1.

Control Change – Whether it’s technology, competition, or the economy, it simply doesn’t matter. You know change is coming. So, stop allowing change to control you and start controlling change. To thrive in uncertainty, you need the tools to start predicting the changes coming — thus ensuring you and your team are one step ahead.

2.

Create A Culture of Succession – Embrace that you’re looking at a small window — five years max — until your older, top talent is walking out the door. Take a look at the talent you have in the pipeline. More importantly… the talent you need in the pipeline… and create a culture of succession now. 

3.

Solve The Right Problem – Personalizing the customer experience is about so much more than just knowing your customer’s name or knowing their buying habits. Personalization is about ensuring your customers feels heard, listened to, and valued. This means you need to upgrade your sales strategy, engage the tools to predict your customer’s needs, be one step ahead of their challenges, and outsell and outserve your competitors. 

4.

Build A Resilient Team – The statistics above tell the story, employees are not prepared, not ready and not built for the amount of change that’s coming their way. And their feeling of overwhelm  is negatively impacting results. As a leader, you need to upgrade your leadership approach and teach your team to be resilient, adaptive and strong in the face of change. 

5.

Reskill and Upskill – With AI and automation becoming now mainstream, like it or not, you need to get on board. AI is taking over repetitive, manual tasks. This means your current teams’ roles will need to be redesigned and rethought. You need to help your team make the transition – give them the skills to be more strategic, creative, and customer-facing. 

6.

Redesign The Customer Experience – Shifting technology and increasing customer demand will drive your need to rethink how you serve customers. Your ability to integrate their desire for technology fueled self-service with their need to have complex problems solved will be crucial. A deeper understanding of the desired customer experience will dictate the best technology to invest in and the ideal skill set and training for your employees. Think omni channel and seamless integration, and getting your team comfortable and efficient with the new process. 

BONUS: Turn Uncertainty To Competitive Advantage – Left unaddressed, uncertainty will produce one emotion in your team, customers, company: FEAR. That one emotion will shut down innovation, decrease engagement, and reduce your bottom-line results. You need a plan and you need a strategy — and luckily I have your proven formula.