American hero Booker T. Washington told the story of the freeing of the slaves by relating the other side of the coin: responsibility. If you plan to grow yourself or to empower others, it’s a lesson you must embrace. More on slavery and American history: Questions? Comments? Ideas for future episodes … or interview subjects? Email Mike and Mark.
AI and customers: Which way are you going to lean in?
They’re not happy about it Let’s say you are a car salesperson, and you are greeting a couple of prospective customers who first interacted with your website’s chatbot. The chatbot was good enough to get them to your lot. But they aren’t exactly happy about it. They knew they were playing a game with a computer. They wanted information, the …
Please argue with your customers
I have observed a lot of sales professionals over the years. There are three kinds: Those who wash out Those who just survive Those who truly thrive. If you want to know if you are dealing with a thriving sales professional, look to the long-term outcome. Some salespeople are charming, some are not. Hot spells and cold spells come and …
Fighting addictions (even to phones) with naming
The second half of a recent Fresh Air features Dr. Anna Lembke and her new book, “Dopamine Nation.” It’s about the brain’s reaction to pleasure and pain, and how that relates to addictions. She asks her patients struggling with addiction to practice “radical honesty.” And so one of the things I recommend to my patients in addition to, you know, …
Does your team need a scoreboard or a book club?
Here are two radically different approaches to employee engagement: If your culture revolves around “clocking hours, tight schedules and achieving deadlines,” maybe you need to “gamify your workplace.” Gamification turns work tasks into games where the employee gets real-time feedback (“scores”) that give them something to accomplish or improve against. If you play video games, think “achievement unlocked!” You’ve probably …
The Lion, the Witch and the Sales Trainer
Here’s another story. And it has everything to do with improving how we train the workforce to be better thinkers.