Welcome back and welcome to 2019! I hope everyone had a restful break, had a chance to spend 
quality time with friends and family, and are ready to make 2019 the best year ever!
During the break, I had a chance to do some research and reflection with a focus on the business issues and challenges business leaders and professionals are thinking about (or should be thinking about!) as we start the New Year. As most readers of this blog know, my emphasis is typically in the areas of Business Acumen, Business Leadership, and Strategic Business Selling and I try to provide both thought provoking ideas and actionable insights so you can do something different almost immediately.
I have personally never been more excited to start a New Year than I am today and have already started designing the next generation of business simulation-centric learning experiences that will help business professionals make better business decisions that will drive achievement of their goals and objectives.
To start 2019, I’ve written a series of new blog posts that are about six important concepts that business leaders and business professionals are thinking about, and should take action on. I will share a post on each of the six over the coming three weeks (2 blogs per week). The topics I’ve selected include:
The Bigger Picture
How can leaders get their people so see, understand, and focus on not just “the big picture,” but the bigger picture so that they do not get caught up in the minutia that can take a lot of time and undermine real productivity and achievement of results. Seeing the bigger picture is all about understanding your company’s value proposition to customers and then understanding the roles and alignment across the business enterprise needed to execute and drive outstanding performance.
Digital Marketing
We’ve been disrupted, and digital marketing has changed everything. I am a little shocked that more business professionals don’t understand what digital marketing is and how it has already totally disrupted their business models. As we enter 2019, digital marketing has changed forever the way customers receive information about products and services, to the way they buy them. Unfortunately, too many companies have fallen behind in terms of embracing digital marketing and are lacking the skills and tools necessary to survive. We won a prestigious award in 2018 for our Digital Marketing simulation and I will share some insights to stimulate thoughts and new skill development in 2019.
Collaborative feedback
The days of leaders standing up in front of a group of employees shouting “I’m going to hold people accountable” in a command and control environment are over. The new norm is strong, yet collaborative methods of delivering feedback that is effective in terms of executing the big picture and getting things done. More and more, leaders are managing both teams and processes and the people they are working with are either virtual or don’t directly report to them. New skills and new tools of providing collaborative feedback are a must for survival.
Leading through the disruption
Digital marketing isn’t the only disruption. There are supply chain management disruptions, new product innovation disruptions, workforce disruptions, and geopolitical disruptions that are impacting the way we lead and the way we work. To survive whatever disruption(s) you are going through, new leadership skills and tools are required and I will share some of our current work and key learnings on how to navigate and embrace disruption. We are planning on this being a major area of work for us in 2019 and hopefully we can help you get in front of the tsunami of change before it’s too late.
Leading a disperse, diverse, and virtual workforce which is demanding more work-at-home opportunities
The debate continues, and we are starting to see a shift in terms of companies changing their work-at-home policies. Regardless of your situation, the issues and challenges are going to be similar; how do you get the most out of people who are demanding different ways of working. It’s the elephant in the room that everyone is afraid to talk about, so let’s talk about it. Over the past year, I’ve spoken to large company CEOs and small company CEOs about this and there are definitely things to share.
How to strategically sell with unique perspectives when customers know more you’re your sales people
By now, it should be obvious to sales professionals and sales leaders that selling with buzzwords and selling by beating customers over the head doesn’t work. Customers now have access to as much, if not more information about your products and services than your sales people. Lazy sales people who try to get by being BS artists are costing you dollars and reputation. There are only a few unique ways of being successful in 2019 and I will share ways of engaging with customers to position unique perspectives that add value to customers.
