Functions in the workplace are converging. Social media is jumbling responsibilities at the enterprise at an alarming rate. Let’s take twitter for example.
You may know the online shoe retailer Zappos.com – they make a big deal out of using technology to give customers what they want and need 24 x 7. This is NOT because Zappos thinks that technology is cool. Their culture is totally built around superior customer service.Check it out here. Here’s an example of their twitter feed…
“Oh whoa! Truly sorry about that. We will try not to let that happen again. We had some slight hiccups in out Tweets today. ”
Check out Zappos employees communicating here. And they are not alone. Check out this tweet from a satisfied Southwest Airlines customer: “Southwest completed my name change within 2 hours of my faxing them the info! #customerservice #newlywedtweet”
What about when an employee goes on Glassdoor, Facebook or twitter to complain about your company, whose responsibility is it to monitor and follow up? HR? Marketing?
When things go wrong with a sale, who hears about it? The sales person? Customer service? Marketing? Maybe the IT department if it’s a web sale? Is response via social sites in your organization’s workflow?
Is a company’s Facebook or Twitter pages the responsibility of marketing, advertising, customer service or public relations? Smart companies are actually co-creating products with customers in real time. So now do the product development folks need to monitor twitter too?
What if I need to download a 3rd party app to my desktop and cell phone to monitor twitter for my job… Does IT support that? Across which platforms (Apple, Blackberry, Droid or tablets?)
If you manage marketing, sales, customer services, human resources, IT or finance; are you paying attention? The head in the sand thing isn’t going to work any more.
My grandmother taught me to say (with a big smile), “Not today but try me tomorrow” when I was turning down an offer. I thought she was crazy but… she was teaching me to please others.
And so I thought I needed to say yes in order to be liked. Fortunately, I got over that.
But saying no can be difficult so here are some helpful hints for saying no,
When someone starts talking about a problem and wants you to help, you could say: “I can understand how that would be hard.”
Then say nothing more—just nod and smile while you assess what you want to do. If you can walk away without accepting any responsibility and let the person feels heard, you have all my respect. A desire to help, curiosity and wanting to be the hero all kick in for me so I have to be on guard.
How about when you’re asked to start working on a new project, you could say:
“Would you email me the details? Once I receive that, I’ll be able to give you a more definite response.”
Maybe you’ll push the project to someone else, maybe you’ll take it on. You get time to decide on a response. And don’t forget the best ever, all purpose response:
“I’ll have to get back you.”
I have a ‘Git ‘Er Done’ mentality but I want to manage my time so I can enjoy my work and my life. Got tips for saying no (besides change your personality?)
The world of marketing is full of musts. You must tell the story, you must use a powerful image, blah, blah, blah.
Well, one must that many people ignore is the ‘CALL TO ACTION’. Yes, that’s right. Once a customer comes to your website, store, whatever… you need to tell them what you want them to do. Sounds pushy, maybe… but any good sales person will tell you that asking for the business is one of the most important parts of closing the sale.
Typical resumes do not include a call to action but why not? Do we make it a ‘no-brainer’ for someone to contact us, either by email or by phone? Do you put a QR code on your resume that leads to your website, blog, or a video of you describing your fabulous skills? Is your email link live? Are each of your company/organization links live?
Here’s a very cool article on 10 effective ways to build web-based ‘calls to action’ that can really make a difference.
Remember, don’t try harder, try different. Make your resume stand out.You can do it.
The saddest and trickiest part about discrimination is that many people (myself included) are not aware when we’re engaging in it. This distinguishes us from the people who are simply bigots and don’t care. In both cases, however, if you are the ‘discriminee’ it doesn’t really matter.
In this ad for Nivea skin products, the company created an ad campaign for African Americans called, “Recivilize Yourself.” Hmmm. Bad move. Implying that people are civilized or uncivilized based on their race is well… infuriating. And yet, Nivea paid, I would guess, millions of dollars to put it’s prejudice into full color! Note the ‘head’ (presumably the model’s uncivilized self). WOW. How could something like this get approved in 2011? By the way, Nivea did apologize (on Facebook!)
“It was never our intention to offend anyone, and for this we are deeply sorry. This ad will never be used again. Diversity and equal opportunity are crucial values of our company.”
Don’t know about you but I’m not feeling it….
I think the bottom line for all of us is that we need to be diligent in examining our beliefs and stereotypes. Discrimination is rampant these days is against 20 somethings. I implore you to think again about this generation. As digital natives, they have skills we desperately need to learn and understand.
As a woman in business, I have experienced discrimination many times; sometimes overt, sometimes subtle. Like all those before me who have felt this sting, I have a couple of choices. I can either be upset and let it affect the way I conduct myself or I can look the person in the eye, speak my peace when appropriate and move on. There’s too much good in the world to let ignorance or someone else’s opinion of me change how I live my life.
Ok, you need to have a resume if you are looking for a job and all those things the ‘experts’ tell you about resumes are true.
-Tailor your resume to the job
-Don’t ANNOUNCE that you are dinosaur (older like me) or just out of school
But you don’t have to use the same old format that everyone else uses. You can (and should) be creative with your resume. For instance, make sure that you have live links in the electronic version so the person reviewing it can easily link through to company websites or other content.
Orange resumes is a cool site that helps you create resumes that show a potential employer how you are different. As you look through the samples, you’ll see that you can create something “different” that is also very good, appropriate and even enhances your positioning.
I know you’re saying, but those resumes are for creative types and I’m an
enginneer/finance person/blah blah
Let’s go back to the goal of your resume… hmmm… The goal is to get an interview.
If you create an interesting, results-oriented resume that also shows you are creative and the organization doesn’t want to talk to you, then maybe you don’t want to work there. Just sayin….
Stereotypes are not usually helpful. In some cases, however, examining our own attitudes about them may teach us some important lessons.
Executives teams often complain to me about their 20-something (Millenials- born between 1980 – 1995) employees. They claim they are:
- Obsessed by their phones, lazy, distracted, self-absorbed and entitled
I don’t happen to share those attitudes but I can see their point. I work with, teach and constantly learn from Millenials. I find them hardworking, thoughtful and eager to learn. Technology (phones etc.) are part of their DNA.
Here’s what I hear from those Millenials about their Boomer (born 1946 through 1964) bosses. They say Boomers are:
- Rigid, rude (poor listeners), afraid of technology and unable to adapt to changing times
I don’t happen to share those attitudes either, but I do see their point. I suggest reading this article to learn more about the issues of the generations working together, “How Has the Recession Shaped Career Attitudes…”
My hope is that by having the generations share ideas and help each other, we can compete effectively not with other Americans, but with the global workforce. I’m interested in your stories about effective cross-generational work environments.
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joi/455111587/ Notice in the photo that despite their differences; they are riding on the same train… heading in the same direction.
I talk to job seekers about the power of social in their search. Most people embrace it at some level. Others tell me how stupid it is. That’s cool, do it however you want!
The company is looking for publicly available information on site like Facebook, MySpace, Flickr and Craigslist. It isn’t looking for ‘dirt’ per se but to find out whether you, as a potential employee, would give the potential employer heartburn or worse. In other words, are you trustworthy?
If the company … “finds out you’re pregnant, or gay, or a Muslim, or newly married, or a newly gay married to a pregnant Muslim, it leaves that out of its report. All an employer sees is, basically, that you passed or failed.”
So how will this change how we post, rant or connect? The roller coaster ride just got a little bumpier. What do you think?
Photo credit: many thanks to Steve John, found via Escape into Life.com — from the iPhone of New Media Artist Steve John
When I speak locally, there are usually a few people who come up and ask to connect with me. It may take a while but I try to meet everyone who asks me. I like meeting new people and it helps me reach my goal of meeting 5+ new people a week. Do you have a goal to meet a certain number of new people a week? Whether you are a business owner or a job seeker, meeting new people is critical.
Most job seekers don’t really have any idea of who they want to meet. Whether you call it your “marketing plan” or target list – please know who you want to meet, and not just oh the hiring manager after you have a particular job in your sights. If you’re not sure, get a job search buddy or join a networking group to help you and here are a few ideas.
Think about people in your current, related or desired fields who have a good reputation and are in:
– Academia or are Vendors/Suppliers or Sales People
Think about targeting people in companies where you might be interested in working. Get introduced to people who are in leadership positions in non profits or on Boards of nonprofits and individuals who teach skills you are interested in learning. And last but not least, meet with people who know a lot of people (network with networkers!) Use Linked In to find the names of people you want to meet.
When I attend a networking event, I am usually there to meet someone I have identified as a potential contact. Someone I hope to help so that they will remember me when they need a consultant. Make that list, check it twice and go out and meet some new people. You’ll be glad you did.
People in transition are at different stops along the “finding work again” route. What stage are you: denial, anger, why me, who cares, yikes I need money, holy smokes why didn’t keep up my network, this is cool, etc. Do you think of this as an opportunity or are you fighting it? You have a chance to learn many new things, so go for it!
Interviewing is a skill, like cooking or swinging a golf club. To be good at it you need to practice. So whether you’re in an active search or not, you need to practice interviewing.
At your next interview think about:
Asking, ‘why this is a great place to work?’ Watching body language for signs of discomfort from the interviewer? Asking about culture? technology?
Are you leading the conversation in a way that is to your advantage or are you letting the HR person/hiring manager set the agenda?
Here’s another great question to ask:
“Are there any skills that you would have liked for me to have but we haven’t discussed yet?” (Seems a little risky right?) When my contact (thanks Jason!) asked this question in a recent interview… the person mentioned business writing skills. He had a chance to send a writing sample along with the thank you note. By the way, they scheduled his next interview before he left the first. How’s that for results?
It may be hard to believe but many Human Resource professionals are gearing up their recruiting efforts. While the economy isn’t exactly humming, the job market is heating up and companies are actively looking for ‘bench strength.’ In a 2010 survey titled, Job Seeker Nation, it was reported that we are rapidly becoming a nation of ‘free agents’ who are continuously alert for opportunities. And by the way, this is a good thing. Try this on for size…
I know keeping up our skills is hard and that trying to make sure we’re networking and connecting is a pain. But consider the alternative. “If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less,” said General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff, U. S. Army. He wasn’t referring to the job market but, it does apply.
Each of us needs to be thinking about being a proactive career manager. Are you diligently building your network? Are you getting training? Are you actively discussing key aspects of change in your field? Do you read blogs that are relevant to your industry? Are you out of your comfort zone?
I want to be one of those people that companies are willing to fight to recruit. How about you?
Functions in the workplace are converging. Social media is jumbling responsibilities at the enterprise at an alarming rate. Let’s take twitter for example.
Life Transitions, social media | Deborah | 
November 17, 2011 10:37 am | 
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I talk to job seekers about the power of social in their search. Most people embrace it at some level. Others tell me how stupid it is. That’s cool, do it however you want!
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