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?
Can Your Culture Drive Your Digital Transformation?
By Danielle Hochstein, Ph.D. posted in Behavior, Leadership, Digital Transformation, Team Culture, Culture
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.
How to Motivate Remote Teams When They Are Tired
By ALULA posted in Behavior, Leadership, Team Building, Team Culture, Communicating with Teams, Working Remote, Leading Remote Teams, Work from Home, Managing Remotely
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.”
Give Yourself a Break: Self-Care in the Time of Pandemic
By ALULA posted in Behavior, Leadership, Team Building, Communicating with Teams, Working Remote, Leading Remote Teams, Work from Home, Managing Remotely
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.
Leading Through Uncertain Times
By ALULA posted in Behavior, Leadership, Change Management, Communicating with Teams, Leading Remote Teams, Managing Remotely
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.
How Leaders Develop Next-Generation Leaders: 5 Critical Capabilities (Part 1 of 3)
By ALULA posted in Behavior, Leadership
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.
How The Science Behind Behavior Helps Pharmaceutical Companies Exceed Sales Targets
By Danielle Hochstein, Ph.D. posted in Behavior, Pharmaceutical Sales
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.
Kick Your Culture of Innovation into High Gear: A Generational Approach
By ALULA posted in Behavior, Leadership, Multigenerational Workforce, Innovation
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.
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.
“Behavior” and its derivatives—such as “behavior change” and “behavior-based solution”—could be joining the race for buzzword status. If you’ve been looking for a behavior-based solution for your organization, or even on a personal level, you may already be familiar with the plethora of popular behavior-change books and articles, all of which include models from the various “experts.” More likely, you’re probably familiar with the inherent difficulty involved in actually creating sustainable behavior change.
How Important Are Generational Differences, Really?
By ALULA posted in Behavior, Leadership, Multigenerational Workforce
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)
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