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Why executives need social media

September 10, 2010 By 1 Comment

While social media continues to transform our society, executives remain unconvinced that it’s relevant to their work.  I disagree and here are some concrete reasons why I believe  social media is a basic leadership competency. This is a hot topic so if you have additional thoughts please share them.

Manifesting leadership behavior

Daniel Goleman and Richard Boyatzis, authors of the Harvard Business Review article “Social Intelligence and the Biology of Leadership,” have researched and found social leadership competencies and behaviors, as noted above and explained more fully in their article.  I would contend that there are uses of social communications that help to manifest these behaviors, especially in large, geographically dispersed organizations where leaders can’t have as much face to face time with their people.

Using Twitter or responding to posts on the company Facebook page can also humanize an executive and recognize  an individual employees, making them feel more valued.

During an interview today a middle manager told me that one of the best days in her position was when the CEO sent a personal note, congratulating her on turning around what had been one of the most poorly performing units of the organization. “That note made me feel so valued,” she explained of the incident that happened a few years ago.  “Today recognizing me on our Facebook page or a Tweet would do the same. Why don’t executives do this more?”


Social media surprise: increase in employee satisfaction

One of the surprises of FedEx’s use of social media for customer service is not that customer sentiment has improved, but that that their employee satisfaction scores have risen. Their front line service reps like their jobs more because they are receiving public recognition on Twitter from those customers that they so diligently help. They feel valued. (Disclaimer: FedEx is one of my clients.)

Note the word “feel.”  To lead people, you must make them feel valued And social media provides a way to do this. Mother Teresa once said, “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” Do you know how easy it easy to share short kind words via a blog response, “Nice job,”  a simple re-tweet (RT) of a colleague’s Tweet, or just clicking “Like” on a Facebook comment. Short and kind goes a long way and it’s easy.

Five practical reasons executives need social media

Put socially intelligent leadership strategy aside. Here are five practical reasons for executives to be using social media.

Support company initiatives: As companies launch Facebook pages for employee engagement or internal communities in lieu of newsletters and Intranets, executives should want to be part of these efforts. If  something is important to the company, executives need to show up to make people believe it’s important.

Taking the pulse, being engaged: Similarly, how can you  take the pulse of your people and company if you’re not hanging out where they’re talking, which more and more is online? Showing up and posting responses or comments shows that you’re listening and care about people’s ideas.  Visible listening on these social channels sends a message that you value what your people. It also show’s leadership is engaged.  There are so many programs today aimed at “employee engagement.”  What about leadership engagement going the other way to employees and customers?

Appeal to Gen Y talent: If you really want to attract and hold onto valuable GenY talent, using social media sends a signal that you’re progressive and a company with a desirable collaborative culture. It’s not just the PR department Tweeting, there’s a company culture of open collaborating, sharing and recognizing people’s ideas.

Manage the company’s reputation:  Being involved in key social channels can help you build reputation equity, show you’re an innovative company with diverse people with diverse ideas, attract talent, and help customers see how passionate and dedicated you are to being the best in the industry.  Perceptions today are more influenced by people seeing an ongoing persona of an executive and getting to know who they are as a person from what they share in social media — this social communications sharing is far more influential than  any one or two media articles or handful of speeches.

Speeches at conferences: Today at conferences people live Tweet the speakers and refer to them by their Twitter handles. Oops, what if you’re speaking and you have no Twitter handle? It’s not a big deal. But it’s sort of like showing up to speak and forgetting to wear socks.

Changing your behavior to inspire theirs

Today you can be a highly effective leader and have no social communications competence, sort of like in the late 1980s/early 90′s when executives had no email addresses.  But if you really want to connect to your customers and people, you need to change to how they work, learn, share, and live.  The conservative Mayo Clinic recently said that “the social media revolution is the most far-reaching communications development since Guttenberg’s printing press.”

But it’s more than about communications.  This is about leadership, and changing your management behavior to make people feel valued, recognized, and a part of a movement, which is your company’s mission.

I asked the middle manager about her advice to executives, and she recommend that they all think on this Maya Angelou quote: 

“I have learned that people will forget what you have said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Filed Under: Activating change, Communicating, Language, Leadership Tagged With: , , ,

Leveraging corporate-speak and business jargon to empower lazy thinking and seamlessly obscure challenged strategic initiatives

September 3, 2010 By 1 Comment

The SOS call came  on Thursday night from a friend who was working with the CEO to close a major acquisition and get a press release out.

“You know why we’re spending $100 million to buy this company?” she said. “I’m being told to say that it ‘leverages our assets and talents in our core business.’”  I pushed back and told him that that this doesn’t explain why we’re buying the company.  But he insists “leverage” is a good word. The street will like it.”

The next day I was reviewing an executive’s business objectives. “What do you think,” he asked.

“I can’t understand what they mean,” I said. “All this deepening and strengthening and aligning and empowering and seamlessly enabling. Could you just tell me in simple words about what you want to do and why it matters?”

Icy silence, but point taken. This exec is smart enough to know that the corporate jargon was preventing anyone from understanding some big ideas. If if people can’t understand, nothing happens. Which may be the point of many a jargon-riddled document.

Why is there so much business jargon?

Insecurity: Part of the overuse of business jargon is insecurity — people think certain phrases and words make them sound knowledgeable.

Lazy thinking: An even bigger reason is that people have not thought through the ideas, so they dress up incomplete thinking with all kinds of blah blah.  It’s like putting a Mercedes medallion on a beat-up Honda Civic and expecting people to believe it’s an expensive car.

Over their heads: And then there are the people who are in way over their heads, and can’t communicate clearly because they don’t know the subject matter well enough.  Jargon is tap dancing, hoping no one finds out that you don’t know what you’re doing.

Fear: People are afraid to explain the facts, especially in touchy situations like layoffs.  They think that if they couch things in obscure explanations, people won’t get upset or ask difficult questions. People see right through these wimpy attempts to avoid tough issues. Worse yet,  obscuration erodes people’s trust in that wimpy leader who can’t just give it to them straight.

Cover up: Hello Enron, Tyco, BP and all the other slime balls who used corporate speak to try to cover up bad situations. (And many still do.)

Good sources of corporate speak phrases, dictionaries, outrage

If you’re trying to help a colleague get on the straight-talk wagon — or you have the urge to send that insecure product manager a secret email about what what his stupid jargon really means — are are some good resources:

Try this: omit all the adjectives

One piece of advice, that’s  helped me reform corporate speak addicts: ask them to cross out all the adjectives and adverbs in the document.  What’s left?  Usually nothing, resulting in something like: “The (deleted adjective) (deleted adjective) product, is the (deleted adjective) in our industry.”

Good ideas need no fancy words. Think of all the plain but effective messages in history: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” “It’s the economy, stupid.”

Your take?

Filed Under: Communicating, Dumb company stories, Language, Leadership Tagged With: , , , , ,

A leader’s three talking points

August 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment

To lead and inspire an organization, every leader needs three basic talking points about which she/he passionately believes:

  1. What’s the dream? What are we all working towards and why it matters.
  2. Why do I personally feel compelled to lead this effort? What personal story shows why the dream or vision matters so much to you?  Information explains. Personal stories engage people’s heads and hearts.
  3. How do we know we’re making progress? Share how you know you’re on the right path and how you’re measuring progress. Remember also to celebrate progress, one of the most effective and undervalued human motivators.

Filed Under: Activating change, Communicating, Language, Leadership

Mission statements that don’t suck

August 4, 2010 By 1 Comment

I love this video so much, and see this sort of corporate blah blah everywhere. Dan Heath has some valuable advice, including my favorite, “If what you’re writing has the word solutions in it, you’re probably not done yet.”

Filed Under: Communicating, Conversational Marketing, Language Tagged With: , ,

This RFP question matters

July 6, 2010 By 1 Comment

Last week I received an RFP  with a key question: what is your organization’s mission and beliefs? I love that question because it will help the evaluators get a sense of the firms  in a way that the factual questions can not.

However, many firms struggle in answering this question. Or they play it safe. Or answer in bland language.  Having reviewed hundreds of RFPs my advice is to answer this question passionately and genuinely, in language you would use in talking with someone.

This RFP question is designed to help the evaluators get to know the personality, people and passion of your firm. Don’t waffle.  Be bold, be true to who your organization is, and use language that brings you beliefs alive.

Also, make sure your Web site includes your belief ( or purpose, or mission, or point of view; they’re really the same)  And that everyone in the firm knows it and understands how it guides your work every day.

Stuck?  Get your people together and have a thoughtful conversation around this question: why does the world need our organization now more than ever?

Filed Under: Activating change, Communicating, Conversational Marketing, Language, Point of View & Messaging Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The courage to change: a business story II

June 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A few months ago I posted a little fictitious story about the courage to change in business.  It’s been viewed by so many that I thought I should add a more serious post on the topic.

Having the courage to change requires us to live in fear, and continually face down that fear as we move in our new directions. For most businesses evidence of whether our new direction will succeed can take months if not years.  Many of us will stumble along the way and want to turn back to what’s safe.

Yet the thing we need to remember is that there’s not much safety and security in “business as usual.” The world changes so quickly and so must we  — or soon we will soon be irrelevant.

One question to ask your organization every year: Why does the world need our company/organization/cause more now than ever before?

If you can respond firmly and confidently, you’ve probably been evolving. If the answer is vague or difficult to answer, you know you need to press the “accelerate change” button.

The larger the organization, the more difficult it is to change.  My first job interview coming out of college was with Bell Labs and Western Electric, part of AT&T. “I heard that the Bell System might be breaking up,” I said to my soon-to-be-boss. “Honey,” he replied, “Not in your lifetime.”  Well we all know what became of the Bell system. Kaput. (Don’t get me started about the sexism women had to deal with.)

But here’s the secret to courage and change.  When the change means something to people, they get moving and buying in to new ways. Employees and customers alike.  But if the direction or purpose is vague or irrelevant, it’s like pushing boulder up a mountain.

“When ideas mean something to us, the distance between thinking and acting dissovles. People don’t hesitate to get started. They don’t sit around figuring out the risk or waiting until someone else develops an implementation strategy. They just start doing.”  Dr. Margaret Wheatley, author and organizational consultant

So have courage, yes. But make the change meaningful. And communicate that meaning is compelling images and a language of possibility. To your employees. To your customers. And to yourself.

 

Filed Under: Activating change, Communicating, Innovation, Language, Leadership

Lessons in leadership: where are you coming from?

June 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Writer, educator and activist Parker Palmer has for years been helping leaders, teachers, and medical professionals connect with their inner values and learn how to rely on that soulful wisdom to guide their professional lives.  Listening to our inner teacher, he writes in “A Hidden Wholeness,” prevents burn out and helps us stay passionate and engaged in work and relationships that are meaningful.

“When we live behind a wall, people close to us become wary of the gap between our onstage performance and backstage reality. Distrusting our duplicity and seeking to protect themselves, they hold us at arm’s length.”

It was interesting to read the interview with Niki Leondakis, COO of the Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group, in the Sunday New York Times “Corner Office” column about her leadership approach, which is grounded in standing for our values as leaders.  It is very much in synch with Palmer’s insights.

So what advice would you give to new managers?

“I would talk to a young manager about who they are, what they believe in, and find the foundation or platform, if you will, to communicate consistently to the people you work with so they know what you stand for and what you believe in.

“When they experience that from you, they understand the place that it’s coming from. Otherwise, they fill in their own blanks.”

At a business dinner party two years ago I met Ed Godin, senior VP of HR at Brightcove. Ed opened up the dinner by asking everyone what their “power alleys” were — what we felt were our real gifts and talents.  The question wasn’t about titles or companies or any of those superficial things we so often use to introduce ourselves. It was a great conversation starter because it helped us to quickly begin to know each other for one another.

Understanding our real talents and inner beliefs helpfully guides our individual behavior as leaders. But as Niki Leondakis explains, articulating those beliefs also helps us with people we work with and for.  When you know what’s really motivating a person, you don’t fill in your own blanks, or get frustrated by actions that seem to be grounded in nothing but company politics.

Sort of like that old adage, “the truth can set you free.” When we know what we all value, we can get  on with collaborating and working in a way that is true to who we are. And maybe even have some fun doing so.

Filed Under: Communicating, Language, Leadership Tagged With: , , , , ,

My first Pecha Kucha experience

March 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Maybe you’ve heard of the growing Pecha Kucha happenings all over the world, where people in a city come together for a night of sharing stories. Each “presenter” has 20 slides, 20 seconds per slide to talk about that night’s theme.

I had read about Pecha Kucha, pronounced “pecca-CHOCK- chaaaaa” and last night experienced it in Providence, where almost 100 people turned out to hear 9 speakers, including me.

Some of my observations and thoughts:

  1. Other  views: I especially liked hearing people with points of views very different from mine.  The vibe at a Pecha Kucha Night is open, friendly, accepting.  People don’t rant; they share their perspectives, some really passionate.  I learned a lot about why people hold some views they do, though I still may not agree with them.  Michael Bass of Ocean State Action, presented data to  support his view that the wealthy should be taxed more so that the state can support public structures and initiatives.  As someone who sees the job-creating and revenue value of making a state more business friendly, I probably want ever be supporter of Michael’s organization, but I really valued his critical thinking, genuine values and passion.  Takeaway? It’s good to get out and hear from people you ordinarily would never mix with; it made me see into my state with a new lens. While I wish
  2. You do what?: who knew that there are so many interesting, niche ways that people earn a living, like Michael Born who talked about his profession as an architectural illustrator
  3. Stories vs. information: Sharing a personal story is always more compelling than  presenting data and information about a topic. You can tell who cares: this format unveils people’s passion — or lack of — about a topic. Sculptor Gillian Christy told the fascinating story of the highlights of creating and installing her new “Making Waves” sculpture in Providence. You could feel her love and her passion. And she knew how to share details with us that brought the story alive, like making sure all 700 rivets were aligned. Wow.
  4. People just want to have some fun: John Speck kicked off the evening, leading us all through a hilarious group song intended to help us learn how to pronounce Pecha Kucha. And I believe he succeeded brilliantly.
  5. Courage and personal stories:  When I speak I usually try to educate in an engaging way. Last night I tried out a whole new style, sharing three personal stories that changed my business, changed my career and changed my life. It’s scary to open up that way, especially to a roomful of strangers.  Not sure yet what folks thought, but I’m committed to trying out new ways of communicating and connecting with people, for my own growth and to be a better adviser to my clients.  Research tells us that the personal stories move people emotionally, and emotion is the trigger for understanding and action. But publicly sharing stories that rocked our world takes a whole lot of courage.

Part of Pecha Kucha is also “networking,” which this introvert really hates doing. Maybe there should be a table set aside for introverts, so we can quietly talk and respectfully listen.

Thanks to the wonderful and multi-talented Stephanie Gerson, a San Fran transplant to RI who is the mastermind behind Pecha Kucha Providence.

Filed Under: Communicating, Language, Musings Tagged With: , ,

Social media science: what triggers sharing, retweeting

March 6, 2010 By 1 Comment

Dan Zarrella,  a social media and viral scientist, has done some interesting work in analyzing social media data to determine what triggers sharing.

In one study he analyzed Twitter data to find out what makes some Tweets more viral than others. The full “Science of Retweeting” report can be found here. Some of the things I found most interesting.:

  • Asking people to retweet works, especially when you use the  word “please”
  • People like to retweet links to blog posts.
  • Lists are big (something I have found in analyzing blog posts, as well). Approximately 69 percent of tweets that are retweeted contain links. (Maybe further proving that Twitter is a giant distribution engine, more than a social network.)
  • The peak hour for retweets is 1 p.m. EST

Video sharing Facebook TwitterJPEG

In another recent study Dan found that stories with the word “video” were shared more than the average story on Facebook, and less than average story on Twitter, implying that Facebook may be a better platform than Twitter for getting videos to go viral.

Filed Under: Language, Research, Social media strategy

What's your marketing soundtrack?

February 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Beat ItJPEG

I help companies uncover what they love about their businesses and show them how to use that to create pretty fascinating sales and marketing strategies.

The first step in our discovery process is asking a few questions, like “if you were having dinner with an old friend,  how would you  brag about your business?” The answers to this question are usually dull, dull, dull. But it helps me get to know the people.

The second question always uncorks the creative juices.  Please take it and use it. It is simply this:

If you could pick one song as a theme song for  your organization, what would it be?

The ideas are usually hilarious, hold a thread of truth and possibility, and loosen people up in new ways.   A couple of weeks ago I heard some some great responses from a consulting firm with deep analytics expertise:

  • Beat It by Michael Jackson
  • White & Nerdy by Weird Al Yankovich
  • Marching Through the Wilderness by David Byrne

Let the marketing brainstorming begin….

Filed Under: Activating change, Conversational Marketing, Language, Point of View & Messaging Tagged With: , ,

The viral effect: positive, awe-inspiring stories

February 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment

cause Ripple

Just what causes a story to go viral?  New York Times Science writer John Tierney reports today on a new in-depth University of Pennsylvania study  that found:

  • People share articles that inspire awe
  • Positive stores are more likely to be shared than negative
  • More emotional stories are emailed more often
  • Stories about anxiety travel, but no where close to those that inspire awe

Having done my own studies on what people like to share and the power of meaning making (Beyond Buzz, 2007), I found this new study  validating and insightful — especially learning more about what the heck is awe inspiring.

The UPenn researchers used two criteria for an “awe inspiring story”: the scale of the story is large and it requires the reader to see the world in a different way.

The researchers also found that people like to share awe-inspiring stories not to impress others, but to realize a type of “emotional communion.”

Emotion in general leads to transmission, and awe is a strong emotion,” said Dr. Jonah Berger of UPenn. ” If I’ve just read this story that changes the way I understand the world and myself, I want to talk to others about what it means. I want to proselytize and share the feeling of awe. If you read the article and feel the same emotion, it will bring us closer together.”

One of my most popular blog posts over the past few years  had nothing to do with marketing but was about an awe-inspiring 18 hours in an urban hospital emergency room. The resulting comments, calls and emails created an extraordinary emotional communion with friends and strangers.

Three weeks ago I finished writing a new book about an awe-inspiring journey. It was the most fulfilling writing I’ve ever done, and it’s the marketing project I’m most eager to get moving. Why?  There’s nothing more satisfying than emotional communion, and the buzz that goes with it.

Good lessons for all we marketers who  too often rely on a heavy-on-the-logic, light-on-the- emotion style of business communications.  To realize the powerful possibilities of social media our content needs to be emotional and show what’s possible.

Filed Under: Activating change, Communicating, Conversational Marketing, Language, Research, Word of mouth

If you think your company is boring…

December 18, 2009 By Leave a Comment

TreesLookUp

‘Tis the season for marketing planning, which can be painful if you’re in a rut. From many years of experience I believe every company has remarkable ideas to talk about, but finding those ideas can sometimes be challenging.

This week I talked at the Word of Mouth Supergenius conference about how to shake things up and find those ideas. Thanks to Merritt Colaizzi of SmartBlog on Social Media for her post that sums up those ideas. You can find it here.

Finding those interesting ideas to talk about is well worth the work. Consider:

  • What do sales reps to say to engage prospects?
  • What makes your proposals and RFPs stand out?
  • Social media only works if you have interesting ideas to talk about
  • How do CEOs get employees’ attention?

To get more interest, you have to be more interesting.  It doesn’t mean you have to be cool like Apple. In fact, much of my work has been with “boring” B2B companies.  Everything in marketing and sales gets much easier when you find the “talkable” ideas.

If you get stuck, call me to help jump start your thinking. If your company is really stuck, let’s do a workshop in 2010  to uncover those amazing ideas just waiting to be found.  While I am slightly biased, this is the best marketing investment you can make next year.

Filed Under: Activating change, Communicating, Conversational Marketing, Language, Point of View & Messaging, Word of mouth Tagged With: , , ,

What CEOs learn from military experience

October 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Over the past two  weeks I have met  with some fascinating and brilliant executives who all started their careers in the military. “Is there something about military training that helps make great business leaders,” I asked. They all said “of course” and pointed to three things that they  learned in the military that helps today in running a business.

1.  Instilling the belief that the leader will support and help his people  no matter what. “I have your back,” is ingrained. It’s about believing in the organization’s vision and purpose,  not any one leader.

2. Believing that there is a place for everyone to succeed and helping people find where they can most successfully contribute. Human potential is ingrained.

3. Having a point of view that helps people see what really matters and demonstrates the leader’s expertise and intellect.

Here’s a video of one of the executives, a former Marine, with whom I had the pleasure to meet at BIF-5.

Filed Under: Communicating, Language, Leadership

A social media knowledge benchmark

October 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Thanks to Kishore Partchasarathi, a marketing student at York University in Toronto, for this social media overview and thoughtful review of my book.Review of Beyond Buzz

Filed Under: Books, Communicating, Conversational Marketing, Language, Social media strategy, Word of mouth Tagged With: , , ,

What's a talkable brand?

October 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment

The Word of Mouth Marketing Association has put out a request: What makes a brand talkable? Here’s my take.

Filed Under: Communicating, Communities, Conversational Marketing, Language, Marketing trends, Public Relations, Sales, Social media strategy, Word of mouth Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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