If there was one word to describe the state of work right now it would be this: complex.

Work got really complicated in 2021 and 2022 and it’s likely going to be even more complex in 2023.

Questions are flying at business leaders faster than they can answer them.

• How will we work this year and what will that work look like?
• How will we manage in world of new employee expectations?
• How will the best organizations do more, faster, better this year?
• What has changed since last year? What are we already seeing and what should we expect to see next?

There are many new factors to consider when it comes to hiring, managing, and retaining employees. And that’s just to find people to do the work that needs to get done for the business to operate. Then, there’s the whole aspect of the work itself! Strategizing around the kind of work companies do and how they do it will determine which organizations succeed this year.

Over a decade ago, an article in the International Journal of Management, Business, and Administration defined a change agent in the following way:

“A change agent is anyone who has the skill and power to stimulate, facilitate, and coordinate the change effort. Change agents may be either external or internal. The success of any change effort depends heavily on the quality and workability of the relationship between the change agent and the key decision makers within the organization.”

And in the time since, this definition has remained relevant while the use of the term “change agent” has become more widespread.

However, this term has not always been looked upon favorably. Back in 2016 Forbes published an article declaring change agents “a hoax” and setting the internet ablaze with well-articulated counter perspectives arguing the importance of change agents. In the years since, the business world has come to embrace the idea of change agents and understand the value that they can bring to organizations undergoing significant changes.

In more than 20 years as a Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) I have seen the difference between effective and ineffective leadership first-hand. And while the names and organizations may vary, the professional attributes and character traits largely do not. There is a core set of characteristics that makes the top CROs the best at what they do.

“The ability to withstand unpredictable threat or change and then to emerge stronger.”

This is how the team at McKinsey & Company defines resilience in their recently published an article on what they call The Resilience Imperative. They elaborate further that resilience is going to be more important in the coming decade than ever before when they explain, “Catastrophic events will grow more frequent but less predictable. They will unfold faster but in more varied ways. Disruption is becoming more frequent and more severe.”

Resilience can be financial, operational, technological, organizational, or reputational in nature but the greatest resiliency comes when an organization can anticipate and respond to threats across all categories to dynamically adapt as needed. Obviously, this kind of resiliency does not just fall into place – it is the result of careful planning to develop a revenue resiliency toolkit.

The term “Revenue Operations” is soaring in popularity these days. In fact, Chief Revenue Officer, VP of Revenue Operations, and Director of Revenue Operations are among the fastest growing job titles right now on LinkedIn.

But what is Revenue Operations?

Does your business need it?

And, if you do, how do you establish a Revenue Operations framework?

Revenue Operations (or RevOps for short) is an approach that aims to align sales, marketing, and customer service teams to give them the tools and resources needed to drive predictable revenue. As Bhaskar Roy explains in an article on the rise of Revenue Operations, “RevOps treats revenue not as a fortunate outcome of a quality product, but like a mirror of the supply chain — a pipeline that needs to be powered by optimized business processes.”

Over the last several decades personality evaluations like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, DiSC test, Core Values Index (CVI), and PATH assessment have made managers more aware of the different types of individual personalities represented in their employees, and how best to unify them around a set of organizational goals. These assessments highlight an individual’s predominant characteristics and traits to better understand what motivates them, which types of roles they are best suited for, and how to interact with them for optimal results.

But what about personality types that stick out from the crowd dramatically – the colloquial “sharp edge of the circle” so to speak?

A recent Fast Company article highlighted a unique personality that they called the “Rare Breed.” They explain that these so-called Rare Breeds do not conform, are outspoken, rebel against the establishment, exhibit unparalleled drive, and obsessively strive for high achievement at all costs. The article goes on to say that while companies typically view these as vices, they are also what drives innovation, making this personality type integral for organizations that prioritize out-of-the-box thinking. However, their big egos, short tempers, and manipulation of those around them can also be damaging to an organization if left unchecked.

Do you know anyone like that at your company?

The pandemic hit many industries and demographics hard, but some shouldered the burden more than others. Women, especially working mothers, were overwhelmingly negatively affected.

In fact, the 2020 Women in the Workplace report revealed that 25% of working women and over 30% of mothers with young children were “contemplating downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce” with mothers citing increased domestic and child-care responsibilities as their primary motivation for doing so. The study summarized,

“Women in particular have been negatively impacted. Women—especially women of color—are more likely to have been laid off or furloughed during the COVID-19 crisis, stalling their careers and jeopardizing their financial security. The pandemic has intensified challenges that women already faced. Working mothers have always worked a ‘double shift’—a full day of work, followed by hours spent caring for children and doing household labor. Now the supports that made this possible—including school and childcare—have been upended. Meanwhile, Black women already faced more barriers to advancement than most other employees. Today they’re also coping with the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on the Black community.”

While these challenges impact women individually, the cumulative effect of women leaving the workforce significantly affects the companies they work for as well.

So, how can B2B companies keep women among their ranks and on their leadership teams?

“Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you’re going to do now and do it.” – William Durant