Three pieces of IT insight and recommendations on how to “connect” – from a business leader’s perspective.
Culture & Leadership
‘Keep it simple’ Method is Key to Successfully Innovating
In an effort to be innovative, organizations will often pursue a complicated idea rather than a simple one. However, sometimes the best innovative idea is one that is simple — simple to execute and simple for the intended market to understand.
Take a Strategic Approach to Evaluating Your Sales Ecosystem
Frequently, execution weaknesses trace to the supporting elements in the sales ecosystem, not to the talent base. h, strategic analysis of the elements in a typical sales ecosystem. A focused effort on continuous improvement – with honest inputs from the sales people – will yield the kind of productive supporting environment sales professionals require to succeed.
Costs of Innovation Must be Weighed Against Standing Still
When faced with the decision of whether or not to invest in an innovative idea, managers often measure the cost of the incremental investment. However, the error in this analysis is that it doesn’t take into account the cost of doing nothing — the cost of standing still.
The Importance of Employee Conversations
The work of a manager revolves around conversations. Only through conversations with your team, your peers and work partners, and your own manager, can you influence productivity and engagement.
Define Your Decision-Making Style
Learning to position ideas from the perspective and decision-making style of the person you’re communicating with can make influencing easier and more effective.
Why It’s Critical to Have Sound Financial Acumen
While you might not ever be fluent in finance-speak, you can develop the acumen to carry on the conversation in the language of business. Finance folks alone shouldn’t dominate the conversation – better decisions and greater alignment occurs when all departments are balanced throughout an organization.
Engage. Coach. Develop.
Regularly fulfilling these three manager accountabilities – engage, coach, and develop – shows to the employee that the manager is invested in helping the employee prosper.
You Won’t Survive as a Commodity. Differentiate on Value!
Differentiation is what you provide your customers, either a product or a service, that they cannot get elsewhere or do for themselves.
Developing ‘Soft’ Skills as a Leadership Strength
Soft skills are critical to effective leadership and success as project managers.