The Incredible Gift of Gratitude by Meridith Elliott Powell

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Competitive, challenging, and constantly changing—that is today’s marketplace. If the last few years have taught us nothing else, it is that our lives, our health, our businesses, and our customers—things can change in a moment’s notice. To succeed, we must be hypervigilant and prepared for anything. 

It is tough out there. It takes a lot of energy and focus and allows little time for rest. With the holidays, we have the opportunity to slow down, close our offices, and spend a little time with family and friends, sharing a meal and reflecting on what we are thankful for. In essence, the holidays allow us to focus on something that is good for our family, our friends, ourselves, our community, and even our business—gratitude. 

When we think about gratitude, we typically think of relationships or what we are grateful for in our personal lives, but gratitude also plays a significant role in business. According to research done by Plasticity Labs, gratitude has an incredibly positive impact on leadership and business. 

The impact of a culture of gratitude: 

• A culture of gratitude predicts higher job satisfaction for team members and leaders. 

• A culture of gratitude fosters a powerful sense of connection and community. 

• Employees who work in a culture of gratitude focus more on what is right with their job rather than what they do not like. 

• Employees who work in a culture of gratitude believe that their job and work environment will consistently get better and continuously improve. 

Gratitude is powerful. It is good for you, your team, your business, and your community. 

4 Strategies to Bring Gratitude into the Workplace 

1. Make a List – of the things in your workplace that you are grateful for right now. What is valuable and what are you proud of? Things like your business is doing well; you made it through the last few years; you are coming together again and connecting as a team; you have retained most of your employees, etc. Make a list of what you are grateful for and take a few moments to start your day by reading it. Beginning every day by reviewing this list will ensure that you see the workday through the lens of being grateful. 

2. Find Opportunity – make the time to be grateful and be intentional. If you want to create a culture of gratitude, then you need to find the opportunities to see the good things in your company. I work with a CEO who finds one point of gratitude every morning and one every afternoon. He leaves his office and goes to find the positives with his team and in his company. He then shares that with the entire team. 

3. Focus on Wins – to create a culture of gratitude you need everyone focused on finding the good things in your organization and with their fellow team members. So, when you see others practicing gratitude, focus on those wins. What you as the leader focus on will expand; that is what you will get more of. To get more gratitude in your business you need to call it out, focus on it, and celebrate every act of gratitude you see. 

4. Be Mindful – last but not least, be mindful. This takes work. I know I am frustrated by things more often than I see the positive and reflect on what I am grateful for. You need to train yourself to start to integrate gratitude into every facet of your life. You are the way you lead. By being mindful, you will create opportunities to find the good vs. the bad and reap the rewards of what a grateful culture will bring into your business and your life. 

So, I am wishing you and your family a wonderful holiday season. I hope it is full of wonderful and positive acts that bring all the rewards that only a culture of gratitude can bring. 

Meridith Elliott Powell is a business strategist, keynote speaker, and award-winning author with expertise in business growth, sales, and leadership strategies. She was named One of the Top 15 Business Growth Experts to Watch by Currency Fair and One of the Top 20 Sales Experts To Follow by LinkedIn. Meridith’s latest book, The Confidence Plan: A Guided Journal, is now available from Sound Wisdom. This guided journal will enable you to discover your confidence, learn to trust yourself deeply, and step out boldly into a happier, more fulfilled, and more successful life.

Crack the Code on the Biggest Challenge Facing Business Today by Meridith Elliott Powell

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What if I told you that today’s uncertainty can actually lead to opportunity and growth? What if I told you that disruption, even when negative, can be just what you need to take your company and team to the next level? And what if I told you that when you embrace uncertainty, it can positively drive innovation, employee engagement, and bottom-line results?  

Now, what if I told you that if you don’t address uncertainty; if as a leader, you don’t address the issue, the elephant in the room; if you don’t have a plan and a strategy for turning uncertainty into opportunity, then the three most important areas of your company—innovation, talent, engagement, bottom-line results will actually be negatively impacted? 

Now, what if I told you that inside this ground-breaking research report is the answer to those questions and the key to turning uncertainty into your greatest competitive advantage? 

Click here to download our 2022/2023 original research on The State of Uncertainty and Its Impact On American Business Today. 

In my 2021/2022 report, I presented research and data I commissioned from The Center for Generational Kinetics (CGK) and shared with you:  

• The influence of uncertainty in business, including the resulting emerging challenges  

• How top leaders navigate this uncertainty  

• A proven 9-step formula you and your team can use to leverage uncertainty, creating immediate opportunities and long-term sustainable growth. 

In this new report for 2022/2023, I compare several data points to last year’s data, giving you unique year-over-year insight into whether your competitors are evolving or missing the boat in this time of prolonged uncertainty. With this apples-to-apples comparison, you can identify early trends and patterns your company can leverage to thrive in a constantly changing market.  

I also reveal and analyze our new findings for 2022/2023, including the powerful impact uncertainty has on the biggest challenges facing business today:  

• Sales and marketing 

• Business innovation 

• Talent recruitment, engagement, and retention 

I uncover how your company can transform uncertainty into opportunity in all of these areas. I give you tools for ensuring uncertainty doesn’t negatively impact your organization in these areas, costing you bottom-line results. I also guide you through the three vital phases your company must complete to respond successfully to any crisis.   

As they did in the previous study, CGK gathered data for 2022/2023 from personal interviews, surveys, and focus groups comprised of business leaders across a broad spectrum of industries, tenures, ages, genders, and experience levels. Since the last report, the world has changed even more. Although Covid is still (and probably will always be) a part of our everyday lives, the pandemic is over for all intents and purposes. It’s no longer front and center in the discussion of uncertainty. Inflation, supply chain issues, as well as exhaustion from continued and never-ending uncertainty, and global unrest have taken over. 

The results show how being ready for uncertainty is more vital than ever for businesses and leaders. And they also show a few surprises, like how certain types of leaders have changed their perspective and how that change is impacting their companies.  

Overall, uncertainty remains one of the greatest opportunities for people who know how to use it. It’s a secret weapon for your organization, clients, and team—but only if you shift how you think, feel, and—most importantly—act towards uncertainty.  

In this report, I help you do just that. I analyze uncertainty on a deep level, present ways for you to develop a strong strategy for capitalizing on it, and give you tools for engaging your team in executing that strategy. 

Uncertainty will always be a constant force, but it’s becoming a stronger and more frequent presence year after year. You must be able to use it to your advantage—or risk being passed by in the marketplace. 

Meridith Elliott Powell is a business strategist, keynote speaker, and award-winning author with expertise in business growth, sales, and leadership strategies. She was named One of the Top 15 Business Growth Experts to Watch by Currency Fair and One of the Top 20 Sales Experts To Follow by LinkedIn. Thrive Workbook & Guided Journal—now available from Sound Wisdom—equips businesses, teams, and leaders to leverage uncertainty to drive innovation and organizational growth.

5 Strategies to Create a Structure for Your Sales Calls That Gets Results by Meridith Elliott Powell

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A sales call is a privilege that every sales professional needs to take seriously. The most important thing a business owner has is their time, and you need to make the most of it. Remember, a sales call is not something these leaders grant to everyone. So take it seriously, and go into the sales call with a well-structured plan. 

Whether your business owner has gifted you an hour or just fifteen minutes for the call, you want to ensure you maximize your time and, more importantly, theirs. You need a structure to squeeze as much out of the time as you can.  

Every sale call with a leader, whether it is a cold call or a follow-up call where you hope to close the deal, should be well-designed and focused on the desired result. Here’s a great plan to follow when developing your sales call structure.  

5 Strategies to Create a Structure That Gets Results 

1. First, you want to set the stage – think about how the sales call needs to look and how you want it to flow. Will it be in person or virtual? If in person, are they coming to you, are you going to them, or will you meet them for lunch or coffee? 

If virtual, you’ll want to consider which technology to use and what your video setting will look like.  

Also, start to think about who needs to be involved in the sales call from your side as well as theirs. 

2. Next, you’ll want to create the agenda – so you have a feel for how the call will flow and as a gesture of confidence to your business owner. Providing them with an agenda lets them know what to expect and that this is a good use of their time.  

When you put together the agenda, share it; let the business owner know whom they should ask to attend from their company and who will be attending (position, title, role) from your company. If in person, over lunch or coffee, share the address and parking instructions. If on video, share the technology and the expectation that their video needs to be on. 

3. Now it is time to Craft the Conversation – design how you see it flowing and the steps you will take to cover all the information you want and need to be addressed. How will you open the call and establish rapport? What background information can you present to ensure you show that you understand the industry, the executive, and the challenges?  

What questions do you need to ask to deepen the conversation and gather the information that you need? How will you close the conversation and be respectful of their time? 

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4. Be mindful and thoughtful of your transitions – these are key; remember your time is limited, and you most likely have a lot of ground to cover. So how will you transition from one subject to another? How will you quickly move from building rapport into the heart of the conversation? If the business owner goes off on a tangent, what will you do to bring them back on track? Thinking ahead and planning your transitions during the call will ensure you are prepared and can keep to your agenda. 

5. Last but not least, don’t be too rigid – while structure is important, this is also a sales conversation. When the business owner gives you an opening or brings up a new idea, don’t be so structured that you miss an opportunity. 

Again, a sales call is a privilege. Use your time wisely and effectively. Structuring the sales calls allows you to be prepared, confident, and secure that you can maximize the time you have to engage with the business owner and create a result that is valuable for both of you.  

Meridith Elliott Powell is a business strategist, keynote speaker, and award-winning author with expertise in business growth, sales, and leadership strategies. She was named One of the Top 15 Business Growth Experts to Watch by Currency Fair and One of the Top 20 Sales Experts To Follow by LinkedIn. Discover more critical sales strategies in her book 30 Days to Sales Success: Build More Profitable Relationships, Close More Sales, Drive More Business.

4 Strategies to Turn Networking into Results by Meridith Elliott Powell

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I am a firm believer that if you build your network, it will change your life. In my opinion, networking is one of the most important skills you can have to grow your business, build your team, and expand your client base. The impact of and the lasting effects of networking are immeasurable.  

But usually, when I say the word networking, it is as if I can feel the energy sucked right out of the room. And I get it; people don’t like the idea of networking. They don’t like the idea of walking into a room full of people they don’t know and start making a conversation.  

Again, I get it; it is awkward. But while networking may be uncomfortable, it has an incredible return on investment. Building relationships and investing in others can help you with your career, advance your skills, open doors, land new clients and create countless opportunities you could never have created on your own.  

If you build your network, it will change your life. 

So, I would say that is a pretty strong return on investment for spending just a little time feeling awkward and pushing out of your comfort zone. If networking has such a strong return on investment, then why don’t we like to network? 

Well, we already said it is awkward and uncomfortable, but beyond that, networking can take time. It is not an instant gratification investment. Like anything else, to get the most out of networking, you need to invest the time and understand how to network—the skill and strategies and what it takes to master the art.  

Four Strategies to Turn Networking into Results  

1. Shift Your Paradigm – In other words, change how you think about networking. Instead of seeing a room full of strangers, start to see a room full of people with the connections and the information that can help you achieve any goal, get closer to any opportunity, and make significant progress in achieving your dreams. 

Now that is a good perspective, right? When you are attending a networking event or meeting people for the first time, shift your paradigm to think about growth, enhancement, and an opportunity to learn.  

2. Not About You – One of the biggest things people say to me about why they hate networking is they do not know what to say. Well, guess what? The good news is you do not have to say much. Networking is NOT about you.  

In fact, if you are talking about yourself, you are missing the point. The point of networking is to learn about other people, who they are, their interests, talents, and most importantly, their needs. 

Invest in other people first.  

3. 80/20 Rule – No, this is not the typical 80/20 rule; it is more about the 80/20 talking rule. You will get the most value from networking when you talk just 20 percent of the time and listen 80 percent of the time.  

You need to be prepared to listen. How do you do that? You come ready with great questions, hang on every word, and focus on what your networking partner is saying. Use their comments to go deeper, dig deeper, and find the common ground that can help you build a strong relationship. 

4. Invest to Expand – And last but not least, you need to realize that one interaction does not a relationship or value make. You need to keep investing in the relationship. Networking is a lifestyle, not a task.  

Networking is a lifestyle, not a task. 

It is not something you do only when you head to a networking event; you do it every day like you brush your teeth and exercise. If you don’t do those things every day, well, we need to talk! 

Yes, I believe that if you build your network, you will change your life. It is one of the most important things you need to do to build your life and your business and enhance your career. 

Voted one of the Top 15 Business Growth Experts to Watch by Currency Fair, highly engaging corporate motivational keynote speaker Meridith Elliott Powell delivers a cutting-edge message, rooted in real-life examples and real-world knowledge. Meridith’s presentations are full of powerful content, highly interactive, and fun. She helps her clients learn the leadership development, sales, and business growth strategies to turn uncertainty to competitive advantage. Get your copy of her book THRIVE: Strategies to Turn Uncertainty to Strategic Advantage from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and anywhere else books are sold.

3 Strategies to Get Your Succession Planning Moving by Meridith Elliott Powell

I was speaking in Baltimore, Maryland, at a Healthcare Finance conference. Because I was the closing keynote, I flew in the day before so I could spend some time connecting with some attendees and listening to the other speakers.  

As you can imagine, the topics the speakers covered ranged from leadership to technology to government regulation—pretty standard line-up except for one guy, the speaker who was on before me. 

A professor at the University of Maryland by day, he had started keynoting based on a new book he had published about the future of business. He called himself a futurist, someone who studies the future and makes predictions based on trends.  

He spoke about everything from the disappearance of full-time employment to the role robotics will play in replacing traditional manual jobs. While I did not buy in or agree with all of what he said, when he started talking about the workforce and the future of employees and talent going forward, my ears perked up. 

Beginning with what we all knew, finding great help is hard to find, and there is a virtual war on talent. He then shed some new light on why. He said that today’s workforce, while eager, is far less prepared than our parents’ generation. 

Today’s Workforce 

With baby boomers retiring at rapid rates, either because they want to or age and health are making that decision for them, there is just not enough talent to take their place. The natural succession plan would be Gen X. Roughly ages 38 to 53, they are the smallest of the generations, so just by sheer numbers, there are not enough of them to move into these vital leadership positions. 

In addition, after the recession that started in 2008, many Gen X men did not return to the workforce. Having been hit hardest by layoffs and downsizing, many opted out of the job market, and, unfortunately, it looks like they are staying out for good. 

That leaves millennials (roughly 21 to 37); while they are an even larger generation than the baby boomers, they are not nearly as experienced, according to our futurist speaker. He shared that things like organized sports and helicopter parenting caused millennials to miss the opportunity that lack of parental involvement provides for developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills.  

Boomers grew up in a time when kids walked to school, sports were self-organizing, and parents backed up the teacher no matter if he was right or wrong. Those taught boomers early on how to persevere, be resilient, and solve problems—skills that would prove invaluable in the workforce. 

Millennials bring amazing skills to the workplace; they are just different, and some of these foundational skills still need to be developed. That changes everything about how we view succession planning and the new role they need to play in our corporate culture. We used to have the luxury of waiting to do a succession plan when a leader was actually ready to retire or was thinking about stepping down. In today’s world, succession planning is an ongoing strategy and one of the most vital elements—a core competency—you need to have in place to ensure sustainability and long-term success. Also, it is a strategy that is never complete and needs to be continually updated, communicated, and invested in. 

So, where do you start, and how do you get your succession plan moving? 

Take Inventory— 

First and foremost, you need to understand where you are: what talent you have, what talent you need, and what talent is available in your marketplace. In other words, you need to take inventory. You need to get a clear perspective of what it takes from a talent perspective to run your company effectively. What roles could easily be filled with existing talent, and what roles will you need to recruit for? 

Create Criteria— 

You need to develop your criteria your standards. What do you future leaders need to have in terms of skills, talent, and values? Develop criteria of what it really takes beyond experience and job history to lead your company.  

Start Small— 

Succession planning is not an easy task. There are many moving parts, and there is a lot of required investment in terms of time and resources. So there is no need to develop the entire succession plan in one sitting. Feel free to start small. Begin with the most critical positions—those most vital to the organization and/or those with leaders closest to retirement. Get those succession plans in place, see what is working and what is not, and adjust and continue your succession planning strategy. 

Meridith Elliott Powell is a business strategist, keynote speaker, and award-winning author with expertise in business growth, sales, and leadership strategies. She was named One of the Top 15 Business Growth Experts to Watch by Currency Fair and One of the Top 20 Sales Experts To Follow by LinkedIn. Learn more succession-planning tips in her book, co-authored with Mary C. Kelly Who Comes Next?: Leadership Succession Planning Made Easy (Nonfiction Authors Association Gold Award recipient).

Three Strategies to Enhance Company Culture in a Virtual World by Meridith Elliott Powell

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One of my favorite clients works in the manufacturing space, and lucky for them, 2020 was a great year. Despite the pandemic, they grew, added more staff, and increased profits by 32%. 

Working together, we spent most of the early months of the pandemic navigating the consistent increase in demand. We spent our time helping over three-quarters of their staff learn to work remotely and the other one-third adjust to the new regulations and protocols to ensure a safe working environment. 

For the first few months, company culture was the last thing on anyone’s mind. The team was engaged. Most of their employees were grateful to have a job, others driven by the urgent need to help their customers and team members. Pretty much everyone was willing to do whatever it took to keep the company growing. 

Now we find ourselves over a year into this crisis, and the tide is shifting. Team members are getting burned out and starting to disengage. They suffer from “Zoom fatigue.” They struggle to achieve work-life balance, and they are getting frustrated. 

For the first time since this pandemic began, the leadership team is wrestling with how long will this go on? How do we keep our team engaged? And how do we maintain and enhance our company culture in a virtual world? 

Those are great questions that many leaders are challenged with today because building a culture and leading a team in a remote environment is different. It requires new strategies and a new set of ideas. 

Before we jump in and start discussing the strategies you need to build and maintain your company culture, let’s talk about what culture is and why it matters, even more so in a virtual world. 

Culture is the set of values and beliefs a company has. When your culture is strong, your employees not only understand those values and beliefs; they use them to drive their attitude, their behavior, and the experience they create for team members and customers. With a strong culture, you get a more engaged team, a more productive work environment, and more satisfied customers. 

Now culture matters because employees are more engaged, more productive, and tend to stay longer when they work for a company whose values and beliefs are aligned with theirs. Let’s look at the facts: companies with winning organizational cultures have 72% higher employee engagement ratings. 65% of employees say their company culture is a deciding factor in whether they stay long-term or not, and 77% of employees believe a strong culture enables them to produce higher levels of work. 

So, culture matters, and in a world where employees can work from anywhere and for anyone, giving them something to believe in, be a part of, and contribute to is one of the best tools you have to keep top talent. 

There is so much value in investing in your company culture, so how do you get it right in a virtual world and working with a remote team? 

1. Overly Communicate 

Very few leaders communicate enough and far fewer communicate enough in a virtual world. You have to realize the moment your team started working from their homes, they felt disconnected, shut off, and isolated. They are unsure of how your company is doing, what challenges you’re facing, what you are focused on for 2021, and how they can best contribute. 

You need to be answering their questions, and much more. You need to ensure that you communicate with your team often and provide opportunities for them to communicate with you. Communication is a two-way street, and if you want to drive culture, you need to ensure your team is talking to you as much as you are talking to them. 

BEST PRACTICES: Here are some of the best ideas we see successful leaders today putting into place. 

Weekly kick-off video – the CEO starts each week with a video that lets the team know where the focus needs to be, what she expects of them, and then rewards and recognizes individual contributions. 

Town Halls – monthly or quarterly, town halls with the CEO and/or leadership team allow employees to get relevant updates and, more importantly, ask questions, get first-hand information, and heard on significant challenges. 

Monthly Financial Updates – humanizing the business model by allowing employees to learn from the CFO how the company makes money, what they can impact, and how their contribution directly connects to the bottom line. This does more than any other strategy we have seen to decrease expenses and drive revenue. 

2. Create Connection 

Gone are the opportunities to grab lunch with a co-worker, tell a joke before the meeting starts, or participate in the monthly birthday celebration. What remote work has given us in productivity and efficiency has cost us in the areas of communication and relationship building. 

People spend so much time at work, even if that work is remote. To be successful; they want to feel like they are connected to their co-workers, know their boss, and feel heard and understood by the people they work with. In a virtual world, you have to be more innovative to create that, and you have to build on those opportunities proactively. 

BEST PRACTICES: Here are some of the best ideas we see successful leaders putting into place 

TECH MATTERS – just like you invested in your office space, you need to invest in technology. If you want people to feel connected, they need to have the tools. Video is critical, strong audio is a requirement, and the right software and tools make it so much easier to engage. 

CREATE SPACE – allow people to connect just like you did at work. Instead of the monthly pot luck dinner, create personal channels on your SLACK, TRELLO, or intranet accounts. Start rooms where team members can talk about their pets, taking care of aging parents, or what it is like to homeschool your kids in the age of COVID. 

DONUT MEETINGS – beak the silos and communication issues by building relationships between departments and leaders you need to work together. Donut meetings are meetings set up between two and three team members who don’t interact regularly but need a better connection to work more effectively together. 

3. Bind with Purpose 

At the end of the day, in a traditional or remote work environment, people want to do work that matters, and they want to be a part of something bigger than themselves. 

If you want your team to engage, then you need to give them something to engage in. That something is a purpose, who you are, what you stand for, and the impact you are making. 

BEST PRACTICES: Here are some of the best ideas we see successful leaders putting into place 

BEGIN EVERY MEETING – and end every meeting reminding your team members of your purpose, and how what they are doing matters, the impact they are making. 

REWARD/RECOGNIZE – team members and situations that underscore the importance of your purpose. Tell stories and develop case studies that detail how the company’s purpose is to create change and help people.  

NORTH STAR – use your purpose and core values as your litmus test, your north star in deciding whom to promote, whom to hire, and what new initiatives to implement in your company. You show your team just how important the core values and purpose are and why they matter to the company’s success. 

Your Culture Is Your Best Investment 

Yes, investing in building culture in a work environment can be challenging, but it’s not impossible. It is also one of the best investments you can make. One of the few advantages you have left in this constantly shifting and highly competitive marketplace is your team’s engagement level. Invest in your culture, and your team will invest in you. 

Meridith Elliott Powell, CSP, is a business growth expert, keynote speaker, and award-winning author. Her new book, THRIVE: Strategies to Turn Uncertainty into Competitive Advantage, shares nine proven principles for leveraging uncertainty to grow your business and drive sales. It is available from Sound Wisdom on June 22, 2021—preorder your copy today! This blog originally appeared here on meridithelliottpowell.com and has been edited for inclusion on The Sound Wisdom Blog. Subscribe now for weekly inspiration and business insight delivered straight to your inbox (we won’t spam you—we promise!).