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From Loyalty Programs to Leadership: What 20 Years in CRM Taught Me About Organizational Growth
Loyalty programs taught many of us how to turn casual buyers into raving fans. My 20 years in CRM and loyalty for brands like Marriott, Amazon, and American Express—and leading a $3B customer platform—taught me something bigger: The same system that keeps customers coming back also keeps your best people from leaving. When growth stalls, most CEOs reach for the usual levers: more demand gen, more recruiting, more channels.
The Rotten Truth about Low-Hanging Fruit in Business – and How to Guide Your Team to Success
Thu, Jul 7, 2016 — Consider the American apple grower, who seeks the sweetest, most desired apples from the top of his towering fruit trees. To reach them, he climbs a large commercial ladder to the very top, and works downward, dumping his fruit in a big, burlap bag around his neck and shoulder. If he were to pick the low-hanging apples first, that means he’d be working his way up the ladder with an increasingly heavy load – quite an inverted way to run an orchard business!
What Nemo Knows About Organizational Success: Six Steps to Mastering the Power of Team Alignment
Mon, Apr 4, 2016 — I keep thinking about the pivotal scene in Finding Nemo when the school of fish is caught in a big, menacing net. Nemo takes the helm, shouts “Swim down!” and the combined downward force of the school detaches the net from the ship. Because of Nemo’s quick thinking, and the school’s trust in his plan, they’re able to escape out of the net to fish freedom. If just a few of his schoolmates had traveled upward or sideways – they’d be fish sticks.
The CEO Is the Chief Team Builder
Tue, Nov 27, 2012 — The concept of team building has been around since the 1960s and continues to multiply as CEOs increasingly embrace developing people and teams as an indicator of their own leadership success. But, to be successful, effective team development for a CEO requires knowing when to do team building—and when not to do team building. I’ve seen CEOs insist on referring to their employees as a team and have pointed to how well their employees get along with one another as the metric of their effectiveness as a team. Calling a group of employees a team doesn’t make them a team, no matter how well they get along. They may just be a group of workers who really like one another—or at least have learned to pretend to like one another. When does a “Group” become a “Team”?
Overcoming Team Building Resistance
Tue, Aug 21, 2012 — I am a big believer in teams in a business environment. I don't just meant people working together well, but actively taking steps to know each other as people, form bonds and work with a common purpose. I've always tried to foster a strong team dynamic in the groups I've led, and have taken active steps to create an environment in which those bonds could grow.