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Employee engagement is important all the time, but we are in a period where its importance has
become paramount. COVID-driven location dispersion, general anxiety, and employee dissatisfaction have made engagement even more challenging. 77% of US employees are currently reporting burnout and 52% of employees intend to look for a new job. In addition, nearly two-thirds of US-based employees that McKinsey surveyed said that COVID-19 has caused them to reflect on their purpose in life. And nearly half said that they are reconsidering the kind of work they do because of the pandemic.

Employee engagement has been top of mind for business leaders for years and has only grown in importance after a year of most workers operating remotely. The topic made headlines with the WeWork CEO’s controversial comments recently at the Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything Festival, stating that more engaged employees want to come back to the office. “Those who are least engaged are very comfortable working from home,” Sandeep Mathrani said. The debate about his comments shows how strongly many feel about the concept of engagement.

Years ago, we worked with an entrepreneur to help him prepare his company for an exit. He did all the right things: built and developed a talented team, grew his bench of successors, and partnered with us early to build a scalable sales and marketing competency that increased his valuation. He anticipated that it would take three years to complete a successful transaction. Instead, it was done in just 18 months.

We know that change is good, that's why we are expanding our change management support! Like you, we recognize how critical this is to the success of your organization's initiatives. In the companies we work with, the pace of change, employee fatigue, and the need for our support has grown over the last year. We are proud to announce that we are expanding:

I hope you have taken the time to recognize and reflect with pride on what you accomplished last year. The team you built showed resilience and grit in adapting to challenging circumstances. The hard news: your team members are now in danger of burnout. As leaders, it is our job to provide the structure and tools to help them prioritize and focus on the year ahead.

Mergers and acquisitions present challenges to even the most seasoned leadership teams. Executing a strong and organized communications plan—one that delivers the right messages to the right constituents at the right time—can help a merger or acquisition go smoothly and establish unity and profitability. Yet, despite the best laid plans, change management is hard and you’re sure to encounter challenges along the way.

Whether you’re a startup working through a product launch, or a large enterprise operating a small division, there will probably come a point where find yourself in the catch 22 of business growth: You need more accounts to fund a sales team, but you need more sales from your current team to get there. It’s through these growing pains that efficiency is paramount in your sales process. We’ve been helping companies overcome challenges like this for over 30 years, and we’ve got some tips to share from this experience.

Product Launch is Controlled Chaos

Whether you're a newby or a veteran of product launch planning, there's no denying the anticipation of opportunity and the stress of accomplishing all of the necessary tasks. As the launch date approaches, the flurry of activity increases, making it easy to overlook something or cut corners. Keeping track of who is responsible for what and when challenges even the most organized professionals. Many business leaders find it is in their best interest to seek external support to help organize and execute key activities.

Talk of a full-scale trade war between the US and China may sound dramatic, but the latest tariff applied to Chinese goods will have a major impact on the costs of materials coming to the US. The full list of affected goods, available here, includes fresh food and dry goods, consumer goods like hats and handbags, as well as a large list of manufacturing materials such as glass, aluminum, gold, electrical parts, and machinery.

Whether virtual or in person, we’re spending our work lives in meetings that aren’t working. Research shows that 67% of meetings are ‘failures’, and have lost their primary reason–getting things done.

Where have our meetings gone wrong? Over time, the amount of time spent in meetings and number of meetings held has increased significantly. Daily, upwards of 11 million meetings are held in American businesses, averaging a time frame of 31-60 minutes. These longer meetings have led to a 10% increase in the time employees spend in meetings since 2000.

Whether you’re choosing your first CRM or transitioning to a new one, it’s a big decision — one that will lead to even bigger impacts on your team. Training your team to use a CRM efficiently is as important as the data that will be kept in it. If they don’t know how to use it comfortably, the transition into a new CRM tool can be a difficult one.

Sometimes changing your brand demands real change internally. Your customer’s perception is reality, and a true brand can be seen and felt in every part of the organization.