In this week’s edition, we talk about leading with empathy, fast-paced career selection, and sales automation. Also, have a look at my book notes for The Dip, by Seth Godin , and how to master your finances with YNAB. Enjoy!
Leadership
HBR outlines how companies are automating their sales and customer journey strategies. Companies should roll out automation in an agile fashion while starting with an area of the business that is already stable and has good process design. The ROI of doing this properly includes improved customer experience, less human error, and better deployment of resources.
Another HBR article details the evolving discipline of managing people in a remote, post-pandemic world. Good managers cannot exceed by simply being a good coach anymore. Managers must lead with empathy and enlist themselves as part of their team’s support system and build trust. Gone are the days of managing tasks or time spent, which is challenging in a remote work environment. Coaching and results-orientation are important tools, yet empathy is becoming all the more vital when managing people today.
Lighthouse discusses how managers can better support their star employees and promote them faster. They discuss techniques ranging from getting star employees access to mentors that are relevant to their career aspirations, to ensuring to give praise regularly. Also, make sure you involve them in critical projects. Your stars should be front and center on the projects that are most important to you.
Miscellany
Salesforce is building a new business video content platform called Salesforce+. Many are unclear of the value this service would provide, yet some speculate this may evolve to a platform for housing third-party content while allowing those businesses to collect leads all within the same tool. These leads would ultimately funnel into Salesforce’s Marketing or Sales Clouds. Curious about the vision around this idea, yet I can see SFDC might be doing this to lean into the creator economy.
Nat Eliason describes how he’s field-tested a series of career ideas for himself. He’s tried YouTubing, Real Estate and coding, and outlined his decision criteria for how he decided to drop certain things and stick with others. His commentary is colorful and fun, while also very admirable in how he is willing to drop certain things that don’t seem authentic to him.