“Keep Your Hands Off the Wheel”

The concept of keeping your hands off the wheel cannot be applied when driving a vehicle, but when it’s applied to leadership, it can actually be a positive concept. It’s positive because it enables a leader to do his or her job and lead, and it empowers an employee to do his or her job and produce. When a leader gives instructions, answers questions, provides whatever coaching is necessary, and then steps back, or “keeps his or her hands off the wheel,” the employee is able to drive and do his or her job.

This important leadership rule is just one highlight in a useful leadership book entitled, “42 Rules For Your New Leadership Role: The Manual They Didn’t Hand You When You Made VP, Director, or Manager” by Pam Fox Rollin.

In the words of Judy Gilbert, the Director of People Operations at YouTube: “When making the transition to a new role, even a top performer needs to exercise a different group of muscles. Pam has distilled extensive leadership lessons into simple and actionable guidelines. With the insights from this book, you can make your next start your best ever.”

Pam’s book is full of leadership tips, but here are some of my favorites:

• Draft your own strategic one-pager, a coherent summary of the state and trends of your industry, company, division, function, and team.
• Create your own onboarding plan – this is so much more than just setting up a phone, smartphone, laptop, and reading the Employee Procedures manual.
• Set realistic milestones – include the big rocks as well as the small pebbles.
• Surround yourself with all types of people, not just those who think like you do –  your weaknesses may be their strengths, and the result will be a better functioning team.
• Make it easy for people to work with you – tell them how often you want to be updated, how you want to be contacted, any triggers that may cause you angst, etc.
• Determine how you will measure your own metrics – and help your team to measure their performance.
• Make the most of screw-ups and take ownership of mistakes.
• Organize your priorities – and deflect early requests to go off-mission.
• Grow more leaders: champion your people and be their advocate.

While there are countless leadership books on the market, “42 Rules” is a must-read. But be warned, you will pick up the book again and again because revisiting the rules will make you a better leader. 

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What does your company give away with its name or logo?

Does your company have pens, mousepads, t-shirts, or some other gadget that promotes it? Do the items make your competitive advantage, name, logo, tagline, or website easy to remember? Do people like the items? More importantly, do they result in new business or repeat business?

Heidi Thorne is an expert in sales, marketing, advertising, and public relations, and answered these and many more questions in her new book, SWAG: How to Choose and Use Promotional Products for Marketing Your Business.

While some people might define SWAG as “souvenirs, wearables, and gifts” or “sealed with a gift” or even “stuff we all get,” according to Thorne, “The term swag refers to any product that has a logo, message, tagline, or some form of personalization on it – usually with the intent of advertising a business, event, association, team, person, or cause.”

Thorne explains that many products have a “WOW” factor for a variety of reasons, but they may lack what she calls “staying power.” Remember the AOL disks that were distributed free of charge by being shrink-wrapped in basically every magazine when AOL was just starting out? Today, those same disks would be considered drink coasters because they are outdated technology. Consider if your company had manufactured thousands of those same size disks – your customers would think you were crazy if you distributed them at tradeshows or other events.

Here are some mistakes to avoid when creating your own SWAG:

• Many restaurants don’t think long-term. Often, they don’t provide pens with the name of their restaurant for their servers to use, but instead, force servers to provide their own pens, which means that the pens might feature the names of hotels, banks, or heaven forbid, the names of competitors.
• Eco-friendly bags might be great for some companies, but if your company is in the business-to-business arena, they may be inappropriate.
• Your logo might look great on T-shirts, but do you have a big budget for printing shirts in all sizes ranging from children’s to women’s small to extra large to men’s small to extra large – with such a myriad of sizes, t-shirts may be cost prohibitive.

Above all, remember that whatever SWAG item you create to promote your business reflects your brand. Don’t give away a pen that leaks ink or doesn’t write. Don’t give away anything that is too hard to read, has tiny font, or features illegible information about your company – such as, your company name, address, website address, telephone number, etc.

For more info: http://pwptoday.com

Connect on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/heidithorne

Connect on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/PromoWithPurposeTV

Connect on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/heidithorne

If you still have your heart set on ordering branded t-shirts or other clothing, read Heidi’s article first: http://www.corporatemeetingsandevents.ca/promotionaltshirts.aspx

Which of the Super Bowl ads do you remember?

While 2012’s Super Bowl will go down in history as a nail-biter that could have resulted in a different winner in the last few seconds of the game, the ads garnered more publicity pre-game and during the game than ever before and can now be called the Brand Bowl.

According to Mashable, at the end of Sunday’s game between the Giants and the Patriots, Twitter reported that there were 12,233 tweets per second – which became a new record for the #2 spot on the “most tweets per second” list. According to the NFL, 61 million Americans viewed this year's Super Bowl. Out of those 61 million Americans, 40% of them watched the game but weren’t football fans, and 25% were women.

But enough about the game, how about those ads? As a brand marketing professional, I can remember a large number of the ads, but then, I may have been more interested in the ads than the game (since no California teams were playing). Read about my faves and flops, and then a guest chimes in.

My favorites have always been the Coca-Cola polar bear ads and the Budweiser Clydesdales ads, and this year, those ads did not disappoint. But what others stood out? I liked the Hyundai “Cheetah” ad because the cheetah did not want to race the car. Check out the “Behind the Scenes” video on YouTube to see how the ad was made. I also enjoyed the Chevrolet “Happy Grad” ad – very amusing and definitely made me laugh. And I was entertained by Pepsi’s “King’s Court” ad featuring Elton John – the theme was universal because everyone wants “R-E-S-P-E-C-T.”

Everyone was waiting for Volkswagen’s follow-up to last year’s Darth Vader ad. Since that ad was my favorite last year, I hoped VW created something special. But there was no “Wow” factor in the “The Dog Strikes Back.” Sure, I liked the exercising dog and the “ad within an ad” featuring the Star Wars bar scene, but maybe, VW should have taken a year off?

There were some ads that fell flat for me. I didn’t like Bud Light’s “Platinum” ads – they lacked energy and as a result, didn’t seem to have a message. The Hulu ads were boring. The Chevy Silverado “Apocalypse” ad was too dark – the theme that Chevy trucks are the most long-lasting could have been achieved in a better way. Audi’s “So Long Vampires” lacked creativity and didn’t focus on why an Audi vehicle may be the best in its class. The Jerry Seinfeld/Jay Leno ad for Acura and the Doritos ads were bland. Finally, last year’s Go Daddy ad featuring Joan Rivers was funny, and unfortunately, that same humor was missing from many ads this year.

The one brand that was noticeably absent was Apple. There could have been a montage of Apple products in memory of Steve Jobs, and that would have been a fitting final farewell – especially based on the impact of Apple’s “1984” Super Bowl commercial. No one who saw it that year will ever forget it.

Now, please welcome Julia Carcamo to my blog. We watched the ads from miles apart and wanted to collaborate on a “She Said, She Said” post. Julia is the Vice President of Brand Marketing for Isle of Capri Casinos, one of the most seasoned companies in the regional gaming entertainment industry, operating 15 casinos in the United States. Julia is part of the team responsible for the strategic planning behind the reintroduction of the iconic Lady Luck brand as well as the repositioning and creation of other Isle brands. Follow Julia on Twitter and on her Blog. Without further ado, here's Julia...

I have to say that the Super Bowl this year was a bit of a flip for me. The game was great until the very end, but the commercials were less than satisfying for me. I think I miss the creativity of beer commercials and I honestly don’t know how that happened because I’m not looking for another round of WASSUP! However, I do think there were a few spots that stood out in the plethora of B and C-rated work.

“M&Ms: Just My Shell” – Kudos to them for continuously creating these characters we love to watch (and eat). This one literally made me laugh out loud. It was so unexpected and so much fun.

“Budweiser: Return of the King and Eternal Optimism” – This is just classic Budweiser advertising. It tugs at your sense of patriotism and reminds you that Budweiser is always there at the intersection of life and celebration. Plus, in my book, anytime you throw in the Clydesdales, I think you have a winner.

“Skechers: Mr. Quigley” – Who in their right mind didn’t laugh as this French bulldog crossed the finish line in style? Throw in a little contract negotiation with Mark Cuban, and you’ve got the unexpected humor that only great commercials can deliver.

“Chrysler: It’s Halftime in America” – I’ll admit I wasn’t blown away by last year’s anthem to Detroit, but this year, my story is different. It was another tug at the patriotic heartstrings, but with the punch of the all-American tough guy, Clint Eastwood. Everything was so well programmed – the copy, the timing, the reveal. I think this one will go down in my book as one of the smartest ads I’ve ever seen.

“Honda: Matthew’s Day Off” – How could I make a list of top spots without Ferris Bueller? I just loved this spot (but I don’t think I’m going to buy a CRV anytime soon). It felt very true to the original inspiration and for that, they deserve a top spot on my list.

I would like to thank my brand marketing colleague, Julia Carcamo, for sharing her perspective about this year’s Brand Bowl – I enjoyed her insights and hope my readers did also. 

The countdown for next year’s Super Bowl and Brand Bowl begins today, but if you didn’t see all of this year’s ads or want to watch them again, here’s the link for all of them:

http://mashable.com/2012/02/06/super-bowl-2012-commercials

Leverage Your Leadership Skills and Become a Better Leader

What’s the core of leadership? I have often wondered about this. Like everyone, I have worked for people with the capacity to inspire and energize an army, and I have also worked for people who would have been better off in a cave far from civilization. I read an interesting quote awhile ago that has remained with me, and I believe it defines the true core of leadership.

“Being a manager or a leader is a privilege. It’s an honor to have others respect your abilities enough to allow you to lead them. It’s an honor to have others trust you to guide them and support them as you work together.” Liz Weber, the Dragon Lady of Leadership Accountability, shared this quote in her new book: Something Needs to Change Around Here, The Five Stages to Leveraging Your Leadership.

Ask yourself, how often – between meetings, conferences, projects, employee reviews, etc. – have you considered being a leader or manager to be a privilege? Ever? Be honest when answering. This is exactly my point. If more managers and leaders considered the process of supervising, guiding, teaching, training, mentoring, and managing others as a PRIVILEGE, our workplaces would run more smoothly, and employees would be more engaged.

You’ll have to read Liz’s book to gain insights into the specifics of her five stages to leverage leadership, but here are some of her key themes:

• Just because you have the title “manager” or “leader,” it doesn’t mean you can lead.
• Employees don’t care about your title, they care about what you can do.
• Until you free up your time and some of your mental capacity to focus on “what’s next,” it’s terribly difficult to become an effective leader.
• When leaders lead, managers manage, and doers do, everyone knows what they’re all working toward.
• In order for an organization’s strategic projects to morph and evolve, the leadership needs to grow, evolve, and let go…If you don’t let go, others can’t do.

As Liz Weber writes at the end of the book, “Someone needs to change around here…you.” So, I challenge all the leaders out there reading this post, alter your mindset and behavior, and then watch your employees. You just might notice a difference.

For more details: http://www.wbsllc.com/blog

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