The Evolving Role of CX (& XM) Leaders

Last week I spoke at a local CXPA meeting in Boston. We had a great turnout, thanks to the great work of the planning committee and the wonderful space provided by Education First.

I led a discussion about the future of CX, which I believe was applicable to all experience management (XM) leaders. One of my key messages was that we need to think of our roles differently as we push our organizations to even higher levels of CX/XM maturity. Here’s how the role of CX/XM leaders needs to change:

• Early stages of maturity: WHAT WE DO. In the early stages of maturity, you need to build a strong team, a clear message, and a solid work plan. You need to enlist a few external supporters, but a large majority of the effort is driven by your team.
• Middle stages of maturity: HOW WE INFLUENCE. Once you have some momentum and clarity around priorities, your team needs to shift focus from being doers to being facilitators. You need to build a much broader coalition of supporters and collaborators and support them as they make changes within their organizations.
• Advance stages of maturity: HOW CX/XM THRIVES. Once you’ve hit the larger stages of maturity, you need to make sure that good CX/XM practices are not only being deployed, but they’re being embraced. You should be helping leaders across the organization to embed the new practices within their core operations and find ways to continuously improve on them. Deploying good CX/XM approaches isn’t good enough, as those activities must be nurtured so they don’t get stale over time.

I hope you are able to lead your organization to the advanced stages of maturity. If you do, you’ll likely need to change your approach many times along the way.

The bottom line: CX/XM leaders’ job description shifts from doing to nurturing.