Vince Lombardi, a noted American football coach once said, “Leaders are not born, they are made.” Earlier, the environment and peers would influence a person’s or business’s leadership qualities. In the competitive world that we are in today, just these basic skills cannot take you places. One requires practical and efficient approaches to build strong leadership traits.
Fierce, Inc., headquartered in Seattle, Washington, is a global leadership development and training company that is striving to change how people communicate with each other. The company has been helping organizations on all scales, i.e., from Fortune 100 companies to start-ups, to build conversational skills that spark curiosity, invite collaboration, ignite innovation, and solve their very own business challenges.
The conversations at Fierce are based on the best-selling book, Fierce Conversations, written by Susan Scott, founder of Fierce. The core of Fierce is not just about teaching communication. Rather, it is about “how” it has to be done. When it comes to corporate firms, Fierce helps leaders to script a feedback conversation, giving them proven techniques to conduct such conversations effectively. This proven technique includes feedback, confrontation, delegation, accountability, and coaching.
Since its inception in 2001, the firm has worked with more than 300 of the Fortune 500 companies and has made its training available for employees at all levels. Its programs and methods have proven impactful and their early clients have stayed together with Fierce over the years seeking their “new leaders” and “new employee on-boarding” programs regularly.
“We integrated a Net Promoter Score (NPS) system that allowed us to gather feedback from the participants in our training so that we could analyze and learn insights. What we learned is that our scores were remarkable, averaging 70, which is extremely high for our industry”, explains Edward J. Beltran, CEO of Fierce.
The mindset at Fierce is, “Let’s disrupt and change the model”. Fierce believes and focuses on three pillars:
- Sustainability: This is how Fierce makes sure that the investment in training stays beyond a few hours or a few
- Application: This is about how the approaches and techniques taught in the training are applicable in a trainee’s daily
- Scaling: This speaks of how this training can be cost-effective for the client and reach as big an audience as
Speaking of the technological trends, Fierce is focusing on API of Human Communication. Like an Application Programming Interface (API) connects devices on a network for communication, employees of an organization connect for communication.
The company has collaborated with Gabe de la Rosa, Ph.D. as their Chief Behavioural Scientist to research and identify the communication gaps and stress. The solution under developed gives real-time tracking of sources of stress and helps employees to transform their work culture. It is working towards delivering resources to people who need them, at the moment of need known as a “connected strategy”.
Adapting to the ever-changing technological trends has been a core value of Fierce. It made use of Metaverse and 3D and Virtual Reality simulations to immerse trainees in real-world situations. Trainees get the option to choose the direction of their conversation and understand the outcome of their choices.
The Fierce Connect app uses AI to provide learners with tips and strategies for having positive and productive conversations in their professional and personal lives. On the other hand, Fierce for Life Membership and other custom solutions provide instructor-led courses, on-demand learning and 3D simulations for increased flexibility and impact.
A company can only stay ahead of its competitors when its team is constantly looking for the next big thing. The leadership team at Fierce makes engaging and thought-provoking conversations about the company’s services, analysis of various trending topics relevant to the industry, and how Fierce can address those topics.
In addition, the company keeps communication lines regarding ideation open for employees at all levels. The firm creates a rogue team to determine if an idea can stand. With all the core strengths of the firm, it is trying to go beyond the traditional training and development strategies.
FIERCE IS NOW A LEADER IN IMPROVING LIVES, ONE CONVERSATION AT A TIME FOR EVERYONE. WE HAVE MADE THE RESEARCH, SCIENCE-BACKED LINK BETWEEN USING CONVERSATIONS TO TACKLE YOUR DAILY CHALLENGES RESULTING IN LOWER STRESS AND ACHIEVING THE PERSONAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL OUTCOMES DESIRED.
“We believe the conversation is the culture and culture is the currency for success. What gets talked about in a company, how it gets talked about, and who is invited to the conversation determine what will happen to the company culture, and what won’t. Every individual carries the responsibility to be courageous and lead conversations that count,” remarks Edward.
Fierce collaborated with a large telecommunications company with retail locations practically everywhere. During the pandemic, the retail workforce had a hard time engaging customers as it was difficult to handle customers after following all the safety norms. Fierce built 3D/VR simulations that were deployed to the retail workforce for a smooth shift towards consultative sales.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made the world realize the untapped value of digital content delivery channels. Fierce has leveraged technological advances to offer innovative courses through virtual training sessions. This approach makes Fierce reach people beyond physical and geographical boundaries. Further, the company is looking for feasible options to make the training available in various languages around the globe.
