The leadership blind spot that’s killing your business

by Gretchen Fox

There’s a dangerous black hole in your organization, and if you are in the C-Suite you don’t even know it exists. Whether you realize it or not, you have a leadership blind spot.

This black hole usually exists either right below your nose or two rungs down and, day by day, it’s sucking the life right out of your business.

Before I can shed light on this hole you are missing, I need you to understand something very, very important: You are not going to be able to lean on your go-to staff right below you to help you solve this. Not yet. Not until you get an awareness of it yourself. If you don’t understand the issue first, you will remain locked in the blind spot. I’ll explain why momentarily. Continue reading

BPO Sales, U.S


                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Summary

The Senior BPO Capture Executive is responsible for achieving profitable sales growth by managing/closing multiple sales campaigns using deep sales process and offering or product expertise within a complex market or emerging market/white space. These roles report to the Sales Management Director and are focused in the Product Vertical for the US:  Retail, CPG, Pharma/Life Science, Industrial and Travel & Hospitality. Continue reading

The Need for Entrepreneurial Leadership

by Randel Carlock

Entrepreneurship is not just for startups. It’s a lens through which all organisations should view strategy and leadership in the 21st century to address societal problems.

Management theories come about in response to particular problems. At the turn of the 20th century, the most notable organisations were large and industrialised and carried out routine tasks to manufacture a variety of products. This led Frederick Taylor to develop the scientific management theory, which advocated optimising tasks by breaking big complex jobs into small ones, measuring what workers did and linking pay to performance.

Management practice of that era was designed to seek out efficiencies, improve productivity and make “the trains run on time.” Theory started to evolve by the 1930s, when unions began to reject the dehumanising effects of earlier practices. This formed the beginning of the human relations movement when researchers started realising that treating people nicely was even better for productivity. Continue reading

What Really Happens When Companies Nix Performance Ratings

By David Rock and Beth Jones

The move away from conventional, ratings-based performance management continues to gain momentum. By November this year, at least 52 large companies had shifted from the practice of once-yearly performance appraisals; estimates are that hundreds of other companies are considering following suit. A wide range of industries are represented, from technology (39% of the 52) to business services (19%).

At the NeuroLeadership Institute, we’ve conducted in-depth research with 33 of these 52 companies to find out what really happens when companies remove performance ratings. Here are some of our high-level findings:

1. The frequency of manager-employee conversations increases dramatically.
All of the companies increased the recommended number of manager interactions with their teams. Of the 33 U.S.-based companies we studied, 76% had previously recommended an annual performance conversation. After moving away from ratings, 68% moved to a recommendation of, at minimum, quarterly conversations.

The focus has clearly shifted to conversations happening throughout the year. Managers are being urged to use their judgment about a conversation frequency that best supports employee performance. Some companies are also asking direct reports to play a more proactive role in owning the responsibility for scheduling and preparing for performance conversations. Continue reading

Leadership: can you learn to communicate and embody it?

Arthur JosephBy Arthur Joseph

 

In the “Education Life” section of the New York Times this past spring, Duff McDonald asked the questions, “Can you learn to lead?” and “What does one learn at graduate business school?”

He went on to point out that the biggest topic in business schools today is “leadership,” then quoted a few of the lofty goals such programs espouse. Examples? “Leaders who make a difference in the world” (Harvard Business School), and “Brave leaders who inspire growth in people, organizations and markets” (Kellogg at Northwestern).

Duff then described various approaches to teaching leadership, citing Ann L. Cunliffe’s advice to include “challenges” like “thinking critically, seeing situations in new ways, being able to deal with uncertainty and ambiguity, learning from experience and mistakes, knowing yourself . . . being passionate about what you do.” Continue reading