LSA Global Insights Newsletter: 2020

November 21, 2020

Free Leadership Toolkit

Top leaders who create alignment consistently outperform their peers 8.71-to-1.

They do this by growing revenue 58% faster, attaining 72% greater margins, and engaging employees 16.8-to-1 as they navigate three big moves with their key stakeholders.

Strategy - First, top leaders ensure their strategy is clear, compelling, and believable.

Culture - Second, they invest the time and energy to ensure their culture (how work gets done) is healthy, high performing, and aligned to their strategic priorities.

Talent - Third, they conscientiously hire, develop, and retain top talent that will thrive in their culture to execute the strategy.

Are your leaders setting their teams up for success?

Download 12 Leadership Tools to Get Aligned

About LSA Global
Founded in 1995, LSA Global is a leading performance consulting and training firm that helps high growth technology, services, and life-science companies create a competitive advantage by powerfully aligning their culture and talent with their strategy. Learn more about getting aligned

Are The Best Company Cultures Internally Or Externally Focused?

Where Should You Focus Culturally to Accelerate Your Strategy?

The Covid crisis caused many companies to look inward to ensure the safety of their employees and forced other companies to look outward to change the way they serve clients. While both perspectives are important, should your culture look more inward or outward to succeed over the next 12-24 months?

Culture Definition

Let's start with defining culture. We define company culture as the way things get done in an organization on a day-to-day basis – especially when no one is looking. Culture is the way employees behave on the job and is based on intangibles such as the values, beliefs, and attitudes that characterize a company and guide its practices.

Culture Matters

Our organizational alignment research found that culture accounts for 40% of the difference between high and low performance in terms of revenue growth, profitability, customer loyalty, employee engagement, and leadership effectiveness. Culture acts as the glue that aligns a company’s business strategy with their people strategy.

Cultures Vary

From one company to another and even across different regions and functions, there can be a variety of workplace cultures and subcultures. It depends upon your unique business and people strategies.

In terms of cultural focus, many companies who focus internally strongly believe in the service-profit-chain theory which links employee satisfaction directly to higher levels of customer loyalty and profitability. Conversely, externally focused companies put the customer at the center of everything that they do.

Both approaches have merit.

The real question is which approach is better for your unique situation so that you are aligned to get the right work done in the right way?

Continue Reading to See If Your Culture Should Be More Internally or Externally Focused

October 24, 2020

Free New Manager Toolkit

Effective managers create organizational alignment by ensuring strategic clarity, building high performance cultures, and differentiating top talent.

At a strategic level, good managers set the right course, create clear goals, roles, success metrics, and career paths.

At a cultural level, good managers commit to making it a great place to work and value people as their most important resource while ensuring that their direct reports are held accountable and recognized for their contributions.

At a talent level, good managers consistently attract, develop, engage, and retain top talent that fits.

Download 12 Research-Backed New Manager Tools Now

The #1 Overlooked New Manager Communication Skill

Delegating with Purpose

One of the top skills a new manager must learn is how to delegate effectively.

Often, those new to people management find it difficult to give up tasks they feel they can do perhaps better than their direct reports.

And until they learn to trust their team, they also don’t fully trust that the tasks will be accomplished in a timely fashion. They fall prey to the number one overlooked new manager communication skill.

These two hurdles must be overcome if new people managers want to lead and grow their team.

The Critical Why

A key aspect of delegating as a new people manager is to do it with purpose. Know the task, know the person who has the competency and commitment to complete it, and be able to clearly communicate the “why.”

Most managers are fairy adept at explaining the “what” and the “how” of a task. They can typically define what needs to be done (the content) and the way it can be accomplished (the process).

But unless they include the critical “why,” employees may not be motivated to carry it out. Messages that lack the “why” are less persuasive and compelling.

Imagine your boss asking you to manage a new project as top priority compared to all the other projects on your plate. You naturally want to know why. Before you are motivated to set aside your current work and rearrange your schedule, you need to be persuaded that this new direction warrants upending your current focus.

How to Define and Articulate the Why

Especially as a new manager, you need to learn to communicate using this often overlooked skill of explaining the reason behind your request.

Here are four field-tested tips on how to zero in on the “why” so you can persuasively articulate it to your team:

Continue Reading to See the 4 Field-Tested Tips

September 26, 2020

Free Change Leadership Toolkit

Effective change leaders design, mobilize, and transform their people and their organizations.

As an organization plans a major change, the key element in long-term success is the ability of the workforce to change quickly and accurately amid many uncertainties.

Most large-scale organizational change efforts have not achieved their objectives. They were either stopped before implementation, went awry as they began, or never delivered the expected results.

Those who succeed at change experience a huge competitive advantage.

Is your change initiative set up for success?

Download 14 Research-Backed Change Leadership Tools Now

Top 10 Criteria of an Effective Change Catalyst

What Is a Change Catalyst?

Also called a Change Champion, we define a Change Catalyst as someone who helps to guide, navigate, and accelerate the people side of change with key stakeholders.

An effective Change Catalyst is responsible for engaging, motivating, communicating, and coordinating with stakeholders and bringing them successfully along the change journey. Done right, Change Catalysts are critical ambassadors and liaisons for desired change at work.

The Track Record on Organizational Change

Most leaders know that change management consulting is hard. According to recent research by Bain of over 300 companies attempting large scale change, only 12% achieved or exceeded their aims, and over one-third failed miserably.

The biggest barriers to success were:

Lack of investment or resources
Competing priorities
Culture change challenges
Organizational obstacles (e.g. structure, decision making)
Lack of a compelling case for change

The same research found that senior leadership support, employee engagement and interest, clear goals and metrics, and effective internal communication most heavily contributed to successful organizational change.

From our perspective, these themes have not changed much over the years. Change Catalysts should play an important role in all four areas - if you select the right people to lead change.

Continue Reading to See the Top 10 Criteria of an Effective Change Catalyst

August 25, 2020

Free Sales Leadership Toolkit

Top sales leaders consistently outperform their peers.

They grow revenue 58% faster, attain 72% greater margins, and retain customers 3.2-to-1 by deftly navigating three big moves with their key stakeholders.

Sales Strategy - First, top sales leaders ensure their go-to-market strategy is clear, compelling, and believable.
Sales Culture - Second, they invest the time and energy to ensure their sales culture (how work gets done) is healthy, high performing, and aligned to their strategic priorities.
Sales Talent - Third, they conscientiously hire, develop, and retain top sales talent that will thrive in their culture to execute the strategy.

Are your sales leaders setting their sales teams up for success?

Download 12 Sales Tools to Drive Profitable Growth Now

Selling as a Competitive Advantage in a Crowd

Does Selling as a Competitive Advantage Make Sense for Your Company?

Perhaps the most powerful attribute of a good strategic plan is how the company plans to distinguish itself from the competition in a way that is not easily replaced or replicated. With the pace of change and disruption today, it is certainly not easy to get ahead and clearly differentiate yourself.

For those struggling with how to stand apart from the pack, the encouraging news is that Gartner Research reports that over 50 percent of customer loyalty is driven by how you sell – more than the impact of your brand, product, service, and price combined. Wow.

The even better news is that how you sell (your sales experience) is the one thing your company can still design, improve, measure, and control in a way that is difficult to replicate or replace. This creates a wonderful opportunity for sales driven companies to use selling as a formidable competitive advantage for growth and profitability.

The Sales Challenge

Let’s start with the current state of sales. Even though U.S. companies report spending over $15 billion each year on sales training, most sales reps are struggling. A recent Selling Power survey found that only:

6% of sales teams achieved or exceeded quota in the last 24 months
8% of sales leaders believe that their salespeople have a consistently healthy sales pipeline

Combine that with the sobering fact that buyers report that over three-quarters of solution sellers do not clearly understand their key issues, are unclear how they can add meaningful value, and are not well prepared to answer questions or to share relevant case studies to substantiate what sets them apart.

That sounds like a wonderful untapped opportunity. Now is the time to strategically invest in selling to sharpen your competitive advantage.

Continue Reading to See the 4 steps Required to Use Selling as a Competitive Advantage

July 25, 2020

Free Employee Engagement & Retention Toolkit

Do your leaders know how to engage and retain your top managers?

Most companies and leaders know that they need to become more agile and resilient if they want to perform at their peak.

But too many leaders underestimate the importance of engaging and retaining the most important factor in building the workplace culture that they want - people managers.

Simply put, great people managers engage and retain great employees.

Download 8 Tools to Engage and Retain your Top Talent

How to Engage Employees in Challenging Times

A New People Test for Leaders

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a whole new challenge for companies – how to engage employees in unprecedented times. Businesses need to learn how to keep their employees engaged when they are no longer at their regular work sites and when their corporate lives have been turned upside down.

Employees are understandably concerned about the health and safety of themselves and their families. They are under extra pressure as they work at home while often juggling extra parental and household duties.

The future is uncertain in terms of when they can get back to work as they once knew it. And if it will never be the same again, they wonder what the new reality will be like and where they will fit in.

The Good News

The good news is that most companies were thoughtful about addressing the basic safety, stability, and security needs of employees during the first phase of the pandemic. According to a recent McKinsey survey, 78% of employees believe that their organization reacted appropriately to the crisis. It is quite remarkable how the urgency and clarity of a crisis can create high performance results.

The Challenge

The future is uncertain, the daily work lives of many employees’ have been significantly affected in the last few months, and people have varied expectations about their employee experience.

The Opportunity

The crisis has opened the door for companies to strategically rethink the employee experience to better align with shifting people and business priorities. Company leaders can support their employees and keep them engaged during these times of stress and uncertainty by continuing to prioritize, involving stakeholders, taking decisive action, being employee-centric, and creating transparency.

Fully engaging employees is a challenge in the best of times. Now as we transition in and out of shelter-in-place orders, are your employees feeling valued and ready to thrive?

Continue Reading to Learn the 6 Ways to Better Engage During Challenging Times

June 25, 2020

Free Culture Health Check

Is Your Culture Healthy, High Performing & Aligned with Your Strategy?

Corporate culture accounts for 40% of the difference between high and low performing organizations in terms of revenue growth, profitability, leadership effectiveness, customer loyalty, and employee engagement.

Do not underestimate the impact of culture at work. Your strategy must go through your culture to get executed. An effective Corporate Culture Assessment should measure the three C’s of organizational culture:

LITTLE C of CULTURE

Organizational Health attributes in the areas of leadership, trust, capability, and climate to see if your organization is healthy enough to create the foundation required for people and business success?

MEDIUM C of CULTURE

High Performance attributes in the areas of success, sub-standard performance, transparency, motivation, rewards, and consequences to see if your leaders are creating an environment to get the most from their people.

BIG C of CULTURE

Strategic Alignment in terms of Market Approach, Customers, Loyalty, Focus, Risk Tolerance, Operational Approach, Decision Making, Atmosphere, and Results to see if your culture is helping or hindering the execution of your strategy.

The 5-7 minute survey is based upon more than 25 years of research with high performance organizations and a recent organizational alignment survey of 410 companies across 8 industries.

If you would like to know if your organizational culture is healthy, high performing, and aligned with the strategy of your company, department, or group, then this free corporate culture health check is for you.

Assess Your Corporate Culture Now

It Is Time to Rethink Corporate Culture

Is Your Corporate Culture Helping or Hindering Your Strategy?

There is no question that the last few months have significantly changed the world and the way we operate as individuals, as businesses, and as countries. A global shift is required in the way we think, behave, and live our lives.

Now is the time for leaders to reassess and rethink how we want our ways of thinking, behaving, living, and working to evolve and improve.

Culture in the Corporate World

We think of corporate culture as a company’s collective values, beliefs, and behaviors. Once considered the “soft” side of employee life, company culture is generally acknowledged to be a significant factor in long-term business success.

Our organizational alignment research found that corporate culture accounts for 40% of the difference between high and low performance in terms of revenue growth, profitability, leadership effectiveness, customer loyalty, and employee engagement.

Duke University’s recent study of over 1,000 senior executives found that 92% reported that improving their company culture would increase their company’s value, but only 16% felt their culture was “where it needed to be.” Clearly, there is some cultural alignment work to be done.

Culture and Strategy Work Hand in Hand

As corporate strategies and operations are redesigned to accommodate the new normal of business, organizational culture must also adjust.

Why?

Because your strategies and plans must go through your people and culture to be successfully implemented.

Any misalignment between your strategy and your culture will derail the best laid plans. One cannot work without being aligned with the other. People need to adopt new behaviors and ways of working that align with the desired changes.

Continue Reading to Learn the 4 Ways to Shift Corporate Culture

May 23, 2020

Sales Toolkit for Leaders to Stay Above the Competition

Effective sales leaders grow revenue and profits by ensuring that go-to-market sales strategies are clear, by building a high performance sales culture, and by attracting, developing, engaging and retaining top sales talent.

At a strategic level, good sales leaders set the right course and create clear goals, roles, success metrics and plans.
At a cultural level, good sales leaders ensure that the sales culture is not only healthy, but 100% aligned with the sales and business strategies.
At a talent level, good sales leaders consistently attract, develop, engage and retain top sales talent that fits.

Download Sales Toolkit for Leaders Now

Top 10 Reasons Sales Reps Struggle with Social Selling

Is Your Sales Team Adjusting to the New Normal?

COVID-19 is accelerating digital sales trends. According to recent McKinsey research, digital sales interactions are now 2-to-3 times more important to customers than traditional sales interactions, and more than half of sales leaders believe that virtual selling models (i.e. videoconferencing, phone, web) are equally or more effective than traditional sales models.

B2B Sales Reps Struggle with Social Selling

We define B2B social selling as the ongoing process of leveraging digital channels to find, engage, and connect with ideal target clients. High performing B2B social sellers build relationships on digital platforms and turn online connections into offline sales conversations and long-term customer relationships.

Why Social Selling Matters

LinkedIn’s recent State of Sales report found that 62% of B2B decision makers look for an informative LinkedIn profile when considering talking with a sales rep. They also tout that modern selling leaders are:

51% more likely to achieve quota
80% more productive
3X more likely to go to be a top performer

There is no doubt that modern buyers are more savvy in their approach to identifying potential suppliers. Salespeople who effectively apply social selling techniques outperform their peers. The digital selling process requires a mindset shift to use online channels to provide value, develop trust, and build relationships with target buyers.

The Profile of Successful Social Sellers

Successful digital sellers have a purposeful LinkedIn profile that uses customer-centric messaging; consistently leverages valuable digital assets such as videos, case studies, research reports, articles, testimonials, and podcasts; and establishes a regular sales cadence to engage modern buyers and to initiate more meaningful sales conversations.

The Top 10 Reasons your Sales Reps Struggle with Social Selling

1. Goals and Success Metrics Are Unclear or Misaligned

Our organizational alignment research found that strategic clarity accounts for 31% of the difference between high and low performing sales teams. Prior to launching a digital selling initiative, the first step should be to identify the overall sales goals, priorities, and success metrics.

In digital selling, goals are typically geared toward creating more sales conversations with more qualified buyers using tools such as InsideView, Outreach, LinkedIn, and SalesNavigator.

2. Buyer Types and Personas Are Unclear

To stand apart from the pack and to best serve your target market, it is important to identify target buyers by persona, vertical, and sales role.

From a social selling perspective, clear buyer types and personas help determine the content production plan, define what clients are searching for online, and provide a framework for deciding the types of additional filters to use when developing search strings for prospecting on LinkedIn.

3. Sales Content Strategies Are Unclear

Effective sales content should create and sustain meaningful conversations with target buyers. In order to connect and engage target buyers on their terms in a way that matters, it is vital to develop a thoughtful online sales content strategy.

Effective online sales content strategies map to each unique stage of the buying process, answer key questions, provoke critical thinking, provide useful tips to avoid mistakes, address priorities, and give buyers a reason to want to consume your content and to keep you front of mind.

Read the Final 7 Struggles and What to Do Next

Check Out Social Selling Training Options