Category: Success Articles

What the Most Successful Don’t Know

In the spirit these days of being unnecessarily controversial, I’d like to spin things a different way. I’d like to discuss the things that the most successful people are completely clueless about.

The Real Truth About Loyalty

In the end, if you’re close by, easy to deal with and willing to make the sacrifices, you’ll be surrounded by those who are not likely to ever leave your side. In the business world, that means your employees are likely to stay with you and perform at the highest level. And in your personal life, it means that your kids will be high achievers who are going to live in your house until they’re 30!

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Finding and Keeping Employees

According to Evolve Performance Group, 9 out of 10 engaged employees say that safety is a top priority every day while only two in 10 actively disengaged employees can say the same thing. Modern successful safety cultures are based in facts. People who feel valued, value safety and each other. The takeaway from these numbers cannot be overestimated.

customer service employee engagement generational differences leadership safety sales

Does AI ‘s ROI Mean Humans Are SOL?

Despite their typecast use in many sci-fi plots, bots are simply tools for humans to use to do a better job and provide socially intelligent customer service while increasing profits. Bots allow agents to offer personalized service while their electronically animated brethren do menial tasks. Predominantly, research shows that human beings still value connecting with each other, preferring it over any other interaction.

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Customers don’t want service!

Customers don’t want service. They want things that don’t need any service. They want maintenance-free, self-contained solutions, whenever possible. That’s not just chat-bots and other forms of artificial intelligence. It’s a solution that fits their belief system.

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Want to Be Successful? You Must Understand This 1 Thing About Yourself

Many argue that the most important trait for a successful Entrepreneur is grit. And what is grit if not that perfect blend of optimism and pessimism?

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How To Be Right Without Making Other People Wrong

What exactly are we trying to accomplish by proving to others that we’re right?
We might win the argument but ultimately lose the relationship. Perhaps a better, deeper-rooted question is this: Why do we lose sight of success, of our big objective when we feel challenged or intimidated?

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The Future’s Not Here Yet

Even with all these solutions being applied, can we really move into the future with a generation that was taught that these jobs have no future? It’s time to be honest with ourselves, to admit that we may have made a mistake. In our effort to provide a better opportunity for everyone, we may have created a mindset that ultimately will not help anyone.

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Generations Working Better Together

What do we need to do to work more effectively with each other as a team?

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Selling Your Ideas: Getting People To Agree With You

[social_warfare]

Why is it that some of the best ideas are never considered and idiotic concepts that we know will fail are?

How did AT&T decide to focus on the picture phone and sell off the rights to the cellular telephone? Research clearly showed that the number-one reason people placed a phone call instead of showing up in person was speed and convenience. The number-two reason was they did not want to be face-to-face with the person they were calling. If you are at home on the phone in your underwear, do you really want people to see you? (OK, some of you do, and you know who you are, but let’s move on.) Why did it take so long to get squeeze-bottle ketchup? Squeeze-bottle mustard was on the market 20 years earlier! Were there really people who believed that ketchup in a glass bottle was sacred and could never sink to the lows of a seemingly misguided mustard?

The issue is that some of us are just much better at getting people to agree with us than others.

It’s why it took so long for people to wear seat belts and yet pet rocks sold instantly. We interviewed some of the most persuasive people in the Wynn Solutions top-performers research pool and found some interesting information about getting people to see things your way regardless of how ineffective your ideas may be:

Find out what people value most before you start talking. People are much more likely to listen to your ideas if you can prove you know what’s important to them first (agreeing that it’s important will also help a lot).
Make sure your ideas are clear. It does not matter how smart you are if no one knows what you’re talking about. You may need to have your top expert teach their concepts to your top presenter. A lot of great ideas are not considered because people don’t want to admit they don’t get it.
Make sure you can explain the basic value in about 20 seconds. People buy into what they can understand quickly. “The longer it takes you to explain value, the more people think you don’t have any.” Show how it will make the person(s) you are talking with look good personally. What’s in it for them?
Show the similarities first and differences second. The main reason people don’t want to change is that nobody wants to be a “senior beginner.” When things change, people are afraid their expertise will have less value—they may not be as important to the organization as they used to be. Show how the new way is similar to the old way first, and then the new way feels more valuable.

Our research showed that ideas have to be more than great. They have to get supported by humans as they make their way toward implementation. Some pretty weak agendas get moved forward because they are presented 10 times better than an agenda that was …well … 10 times better.

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