Saying “no” to corporate fossilization

photo by Bobby Rettew

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of spending an hour at Clemson University (go Tigers!) to chat with Bobby Rettew’s business writing class about blogs. The session was intended to focus on the hows and whys of business blogging, but one of the topics I found myself touching on was corporate resistance to blogging – and to the evolution of business communications in the emerging era of the social web. For some reason, that tangential subject has been poking at me ever since.

I originally started writing a post about the difficulty of finding your voice and place in the blogging world, about the obstacles that stand in the way of balancing being a model employee and being a business blogger, but I still couldn’t shake that resistance to change conversation going on inside my head. I must have written my intro paragraph a dozen times over before finally giving in to the need to write about what was really on my mind. So here we are.

Fortunately, it din’t take my mind long to wander back to an interview given by Publicis Groupe’s Maurice Levy to AdAge’s Scott Donaton back in 2007 that focused on that very topic: Back then, though, Levy had refered to it as the threat of corporate fossilization. Pretty cool stuff. I thought today might be as good a day as any to dust off his wisdom and share it here. (Don’t worry, the interview may not be fresh, but what Maurice has to say is. And as a bonus, revisting that piece keeps me from writing a 30,000 thesis on the subject, which is always good.)

If you’ve ever worked for or with a company that was so set in its ways that helping it get back on its feet was as tough as getting an out of shape couch potato to train for a sub 3 hour marathon finish, you’ll understand why Levy’s words as as valid today as they were before the economy tanked. The guy’s words don’t just echo what many of us experience quasi-daily, but lays them out in a way that really resonates with me. Here are my favorite bits of insight  from that interview. Just three comments from Maurice:

“I have never stabilized an organization. Crystallizing an organization is freezing the energy. In chemistry, instability is very good because it creates some combinations you don’t expect.” “Without change, there is fossilization, and that’s the worst thing that can happen.”

“Ideas are so fragile, so tenuous, that managers must destroy layers that can obscure or damage them. If you have an organization that is too administrative, you are just killing the ideas. As we say in France, when you ask a committee to draw a horse, you get a camel.”

Read the full interview here.

So there you have it. My contribution to Maurice’s observations comes in the form of prescriptive advice to execs trying to awaken their sleeping giants. This is how you start. This is how you rebuild your company culture, starting with your own mindset. Not through 10-step programs, best practices and methodologies (those come later) but by first changing the way you think about a) the dynamics of a truly vibrant company culture and b) the leadership style best suited to breathe life and power into it:

As a business leader, look for flux. Look for tangents. Look for the unexpected.

Recruit adventurously.

Give your people the freedom and flexibility to contribute in the most personal, passionate of ways.

Eliminate silos and procedures when it comes to the sharing of ideas. When it comes to dialogue. When it comes to cooperation.

Hunt down every internal communication obstacle and systematically, mercilessly crush them into oblivion.

Take the same idea, and apply it to external communications.

Decentralize “meetings”.

Deconstruct the product/services ideation process.

Empower your people to set the stage for extraordinary new products, business improvements, and creative work.

If you can’t trust your people enough to empower them, to literally give them the keys to the place, then you aren’t hiring the right people.

Your job as a leader isn’t always to “lead”. Most of the time, because you aren’t there to bark orders or stand over everyone’s shoulder, it is simply to create an environment, an ecosystem, that allows your team, your army, to do the best possible work they can. It is to create a culture that makes them want to be a part of something greater than the sum of their job description. That makes them proud to be, even.

Now repeat after me:

Ideas are fragile.

Without a steady dose of change, organizations wither and die.

These are the two little mantras you should keep chanting every time you pick up the phone or a magazine or your TV remote. They should be in the back of your mind every time you shake someone’s hand or invite them to have a seat.

Embrace instability. Welcome change. Engage uncertainty. Welcome the unknown and love it for all of its infinite number of possibilities.

And they truly are infinite.

Chew on that. Have a great Wednesday. 😉

Technorati Tags: Maurice Levy, Publicis, AdAge, AdPulp, ideas, leadership, authenticity, branding

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Is your Social Media Director qualified?

Social Media Directors should know how to do their jobs without having to ask for help every five minutes:

So I look down and the (twitter) DM reads: “Hey, can you help me out? Not sure how to do this. How do I use Twitter to gain traction for my company? Thanks!” I stare at it for a while and decide to blow it off for now, not because I have better things to do (which I do) and not because I don’t really have time to build a Twitter business plan for this person right this second (which I don’t), but because that DM comes from a newly minted Social Media Director at a fairly visible company who basically just asked me to help them hold on to a job they obviously didn’t deserve to be hired for.

I slide my Blackberry Storm into my back pocket and find myself flashbacking to 11th grade: It’s final exams time and I am in hour two of IB Biology. The essay section. One of the kids in my class is behind me, gently kicking my chair, whispering, begging me to move my scrap/notes where they can read them.

And I am almost tempted to do it.

That same conversation starts taking place in my head. I’m in a position to help someone in need.  But wait… cheating is cheating. Don’t do it. But still, I feel that I should help. Arrrgh…

I reach for the blackberry, launch Twitterberry (which is not my favorite app, by the way), and respond: “Wait… You got the job, right? Don’t you know how to do this? Isn’t that why you were hired?”

For hours, no response. And then it comes. “Yeah, but I’m in a little over my head. I’ve never worked with Social Media in a business context before. ;)”

Again. This from a Director-level individual now working for a pretty well known company.

Not cool.

I suffer through similar exchanges weekly now, and I am not happy about it. What does this trend say about what types of people are going after Social Media management jobs – and landing them with alarming frequency these days? At the very least, I am worried about how this is going to end up hurting Social Media’s legitimacy in the business world. (Watch the video for my reasoning on this specific point.)

If the video doesn’t launch, you can go watch it here. Thanks, Viddler).

With this disturbing development weighing on me more and more these past few months, I’ve been thinking long and hard about what is going on in the Social Media “management” world, and I’ve basically come down to two conclusions: The first (which we’ll get back to in a few minutes) is that the qualifications of Social Media Directors may not be entirely clear to the folks interviewing and hiring applicants for those positions. The second is that as a result of this, confusion, we are now looking at three distinct types of Social Media Directors/Managers scampering about in the corporate world, some good, some okay, and some really bad.

The first type is the best type: These folks are super smart, talented, experienced in a broad range of disciplines, have an established footprint in the Social Media space (through blogs, Twitter, Ning, various communities), are recognized as thought leaders (or as emerging thought leaders), and are unquestionably passionate about what they do. Folks like Chris Brogan, Frank Eliason, Amber Naslund, Mack Collier, Beth Harte, Valeria Maltoni, etc. These are folks who are truly writing the book on how to build social media practices and smoothly integrate them in the organizations they work with.

The second type isn’t quite as savvy, but it isn’t lacking in talent, smarts and enthusiasm. These are people who basically don’t know how to be Social Media directors yet, but are learning fast. And most importantly, they are completely open about the fact that they are still in that learning stage, which means that their employers are okay with it. In spite of the fact that they are still very junior, the companies they work for saw in them a lot of potential and decided to hire them toward that end. (I dig people like this a lot.)

The third type is what I would call the bad type. Not bad as in cool, but rather… bad as in unethical, inept and unprofessional. These are the con artists. The shams. The hacks. The folks whose egos and selfishness led them to a moment in their lives when they unapologetically took a job they knew they weren’t qualified for. And now here they are: Social Media Director for Company ABC, soon to move over to Company XYZ, and so on. One position validating the next, one impressive brand on their resume justifying consideration by the next, and so it goes: A perpetual daisy chain of high profile Social Media management job built on unadulterated douchebaggery and thinly-disguised mediocrity.

(Ironically, this third group tends to be the same one that perpetuates the notion that Social Media ROI either doesn’t exist or is “unwise” to try and measure. Yeah. Convenient, isn’t it?)

Before we go on, here are some red flags to help you identify deadbeat Social Media Directors:

Every time you see a major global consumer brand engaging with less than 5% of its active (vocal) customers on a popular Social Media platform like Twitter after 8-10 months of activity, you can bet that their Social Media Director belongs to that third category.

If every time you walk into your monthly status meeting with your new Social Media Director and ask them for the latest, they either talk to you about google analytics, confuse you with endless spreadsheets or launch into a “Social Media takes time” monologue, chances are that they belong to that third category.

If you ask your Social Media Director why their efforts aren’t scaling very fast or producing the numbers you expected and they give you a story about engagement not being a numbers game, chances are that they belong in that third category.*

If when you ask them for real business metrics, impact analysis and (god forbid) ROI and they either give you a blank stare or explain that these things don’t apply to Social Media, they probably belong to that third category.

And when you ask them how they plan to integrate Social Media into customer service, Human Resources, Public Relations, Marketing, Business Development or any other silo in your organization and they schedule a later meeting to address that instead of answering on the spot, guess what category they probably belong to.

The thing about that third category is that they’ll never admit that they don’t know something. Because they get by every day by producing massive amounts of bulls**t, they will automatically default to making something up on the spot or deflecting questions with well crafted excuses. That’s their most damning trait, and what gives them away every time: They always know, and they’re never wrong (except… they don’t, and they are, and now you’re wise to it).

* Simple test to prove or disprove a “depth before breadth” response:

First – On Twitter, look  at the number of brand mentions vs. the number of your brand’s account mentions. Big difference? Ask why. Then ask your Social Media Director what they are doing to raise awareness for your presence in the space. Breadth matters, no matter what your overpaid hack of a Social Media honcho tells you.

Second – Look at the number of comments directly aimed at your account. 20 per day? 50 per day? Now look at how many of these requests for attention were acknowledged with some sort of reply. 100%? 80%? Less than 25%? If your Social Media Director claims that they are focusing on depth of engagement instead of breadth, yet they only respond to less than half of the handshakes thrown at them daily, maybe it’s time you found out what he/she actually does with his/her time.

What should you be looking for in an applicant interested in becoming your next Social Media Director ?

I could go on with my indictment of poser Social Media Directors all day long, but I would rather put this post to a more productive use: Since so many of these hacks are getting through the recruiting filter, why don’t we focus on helping interviewers distinguish good applicants from bad ones, starting with some traits and skills they want and need in a Social Media Director. Think of this as a checklist for would-be Social Media Directors, and please feel free to add your own suggestions by leaving a comment.

• Applicant has developed and managed marketing programs before. Not just campaigns but programs.
• Applicant has had a continuous professional presence in the Social Media space (via blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Ning or other platforms) for at least one year.
• Applicant has managed a business blog and/or business community for a minimum of one year.
• Applicant has built or managed a community for longer than one year.
• Applicant has at least two years of experience managing projects and working across organizational silos.
• Applicant has managed a brand or product line for more than one year.
• Applicant has demonstrated a strong ability to forge lasting relationships across a variety of media platforms over the course of his/her career.
• Applicant understand the difference between vertical and lateral action when it comes to customer/community engagement – and has working knowledge of how to leverage both.
• Applicant demonstrates a thorough knowledge of the Social Media space, including usage and demographic statistics for the most popular/relevant platforms as well as a few niche platforms of his/her choice.
• Applicant has managed national market research projects.
• Applicant demonstrates a throrough understanding of the nuances between Social Media platforms and the communities they serve. (Example: MySpace vs. Facebook or YouTube vs. Seesmic)
• Applicant understands the breadth of tools and methods at his/her disposal to set goals and measure success in the Social Media space. (Applicant’s toolkit is not limited to Google analytics.)
• Applicant can cite examples of companies with successful social media programs and companies with ineffective social media programs. He/she can also argue comfortably why each was either successful or unsuccessful.
• Applicant has been active on Twitter for more than 8 months.
• Applicant knows who Chris Brogan, Jeremiah Owyang and Peter Kim are.
• Applicant is comfortable enough with business measurement methods to know the difference between financial impact (ROI) and non-financial impact. He/she also knows why the difference between the two is relevant.
• Applicant demonstrates the ability to build and manage a Social Media practice that works seamlessly with PR, product marketing, event management and customer support teams within the organization.
• Applicant has managed a work team for more than one year. He/she was responsible for the training and development of that team.
• Applicant has spent at least one year in a project management role outside of an ad agency, PR or other Marketing firm.
• Applicant can tell a personal story involving either Digg, Seesmic or both.
• Applicant has been responsible for managing a budget/P&L.
• Applicant demonstrates a high level of proficiency working with popular Social Media platforms and apps such as FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, Ning, Seesmic, YouTube, FriendFeed, WordPress and Tumblr.
• Applicant is capable of mapping out a basic Social Media monitoring plan on a cocktail napkin.
• Applicant is more excited about engagement, building an internal practice and finding out about your business’ pain points than he/she is about firebombing you with the full scope of their Social Media skills’ awesomeness.
• Applicant already has the framework of a Social Media plan for your company before he/she even walks through the front door, and thankfully, it doesn’t involve setting up a fan page on FaceBook.
• Applicant actually knows how to use Twitter to help your company build brand equityonline and offline without having to DM people for help.

Your turn. What do you think is missing from this checklist?

And how do we stop this kind of nonsense?

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Tired of layoffs? Help share stories of people starting new jobs on twitter: Use hashtag #hired

According to the US Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in the US in March was 8.5% (up from 8.1% in February). Not counting farm workers, the US lost 663,000 jobs last month alone.

Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs increased by 547,000 to 8.2 million in March. This group has nearly doubled in size over the past 12 months. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) rose to 3.2 million over the month and has increased by about 1.9 million since the start of the recession in December 2007.

In other words, not good.

That being said, I have noticed a sudden little increase in positive churn: People landing jobs, positions coming open, requests for resumes and talent – all on Twitter. And today, two of my Twitter friends started new jobs with pretty solid companies. So you know what? Why not start up a new hashtag on Twitter with a greater purpose: Talking about people GETTING new jobs instead of losing them.

Even if you aren’t a fan of Twitter, perhaps you can get behind that kind of little movement.

Hat tip to @triumphCIO for coining the hashtag 12 days before I thought of it.

How to use #hired:

1. Log in to your Twitter account.

2. Post an update/tweet when you or someone you know has been hired or is starting a new job. (Make sure that information is cleared for public release before posting) 😉

3. End your update/tweet with these characters:   #hired

4. Press SEND.

It’s that simple. Besides, spreading a little cheer by talking about new jobs for a change might help us turn this economic downturn around that much faster.

Thanks, everyone. 🙂

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Video from Clemson University’s Social Media and Networking Panel

Thanks to Bobby Rettew and View (these guys do an awesome job with anything that touches video or event coverage) for organizing the event, mediating the panel and also covering the event. Talk about multitasking! (All we had to do is just sit there and answer questions.)

On the panel (left to right): Me, Steve Gonzalez, John Warner, Phil Yanov and Trey Pennington. Lots of Community Management gravitas and Social Media savvy on that panel.

Click on the image (above) to go check out the videos. You’ll notice that there are three: The first is the intro, the second is the panel discussion, and the third is the Q&A session.  Enjoy.

Follow-up to this post.

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‘Linking The Upstate’ brings career expert JT O’Donnell to Greenville, SC

J.T. O'Donnell speaking in Greenville, SC

Greenville, SC got a big treat today: Career expert JT O’Donnell was in town to speak at Linking The Upstate‘s inaugural event at the historic Westin Poinsett Hotel. Two words for you: Awe and some. I knew JT was pretty savvy when it comes to career advice, but I had no idea just how smart, engaging and approachable she was. If you guys aren’t familiar with her work yet, check out her website, her Careerealism blog, buy her book, and go ahead and start following Careerealism on twitter. And if you ever find yourself unhappy with your career or uncertain about your professional direction, do yourself a favor and reach out to her. You will look back on that email, tweet or phone call someday and realize it was one of the smartest things you ever did. Trust me on this.

By the way, if you missed it, you can check out some of the event’s coverage via Twitter hashtag #careerealism. Look for my avatar (ahem).

And as an aside, I have to give BIG kudos to Thomas Parry for launching Linking The Upstate so quickly… and so well. What a way to kick it off. Very well done. The group’s objective is to connect all of the 864’s business groups together (chambers of commerce, technology, HR, creative, networking, business groups, etc.) to leverage their collective economic, innovative and intellectual potential. A lofty and timely goal that I will definitely help support in the coming months.

Here are a few pictures from what turned out to be a pretty social day (even for me):

 

The pommes frites I ate

 

 

Thomas Parry, J.T. O'Donnell, Trey Pennington and Doug Cone at The Lazy Goat restaurant

 

 

Yes, I take pictures of stuff I eat

Thomas Parry at the Westin Poinsett Hotel introducing Linking The Upstate

J.T. O'Donnell presenting at Greenville, SC's historic Westin Poinsett Hotel

I don’t want to leave you guys with just photos and no takeways, so here are a few nuggets of information I grabbed from JT’s fantastic presentation:

 

 

4 out of 5 HR professionals will google an applicant BEFORE inviting them to interview. What will they find? (Hint: Have you googled yourself lately?)

The two worst things that can happen when a prospective employer googles you: 1. They find something embarrassing or not particularly positive (that may make them reconsider your application). 2. They find nothing at all. Lesson: Start managing your online presence better. Create a positive, professional, consistent and factual footprint for yourself online.

College students graduating this year will have an average of 9 different careers before they retire.

The average duration of a job in the US today  is only 18 months. (We are all glorified temps.)

Currently, 1 out of 12 Americans is either unemployed or underemployed.

Job boards are 60% down right now: The demand for jobs is so high that the volume of job applications via job boards is overwhelming HR departments. Result, they are turning to other sourcing methods to find quality applicants.

80% of open positions in the US are filled via referrals.

Whatever you may hear or believe, in this day and age, not having a blog and a presence on LinkedIn, FaceBook and Twitter can and will absolutely stall your career. (Management level folks.)

Tip: Don’t wait until you are unemployed to start building your networks. The sooner you start and the more you nurture them, the easier it will be for you to find your next gig when the axe finally falls. (Better yet, if you do this right, you will probably be recruited right out of your current job.)

Again: The easiest way to stand out from the crowd of people competing against you for your dream job is to have a well designed and solidly crafted blog. If you don’t have one yet, start. If you have one but it needs help, get help. (Incidentally, if you are in Greenville next week, we are putting together a WordPress Workshop specifically geared towards this. Check out www.wpgreenville.com to sign up.)

For more great advice, go check out the Careerealism blog and be sure to drop JT a note.

Have a great Friday, everyone. 😉

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Photos from Clemson University’s networking 2.0 panel

Yours truly, Steve Gonzalez, John Warner, Phil Yanov, Trey Pennington

So Steve Gonzalez, John Warner, Phil Yanov, Trey Pennington and I spent the latter part of the afternoon chatting with Clemson University students and faculty about the power of networking. The premise (eloquently framed by John Warner and Trey Pennington) was basically this: “Build Dig  your well before you get thirsty.” In other words, don’t wait until you graduate. Start building your future professional network now, while you still have a year or two of school ahead of you. Do this right, and you may never need to even draft a resume or go through a formal interview process.

The panel was pretty stacked with talent (between Steve, John, Phil and Trey, we had some of South Carolina’s most influential and well connected movers and shakers) so I was basically just lucky to be there.

We could have easily spent half a day talking about building relationships, building communities, effective networking, and effective social media usage, so maybe we’ll be lucky enough to be invited back. Until then, rather than give you a written play by play of the discussion, I will post a link to the video from the event (Courtesy of View Digital) as soon as it is available. (Though you can already check Twitter coverage here and here.)

Speaking of coverage, Doug Cone came out to Clemson to hang out with us and take photos, so I have to give him props for doing a great job behind the camera. All of the photos you see here are his work.

View Digital's camera crew

The audience trickling in

Phil Yanov showing off his dry cleaner's wicked starching skills

The microphone bank

Bobby Rettew doing a great job as the panel's moderator

Fielding questions from Bobby

Steve Gonzalez and John Warner

John Warner, Phil Yanov, Trey Pennington

Learning lots from Steve Gonzalez

Defending my hyperactive Twitter usage. Again.

John Warner apparently not tweeting (or so he says)...

Bringing this kind of discussion into an academic setting is invaluable, and the engagement from the audience was kind of infectious. I could get used to this. (Let’s hope this was one of many such events.) 🙂

Thanks again to my fellow panelists for quietly enduring my loquacious answers, to Bobby Rettew for putting this on and asking me to join such an A-list bunch of folks on the panel, to Clemson University for taking such good care of us today (minus the parking ticket), and especially to our audience for being a great crowd and asking us some pretty smart questions. Let’s do it again soon. 🙂

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Imagination vs. Knowledge: A magic pill for the growth gap?

Check out these great bits of advice from Dave Lorenzo’s Career Intensity blog:

“Deciding: ‘Familiarize yourself with common decision-making errors—such as going along with a group choice to maintain cohesion. Watch for tendencies within yourself to commit such errors.’

Leaders make bold decisions. They see them through, and if they aren’t working out, they make new decisions. The worst thing you can do for your career is make no choices or let your choices be made for you. Taking a passive approach to your goals is unlikely to result in success. Even if you make a bad decision, it’s better to mess up and learn from it than to remain stagnant. Failures are great opportunities to learn more about yourself and the world. Move ahead by choosing wisely and boldly.”

(If you’re asking yourself… yeah, cool career advice, but… what does this have to do with branding, hold on. I’m getting to it.)

“It takes someone who believes in herself and her ideas to challenge the status quo. These are the people who shake things up and change them for the better. You don’t have to be contentious to challenge. The best way to suggest changes is not to bash the old ways, but to offer new and positive ideas.

If you are part of a team working on a project that you believe could be going more smoothly, step up and present your ideas. Most likely, everyone will be excited to approach the work from a new angle. And you will begin to earn a reputation for innovation.”

Still not catching on? Okay… Let’s try one more:

“In the famous words of Einstein, “Imagination is more important than knowledge”.

What separates the dazzling winners from everyone else is that they are able to envision a grand future. What turns them into winners is that they are able to leap into that future and do the hard work necessary to make it great.

Particularly for die-hard realists and people who have been trained (by parents, friends, or spouse) to be ‘responsible’ and ‘stable’, indulging in imagination can be difficult. For every idea that’s even mildly revolutionary, a little voice chimes in, ‘Impossible. You can’t do that. That’s stupid. It’ll never work.’ Quiet that voice and spend some time ruminating on your wild, far-out, fanciful ideas. Great leader do things that no one before them has done.”

Still no? Tsssk… Okay. I’ll give you a hint: Substitute “brand” for “career”. Everything that Dave so brilliantly recommends is exactly the kind of advice that you can put to good use in building strong brands – from ‘brand you’ to the next retail darling, iconic consumer good or dazzling web application.

Brands aren’t built in a vacuum. They aren’t built by functionaries. They do not thrive in stagnant bureaucracies. Brands are built by empowered visionaries. Brands are built on enthusiasm, conviction, and courage… Or they are doomed from the start.

You are the heart and soul of the brand you represent and serve. If you want your brand to be a market leader, you must be a leader in your job as well. Your qualities are your brand’s attributes. Your weaknesses are its flaws. Everything you are, everything you do, affects its success and future.

So… don’t ever let anyone turn you into a tool. Challenge everything. Question every assumption. Wage war on routine and bureaucracy. Accept no compromise…

… and read Dave’s blog. It’s a good one.

Les tags du jour: marketing, Dave Lorenzo, Branding, service

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“Brand You” – Using Social Networking tools to enhance your career?

The question came up recently (no, not in regards to me): How does one use social networking tools to find the next great job? Well, there is no simple answer. Truth be told, just being on LinkedIn, Facebook, Myspace and having a blog won’t land you that Creative Director or Marketing VP job. You’re going to have to work at it a little harder than that. BUT, leveraging social networking tools to your advantage can give you a bit of an extra boost in some circles – over time. ZDnet’s Jennifer Leggio points us to a quick primer this week on that very topic. As guest contributor Mike Murray explains:

Social networking sites provide an incredible opportunity to make radical changes in your career. But those changes aren’t necessarily going to be good ones unless you do it right. Ultimately, social networking tools are much like a race car — they help a good driver become a great one, and they help a bad driver become a pile of twisted, smoking metal up against a concrete wall.

The main thing that a social networking site can help you with is the concept of your “personal brand” — that is, the sites can be used as tools to allow you to become known within a target audience of people. Used well, you can turn yourself in to an expert among experts. Used poorly, you can easily turn yourself into that guy with the 55 pictures of himself drunk and passed out on the floor of your college fraternity house. Caveat emptor.

Fortunately, Mike has some experience with this (the topic… not the frat house incident thing), and he has these nuggets of genius to share:

1. Niche-ify

As I mentioned earlier, social networking tools give you the opportunity to brand yourself — to become known. This means that you have to decide what you’re going to be known FOR.

And, lest you think that you can just drift along, it’s like the sage old Rush song lyric says: “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.”

The first rule in marketing (and, truly, this is a form of marketing yourself) is to choose your niche. Choose what your product (in this case, you) will be known for. Are you going to be the girl who is always there when people need help? The social networking expert? The nuclear physicist who dabbles in playing the piano? […] Pick a niche that you can become known for, and anybody who is looking for someone to do a job in that niche will naturally find you.

2. Cool Friends = Cool You

That maxim comes from Tom Peters and it rings more true to me with each person whose career I observe — we get our best career opportunities through the people that we know. If those people are amazingly cool and are doing cool work, cool opportunities come to us. If those people aren’t so cool, or are spending all day sitting around the house… well, you know where you’re going to end up.

Studies repeatedly bear this out. Studies show that our income is likely to be within 10 percent of our five closest friends. That our weight is likely to be near that of the people closest to us.

This is where social networking gives an incredible opportunity. Through tools like Twitter and LinkedIn, you can follow, talk with, and ultimately get to know people who you deem as cool. Interested in getting to know social networking experts (like Jennifer)? Follow them on Twitter. Say something interesting in response to one of her comments. And make a new friend.

This is an opportunity that those 15 years ago simply didn’t have. Sure, you could sit down and write a letter to someone you admired… but it wasn’t quite as easy as sending them a message on Facebook.

3. Stay On Message

This is an area where politicians are far better than the average person — it’s one of the things that allows them to get their messages across so effectively and make their messages part of the common cultural lexicon. (For example, even now if someone says “flip-flop” to me, John Kerry comes to mind). If you’re a fan of the “Daily Show”, you’ve seen the compilations where all of the different politicians use the same words and phrases on every TV show and speaking appearance over the course of a few weeks.

Once you have your niche and network of cool friends, staying on message to reiterate your expertise within your niche is important. Unfortunately, this is where most people don’t use their social networking tools effectively to enhance their careers. Even if you get the first two pieces right, it’s easy to start treating Facebook and Twitter like a personal journal.

I’d start giving my own thoughts here, but the best thinking I’ve seen on this matter comes from Tim Ferriss (author of “The Four-Hour Workweek”):

“Use Twitter as a “micro-blogging” platform, exactly how it’s most often described. Just as I wouldn’t put up a blog post that reads “just ate a burrito. Mmmm… good,” as it consumes readers valuable attention without adding value, I wouldn’t put up such a post on Twitter.”

The point here is that these are tools for enhancing your career: use them that way. Keep your messages tailored to your audience, and make sure that they’re helping you be known for what you want to be known for.

Wise, wise advice. (Note to self: No more burrito-themed micro-blogging posts. Got it.) ;D

Read the entire piece here.

Also check out this post on The Social Media Marketing blog. It takes the concept of personal branding several steps further, with helpful references to Haji Flemings‘ “Brand YU” method of building a personal brand, namely:

1. Identify your passion
2. Define your mission
3. Count the cost
4. Create your voice
5. Develop your core
6. Be authentic
7. Shift to now

Check out Haji’s website for more info about his method, his book, or his upcoming brand camp.

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When the grass is greener elsewhere…

Screw looking for greener pastures. When the grass isn’t to your liking, hop the fence and go plant your own:

From kottke.org:

Talented people are leaving Pixar because very few people get a shot at directing a film of their own.

For all the success, however, there’s very little room atop Pixar’s food chain. While live-action movie studios might crank out more than a dozen movies annually, the digital animation company built by Apple’s Steve Jobs barely makes a film a year — and had no features at all in 2005 or 2002. What’s more, all Pixar movies so far have been directed by an inner circle of animation all-stars: John Lasseter (“Toy Story,” “A Bug’s Life,” “Toy Story 2” and “Cars”), Brad Bird (“The Incredibles” and “Ratatouille”), Andrew Stanton (“Finding Nemo” and summer’s forthcoming “Wall-E”) and Pete Docter (“Monsters, Inc.” and 2009’s “Up”).

Brad Bird is set to direct a live-action movie about the earthquake that hit San Francisco in 1906.

The thing is… not everyone ought to direct. And when it comes to Pixar (since they rock), maybe, just maybe, the grass doesn’t get much greener than Pixar’s. At least not yet.

My suggestion to ANY disgruntled employee – at Pixar, Yves Saint Laurent, BMW or NBC is this: Don’t leave a great company that allows you the privilege of doing fantastic work just because you think you DESERVE better. Or DESERVE more.

Leave because because you KNOW you can do better, and more importantly because you SHOULD.

Pow. Chew on that, Bobo.

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Refuse to settle for someone else’s average.

Sally Hogstead’s “Radical Careering” advice isn’t about looking for greener pastures somewhere else, it’s about shooting a wholelot of life back into your professional universe.

Click the image and download the presentation. It’s short and fantastic.

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How to chase away your top performers.

I was browsing Upstate Magnet yesterday (a small local business publication), and came up on this great little one-page article written by Jack Smalley (SPHR with Express Personnel).

Having seen top performers leave organizations time and time again, Jack’s points seemed sadly familiar. I have encountered them all myself, and I have to admit that each one of these can consitute a good reason for even the most talented, hard-working employee or manager to go seek greener pastures. Combine any two or three – or all five – and you can expect to spend a whole lot of your HR department’s time searching and hiring top talent to replace the folks you weren’t savvy enough to hold on to in the first place.

Here are six things your company may be doing to chase away top talent:

1. There is no link between pay and performance.

High performers expect to be rewarded for their effort. They also expect to be rewarded regardless of where they stand in the “pay scale” for their position. These people expect to be better compensated than someone who is not performing at their level. If you want average, stagnant performers, give them average, stagnant compensation. If you want to retain high performers, find ways to make them feel that they aren’t wasting their time providing you with superior work.

Several years ago, a friend found out that a co-worker whose job was exactly the same as hers was making significantly more than she was. This co-worker spent most of his day checking his stocks, surfing the web and talking to his friends on the phone. While her work exceeded expectations, his lagged – but their boss liked him better. Her decision to go work for someone else was triggered by the realization that there was no correlation between pay and performance.

2. They don’t perceive advancement opportunities.

Top performers are usually looking over the horizon. They may be well compensated, have great benefits and like what they do, but if they ever come to the conclusion that there is nothing to strive for, or that management is holding them back (either for selfish department reasons or personal resentment) they will seek and find the opportunity they desire… elsewhere.

I have seen the personal resentment factor ruin many an organization, and I can’t help but shake my head at this kind of nonsense every time. If I had a dollar for every manager who purposely held back top talent because they felt threatened by their success, I could… well, I could probably fill up my gas tank. Advancement ceilings – whatever their reasons may be – are never a good situation if you plan on holding on to top people.

3. Their contributions are not recognized.

Some of the greatest rewards are those that don’t involve money. Recognition among co-workers and industry peers is a super motivational tool for performers who exceed expectations.

How difficult is it to say thank you, give someone an ataboy and brag someone up from time to time? I mean really. Is it so hard? These things are all simple, easy, painless and free.

4. Management has unclear or unrealistic expectations.

The best performers want to know what they are supposed to do, how they are supposed to do it, and most importantly, WHY they are supposed to do it that way. When any of these conditions becomes unclear, the best of the best will want clarity and accountability. If management is not a resource for the top performers, they will start to lose respect for management. Once this happens, good luck trying to hold on to that great employee much longer.

This is probably the biggest killer of good will within companies. If I can’t respect my own boss, chances are that I am not going to feel super motivated to jump through hoops for him/her. Respect, trust and admiration are essential to any boss/employee relationship from the battlefield to the corporate world. Period. Once a manager loses the respect of their employees, you might as well draw the curtain and stop the clock, because the play is over.

Clarity is also super important. A leader who isn’t able to communicate to his or her people exactly what they want needs to learn how to do so. Quickly.

5. They will no longer tolerate abusive managers.

Recent studies have shown that an employee’s opinion of the company he/she works for is a direct reflection of their opinion of their immediate supervisor. If a top performer does not respect his or her supervisor, they will have a corresponding lack of respect for their company.

Nobody likes a bully. I’ve seen top talent walk away from jobs they otherwise loved simply because their bosses were abusive. Nothing sours a job faster than a jerk taking his frustrations or insecurities out on his staff.

As an aside –

Typical traits of lousy managers:

– Excessive demands & personal sacrifices.
– Placing their department in a continual state of crisis.
– A demand for employees to be available at all hours.
– Setting unreasonable deadlines.
– Pony Express management style (Ride ’em till they drop), causing burnout, stress and depression in their people.
– Risk-aversion.
– Abusive treatment of employees.
– Being too busy to make themselves helpful.
– Acting annoyed at requests for help, advice or insight.
– Nepotism.
– Making last-minute unilateral decisions that make absolutely no sense.
– “Big Stick” management. (Screw up, and I will hit you over the head with the big stick.)
– A complete lack of trustworthiness

Okay. Here is the last one from Jack’s list:

6. Constant reorganization of management.

If you want to keep your best performers, don’t let them become part of the flood waters of reorganization. While reorganization or a sale of a business is just part of life for most people these days, top performers are still looking at things in the long term. If they are convinced that a reorganization is a good thing for their career AND management communicates well, top performers can become some of a company’s greatest advocates. If management fails to help top performers negotiate these changes in a way that will fall in line with their long term expectations, and they will walk.

Uncertainty sucks. Top performers love challenges, but if thry feel that their work or careers are likely to suffer as a result of an unstable professional environment, they will jump ship faster than you can learn to spell “denial”. It’s that simple.

One of the conclusions from the article was as simple as it was astute, and it is this:

Most employees don’t quit their jobs. They quit their managers.

That’s pretty powerful… and absolutely correct.

I know it’s pretty obvious for many of you, but it is well worth bringing up from time to time.

Have a great Tuesday, everyone. 🙂

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