Have you ever walked by an employee who you know in your heart is a nice person, but they don’t sound that way when they’re talking with a customer? Perhaps they sound a little aggressive, argumentative, or not professional? If you, as a colleague or boss, are noticing this, as a customer service consultant, trainer, and keynote speaker, I can assure you that your customers are noticing it too.

Here are some phrases and words that will rub most customers the wrong way, and what your employees should be saying instead.

We’ve all experienced customer service that didn’t live up to our expectations. Unsatisfactory experiences are universal and negatively impact our lives—a bad customer experience (CX) can sour your mood or your whole day. Yet a good one can quickly turn it around. Whether it’s the friendly local barista or the head of a software company, positive experiences can spark enduring customer relationships for years to come.

That’s where human customer service comes in. Human customer service is about creating support experiences that are personalized, understanding, and efficient to build trust and loyalty with your customer base.

You can’t grow your business without increasing sales, whether by attracting new customers or getting satisfied customers to return. Sometimes, though, it might seem like you’re already doing everything you can to drive sales and aren’t getting results. If you’re stuck in such a cycle, it may be time to rethink your current approach — this guide will help you do just that.

Your current customers are your best bet to increase sales. After all, they’ve already used your products or services at least once before. So, it stands to reason they may need them again. If you stay in touch with these customers and provide the right incentives, it’s likely they’ll come back to buy from you in the future.

Excellent leadership can take an organization to the next level. It can also ensure employee loyalty, teamwork and an overarching commitment to shared business goals. Leadership styles differ and personality plays a role. But, you can cultivate specific traits and skills to become the kind of leader your employees respond to.

We’ll explore five traits employees prefer in their leaders. We’ll also share the behaviors and tendencies to avoid at all costs if you want to maintain employee respect.

I’ve always been ambitious. I want to give my full effort to the work in front of me and I want to do well. That drive led me to want to grow in my career. And it led me to my first leadership role.

I had spent years performing well, delivering results, and earning trust. When the promotion came, it felt affirming. I had worked hard for it. I knew the new position would be harder. But what I didn’t anticipate was how disorienting the transition would feel.

Leadership expectations are shifting fast. The skills that defined strong leadership just a few years ago are no longer enough. By 2026, leaders are operating in environments shaped by constant change, rising complexity, and higher expectations around well being, transparency, and trust. Adapting to this is no longer optional. It is part of the job.

Not long ago, leadership rewarded certainty. Leaders were expected to have answers, make fast decisions, and project confidence, especially in uncertain moments.

Consider two competing websites in the same niche. One presents three clear choices, while the other bombards you with 15. Which site is more likely to win your business? While it might seem contradictory, the streamlined site with fewer options is far more likely to convert visitors into paying customers.

We often assume that offering an abundance of options enhances the customer experience, but an excess of choices can be paralyzing. This concept, known as the “psychology of choice,” suggests that as options increase, our ability to make a decision decreases.

We’ve all heard the phrase, “underpromise and overdeliver.” Unfortunately, I often see businesses that tend to “overpromise and underdeliver,” failing to meet customers’ expectations.

For me, it all comes down to trust. Can I rely on a company to consistently meet and exceed my expectations? As entrepreneurs, this can be a difficult question to confront. However, if you’re unsure how to respond, it may be time to reflect on your practices.

Few topics dominate executive agendas like AI, and its influence on sales is only beginning to unfold.

From forecasting and pipeline management to pricing and customer engagement, AI is already changing how revenue teams work.

AI is high on leadership agendas, but that focus doesn’t always translate into readiness on the ground. For sales organizations, this gap shows up fast—tools get rolled out, dashboards multiply, but behaviors don’t change.

Workplace stress is at an all-time high, and it’s not staying at the office. Employees are bringing their fears and frustrations into their home lives, and it’s not healthy for family dynamics or the businesses they work for, a clinical psychologist says.

The latest Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) data shows that more than 80 percent of U.S. workers currently experience workplace stress. And more than half of these employees say these stressors are impacting their home lives. People said their chief work-related worries remain job security in an uncertain economy and concerns over their job performance.

Workplaces invest a lot of resources focusing on employee resilience. They try to hire for it through skillfully crafted interview questions. They pay trainers to teach employees how to bounce back from stress and crisis. Executives even use the term as a rallying cry during corporate townhalls, to encourage employees to push through challenging times.

However, the reality is that there are two facets of a truly resilient workplace. Employee resilience, yes. But organizational resilience is even more important.

Everyone struggles with procrastination at some time or another. Whether you're navigating the distractions of a home office, the interruptions of a bustling workplace, or the shifting dynamics of a hybrid schedule, procrastination can turn any work environment into a time management challenge if you're not careful.

But what if you could stop putting things off? What if you could count on yourself to plan your work and work your plan, no matter how overwhelmed or undermotivated you're feeling?

Most people begin the new year fresh. Not sales organizations. In 2026, they’re carrying forward economic uncertainty, aggressive growth expectations and a wave of AI that has already reshaped how sellers work.

“The new norm is uncertainty,” said Erik Fowler, chief revenue officer at Allego, provider of a sales enablement platform, during a recent webinar on the state of sales. “We still have aggressive growth expectations, we still have economic pressures and budget concerns, and we have AI that we all need to rapidly adopt and figure out how it changes our business.”

To succeed in selling, it is vital to understand who your customers are and what motivates them to spend their money. Psychology in selling involves zeroing in on customers’ emotional needs. Putting yourself in a customer’s shoes helps manage your sales pitch. Most individuals buy based on emotion rather than logic. There are six typical emotional responses to a sale and understanding these psychological attitudes relates directly to your marketing efforts.

Automation has a branding problem. Most founders want systems that run without depending on them, but somewhere along the way, “automated funnel” became synonymous with cold DMs, sales-y email sequences and the feeling that no actual human is paying attention.

The good news is this isn’t an either-or problem.

You can automate your lead funnel and still make people feel seen, supported and excited to work with you. In fact, when done well, automation is what creates space for more human connection.

We often hear that leadership is about vision, strategy, and results. While that’s true, the leaders who truly stand out today are the ones who also lead with heart. That’s where emotional intelligence in leadership becomes a game-changer.

Simply put, emotional intelligence in leadership is about understanding and managing emotions—both your own and those of the people around you. It’s about leading with empathy, staying calm under pressure, and creating trust across teams.

Name many of the top traits that come to mind when you think about a successful CEO and words like strategic, emotionally intelligent, and flexible may fit the bill.

But according to experts, one of the biggest indicators of success for CEOs—first-time leaders and veterans alike— is their ability to build a following, and fast. That’s become a critical factor in CEO searches in recent months as more employees are “job hugging” and staying put, while the rate of CEO turnover continues to rise, thanks to pressure to perform amid market volatility and geopolitical uncertainty.

I was 16 years old when I got my first “real” job at a local Jack-in-the-Box. It was not a great gig, for sure, working over a hot grill and dealing with rude, demanding customers. But I was saved from misery by my work buddies—friends who’d crack jokes, commiserate, and pitch in if I fell behind.

Since then, having a work buddy has always been important to me, which is why I’ve cultivated friendships throughout my work career. Those special friends have helped me maintain my focus and commitment to the job and increase my sense of safety and belonging.

Customer experience is the #1 priority for many of ASEAN’s service leaders, yet keeping up with changing customer expectations remains their toughest challenge. How exactly do you meet increasing demands for 24/7 support and tailored interactions while also contending with limited resources and high costs?

These challenges and how to solve them are explored in our latest State of Service report, based on learnings from 6,500 service professionals, including respondents from Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.

Chief revenue officers — a demanding title with a hefty responsibility to run an organization optimally. From in-house collaborations to leveraging data in decision-making, CROs handle the nitty-gritty of cost operations above and beyond.

The real challenge that can hinder their growth is the lack of up-to-date technological integrations. With the advancement of emerging platforms, we can equip the existing systems with exceptional analytical data processing power hubs. These hubs can perform complex tasks and are even a no-brainer for CROs.