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To ignore millenials is to commit marketing suicide

Open your eyes!  How much time do you spend with millenials?  Not only do millenials consume the most products, they also expect results.  They are 50% of the workforce in 2018.
To ignore millenials is to commit some form of suicide.

Here are 6 steps for you and your company:

1.  Mobile web-based experiences are a $10 billion dollar industry, with over 7 billion phones.  We now have nearly 4x more mobile browsers than the number of desk-based browsers.  Follow the numbers.  Follow the money.

2.  We can provide emotionally-provocative experiences that combine digital and physical activities.  Here are several examples.  When you go to the zoo you can now rent a GoPro or Segway to make your experience unique.  When you go to a park you can use your mobile device to geocache.  You can have a “Yelp Night” and move from restaurant to bar in any unfamiliar city.    When you go to a conference you can tweet about and score the presenters, in real time.  However, at most amusement parks and concerts we are not doing anything about the visitors who are standing in a line (bored) or tweeting or Face-booking their friends to “stay away” from your business or event.  As a more costly example, we are not doing anything about low compliance with incentive reward programs.  In fact, industrial organizational researchers tell us that some 35% of the US workforce is not engaged in their jobs.  We sorely lack emotionally-provocative experiences that combine digital and physical activities.

3.  In response to these market needs, I have developed a mobile web-based app that can guarantee engagement for any clients.  This app enables clients to have a pre-visit and post-visit experience that integrates their event with any content.  The event becomes a process.  For instance, if a client wants to assign pre-visit training or reading content, the app can assess their engagement.  Using a leader board and social media, they can increase accountability.  They can market and promote the company.  They can include video and photo uploads.  They can earn points by doing more activities.  They can return to the venue.  The app can be delivered in hours, under any name.  And it can be scaled for any sized organization.

4.  Large corporate clients expect global delivery capacity.  Every successful Free Agent has a network of alliance partners.  The myth of the solo-preneur as a lone wolf is dead.  For instance, the largest provider of leadership development coaches is www.coachsource.com, founded by Brian Underhill and Marshall Goldsmith.  Marshall is described as the #1 leadership consultant in the U.S., according to Harvard Business Review.  I am the southeast engagement manager, and represent 1,200 leadership coaches in 60 countries.  We can provide expert leadership coaching to any clients.  A bold claim, but a well validated claim.  We can deliver the value of global leadership coaching to your current clients.  And we can design programs that include a cycle of regular visits to any location with reinforcements from the very best leadership coaches.  Those individual and group agendas typically yield a 500% ROI.

Digital and Global solutions not only satisfy millenials.  They lead to results.  They are required solutions.

If you are a solo-preneur, develop strong alliance with the smartest partners that you can find.  Today.

If you are a business leader, call Doug at 615.236.9845 If I cannot help you I will find someone who can.  Today.

Comments?

 

 

 

Why leadership development “training” is dead…

Yesterday I met with an economic buyer who did not know the potential of her company.

She was representative. So here are some trends and resources and options for you and your colleagues to consider:

1. Customized leadership development programs are the new norm. (Whatever the phrase “new norm” truly means…) Off the shelf programs simply do not work well.

2. Leadership development programs are a $170 billion dollar industry, according to the ASTD, American Society of Training and Development. Corporate earnings are at an all-time high, and individual wage earnings are at an all-time low. Hence, the market opportunities are in corporations that are willing to invest in professional development.
Most leadership development programs fail because they are events, rather than a process based on assessment, consulting, and coaching.

3. “Training” is dead. Training teaches content to a norm. Training is becoming digital and shorter because our digital workforce demands that change. And most training managers do not resist. They are frightened and struggling for funding. At a recent conference for learning and development managers one presenter shared how her department generated revenue (rather than costs) by video taping and selling training modules for their strategic partners. The audience “oohed and ahhed.” However, no one asked, “What will occur 3 years from now when the modules are all digital and only 30% are being passively used by workers who are mandated to take the modules?” Or, “What about the need for powerful interactions between people that only occurs in a live, synchronous event?” Sadly, training is dead.

4. Some “leadership development companies” have survived to date despite the fact that they are event-based. Most challenge courses have been retired. Most companies regard “team building” as an occasional expense- and send people to events such as a spa, winery tour, amusement park, or golf courses. These events are not integrated into strategic needs for most corporate buyers.

5. Leadership development programs can be integrated into strategic needs, and they can target specific needs and industries. We have done so for years. With metrics and case studies that satisfy any cautious economic buyer.

6. Future business revenue for leadership development companies will come from select alliances/ partnerships with service providers who can a) provide customized content in related subjects, such as assessments, change management, operational efficiency plus b) targeted sales to high growth industries such as health care, technology, and mid-market businesses. The money exists.

Leadership development companies can make big money by targeting those industries.

Call me for details on global leadership development coaching with the largest providers of assessments and coaching and consulting.

And stay away from any providers who are not affiliated with partners who can provide the scope your company needs.

The “next normal” (whatever that phrase means) in leadership development requires smart alliances and partnerships with trusted service providers.

 

Expert interview with my brother, Stuart Gray…

Expert interview with my brother Stuart Gray, founder/president of www.4remarkable.comwww.hospitalityrocks.com, and www.bluecollarsalesguys.com.
Stuart is an expert sales consultant, recruiter, customer service trainer and technology provider for independent restaurants.
Based near Minneapolis, MN he promotes excellent customer service throughout the world.
Check out this MP3…
Stuart Gray 7.19.13

How much is your time worth?

Recently a client was struggling with two related issues:  1.  How much to pay his employees and subcontractors, and 2.  How to manage his accountant who regularly arrived late for scheduled meetings.

I suggested that he should  bill the accountant at least $1.00 per minute that he is late.

“Huh?”  He asked.

Then I reached into a day timer and showed him the following image.  (I tried to find a better image online but was not successful.)

The column headings are Salary year/ Salary week/ Benefits= 40% Total salary/ Total week/  Value per hour/ and Value per minute.

 

For instance, if your salary per year is $70,000, your Salary per week is $$1,346, your Benefits are $538, your total week is $1,885, your Value per hour is $47.00 and your value per minute is $0.79.

So why wouldn’t you charge the accountant at least $1.00/ minute for being late?  His tardiness is 1) expensive and 2) unprofessional.  I urged him to charge a retroactive late fee.  And I referred him to other accountants.

The second question is more complex.  How much should you pay employees and subcontractors?   The market response is “as little as possible, according to their value.”  That is why we pay minimum wages and low salaries for remedial work.

For most business leaders, we are slow to pay others for remedial work.

The best business leaders, however, ALWAYS delegate low paying tasks to others.  And they refuse to do remedial work.

Back to my client.  I asked him, “So, what do you think your time is worth?”

He said, “At least $70,000/ year.”

I said, “OK then, why aren’t you excited about the opportunity to pay others $10-24.00 per hour to do work for you?”

And that, of course, led to a deep conversation about self-worth and the need to delegate low paying tasks to others.

So, what is your time worth?

 

7

Partnering with Executive Development Consulting to provide Predictive Talent Assessments

Throughout my career I have always done one thing:  leadership development.

And my career has catapulted at many times… Specifically, whenever  I partner with smart people doing great work.

In 2012 I partnered with Adam Ortiz, PsyD, Chris Leupold, PhD, and the team to provide predictive talent assessments for a large global F100 company.

These multi-rater, multi-method assessments are described below.  The process is the most effective, valid talent assessment I have experienced to date.  Please call me at 704.895.6479 to learn how we can provide this assessment for your senior leaders.

Executive Development Consulting

Who We Are

As a premier provider of executive assessment and coaching services, we excel at understanding our clients’ situations and helping them drive business results. EDC employs experts who are Ph.D.-level Organizational Psychologists, and possess more than 15 years of consulting and corporate experience working with C-suite and senior-level executives. Our depth of experience in working with companies of all sizes, and across the globe, is a key differentiator, and rather than relying on abstract concepts, EDC integrates proven methods for assessment and development. We design these methods to work within the parameters of your environment and can be tailored quickly and cost effectively. Our solutions equip individuals and organizations with the tools they need to achieve their goals.

Our Approach

Understanding what is required to excel is critical to individual and organizational advancement. We systematically define success in each client’s organization by asking questions that hone in on core competencies and underlying behaviors. We then use in-depth, behavioral interviews, 360-degree assessment, and psychological inventories to objectively assess those competencies and behaviors. Our goal is to provide a clear, accurate and relevant picture of your talent and where to most meaningfully invest your resources.

How We Add Value

We help our clients identify and develop their number one resource, their people. We do this by partnering to define the competencies critical to success, measuring them and developing the organization’s leaders with those competencies as the focal point. We equip individuals and organizations with the tools they need to turn executive assessment and development into sustainable advantage. Our practices are proven to achieve and sustain higher levels of leadership effectiveness, and are based on best practice research of leadership development strategies.

Our Philosophy

Our philosophy on development and coaching is that people grow by applying learnings to real world situations. EDC directly links executive development to individual and organizational needs by addressing values, motivations and behaviors in ways that support the achievement of development targets. Our approach links self-awareness with business results.

Predictive Assessments for your Senior leaders…

Hello Ric,

So nice to see you yesterday.  (I’m excited about the volunteer work we are doing for …)

Yesterday we talked about the possibility of providing assessments for senior leaders at Company ABC.

We have never discussed your need for multi-method, multi rater assessments that have tremendous predictive validity.  This methodology is  much better than any assessments I have found, in 30+ years of assessment work.  If interested, I  encourage you to forward the attached information to your colleagues for review.

How much would you be willing to invest in information that predicted your senior leadership talent and bench strength and succession needs?  I would like to meet with you or your colleagues who might need such predictive assessments.

I have partnered with Adam Ortiz, at Executive Development Consulting, to do this work for other clients.  We would love to provide these assessments for Company ABC, at any location.

Your benefits include:

  • Scalable, duplicatable model with external objective assessors
  • We have the capacity to deploy immediately, with teams of assessors already working throughout the world
  • Doug and Adam bring expertise with a career of assessments, plus leadership coaching expertise throughout the world.
  • This multi-method, multi rater assessment process can be replicated throughout any division at your firm, and the reliability and validity is extraordinary.
  • Cost effective assessments that provides objective data, with tremendous predictive validity, that have extraordinary value to you and your colleagues as you make strategic decisions about senior leaders.

If you have any interest in discussing any coaching or assessment work, please let me know.

I am confident that we can provide tremendous value to your firm.

Respectfully, Doug Gray, PCC

704.895.6479 office,  704.995.6647 cell

https://actionlearnin.wpengine.com/