Audio versions of Serve to Lead, Reagan on Leadership, and Theodore Roosevelt on Leadership will be released for the Holiday Season 2013-14.
Archives For Customer Service
Customer Service subcategory of Service focuses on the shift to an outside-in model of 21st Century Management.
Who Pays for Your Customer Service Fail?
I’ve encountered this question several time in recent weeks. Large companies, supposedly serving me as their customer, made mistakes that went straight to their value proposition.
There’s no shame in a mistake–every organization and individual has plenty in store.
But there is a problem in what happened in these cases: the companies sought to shift the cost of their failure to the customer.
That second step is itself a mistake, much more troubling and consequential.
One of the biggest changes underway in our Digital Age is the extraordinary empowerment of the consumer. Serve to Lead examines this in full context, with implications beyond business, encompassing all aspects of service and leadership in all sectors.
Until recently, an inside-out approach was viewed as effective, accepted as inevitable.
Now, as reported in Outside In, it’s increasingly recognized that the direction of businesses’ orientation must be reversed in order to attain sustainable competitive advantage. Nonetheless, the inertia of organizational culture–indeed culture writ large–suggests that we’re in the midst of an extended transition.
Harley Manning and Kerry Bodine of Forrester Research have provided a manual to navigate that transition. It’s full of valuable information and insights for businesses. Many of their findings and prescriptions also have force for not-for-profit organizations and government agencies.
Today a final verdict on the Lance Armstrong doping scandal came down.
It was not issued by a court or other government body.
The verdict was announced by a company, Nike. And it will be accepted as the authoritative finding.
Lincoln’s Remarks Were Too Brief for TED.
Harvard Business Review features a provocative, useful article from Nilofer Merchant: “Traditional Strategy is Dead. Welcome to the #SocialEra.”
Is that a correct assessment?
Apple’s announcement, that it is closing Ping, is attracting much attention. In some of the reactions, one senses an aura of Schadenfreude, some unspoken yet tangible satisfaction that Apple did not prevail in this initiative.
In Positive Intelligence: Why Only 20% of Teams and Individuals Acheive Their True Potential, author Shirzad Chamine has produced a delightful, easy-to-read book for reflection and self-improvement. By its focus on the use of questions for self-transformation in serving others effectively in work and life, this volume is a natural accompaniment to Serve to Lead.
Serve to Lead is all about the new world of 21st century leadership.
There are a number of blogs that I admire and learn from. The best are presented below.
The list that follows includes entries focused on specific applications and competencies, as well as general leadership-related blogs. This is in keeping with the Serve to Lead approach of combining theory with practice, recognizing that both are required to achieve excellence.
Please comment and add your ideas for additional or alternative selections or categories. As is customary in the 21st century, this is offered as a living document, a work in progress.
–jms