daisy shah

  Given the number of hours we spend at work, an environment where people can express themselves freely and openly is a wonderful thing. When working under pressure – tight deadlines, long hours or multiple projects - even the slightest of issues, problems or something said can trigger emotions fuelling conflict. Conflicts can prove to be costly for your well-being and your business. It can cost you billions. Use it as an asset or let it eat into the productivity of your team. Studies show that around 25% of employees take sick leave to avoid conflict. And 10% believe that conflict is one of the reasons behind delayed projects. Things can’t always be as we want them, can they? Who wants to be a part of a conflict? But can it be avoided? Knowing the source of a conflict and what can trigger it is crucial for being able to handle it optimally. How does Psychological Safety help harness the positives in conflict? Can you imagine working in a place where you must cloak your o...

  When you went to school as a kid, one of the phrases you would have heard almost daily is “Work hard and you will be successful” or something similar. In many cultures and societies, from the early stages of life, we are taught to occupy our time with activity. Being idle goes against this very thought ingrained in us. Work: Does it spark joy? Marie Kondo’s ways of living took the world by storm a couple of years ago. According to her, you should only keep those things in your lives that spark joy, that make you truly happy. We can put this approach in the context of work too. In 2010, Christopher Hsee (Chicago Booth Professor), Adelle X. Yang (Antai School of Management), and Liangyan Wang (Shanghai Jiaotong University) published a research report titled ‘Idleness Aversion and the Need for Justifiable Busyness’. This report about some rather interesting experiments by the trio. In one of these, the participants had the choice to stay idle or to do something. They were told that ...

Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Ernest Hemingway once rightly said: "The way to make people trustworthy is to trust them" While Mr. Hemingway's original statement was in the context of a personal relationship, it very well applies in a professional setting too. Time and again, it has been proven that a higher job satisfaction rate leads to better performance. To achieve this, companies try to boost morale by giving out perks whenever possible. Of course, these measures are good for short-term workplace happiness, but they do not have any significant effect on long-term performance. Creating a workplace that feels safe is the only way to achieve sustainable optimal performance. A high-performing workforce relies on the belief in psychological safety. The knowledge that making and admitting to your mistakes won't result in criticism or other negative outcome leads to a more productive mindset. It reduces the fear of taking bold decisions and enables your creativity to ...

A study by researchers from Miller Heiman Group suggests that in today's market competition, growth strategies based on product innovations and low pricing are not sufficient for a lasting effect. Customer loyalty is what plays a role in higher customer retention rates. Using this study, they uncovered four key ways that helped leading organizations differentiate themselves through their customer experience strategy: Executives Walk the Talk: The senior executives in both leading and stagnant organizations believed customer loyalty is a key to success. However, there was a difference in how they backed up those beliefs. Leading organization's executives were willing to invest money resources twice that of stagnant organizations into their customer experience initiatives. Customer Experience Practices Translate Strategy Into Action: Neither does the knowledge of merely improving an organization's customer service experience work nor does the plan of providing ...

How can you move forward with prospects and customers who merely find your proposed solutions interesting but don’t see the need to move quickly? Miller Heiman Group research talks about that there is no such thing as an unimportant call or meeting. Every contact has to create value and move the customer forward toward closing the deal. Yet it’s unclear customers feel that way—almost a third (32.2%) of respondents to the 2018 Buyer Preferences Study reported mixed feelings about their discussions with sellers. With customer expectations higher than ever, every sales interaction has to be worth the buyer’s time as per the Miller Heiman Sales Training research study. As the study put it, “Some are useful and some are a waste of time.” You create a sense of urgency that incites them to act by incorporating these four customer experience best practices into your sales effectiveness framework. 1. Be a Value Driver Sellers must  create value  tha...