Building People to Build Business
When interviewing a prospective hire, be sure and check his or her I.D.
No, this video is NOT about asking for a candidate’s driver’s license, social security card, or college transcript.
It’s about determining the CHARACTER of the person. In this video, I’ll tell you what the “I” and “D” stand for and why they are independent and interdependent. I’ll also explain the dangers of having the wrong balance of “I” and “D”.
Much of the consulting I do these days centers around corporate culture — specifically, helping business owners and leaders actively design their culture. In doing so we often have to help them define their mission, beliefs and values. This process allows the leaders to explain why they exist as a company and how adhering to their defined beliefs and values is designed to influence their behaviors — allowing them to accomplish their mission. Guess what’s the first question most leaders have about this process?
This article is a follow-up to the story I shared last week about a fellow who received the wrong size shoes from an online retailer and how that story had a happy ending. In today’s article I’ll tell you about the Q&A session I attended with executives at that organization and how they design their corporate culture to maximize favorable outcomes.
Here is a customer experience story with a happy ending. But the happy ending didn’t happen by chance. It happened because the company in question has meticulously and purposefully designed its corporate culture to wow its customers, with the side effect of turning many of them into customers for life. If you’re a business owner or leader, this one’s for you. But I really think it can resonate for anyone.
Like many of you, I buy a lot of stuff — including electronics equipment — online. But I’ll still go to bricks & mortar stores from time to time, including my local Best Buy. I know that anything I can find inside a Best Buy store (and then some) can be bought online. Yet I still venture out and visit those stores. Why? And what does this have to do with your business? Watch this video for the answers.
As you start watching this short video, you’ll probably be wondering, “Why in the world are we looking at vegetables?” The answer is that for one business I visited recently, vegetables — or rather, something special about these particular vegetables — are major ingredients in its success.
Far too many organizational leaders don’t spend enough time thinking about their corporate culture. That’s because corporate culture is essentially an invisible force. But it’s also a very powerful one — probably the single most powerful force in determining an organization’s prospects for success.
In this video I’m speaking to you from South America, where I’m about to deliver a talk to an audience of non English speakers. They speak Portuguese; I speak southern English. But we have an interpreter, so things should be fine. You see, language barriers have relatively easy solutions; communication barriers — not so much. If you’re a leader in your company, you know you have to be constantly attentive to how effectively people in your company are communicating.
No matter how much I fly, I’m always amazed at the process. And the process usually works pretty well! You know why? Because the members of the flight crew — people who may have never met before — come together and, in a matter of moments, start working together as a team. Why? Because they have a common vision of exactly what needs to happen. In this short video, I urge you to think about your people — and what you can do to get them to come together as a team.
Attitudes can change faster than the weather. Do you ever think about how quickly your attitude changes? As leaders, we have to be on guard. Because how we think determines how we behave. In this short video, I encourage you to always be aware of — and in charge of — your attitude.
