Hard Trends have three distinct categories — demographics, regulation, and technology — each of which help you find certainty in an uncertain world. While all are vital, demographics are quickly taking precedence, and one in specific will greatly impact business in the near future.
In my recent Opportunity Hour: Conversations with the Masters, I interviewed Jason Dorsey, a behavioral researcher and Anticipatory Leader who has led more than a hundred groundbreaking behavioral research studies globally. His passion is uncovering hidden behavioral trends that other Anticipatory Leaders can use to drive measurable results.
In authoring his newest bestselling book, titled Zconomy: How Gen Z Will Change the Future of Business — and What to Do About It, Jason reveals the ways in which business leaders can adapt to the dynamic nature of a generation that is unlike all the others currently in the workforce. Together, he and I unboxed common characteristics of Gen Z and their professional roles in the United States and around the world.
The Ambiguity of Generations
We cannot begin a discussion about Gen Z without first addressing the way in which we traditionally define a generation. Believe it or not, the range of years is not the only indicator.
“One major characteristic of generations has to do with a generation being a segment of a geographically linked population experiencing similar social and cultural events at roughly the same time in their maturation,” Jason states.
Birth dates and geographical locations certainly help us define what a generation is, but to Jason, understanding what a generation is not is also crucial.
“Generations are not a box!” Jason exclaims. “Generations are incredibly powerful and predictive clues that business leaders can utilize to build trust and drive influence to improve the lives of these individuals professionally and personally.”
In contemporary society, the “box” concept of generations makes us believe that they are easily defined. Instead, replace that concept with the idea that generations are actually clues allowing us to better connect with individuals of all ages, and in the case of this study specifically, Gen Z.
What Is a Generation’s Defining Moment?
Each generation has a defining moment and generally, it happens during their teen years. This incredibly insightful trend explains how they are likely to behave in the future. Here is a better look into what a defining moment is:
My mother was a teenager during the Great Depression — a socially and economically impactful occurrence that determined how she would behave as she entered adulthood after the depression ended. Others include the Vietnam War, the Great Recession, and, most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The reason teen years matter in this case is that you have to be old enough to understand what’s going on to really create context around it, but young enough for it to shape your views going forward,” Jason explains.
When we consider what shapes Gen Z, the oldest members of Gen Z were shaped by the last two massive trends — the Great Recession and COVID-19.
“Gen Z didn’t personally struggle during the Great Recession, as they were merely 12 years old,” Jason says. “However, their parents did, and they were entering their teen years observing their parents lose houses, jobs, and money.”
“And then the second big event, which we’re all going through, is COVID-19,” Jason says “And for many, they were now old enough to be impacted by this change themselves, as most who lost their job and faced a reduction of pay were in Gen Z.”
What Does Gen Z Do Now?
Both of these defining moments impacting Gen Z have caused them to view the professional working world much differently as they move into higher level careers.
Two trends that Jason Dorsey observed in his research is that strikingly, Gen Z is much more practical with their money, being predisposed to save their earnings and placing a huge priority on starting salary. They also demonstrate that they believe they are going to have to work longer and harder.
But this does not mean that Gen Z will take any job and say yes to everything. The following trend that directly applies to Gen Z will help worldwide corporations gain and retain these individuals:
Gen Z is statistically the most consistent generation in the world thanks to having access to mobile technology driving education, entertainment, and communication. The original definition of a generation being age and geography does not apply. This should make it easier for an employer to hire them and keep them engaged no matter where they’ve come from geographically or their specific age.
Actionable Insights for Business Leaders Working with Gen Z
Actionable insights to consider as a business leader hiring Gen Z employees all start in the hiring process itself.
“Recruiting was not tailored to Gen Z,” Jason starts. “When you think about going out and trying to get a Gen Z individual to apply for a job, we’ve got to first solve some key hiring problems.”
First, Gen Z has to be able to apply for a job on their mobile device and save the job application as they go. This allows you as an employer to personalize their experience from the start. If they have expressed interest in the role, you can connect with them and ensure they are wanted and needed at your organization right away.
When putting job information out, remember that Gen Z values money tremendously. In the first paragraph of the job posting, Jason suggests disclosing the starting salary, benefits, and retirement perks.
Finally, always have a clear Futureview. Gen Z greatly considers their future and is a generation that wants stability. Once hired, find exponential ways to utilize technology to educate them and reassure them they have a solid future.
Gen Z is the future, just as the generations to follow them will be theirs. Be Anticipatory in how you hire and interact with your multigenerational workforce to see a transformative result in productivity, prosperity, and significance!
December can be very exciting as well as frustrating; it’s really a choice. With all the holiday celebrations, completing the old year while preparing for the new one can get very complicated if you don’t take time to prepare and prioritize!
We deal with an overcrowded social schedule, serious demands placed on our professional obligations, the end of year for our numbers, our referral partner’s numbers, and all the emotions that go with them. One of the keys to help manage and actually enjoy these last days of 2022 is at your fingertips; just prioritize and schedule the things you want and need to get done in advance, and don’t fall victim to “slipping in” additional commitments of your time and energy!
First list is the list of family and friend commitments.
- Parties and gathering
- Concerts
- Traditions both old and new
- Undivided attention
- Celebrations
Now comes the professional obligations
- Professional events
- Referral partner events
- Own company events
- Charitable events
- Work deadlines
You must know your limitations! Set boundaries and cutoff points of no return. Get it all on paper and stick to the timelines you have set for yourself no later than December 5th. Share your plan with your family and work accountability partner so you didn’t miss anything. Then lock it down by December 8th and go out and execute and enjoy! If it didn’t make the list after all of this, it wasn’t a big enough priority! Notice I listed the family & friend section FIRST! That is because those are the things that go into the schedule FIRST! Trust me, this really works!
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It was nice to see both rates and applications rebound this past week. Contrary to what many in the mainstream media would have you believe, the housing market isn’t collapsing, and mortgage applications have improved. I expect that this trend will continue in the weeks to come, but we are far from a stable market, so if your clients are tight on the payment, it’s always best to lock and protect the deal because we can always refinance later.
For those of you that are working this weekend, it is important to be visible! Get out to every open house you can find, stop in at real estate offices, go live on social media, and just be certain that you maintain personal contact with your people. Now more than ever, personal connections generate opportunities!
Last thought for this week is to be sure you start sharing with everyone the last day you can accept a contract from one of your preapproved borrowers that will close in 2022! Many of your competitors are already bailing out on closing this year and more and more will join each day. It pays to stay in the game as long as possible and that you continue to share that information as often as possible. There are people who need to close in 2022. Sellers and buyers for tax reasons; people with expiring leases; agents who need that last deal or two to win that award or to level up in their commission scale. You need to be ready to make it happen!
Please be sure to enjoy your time with your family and friends and remember what I always say; if you are not working, don’t work. If you are working, make sure you are making the most of it!
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Uncertainty. Anxiety. Fear.
To say you have never once felt these emotions in either your professional or personal life is a fallacy. This basic human instinct is a primordial survival technique implemented unconsciously in direct response to the unknown.
In an individual’s personal life, it may come in situations where you take a physical risk, like riding a motorcycle for the first time or going on a roller coaster at a theme park. You know you will likely walk away unscathed from your experience, but your unconscious mind does not know that.
But in one’s professional life, those general triggers of fear all go back to survival in two ways different from the aforementioned adrenaline-filled entertainment experiences. They are money and fulfillment, adding up to what one perceives as success. When you do something professionally, you do it for monetary exchange that the industry places value on, and while that keeps you and your family fed, accomplishment and growth in a skill brings individualized fulfillment.
There are many disruptions that, at a moment’s notice, can step in the way of achieving fulfillment or making money, leaving an individual without purpose or a place in the professional world.
Threat to Survival — Technology Encroaching on Your Skills
In all industries, working professionals, business leaders, and all who make a living doing a specialized skill spend most of their lifetime perfecting it. The practice of your role and skill involved in it is in addition to expensive schooling that gives you the credentials in contemporary society to have the title as well.
So, when something disrupts this course of action, that primordial fight-or-flight survival instinct kicks in and we look for ways to evade the disruption. And for many in our world today, the biggest perceived threat to professional survival is digital disruption, which is accelerating faster than ever before.
To someone who worries about the likes of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), or any other derivative of autonomous digital disruption, the constant swarm of new, transformative technology can make them feel outnumbered and isolated. This is especially true if the organization they work for does not help them grow with these disruptions or gives them the impression that they are steering into the skid together.
Learning Where We Fit with Autonomous Technology
Let’s shift the attention to business leaders and C-suite executives in this equation. How can you prepare your workforce to feel comfortable as digital disruptions impact your industry and daily operation if you yourself do not understand their place in your organization completely?
You cannot!
Much like needing to go to school to become a physician, you cannot perform an operation safely without having the foundations for success. Start by allocating time internally to learning what is changing in the world around you and outside of your industry. An Anticipatory Leader will look at those changes through an exponential viewfinder in which they see those disruptions as being applicable to their industry now before they make an unexpected appearance.
If you are a business leader at a mountain bike manufacturing business, how AI and ML or autonomous machines might be transforming the processes at an auto manufacturing plant is just as applicable at your organization, even if you are much smaller than the auto manufacturer or if the complexities of creating an automobile far outweigh those of making a mountain bike. How can you pre-solve future problems that will eventually work their way into your organization?
Employees Seeing Their Future Eases Their Fear
Now, let’s move back over to a focus on entry-to-mid-level employees and their worries about technology disrupting the status quo.
An Anticipatory Organization that has Anticipatory Leaders heading up every operation helps prepare employees for the shifts caused by disruptive autonomous technology. This is done transparently so that all different generations working in the company feel at ease about how they can grow with said technology, especially since a Baby Boomer employee will worry in much different ways than a Gen Z employee.
Anticipation and the principles of being Anticipatory are ways to better see the future in front of you, both as a business leader and an employee. This is also a measure in what can be referred to as “exponential education.” Exponential education represents a process of learning in which you and your employees learn about disruptive digital technology as it is worked into your organization’s processes.
In essence, this reassures employees that they do not need to go to some formal educational institution with every disruption just to keep their job, thus easing anxiety and that fight-or-flight survival instinct that may lead them to abandon ship. Even further, you as a business leader will feel more in control, looking to notable tells in the world that point an obvious arrow at what you should look out for.
As you work in digitally disruptive technology and maintain a handle on it as a leader and organization, you become the positive disruptor in your industry, streamlining processes, boosting organizational morale, and transforming the ordinary view of success into one of great significance!
We are a week away from Thanksgiving and that means it’s time to prepare for the final countdown of 2022 and the birth of 2023. With recent improvement in the bond market pushing rates lower, we are seeing improvement in those coming in to start the home buying process, as well as those who went to the sidelines and are re-engaging the process again now. A few things you might want to consider taking advantage of these opportunities are:
- Listen carefully to the client’s expectations and provide information and set priorities.
- Talk in terms of payments and how monthly payments are calculated.
- Program eligibility and the benefits and drawbacks of each.
- Update and confirm all documentation for quick turnaround.
- Be VERY clear as to your transaction timelines and how long things take.
- Go over your “Do’s & Don’ts” list. People can quickly drain their assets or overuse credit/apply for new credit for holiday purchases.
- When is the last day you can accept a contract on your preapproved borrowers and still close before the end of the year!
It’s important that you know this information and share it with your clients and referral partners. The transaction process is tricky enough in today’s market with all the volatility that when you add the holidays to it, you can easily see transactions go sideways in a hurry. So, take the time to square yourself away with what you can and can’t do. Set the proper expectations for your clients and referral partners. Stay on top of all your preapproved buyer’s documentation and update everything you may need because the closer we get to the holidays, the more challenging it will be to get these things updated.
Finally, get your holiday schedule written down! There will be all kinds of demands on your time; be sure you do all the things you want/need to do will only happen if you schedule it!
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Many leadership principles have been around since the dawn of time, and those principles have served and still do serve us well. However, given the transformational, exponential changes that involve both technology and human culture taking place, there are new principles of leadership moving in that are vital for us to implement.
Applying newer principles of leadership becomes what I refer to as “Next-Level Leadership” in that they help the leaders of today and tomorrow level up in a way that is often forgotten about in the throes of a legacy, protect-and-defend mindset.
During my most recent Opportunity Hour, I spoke with a colleague and great friend of mine — Simon T. Bailey. Simon is an executive advisor, author of nine books, and business keynote speaker. He’s been recognized recently as one of the top 12 business speakers who get audiences to think big and lead with purpose, something I myself feel to be extremely important in the professional world.
He was also the first African American sales director for the Disney Institute based in Walt Disney World, followed by founding and working in his own firm with over 2,000 organizations in 50 countries while serving on a foundation board for a 100-year-old hospital health system that has over 20,000 employees and 1 billion dollars in revenue.
When we spoke, Simon had tremendous insight into what it takes to be a Next-Level Leader, so I thought I would share these with you to your advantage and help you see how they tie to an Anticipatory Mindset!
Three Next-Level Leadership Foundations
Having done research for a multitude of business leadership strategies across 13 industries, Simon narrowed down a couple starting points on this journey to Next-Level Leadership.
“Number one: Employee wellness is a strategic imperative. So it’s imperative that every organization think about how they are taking care of their leaders. Then, how are the leaders taking care of their employees so that employees can take care of customers?” Simon asked.
“Number two: Customer service is a department, but customer love is a mindset! So how do you ensure everyone has that mindset to continue to move forward in serving customers?”
“Finally, number three is to create a culture of learning,” Simon notes. “Eric Hoffer, noted philosopher, said, ‘In times of change, the learners will inherit the earth while the unlearned will find themselves beautifully equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.’”
People are reskilling and upskilling in an accelerated fashion that causes them to stay, to be more innovative, and to create more cohesion in the organization, because everyone’s learning every day and in every way. This is a foundation that ties to Anticipatory Leadership beautifully! Let’s hone in on this for a moment.
As Anticipatory Leaders know, there are Hard Trends based on future facts that will happen and Soft Trends that are based on assumptions that may or may not happen. When you look at the future facts and you look at the transformational changes, most people think of the future of their organization like looking in a rearview mirror. They’re not really looking out the windshield and ahead because there’s so much taking place today.
Making the future more visible as a leader, you can share certainties, or what I call future truths, that you know will happen, you can be part of reskilling and upskilling all employees, which in turn benefits both yourself and the organization. For instance, if we know a lot of people will be retiring in the coming years, which is a Hard Trend future fact, the Soft Trend you can change as a leader is heeding their knowledge and experience to train newer employees.
Elevating Leadership Performance With Anticipatory Skills
According to many sources on the professional social networking site LinkedIn, Simon has identified the top five skills that are needed as a Next-Level Leader as follows: creativity, adaptability, collaboration, persuasion or storytelling, and emotional intelligence.
Believe it or not, all of those skills are embedded in my Anticipatory Leader System as well, and all humans, whether they are C-suite executives, middle managers, or employees, possess these characteristics, whether they are recognized or not.
We live in a technical world, but we must not forget that we live in a human world as well. Those five skills are human skills that pair with technological transformations, and if we were to highlight the persuasion or storytelling portion of the aforementioned skills, your story as an employee, manager, or leader is what tells the tale of your value and sets you apart. What is the story of you and your job? What is the story of your brand? What is the story of your company? Do we have a shared story or does no one even know this story?
Creativity is another big one, as being creative as a business leader is a human competency that cannot be automated. Many Anticipatory Leader skills pair with this to take leadership to stratospheric heights. Thinking and acting creatively comes from a variety of Anticipatory principles, such as the fact that opposites work better and that many innovative and transformative leaders “go opposite” from what everyone thinks.
Additionally, the Skip It Principle is another big one, where an individual determines what the real problem is in a circumstance, and what problems can essentially be skipped. By learning some strategies and coupling that with creativity and other human competencies, all of a sudden you can find yourself moving forward in prominent ways.
The “Intrepreneur” and People Appreciation
Now, let’s highlight a few of those other five skills mentioned above and what Simon refers to as “Intrepreneurs” in our interview. Of the five skills that a Next-Level Leader needs, adaptability and creativity are found predominantly in intrepreneurs.
“‘Intrepreneurs’ are extremely creative problem solvers,” Simon starts, “These individuals are the type that can parachute into a problem like a soldier, and they have a Swiss army knife of skills.”
The term “intrepreneur” comes from the fact that these game-changing leaders are internal at a company, whereas a traditional entrepreneur is a disruptor working on the outside of an organization. These employees find their inner MacGyver, so to speak, and they solve problems quicker and long before they happen. What adaptability heeds from my Anticipatory Leader System is pre-solving problems, just like when a Next-Level Leader leverages future certainties to improve their organization’s future.
With entrepreneurs, the lesson to be learned is that anyone at an organization can be innovative, which means as a Next-Level Leader, you must find a way to incentivize all to innovate. An easy, expert way to do this is with simple appreciation, according to Simon!
“Recognize people who do things right,” Simon explains. “In my experience, one minute spent on recognition increases 100 minutes of initiative.”
It’s simple: Appreciate people, because they’re human. Be empathetic, connect with your employees as a leader, and see the ripple effect of success. We are taught to appreciate customers and show them value, but too often we as leaders forget to appreciate who makes the organization move forward through it all.
Prioritize Significance Over Success
Next-Level Leaders do not chase success; they prioritize significance and let success follow. To start bringing a bigger focus on significance first, Next-Level Leaders let go of the things that aren’t working anymore, instead of drowning trying to grab ahold of new things while holding on to the old.
What is considered “old” or “legacy” can be a variety of elements at an organization, and ones that are not always outdated technology or a dated brand image. Simon had a few specifics to bring us home:
“Number one, create a workplace culture where everyone matters. Number two, create a deeper connection with team members so that they know that they’re not just a human doing, but they’re a human being. And number three, realize that employees have a career portfolio, and determine how to help them increase their brilliance.”
This is what it means to incorporate inclusivity thinking, and Next-Level Leaders who really understand inclusivity thinking look at their employees through the lens of what they can be. Simon has firsthand experience with this.
“When I was working at Disney,” Simon starts, “there was some leader who saw something in me and said, ‘do more of that! When you do more of that, that’s your strength.’ So in other words, I started focusing on what I could do instead of focusing on things that were not in my lane.”
Ask yourself: How can I make people better every day? The job of a leader is not just to motivate people to work harder. The job of a Next-Level Leader is to invite people on a journey to discover the leader within themselves while they’re following you.
The elections are done, the markets are sifting through the results and thinking about what it all means. The ten-year treasury auction was about as bad as it gets, and we get the CPI numbers this morning that will push the inflation issue to a series of new discussions. Then there are all the internet click baiters that will push a housing narrative that is loaded with tragic headlines so that people are forced to click and look at the wreck!
You have choices, and so do your clients. Everyone lives someplace. You rent or you own. There is a cost either way. Historically, ownership is the chosen path for better than 65% of the population and remains the “American Dream”. The key to getting in front of those people who are in a position to make that choice is actually easier than you think, provided you have a plan and can make the math overcome the fear.
Using the IMT coaching website, use the many 4th quarter strategies to get in front of opportunities.
- The Power of Pie
- Birthday Calls
- The Black Friday Sale
- Customer appreciation events like day/night at the movies
- Help us pick your new neighbor
- Small bank and credit union route run
All of these will help you get out in front of the people who are actually in the position or have the need to sell a house, buy a house, or having an issue figuring out if buying now is the right path for them today!
There are just seven weeks left in 2022. How many people will you help get into their new homes before the calendar turns to 2023? Repeat after me, “If it’s going to be, it’s up to me!” Just seven weeks until 2023; so, what’s it going to be?
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Patience is a virtue. Throughout much of childhood, our parents and guardians instilled in us to be patient or to wait calmly for our turn at something.
Having patience is an important characteristic in everyday life, but as an adult — especially if you are a business leader or C-suite executive — too often does the concept of patience become a hands-off defense mechanism used to fight discomfort in facing change. The mindset that surrounds this behavior is known as “wait and see,” where a company tries to simply wait out the storm of disruption patiently, hoping the status quo will remain intact after the clouds clear.
Take it from my decades of experience in helping both disruptive and disrupted clients: The wait and see mindset is extremely self-destructive thanks to the speed of digital disruptions, how competitors are leveraging them exponentially, and the rate of change in the general physical world that has always been constant.
Waiting for Change Is Self-Destructive
Assuming change will simply pass you by without impacting you or your organization is as foolish as thinking that, somehow, because you really enjoy sunny afternoons, night will never fall upon you.
Now, the darkness of evening encompassing you while you sit outside hoping the afternoon sun will stay exactly where it is in the sky may make you cold or make it hard for you to navigate your way back inside, but in this scenario, sitting and waiting is generally harmless. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for disregarding disruption and change as a business leader.
Sitting and waiting for inevitable change to come, assuming you will know how to pivot, is not being patient. No matter how much you and your colleagues believe that a brilliant idea will fall into your lap while you wait, that wait and see mindset is self-destruction in disguise.
Though if you can believe it, digital technology is not the only thing driving change, such as the disruption we have witnessed in the retail industry thanks to eCommerce. “The way things are” and the assumption that customers like the way the world works at any given moment may not be as rosy as you think, and this is driving more identifiable change than the technology itself.
All Companies Have Problems — Identify Yours
Disruption is happening everywhere, impacting even those presumably secure industries that are already resting on their laurels without even realizing it. Considering eCommerce websites and applications, businesses in this sector are a seemingly unshakeable area of retail, immune to the level of disruption that they brought to the traditional retail industry, right?
Wrong! I hear constantly how customers of both small stores and large chains alike are complaining about online stores, but not because their products aren’t available due to shipping issues. It is because the functionality of online shopping is struggling, and many have user-based needs that are not being fulfilled.
An example can be found in shopping for apparel items through a clothing store’s website. A customer knows they want a hooded sweatshirt with a logo from their favorite band on it, they know the store has it, but the online store poorly displays what sizes are in stock, what color options are there, and even when the customer puts it in their cart, the checkout process fails.
Customers’ needs change by the hour and even by the minute in some cases! When a company feels blindsided by changes in the industry — which are most often brought about by customers’ needs — it is likely because they don’t think their customers have any problems with their service, or that they have no internal problems. Trust me, they do!
All companies have problems, and the smallest ones leave open gaps in your foundation that will be preyed upon by disruptive, Anticipatory organizations that have a solution. This in turn appears as “change” to you and your employees. Enough leaks in a boat will cause it to sink, no matter how strong of a material it is constructed from. But the positive reality is that most of those leaks haven’t damaged the hull of your business just yet — you still have time!
Giving Self-Disruption a Try
I once heard a great quote from an entrepreneur: “Don’t focus on what will put your competition out of business. Instead, figure out what will put you out of business, and then do it!”
When it comes to disruption and change, it is better to self-disrupt than to self-destruct! Ask yourself: What will put us out of business? If the answer to that question pertains to faulty processes that have never been remedied or problems you are ignoring internally and externally that customers frequently complain about, you are hitting the self-destruct button on your organization.
Being honest with the issue brings to light a new, more opportunistic question: Why don’t you do what will disrupt your business nearly to the point of closing up shop?
What you are doing is identifying a Hard Trend future certainty that will impact your organization. What’s more is that you are most likely not the only business or organization that would be blindsided by that disruption you identify from that question. Getting in front of it first and driving transformation by being Anticipatory will keep you safe and can even end in a massive transformation in your bottom line!
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There are dozens of old sayings that apply in today’s market, you can pick from any of all that you like:
- Everything works, nothing doesn’t.
- The harder you work, the luckier you get.
- If you do what you always have done, you will get what you have always gotten; but if you don’t like what you are starting to get, stop doing what you are doing!
- Those that succeed are willing to do the things that those that fail will not!
- You must do what the others won’t, so you can have the things that the others can’t!
The common ground is that they all hold true to a very simple reality; if you don’t do the work, you can’t receive the reward! Think about it. For the last few years loans fell from the sky. Purchases, refinances, it was all so easy. There were just so many opportunities it was a struggle just to keep up. The problem is, almost everyone became focused on opportunity management and forgot (or never learned) how to generate opportunities!
Yes, business has slowed as rates have gone higher, but people are still buying homes. Yes, rising rates make it a challenge, but home ownership is still a better value and a safer bet than renting. Yes, rates can go lower, and then you can refinance. Yes, rates can go higher, and then you are set with a P&I payment that will never go higher! Yes, property values may go lower, but you were already committed to being happy for the next thirty years with your payment in exchange for the home you get to live in. The reality remains, the interest rate on renting is 100% on a one-year balloon, with no guarantee of renewal at any price!
We have the jobs report on Friday and the election next Tuesday. Come next Wednesday morning the markets will have to digest the results and choose a path. Either way, people will buy and sell houses and likely need mortgages. It is up to you if you want to sit by the phone and hope it rings; or create an activity list and generate opportunities. And remember, Hope is not a strategy for success!
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Entitlement carries the definition “give right(s) to.” Parents give certain rights to their children. Football coaches often give their quarterbacks the right to alter a pre-set play – called an audible. The operative word in this definition of entitlement is give. Someone must give the right to another.
Today’s parents are often concerned about young people who “feel” they automatically have rights without them being given. This is in no way in conflict with what “certain inalienable rights” means. Many generations before never felt they were entitled to anything that they didn’t earn. If they didn’t earn it, they didn’t get it. Period!
This now leads us to today’s sports stars. The opinion here is that there is a difference between sports stars and athletes, who by the definition herein are those who carry the responsibility of earning what they gain. Entitlement is not even in their dictionary. Athletes, by the definition here, don’t feel entitled to status, fame, money, etc., until after they have earned them. Take notice of a police blotter report that lists NFL players and other NFL employees who have been arrested.
These arrests were for traffic tickets, DUI, assaults, thefts, disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, possession of drugs, carrying a concealed weapon, and domestic violence. Why does this happen? How can they be allowed to represent the shield of the NFL, and more importantly, how, and when will they learn to avoid such maleficence?
Herm Edwards, former head coach of college and professional football teams has often said, “Playing in the NFL is a privilege, not a right. Players and coaches must honor that (NFL) shield through their behavior and stature.” May we add, college players must also honor their college/university history and traditions.
We thank those many players who do listen and do honor exemplary leadership!
Will you pattern your behavior after those who honor and respect traditions and the “shield?”
The phrase “You have got your head up in the clouds” is no longer an insult in today’s world — having your head in the clouds may be the best way forward in business! Of course, I’m talking about Augmented Reality (AR); a transformative, disruptive digital technology that has been gaining traction for years and looks to be continuing its exponential growth trend in the years to come. What was originally viewed as only a feature to interactive video games of the future has now made its way into a multitude of industries, and now there are even more opportunities for entrepreneurs and business leaders to leverage AR in advantageous ways.
Bear in mind, it is not always a specific product or service that advances in AR pertain to. Oftentimes, it is industry-level disruption caused by transformative technologies like Augmented Reality, niche applications of AR that bring new sectors of an industry into the spotlight, or Hard Trend future certainties surrounding AR that businesses and organizations should be examining closely to find a way to leverage before someone else does.
So put on your favorite set of smart glasses and get ready to look closely at some of the most common current trends of AR coming our way in the next year or so! As you explore these topics below, I encourage you to think exponentially about how they can be beneficial to your operation.
Retail and Cosmetics Industry — Try Before You Buy
Even to this day, department stores have areas where men and women can smell perfumes and colognes; try on pants, shirts, swimwear, and other apparel items; and even sample hand creams for consistency and smell. These are all sensory activities that trigger an emotion in a consumer to either purchase the product or to better understand what they don’t want.
Augmented Reality applications have already started to emerge in this capacity, as witnessed with companies like Warby Parker utilizing the software to allow customers to “try on” frames they select from their app. Additional to eyewear, AR applications also have stemmed into the apparel industry and more recently, the cosmetics industry. An individual interested in lipstick and blush can see how those colors work for them in similar fashion to trying on frames through Warby Parker.
On a human level, this allows businesses and manufacturers to connect with customers on a more personal level, in that they allow them to see what they would look like in apparel or cosmetics without being in public. Believe it or not, this dabbles in my Skip It Principle in unique, exponential ways. Many customers have trouble trying things in front of potential strangers, so AR applications give them a new level of personal privacy in doing so.
Digital Humans and Avatars — The NEW Influencers
If you work in marketing at any size organization of any industry, you are likely familiar with the term “influencer marketing.” If not, let me shed some light on the matter. Influencers are public figures that endorse a brand, just as a professional athlete endorses a pair of sneakers or a musician endorses a specific guitar.
But what about digital influencers, and better yet, digital humans that endorse real products to real people? The Metaverse is a digital universe that AR and Virtual Reality (VR) applications operate in, and within that Metaverse, human beings exist in the form of an avatar. Overseas and around the world, avatars that emulate digital human beings are on the rise in multimedia marketing, interacting with customers on a personal level in the Metaverse as product influencers.
What is further? Consider digital humans selling digital products to real humans in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) — a concept I recently explored in a previous blog. If you feel this all to be too “out of this world” for your industry, think again. Marketing researchers estimate that the digital human industry alone will be worth billions in just a few years, opening a veritable vault of opportunity for industries to capitalize on this Augmented Reality concept.
Don’t Lose Yourself — Augmented Reality and Our Both/And World
Digital human beings, virtual changing rooms … many are asking with panic, “What has this world come to?!”
Are we losing ourselves in all of this digital technology? Maybe to some degree but staying human in the digital world and finding ways to better the human customer experience with digitally disruptive technology like AR is up to us! Doing so is accomplished first by understanding my Both/And Principle found in my Anticipatory Leader System.
The Both/And Principle focuses on the reality that something new and potentially disruptive may transform the way things are done but will in no way completely erase where we have come from. Especially as it pertains to digital humans and avatars, AR applications will not completely replace the human, tactile experience of trying on clothes or interacting with other human beings.
Trying on cosmetics may be simply done using AR filters and applications, but where AR and VR fall short is in other human sensory areas, including smell, taste, and touch. Until your mobile device screen can emulate how a pillow feels or spritz some cologne on your wrist for sampling, the physical world of consumer experiences is still there and is very valuable.
The two Augmented Reality concepts explored in today’s blog are meant to enhance the customer user experience, not completely replace the old. Additionally, these concepts have Hard Trend future certainties that all business leaders and C-suite executives can leverage in their specific industry. Thinking in terms of a Both/And world brings clarity to your Futureview and how you can use AR and applications of it to positively disrupt and transform the world.
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