I've been reading Secure by Dr. Amir Levine; it’s a followup to Attached, which got folks thinking a number of years back about the secure/anxious/avoidant attachment model. Fair warning...
CS folks hold themselves personally accountable to outcomes they often don't control. While the relationship with the customer is yours and you manage the delivery timeline, there are no guarantees that the cross-functional partners who don't report to you show up in all the ways you need to ensure a successful outcome.
Folks who are successful in CS tend to be relationship-oriented and hold themselves personally accountable to own outcomes regardless of their level of authority. This style is incredibly useful as an individual contributor and earns long-term customer trust. These highly invested, emotionally intelligent people are often promoted quickly, and suddenly find that they need to let go of some of the very habits that made them amazing in their previous roles. When you lead a CS team, staying too deeply hands-on can both undermine your team and overwhelm you...
Recently, a number of my conversations have revolved around the relationship between empathy and accountability, and specifically how to experience it as compatibility rather than tension...
EmpathyNerd has been humming along quietly for nearly a year now, and I never quite put my print("Hello, World!") out there.
This time last year, I took on a number of new projects, excited to reconnect with old clients from my Amanders Consulting years and reach back out to folks who’ve leaned on me for advisory support long after I retired Amanders. Turns out the demand never waned, just my availability.
The challenges Customer Success leaders are facing haven’t really shifted since then, even though...