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Minter Dial

Minter Dial is a professional speaker and consultant specializing in leadership, branding and transformation. He has written three award-winning business books.

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hybrid work changes

Hybrid workplaces need a business culture change to match

  • Leadership
  • min read
    • Companies are struggling with how to move to let employees have the choice to work at the office, from home or somewhere else – known as hybrid work. A 2022 study by career consultants Zippia found that 84 percent of companies have implemented or plan to implement remote work. Employees are more than ready for it, with 83 percent saying they prefer hybrid work in Accenture's 2021 Future of Work study. Yet, as the economic outlook worsens, it's possible that employee urgency about hybrid work could wane in favor of job security, benefits and company culture. A 2022 Expectations at Work study by BCW (part of WPP) indicates that a certain "confidence across the different employee groups has been eroding, triggering a change in the core expectations and priorities employees now seek from their employers." In any event, implementing hybrid work well is harder than most leaders think. On top of general post-pandemic fatigue, there are hard questions. How much can you require workers to come into the office or stay home? When and why should we be in either space? Should we change contracts and compensation? Which IT systems will we need? The answers are complex, and there's no one-size-fits-all. Three things to think about Outside in-person roles and sectors like manufacturing, hospitality and medical procedures, many have now experienced remote work. In the US, thirty-five percent worked from home during the pandemic. In the UK, it was as much as thirty-eight percent, and in France, nearly thirty percent. Businesses must decide the future of their work conditions. Allowing office and remote work means adapting your reality, being more flexible and changing how you communicate. When considering hybrid work, leadership should assess three things: How to create a company culture that fosters optimal employee engagement, best serve existing and future clients, and give teams the right oversight and tech. Charting a post-pandemic path Effective change requires knowing where you come from. When a legacy company – one that's existed for decades – wants to make a significant change in how they work, it must understand its existing corporate culture. After years of working one way, principles and work styles become ingrained, including relationships with customers and suppliers. The pandemic created an exceptional moment when companies brushed existing culture aside. There will have been changes, many of which will be invisible. Still, there are also dark clouds on the horizon: Economic uncertainty, consumption habits and expectations changes, and social and political unease. Using empathic leadership to engage Research from the University of California, Berkeley Haas and Stanford University found the pandemic provoked many favorable changes in beliefs, behavior and relationships. They reported, "Organizational cultures in the pandemic era have generally shifted away from a high-performance orientation to one that prizes empathy, understanding and mutual support." Empathy – especially from leaders – has a direct, positive impact in the workplace, according to Catalyst research. With more empathic leaders, 61 percent of employees report being able to be innovative, compared with 13 percent of those with less empathic leaders. Increased uncertainty and the need for dramatic change will make leaders with empathy even more valuable to their companies. Leaders should especially watch employee engagement. In light of high resignation rates post-pandemic and recruitment challenges, HR departments should pay extra attention to onboarding in a hybrid environment. With recruitment and initial training done remotely, new employees struggle to understand the culture and establish trusting relationships with others. When you show up as your whole self, vulnerable and imperfect, it will help you to build trust and foster sincerity. Of course, that doesn't mean you shouldn't strive to be the best version of yourself. Being open, genuine and humble makes your colleagues and employees more likely to speak up and feel engaged. Two-way communication will be your bread and butter to survive the transformation to hybrid work. Focus on customers Since it's harder to manage communication in a hybrid environment, it's tempting to use data, financials and automation to manage customers. But the human element, in all its messiness, is more important. Employees' roles and engagement are critical to good customer experience. The pandemic, social movements (like Black Lives Matter) and global political turmoil have changed how customers feel, interact and buy. As expectations change, staying keenly attuned and finding ways to understand better your past, current and future customers will be essential. You'll also need to work to break down company silos and product-centric orientations, which put the focus a few steps away from the customer. Bill Kanarick of EY explains in MIT Technology Review, "Customer-centricity forces you to take a horizontal view where you're trying to orchestrate across the organization to the benefit of the consumer." In other words, customer experience relies on people in different departments across the company, often without a common line of command. While it may be challenging, winners know how to take risks, move fast and focus on a few key levers and performance indicators rather than trying to meet all needs and clunky dashboards. Support systems that facilitate your goals Systems support internal operations, so how you facilitate communications aligned with your business goals and leadership style should be a top priority. There are many communication tools, like Slack, Adobe Cloud and Microsoft Outlook, and great add-ons for hybrid work like Mural and Miro for brainstorming and workshops, Rally and Doodle for meeting management and Monday.com and Trello for project management. Another important aspect is configuring cybersecurity, especially for sensitive data. Your systems will need security tailored to changing locations, moving pieces and the varied tech found in homes and remote offices. Security responsibility in hybrid work falls more on employees, says Leonid Grustniy: "Transporting your work – laptop, files, flash drives – between the office and home can place corporate data in danger from carelessness or even theft." Regardless of tools, leadership must focus on human matters: Empathy, doing what you say and saying what you do, being fair and firm in how you treat employees, and most importantly, modeling the behavior you wish to see. The move to hybrid work will take much trial and error, and flexibility. Larger tech companies like Amazon, Apple and Google will likely pave the way in how we manage hybrid and remote conditions, but applying other organizations' ideas isn't enough. Every sector and different company culture will need its own solutions. Good luck on your journey.
going remote

Going fully remote? Here’s why trust will matter to your success.

  • Remote working
  • min read
    • After many learned fast to work from home during the pandemic, organizations now face a more deliberate choice on how to conduct business. How much do we really need to be in the office – if at all? The quest has provoked high-profile battles between employees and management. Apple employees petitioned to keep their flexible work arrangements. It may be complex to offer employees the choice to come into the office or work remotely – often called 'hybrid work' – tempting businesses to impose a set schedule for all. Big tech companies such as Google and Tesla are driving hard to get their employees in the office more often. Twitter offers full-time remote work if employees want it, but such arrangements are usually limited to techy start-ups. Why and how might other kinds of businesses go fully remote? At the heart of this question is trust between employees and management. I wrote in my book, You lead: How being yourself makes you a better leader, "Building trust is the critical glue to keep workflow and outputs effective." The intention to go fully remote must address three elements – in order of importance: Employee engagement, customer benefit and business results. Remote work upsides and downsides A Capgemini Research Institute study in 2020 showed remote work may reduce overheads by up to 48 percent. The remote option may be obvious for tech companies like pure ecommerce businesses or software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers, especially if they're already interacting with all clients digitally. But there will always be industries where fully remote just doesn't work – even desk-based businesses like legal may need central secure storage for documents. Even for a techy workforce, fully remote isn't easy and needs careful consideration. For example, work from anywhere (WFA) is different than work from home (WFH) or work from a specific geographic region. A Flexjobs study showed 95 percent of remote jobs still require a location. It's also easy to get lured into remote work because of the savings or because employees want it. Some companies, including Google, Twitter and Facebook, want to pay remote workers less, and some employees are willing to accept lower pay for remote work's convenience and flexibility. But different pay for remote and in-office workers will introduce a challenging variable in optimizing performance and recognizing contributions. Office-based workers already get greater recognition and credit than those who work from home. Productivity impacts A two-year Stanford study on remote work released in 2017 showed a 13 percent productivity gain and reduced turnover in employees working remotely, compared with their in-office counterparts. But the study didn't consider customer success or long-term employee satisfaction, and over half the remote workers felt isolated and wanted to return to the office at least sometimes. Productivity gains can also be elusive, depending on existing culture, sector and processes. The report Killing Time at Work '22 testifies to many companies' poor practice in trying to make working remotely function well. Study author Tariq Rauf, CEO of team software provider Qatalog, wrote, "Digital presenteeism is pervasive, with employees working an extra hour each day to show they're still online and contributing, due to fear colleagues and bosses will think they aren't working hard enough." Who's going fully remote? Few well-known companies have opted for fully remote. In Flexjobs' top 30 companies with the most work-from-anywhere job postings, recognizable names include Wikimedia and Airbnb. Then there are less well-known tech brands like open-source research and development provider Protocol Labs, services like content moderators ModSquad and naturally remote companies like Study.com for online learning. None are traditional businesses, suggesting legacy companies are staunchly anchored to their offices. So, leaders considering moving their whole organization or a team to fully remote work should consider these elements. 1.  Build trust and improve communication First, above all else, answer honestly: How much do you trust your team or workforce, and how much do they trust you and other leaders? Establishing trust and rapport is always important in business, but in remote conditions, you must be more attentive and intentional in fostering and retaining trust. Communications are particularly important, especially informal exchanges and channels. For example, when will you have a casual check-in to talk about more personal affairs and less official work? Tyree D. Mitchell, author of Searching for trust in the global economy with Jeanne M. Brett, says, "To unite a team, create a team charter representing how the team works as partners. Explain your objective, role and how people should communicate and be accountable." He also suggests taking into account cultural norms and differences around building trust when dealing with an international team. 2.  Make your intentions clear If going 100 percent remote is a radical departure from the past, be honest about the company's intention. Will it help achieve strategic goals? How does it relate to the company's overall purpose? Does it help your environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals? If your motivation is largely cutting cost through less or no office space, or improving efficiencies and productivity (for example, by eliminating commuting,) double-down on employee engagement and customer satisfaction. There are many reasons offices appeal to some people, like teamwork, socializing and status. Being transparent and including your team in your decision-making process will help the transformation succeed. Your action plan In constructing your action plan to go fully remote, there are five key considerations. First, take an honest look at your existing culture – how you communicate and behave, workflows and levels of trust. What should you keep and what needs changing? Second, involve your team in your decision-making around the transition. Third, consider carefully how to best serve your customers, including how to gain and onboard new ones. Fourth, embrace the messiness! Ensure constant feedback and stay flexible to work through challenges. Finally, ensure you have the right technologies to facilitate workflows and teamwork needed for customer success. Prioritise cybersecurity when choosing your tech and give your staff regular training in how to keep your business cyber safe.
earning customer trust

Earn customer trust with ‘inside out’ business values

  • Transparency
  • min read
    • I've particularly noticed two business trends since the pandemic. First, people aren't rushing back to work – whether it's called the Great Resignation or Great Reshuffle, we're thinking hard about where and why we work. Second, we've become more dependent on, and aware of, technology and how it's shaping narratives in society. Tech can earn business gains in efficiency and productivity, but there's no shortcut to earning trust. Fuelled by mistrust in media and government, public trust is declining. There's an opportunity for businesses to lead in regaining public trust, and I believe they should start with their employees. Distrust has become the default The pandemic sparked fears about personal and societal issues. There are existential concerns like climate change and growing worries about personal freedoms and economic security. This anxiety and insecurity make it hard to trust. The Edelman Trust Barometer surveys 36,000 respondents in 28 countries on their relationship with business, government and the media. The 2022 Barometer shows distrust has become the default, especially distrust of government and media. Who people trust has become more local, like co-workers and neighbors, and distrust of outsiders has risen. The business of raising trust Trust has long been weak in media, but the Edelman Trust Barometer showed trust in government has fallen around 25 percent between 2020 and 2022. Trust in business meanwhile stayed at about the same level. People are looking to business to tackle big issues rather than their governments. It's an opportunity for business leaders, but not those who picture nothing more than trust-promoting marketing operations and communications ploys. Cutting through the fake The public sees CEOs and business leaders with a wary eye. Between 2021 and 22, those who said they worry business leaders are intentionally misleading people went up to 63 percent. Similar concerns about journalists (67 percent) and government leaders (66 percent) have risen too. Build trust from the inside out The Edelman Trust Barometer found employees tend to give credence to their CEO. But what about your employees? It's worth doing an anonymous internal survey to find out how much they trust your company. Internally, transparency is an excellent way to earn confidence. Show faith in your employees and give them accurate information about your strategy and intentions. There are, of course, limits to how transparent businesses can be. You can't divulge intellectual property secrets or make big announcements before an earnings report as a publicly-traded company. But the way you operate and communicate internally must be consistent with how you want customers and stakeholders to see you. I call this the 'inside-out' model: What goes on at the core radiates out through the value chain. The core is your executive and employees. Moving out from the core are your ambassadors, distributors and suppliers. The next level is customers. Demonstrating consistency over time – from the inside out – will mean greater trust. Gain trust the old fashioned way: Earning it I have seen these three leadership attitudes matter when it comes to instilling trust throughout your organization and value chain. First, when possible, under-promise and over-deliver – for example, in marketing promises, delivery dates and product performance. Second, have a karmic attitude – giving without expecting anything in return. A transactional approach, based on equal exchange, means no margin for 'extras,' and can rapidly decline into an adversarial relationship. A karmic attitude builds up credit. Marcus Sheridan built a successful swimming pool business by giving away relevant and honest content. Credit is important over the long haul if you need forgiveness for an error. Unexpected things happen, and there are unavoidable, big-picture issues like global supply chains breaking down and wholesale price rises. Third, bring your company's purpose to life and ensure it impacts your behavior, language and decision-making. The most important audience is your employees: Ensure they clearly understand and experience the company purpose and vision – many employees say they don't fully understand theirs. However, avoid overselling your purpose – it's better to understand your limits than to promise something you can't deliver. Strive to live up to what you say. Admit mistakes and be honest about your failings. This will help build trust and engender loyalty. Overcoming the challenges of tech and trust As businesses grow, they need more tech to help manage many customers and workflows. Many organizations are starting to use artificial intelligence (AI) to support customer relationship management (CRM,) customer service and eCommerce. While there are great uses for AI, issues around data privacy, invasive personalization and bias are legion. You need a solid ethical framework to manage these. Using empathy to understand the employee and customer journey better is vital. And to be trusted, especially with AI, you must have a firm grasp on the outcomes you want. For example, when using chatbots to augment customer service, tell your customers what kind of agent they're dealing with (bot or not) and be alert to when a human agent must step in to ensure the best customer experience. There's no shortcut to building trust. It takes a concerted effort across the organization. If you've built a loyal and trusting partnership with your employees and stakeholders, they'll be your best ambassadors and be more forgiving of your mistakes. Be vigilant when trust starts to erode: Trust is hard-earned and quickly lost.
customer service ai

Before using AI for customer experience, change these things

  • Artificial intelligence
  • min read
    • Almost every business wants to put customers at the heart of what they do – in a Pegasystems survey of 5,000 customer experience practitioners, 92 percent say being customer-centered is a high priority for their organization. So naturally, companies are all over any technology that can improve customer experience on a large scale, and artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most promising. But to get an AI implementation right and have a systematically good customer experience (also known as CX), you must go beyond the technological solutions. AI magnifies or at least surfaces quirks in human behavior otherwise softened as messages pass through many hands. That's why in preparing for AI, I recommend you look closely at your organization's strategy, structure and culture. Success of new tech is all about the human factor No matter the sector, human interactions are crucial. No technology can replace or undo the wrong customer experience mindset. Digital customer experience expert Amélie Beerens told me, "The success factor is the human factor." When there are many technologies, people and functions across an organization contributing to customer experience, it's easy for the weakest link to cause failure. Mindset, alignment and execution make or break any customer experience change, including AI-driven enhancements. Company culture influences how much you center customers Prompted by the internet giving individuals a louder voice, company boards have clamored to reorient their strategy toward customers. It makes sense: Studies show customers are willing to pay more for and be more loyal after a good experience. But wanting to be customer-centered isn't enough. Your strategy, culture and people will be instrumental in making customer centricity come alive. Customer service author and host of Punk CX podcast Adrian Swinscoe wrote, "Companies with open and collaborative cultures are likely to have more success implementing AI for customer experience than more product-focused or hierarchical organizations, who are likely to struggle with siloed working, data access and sharing, and unaligned objectives." Engage your employees in the AI execution Despite businesses saying the customer is their highest priority, most customers don't feel that way. Can AI contribute to delivering a better customer experience at scale? Aligning an organization with the right technological solution is where things often break down. Good execution relies on employee engagement and dedication. A PwC (formerly PricewaterhouseCoopers) survey of 15,000 customers in 12 countries showed a company's employees have a big impact on customer experience, especially for higher-value products. Swinscoe writes, "Companies should focus as much on their employees and their experience as they do on their customers." Human interaction not only reinforces brand, it becomes part of the data set informing AI initiatives. As the number of interactions grows, the case for automation rises. AI – which ranges from narrow, such as If this then that formulas, to complex processes involving machine learning or neural networks, such as General or Super AI – helps manage the sheer volume. For the foreseeable future, fully automated and excellent customer service is unlikely. The best solutions use humans and AI – often called augmented intelligence. Take, for example, Digital Genius, a customer service automation platform. Digital Genius gives customer service agents for airline KLM AI-generated alternatives to choose from when replying to a customer. The AI uses the customer's data alongside inquiry information to suggest responses, removing menial tasks so the agent can work in ways that value their ability. The AI journey is internal first Considering how to use AI can be informative and structuring for organizations. It forces you to assess your first principles and values down to the customer outcomes you want. There are many ways to use AI in customer experience. It can triage incoming messages, augment and measure employee interactions with customers or run chatbots. As with any new process, there must be much forethought and readiness to make mistakes, learn and correct. Senior teams (the C-suite) must understand and support what the company wants to achieve in customer experience. But they often don't: The Pega 2020 customer experience survey found 64 percent of customer service programs don't have a senior team sponsor, making it hard to implement the program organization-wide. Perhaps that's in part because PWC's 2021 Pulse survey found just 47 percent of executives understand how robotics and AI may improve customer experience. Learning alongside your AI Infusing the customer journey with AI needs ongoing learning and vetting to avoid biases negatively affecting customer experience. AI mirrors both our best and worst traits. To start using AI as part of your customer experience program, the AI learns from a data set of human-to-human interactions from customer databases and relationship management. And that's easier said than done. Creating, cleaning and organizing the AI's learning data set is a heavy lift needing considerable resources. For best results, get C-suite sponsorship, diversity in the team and customer-facing employee representation. Beerens says, "Diversity and integrity are the secret ingredients to building a strong data set." Getting customer experience right can't be reduced to a single statistic – it's a moving target. Keep sight of your brand's mission, and don't let the technology (and the IT department) lead the way. AI has a role to play in customer experience, but it's vital to get the business culture – mindset, beliefs and behaviors – right before delegating customer relationships to a machine. As Swinscoe says, "Everything is an input, even the team you hire to help build, test and implement these models. Everything matters."

New leadership skills for turbulent times, and how to develop them

  • Leadership
  • min read
    • In my consultancy work with blue-chip companies worldwide, I've seen how the pandemic has affected business. It's a challenging landscape testing the mettle of every leadership team. The global economic impact will persist for a long time. Entrepreneurs and business leaders will need new habits for a new reality. While advances in tech have facilitated remote work, tomorrow's core skills will be deeply human. My recent book You lead: How being yourself makes you a better leader outlines the 'CHECK framework' I use in transforming executive teams. It brings to the fore skills and attitudes that help leaders navigate the ongoing challenges. CHECK stands for Curiosity, Humility, Empathy, Courage and Karma. The words are familiar, but each comes with a twist. You need to accentuate these qualities and attitudes, and use them in your daily routine. Pre-work: Developing self-awareness Before building new skills and developing the mindset to get through turbulent times, most accomplished leaders need to do some pre-work. To successfully gain new soft skills, you first need to dial into your needs, desires and imperfections, developing greater self-awareness. How much are you aware of your energies and emotions? Do you know what topics trigger you? For example, I know I don't take criticism well, so I've worked to steady myself when someone is critical of my work. I've created an internal mantra that criticism is a gift. What are your deep internal motivators? What activities give you intrinsic fulfillment. I know I'm excited to connect ideas and make valuable introductions between people. By being more self-aware, you'll know better how to tune your leadership skills and model the behavior that will raise your team's level. Get curious In this ever-changing world, with its disruptive technologies and alternative business models, you need to be constantly curious and in learning mode. This means understanding your range of competencies and, more importantly, your knowledge gaps. Curiosity helps you understand what you need to learn. It's too easy to focus on what you want to learn rather than what you need to learn. To know what you need to learn, you also need a wide view of what's going on, not just in your industry but in other sectors. Shake up your sources and inject novelty into what you read. Then you'll have a better chance of finding new ideas and concepts, and connecting the dots. Tools for the curious mind For a diverse pool of sources organized by theme, I use Flipboard – for example, I have a board on Sleep – curated Twitter lists and a Feedly premium account sorted by interests, languages and profiles. Listen and learn with humility Having humility, or being humble, means having a reduced view of your importance. By being humble, you admit others are better than you or know more than you in an area or topic. As Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said, we need to move from being know-it-all to learn-it-all leaders. Rather than operate with bravado and bluster, it's more effective to admit your weaknesses and ask for help. I am only as strong as my network. Building a network is a lifelong project, and relationships must be mutually beneficial. Think: How can I be of service to my contacts? It involves sharing credit, recognizing others' contributions and wanting to learn from others. And it works. One 2015 study found humble leadership means higher employee engagement, lower staff turnover and better organizational performance than hierarchical, top-down leadership. Tools for building humility To be humble is to recognize our place in the universe. Philanthropist and author Rick Warren wrote, "Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less." I think mindfulness can develop humility, as it helps you understand and remember what matters most. My favorite mindfulness app is Monique Rhodes' 10 Minute Mind, but Headspace, Calm and Petit Bambou are also popular and come in multiple foreign languages. The empathy superpower Empathy is a superpower because it helps improve working conditions and results in many ways. I've seen an uptick in the appetite to develop empathy in business, yet, studies show an ongoing empathy deficit in the corporate world. Our perception that we're already empathic enough might be part of the problem – in a survey I commissioned, 73 percent said they had above average or well-above-average empathy. It's common to rate your own empathy higher than others rate you, so it's worth being honest with yourself in order to have the best chance at developing greater empathy. By checking in with your emotions and sensations, you can relate with colleagues and others around you. Having empathy means having a stillness in yourself, being present and listening intently to others. It's a muscle that takes exercise to develop. Tools for developing empathy One way to flex your empathy muscle is to meet someone new and get to know them. Practice asking open questions and actively listening without judgment. Even when locked down, there are ways to meet new people according to your interests and needs. I'm a fan of Lunchclub.ai. Others include ChitterChat and to meet experts and academics, SmartTribe. Plucking up the courage A crucial aspect of handling turbulence is courage: standing up for what you believe, even when it means standing out. It also includes being strategic in how you manage your resources, including your time and your team's time, and being willing to ask for help when you need it. Too many leaders and entrepreneurs feel they have to pretend to know all the answers. Seek counsel and support. If your intentions are genuine, others will be happy to support you. Tools for courage First, seek to bolster your network. I use LinkedIn carefully and pay attention to with whom I connect. Beyond developing a strong network of trusted individuals, LinkedIn is a great source of inspiration and has communities for every interest. Secondly, your personal contacts list is vital. Use the notes section for each contact you create: How you met, what struck you about them and common interests. I also add metadata, such as tags. I now have 50 tags I use systematically to call up people with whom I share a mutual interest or with a specific expertise or skill set. If you've meticulously added tags, you can easily search for people with any qualities or expertise you need. Karma is intentional The last quality in the CHECK framework is probably the least obvious. K is for karma. Karma is less about fate and 'what goes around, comes around,' and more about having the right intentions, acting on them in the spirit of doing good and expecting nothing in return. Go out of your way to thank people. Being generous and thoughtful to those around you – family, colleagues or strangers – has proven benefits. There's also a link between karma and humility. A 2014 study published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science found "humility and gratitude are mutually reinforcing." Tools for developing karma Spontaneously send a text message to a colleague, business associate or supplier you appreciate and thank them for what they mean to you. Call or send a message to someone you've not contacted for a while for whom you've been grateful. To help, Out of the Blue proposes "random" friends to call from your contact list. My karmic regimen includes giving away valuable content every day through blogs, stimulating interviews on my podcasts or vetted links in social posts. With more turbulent times ahead, we must keep our batteries charged. I intentionally add three or four activities to my day that give me energy – for example, meditation, listening to music and going for a walk. Find your regimen and take care of yourself, and you'll show up stronger and better with those around you. Leaning in to the CHECK framework – Curiosity, Humility, Empathy, Courage and Karma – will help you face the challenges ahead. The views in this article are the author's.
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