What’s the Secret of Social Media? That’s Easy: Collaboration

Everyone may talk about social media, but how many people can actually do social media – and how many do it well? Sure, there are the marketing powerhouses from Coca-Cola, Ford, Zappos, Nike, and Apple who amaze us with their Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and YouTube pages. But for most small and mid-sized businesses, how many can honestly describe their social media campaigns as successful and inspiring?

According to the book by Anthony Bradley and Mark McDonald, The Social Organization, How to Use Social Media to Tap the Collective Genius of Your Customers and Employees, the solution may be simple: “Organizational success with social media is fundamentally a leadership and management challenge, not a technology implementation. Achieving that success creates mass collaboration that gives organizations unique capabilities to create value for customers, employees, and stakeholders.”

In order to get started in social media, there are some action items that everyone can agree as essential. These include: define your strategy, assess the environment and determine which social media platforms are appropriate for your organization and industry, define your goals, assemble your team, define what your customers will gain from your efforts, create the campaigns that you will implement, educate your team, determine budgets and resources to execute your strategy, and develop your social media guidelines. Last but not least, measure and refine your engagements, programs, and initiatives – and remember, keep your social media antenna alert 24/7.

But these action items are not sufficient for social media success. The authors identified six core disciplines that can turn COLLABORATION into results:

[1] Vision: define a compelling vision of progress toward becoming a highly collaborative organization.

[2] Strategy: take community collaboration from risky and random success to measurable business value.

[3] Purpose: rally people around a clear purpose, don’t just provide social media technology.

[4] Launch: create a collaborative environment and persuade customers and employees to embrace it.

[5] Guide: participate in and influence communities as they pursue your purpose, without stifling collaboration.

[6] Adapt: respond creatively to change by modifying your organization in order to better support community collaboration.

The book concludes with a question and a challenge: “Will you be a social organization or will you be competing against social organizations? In the next 10 years, your ability to evolve into a social organization may determine if you thrive, survive, or disappear.”

Take the Social Readiness Assessment from Gartner:

http://www.gartner.com/it/products/research/media_products/social_org/assessment.jsp

Key Management Mistakes to Avoid

Are you a new manager or are you a seasoned manager? Do you ever think you could do a better job than your boss or his or her boss? No matter how you describe the level of your managerial skills, you can always use a refresher.

Here’s a book you’ll want to check out: Ten Mistakes A Manager Should Avoid by Aditi Chopra. While Aditi’s background is in technology, her managerial insights are applicable to all industries.

So, if you aspire to be a successful manager, memorize these mistakes and avoid them at all costs:

[1] Don’t micromanage – delegate, delegate, delegate.

[2] Don’t allow distrust to fester – do whatever is necessary to gain the trust of your team.

[3] Don’t focus on your own personal achievement – if you don’t place the growth and development of your team at the top of your list, everyone will suffer.

[4] Don’t forget to reward employees – reward often and with value.

[5] Don’t flee from conflicts – deal with them with strength and composure.

[6] Don’t shy away from coaching employees – coaching is a win-win for both the manager and the employees.

[7] Don’t avoid building relationships with employees, direct reports, peers, supervisors, senior leaders, administrative assistants, vendors, customers, etc.

[8] Don’t ignore comments from your direct reports – listen to your employees and convey that you are genuinely listening.

[9] Don’t let your ego determine your behavior and how others treat you – an inflated ego may result in lack of trust, lack of respect, and lack of teamwork.

[10] Lack of being self-aware – be aware of your own feelings and emotional responses, be aware of your strengths and weaknesses, but most of all, be aware that you are not perfect.

If you avoid these managerial mistakes, you will be a better manager. You will be respected, trusted, and surrounded by team members who give 110% for you. In the words of Aditi Chopra, “Managing people is not just a career, it’s a rewarding career.”

Connect on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/atchopra

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Image Credit: Thanks to Ted Goff for use of his cartoon with this post. Check out his work at http://www.tedgoff.com.

Why Do Employees Seek Greener Pastures?

Often, there are subtle signs that employees are unhappy with their jobs. But, do you, as the President/CEO or member of the leadership team notice? More importantly, do you want to notice? Or, would you rather be kept in the dark until employees start resigning? As you know, the cost to replace employees is much more than keeping current employees engaged and recognized.

In Leigh Branham’s book, The Seven Hidden Reasons Employees Leave, How to Recognize the Subtle Signs and Act Before It’s Too Late, readers must face the truth: Employees don’t jump ship for greener pastures because they receive amazing offers. Instead, they are pushed out the door by the lack of trust in senior leadership, culture, salary, benefits, etc. The reality is, if leaders within companies did more to show how much they value their employees, they would keep their employees – and keep them happy.

“As the saying goes, People join companies, but they leave managers. Sometimes, they leave companies and the senior leaders who run these companies too. It is the senior leaders who set the direction, who shape the culture, who approve the pay ranges and the training budgets, whose demands bring excessive stress and overwork, and whose strategies bring either growth (and career growth opportunities) or stagnation.”

According to Branham, after much research, here are the seven reasons employees leave:

[1] The job or workplace was not as promised.

[2] There was a mismatch between job and person.

[3] There was too little coaching and feedback.

[4] There were too few growth and advancement opportunities.

[5] Workers felt devalued and unrecognized.

[6] There was stress from overwork, conflict, and work-life imbalance.

[7] Workers had lost trust and confidence in senior leaders.

Consider recent departures from your company – whether from termination or resignation – and ask yourself, which of these reasons was applicable? Some light bulbs probably came on. Perhaps, you can make some improvements.

Consider expressions of appreciation. How often do you thank your employees? From letting an employee leave early one day to a gift card for dinner for two at a local restaurant, there are many ways to thank an employee for his or her great work. However, the longer you wait to actually do something, the more likely that you will forget and the employee will lose respect for you as a leader and supervisor. And if you want to thank a large team, bring in pizza for the team. Yes, it really is that easy!

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For more info: http://www.keepingthepeople.com

Want to know how much a new employee will cost? Use this turnover cost calculator:

http://apps.keepingthepeople.com/tools_calc.cfm

Leadership Inspiration from the Supreme Court

Do you know what happens on the first Monday in October? A term of the US Supreme Court begins each year on the first Monday in October. So, to commemorate the start of another term, I would like to share some leadership insights gained from the Supreme Court.

When we think about the qualities that characterize a leader, we often create a list that includes charisma, vision, and strength. But behind every leader are followers or employees, and it is also important to consider the qualities that the leader instills in these followers, such as, loyalty, motivation, and dedication.

However, for someone to be an effective leader, he or she must be extraordinary at the core of his or her spirit – capable of overcoming extreme odds, capable of seeing much more than a quick fix to a fleeting crisis, and above all else, capable of inspiring followers to join together to achieve a common goal or aspire to become better individuals. Sandra Day O’Connor represents the epitome of this most extraordinary type of leader.

Sandra Day O’Connor, who would become the first female member of the US Supreme Court, was born in 1930 in El Paso, Texas. She attended Stanford University, where she earned a BA Degree in economics followed by a law degree. She also served on the Stanford Law Review. In December 1952, she married John Jay O’Connor, and they had three sons. She was married for 55 years until John’s death in 2009.

In spite of Sandra Day O’Connor’s accomplishments during law school, no law firm in California would hire her due to her gender. One law firm offered her a job as a legal secretary – which she refused. Instead, she dedicated herself to public service and accepted a position as Deputy County Attorney of San Mateo County in California. She also worked in Germany as a civilian attorney and practiced law in Arizona. In 1969, she was appointed to the Arizona State Senate and re-elected twice. In 1975, she was elected judge of the Maricopa County Superior Court in Arizona until 1979, when she was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals by Governor Bruce Babbitt. During Sandra’s time in the Arizona state government, she served in all three of its branches.

Ronald Reagan made a pledge during his 1980 presidential campaign that, if elected, he would appoint the first woman to the Supreme Court, and on July 7, 1981, he nominated Sandra Day O’Connor as an Associate Justice. Pro-life and religious groups bitterly opposed the nomination because they feared O’Connor was pro-abortion. But on September 21, 1981, Sandra Day O’Connor was confirmed by the US Senate with a vote of 99-0.

During her tenure as a Justice, O’Connor was known to review cases on an individual basis, which placed her in the center of the court and drew both criticism and praise. She retired from the court in January 2006, and in August 2009, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor of the United States, by President Barack Obama.

What makes Sandra Day O’Connor a great leader? While she was not a CEO or a Fortune 500 corporate president, she demonstrated leadership traits on a daily basis. She set goals and accomplished them. She taught, and she learned. She created a team and led. She took criticism and gave credit. She listened and spoke. She inspired and was inspiring. The truth is, there are not many who would hold our heads high if we had been in Sandra Day O’Connor’s shoes when she could not find a job as a lawyer. Instead of shouting about the unfairness of the situation, she looked for another option, an option that would yield great results once she proved herself: public service.

So, the question should not be what makes Sandra Day O’Connor a great leader. Instead, we should ask ourselves, how can we apply her leadership qualities and examples to our businesses and everyday lives?