As I reflect on these past eight weeks, three things stand out for me. The predictions I made for the sales industry, the increase in cybersecurity needs, and how leaders can improve their leadership by implementing technology.
Predictions
As much guff as I have been giving Kelly (2016) for his Syfy predictions of the future, he points out something to be said about the trends. Kelly (2016) displays how, from a technological standpoint, the world is getting flat (Friedman, 2007). Through access to information and sharing that information, people can remix things to create something even better (Kelly).
This takes me to Wayne Gretzky’s quote, “Skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been (Kirby, 2014; Oshinsky, 2015).” While this quote is maybe a tad overused (Kirby, 2014), I believe that is why Kelly (2016) brings so much value. Though the future will not look exactly like Kelly has painted, it gives people a place to look to, start moving to, and hopefully keep them relevant.
A long time ago, Griffin Hill was looking into some content strategies for marketing like content marketing and SEO. However, we never did employ those strategies; we decided to deploy our efforts in other ways. Recently I was looking at some of Griffin Hill’s competitors and how many keywords we were ranking for verse our competitors. It was staggering. While Griffin Hill ranks for 11 keywords, a competitor had almost 11,000 keywords they ranked for. The signs were telling, yet we allowed other parts of the game to distract us.
Oshinsky (2015) points out an issue with Gretzky’s quote is that it means big groups of people clustered together moving in the same direction and not know where they are going or why. I see their point; however, my issue with this metaphor is that the puck has to get to the location. If everyone were headed to where the puck was going, nobody would be at the start of the puck to send the puck to where it was going. An example may be AI; if we are all rushing to be ready for AI, but nobody is developing it, how can we use it?
Over the past eight weeks, I have realized that my organization needs to take control of our destiny. We need to be the ones who move the puck on where the sales world is going; otherwise, we will be skating in the big herd to an unknown future (Oshinsky, 2015)
Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity has been something I have been thinking about a lot. With cyber-attacks on the rise (Sanger et al.), all organizations need to become more diligent in finding ways to protect their data and their contacts’ information. This has caused me to think about our expectations for our employees and help them become more educated about cyber-attacks, learn how they can help protect the organization, and find other ways we can help protect against attacks (FBI, n.d.; Henricks, 2019).
Using Technology in Leadership
Today I was driving down the road, and I saw a truck for a company called Hawthorne. I was trying to remember where I had heard that company name before. Then it hit me, “The Hawthorn Effect.” That is right, the beginning of Organizational Behavior (AT&T Tech Channel, 2011). Hawthorne was looking for ways to improve production. They started messing with the lighting and noticed that production increased. Then the researchers adjusted something else, and production went up. The researchers realized that it was not the changes increasing production but that the subjects (employees) were responding to being observed (AT&T Tech Channel).
If we think about the trend for remote work (Krogue, 2017), it makes observation less visible, and one could argue from the Hawthorne Effect that it could be a sign that performance will decrease. So, the question becomes, how can we increase observation of remote workers without giving them the feeling of micromanagement?
I believe leaders will need access to technology that helps track KPI’s, sets role expectations, create goals and track goal progress, and receive daily progress reports. I would suggest leaders implement technology like this will help the Hawthorn effect take place but allow the employee to have the freedom from remote work.
Reviewing Kelly’s (2016) work and how technology impacts leadership have helped me shape the direction of our organization, find areas where we have been missing trends, and provide better solutions for our organization and our clients.
References
AT&T Tech Channel. (2011, November 28). AT&T Archives: The year they discovered people. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3pDWt7GntI
Kirby, J. (2014, September 24). Why businesspeople won’t stop using that Gretzky quote. Maclean’s. https://www.macleans.ca/economy/business/why-business-people-wont-stop-using-that-gretzky-quote/
FBI. (n.d). The Cyber Threat. FBI. https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/cyber
Friedman, T. L. (2007). The world is flat: A brief history of the twenty-first century. Picador
Henricks, M. (2019). 5 ways your employees can help prevent cyberattacks. Spectrum Business. https://www.spectrum.com/business/insights/management/5-ways-your-employees-can-help-prevent-cyberattacks/
Kelly, K. (2016). The inevitable: Understanding the 12 technological forces that will shape our future. Penguin Books.
Krogue, K. (2017, Oct 3). Sales trend research: Inside sales vs. outside sales. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenkrogue/2017/10/03/2017-sales-trend-research-inside-sales-vs-outside-sales/
Oshinsky, D. (2015, June 26). There’s One Little Problem With That Famous Wayne Gretzky Quote About Pucks. Dan Oshinsky. https://danoshinsky.com/2015/06/26/theres-one-little-problem-with-that-famous-wayne-gretzky-quote-about-pucks/
Sanger, D. E., Krauss C., & Perlroth, N. (2021, May 8). Cyberattack Forces a Shutdown of a Top U.S. Pipeline. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/08/us/politics/cyberattack-colonial-pipeline.html