Footwear Insight

The expression "hire for personality, train for skill" is popular for a reason: unique experiences are created by unique people. with every customer, to stay top-of- mind. If your organization is like every other company out there, you'll be more easily impacted by competitive pressures. It's better to be different. It won't make everyone happy but it will make some people delighted and committed in ways you can't buy. is includes some of the direct and indirect benefits that employees receive when working for your brand. If this proposition doesn't scare you and can be executed, you should take advantage of the differentiation and market this as a competitive edge. In a world of vanilla ice cream, people need a little rocky road in their lives. Be the chocolate. 4. Hire only rock stars, not lip-synchers. e expression "hire for personality, train for skill" is popular for a reason: unique experiences are created by unique people. Technical skills can easily be taught, but if you are looking to deliver something great, you're going to need a great deliverer. Understand people's strengths and hire them in the right positions in your organization. e goal should be to figure out what people are great at and then put them in a role where they can succeed. By doing that, you'll help employees contribute their best. As painful as it might be, you should hold off filling the open position for as long as it takes to ensure that you have the right talent for the job. Suck it up and hire only the top talent, not someone who is simply there for the paycheck and is going through the motions when you're around. 5. Serve the brand kool-aid through compelling storytelling. Understanding the compelling story of what you're doing, to the extent that you can impact and influence others into committing to the mission, is a wonderful trait—and one that is sorely missing in many brands. Great storytelling is a lost art. It may sound easy when you're a brand that has a rich and storied heritage like Nike, Apple, Starbucks or Hard Rock, but figuring out exactly how to give employees the "why" and telling them the meaning behind what you're doing as a company really does matter. ey want to be a part of something bigger than themselves. To create brand ambassadors, they need a great story to belong to. Take time to think about the storyline, the associated collateral and the facilitator to bring your company's culture to life. 6. Communicate the language that employees dream. Building your training and communica- tion pieces around how your employees communicate is critical to having universal understanding across the organization. I grew up on comic books and always felt like I could communicate better by having a visual representation of the story or information. Why not produce your training print materials in this fashion? Respect for individuals means respecting the ways in which they learn. Knowing that most people learn best visually, it makes total sense why an Airline Safety Card is designed the way it is. It's why IKEA furniture instructions and LEGO toy manuals are so globally effective. In order to have impact on a workforce that has grown up with television, internet and iPads, your communication collateral needs to be developed with graphics, heavy photos, bullet points, less text, gener- ous white space, some edginess—and maybe even QR codes—if you have any hope of garnering attention and retention. And that's just print ma- terials. e future will be all about technology and experiential learning. ink about how the 21-year old grew up, absorbed information and how they dream at night…then revolution- ize your training and communication methods to match. n Renowned keynote speaker, podcaster, author, and training & development executive Jim Knight teaches organizations of all sizes how to attain their own "rock star" status. Jim is the Owner & CEO of Knight Speaker, delivering numerous programs worldwide on leadership, organizational culture, customer service, and employee engagement. He is also the best-selling author of Culture at Rocks, which was featured in Entrepreneur Magazine as one of the "5 Books at Will Help You Transform How You Do Business" and his latest amazon #1 Best Sellers, Leadership at Rocks and Service at Rocks. Learn more about Jim and his programs at www.KnightSpeaker.com. footwearinsight.com November/December 2022 ~ Footwear Insight • 45

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