Have you ever wondered why some of the most groundbreaking leaders seem to speak softly but impact loudly? Welcome to the world of introverted leadership—a realm where depth trumps volume, and reflection drives innovation.

Want to know the single biggest factor in creating an exceptional employee experience (EX)? Look no further than your leaders. As we wrap up 2024, the data is crystal clear: managers account for 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores across all business units. That's not just a number – it's a wake-up call for organizations wanting to boost retention and performance in 2025. 

2024 brought fresh perspectives on how to guide teams through complex challenges while keeping people at the heart of everything we do.

As we reflect on the defining business stories of 2024, one particular story stands out as a powerful reminder of the complexities inherent in global expansion.

This past summer brought us a compelling New York Times report about a leading chip manufacturer's challenges in Arizona - a story that continues to resonate because it touches on fundamental truths about leadership, culture, and organizational transformation.

It was only my first day at work, but I could already tell that my boss wasn’t happy to see me. 

I had been hired by an organization to help improve their leadership development (LD) programs. On my first day, I was asked to meet with a senior executive who would oversee my work. 

In an era of rapid change, the most dangerous phrase in business is, “We've always done it this way.”

Yet, many leaders struggle to adapt, stuck in outdated approaches. But what if you could break free from the status quo and lead your team into a brighter, more innovative future? 

Wasn’t AI supposed to make our working lives easier? 

A recent survey by Upwork Inc., one of the world’s biggest online freelance worker marketplaces, found that while 96% of C-Suite leaders said they expected AI to boost productivity, 77% of employees reported that AI had “added to their workload” and half said “they have no idea how to achieve the productivity gains their employers expect.” 

Unlock Your Mental Potential This National Train Your Brain Day 

We've all heard "use it or lose it" when it comes to physical fitness, but did you know your brain follows the same principle? Just as you train your muscles, you can train your brain.

The Billion-Dollar Question 

In today's fast-paced business environment, organizational resilience isn't just a buzzword—it's a key driver of success. Consider this: companies with high organizational resilience outperform their peers by an average of 30% in long-term shareholder returns. 

Ever feel like you're running on empty? Like you've given 110% to everything and everyone, but somehow, it's still not enough?

Welcome to the club, fellow leaders. We've all been there, and let's face it—burnout is a real B. 

"There isn't a playbook for every challenge," says Tom Frosina, Operations Leader at TD Bank. 

Tom knows that leadership isn't about following a script. Instead, effective leaders must be able to adapt, innovate, and empower their teams to succeed.

As a leader, your days are jam-packed —meetings, emails, putting out fires, rinse and repeat.  

It's enough to make your head spin. With all the demands on your time, it can be tempting to skip over those daily check-ins with your team. But trust us, that would be a costly mistake. 

What would happen if you applied some of the best and most modern practices for improving leadership performance in a sector that has traditionally shunned this kind of investment? 

That was the question being asked by executives at TD Bank’s Retail Card Services, who oversee the call centers through their Merchant Solutions and Customer Service operation. 

How well do you really know your team?

Beyond their job titles and performance metrics, what's the underlying story? The answer might surprise you. 

Hybrid work continues to impact employees’ preferences, but how does it impact their leaders? 

In 2021, the World Trend Index reported that 73% of employees wanted flexible remote work options. The latest insights from Gallup show the number dipping only slightly to 60% today. Remote-capable employees are getting what they want, as most are working in a hybrid or exclusively remote arrangement. But are leaders getting what they need to provide support and get results? 

When was the last time your team left a meeting feeling genuinely inspired?  

If you're struggling to remember, you're not alone. In a world of endless emails and back-to-back video calls, truly effective leadership communication has become a rare skill. It's not about how many words you say, but how deeply they resonate. It's about turning strategy into action, and hesitation into momentum. 

What does organizational change have to do with spaghetti? 

You remember the old spaghetti test. Throw a strand at the wall and if it sticks, it's done. Unfortunately, some leaders approach organizational change with the same haphazard method. 

Imagine a high-stakes business negotiation.

Your palms are sweaty, your mind racing. How you talk to yourself in that moment can dramatically impact the outcome. Research shows that the words we use internally can influence everything from decision-making to stress levels.

Leaders everywhere are talking about Employee Experience, and for good reason.

EX is perhaps the single most important thing an employer can do to improve engagement, productivity, and retention. 

It was a perfect storm that threatened a large company’s entire Employee Experience (EX).

A major player in the technology sector, this company was facing a restructuring triggered by an acquisition. From the moment the deal was announced, employees knew layoffs were likely. 

Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of giving an invited talk at the Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) Network Conference in Houston, TX. I knew it would be a great opportunity to engage with OBM professionals and researchers on a challenge that everyone shares right now: facing the inevitability of change, particularly career change.

Since our Pride Month series is all about prompting more open conversations about LGBTQIA+ allyship, I took the opportunity to interview my colleague Brian Cole about his allyship journey. Not only is Brian my colleague, but he is also my dad, so it was powerful to address how features of allyship show up across our shared work, home, and social spaces. Together, we talked about defining allyship, getting better at it, and responding to misconceptions about the LGBTQIA+ community. 

Can you still create a compelling employee experience (EX) when you don’t get to see your employees in person?

Welcome to the great EX-hybrid challenge. EX is the sum total of all the interactions employees have with people, processes, technologies, and their physical working environment. These are the elements necessary to promote engagement and productivity, and retention.  

EX is the sum total of all interactions employees have with people, processes, technologies, and their physical working environment.

Done properly, a mature and effective EX can boost engagement and productivity, as well as cut down on costly attrition. 

June is National Men's Health Month and a call to prioritize men's mental and physical well-being, the bedrock for success in all aspects of life. Leaders know that our health lays the foundation for our career achievements, team relationships, and overall resilience. However, one piece of men's health puzzle is often missing in our conversations. 

Every June, companies plaster rainbow flags across their logos in a show of LGBTQIA+ "allyship" for Pride Month. But true allyship isn't just a celebration - it's an ongoing commitment to supporting LGBTQIA+ individuals every day. 

During Pride Month, we celebrate the diversity, resilience, and authenticity of the LGBTQIA+ community. It's a time to uplift their voices, lived experiences, and the ongoing journey toward true equality and inclusion. As allies, our role is to listen, learn, and take meaningful action in supporting the LGBTQIA+ community year-round.  

It was an honor to explore the story of Nainoa Thompson here, and we’re thrilled you’re following our series on what today’s leaders and workers can learn from AA and NHPI people whose work demonstrates a profound commitment to behaviors with a lasting positive impact.  

We enjoyed exploring thestory of Shuji Nakamura here,and we’re grateful to you for reading our serieson what today’s leaders and workers can learn from AA and NHPI people whose work demonstrates a profound commitment to behaviors with a lasting positiveimpact.  

Welcome back to our series, begun here, on what today’s leaders and workers can learn from AA and NHPI people whose work demonstrates a profound commitment to behaviors with a lasting positive impact.  

In the US alone, 6.2 percent of the total population identify as AANHPI (Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander). Mayis dedicated to honoring people in the US with AANHPI heritage, so it’sa great timeto celebrate their voices and experiences – and to reflect on how wecan integrate their stories into our lives all year long, especially with our colleagues and teams. 

It’s been somewhat of an annual tradition for me to attend the Women in Leadership panel at the American Manufacturing Summit and share the highlights. This year’s panel discussion brought together five senior leaders: Joy Malinowski from Constellation Brands, Elena Bernado from Hello Fresh, Susanne Lauda from AGCO, Donna Deyo from Paccar, and Angela Reamer from Monin. They generously shared stories from their career journeys and the learnings that can support the path forward for women in the field.   

World Health Day, on April 7th, is a global call to action for prioritizing well-being. In our constantly connected world, self-care is no longer a luxury, it's a necessity. By making small, sustainable changes to your daily routines, you can significantly improve your physical and mental health. Here are three self-care shifts that can help you develop habits to support a more fulfilling life. 

Tired of managing a team that goes through the motions? You’re not alone. This year’s global trends confirm that leaders understand the value of human performance for enterprise strength as well as business success. How can you unlock the true potential of your team to create a powerhouse of innovation and engagement?

International Women’s Day (IWD)is kicking off with local and global celebrations dedicated to the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. This year’s theme is “Inspiring Inclusion,” and it gives us an opportunity to recognize how everyone everywhere can take steps to inspire inclusion.  

Recent globalincreases in employee engagementhave been music to the ears of hard-working, mindful leaders. But here’s the thing about a good thing – it merits vigilance. 

In today’s dynamic work environment, leaders who are good atprioritizingthe total well-being of the workforce also help to improve key business metrics associated with job satisfaction, employee retention, customer loyalty, teamwork, safety, accuracy, and—of course—profitability in the long term. 

Co-authored by Dee Conway and Alycia Diggs-Chavis 

Co-authored by:  Dee Conway and Alycia Diggs-Chavis 

Co-authored by Dee Conway and Alycia Diggs-Chavis 

Co-authored by Dee Conway and Alycia Diggs-Chavis 

The first month of 2024 is almost over, and leaders are already finding themselves feeling like a pinball at work: bouncing around between meetings, reports, and decisions without finding – or taking – opportunities to prioritize something that guarantees swift productivity and progress: performance coachingtheir people. 

In today’s workplace, it’s easy to wake up and find ourselvesin a funk. A short break, chat with a mentor, or bit of self-care usually does the trick! But what happens when an entire team gets in a funk? The solution is less clear, and the impact can strike a long-term blow to performance and engagement.  

Mark your calendars, because January 24 is National Compliment Day! Now before you run around tossing generic "you're awesome" comments, let's talk about effective compliments. Research shows that people feel uncomfortable receiving direct praise at work. So, this year, try complimenting what someone does instead of who they are.  

There’sa reason why behavior change is so difficult: life. At some point during the quarter, week, or day when you’rediligently making progress on a behavior change, you’re going to hit a wall. Life is going to get difficult. It’s going to derail your best laid plans and make it possible – even easy – to let go of the behavior change you were so eager to embracefor the long haul. 

Are you a leader tryingto create an environment where productivity and success can thrive? Do you want to help your team members adopt new ways of working that are positive, flexible, and fulfilling? Is it time to be more proactive aboutfostering a culture of growth, learning, and well-being in your organization? 

At ALULA, our love for animals isn't just a quirk—it's a shared bond that shapes our culture. Although we focus on the human side of business, our shared affection for furry, winged, speckled, or finnedfriendsis strong, and it creates a unique camaraderie. Given this common bond, we can’t pass up the opportunity to celebrate National Dress Up Your Pet Day this January 14!

Tip #6 asks you to be accountable for change success. How? 👇 

Tip #1 asks you to engage with change in the present. How? 👇 

Despite our best intentions, it’s widely known that over 75% of new year’s resolutions fail by the second week of February. 

While it’s hard enough to keep one’s own resolutions, advancing organizational change can be even more daunting. The very fundamentals of such work – securing effective sponsorship, supporting impacted employees, clearly articulating the finish line, etc. – are tricky to align and execute. 

Tip #2 asks you to understand the relationship between effort and outcome. How? 👇 

Tip #3 asks you to focus on generating and sustaining momentum. How? 👇 

Tip #4 asks you to learn about the direct impact of change. How? 👇 

Tip #5 asks you to make sure leaders can drive change the right way. How? 👇 

Recently I attended the Women in Leadership panel at the American Manufacturing Summit. The panel included senior leaders from Caterpillar, Cummins, The Boeing Company, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Philips, and Johnson & Johnson.The conversation focused on sharing personal experiences - both accomplishments and challenges - about being a woman and an executive in male-dominated industries.

Video discussion with John Dale, Global Energy Practice Lead and Delores (Dee) Conway, Senior Principal

Video discussion with John Dale, Global Energy Practice Lead and Alycia Diggs-Chavis, Executive and Team Coach

Video discussion with John Dale, Global Energy Practice Lead and Brian Cole, Ph.D., Senior Principal

If you checked out the first two posts in our series on leading decarbonization/net-zero work, then you’ve been ramping up your own influence skills and verifying how to assess change in your organization. Still, you know it will take a constellation of effort across teams to make and keep progress steady.

To maximize the value of moments spent with other leaders and colleagues, dedicate some time to planning out how you’ll approach them as stakeholders and prepare them to talk about, implement, and support change consistently. When you put objectives and challenges in your own words, and help others to do so too, everyone stays on the same page – especially when it’s time to problem-solve quickly.

This is a Video discussion with John Dale, Global Energy Practice Lead and Krystyna Riley, Strategic Accounts Leader

If you’re leading a decarbonization/net-zero initiative, then you’re utilizing influence skills all the time. So, how can you confirm whether your efforts are paying off? When an overall transformation is both unprecedented and long-term, and the teams involved are variable, it’s hard to know where to look for a sign that everyone’s on board.

Video discussion with John Dale, Global Energy Practice Lead and Kacie Linegar, Business Transformation Expert

When leading an organization through the interconnected changes that are crucial to decarbonization/net-zero, it’s common to face resistance, confusion, or distraction from your workforce. Still, you need to sustain a sense of urgency and high performance. 

To keep your teams on track, here’s something you can do immediately and professionally: influence your key stakeholders. Moreover, make a habit of influencing them in subtle, convincing, and genuine ways – ones that are authentically yours.

Imagine this scene: Fade into a senior leadership team meeting, in progress:

"Wait, wait, wait! Didn't we already decide that we were moving forward with the design?" asked Heather.

Stefano jumped in, "I thought we agreed on what we were going to do, but we still need to talk through how we're going to do it."

"I remember having a conversation about it but not making a decision," replied Nanda.

"What are you talking about?" quipped Millie.

Sadly, this type of exchange happens too often within leadership teams*.

Recently ALULA's own Danielle Hochstein (Geissler), Ph.D., participated in a leadership roundtable at the American Biomanufacturing Summit in San Francisco, CA. The discussion focused on how to elevate female leaders, especially in male-dominated industries. 

(Note to readers: We received a lot of valuable feedback on this post! People requested more detail on how to observe remote workers, so we expanded our previous post. Thank you for reading, and we hope the additions are helpful! )

How do I know people are doing the right things in the right way when they are working remotely?

I’m hearing this question a lot as remote and hybrid working have become the “new normal.” Operating virtually creates a genuine barrier, and we all know it. But it’s a barrier that skillful leaders can leap over.

In our series on preparing for return to office (RTO) and hybrid work arrangements, we have focused primarily on what organizations and leaders need to consider in making these arrangements successful. However, at the end of the day, the success of these transitions ultimately depends on how all employees—regardless of title or position—are able to be engaged, safe, productive, and successful.

While it’s clear how expectations, processes, and support structures—put in place by organizations and leaders—have a huge impact on how the change to a hybrid work environment happens, there is actually a lot each employee can do to prepare for the transition and own some of that success.

As we start thinking about a sustainable hybrid workforce model, it’s important to also consider how we’ll know that hybrid models get the benefits we need in terms of employee engagement and business results. That means leaders can’t forget to measure progress and impact.

“The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” -George Bernard Shaw

I’m sure we’ve all heard this quote before. But at no time did it ring truer to me than now. Before the pandemic, communication was routinely one of the biggest challenges of any transformation—or rather, the inconsistency, ineffectiveness, or complete absence of any given communication. But now we live in a time where ensuring timely, effective communication is concurrently easier (through technology) and more difficult (through remote work) than ever before.

On that backdrop we are now tasked with one of the trickiest transformations yet: the Return to Office (RTO). Whatever your model will look like—all virtual, hybrid, a mix depending on role—the transition will be difficult. What’s making it even more difficult is the fact that right now we can’t say for sure if the new ways of working will stick, or if once we’ve made the move, we’ll just have to return to virtual work in the near future.

In an ever-shifting hybrid workplace, diversity and inclusion may be even more relevant as new biases develop. One that we’ve already seen manifest is Proximity Bias, when leaders unintentionally favor those working in the office compared to those working remotely. But where does this show up, how does it affect business, and how can you put a stop to such biases?

If you’re a people leader, the past year hasn’t been easy. While the pandemic strained supply chains, changed consumer and customer needs, and put into question strategic growth plans, it also put a spotlight onto new employee needs around wellbeing and engagement. All of these topics have one thing in common: You, as a leader, are tasked with adapting to all these challenges and making the most of these changes. While many initially thought these shifts might be temporary, the reality has set in that they may be here to stay—and that more changes are on the horizon.

“Trust has to be earned and should only come after the passage of time.”                    –Arthur Ashe

Trust is fundamental in our daily interactions, but we don’t talk about it enough. We’re social animals, and the very foundations of society are built on trust. So it should be obvious why trust is critical to success in everything—including business.

According to The Trust Outlook[1], about 85% of people believe that a high-trust work environment helps them perform at their very best. Virtually all metrics improve when employees trust their employers and vice versa, and that is especially true in a hybrid working world.

When the pandemic forced us all to move into virtual work environments, there was one topic that immediately worried leaders and employees alike: How do we keep our company culture going strong? How can we ensure that we don’t lose the culture that keeps us all connected? While a valid question, for many it never truly was resolved. The demands of focusing on emergency response plans, moving the entire company to a virtual model, and dealing with supply chain issues—among many others—caused a focus on firefighting and surviving.

It’s approaching two years since the pandemic forcefully transformed our lives. For most of us, it was an abrupt transition from customary ways of working to a virtual work environment. There was no alternative – we had to figure it out and make it work.

Ultimately, we realized that working remotely fit many people pretty well, driving higher-than-expected engagement numbers and keeping productivity high after the initial shock.

Fast forward to today. We’re still dealing with the pandemic, but businesses are realizing that it’s time to redirect their organizations for positive growth. There is renewed hope that we will overcome this virus – or at least get better at living with it. The show must go on, and we can’t be in “emergency mode” forever.

As we push through the second half of 2021, many unknowns remain from a tumultuous 2020. We’re in uncharted territory, so it’s important to consider what leadership skills will be critical as teams sail this new course.

Your company’s culture: strategic asset and competitive advantage

Your company culture is what employees say and do every day, how they work together (or don’t), what leaders reinforce (or don’t), and all the habits, practices, processes, and customs of the workplace.

It wasn’t raining when Noah built the Ark. — Howard Ruff

When’s the right time to change the oil in your car? When’s the right time to buy insurance, or to improve your diet? The “right” time is before there is a need. Timing really is everything.

For organizations, when’s the right time to begin developing tomorrow’s leaders? In time-starved organizations, leadership is constantly faced with tradeoff and prioritization issues, but one thing that should be at the top of their priority list is developing tomorrow’s leaders, today.

Author: Jessica Miller

Kitchen tables, make-shift computer trays on car consoles, scribbling notes on the back of napkins… Working arrangements in 2020 looked a lot different due to the pandemic’s impact. We toughed it out one video call at a time, but all the while our mindset of what was “normal” was shifting and evolving, and so was the mindset of the global workforce. We truly are in a work-from-anywhere world now and like many of you, ALULA was curious about the impacts of that dramatic shift.

Recently I moderated the virtual Women in Leadership panel at the American Biomanufacturing Summit. This was my second time moderating this panel virtually, and I continue to be amazed by the richness of the conversation—despite being unable to meet face-to-face. The panel included senior female leaders of Acceleron, Genentech, Novartis, Roche, and Sobi, each having rich experiences to share.

Author: J.P. Martinez

The flames are mesmerizing, the noise overwhelming, and the sheer power is remarkable. These words do not come close to illustrating the brilliance of a rocket launched on its way into space. And while truly incredible, the awe-inspiring physical representation of achieving escape velocity in some ways distracts from the true accomplishment; consider what is necessary for a successful launch. All the people, all the parts, and all the conditions must line up together, in just the right way, at the right time.

With businesses continuing to work from anywhere, companies are more focused on efforts to ensure their people are engaged, no matter where they may be working. These days, many people seek employment with organizations that have environments and cultures that support their personal values. In the US, April is National Volunteer Month, so there’s no time like the present to start thinking about how and why you should support volunteering efforts in your company.

Why is it that most organizational change initiatives tend to fall into one of the following categories:

• It is slow to launch
• Are recycled from previous efforts that did not achieve intended outcomes
• Never realize their full potential

Before you can drive positive engagement behaviors, it's critical to understand what those look like for your teams. As companies forge ahead with new work environments, new communication tools and new technologies, it's more important than ever for everyone in the organization to have clarity.

What 'good' looks like may be different depending on what part of the organization you are engaging. So if working with accounting the desired behavior may look different than working with customer service.

Having clear definition, consistency and reinforcement is an important step for leaders to further positive engagement in an organization.

In this video ALULA's Danielle Geissler, Ph.D., provides steps leaders can take to help drive positive engagement behaviors throughout the organization.

Being successful in complex and chaotic times takes a leader who understands it's the environment created that is the driving force. One of the most challenging parts of this crisis is that there is no perfect plan to help guide and reenergize an organization.

However, leaders who remain focused on their teams and finding the right balance between engagement and results will be best positioned to be successful.

In the following video, ALULA's Danielle Geissler, Ph.D., suggests important steps for leaders to take in order to engage their teams, while still driving success for the organization.

Lately it feels like every time you ask someone "how are you doing?" we are all waiting for the perfunctory answer of "I'm fine" or "I'm doing ok". In reality we all know that the last year has had a negative impact on many of our work experiences and our daily lives. 

When the pandemic started, many organizations and teams quickly pivoted to new work environments, new ways of engaging, embraced new technology and dealt with a whole new set of challenges. While these changes were quick to be embraced, the uncertainty of how or when they may or may not change are taking a toll.

As leaders it's important for you to identify symptoms of Uncertainty Fatigue and bring about ways to help employees manage through it.

ALULA's Danielle Geissler, Ph.D., provides insights for leaders to assist employees in combating Uncertainty Fatigue while encouraging critical engagement behaviors.

ALULA interviewed four women leaders who provided their unique perspectives into the past, present, and future of women in the workplace and some positive outcomes the pandemic has provided.

While we all see light at the end of this pandemic tunnel, one thing that will not end anytime soon is managing and engaging a remote work force.

We’ve come a long way, ladies! We haven’t quite reached the end of our journey to close the gender gap or achieve broader inclusivity overall, but we have made—and are still making—progress.

The phrase transition plans, change in control, new leaders at the top, assimilation, and onboarding have dominated the media since January, as changes in governments’, corporations’ and other organizations’ leadership occurred.

In 2020, Carmen Klein, VP Organizational Effectiveness and Systems (HR) at Cadillac Fairview graciously shared her thoughts and experiences using ALULA's Performance Coaching and Feedback as an enabler for their OneCF Culture. 

Cadillac Fairview is one of the largest owners, operators, and developers of best-in-class office, retail, and mixed-use properties in North America, valued at over $32B. Their real estate portfolio also includes investments in retail, mixed-use, and industrial real estate in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico.

Cadillac Fairview’s employee engagement ranks in the Global Top 25% Most Engaged Companies. The firm has received accolades for their OneCF Culture, including Waterstone Canada’s Most Admired Cultures and Achievers Most Engaged Workplaces in North America.

The company’s journey to make its people and culture a competitive advantage began years ago, when company CEO John Sullivan made this observation: “Cadillac Fairview’s success is partly defined by the results we achieve (EBIT, returns, growth). But our success also is defined by how employees achieve those results, and the mindset and behavior of every employee. Behavioral leadership is key.”

A new year brings the opportunity to apply learnings from the previous year and plan for areas where you want to improve. One thing I’ve seen over my years of coaching are leaders who go through their days bouncing from place-to-place and task-to-task, at the end of the day, feel as though they’ve not accomplished any of the work they planned.

Leaders have long been encouraged to empower and engage the people around them. But usually it’s talked about as a one-way approach – the leader as the provider and the employee as the recipient. What if there was a reciprocal strategy on the part of the employee to further capitalize on the empowering approach the leader provides? In other words, what’s the analogous work-smarter-not-harder response for the employee in this situation?

Tamika was recently promoted into a role where she became responsible for multiple teams. She had been working with her team leaders to create a vision and plan aligned with the organization’s strategy and plan. It was time to share it with the employees in her department.

Leadership is all about helping others to excel. As a leader, how do you achieve that?

In 1982, W. Edwards Deming published his 14 Points of Management and described what he called the System of Profound Knowledge. His ideas and writings continue to revolutionize manufacturing and organizational excellence by influencing innovators, thought leaders, and organizational teams throughout the world.

Recently I had the pleasure of co-chairing the 5^th Annual Advancing Women’s Leadership Skills and Opportunities in Pharma and Healthcare - East.  The three-day event was filled to the brim with great speakers, learning opportunities, and activities—like dancing! I loved the energy of the event, and the passion of both the speakers and the very engaged audience, despite it being a virtual event.

“How do I know my remote team is just as productive as when I was able to see them in the office?”

“How do I know they are doing the right things in the right way? Are there metrics I can use?”

“How can I be sure my remote employees are fully engaged, even though I’m not around?”

I’m hearing these questions a lot as remote work has become the “new way of work.” As a leader, what can you do? Do you use keystroke counters and always-on cameras to see them—because you can’t fully trust them? Or, maybe you should “trust but verify?” Or, “trust and hope for the best?”

Virtual conferences, in some form, are here to stay. And they come with unique challenges and benefits. With that in mind, ALULA developed a checklist of how best to prepare for—and engage in—virtual conference activities. These will ensure you get the most out of the experience—and hopefully you avoid some common pitfalls that may occur with this new way of engaging in virtual events.

Culture can make or break your digital strategy. At ALULA, we define culture as patterns of behavior that have been either reinforced or discouraged by people, systems, and processes over time. No two cultures are the same, and an organization’s digital culture can be best defined by the people within it.

The cost of a failed transformation to a company can be astronomical.  Not just in invested resources, but in man hours and opportunities lost. Why then do so many company transformations fail?

Danielle Geissler, Ph.D., shares two of the most important things that can make or break your transformation.

In this two-minute video learn what can most often get in your way, as well as why leaders are in the best position to create and sustain an environment for successful transformation.

The advent and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting need for many people to work remotely has accelerated the use of new, fast and frequently changing digital technology to solve business problems. Whether it has been the use of ever advancing technology like ZOOM^SM or Microsoft® TEAMS or the fast-tracking of more complex technological processes like Telehealth, businesses are radically re-thinking how they are using technology, people and processes to survive and thrive in the current economy.

Recently I had the pleasure of moderating the first-ever virtual Women in Leadership panel at the American Biomanufacturing Summit. The panel consisted of senior female leaders of Allakos Inc, Amgen, bluebird bio, Roche, and Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc. Each of them brought a different and rich set of experiences and knowledge to the virtual table.

When I coach leaders, I often discuss how to keep people motivated. But COVID-19 has added a twist: “How can I motivate my teams—both in-office and remotely?” How do you keep people motivated when you’re not in the same building?

Much has been written about life during COVID, including the endless Zoom conferences, challenges with work/life balance and homeschooling, and the unusual work-from-home situation that forced family members to spend more time than usual together. On the work front, people describe how working from home has muddied the waters on roles and responsibilities. Communication and decision-making have become much more complicated.

A client recently asked: How do I lead my team effectively when we’re never in the same space, and many things can’t be done the way we used to do them? How do I consider each team member’s personal challenges, while still creating an environment for high performance? What does high performance even mean right now?

With COVID-19 restrictions and work-from-home orders lifting, executives are working toward shared workplace reentry. Some organizations are planning a phased return to the workplace, starting with senior leadership. Others are focused on critical functions, like R&D. Still others feel it’s a bad idea to shift people who can work from home back to the office before a vaccine is in place.

While organizations are diligently addressing systemic and process requirements, leaders are thinking about how they will lead to achieve a smooth transition.

There is a time-tested military leadership best practice that is known by the mantra; “Officers eat last.” It is reflected in what Simon Sinek described as a “circle of safety” that exists in high performing organizations so that all members will feel safe and secure and able to focus on battling external challenges and “seizing big opportunities” as a team, rather than worrying about internal conflicts and threats. That safety net is established by supportive leaders; those who put their people first and who will make personal sacrifices for the good of their teams.

Leaders planning the return to workplaces for employees who have been required to work from home (WFH) because of the COVID-19 pandemic, are finding they will need multiple working arrangements to keep their businesses thriving.
Whether returning to the office all at once, in staggered shifts, using split schedules, or maintaining WFH for some or all, leaders will need to be flexible and adapt their behaviors and management skills to deal with the fusion of the unique cultures attributed to each of these ways of working. Complicating the situation further are the still-to-be-determined cultural norms for how to behave in a socially distanced work-world.

You athletes will probably laugh at this but humor me – there is a point – and it’s a true story!

When I was in basic training I was not much of a runner.  We were doing our final test - a seven-mile run, and I was struggling at about the 5-mile mark when my instructor came up beside me and said something to me that I have never forgotten.  He said; “I can see that you are getting tired and you have quite a ways to go”  Then he said, “Don’t think about the end; instead just keep putting one foot in front of the other one.” 

In this time of pandemic, we are intensely caring for our families, our clients, our company, and our careers—and in some cases even schooling our children at home, or caring for loved ones and neighbors. We are giving 110% to everything at once. Many of us have become adept at this, working virtually, leading meetings remotely, hurtling forward day-after-day.

But too often we are not caring for ourselves. Though we are strong, leading the way daily, our minds and bodies need breaks too.

ALULA has worked as a virtual company for years, so we’ve learned a lot about staying healthy in “the virtual life”—physically, mentally, and emotionally. Here’s some advice, especially for those who may not be accustomed to working from home.

When a crisis hits, many companies turn their attention outwards. Understandably, business leaders spend time crafting external messages and planning for ongoing communication to clients, partners, and other external stakeholders. Equally important, business leaders need to craft plans for nurturing and strengthening internal relationships through ongoing communications. 

In these uncertain times, your team members will have deep-seated concerns about their health, their families, and job security. It is critical that you recognize the value they bring to the continuity of your operations and to your organization’s culture. How you relate to your team during this worldwide pandemic will have lasting consequences.

It is critical to maintain solid relationships that demonstrate trust and respect, inspire, show empathy, and create positive accountability. Your primary role as a leader in these times is to ensure that people continue to feel valued, heard, and connected.

We are facing times of true uncertainty, and that means leaders, their organizations, and the people within them are faced with enormous challenges. Most people have a hard time dealing with unknowns, and this can be exacerbated by a relative lack of information, or, as is the case in the current situation, an abundance of information that causes fear and concern. People have questions, and leaders find they don’t have all the answers. As more information becomes available, leaders must realize that their decisions are now much more than just business decisions. What leaders say and do next can ultimately have significant implications for their people and affect individual lives and careers.

Personal Reflection: Caring for Family and Colleagues

These personal reflections are from Danielle Geissler, Ph.D. A trusted advisor and coach to many senior executives in the U.S. and abroad, Danielle boards planes, trains, and secures ride services on a daily basis to better help executives create positive, productive, and engaged workplaces. She resides at—what is today—the epicenter of the U.S. COVID-19 outbreak. These are a few of her insights.

Here you are: tasked to design and implement a foolproof strategy that will elevate your organization to the next level. It’s likely that you’ll build your strategy around some variation of the following goals:

There’s a lot of discussion about Gen Z and the impact they will have on the workforce. The Wall Street Journal reports that they seek financial stability and are industrious. Inc. Magazine tells us they are culturally diverse and risk averse. Forbes says that they want to be judged on their own merit and they want to work with autonomy.

In every work environment you’ll hear talk of teams.  Teams are formed deliberately and carefully to achieve the objectives and goals of an organization.

Many of us are part of multiple teams—a core team, plus at least one cross-functional team. In our work with many Fortune 100 companies, we know that the best teams all possess the same secret for success: a leader who knows how to create and lead a high-performing team.  

My colleague, Kim Huggins, presented on “creating and leading high-performing teams,” and joined a panel on inclusivity and relationship-building as a leader. As I listened to the speakers, I thought: these topics are relevant for any leader, regardless of gender or seniority.

Audits tell us whether employees are following safety procedures, right? Not necessarily.

Audits don’t always tell the whole story. I’ve seen cases where well-trained employees looked good on the audit yet had a troubling number of incidents on the job.

I’ve seen situations where companies have an admirable history of safety practice yet still experience fatalities—and in one case, two-thirds of the deaths occurred in high-risk areas.

How is this happening when their audits looked so good?

It’s not easy getting the most from your sales teams. Organizations are getting better at developing and supporting sales reps to drive sales results. But they still often struggle with the fact that each project, each team and each sales process is different, and therefore requires a fresh look at how to shape the environment to best support the sales reps.

Having a laser focus on patient needs is table stakes in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector. Organizations must continually measure and improve their processes for keeping a patient and their community of family and friends informed regarding the patient’s well being. Equally important is giving the patient a voice in their care, including choices about medical options and sharing in decision-making about recovery. 

We at ALULA were recently speaking about patient centricity with a Senior Executive of Patient Advocacy at a major biotechnology company. Here is what we learned.

Companies are eager and ready to invest in digital transformation strategies, but are they achieving results? The numbers so far indicate that the answer may be a resounding “no.”

Several studies report that up to 80% of transformation efforts fail to achieve their intended goals.  Another study polled senior executives and found that 50% feel their company is not successfully executing digital strategies.  What’s causing this?

ALULA recently had the opportunity to participate at The POWER of Professional Women conference in Philadelphia, PA. During the conference we had the opportunity to engage with Millennial panelists, active in the workforce, to find out why they change jobs and what companies can do to retain them. Research shows that 21% of Millennials changed jobs in the past year, and 60% say they are open to new job opportunities.

By 2022, worldwide investments in the digital transformation of business practices, products, and services are expected to reach nearly $2 trillion (Source: International Data Corporation (IDC)). However, research by Forrester indicates only 27% of businesses have a coherent digital transformation strategy in place for creating customer value. Furthermore, in a recent survey conducted by Wipro Digital, out of 400 US companies with an articulated digital transformation strategy, 50% of their executives felt their company was not successfully implementing those strategies.

How to love. How to live. How to fix anything. How to lose weight. How to stop worrying. How to train your dog, bird, cat or dragon. How to manage projects. How to manage time. How to set goals. How to influence people. How to negotiate anything with anybody. How to survive the zombie apocalypse.

We live in a "how-to” world. A quick search of “how to” in Amazon.com yields over 800,000 books and videos with the phrase in the title. The popular For Dummies series has over 2,500 titles and the Idiot’s Guide series has nearly as many. And take a look at your local newsstand and you’ll see covers littered with articles telling you the 5 things you must know, the 3 insider secrets that will guarantee success, or the 7 steps to improved performance.

A marketing exec friend of mine gave me a call the other day to catch up. After swapping stories about families and our current work, he finally asked after years of knowing me, “What exactly is change management anyway?”

The other day I was explaining the results of a change readiness assessment to an executive and shared a piece of news he found disturbing. He believed that everyone wanted the change that he was leading because when he spoke with others in the organization about it, they all told him it was a great idea.

Emperor . . . you have no clothes, I explained.

Pharmaceutical companies have been talking about patient-centricity for years.
Yet, many pharma companies find it challenging to make patient-first thinking a pervasive trait throughout their organization. 

In its simplest terms, creating a patient-centric culture is about being authentic and open in communicating to patients, taking care to understand their needs, and giving them a voice in the management of their care. Patient-centricity simply requires putting the patient first or being empathetic to their story. 

Are you searching for ways to get better results from your sales team? Here’s a chance to look back at some of the top articles and tips from 2018. As we shift into the new year, you’ll have a valuable perspective on how to get the most out of your sales team.

The health care industry has made strides to involve the patient across the entire value chain, from research and development to differentiating the needs of patients, to ensuring efficient ways for access to medication.

There is a movement towards patient-centricity, typically defined as more than just feeling empathy and a connection to patients. More and more, patient-centricity is about creating the intersection between a positive patient outcome and a business benefit.

Pharma sales teams can leverage and form this value-based intersection of patient outcome and business benefit by creating a patient-centric approach in their daily work. If you can increase the pharma sales team effectiveness in creating a patient-centric culture, it likely equates to more sales, more lives saved, and a greater impact on the community. 

Digital transformation is top of mind for many organizations, large and small, these days. However, knowing exactly what digital transformation means to a company and its leaders can be fuzzy at times. The complexity of the needed transformation can be daunting, and the path to realization of a digital transformation strategy can be filled with false starts and resistance.

Coaching is an investment and should be a positive experience for your pharma reps, where they learn what they do well and discover where they can improve.

Below are three proven coaching actions used by effective pharma sales managers to help their teams reach business goals.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are at the core of pharmaceutical sales. They are simultaneously the output and driver of sales representative behaviors.

Sales representatives use performance indicators to evaluate their relationship management and district sales strategies, ensuring they get the best results. Regional directors use them to identify training and development opportunities in sales reps, revise targets, clarify their own vision and direction, or find new or different ways to motivate performance. National directors use them to make strategic hiring and market development decisions, coach regional directors, and remove barriers.

But while pharma sales KPIs are valuable to all members of your organization, many companies fail to use these metrics to their full potential. Learn how the following three steps can ensure you’re aligning with KPI best practices and maximizing performance improvement.  

Is your pharmaceutical sales team motivated? If you are like most sales leaders, you look to KPIs to find out. And that’s a good start – after all, making your sales targets at least indicates that you are putting in the work to be successful. Or, a nice bonus might be the motivator to continue hitting sales targets.

However, we tend to overlook the fact that sales environments are high-pressure, punishing environments to work in, especially when it comes to pharmaceutical sales. Salespeople often face barriers that are out of their control, and failures can stack up quickly.

So, how do you get your sales teams to deliver consistently, stay motivated, and think outside of the box to generate new opportunities?

"Let me give you some feedback."

In Part 1, we showed how your current leaders are an essential asset in filling your leadership pipeline. We also introduced the Five Critical Capabilities needed by current leaders to develop upcoming leaders. In Part 2, using a real case study, we took a deeper dive into those Five Critical Capabilities: strategic talent mindset, talent identification skill, creating development opportunities, coaching skills, and interpersonal awareness.

Here, in Part 3, we discuss how to ensure the health and strength of your pipeline, by answering three questions:

1. What is the status of your leadership pipeline?
2. Is senior leadership aligned and bought in?
3. Are key organizational levers aligned to create a culture that accelerates leadership development?

From our quarter-century experience in consulting with HR executives to help their leaders, here are the important things to consider in each question.

In Part 1 of our series, we explained that your company’s long-term strategic advantage relies on current leaders to develop future leadership talent. We identified Five Critical Capabilities that leaders must demonstrate: strategic talent mindset, talent identification skills, creating development opportunities, coaching skills, and interpersonal awareness.

Here, in Part 2, we present the remarkable story of how one HR executive leveraged those five talent-development capabilities with leaders to expand their severely restricted leadership pipeline.

Your company’s long-term strategic advantage relies on strong leadership to align people, execute strategy, clearly define the culture, and engage all employees. But as Baby Boomer leaders rapidly retire, most of their collective leadership experience — often 30 to 40 years’ worth — is out the door.

It’s not easy being a Regional Director in a pharmaceutical sales organization. There is a lot of pressure that comes along with the role.

After all, regional directors (RDs) are frequently being pulled in different directions, trying to satisfy corporate initiatives while also catering to the unique demands of their own districts. They are initiators as well as implementers, expected to translate strategy into its most tangible form in the field. Often this leads to an unfortunate series of misalignments, miscommunications, and misdirection.

So what then can be done to ensure strong and consistent regional director performance in pharmaceutical sales?

Pharmaceutical sales organizations are extremely diverse and have multiple generations represented in them – from baby boomers (born 1946-1964) to Generation X (born 1965-1980) to millennials (born 1981-2000). There are big differences between the generations, including different expectations and preferences when it comes to how they communicate, how they want to be managed, what they are looking for in a job, and how they approach their work. There are also things that the generations have in common. 

As a leader, it’s important to be able to flex your style to meet the needs and expectations of all of your employees. 

One of the questions you should ask is: How can I tailor my approach according to generational preferences and help meet individuals’ expectations to ensure an aligned, engaged and productive pharmaceutical sales team.

Try the following four strategies to harness the power of a multigenerational workforce.

The start of a new quarter and a new year typically generates a search for innovative ideas that can increase pharmaceutical sales growth and performance, especially if numbers have been lagging.

So, where do you look for the best ideas? Behavioral science may not be on your radar just yet, but it should be. Managing pharmaceutical sales performance by recognizing the science behind the behaviors visible in your organization can be just the differentiator that improves performance and creates lasting change.

Instead of following trends this quarter, why not implement these proven, evidence-based principles from applied behavioral science?

Change leadership is critical to your pharmaceutical sales results because of the acceleration of change in today’s pharmaceutical sales organizations. Change has evolved over the years from leaders just managing the change to leaders needing a full set of change skills and capabilities.

Change is no longer an event; it is a constant for organizations, and pharmaceutical sales representatives are looking to their leaders to help them navigate the flurry of change and to understand how to harness it to produce profitable performance.

In today’s environment, companies are heavily engaged with multiple, constant, concurrent and rapid changes impacting their pharmaceutical sales force.

When we think about achieving lasting behavior change in pharmaceutical sales organizations, we tend to mean change in the behavior of the consumers.

For example, how can we get consumers to develop sustainable habits around taking medication? How do we make interacting with web portals easier and more user-friendly

What many companies have not yet realized is that there is a different group that warrants the same kind of purposeful attention around behavior change – your pharmaceutical sales team.

While some pharma sales organizations are already taking advantage of behavioral levers today, there is still plenty of opportunity for growth in leveraging behavioral science to drive pharmaceutical sales team performance.

Pharma organizations can take a cue from other industries, which have realized the power of the behavioral science for their own sales forces.

Pharmaceutical sales leaders who are known to get results know there are critical leadership behaviors that¬¬ improve their ability to excel in their role. These leaders understand that strong sales performance is correlated with sales leaders engaging with their organization and the teams they lead in the right way at the right time.

Here are five critical leadership behaviors exhibited by successful pharmaceutical sales leaders.

Your goal is to be on the same page – to achieve and sustain true business alignment. However, it’s common for pharmaceutical sales organizations to roll out strategic and thoughtful initiatives that get off course soon after they are launched. Without team alignment, you’ll immediately start to see frustration and conflict between sales teams that need each other, and flatlined results for your organization.

Establishing high-performing pharmaceutical sales organizations takes time.

But, there are several things you can do today to ensure change does happen reliably and sustainably. It all starts with an open mind towards new ideas and the willingness to consistently apply best practices across your pharmaceutical sales organization.

Many companies boast about their cultures of innovation. They incorporate creativity and openness into their mission or values statements. They reward employees for new insights and ideas. They hire and promote for innovation. Yet despite such measures, they find that their teams remain stubbornly locked in place, struggling to generate new ideas and to execute even minor change initiatives.

Is your company stormproof?

The storm I’m talking about isn’t a tornado or hurricane, but rather a “perfect storm” in the battle for talent. A tightening labor market combined with baby boomer retirements is adding up to significant talent gaps at many companies. Younger workers are often not ready to take over in leadership positions. Meanwhile, they are becoming frustrated with perceived shortfalls in the leadership development opportunities available at many companies.

Have you heard about Adobe’s Kickbox? It’s a little red box filled with materials that take employees through a six-step, self-guided innovation process. Employees who have a new idea they want to pursue take a workshop and then proceed through the stages of innovation on their own. Each box contains a credit card with $1000 in seed money.

By: Brian Cole, Senior Principal; Krystyna Riley, Senior Principal

A high-performing Turnaround Steering Team is your key to better planning and execution.

Turnarounds are a complex, challenging, and expensive part of capital intensive industries (e.g., refining, mining, power generation). Successful turnarounds require significant collaboration and alignment between operations, maintenance, and engineering to ensure best-in-class performance.

You’ve heard it a thousand times. How athletes use positive self-talk to eliminate pre-game jitters and improve their performance on the field.

What if we told you that self-talk is a powerful tool in business too? By modifying one simple habit you can flip a switch in your brain and improve the quality of your decision-making and subsequent on-the-job performance.

Skeptical?  Stay with us on this one.  Researchers across disciplines are discovering new insights on what many consider conventional wisdom: how we talk to ourselves can truly make a difference in how we behave.

Late scope jeopardizes turnaround schedules, adds additional costs, and increases safety risks. Here's what you can do about it.

Even the best-planned turnarounds experience some late scope; discovery work, compliance work, and last minute process optimization opportunities are par for the course.  In highly disciplines companies it’s common to anticipate late-scope of up to 7%, which is often seen as a best in class industry benchmark.

By: Brian Cole, Senior Principal; Krystyna Riley, Senior Principal

The effective, efficient, and safe performance of contractors is critical to superior turnaround performance; their performance can often make or break the cost and duration of your turnaround. Like most of our clients, you probably train and orient your contractors—before a turnaround begins—in your company’s policies, safety procedures, work rules, quality standards, and culture. While this initial training is vital for getting off to a good start, our experience has been that the oversight and monitoring during the turnaround is even more important for ensuring top performance.

Nationally known voice on generational differences in the workplace Kim Huggins, was recently interviewed by Generis (an organizer of business summits including the American Manufacturing Summit) on the topic of Leading A Multi Generational Workforce in Manufacturing.

By: Brian Cole, Senior Principal; Krystyna Riley, Senior Principal

For each turnaround, you probably form a “turnaround team” for planning, scheduling, execution, and look-back. This team typically includes various organizational functions, meets often, and is responsible for the turnaround’s success.

Most turnaround work occurs during the execution phase—but key activities performed during the shutdown, cleanup, and startup phases (SCS) can make or break a turnaround’s success.

These portions of the turnaround should require a fraction of the time to complete, compared to total turnaround time. But poor planning and execution of blind lists, procedures, permits, or chemical cleaning work scope quickly lead to longer durations and higher cost.

We’re all too familiar with the shift in buzzwords and industry jargon over time. Words such as “customer-centric” “big data,” and “innovative” are sure to grab our attention today, whereas “paradigm shift,” “synergy,” and “bandwidth” were hot terms in the past.

Companies pay millions each year to researchers and consultants to help them understand employees in various generational cohorts. Yet some observers have begun to ask whether companies are going too far, and whether generational divisions are overblown, if they exist at all (see New York Times article Oh, to Be Young, Millennial, and So Wanted by Marketers)