Tag

accountability
Hand removing a wooden block from a tower, illustrating how individual decisions can affect an entire team

Leadership Accountability: When Common Sense Isn’t Common

Why “they should know better” isn’t a leadership strategy There are few things more frustrating as a leader than dealing with something that feels like it should be common sense. Why didn’t you say something six weeks ago? Why wait until the last minute? Why send a text instead of having the conversation when you...
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Two newspapers labeled "Good News" and "Bad News" illustrating how the order of positive and negative feedback influences leadership communication and employee behavior.

The Feedback Sandwich Is Broken: What Leaders Should Do Instead

I was sitting in church this weekend when my pastor asked a question that stopped me mid-note-taking. “When you’re about to get good news and bad news,” he said, “which do you want first?” He asked the congregation to raise their hands. Overwhelmingly, people wanted the bad news first. Then he made a claim that...
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Orthodontic power chain demonstrating how connected pressure moves multiple teeth, illustrating organizational change leadership.

What a Power Chain Taught Me About Leading Organizational Change

Organizational change rarely fails because leaders choose the wrong strategy. More often, it fails because organizations mistake discomfort for failure. Every meaningful transformation creates resistance before it creates results. Ironically, I learned one of the best lessons about leading change while sitting in my orthodontist’s chair. Eight months into braces, I thought I knew what...
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Black letter blocks spelling TRUST on a blue background with the text ‘What’s Trust Got to Do With It?’ displayed above and below.

Why Trust Matters More Than Talent in High-Performing Teams

Your team is keeping score. Not on productivity metrics or quarterly goals, though they notice those too. They’re tracking something more fundamental: whether you do what you say you’ll do. Whether your words match your actions. Whether it’s safe to tell you the truth. You can see it in the small behaviors that shift when...
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“Accountability framework for team leaders”

Coaching for Accountability: Leadership Lessons That Stick

As I sat observing a leadership team discuss their challenges, I could see the familiar struggle in their eyes – that delicate balancing act we all face. On one hand, they needed to drive performance and hold their teams accountable. On the other hand, they wanted to show empathy, avoid micromanaging, and maintain positive relationships....
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Episode 75: Accountability & Your Sales Team with Hamish Knox

“Prospects have their walls up. We need to bring those walls down before we can have the human to human conversation.” – Hamish Knox On this episode of The Pivotal Leader Gina Trimaco interviewed Hamish Knox, who plays an important role in Sandler’s worldwide organization and is a recognized business development expert specializing in executive...
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The End Of Summer Is The Beginning of Crushing Q4

By Gina Trimarco, Chief Results Officer All summer long it’s so normal to get those reply emails that start with “I’m on vacation until xyz date.” It’s a CRM juggling game of proving to your bosses that you really, truly are following up on new business but “they’re on vacation, I left a message” becomes...
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Finding Good Employees – Ask Yourself “Why”

By Gina Trimarco, Chief Results Officer “We can’t find good employees” is a phrase I continue to hear from nearly every client. No matter what the industry or geography this sentiment is shared often. And while we are a smaller company that doesn’t depend on many employees to manage our businesses, I do have many...
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Common Sense Customer Service – That’s The (Meal) Ticket!

By Gina Trimarco, Chief Results Officer How is it that the employees of the same company can differ so much when it comes to customer service? This is a question of training versus common sense but really it comes down to hiring culture. I recently attended a client’s annual meeting and awards dinner at a...
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Employee Empowerment Is Not A “Job Duty”

By Gina Trimarco, Chief Results Officer How often have you experienced a poor customer service situation where the employee says “I’m not allowed to do that” or “It’s our company policy”? It’s frustrating and annoying. One of the first things we teach in customer service training is what NOT to say. Don’t tell the customer...
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