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Principles of Success

The Neuroscience of Setting Goals

Smart Goal Setting
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Running a business without goals is like driving a car without a destination. If your organization lacks concrete goals, then how can stakeholders gauge the effectiveness of your current strategies? How will employees know what to do when you haven’t set any clear targets? Goals don’t just give your employees direction, but they also make difficult tasks easier to achieve. Effective goals are a vital component of any organization’s success, so check out this guide on the neuroscience of goal setting to make better goals for your company.

How Do Goals Affect the Brain?

Good goals have a real effect on the inner workings of the brain. According to a recent study, when someone is pursuing a high-quality goal, the different parts of their brain coordinate more efficiently. As a result, the individual has greater motivation and confidence as they try to complete complex tasks. Motivated employees are a huge asset to any company, so you should set the right goals if you want your workforce to operate as efficiently as possible.  

What Are the Qualities of Effective Goals?

Firstly, goals must be measurable. If you want your sales team to sell more of a certain product, then you need to set a clear quota for them to meet. Simply telling your employees to sell as much of that product as possible will not help them succeed. On top of that, your goals must include deadlines. Otherwise, employees won’t act with a sense of urgency. Finally, goals should be achievable. If you set your sales quota too high or expect your employees to meet an unrealistically tight deadline, then they won’t feel confident about their ability to meet your expectations. This will negatively affect their performance, and sales numbers will likely decrease.

How Does Goal Setting Benefit Your Company?

Workers can’t provide good results if they’re not working towards anything in particular. Your employees need leadership, and good goals give leaders within your organization the necessary framework to set strategic targets, break down large tasks, and delegate critical work to the best people for the job. By setting high-quality goals, you give everyone in your organization a purpose. Moreover, your workers’ ability to achieve the company’s goals provides important information about the feasibility of their targets and the effectiveness of the organization’s processes. If you find that certain teams constantly fall short of their goals, then you can analyze the reasons for their failures and make the necessary changes for underperforming teams to achieve more. Without good goals, your team’s strengths and weaknesses would not be so apparent, so you would not be equipped to improve your organization’s processes.

Reach Your Targets With the Right Goals

A person’s attitude can have a massive impact on their ability to complete a task. With that in mind, you should always give your employees effective goals to feel confident about their work for maximum productivity. As an enterprising businessperson, you’re always looking for new ways to streamline your organization’s processes, so check out our vast collection of in-depth productivity articles to set your company on the path to success.

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Thought Leadership

How to Use Thought Leadership to Build Your Business Brand

Thought Leadership
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Build Your Company’s Brand With Thought Leadership 

Thought leaders promote discussion among their audience and direct conversations about trending topics in ways that provide value for everyone involved. By becoming a thought leader, you can distinguish your brand by making the public see your organization as something more than a simple provider of goods and services. In this competitive market, you need to make your business stand out in every way possible, so check out these four ways to bolster your organization’s thought leadership.

Expand Your Social Media Presence

According to a recent poll, the average person spends over two hours on social media platforms every day. This presents a great opportunity for your company to engage with people across the world. Your marketing professionals should maintain active social media accounts on as many platforms as possible, engage in relevant public discussions with other users, and make intelligent posts about hot issues to increase your company’s authority to the public.

Provide Evidence

You know that your company is good at what it does, but what have you done to make the public feel the same way? People value evidence more than ever before, so you need to leverage this attitude to position your organization as a leader in its field. You should reach out to popular bloggers and influencers, perform scientific tests on your products, and solicit endorsements from acclaimed professionals in the field to increase the credibility of your organization’s goods and services. When people associate your brand with quality, they’ll be more inclined to listen to your message and spread the word about your company.

Know Your Audience

To become a thought leader, you must understand your audience. Which aspects of your goods and services appeal to them? What traits do they respect and disrespect in a company? Where does your target audience spend their time? By learning about your organization’s most important clientele, you can tailor a message that resonates with them and makes the right people look up to your brand.

Regularly Produce High-Quality Content

A strong social media presence is integral to any organization’s success, but it isn’t the only factor contributing to your company’s status as a thought leader. To promote meaningful discussion and maintain public interest, your organization should produce engaging videos, insightful articles, and other content on topics that relate to your field and interest your audience. Combining exceptional content with an active social media presence will greatly strengthen your organization’s credibility in the collective consciousness.

Bring Your Company’s Message Into the Spotlight

Establishing your organization’s thought leadership can have a huge snowball effect that will contribute to your brand’s success. Whenever someone hears about people, products, or events in your field, their thoughts will naturally gravitate towards your organization’s goods and services. You want your company to succeed, so check out Productivity Intelligence Institute’s expert-level content for more ideas on how to reach a wider audience and improve your organization’s processes.

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Increase Productivity

Productivity Secrets of Tyler Perry

Tyler Perry
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When you think about business productivity, Tyler Perry’s filmography probably isn’t the first thing to come to mind. However, in contrast with most movie producers, all of Tyler Perry’s films have been extremely profitable, so it’s worth examining the factors contributing to his consistent success. Although Tyler Perry is primarily a filmmaker, his productivity secrets can help professionals in any industry thrive. With that in mind, you need to check out these three important aspects of Tyler Perry’s creative process if you want your company to increase productivity and stay ahead of the competition.

Identifying Gaps in the Market

Before Tyler Perry started producing films, he observed that many of the films made to appeal to Black audiences were extremely violent and unsuitable for young viewers. Aware of the lack of good family films for the Black community, Tyler Perry wisely set to change the status quo. Now, Tyler Perry’s name is closely associated with Black American cinema, and his films continue to perform exceptionally well at the box office.

Tyler Perry was able to serve his community and propel himself to great heights simply by noticing an underserved market and doing something to fix the problem. Even if you’re in a very niche industry, there are likely many customers in your target market with unmet needs. If you’re not providing desired services to this segment of your market, then someone else eventually will. To sustain success in your field, you must pay close attention to your customers’ preferences, search for weaknesses in your organization’s ability to help its clientele, and adjust your business model accordingly.

Simplicity in Production

The plots of Tyler Perry’s films explore unpretentious themes such as unrequited love, economic hardship, and family tension. The storylines are simple enough for anyone in the family to follow, and the films don’t typically employ fancy camera work or crazy visual effects. This is because Tyler Perry takes a straightforward approach to filmmaking, and his main objective is to create stories that his audience can relate to. 

The acclaimed producer recognizes that he doesn’t have to pioneer new camera techniques or make convoluted stories to be a good filmmaker. Instead, he follows a simple process and focuses solely on fulfilling the needs of his community. Considering the fact that almost every one of Tyler Perry’s 52 films has turned a hefty profit, it’s clear that you don’t need to reinvent the wheel to succeed. Above anything else, entrepreneurs must adopt effective processes and set clear goals to achieve consistent profitability.

A Sense of Purpose

Tyler Perry has stated that his main objective is to spread positivity. It doesn’t get much simpler than that. Because Tyler Perry’s purpose is so clear, the actors, directors, sound engineers, and other members of his production staff know precisely what they’re trying to accomplish. Consequently, he makes a reliable product, so viewers always know that they’ll enjoy themselves when they buy a ticket to one of his films.

Does your company’s mission statement relate to your customers’ needs? Do your employees have an easy time operating in line with your organization’s objectives? A concise purpose is vital for any company’s success, so you need to ensure that your organization’s mission statement isn’t too convoluted for your audience or employees to understand.

Increase Productivity With a Straightforward Approach

Smart entrepreneurs pay attention to what exceptional businesspeople across all industries do to set themselves apart. As a filmmaker and a businessman, Tyler Perry has shown an impressive ability to understand his audience’s needs and deliver products that consistently satisfy them. By following his example, you can cultivate a loyal base of customers and operate more efficiently than ever before.

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Principles of Success

Neuroscience of Affirmations

Affirmations
1,066 Views

The human body is in a constant state of fluctuation. Your thoughts cause your body to make physical changes. When you think about something, your brain sends out a signal that releases neurotransmitters. These body chemicals manage every one of your body’s functions. This includes your emotions and mood. In time and because of repetition, researchers have found that a person’s thoughts modify the body’s brain, cells and even its genes. 

How Thoughts Change Body Functions 

Feelings of gratitude create a rush of pleasant neurotransmitters such as dopamine or norepinephrine. These neurotransmitters result in an overall positive boost in the mind. 

Norman Doidge wrote the book “The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science.” In the book, he speaks about an experiment involving finger exercises. One group of participants exercised a muscle in their finger for one month. That group increased the strength of the muscle by 30%. A second group visualized exercising the same finger muscle. Without moving a finger, they increased the strength of the muscle by 22%. 

Thoughts, visualizations and self-talk have the ability to modify a person’s brain, body and life. One way to take advantage of the brain’s power is by using affirmations. According to studies, when people practice positive affirmations, they respond in less negative ways when challenges arise. 

What is an affirmation? An affirmation is one of the principles of success. It is an intentional thought that you say to yourself for encouragement, support or a sense of calm. Most affirmations are positive phrases that people say to themselves to push back against thoughts that are unhappy, depressing or anxious. 

Affirmations are a mental health tool, one that you can use to form a healthy self-image and develop a hardy brain. 

Why You Should Start Using Affirmations 

Humans have an inner dialogue that they listen to during the day. Some of this self-talk is helpful while some of it isn’t. When our thoughts include fear statements, it is counterproductive. Hearing yourself worry about things like never healing or what you missed out on is not good for you. 

Start using simple positive affirmations. They can help you offset or subdue the negative thoughts that may overwhelm your thinking. 

The Science of Affirmations 

While an affirmation may seem like a magic power, it isn’t. There is scientific evidence showing that affirmations change a person’s body and brain. 

For you to experience the benefits of affirmations, you’ll need to establish a regular practice of using them. This type of mind body work is widely accepted. It is also a theory welcomed by the psychological community. 

One of the main theories that support positive affirmations is called the self-affirmation theory. In this theory, researchers determined that people could practice positive self-talk to hold onto their self-integrity. 

Self-integrity connects to our universal self-efficacy. This is our supposed ability to influence moral outcomes and react in positive ways when someone or something challenges our idea of who we are. To protect ourselves from these kinds of threats, we develop defense techniques. 

Affirmations Engage Your Brain’s Reward Areas 

According to one study, affirmations engage the reward areas of your brain. To determine this, researchers took an fMRI while a study participant was using affirmations. 

The areas of the brain that send happy signals to your body when you use affirmations are the same ones that activate when you’re doing other pleasurable things like eating something tasty or laughing. The brain’s reward network is powerful. Research confirms that the brain’s reward areas may decrease pain and help you stay positive when stressful situations occur. 

The study found that when the participants used affirmations, the medial prefrontal cortex and the posterior cingulate areas of the brain lit up. These parts of the brain connect to how you relate to yourself. Research shows that when you’re able to increase your self-related processing, you’ll be better able to handle painful or negative information. 

Affirmation Examples 

If you’re not sure what affirmations to say to yourself, here are a few examples. 

• I’m happy that I’m now creating a healthy sense of self that I use for strength. 
• I’m grateful that I’m now welcoming my unique talents and personal resources. 
• I’m excited that I’m now providing valuable perspectives and ideas that are useful to my field. 
• I’m joyful that I’m now willing to use my failures as a chance to learn and develop my strengths. 

Additional Benefits of Using Affirmations 

Additional benefits of using affirmations include: 

• Decreased stress levels 
• More interest in physical activities 
• Better able to handle everyday challenges 
• Increased feelings of hopefulness
• Improved self esteem 
• Better work performance 

When Should You Use Affirmations? 

Use affirmations when you’re facing a situation in which you want a positive change to happen. For instance, consider thinking one to increase your confidence before attending an important meeting or event. 

If you’re experiencing negative emotions like frustration, anger or anxiety, then this is a good time to use an affirmation as well. When you feel like giving up, consider thinking an affirmation to keep going. You can also use one to quit a harmful or bad habit. 

Often, affirmations work better when you combine them with other positive mind techniques. For instance, many people experience success when they pair an affirmation with a positive visual image. 

Try to create a consistent daily habit of saying affirmations regularly throughout each day. Also practice writing them in a daily journal for an even more powerful affect. That way, when you’re facing an especially stressful or anxious moment, you’ll have an affirmation at the ready. 

Embrace a Positive Mind Body Connection 

Affirmations are one of the principles of success. When you embrace these principles, you can change your body, brain and life for the better. If you need help getting started, reach out to me at the Productivity Intelligence Institute. 

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Cultural Intelligence

How To Improve Your Company’s Cultural Intelligence

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These days, good cultural intelligence is integral to any team’s success. Members of your team are likely communicating with clients, suppliers, employees, freelancers, and regulators from a multitude of backgrounds, so they need to understand different ways of thinking to productively interact with these people. With that in mind, you should check out this quick guide on how to improve cultural intelligence in your organization.

Foster a Comfortable Workplace

Naturally, when one of your employees feels uncomfortable, you want them to speak up so that the company can address the issue. However, workers at many companies don’t feel comfortable providing input or pointing out managerial mistakes. On top of paving the way for a hostile work environment, this can have the unintended effect of allowing instances of cultural insensitivity to persist. That’s why managers must ensure that team members are able to freely communicate their concerns without fear of reprisal.

Conduct Cultural Sensitivity Training

Cultural sensitivity training is a great way to familiarize your team members with the broad strokes of multiculturalism. This will improve workplace harmony and help broaden your employees’ perspectives. Many companies conduct cultural sensitivity training, so you should work with whichever one has the most experienced staff.

Expand Your Company’s Recruitment Practices

How does your organization usually find new employees? Does your HR department post to a handful of websites? Do your interns only come from a single institution? Does your recruitment process rely heavily on word of mouth? Limited hiring practices expose your organization to a narrower range of applicants. In turn, your company is more likely to have a homogenous workforce. Adopting new recruiting practices will expose your company to a larger range of applicants from a variety of backgrounds, which can only benefit your organization.

Understand Your Audience’s Culture

A lack of intercultural competence isn’t only bad for your team’s comfort and productivity, but it can also negatively affect sales. Many things that are completely mundane in your region can be very significant in another part of the world. For example, in China, the number four is considered extremely unlucky. In turn, designs that prominently feature the number four are unlikely to do well in this market. You don’t want a cultural faux pas to waste your organization’s limited time and money, so your managers should consult with experts who intimately understand the culture of your target market before pouring resources into new designs and ad campaigns.

High Intercultural Competence Leads to Greater Entrepreneurial Success

A workforce with high intercultural competence is more equipped to succeed in the modern business landscape. If your company doesn’t value intercultural competence, then it will eventually fall behind the competition. You want your organization to thrive, so make sure to keep an open mind and do everything in your power to promote cultural intelligence in your workplace.

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Entrepreneurship

Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught?

Entrepreneurship
965 Views

Is it possible to teach someone to become a successful entrepreneur? A growing number of academic institutions have developed classes and degree programs in entrepreneurship. At the same time, the number of successful entrepreneurs without an advanced education point to entrepreneurial leadership as an inherent trait.

What is an entrepreneur?

When most people think about entrepreneurs, they focus on well-known names in the business world like Elon Musk or Ariana Huffington. Yet, hundreds of successful business people run profitable entrepreneurial endeavors on a smaller scale. Almost every tech startup or niche business has someone with an entrepreneurial mindset pushing it forward.

Entrepreneurs are business people willing to dream big, accept risks, and preserver through failure and uncertainty. The most successful entrepreneurs are those who can analyze the business landscape, recognize opportunities, and take advantage of them.

Is entrepreneurship teachable?

Many aspects of becoming a successful entrepreneur are teachable. A formal business education can help new business owners avoid some of the mistakes and setbacks that come with a bootstrapping approach. Basic business knowledge equips leaders to understand and plan for the risks of a new project.

Hard Skills for Entrepreneurs

MBA programs and other business education classes teach leaders the basic financial and organizational skills that apply to every business. Understanding how organizations operate and make a profit helps leaders speak the language of investors and anticipate common issues like creating a sustainable growth strategy.

Encouraging an Entrepreneurial Mindset

Helping leaders adopt the mindset of an entrepreneur is a different challenge. This kind of education involves teaching students a new way of thinking. Traditionally, the corporate mindset has focused on predictability. The thinking that created the assembly line assumed a world with minimal change. The goal of a CEO in this model is to keep the business on an even keel.

Entrepreneurs know they must adapt to a world where things change unexpectedly. They develop a flexible way of thinking that can respond to how the world is rather than trying to force an outcome based on the way they think it should be. 

Human brains naturally look for patterns and try to predict outcomes. When the world does not line up with your assumptions, it can throw you into confusion and panic. Entrepreneurs must build a mindset that embraces the unexpected.

Entrepreneurial classes often use techniques that force students to recognize their biases and challenge their assumptions. They learn a flexible mindset by experiencing the discomfort of uncertainty.

Learning from Experience

Experience is still the greatest teacher for entrepreneurs. Actively dealing with uncertainty and risk gives you the necessary persistence and confidence to move forward as a leader. New entrepreneurs can also gain insight from the experiences of other leaders in handling success and failure on their journeys.

A Partner for Entrepreneurial Growth

If you want to improve your entrepreneurial skills, the Leonard Productivity Intelligence Institute is ready to assist you. We specialize in helping business leaders cultivate a growth mentality that inspires next-level leadership. Contact us today to learn more.

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Creating High-Performing Teams

How Do You Manage High Performing Teams In 2022

Managing High Performing Teams
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The thing that makes a company great is the teams that supports it. To increase profits and be successful in their industry field, companies must put together high performing teams. 

What Makes a Team High Performing? 

High-performing teams need four main elements. 

1. Engaged and motivated team members 
2. High team member productivity 
3. The ability to meet productivity goals 
4. Company expansion 

Who is On High-Performing Teams? 

For decades, teams have been included in a company’s organizational chart. In this type of setup, a leader has a team available for support.

Traditionally, teams include people from the same business division. Those who are in different divisions are on their own team. These days, companies are facing new challenges, which means that many of them are shaking up their teams. 

To respond to new challenges, companies are forming cross-organization and cross-division teams. This allows the company to take advantage of diverse skillsets and unique perspectives to tackle the new challenges. 

How Can You Create a High Performing Team in 2022? 

To create a high-performing team, make sure that your team knows what their goals are. When team members know what is expected of them, they perform better. According to a study on tech companies, employees who were unproductive were 2.8 times more likely to not know what their company’s goals were. 

You can also work to figure out root cause mindsets and change them. Employees often have a mindset about what they should and can do in their job position. This can limit a team. Take time to understand how your team members approach their job. Then, decide if you need to take steps to reframe these mindsets to encourage more company supportive behaviors. 

Be sure to schedule one-on-one meetings with each team member. This step will help you understand how each person is feeling on the team, allowing you to intervene before an employee becomes overly stressed and winds up quitting or turning to a competitor.  

Foster a supportive environment for your team, one with convincing direction, a diverse structure and effective work practices. When your team has these three things, you’ll work to create psychological safety for the group. In this type of group, team members will: 

· Feel as though they belong  
· Collaborate  
· Trust and respect each other  

This allows them to be vulnerable with each other, participate in useful conflict and hold one another accountable. 

Once you bring these elements to your team, you’ll be rewarded with an effective team. This type of team will be independent, able to adapt, self-managing, constantly developing and likely to deliver successes. 

To create a team that performs well, it’s important to hire people who are flexible, self-directed and comfortable cooperating. 

High Performing Teams Help Companies Succeed 

High-performing teams are the backbone of any company. Review your team to see if there are any changes that you can make to help them work better together and increase productivity. For help getting started, contact me at the Productivity Intelligence Institute.

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Artificial Intelligence

Where is Artificial Intelligence Used?

AI
906 Views

Artificial intelligence is making its way into every aspect of our daily lives. The traffic lights on city streets, NPCs on gaming platforms and even office thermostats can all take advantage of this emerging technology. As an entrepreneur, you will want to get to know how AI can impact and improve your business.

What is artificial intelligence?

Computers can process data faster than any human analyst. Computer scientists use this ability to create programs that sift through data looking for patterns and developing predictions from them. Well-programmed algorithms can identify everything from weather patterns to customer ordering trends.

AI and Business Workflow

Every business generates data. Manufacturing operations involve component numbers and assembly rates, and sales offices work with client information like order histories. Implementing AI into the workplace can streamline workflow by eliminating duplicate actions. The computer recognizes that it must register new account information in several departments, eliminating a tedious process.

AI and Inventory Management

Large warehouses like Amazon have been adding AI-empowered droids to improve inventory management. Algorithms constantly analyze the millions of orders that come through the company and predict what items are due for restocking. Rather than responding to a shortage, an AI-empowered system prevents shortages by monitoring purchase trends and ordering accordingly.

For manufacturing businesses, this predictive approach to inventory offers potential savings. The company will not lose sales due to unfulfilled orders, nor will it increase overhead costs by purchasing a surplus of materials.

AI and Customer Engagement

Customer interactions often follow predictable patterns, making them another way that AI has entered the business world. It will be a while before an AI assistant replaces face-to-face interactions at a brick-and-mortar location, but the online shopping world is already full of AI-empowered tools.

Algorithms determine much of what you see online. Every time an ad pops up or a video service makes suggestions, an AI tool has analyzed your past viewing history and preferences. It also makes comparisons with the actions of consumers with similar profiles. When it works properly, you see a product or video you may not have found on your own.

AI bots are also involved with customer service and client engagement. In a customer service situation, the bot looks for keywords in your requests to streamline getting you to the person or information you need. For customer engagement, businesses employ AI bots to respond quickly to reviews or social media comments.

Implementing Artificial Intelligence in Your Business

Bringing AI into your business can trouble your employees. They may be concerned that you are trying to replace them with a digital resource. The healthiest approach is to demonstrate how AI is an enhancement rather than a replacement. For example, the software can take on repetitive customer relations tasks, freeing employees to do more satisfying and important work.

A Partner for Long-Term Strategies

Adopting new technology is part of staying at the forefront of the business world. If you are an entrepreneur looking to implement any kind of new business strategy, Productivity Intelligence Institute can help. We specialize in helping businesses improve the efficiency and productivity of their organizations. Contact us today. We would be thrilled to work with you.

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Actionable Insights

Actionable Insights From Customer Feedback  

Customer Feedback
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Customer feedback is like a treasure box. Think of the box as feedback and the treasure inside as information about your business and customer experience. 

Picture yourself sorting through the treasure box and coming across two stones, one is a cubic zirconia that you keep because it’s shiny and pretty. The other stone is a diamond that you take to the jeweler to exchange for cash. In this scenario, the difference between the stones is like actionable and non-actionable insights.

What are Actionable Insights from Customer Feedback? 

In general, actionable insights are important discoveries that you collect from assessing data. These discoveries show you what steps you need to take or how you should consider an issue. Organizations use this information to make decisions based on useful data. 

An example of a non-actionable insight from a customer is that your company’s app isn’t working right. An actionable insight is that 75 people have commented that the check out function isn’t operating.

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Why are Insights Important?

Insights are important because they can help you develop strategic decisions. These decisions bring about positive results for your business. The reason why they are so helpful is because you’re developing them from your data. 

When your organization is driven by information, insights that are actionable are what you’ll be able to use to improve your product and operations. 

Where to Obtain Actionable Insights 

To obtain insights from consumer feedback, send out surveys that ask responders what they think about your services and products. You can allow customers to take surveys on your site at any time to gather a consistent stream of insights that are actionable. Look into micro surveys that your customers can take on their phones. This can help you collect more accurate data. 

Online reviews are another way to obtain feedback from your customers. Text analytics can help you assess review feedback. This type of assessment is unstructured, which means that it can help you gain a better understanding of your audience. It will also help you determine how your customers are perceiving your products or services. 

Social media is another place where you can gather important insights for your business. Add this information to what people are saying about your products and services on relevant forums and other websites. 

What Makes an Insight Actionable? 

Make sure that an insight reveals information about its priorities. After collecting the surveys from your customers, analyze the information to determine how important each area is to your customers. This will give you an accurate picture of their satisfaction levels. 

Focus on customer emotions. When you begin reviewing feedback, adjust your mindset so that you’re considering their perceptions and feelings instead of just how many people responded. 

Available in print, digital and audiobook format

Improve Your Business with Help from Your Customers 

Feedback from your customers lets you gain an edge on the competition by helping you tweak your products and services according to their needs and preferences. If you’re not sure where to start, contact me at the Productivity Intelligence Institute. I can help. 

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Agile Leadership

Agile Leadership In Turbulent Times

Agile Leadership
866 Views

In the 1990s, software developers were getting frustrated. They found that the needs of their clients often changed during the development process. What they thought would be the final product needed to go through time-consuming revisions. In 2001, a group of developers introduced Agile as a way to streamline this process.

Why Change Is Difficult to Navigate

Your brain is a predictive machine. It constantly processes information about the world, trying to guess what will happen next. During seasons of calm, events unfold in ways you expect. You can follow a daily schedule, make your appointments and deliver products on time.

You feel surprises in the limbic system, one of the oldest neural structures in the evolutionary chain. This system deals with unexpected stresses in the same way as an encounter with a dangerous animal. Your fight-or-flight response flips on, making it difficult to make rational decisions. Many leaders stick to ineffective strategies in times of crisis because it gives them the simple comfort of familiarity.

From Assembly Lines to Agile Thinking

Assembly lines transformed manufacturing in the early 20th century. A step-by-step process would lead to a consistent product on the other end. It is still an effective methodology if you know the exact results you need.

However, the landscape is quite different for modern entrepreneurs. Technology changes quickly with new devices coming online every day. Employees’ needs and expectations have transformed in the wake of the pandemic. Consumer trends also change at a faster pace as people receive updates on social media.

Rather than resisting shifting expectations, Agile thinking acknowledges that change is the norm. If you can embrace change in unusual times, you will be ahead of competitors relying on older strategies that used to work.

Marks of Agile Leadership

Open versus closed thinking: A leader with a closed mentality assumes that the status quo is the way things are always supposed to be. An Agile leader knows that processes work until they stop working. Such changes do not represent failure but the need for reevaluation and growth.

Horizontal versus vertical leadership: Agile leaders depend on their team members to make projects happen. They know the gifts of their employees and assign tasks that use them. This horizontal arrangement gives more ownership to team members than a top-down structure.

Adaptive versus fixed processes: In computer programming, the Agile process breaks the final product into small segments. Each team member holds responsibility for a few of those pieces. When the team must address changes, they can bundle them into the process at a more manageable scale. Regular reflection and reporting allow the team to embrace changes before the project moves too far forward.

Putting Agile Leadership into Practice

Embracing Agile leadership involves a shift in the way you understand your organization. If you are looking to adopt an Agile model at your business, you do not have to do this work alone. At Productivity Intelligence Institute, we seek to help entrepreneurial leaders acquire the tools for success in a changing landscape. Feel free to reach out for a consultation.