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Why It’s Time to Develop Your Personal Brand with Emily Hyde, Advocate

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In this conversation, I talked with Emily Hyde, Sales Vice President for Advocate about Why It’s Time To Develop Your Personal Brand. This is such an important topic because in my observation many women focus on doing good work but do not spend enough time developing their personal brand and public persona.

We started by talking about what it means to develop a personal brand. From there, Emily shared her thoughts about:

Why you should care about building your personal brand.

How to build an identity and brand that draws people to you and creates reach.

Tips for making your personal brand stand out.

How to connect people to your cause or a vision that you believe in.

Why it is dangerous to leave your career and success in the hands of other people.

Enjoy the interview!

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About Emily

She is Sales Vice President for Advocate. Unlike many salespeople, Emily will show you exactly what you have, what to do with it, and how to do it. She genuinely enjoys learning and sharing new and innovative ways to close the technology gap, and is a natural connector. Her fusion of market knowledge and conversational demeanor enables her to connect with clients and peers at a friendly and familiar level. Emily gives back to the technology community in a serious way, supporting several non-profits in the Atlanta community while also serving the President of Atlanta Technology Professionals (ATP).

Connect on LinkedIn

Thanks to our Sponsors

This podcast is presented by our Elite Sponsor, Microsoft. Corporate Vice President and Channel Chief Gavriella Schuster, along with other female leaders in the company, are driving for change, trying to bring more women into the technology industry. Gavriella and Microsoft are committed to giving “young women better role models and a stronger voice to all women.” You can hear more from Gavriella and other Microsoft leaders, on the Microsoft Partner Network podcast. Or visit partner.microsoft.com 

Thanks to our Media Sponsor.  Women Sales Pros has a vision for more women in B2B sales and sales leadership roles where there are currently male-majority sales teams. We help educate companies on how to do this, and we champion women on what a professional sales career can be. We also showcase the very top women sales experts who are speakers, authors, consultants, trainers, and coaches. People can sign up to get updates HERE and follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @WomenSalesPros

Stop Selling & Start Leading with Jim Kouzes, Barry Posner and Deb Calvert

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Much has changed in the world of sales, and perhaps nothing has done more to affect sales effectiveness than changed buyer behavior and expectations. Stop Selling & Start Leading, a new book from authors Jim Kouzes, Barry Posner and Deb Calvert, combine proven buyer research with time-tested leadership strategies to help salespeople make extraordinary sales.

You might be thinking that there are thousands of books on sales and selling, so how is this book different? Good question. The answer is that unlike so many sales books that are based on either theory or focused on the tactics related to specific elements of selling (think prospecting), Stop Selling & Start Leading is a buyer-based behavioral blueprint of actionable steps that sellers can take to be far more successful throughout the entire sales process.

As you’ll learn from the buyer research we discuss during the interview (embedded below), buyers have no interest in working with sellers who continue to pitch product features and insist on doing demos. Faced with increasing challenges to help their organizations remain relevant, competitive and innovative, buyers want to work with salespeople who can lead them to the right solution to their biggest problems.

When sellers stop pushing people to buy before they’re ready, and they start guiding buyers by transforming “values into actions, visions into realities, obstacles into innovations, separateness into solidarity and risks into rewards”, everybody wins.

As the title suggests, Stop Selling & Start Leading is a book about sales but it is also a book about leadership, which the authors say is not a “formal” position and is accessible to anyone. In the interview, you’ll hear why leading is so important in how we sell today.

As the authors conducted the buyer research for the book, they identified 5 preferences that confirmed that sellers would be far more successful if they dropped traditional selling behaviors (think stereotypical pushy, aggressive, pitchy, focused on themselves) and replaced those behaviors with the behaviors of top leaders. Learn what those preferences are.

Buyers were asked to name the one characteristic they felt was overwhelmingly lacking in sellers. In the interview, Deb talked about two of them. One of them was brought up frequently, and though it may be more well known to sellers, it continues to be a problem none the less. Buyers, frankly, are fed up with sellers who do not follow up or follow through on their commitments. This lack of follow-through leads to the inability to build the kind of trusting relationship necessary for success when selling products and services. Listen to the interview to hear about the second characteristic that buyers felt was lacking. What they said may surprise you.

Barry and Jim have conducted well known, highly respected leadership research in every industry and discipline, which resulted in the framework they call The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership®. During the interview, learn more about the research behind these Five Practices.

To be more effective in working with buyers, learn how applying these Five Practices is the key.

In the final chapter, Jim, Barry, and Deb say that leadership is everyone’s business and that to be a leader is a choice. I asked each of them to tell me why it was important for them to close the book with this message.

Learn more about the book. Enjoy the interview, which is embedded below!

About the Authors:

Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner have been working together for more than thirty years, studying leaders, researching leadership, conducting leadership development seminars, and serving as leaders themselves in various capacities. Their book, The Leadership Challenge, now in its sixth edition, has won numerous awards and sold more than 2.5 million copies worldwide and is available in twenty-two languages. Jim and Barry have also co-authored many other best-selling and award-winning leadership books.

Deb Calvert is the president and founder of People First Productivity Solutions, a consulting and training firm that builds organizational strength by putting people first. Deb’s work includes leadership program design and facilitation, strategic planning with executive teams, team effectiveness work, and sales productivity solutions. Deb is a Certified Master of The Leadership Challenge® and is certified as an Executive Coach by the Center for Executive Coaching and the International Coaching Federation. Deb’s first book, also based on buyer research, was the bestseller DISCOVER Questions® Get You Connected, named by HubSpot as one of the “Top 20 Most Highly-Rated Sales Books of All Time.”

Connect with Deb on LinkedIn

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Building and Thriving in a Career in Sales with Annie Matthews, TechTarget

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In this episode, I talked with Annie Matthews, VP of Sales at TechTarget about how to build and thrive in a career in sales. I’ve always loved being in sales, and although it is a great profession, I notice that there are still a fair number of women who do not consider entering into sales as a career.

As an advocate for women in sales, you’ll enjoy hearing how Annie has built her own successful sales career and how she helps other women to do the same.

In my conversation with Annie, we talked about:

Why she felt that more women should consider sales as a career. And, of course, that led to talking about how Annie got started herself.

The traits and strengths that she feels women bring to the profession that enables them to be successful.

The pre-conceived notions that women often have about the sales profession.

What Annie believes we can do to encourage more women to consider a career in sales.

Enjoy the interview!!

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About Annie

Annie Matthews is VP of Sales for TechTarget, the global leader in purchase intent-driven marketing and sales services that deliver business impact for enterprise technology companies. Focused on the Business Applications, Application Architecture, Network and Security segments, Annie oversees a team of account managers responsible for the growth of new and existing client relationships. She loves nothing more than rolling up her sleeves with clients and her team to build revenue. Having grown her own career from entry-level to leadership, Annie is keenly attuned to empowering others to realize their own potential. Annie strives to be a cool mom in and out of the office, challenged mostly by her hip team.

Connect with Annie:

LinkedIn
Twitter

Thanks to our Sponsors!

This podcast is presented by our Elite Sponsor, Microsoft. Corporate Vice President and Channel Chief Gavriella Schuster, along with other female leaders in the company, are driving for change, trying to bring more women into the technology industry. Gavriella and Microsoft are committed to giving “young women better role models and a stronger voice to all women.” You can hear more from Gavriella and other Microsoft leaders, on the Microsoft Partner Network podcast. Or visit partner.microsoft.com.

Thanks to our Media Sponsor.  Women Sales Pros has a vision for more women in B2B sales and sales leadership roles where there are currently male-majority sales teams. We help educate companies on how to do this, and we champion women on what a professional sales career can be. We also showcase the very top women sales experts who are speakers, authors, consultants, trainers, and coaches. People can sign up to get updates HERE and follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @WomenSalesPros

Chasing Failure with BJ Miller, AgileCraft

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In this episode, I talked with BJ Miller, VP of Sales for Central/Rocky Mountain at AgileCraft about Chasing Failure. That’s right. I said failure. A unique and intriguing topic that provided some interesting perspective on why failing is not a bad thing.

BJ suggested today’s topic but before we got into the meat of our conversation, I asked BJ to share her experience as a competitive swimmer that led to her becoming an Olympic Gold Medalist, an amazing accomplishment and part of a long list of BJ’s athletic accomplishments.

Here is what we talked about during the interview.

Why BJ encourages people to chase failure.

How failure plays into selling.

What it takes to chase failure.

Why diversity in your career isn’t a bad thing.

The advice BJ would give other women in sales.

Enjoy the interview!

Apple Podcasts  – Please subscribe so that you never miss an episode! Write a review for the podcast if you like the interviews.

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About BJ:

BJ (Bedford) Miller. She is a Sales professional (currently VP of Sales for Central/Rocky Mountain at AgileCraft), a mother of two, a US National team member from 1989-2000, Olympic Gold Medalist and Former World Record Holder at the 2000 Sydney Olympics for the 400 Medley Relay, a committed learner and solver of complex problems.

Connect with BJ – LinkedIn   Twitter
Website: https://agilecraft.com/ 

Thanks to our Sponsors!

We thank our Elite Sponsor, Microsoft. I thank Gavriella Schuster, Corporate Vice President and Channel Chief at Microsoft, for her dedication to supporting women in technology, and making this podcast possible. Gavriella and Microsoft are committed to giving “young women better role models and a stronger voice to all women. You can hear more from Gavriella and other Microsoft leaders, on the Microsoft Partner Network podcast

Thanks to our Media Sponsor.  Women Sales Pros has a vision for more women in B2B sales and sales leadership roles where there are currently male-majority sales teams. We help educate companies on how to do this, and we champion women on what a professional sales career can be. We also showcase the very top women sales experts who are speakers, authors, consultants, trainers, and coaches. People can sign up to get updates HERE and follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @WomenSalesPros

Scaling an Organization Globally: the Marketo story with Amy Guarino

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In this episode, I talked with Amy Amy Guarino, COO at Kyndi. Prior to joining Kyndi as Chief Operating Officer, Amy spent eight years at Marketo, which she joined in early 2009 as the Vice President of Business Development. It is there that she learned all about scaling an organization globally from less than $1M to over $250M: the Marketo story. Scaling an organization is no easy task. Learn the growth strategies used to access such great success at Marketo.

How to properly prepare to scale your business for high performance and growth is top of mind for most companies I talk too, especially in the fast-paced and ever-changing technology world. I asked Amy to tell me how she utilized indirect sales channels to support Marketo’s sales growth.

Amy is a former IBM’er, and I asked her what she learned about IBM about sales leadership that translated to building successful sales organizations in Silicon Valley startups.

One key to driving sustainable and consistent revenue growth is in the tight alignment of sales and marketing. I asked Amy what the secret sauce was for making this happen successfully.

Amy started and led Marketo’s business in Japan. Here about her experience in the interview.

Finally, Amy offered her advice to all young salespeople on what it takes to build a successful career.

Enjoy the interview!

Apple Podcasts  – Please subscribe so that you never miss an episode! Write a review for the podcast if you like the interviews.

Spotify  Stitcher  Google Play

About Amy:

Amy Guarino, COO at Kyndi. Prior to joining Kyndi as Chief Operating Officer, Amy spent eight years at Marketo, which she joined in early 2009 as the Vice President of Business Development (employee #25.) In 2014, Amy moved to Tokyo to start Marketo KK, a joint venture with Dentsu and Sunbridge. That organization is now the fastest international region for Marketo and was recognized as the #1 Best Place to Work in Japan.  During Amy’s career at Marketo Inc, Marketo grew from less than $1M in revenue to over $250M, went public in 2013 and was acquired by Vista Private Equity for $1.8B in 2016. Amy has a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame. She has been recognized as one of the Top 100 Women of Influence in the Silicon Valley and as CRN’s Top Women in the Channel.

Connect with Amy – LinkedIn Twitter
Website: www.kyndi.com

Thanks to our Sponsors!

We thank our Elite Sponsor, Microsoft. I thank Gavriella Schuster, Corporate Vice President and Channel Chief at Microsoft, for her dedication to supporting women in technology, and making this podcast possible. Gavriella and Microsoft are committed to giving “young women better role models and a stronger voice to all women. You can hear more from Gavriella and other Microsoft leaders, on the Microsoft Partner Network podcast

Thanks to our Media Sponsor.  Women Sales Pros has a vision for more women in B2B sales and sales leadership roles where there are currently male-majority sales teams. We help educate companies on how to do this, and we champion women on what a professional sales career can be. We also showcase the very top women sales experts who are speakers, authors, consultants, trainers, and coaches. People can sign up to get updates HERE and follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @WomenSalesPros

When Sales Opportunities Don’t Go As Expected with Mary Lombardo, Absolute Impact

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In this episode, I talked with Mary Lombardo at Absolute Impact Corporation about what to do when sales opportunities don’t go as expected. No matter how long you’ve been in sales, it will happen. Sometimes things go south because of circumstances completely unforeseen and out of our hands. At other times it is likely that there were signals, things we missed along the way that we can learn from.

We started by talking about a time when Mary felt she had the sale in the bag and then she lost to a competitor. This has certainly happened to me. Even with years of sales experience, I occasionally make a misstep on the basics. After all, we are all human and sometimes misread the cues that could have helped us course correct the situation.

Many of us have found ourselves in situations where we had progressed to the end of the sales cycle only to have our prospect say that our product or solution “is just too expensive”. That is probably one of the most frustrating things to hear, especially when you thought things were going so well. Mary shares her thoughts on what she has done when that has happened to her.

Have you ever found yourself in a sales situation when you got through the sales cycle, presented your proposal, and your prospect says “I need to take this to my boss.”? For me the answer has always been to involve the “boss” from the beginning of the process but sometimes it doesn’t work out that way. So, now what do you do? Typically, someone inside the company isn’t going to sell your solution as well as you can. And, if you go over their head does that cause you a bigger headache? Mary and I talk about what you can do when you find yourself dealing with this type of selling scenario.

Finally, we talked about what to do when you get to the end of the sales cycle and your proposal seems to hang out there and age like fine wine. In other words, the sale gets stuck. Learn how that happens and what you can do about it.

Enjoy the interview!

Apple Podcasts  – Please subscribe so that you never miss an episode! Write a review for the podcast if you like the interviews.

Spotify  Stitcher  Google Play

About Mary:

Mary Lombardo, Founder of Absolute Impact Corporation, a positioning and professional sales development firm that helps start-up and midsize companies increase profits through custom-designed sales solutions.  Connect with her on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Mary has served in Executive Level Leadership and Management roles her entire career, generating revenues from $14 -$60 million dollars that led her to win the coveted title “Salesperson of the Year” both in 2008 and 2009 and joining the Million Dollar Club in 2007.  Mary spearheaded and landed a colossal level win while in her role as the Senior Strategic Partnership Leader for Evans Newton, Inc. included a $5M sale for districtwide whole school reform programs that produced double-digit corporate profits.

Her clients have included:

  • CEOs of major organizations
  • CEO of national higher education institution
  • VPs of HR at national retail chain stores
  • VPs of HR at national aerospace engineering company
  • VPs of HR at a national real estate agency
  • VP of HR at a national retirement facility
  • District Superintendents nationwide
  • University Deans

 

With 20 years of sales experience, Mary has a broad and deep scope of all aspects of the pipeline—from lead to close.

In addition, Mary studied ballet for 10 years, is a wish-granter for the Make-A-Wish Illinois Chapter, a volunteer at Lutheran General Hospital, a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) working with the Cook County Juvenile Court, a lover of theater, and a very proud mother of two children.

Thanks to our Sponsors!

We thank our Elite Sponsor, Microsoft. I thank Gavriella Schuster, Corporate Vice President and Channel Chief at Microsoft, for her dedication to supporting women in technology, and making this podcast possible. Gavriella and Microsoft are committed to giving “young women better role models and a stronger voice to all women. You can hear more from Gavriella and other Microsoft leaders, on the Microsoft Partner Network podcast

Thanks to our Media Sponsor.  Women Sales Pros has a vision for more women in B2B sales and sales leadership roles where there are currently male-majority sales teams. We help educate companies on how to do this, and we champion women on what a professional sales career can be. We also showcase the very top women sales experts who are speakers, authors, consultants, trainers, and coaches. People can sign up to get updates HERE and follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @WomenSalesPros

Turning Relationships into Revenue with Christine Zmuda, Microsoft

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In this episode, I talked with Christine Zmuda about Turning Relationships Into Revenue. Great topic and in fact, in my recent interview with Debbie Dunnam, we talked about how buyers – more than ever before – don’t want to be sold. They want to work with salespeople who they can trust and trust is developed when you make a point to focus on building relationships and doing for others first. Here I’ve summarized some of the nuggets of gold from the interview. Listen to it in full on iTunes or here on the blog.

Christine is a Sr. Sales Director in the Emerging Solutions Group at Microsoft. She got started in sales because she was looking for more options in her career. She started in marketing at Microsoft and eventually advanced into a sales role. The common thread for Christine was in taking on positions that were new businesses giving her the opportunity start something from scratch and build it from there.

In Christine’s current role in the emerging solutions group and their charter is to land new business acquisitions or launch first-party solutions from Microsoft. They test solutions to see what works, focus on how to scale and the team stays close to the customer experience.

Right now, Christine is almost exclusively focused on the Dynamics/LinkedIn partnership. In the first-year post-acquisition, performance is quite strong. Customer acquisition, renewal and customer experience has done well.

We talked about the importance of relationships in selling and Microsoft’s Relationship Sales solution that provides an integrated experience with LinkedIn, Office and CRM. The problems that LinkedIn and Microsoft wanted to solve for customers with this offering is to help sellers surface new connections, engage and nurture relationships with business insights and scale their sales outreach in a more personalized way. The other problem they wanted to help solve for sellers is to more easily broaden their reach inside an organization. The strategy of only calling “high” are less effective given the various stakeholders typically involved in buying decisions these days. One executive typically isn’t making the buying decision.

How do you know if you are hitting the mark on relationship sales?  Listen to the interview to hear about some best practices that Christine shared.

And finally, we closed out the interview with Christine sharing her career advice for Women in Sales listeners.

Enjoy! Apple Podcasts  – Please subscribe so that you never miss an episode! Write a review for the podcast if you like the interviews.

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About Christine

Christine’s passion and professional satisfaction come from identifying market opportunities before they are mainstream. Her most rewarding roles and accomplishments have centered around developing sales and market strategy for emerging businesses and scaling new acquisitions. She is always open to learning more about technology and happy to share her own experiences of leading sales, marketing, and channel teams if it’s helpful.

On a personal note, she enjoys golf, tennis, spending time with my family and embracing new experiences. Her new found love is abstract painting, the bigger the canvas the better.

Connect with Christine on Twitter and LinkedIn

Thanks to our Sponsors

We’d like to thank our Elite Sponsor, Microsoft. In particular, we thank Gavriella Schuster, Corporate Vice President and Channel Chief at Microsoft, for her dedication to supporting women in technology, and making this podcast possible. Gavriella and Microsoft are committed to giving “young women better role models and a stronger voice to all women.” You can hear more from Gavriella and other Microsoft leaders, on the Microsoft Partner Network podcast. Visit the Microsoft Partner Network.

Thanks to our Media Sponsor.  Women Sales Pros has a vision for more women in B2B sales and sales leadership roles where there are currently male-majority sales teams. We help educate companies on how to do this, and we champion women on what a professional sales career can be. We also showcase the very top women sales experts who are speakers, authors, consultants, trainers, and coaches. People can sign up to get updates HERE and follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @WomenSalesPros

Debunking the Boy’s Club with Bernadette McClelland, 3 Red Folders

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In this episode, I talked to Bernadette McClelland, CEO of 3 Red Folders about Debunking the Boys Club, which was an interesting and lively conversation. It was not a discussion about bashing the men!

Like me, Bernadette has an interest in supporting and helping women in sales. We start the conversation by talking about why that is important to her. We also talked about the why for the topic of our discussion. Debunking the boys club, Bernadette told me is a provocative topic, a question that needs to be explored if we want to help women get into a career in sales in an easier more effective way and work their way up the ladder in their career in easier ways.

Bernadette was strong in her belief that we know boy’s clubs exist, which we work around but it is important to stay focused on the positive and not stand up on soap boxes bashing the guys. She feels that to do so not only devalues us but moves us backward from our goals.

What was your journey in the B2B world?

Bernadette worked for Xerox for 20 years starting in a sales admin position and worked her way up into a sales position. In sharing her story, Bernadette told me that in applying for a sales trainee role, she was turned down three times for the position. The reason? She was too nice. She did get the job, however, she stayed true to her nice self. But being the only woman in that sales environment, Bernadette found that it was very much an alpha male, boys club. She found herself having to make tough decisions about how to fit in because there certainly was no support for a woman in sales at that time.

What is the boys club?

Interesting that the definition, which evidently dates to old English colleges is an informal system by which money and power are retained by wealthy white men through incestuous business relationships.

Does the boys club really exist?

Yes. They do exist. And, it is important to note that many times men don’t even know that they are excluding women. As Bernadette said, that then leads men to not even know that there is a problem. In other words, the exclusion isn’t necessarily intentional.

Are there different types of boy’s clubs?

There are four types of boy’s clubs that Bernadette says that she has come across.

Hobby Club – this is where the guys hang together and participate in shared interests. For example, golf.

A-Team Club – this is certainly the club that both Bernadette and I experienced when working in corporate. This club is focused on results. They use short-cut language understood by club members. High achievers who are very inclusive of themselves. Being part of this club feels exclusive to those that are in it.

Locker Room Club – this doesn’t need much explanation, and though this club is disappearing slowly. Perhaps not slowly enough though.

Clone Club – this type is when the leader wants people to come up through the ranks just like he did. This tends to exclude others, including women who aren’t clones. People who don’t look or act the same as everyone else in the group.

What are three things women must do to neutralize the effect?

Speaking up, calling attention to the issue of unintentional exclusion is an important part of resolving the problem. Step up and do so with courage. Ask questions. But make decisions about when you feel it is important to step up.

Show up. How are you showing up as a professional woman in sales?

Have the clarity to articulate your message and do it with conviction.

As with all interviews, there is a lot of insight and goodness here. Listen and enjoy!
Apple Podcasts  – Please subscribe so that you never miss an episode! Write a review for the podcast if you like the interviews.

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About Bernadette

Bernadette McClelland is CEO of 3 Red Folders, a boutique sales performance and sales leadership practice headquartered in Melbourne Australia. She is also the founder of The Hive – a platform for trailblazing women who want to do B2B sales differently. Having held senior business development roles in Corporate Australia, owned a 7-figure family business, been the APAC business coach for Anthony Robbins, authored five books on selling and personal leadership, has clients across 14 countries and 4 continents, she is clearly a respected industry resource who loves to make a difference in the business world.

Connect with Bernadette:
www.3redfolders.com
LinkedIn
Twitter

We’d like to thank our Elite Sponsor, Microsoft. In particular, we thank Gavriella Schuster, Corporate Vice President and Channel Chief at Microsoft, for her dedication to supporting women in technology, and making this podcast possible. Gavriella and Microsoft are committed to giving “young women better role models and a stronger voice to all women.” You can hear more from Gavriella and other Microsoft leaders, on the Microsoft Partner Network podcast. Visit the Microsoft Partner Network.

Thanks to our Media Sponsor.  Women Sales Pros has a vision for more women in B2B sales and sales leadership roles where there are currently male-majority sales teams. We help educate companies on how to do this, and we champion women on what a professional sales career can be. We also showcase the very top women sales experts who are speakers, authors, consultants, trainers, and coaches. People can sign up to get updates HERE and follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @WomenSalesPros

Transforming Women Entrepreneurs & Millennials in the Workplace with Nancy J. Lewis

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Today’s episode topic focuses on Transforming Women Entrepreneurs (TWE) & Leveraging Millennials in the Workplace. I’ve been involved with Transforming Women Entrepreneurs for a few years now here in Atlanta, and I love the work that my guest is doing to help women business owners reach greater heights of success. My guest is also an expert in generations in the workplace and no topic is typically hotter than how companies need to think about millennial workers.

Listen to the interview, which is embedded at the bottom of this post!!

My guest is Nancy J. Lewis the founder and president of Progressive Techniques, Inc. where the theme of her organization is, “Developing a Better YOU!”  Nancy has 25 years of experience in professional development, diversity and inclusion, leadership, and communication skills.

In the first few minutes of the interview, Nancy and I talked about how TWE got started as an organization. Celebrating 10 years this year, TWE was started to provide a forum for women business owners to provide them education, mentorship, support and so much more. I’ll be speaking at the March 8 event talking about how women can grow their businesses to the next level using social selling strategies.

Learn about other speakers during the interview too. If you are here in Atlanta, register for the event here http://www.twe.events/  You MUST register by March 1st due to the security constraints onsite at Coca-Cola where the event is going to be held.

Then we got into an insightful conversation about generations in the workplace, specifically the dynamics happening between millennials and boomers. We technically have 5 generations in this workspace says Nancy but the main generations are Boomers, Gen X and Millennials, which we discussed.

How do we bridge the relationships?

The biggest issue or war is between Boomers and Millennials. Gen X is often being excluded from the conversation due to their size being so much smaller.

Some key differences between Millennials and Boomers are:

Millennials have a reputation for coming into the workplace with an attitude of entitlement. Not everyone, of course. As Nancy reminds us, we should be careful about making sweeping generalizations. Certainly, these younger workers come in expecting to be promoted in a few months versus doing the job for a year or so as they develop the skills to progress when they are ready. It is also not uncommon for millennials to believe they already know it all and don’t need help. Of course, I’d say that’s probably true of every generation. I remember when I first entered the workforce. There is no doubt that I thought my way was better until I learned to listen, learn and be open to the fact that I’d not developed enough experience to “know it all”.

Boomers on the other hand can be resistant. They don’t trust these younger workers tethered to social media 24/7 who think they already know it all and resist any kind of feedback at all. What Nancy pointed out though is that Boomers created the Millennial generation and thus played a role in why their attitudes are what they are. Good point! These parents were providing positive feedback in all circumstances. And, by now, it is well documented that the Millennial generation is the first generation to get trophies just for participating. That certainly wasn’t case in my day. Winners earned the trophies. That’s life. We can’t all win and showing up is part of life. Still, Millennials find constructive feedback hard to hear.

What can be done?

It is important for Millennials to open themselves up to constructive criticism. Our experience and expertise develops over time. There is an opportunity for cross-mentoring of both Millennials and Boomers. Millennials can benefit from the experience, knowledge and social/people skills or Boomers. Boomers can benefit also by keeping an open mind about the ideas that Millennials bring to the table. That includes learning from Millennials how to leverage social media and embrace new approaches to do business.

Businesses can also adjust their onboarding process to be more customized to meet the needs of these younger workers. Setting expectations about what the job entails is important. As is putting someone in the position to resolve a particular issue if they believe they are now ready to move up if they’ve been on the job a short period of time. I loved that idea because it puts that employee into a position to practice and see that they may or may not be ready yet.

There is so much more in the interview, which I hope you enjoy.

About Nancy

Website:  www.progressivetechniquesinc.com
email: nancy@progressivetechniquesinc.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancyjlewis/
Twitter:www.twitter.com/nancyjlewis
+1-770-964-5533

Nancy J. Lewis is the founder and president of Progressive Techniques, Inc. where the theme of her organization is,

“Developing a Better YOU!”  Nancy has 25 years of experience in professional development, diversity and inclusion, leadership, and communication skills. A former Dale Carnegie Instructor for thirteen years, and adjunct faculty instructor for Georgia State University, she is a seasoned professional leveraging practical skills to resolve complex workplace issues and conducts motivational keynotes.

As a facilitator and business/executive coach, Nancy has worked with many Fortune 100, Fortune 500, and government agencies. As a former Human Resources practitioner, Nancy brings the knowledge, wisdom, and understanding to her workshops. Nancy is certified in a variety of assessment tools, including DiSC, Strengths Deployment Inventory (SDI), and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

Nancy has a quarterly event called Transforming Women Entrepreneurs (TWE) where she empowers, equips, and encourages women to be the very best they can be in an environment where true connections are made.

Nancy has an engaging and energizing style that creates an atmosphere where attendees are comfortable with sharing their struggles as creative ways of resolving the issues of work and life are provided.

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