales planning and set revenue / margin targets by services line at the account level.
Anchor client meetings and pursue any opportunities generated with the help of pre-sales, delivery and external partner

Larry Janis

Managing Partner I Integrated Search Solutions Group

janis@issg.net

The 3 most undesirable traits of leaders—and how to fix them

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ByHRM Asia

We have all been there before: A micromanaging manager who does not trust employees to carry out their job roles competently. An unempathetic manager who only has her self-interests at heart and does not recognize the feelings of others. An inarticulate manager with poor communication skills who encourages a culture of non-transparency and second-guessing.

For organizations with workplace leaders who demonstrate these undesirable traits, are they at risk of losing their best talent? Are employees really leaving managers and not organizations?

A recent LinkedIn poll conducted by HRM Asia would seem to give credence to these suggestions, with an overwhelming 88% of respondents saying that they would choose a “great manager” over a “great job.”

3 leadership traits to avoid

To put things into perspective, this is not to suggest that bad managers are the only reason why employees leave an organization. Factors such as better job growth and career advancement opportunities also need to be considered.

However, with employees spending more than half of their waking time at work, it is perhaps not surprising that they desire to work with “great managers” who are competent and can support them in achieving key work goals.

“Undesirable traits can cause irreversible damage to trust, collaboration and strategic alignment, which are critical for organizations to thrive,” Grant “Upbeat” Bosnick, an award-winning author and keynote speaker, told HRM Asia.

Specifically, he identifies three undesirable leadership traits that organizations must identify and fix.

1. Ego-centered decision-making

Boastful leaders driven by ego prioritize their personal interests over the organization’s goals. This trait destroys trust within the team, leads to poor decision-making and promotes a toxic culture that values individual success over collective growth. A leader’s inability to prioritize the business and people over personal ambition can cripple organizational effectiveness.

To overcome this, leaders need to implement a collective decision-making process where input from key stakeholders across different regions, functions and levels is actively sought before major decisions are made. Creating a “team of teams” culture encourages leaders to see themselves as part of a larger ecosystem, not the sole decision-makers. (more…)

SVP Sales

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The SVP Sales will be a member of sales leadership team and report into the Cluster Sales Head with a dotted line to the Business Unit Head. You will be part of highly motivated, driven and high performing sales team.
Who we are looking for
The ideal candidate will have deep domain understanding of Retail/CPG industry. He/ She will have strong cross-functional experience in driving business transformation, business growth and business development within these industries. Should be able to drive new business sales fby demonstrating the ability to source, qualify, strategize, pitch and close large/complex multi tower BPM deals.
What makes you a great fit
• Bachelor’s degree in related field and a minimum of 10 years of sales management experience, with working experience at the senior executive level within the Retail & CPG marketplace
• Understanding of Operations and cost structure of CPG & Retail industry
• Domain expertise – CPG, Retail, Manufacturing
• Strong connections with influencers/key decision makers across these industry
• Experience in selling large complex multi tower BPM services
• Demonstrated creativity and innovation in cross-functional selling, with an ability to present oneself in a professional manner at all times
• A proven track record in consistently meeting/exceeding sales goal
• Excellent interpersonal skills to create maintain and continue profitable and growing executive relationships with existing and potential customers
• Excellent communication/negotiating/closing skills with customers/prospects as well as with internal resources. Ability to work in a highly matrixed global organization.
• This is a U.S.-based position; applicants must be fully authorized to work in the U.S.
What will you do
• Develop, manage, and create the relationship between the organization and customers by establishing and cultivating relationships with key individuals at target companies, at C-levels
• Actively engage with industry business executives to articulate the attributes of our solutions and offering as well as understand the industry environment into which they are being offered
• Drive business development

If you are interested, please let me know

Larry Janis

Managing Partner, ISSG

janis@issg.net

If You Run Meetings and You’re Not Doing These 3 Things, You’re Wasting Your Time—and Everybody Else’s, Too

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by Justin Bariso

Done right, meetings are a great way of leveraging teams to get work done faster and better. Here’s three ways to help you make sure that happens.

So, you’re sitting at your desk, trying to get some work done. Suddenly, a meeting invite pops up on your screen saying something like this:

If you haven’t guessed already, this meeting is likely to be a big waste of time. But don’t put all the blame on the poor clueless project manager. Chances are, he or she’s just doing what they’ve seen done over and over again, or maybe were even trained to do.

Or, let’s be honest: You may be the one sending out meeting invites like this.

I used to. But several years ago, I worked on a project for a global nonprofit that changed the way I looked at meetings. We interviewed a number of highly effective managers and meeting facilitators to learn more about how they used meetings to get work done.

The task was simple: Find a way to make meetings more effective and efficient.

In doing so, a few simple rules became clear for making the most of our meetings. A big one was this:

Every meeting should have:

An agenda (sent at least 24 hours before)
A person assigned to follow up on each task
A summary and notes

I’m not the only one who feels strongly about this. In an article for MIT Sloan Management Review, organizational science and psychology professors Steven Rogelberg, Cliff Scott, and John Kello recommend that organizers send out an agenda along with relevant background material ahead of the meeting, with enough time for participants to review.

At Apple, Steve Jobs knew how to use meetings to get things done. He instilled the habit of designating a person responsible for following up on every task, and listing this on the meeting notes. That person even had a title—he or she was the “Directly Responsible Individual.”

Let’s break down each of these requirements and see why they’re so vital to your meeting’s success. (more…)