Leadership in the Age of Personalization: Why Standardization Fails in the Age of Me

The Age of Personalization is About the Standardization of “Me.”

Society is more diverse than ever. People are more informed than ever. Employees and consumers are prouder of their individuality and seek influence, a sense of contribution, and purpose like never before. Welcome to the age of personalization.

 Most organizations and leaders say they want to empower people to contribute at their fullest capacity. They “know” individuality and inclusion make us stronger. And yet they remain stuck in standardization—their offices filled with frustrated and exhausted employees consumed by delivering transactional results in the present instead of sustainable and significant growth for the future. Everyone just playing it safe and doing what they’re told. Individuality? Inclusion? Nice ideas but who has the time? Let the business define the individual. No. That’s the standardization trap.

 Glenn Llopis has been in this trap and he knows the way out. In Leadership in the Age of Personalization, he shows leaders and organizations how to break free from entrenched habits, escape the trap, and: 

• Turn diversity into inclusion
• Stop being tribal and start seeing each other as human
• Invigorate the shared mission by elevating individual identities and contribution
• Free people from the tyranny of outdated metrics and activate methods that lead to success and significance

 This is easier said than done. Because personalization spooks standardization and, when threatened, standardization fights back, hard. It’s time to free ourselves from the standardization traps of the past. And it all starts with two words: let go.