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Luke Williams

July 2009 - TD Magazine

Loyalty Is Earned

Clint Pulver is an Emmy Award–winning, motivational keynote speaker, author, musician, and workforce expert.A professional drummer for more than 20 years, he has played with headlining fellow musicians at venues like the Vivint Arena, the Stadium of Fire, and the Kodak Theatre (now Dolby Theatre) in Hollywood. In 2010 he founded the Utah Valley University (UVU) drumline known as the Green Man Group, which he directed for six years and went on to direct the drumline for the NBA’s Utah Jazz until 2015.Clint was featured in BusinessQ magazine as one of their top 40 under 40 list as a premier corporate keynote speaker. He has appeared on America’s Got Talent and in feature films with actors such as School of Rock’s Jack Black and Napoleon Dynamite’s John Heder.Known as the leading authority on employee retention, Clint helps organizations retain, engage, and inspire their team members from the front desk to the board rooms and everyone in between. He expertly helps audiences navigate generational complexities, communication challenges, leadership missteps, and cultural cues.As the president and founder of the Center for Employee Retention, Clint has transformed how corporations like Keller Williams, AT&T, and Hewlett-Packard create lasting loyalty through his work and research as “The Undercover Millennial.” For more than a decade, he has been a self-motivated entrepreneur who is well-versed in business start-up, leadership, sales management, management training, and helping teams grow multi-million-dollar accounts. He uses that experience to create teachable relationship and business strategies based on trust, service, support, connection, and consistent follow-through.Clint strongly believes that a single moment in time can change a person’s life. He has traveled the world speaking to a wide spectrum of diverse audiences, challenging them to dream, excel, connect, and believe—both in themselves and in the power of others. Clint has dedicated his heart, his messages, and his business to helping organizations understand the younger generation and helping the younger generation better understand themselves by living a life of significance, rather than just a life of success. His mantra: “It’s not about being the best in the world . . . it’s about being the best FOR the world.”

Clint Pulver

(Like It or Not) You Are Your Portfolio

June 2019 - TD Magazine

Book Capsules, June 2019

What would it look like if we developed an approach to train salespeople on putting strategic thinking into practice? It would need to cover three, key areas of knowledge: making time, determining competitive positioning, and aligning strategy and ta

Training Salespeople to Put Strategic Thinking Into Practice

They're creating computer code, carting food and passengers around in their own cars, and popping in monthly for a project meeting. What's their story? Are these occasional workers underemployed, unable to secure a salaried job? Are they Millennials and Generation Z-ers sampling different occupations before they commit to a career? Or Baby Boomers making some extra cash to supplement their retirement savings?They could be any of those―or none of them. Meet the gig workers, a burgeoning population in the labor force that is changing the way company leaders look at workforce planning and the way people view work."As individuals have entered the workforce and evolved, they are asking for more flexibility," says Kurt Heikkinen, president and CEO of staffing company Montage. And, as access to health insurance has become increasingly separate from full-time employment, "workers have really gained a sense of freedom. They look at [their careers] as a series of gigs, a series of projects and experiences, as opposed to a long-term career at a given employer."Figure 1: Gig Workers Look Like the Broader WorkforceThe following charts illustrate the demographics of self-identified gig workers compared with those of the entire U.S. workforce. Source: Morning Consult.But these aren't the typical temp staffers of yore―the "Kelly Girl" secretaries and Manpower workers who filled in for office staff when an employer had a hole in the schedule. Nor are they limited to the classic freelancers in creative fields―writers, editors, musicians, and graphic artists. Nowadays, gig workers run the gamut, from Uber drivers to IT technicians to travel nurses. And they are an integral and growing part of the knowledge economy.Many businesses have embraced this pipeline of on-demand talent. Yet, despite all the promise of the gig economy, it is a work in progress. The rules are still being written as companies and workers alike adjust to new ways of getting work done.Two Types of Gig WorkersGig work itself is not new. "People have always worked this way," but the prevalence and types of gig jobs have changed over the years, says Diane Mulcahy, author of The Gig Economy: The Complete Guide to Getting Better Work, Taking More Time Off, and Financing the Life You Want (Amacom, 2016). "This kind of work is growing at a rapid rate," she says, particularly in white-collar jobs and the tech economy.There are two types of gig workers, Mulcahy says: first, those who are searching for full-time work and need to make some cash and contacts while they job-hunt and, second, those who simply don't want or need full-time employment.The latter group includes a lot of younger people, for whom the idea of a 40-years-and-you-get-a-gold-watch kind of job is something their grandparents did. They aren't attracted to what they see as an outdated model of sticking with one company―or even one profession―for an extended time. But this group also includes retired or semi-retired people who may or may not need the money but who want to stay engaged and active regardless. And there are also mid-career folks who want the flexibility and freedom of doing what they want more or less when they want, drawing on years of experience to cherry-pick appealing projects.In the United States, more than 40 percent of workers are employed in "alternative work arrangements," such as contingent, part-time, or gig work, according to Deloitte's 2018 Global Human Capital Trends study. In a 2016 Adobe survey, 56 percent of office workers predicted that everyone will do some gig work in the future. Asked to look ahead to 2020, 28 percent of business leaders and chief human resource officers said they anticipated an increase in gig workers, the Deloitte study found."The vast majority [of gig workers] are folks who easily could go get [traditional full-time] jobs somewhere," says Lori Williams, vice president of fulfillment at Gigster, a software developer that has 80 employees on staff and works with 1,000 gig workers. "They've chosen this lifestyle."The top benefit of the arrangement for them is autonomy. They have greater control over their schedule and they can avoid routine annoyances such as bad managers, office politics, and interminable staff meetings. They also might learn new skills and gain valuable experience at a temporary stint, ultimately giving them the tools to advance in other gigs or in staff jobs.Employers, too, enjoy the perks of an open relationship, gaining access to skills and talent without having to commit to a full-time hire. And managers can supplement staff with gigsters who have the talent and knowledge not only to advance a project, but to teach regular employees new skills."It's really [about] how can we continue to scale as an organization?" says Vlasta Dusil, senior vice president of HR for computer technology company SAP's Cloud Business Group. "We talk about diversity, with gender, with different generations. In our view, this is another way of looking at diversity."Growing PainsStill, there are some drawbacks―for both sides. The "flexible schedule" so many people crave can lead to them being underemployed. The gig worker might also miss out on the advantages that come from committing to one employer. Among those advantages is professional development."How are these people going to train and develop and grow?" says Jennifer Graham-Johnson, SHRM-SCP, recently retired chief HR officer at WestRock Co., a paper and packaging products manufacturer."I do worry we are going to have a group of people who are . . . unable to advance" if they ever decide they want full-time employment because they haven't had the opportunity to develop their skills and knowledge through training and classes.Then there's the issue of employee benefits.Gig workers don't get health insurance, paid time off, or 401(k) contributions from employers. Offering them the same perks that staff members get could set an employer up for legal challenges and negate savings typically associated with hiring gig workers.It could also harm recruiting efforts. After all, good benefits are one of the selling points companies use to attract full-time talent. Why would people want to join your team as full-time employees if they can enjoy the freedom and flexibility of gig work and get the same benefits as regular employees?The bigger issue may be that offering the same benefits to contractors and regular staff could get the company in trouble with the IRS, which has a 20-point test to determine whether workers are independent contractors or employees entitled to the employer-paid share of FICA taxes. Microsoft and other employers have had to pay millions of dollars in back taxes and damages after being sued by workers who said they were paid like independent contractors but treated like employees.Figure 2: What Motivates Gig Workers? Source: Shiftgig, Profile of a Gig Worker, 2018.Playing Catch-UpGovernment and businesses are lagging on other fronts related to the gig economy, too. Banks, for example, might be skittish about lending money to a potential homeowner who doesn't hold a permanent job. And gig workers don't get unemployment benefits, COBRA, or worker’s compensation.Companies can help fill the gaps. One way is to offer voluntary benefits that are fully paid for by the worker but administered by the employer. E-commerce website Etsy, for example, has partnered with Stride Health to act as a health insurance broker for the people who create the art, jewelry, and other items sold on Etsy.Still, the gig economy is clearly moving faster than the institutions that deal with these workers."I don't think we've caught up to this type of worker," says Arthur Tacchino, chief innovation officer at the compliance technology company SyncStream Solutions. "The workforce is changing. So how are the coverage, insurance, and benefits going to evolve to fit the newer kind of workforce we are seeing?" There's no clear to answer that, Tacchino says."Regulators and courts are trying to apply 20th-century law onto a 21st-century problem," says Richard Meneghello, an employment attorney and partner at Fisher Phillips. "Our hope is that once people realize it's not just a passing fad, regulators and legislators will get more serious."One agency trying to change with the times is the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is taking a fresh look at compensation for gig workers. The agency is considering revising its rules to make it easier for people who are classified as independent contractors to receive stock awards from the companies that employ them, the New York Times reported.While governments and financial institutions adjust, the market for gig workers is maturing, fueled by technology platforms that help both sides of the work arrangement find each other. Online labor platforms such as Upwork, Gigster, TaskRabbit, and Freelancer are not only empowering the gig economy, but revolutionizing the way workers and companies connect."The technology is making the whole market more efficient," says Marion McGovern, author of Thriving in the Gig Economy (Career Press, 2017) and co-founder and former CEO of M Squared Consulting.Upwork, for example, connects computer-industry freelancers in 170 countries to employers who need their services, charging the worker a fee of 5 percent to 20 percent of the job's pay. ShiftPixy and others hire workers (paying the employer share of payroll taxes and taking care of other compliance issues), then "lend" them to clients in the hospitality and restaurant industries. The company has an app that allows people to broadcast their availability and apply for certain shifts in their communities.As Uber was creating its digital platform for drivers, the job market for gig work was exploding, says Scott Absher, ShiftPixy's CEO. "People are looking for ways to recobble their income," and these platforms make that more efficient, he says.Managing the GigSo how do today's people managers handle gig workers, follow the law, and head off potential tensions with full-time staff? Some tips:Decide who will drive the decision-making on hiring. A simple procurement process may be enough to fill an open gig for an IT techie, while a speechwriter for a CEO will likely require input from the chief executive.Pay people promptly. "I can't tell you how many companies are on 60- to 90-day schedules" for contracts, McGovern says. But individuals expect to be paid faster and more often.Know the law—and do not treat gigsters like employees. In fact, don't even use the word "hire" to describe the working arrangement, advised Rebecca Cenni-Leventhal, founder and CEO of staffing and recruitment firm Atrium. People who work gigs are "engaged," not hired, she cautioned.Protect confidential company information. This is especially important when using outside contractors for a business dealing with sensitive client information, such as health data and Social Security numbers.Let your own staffers gig―even at your company. Since many workers crave the opportunity to learn something new, offer full-time staffers the chance to develop by giving them a gig in-house.Keep staffers and gigsters separate, when warranted. "Having [gig workers] participate in regular team meetings or asking them for regular updates and reporting is not wise," says Cenni-Leventhal, as that may cause them to be viewed as employees rather than independent contractors. "Inviting them to one holiday party isn't too much of a risk, but when you start having them participate in team-building activities and attending company functions, it can get tricky."Make your gig workers feel welcome and valued. "Make sure you afford them the correct level of respect," McGovern says. "This is someone who is going to add to the team, bringing in skills or knowledge and experience to help the effort."On top of that, she adds, it's important to recognize the dignity of their career choice. After all, it's a work arrangement more business leaders can expect to manage in the coming years.Copyright 2019, SHRM. This article is reprinted from www.shrm.org with permission from SHRM. All rights reserved.

Gig Workers Challenge Old Order

Sales enablement is becoming a force to be reckoned with.In the past several years, it’s grown from an offshoot of sales operations or training, tucked away in some corporate corner and shouldering all the responsibilities sales leaders and reps just didn’t have time for. Today, it’s increasingly seen as a mission-critical group. In our work, we see a correlation between the highest-performing sales organizations and sales enablement leaders who have a seat at the table.Every sales enablement function lives somewhere along a maturity curve. Understanding where your team is on that curve is an anchor point for any planning effort. To set priorities for 2019, it’s important to understand where you are today. What are you dealing with? What are you trying to accomplish with the team you currently have? Where can you go?Below are the four stages of sales enablement we see:Stage One: Ad Hoc. The sales enablement strategy doesn’t really exist in any coherent way. It’s just a collection of (often random) activities.Stage Two: Collaborative. Sales enablement activities take on a more programmatic feel, but are still only loosely aligned to overall sales objectives.Stage Three: Integrated. Sales enablement is a core component of the sales strategy, with an emphasis on improving sales productivity and supporting field sales execution.Stage Four: Transformative/Strategic. Sales enablement is seen as a strategic driver for sales success. It owns activation of field behavior change and is mission-critical for sales performance.Obviously, the goal is to get to the Transformative level, where sales enablement is tightly connected to the sales strategy, and the sales leadership depends on sales enablement for execution of that strategy. But first you must determine where you are—realistically—before deciding how far you can go. It’s not possible to make the leap from Ad Hoc to Transformative, or even Integrated, in one jump. It needs to be a journey, building a solid foundation at each level to continue steady growth.To do that, ask yourself questions about your sales enablement strategy, execution, technology, and impact to help understand your current sales enablement maturity. Each of the elements below help determine what’s critical to your organization to help you make progress along your journey.1. StrategyFirst, consider how well aligned the sales enablement goals are with the sales strategy. If there isn’t a sales enablement strategy (or strategic goals), the alignment isn’t very strong among the leadership. Ask:How well aligned is the sales strategy among your leadership – not only the CEO, CSO, and COO, but also across the various sales leaders?Do your activities connect under a strategy? If so, how would you define the core elements of that strategy?Are there defined sales enablement goals? How do these goals map to the overall business objectives? Are there metrics? Do these metrics assess leading or lagging indicators?2. Improve Rep PerformanceWhether your sales enablement strategy is tightly connected to the sales strategy or there’s a lot of guesswork, the ability to improve rep performance can tell a lot about the maturity stage as well. Ask:How are your seller enablement programs supporting the sales strategy? Is it reactive enablement or are you working with the sales teams to offer planned support?How are you supporting sellers throughout their career lifecycle, from new hire to veteran status? How does your enablement approach change?When are your programs being executed? Are these considered “sales enablement initiatives” or sales priorities? Sales enablement programs should not be seen as separate from sales initiatives; they should be interwoven into the broader sales strategy through common touchpoints and communication channels.3. Activate Sales ManagementAny rep enablement strategy is dead-on-arrival if management isn’t supporting it in the field. Mature organizations have specific enablement strategies for frontline leaders. Ask:What is the expectation of the sales manager in the enablement ecosystem? How do they ensure accountability and deliver on the last mile of any program or initiative?Is there a separate enablement focus for frontline sales managers? What enablement are they receiving to support their teams in the field?How are managers engaged as a part of the enablement process? How are they equipped to lead change management in the field? High-performing organizations engage field leadership from enablement ideation through execution.4. Build a Smarter Tech StackThe enablement tech stack is constantly evolving, and the allure of the next shiny object is strong. Therefore, tech investment is sometimes used as a measurement for how invested the organization is in the sales enablement function. Ask:Has your company made the necessary investments in sales technology to support your initiatives? If so, are there too many tools? Do they distract from valuable selling time? If not, what are the essential tools that will help the reps at key stages of the sales motion?How are data and insights from the technology being used to inform business decisions?How do sales leaders use data from sales enablement to make decisions?Are you measuring the success of the sales enablement strategy, including the use of leading, lagging, or behavioral metrics? Which of these measures are most firmly within your control? What happens if you don’t measure it?5. Integrate With MarketingSales does not operate in a silo. Enablement needs to serve as the organizational integrator to the field. To do so, engagement, collaboration, and alignment with marketing is critical. Ask:How does marketing gain input from enablement (and vice versa) to develop marketing initiatives?What role does enablement play in the launch and delivery of key marketing programs, including messaging, product launch, or competitive intelligence?How aligned is sales, enablement, and marketing on the key objectives that will truly drive rep performance? Is the focus too broad or too narrow? What success metrics are shared among the three functions?If you answered No more than Yes, you’re probably not as far along on the maturity curve as you’d like to be. Consider where your opportunities are to deliver support and have an impact on the sales organization. What challenges exist that you can rectify? What challenges do you see in the near future (or long term)? How can you prepare for those challenges and even get ahead of them?Consider any risks involved with accomplishing your sales enablement goals, including aligning people who may not understand your function. The success of sales enablement requires alignment across multiple functions and stakeholders to be successful. Identify those stakeholders (including sales, finance, IT, marketing, and product development) and the role they’ll play in your process. Turn them into champions by letting them know ultimately your goal is to help them to realize their objectives.Whether you're an army of one or you've got a dedicated global function with many resources, aspire to move one level at a time toward becoming—and remaining—a transformative force in your sales organization.

The Stages of Sales Enablement Maturity

Like Life

As the talent development field evolves and attracts a global pool of professionals with diverse skills and experiences, new questions arise: Have the competencies of instructional design (ID) changed? Should they change? How has ID evolved over the past few decades? Are instructional designers’ competencies keeping up with the pace of change?Through a collaborative partnership between the Association for Talent Development (ATD), the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET), and Rothwell & Associates (R&A), the R&A research team implemented a research study to investigate the proposed questions. The findings were recently released in a new ATD white paper, Skills, Challenges, and Trends in Instructional Design, which summarizes the literature review and results of the qualitative and quantitative data analysis. The study uncovered three major findings:The skills required in the ID area of expertise (AOE) developed by ATD remain highly relevant in today’s evolving field.Although technology is constantly changing, the challenges faced by instructional designers are less about technology and more about serving the multitude of varied learners, as well as maintaining momentum and a relationship with the subject matter expert (SME).ID has evolved over the past couple of decades and there is an ongoing need to promote the value and understanding of the ID professional’s role in talent development (TD). As instructional designers move forward in this evolving industry, data from the study points to several tips instructional designers can xxx to strengthen their skills. Develop a 30-second elevator speech. Develop a good value-add 30-second “What is an instructional designer?” speech. This is not only great for networking functions (and maybe family reunions), but as a conversation starter when you meet your design team, especially your SME, for the first time at a kickoff meeting.Design mobile first. Incorporate the design principle of “mobile first” as you begin a new project or redesign existing projects. Users want their learning programs to be more accessible and on demand. The 21st-century workforce is filled with individuals who have grown up with mobile devices, and technological advances range from ease of travel to ease of communicating through various telecommunication networks.Be a coach. When interviewing a potential instructional designer, be sure to include coaching competency questions such as “How do you work, or imagine you would work, in a context in which you need to get course content from your subject matter experts over whom you have no formal authority?” Consider using role-play in an interview or on the job to strengthen needed soft skills. Not only ask powerful questions, but also demonstrate active listening.Keep presence. Use face-to-face (or video conferencing) for the kickoff meeting and periodic status meetings to keep project (and relationship) momentum. Be sure you share and follow an agenda to respect time.Be an active and reflective agent. Most evaluations are summative, and are conducted and analyzed well after courses and training have been delivered. Survey the participants at the beginning (expectations), middle (adjustments), and end of the learning delivery (revisions). Keep a list of design ideas for future possibilities and remember that the SME may become more open to these ideas over time. Asking participants the right questions at the beginning can also reveal learner characteristics, including cultural diversity and user interface design considerations.Remember the artist. Recognize you can wear many hats: instructional designer, project manager, manufacturer, engineer, architect, artist, coach, and cheerleader. Find time to explore and experiment the artist in you through the emerging technologies of mobile learning, augmented reality, wearables, and MOOCs. Embrace failure and engage in continuous self-criticism as you innovate and change.Think like a Millennial. Millennials are expected to take over the workforce as the highest number of workers, so incorporate the learning characteristics of Millennials through game-based learning and social learning. Storytelling is a powerful tool that can strengthen the learning experience if it is correctly incorporated into the design. It is imperative to identify realistic stories that will support effective learning for the target user group. To learn more, download Skills, Challenges, and Trends in Instructional Design.

Tips to Strengthen Instructional Designer Skills

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