How valuable is your blog real estate?

Recently, I read an article that advised not including a blogroll on a blog. So, I started to wonder: how valuable is the space on your blog? I’m talking about the area other than where you feature your posts. This could be the top, bottom, or left or right sidebars. While you may include icons or buttons for key social media sites (such as, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube), as well as a list of categories, archives, keywords, search function, and request for email address/option to subscribe, there may still be some available space.

According to Wikipedia, a blogroll is a list of other blogs that a blogger recommends by providing titles and links usually in a sidebar list.

So, why would someone write a blog post with the recommendation to NOT include other blogs? Unless the blogger copies content on a regular basis, there is really no logical reason. Upon further consideration, I have assembled my reasons to include a blogroll:

• Add depth to your blog
  
• Promote key influencers
• Provide different perspectives
• Introduce new writers
• Provide opportunity for reciprocal links

All of these reasons point to the purpose of a blog in the first place. What value does a blog create if it doesn’t force a reader to think? The addition of a blogroll adds value since it provides other blogs featuring countless posts to read and ponder. You never know when one post could lead to the next great American novel or Pullitzer Prize-winning article!

Is it possible to be a good boss? Some lessons from Bob Sutton, the Boss Expert

Here’s a question for anyone who has ever supervised employees: Are you a good boss or a bad boss? How can you really tell? Stanford professor Bob Sutton doesn’t just ask the question in the follow-up to his 2007 bestseller “The No Asshole Rule,” he shares ways for bosses to inspire their employees and analyze their leadership styles in “Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best…and Learn from the Worst.” So, whether you see yourself as a leader, manager, or supervisor – all are bosses because all oversee subordinates.

If you doubt the importance of a boss in an employee’s life, all you have to do is read the staggering statistics. As Bob Sutton wrote, “Whether a study was done in 1948, 1958, 1968, or 1998; in London, Baltimore, Seattle, or Honolulu; among postal workers, milk truck drivers, or school teachers; the results are pretty much identical: about 75% of the workforce reports that their immediate supervisor is the most stressful part of their job.”

So what causes the friction between employees and bosses? Why can’t bosses communicate with their employees? Why can’t employees communicate with their bosses? Don’t employees do the work that they are assigned? Don’t bosses reward their employees? Bob Sutton explained, “Even though the journey is never easy, great bosses know what goals to strive for and how the ride ought to feel along the way – and lousy bosses never seem to quite get it.”

Here are Bob Sutton’s 11 Commandments for Wise Bosses. If you strive to be a good boss, memorize these and then execute them:

1. Have strong opinions and weakly held beliefs
2. Do not treat others as if they are idiots
3. Listen attentively to your people, don’t just pretend to hear what they say
4. Ask a lot of good questions
5. Ask others for help and gratefully accept their assistance
6. Do not hesitate to say “I don’t know”
7. Forgive people when they fail, remember the lessons and teach them to everyone
8. Fight as if you are right, and listen as if you are wrong
9. Do not hold grudges after losing an argument, but instead, help the victors implement their ideas with all your might
10. Know your foibles and flaws, and work with people who correct and compensate for your weaknesses
11. Express gratitude to your people

Two quotes from the book provided great inspiration:

• “The first job of a leader is to define reality.” – Max DePree, former CEO of furniture maker Herman Miller (this creates open communication lines throughout a company)
• “Learn how to perform every job function within a company.” Examples of this can be found by Walt Disney (founder of Disneyland) and Ray Kroc (founder of McDonald’s) (this creates an in-depth understanding of the workings of an entire company)

To learn more:

Follow Bob Sutton on Twitter: www.twitter.com/work_matters

Follow Bob Sutton’s Blog: http://bobsutton.typepad.com

Watch Stanford’s YouTube Channel for Interview with Bob Sutton:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmp-4l_Gfr0

Read “12 Things Good Bosses Believe” on Harvard Business Review:

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/05/12_things_that_good_bosses_bel.html

Social Media, Social Currency & Brand Marketing

According to AdAge, “Brands have a compelling need to communicate who you are as a brand and what your stand for through social media in a far more consistent, strategic and global way.” But as the Gap learned from its logo debacle, consumers rather than the Gap’s marketing team, own the brand. And thanks to the explosion of social media channels and technologies, brands are sometimes forced to play catch up with consumers. In addition, brand advocates are now forced to handle their brands with white gloves and proceed carefully to create brand equity as if they walk on a circus tightrope.

In a study entitled “Social Currency, Why Brands Need to Build and Nurture Social Currency” conducted by Vivaldi Partners, “Brand social currency is not about social media, not about buzz, not about tactics. It is so much bigger. It gets to a brand’s long-term sustainability. It’s about how customers relate to one another in the context of brands and how those brands, companies, products and people relate to customers…It’s an experiential, holistic concept that we have deconstructed and reconstructed to map to brand value.”

In “the old days,” the traditional model of brand marketing focused on the principles of competitive positioning, target marketing, and consistent messaging. In today’s environment of building social currency, the focus is interaction, collaboration, conversation, and co-creation. According to Vivaldi Partners’ study, “If brands used to be built through creating mindshare, the new model of building social currency is about creating share of daily life.” As a result, the most compelling aspect and the least quantifiable aspect of social currency is that it is neither a product feature nor a public relations campaign; it is not managed by any single company; and it is much more delicate to build, nurture, and maintain.

But don’t despair. Here are four steps to build, nurture, and manage social currency:

1. Understand buyers – how they connect, share, and chat
2. Determine the levers of social currency – understand how buyers choose to grant permission to a brand to be part of their social life
3. Define social currency strategy – decide which levers of social currency will create the most value for a company or brand
4. Develop and execute social currency programs – make sure that the program integrates digital and social technologies with traditional brand-building plans

Since a myriad of brands compete for attention, it is imperative to evolve with the technology and marketing landscape. So, does your company have plans to develop its social currency in 2011?

Have You Heard of Personality Poker? It Could Dramatically Change Your Business

Stephen M. Shapiro, a business expert with international consulting experience and regular features in Newsweek, Investors Business Daily, and The New York Times, has written a book that explains his inventive card game, Personality Poker. This card game tool teaches employees how to develop, nurture, and drive teamwork and simultaneously supercharge innovation. Over 25,000 people in dozens of Fortune 500 companies have played Personality Poker, so what are you waiting for?

In order for a company to be balanced, Shapiro presents four distinct innovation styles:

• People who prefer facts and principles (spades)
• People who prefer ideas and experiences (diamonds)
• People who prefer plans and actions (clubs)
• People who prefer people and relationships (hearts)

Here’s an example of the different types as they assemble data about a company:

• Spades want PowerPoint slides with key information in bullet point format, business cases, and cost benefit analysis
• Clubs want process flows, data sheets, and detailed resumes of interviews and observations
• Diamonds want all facts that were essentially sensory aspects (sound, smell, texture, taste) with illustrations, megatrends, and future scenarios
• Hearts want quotes from interviews, customer empathy maps, images and illustrations that conveyed feelings, and a timeline with key elements in relation to the history and evolution of the company

By applying different strengths and by understanding different approaches to the project, the groups are able to maximize the contributions of each team. Other results include greater levels of innovation and employee satisfaction.

Leadership teams often wonder if the right people are strategically placed in the right roles to maximize performance. But do leadership teams apply an individual’s strengths to specific projects (play to their strong suit)? Do leadership teams have balanced teams with all styles represented (play with a full deck)? Do leadership teams regularly assemble teams to encourage collaboration (shuffle the deck)? Is work divided to maximize individual accountabilities and minimize redundancy (deal out the work)?

Personality Poker can be played by a few people or large groups, but the key is to be open-minded. The objective is to learn or reinforce your style of innovation and determine which part of the innovation pie best suits you. Personality Poker allows people to accept differences in a fun and non-threatening manner, and as a result, employees learn to better understand each other’s strengths so that everyone can work together better.

More details:

http://www.steveshapiro.com/books-and-articles/personality-poker

Download the first chapter:

http://personalitypokerbook.com

Try out Personality Poker with the free online video version:

http://game.personalitypokerbook.com

Follow on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/perspokerbook

Connect on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/personalitypokerbook

Two weeks make a huge difference in the life of a logo - just ask the Gap

Last week, after time and money, the Gap unveiled its new logo. Now, this week, after capturing the attention of marketers, advertisers, competitors, and most importantly, consumers, the Gap announced that it would use its original logo instead of the new one.

Do you have whiplash yet?

While this change of events resurrected memories of the New Coke fiasco, for the Gap, the logo was the issue more than the actual product. Had the new logo been amazing and inspiring, perhaps, consumers would not have demonstrated such distaste. But, the new logo lacked imagination. In fact, it actually resembled the logo of another brand - that of a social media company that shall remain nameless.

Since this blogger was unimpressed with the look and feel of the Gap's new logo, I continue to believe that this entire campaign was an orchestrated publicity stunt by the Gap to generate interest in its brand. In today's challenging economy, brands need to stand out...and you just can't pay for the kind of attention that the Gap has received these past two weeks.

Why is there so much noise surrounding the Gap’s new logo?

Almost a week after the introduction of the Gap’s redesigned logo, people are STILL talking about it. While logos are important reflections of a company’s brand, the chatter seems so well orchestrated that I wonder if the Gap unveiled a new logo just to cause a stir in marketing and advertising circles.

But, since this is not the case, I wonder why the Gap created a new logo in the first place. According to Wikipedia, “a logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant recognition. Logos are either purely graphic (symbols/icons) or are composed of the name of the organization (a logotype or wordmark).” Well-known examples include Coca-Cola’s red script, Google’s colorful letters, McDonald’s yellow arches in the shape of an “M,” and the script in Walt Disney’s name combined with the drawing of Mickey Mouse that together form the logo for The Walt Disney Company.

According to David Aaker, brand marketing expert, “An extended identity can help a brand break out of the box…consider the strategic role of the Wells Fargo stagecoach in the brand’s awareness level and associations of reliability and innovation.” The stagecoach image immediately tells a story for the Wells Fargo brand – and the story is an integral part of that brand. Aaker explained in his book, Brand Leadership, that there are several advantages to developing a rich brand identity:

• a richer brand identity more accurately reflects the brand
• the point of the brand identity is to provide guidance to decision-makers about what a brand stands for
• a brand identity should capture the values and culture of a company
• the extended identity helps the brand move beyond core attributes

So, here are my questions for the Gap’s new logo design team:

• What is the new logo telling consumers?
• How is the new logo’s story different from the old logo’s story?
• How does the new logo fit with the company’s culture?

I think the Gap’s new logo resembles Facebook’s logo – note that it appeared soon after the release of the movie “The Social Network.” Maybe, the question we should be asking is, how else will Facebook redesign our lives? What do you think?

Do your employees like your company or do they dream of moving on? A Review of “Lead Employees to Success, Not Out the Door”

Businesswoman and employee satisfaction researcher Wendy Duncan has written a book for everyone that has been touched by poor management in the workplace: supervisors, leaders, managers, and subordinates (employees). According to Duncan, studies show that the number one reason that employees leave companies is “the failure to connect with their boss or leader. People leave managers not companies.” That statement proves that too many people in supervisory roles just don’t understand the power they wield.

The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say “I.” And that’s not because they have trained themselves not to say “I.” They don’t think “I.” They think “we;” they think “team.” They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don’t sidestep it, but “we” gets the credit.” ~ Peter Drucker

In her book, Duncan adds names and descriptions to familiar workplace characters. Supervisors, leaders, and managers who embody these characteristics are the reason that employees don’t give 110%, aren’t totally engaged, and dream of moving on. You may recognize some or all of these characters in your workplace:

• The bull (aka, bull in a China shop)
• The intimidator/bully
• Every man for himself
• The credit taker
• The assumer
• See employee as a customer
• Bad mouth, loud mouth
• Discriminating Dick
• Introvert Ernie
• Promising Pete
• Lack of interpersonal skills
• Condescending Curt
• Micro-Mary
• Moody Marge
• The extreme macro-Mac/ghost manager
• Brown nose Betty
• The corporate climber
• Chatty Patty
• Executive Romeo
• The corporate sniper (aka, the black widow)

So, how can employees change their perspectives from dreaming of leaving to, instead, remaining and re-engaging? According to Duncan’s research, studies show that employees need trust in and respect for their direct supervisor as well as for their company’s leadership team. So, in order to create an environment where trust and respect can exist, Duncan provides 24 excellent questions that leaders and managers can ask themselves. While all provide areas where a leader or manager can improve his or her supervisory style, the following are my favorites:

• Do you bring value to your employees? If yes, what?
• Do you support your employees whether it is for completing daily job responsibilities or furthering their knowledge or career?
• Do you give credit where (and when) credit is due?

So, the next time an employee gives notice, consider what you, as the supervisor, could have done differently to make that employee feel more empowered, work harder, or be more motivated. Duncan’s book is a great tool to assist you with your evaluation.

Follow Wendy Duncan on Twitter: http://twitter.com/betterbossbooks

Check out Wendy Duncan’s website: http://betterbossbooks.com