2010-7
27

Thanks for Your Feedback!

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This website has made several quantum leaps forward over the past year, and I want to thank everyone who submitted feedback and suggestions along the way! I’m going to be making some final revisions over the next few weeks, and I anticipate the finished product going live after Labor Day. Thanks again, and I’ll see you on Tuesday, September 7th!

2010-7
26

Comparing Yourself to Others Is a Losing Game

Category: Leadership | Tags: | 4 Comments

When you judge the quality of your sleep last night, you’re comparing it to other nights. When you judge the heaviness of this morning’s commute, you’re comparing it to other commutes. When you judge your lunch, you’re comparing it to other lunches. When you judge how your day was, you’re comparing it to other days.

Isn’t it logical that when you judge yourself, you’re comparing yourself to other people? When you judge your appearance, your intelligence, your success, your finances, your skills, and any other aspect of yourself, you’re probably comparing what you have with what other people have.

That’s a losing game. You can’t win it. You can’t consistently feel good about yourself when you (like all of us) will always be stronger in one area than another person, and weaker in that same area than someone else. If you’re the top salesperson in your division, there’s always someone in another division or another company who’s selling even more, making more money, racing up the career ladder even faster.

Rather than trying to be the best, the most successful, the thinnest, the most attractive, or whatever quality you’re seeking, you can drop the game entirely! The famous dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov has often been called “the best” male dancer in ballet, but he deliberately avoids getting swept up in that losing game. He focuses on his similarities with others instead of his differences:

  • “I get speeding ticket like everybody else. If the restaurant is full I’m waiting in line like everybody else.”

  • “I really reject that kind of comparison that says, ‘Oh, he is the best. This is the second best.’ There is no such thing.”

  • “I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself.”

Free yourself from the joyless, frustrating game of comparing yourself to other people!

2010-7
23

Enjoy Great Food and Help Others Eat Too

Category: Philanthropy/Society | Tags: | No Comments

On August 25, 2010 from 6 pm to 8 pm, four local chefs will be joining forces to offer “The Boys of Summer” — a cooking demonstration and food/wine pairing event to benefit Feeding South Florida (www.feedingsouthflorida.org.) The event will take place at Florida Builder Appliances Pompano Beach Showroom, which offers high-end kitchen appliances. Matching wines will be provided by Merryvale Vineyards and Starmont Winery.

Tickets are $20, and every dollar buys six meals for residents in Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, and Monroe counties. You can buy tickets at Feeding South Florida’s website or by calling 954-977-6407.

Formerly known as the Daily Bread Food Bank, Feeding South Florida is Florida’s largest food bank. If you’re interested in contributing to their efforts but cannot attend the Boys of Summer event, you can also do any of the following:

  • Text FEED to 52000 to donate $5 or call 954-518-1832 to make a corporate donation.

  • Contact Leroy Green (954-518-1863 or lgreen@feedingsouthflorida.org) about volunteer opportunities.

  • Contact Anthea Pennant (954-518-1832 or apennant@feedingsouthflorida) about allowing your employees to participate in an automatic payroll giving program.

  • Call 954-518-1835 for details about donating food or organizing a food drive at your business.

The Imagine specialty license plates also support food banks throughout Florida: www.imagineplate.com. Sales of the license plates have already raised $1,341,850 as of 6/1/10!

2010-7
22

High Speed Networking in Miami

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One drawback of many networking events is the inability to meet everyone in the room. For example, I recently had the opportunity to attend a leadership seminar with approximately 150 people, and I only had the pleasure of meeting about a dozen people.

High speed networking offers an interesting solution. Sponsored by Networking for Professionals, High Speed Networking Miami is a two-hour event where people can talk one-on-one with other professionals for a few minutes at a time. Cost of admission is $20 for members, $30 for non-members, or $35 at the door, and Happy Hour specials are available. If you have more than 100 friends on Facebook, you can also take advantage of a special offer for a free ticket: Facebook offer.

Upcoming High Speed Networking Miami events will take place on Wednesday, August 11, 2010 and Wednesday, September 29, 2010.  The events will be held at Gordon Biersch in Miami.

For more information about Networking for Professionals events, see Miami Business Networking Events.

2010-7
21

Computer-Generated Media: Welcome It, Mine It, Use It

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Pete Blackshaw coined the term “computer-generated media” (CGM) to describe the tweets, Facebook updates, blogs, online comments, digital photos, YouTube videos, podcasts, and other media that customers around the world are using to share their business experiences with everyone else connected to the Web. In 2008, Blackshaw wrote,  “Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000”  in which he warned that the rules of business-customer relationships have irreversibly changed. Whereas a single angry letter sent via snail mail could have been ignored, a single blog entry can now ignite a firestorm of furious comments that quickly blacken a company’s reputation.

What does that mean to your business?

  1. Your customers are paying more attention to other customers than to your advertising. “The consumer is the new center of the universe [and] the cameras and microphones are always on and rolling.” (pp. 8-9, 48)

  2. At all levels, your business must be honest, authentic, transparent, open to feedback, responsive, and validated by your customers. Credibility is the best asset your business has.

  3. Your customers’ loyalty is not enough; you need their advocacy.

 What action steps can you take? Per Blackshaw,

  1. Warmly invite feedback through all channels (email, snail mail, fax, phone, etc.), making it as friendly and easy as possible for your customers to share feedback with you. If customers feel you’re burying your customer service contact information or providing a maze of options on your call center lines (see www.GetHuman.com), then your company’s credibility will suffer. Note: Bradshaw practices what he preaches, providing his personal cell phone number on his website.

  2. Rather than relying solely on paid media, strategically incorporate CGM into your media planning. Companies such as Nielson Online can monitor CGM for you, or you can mine it yourself through sites such as Technorati, Google Blog Search, IceRocket, or Digg. Strive to ensure that the online word of mouth about your company aligns with your own marketing message.

  3. Respond to CGM quickly and on the customer’s terms. For example, when CNBC’s Mark Haines tweeted in late August that people were stealing his Cheetos, large bags of Cheetos promptly arrived on the set. Or when Facebook customers spent two days actively rebelling against changes in the privacy policy, a Facebook executive openly apologized to the community and promptly corrected the problem.  

As the title of the book suggests, your angry customers are more likely to go online and share their frustration with others – especially when they don’t feel they’re being heard. The most important one-word piece of advice that Bradshaw would probably give is, “Listen.”

2010-7
20

Social Networking Sites’ Impact on Your Business

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When 250 IT managers were asked to identify their top security concern, their #1 response was “employees using applications on social networks” during the workday, according to Network Box. Not only do companies face an increased risk of computer viruses from sites such as Twitter and LinkedIn, but they also lose a significant percentage of their corporate bandwidth. A whopping 10% of business bandwidth, for example, is lost to employees watching YouTube videos.

In response to these types of serious concerns, the majority of organizations (including the U.S. Marine Corps) have already banned access to social networking sites altogether (source: Wired). However, employees continue to access those sites through their cell phones while at work, leading to growing frustration among managers as overall productivity suffers. Spending time on Facebook, for example, has been linked with lower productivity at work and lower grades in college.

As a corporate marketing director explained to York College undergraduates:

“Multitasking is a myth. You got a great job. Turn off the cell phone. Stop texting.”

And, she might add, consider the impact of social networking sites on your career and your company!

2010-7
19

Small Investments in People Yield Big Returns

Category: Leadership | Tags: , | 2 Comments

My favorite boss (now lifelong friend) insisted on giving her entire team the day off on their birthday. It was a simple manager’s discretion day that barely impacted her budget, but the morale boost enjoyed by the team was almost palpable, leading to happier and more productive people.

My birthday is this week, and I’m reminded that a small investment in people yields big returns:

  • “Businesses must invest in…people in order to create new wealth.” – John Hoeven
  • “The best minute you spend is the one you invest in people.” – Ken Blanchard
  • “I am worried about our tendency to over invest in things and under invest in people.”- John Kenneth Galbraith
  • “Invest in the human family. Invest in people. Build a little community of those you love and who love you.” – Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie
  • “Let’s invest in people, not things…if a cheap pencil will do as well as MS Word in today’s schools, then our money, time and effort has been going to the wrong people. Maybe, it’s time to invest in children, teachers, administrators, and parents…instead of Microsoft, Apple, and other proprietary software vendors.” – Miguel Guhlin, Director of Instructional Technology

How can you make an investment today in the people around you?

2010-7
16

Benefit Playreading Supports Local Playwright

Category: Philanthropy/Society | Tags: | No Comments

Local playwright Michelle Rosenfarb will be entering the MFA Dramatic Writing Program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in the fall of 2010, and a special benefit playreading of her award-winning The Gates of Choice will help fund her educational pursuits. 

Michelle is a Carbonell Award nominee, the winner of the 16th Annual Florida Playwright Competition, and the recipient of an award for Lifetime Achievements of honor for Jewish artists and benefactors from Beth David Congregation. Below are notes from Michelle about The Gates of Choice.

The conception of The Gates of Choice arose almost ten years ago after returning from a study abroad program in Israel. During my month in Israel, I experienced my first true glimpse of my faith and a reawakening of my connection with my Jewish heritage…. The Gates of Choice underscores the lengths that people go though to define their own path and the sacrifices that are made for self fulfillment. The play has modeled my own life in many ways as I found the strength to pursue my passion in writing and follow my heart against many, many odds. While the play spotlights a specific population, it is universal in its message: There are consequences we must all face in pursuing our destiny. (Source: www.new-theatre.org/play_gates_of_choice.php)

Call 305-445-1119 to reserve your ticket to the playreading on August 15, 2010 at 7:30 pm on the GableStage at the Biltmore in Coral Gables. The suggested donation is $20, and all proceeds go to the playwright. (See South Florida Theatre Scene for more information.)

2010-7
15

Next Month: FL Sales Tax Holiday

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From 8/13/10 through 8/15/10, consumers can enjoy a sales tax holiday throughout the state of Florida. According to the Florida Department of Revenue:

If you sell books, clothing, footwear, certain accessories, or certain school supplies in the State of Florida, the upcoming Sales Tax Holiday may impact your business. Florida law directs that no sales tax or local option taxes (also known as discretionary sales surtax) will be collected on sales of books, clothing, footwear, and certain accessories selling for $50 or less, or on certain school supplies selling for $10 or less.

The Florida Department of Revenue offers a wealth of information for business leaders to understand which items are eligible (e.g., barrettes and bobby pins), which items are exempt (e.g., football pads and helmets), and how to handle gift certificates, exchanges, refunds, returns, coupons, rain checks, layaway sales, and more.

Click here to read all the details: 2010 Florida Sales Tax Holiday.

2010-7
14

Leading and Retaining the Millennials

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Also known as Generation Y, the Millennials are defined as all people born between the late 1970s and 2000. Some managers have struggled with leading the Millennials because they can be perceived as unusually demanding in contrast with the other three generations currently in the workplace: the Silent Generation, the Baby Boomers, and Generation X. However, great ideas for understanding and leading the Millennials are outlined in the 2009 book Keeping the Millennials: Why Companies are Losing Billions in Turnover to This Generation and What to Do About It.

Topics range from recruitment, through onboarding and training, through performance management and retention. Below are some action items.

1. Recruitment: seek career-oriented Millennials in resident assistant (RA) positions in college dorms, military positions, and achievement-oriented high school clubs such as 4-H. Note that a significant percentage of Millennials are not interested in the corporate environment, instead planning careers as serial entrepreneurs. Also build your own company’s reputation as a cool place to work, with the latest technology and a presence in “cool” settings such as sporting events or college fraternities.

2. Onboarding: bring newly hired Millennials into the fold as quickly as possible. They tend to place great value on frequent communication, belonging, acceptance, and teamwork. Also spend time giving them clear career paths for how they might move horizontally and vertically through your organization. Millennials might have unrealistic expectations about how quickly they can climb the corporate ladder.

3. Training: provide Millennials with interactive, dynamic, high-tech, hands-on training. They are eager to learn and are typically fast processors of information, so they’re unlikely to respond well to a dry lecture or seminar with an overhead projector.

4. Performance Management: give Millennials regular feedback and coaching throughout the performance management cycle. They are accustomed to hearing quick responses to their text messages, Facebook updates, tweets, and more; they will be seeking frequent communication from their leaders as well.

5. Retention vs. Separation: support your Millennials’ efforts to achieve work-life balance. Survey results suggest that if Millennials are forced to choose one or the other, they will quit their job to enjoy more of life. Also seek feedback from the happily employed Millennials in your organization. What do they enjoy about working at your company? What suggestions do they have for making your business even more attractive to prospective job candidates from their generation?

When working with any generation, understanding the strengths, weaknesses, and general mindset of the average person from that generation can be invaluable in helping them feel comfortable and productive in your organization. A book such as Keeping the Millennials can be very useful in recruiting, onboarding, training, managing, and retaining the new generation in the workplace.