If we’ve learned anything over the past decade, it is the power of a hashtag…
#WorkTrends has been on quite an adventure. Over the past 10 years, TalentCulture’s signature podcast has introduced us to great minds in the HR space. We’ve produced over 700 episodes — packed with insights, future-casting and anticipated trends.
We’ve had an incredible range of guests on #WorkTrends, from CEOs to technologists to practitioners, psychologists, data mavens and more. They’ve given us unparalleled perspectives and wisdom on so many subjects — leadership, recruiting, management, recognition, strategizing, coping, thriving. How, where, when, and even why we work is ever-expanding — and we’re proud to say our savvy guests predicted every pivot, and every moment.
In our episodes and in our Twitter chats, we’ve heard some groundbreakers I’ll never forget. Listing the many names would take pages and pages, so to all our guests so far I’ll just say this: Thank you for gracing the #WorkTrends stage with your presence and your brilliance.
And now it’s time to expand these amazing discussions… it is time to release them into the world.
The Power of Change
Even before the massive changes of 2020, TalentCulture was planning our own set of changes: a new website, an expanded community, and a new way to bring #WorkTrends to our growing audience. We recognized that in today’s business world, we’re connecting across digital space more than ever before. And we realized there isn’t a better time than now to broaden our discussions.
So we’re inviting everyone to join the #WorkTrends conversation beyond Twitter — and across more social media channels. We’re taking #WorkTrends to LinkedIn, Facebook, Google and beyond. Of course, you’ll find the same dynamic conversations about key work topics and all the issues that matter. Instead of exclusively through a weekly Twitter chat, though, #WorkTrends will be an ongoing discussion.
We believe the world of work is limitless: it’s a wellspring of energy and engagement. And to honor that, we’re opening the gates.
The Power of a Purposeful Hashtag
#WorkTrends is now a legacy hashtag. It’s become a classic that represents all the best minds and conversations. We’re excited to watch it grow wings — and move across time zones, borders, and barriers. So please join us. It’s going to be another wonderful adventure!
Be sure to tune into our weekly #WorkTrends podcasts and recaps. And to learn even more about how we’re growing the podcast, check out our WorkTrends FAQ page.
As always, thanks so much for tuning in and being a member of this amazing community. You #inspire me — every day!
https://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Headphones-Final.jpg6001018Meghan M. Birohttps://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/TCLogo_web-272x60-1.pngMeghan M. Biro2020-09-10 08:15:052021-02-16 20:04:46The Power of a Purposeful Hashtag: #WorkTrends
What’s the worst thing an employee can say on any given day? How about, “I don’t belong here?” The schism that takes place when an employee doesn’t feel connected with the work culture can have wide-ranging impacts across engagement, performance, team dynamics and the bottom line. Companies need to ensure they cultivate a workplace where employees feel a sense of belonging, whether that workplace is in-office or remote. As much as we talk about the power of employee experience and the dynamics of employee engagement, we first have to address the primary need to belong. That sense of true connection is the foundation for how we feel about work — and indeed, how we work.
I’ve been having some really insightful conversations with Iain Moffat, Chief Global Officer of MHR International, about belonging. It feels right for the times we’re in right now. Some employees have been rapidly sprung out of the tangible community of the workplace and are now working from home. And some workforces are still in the physical workplace, but under increasing pressure as we continue to endure the pandemic and its fallout. But building a sense of belonging isn’t just a fix for now. It’s a powerful talent strategy that has long-term outcomes.
Iain and I agreed that building a sense of belonging needs to be part of any serious endeavor to build an exceptional work culture. We also both noted that while some organizations are surprised by how comfortable employees are working from home, it may be, ironically, because they’re home. So how can businesses provide employees with that same sense of being in the right place?
First, five key points on belonging and businesses:
Given the push-pull of working from home or working through the turbulence and challenges of COVID-19, belonging bolsters our realization that we’re in it together, no matter where we are. It’s been linked to improved retention and a far more successful employer brand. Employees who feel like they belong tend to invite others to experience that as well.
We all need to feel like we belong — and when we do, there’s a marked increase in our engagement, overall happiness and health. In that sense, belonging is a benefit that should be part of the employer’s offering to employees: working with us, you will feel like you belong, and we will be intentional about that.
In our consumer-driven society, belonging is more than just a feel-good. It’s a strong driver of brand alignment. When we feel comfortable with a brand, we tend to stay with it. We feel like it speaks to our values, our sensibilities. That loyalty easily translates into the workplace context: employees want to stay with their employer because they believe in the brand and are comfortable with its values and purpose.
Belonging isn’t just a social component. It should be seen as a business strategy that considers and addresses the real needs of your employees in terms of safety, career growth, feeling a part of a work community, and balancing work and life.
A culture of belonging doesn’t aim to homogenize everyone into a shared identity, but rather fosters diversity and inclusion as a way of improving and enhancing a shared culture. There’s a big difference. You don’t need to steamroll over differences to find the common ground, particularly in the workplace.
Marshmallows, Spaghetti, and Teamwork
That said, what does a culture of belonging look like? Iain provided a telling example of the complex dynamics of belonging in action: the marshmallow challenge, originally created by Peter Skillman — and the subject of a great TED Talk by Tom Wujec. In this collaborative training exercise, teams of four have a fixed amount of time to build a tower out of spaghetti and tape that can support a marshmallow. The team with the highest tower wins.
“What’s interesting about the challenge is the pattern of consistently high-performing and low-performing teams,” when you compare kindergarteners and business school graduates, he said. What I found interesting as well is that in general, the five-year-olds outdid the business school grads.
The children walked into the challenge with no training or preconceived notion of how to work together. So they just did — “in short bursts of collaborative effort, prototyping to find the best solution,” as Iain described. “They have no pre-fixed view of how they should act in the group and no hierarchy. Instead, they just focused on how to solve the problem.” They worked inclusively, unconcerned with status or protocols.
But the business school grads got hung up on who would be in charge, wasting valuable time jockeying for position. “They acted in a way they think they should behave given their lengthy investment in an advanced education,” Iain said. “They focused on trying to come up with a single solution rather than collaborating, prototyping, trying and doing. They were held back by a set of assumptions of how they should behave.” Often they ran out of time, or built a tower that collapsed.
We’re not building spaghetti towers, to be sure. But we do tend to walk into work with a sense of hierarchy and how we’re supposed to behave. If, instead, we’re free to abandon our certain assumptions on status and protocols and just work together, we forge a new kind of teamwork that’s far more productive. A team in a culture of belonging can simply focus on the task and the output, and is comfortable enough to be open to each others’ ideas and relish the collaborative process. The overarching attitude is: “Let’s try it, if it doesn’t work, let’s try something else.” Without anyone in charge, there’s no agenda besides tackling the problem. Instead of being driven by ego, the team is driven by the energy of working together. Instead of feeling pressure to arrive at a perfect solution, the team has the freedom and confidence to prototype until they get it.
Two factors changed the outcome for the business school grads, Iain said: “First, when someone with facilitation skills joined the business school graduates, they often performed better, as the group was organized around the task.” Second, “If the group received feedback on their performance, and had the time to reflect and then perform the task again, they outperformed by several hundred percent.”
We have a remarkable opportunity right now to foster a sense of belonging within our workplaces. So many of us have taken the veneer off: we’re meeting from kitchens, we’re video conferencing with children in the background; we’re seeing each others’ lives. We’re seeing how important it is to protect employees working on the front lines or out in public, and how to include their perspectives in how we better safeguard our workforce.
The climate of working during a pandemic has removed so many of the assumptions we bring into the workplace, and replaced them with a basic understanding that on a fundamental level we are people, working together. When you can build on that understanding by meeting one of our most fundamental needs — to feel that sense of belonging – it drives peace of mind, focus, productivity, collaboration and performance. In so doing, it fosters everyone’s success — that of the business, and that of its workforce. If you want to see how cohesive and collaborative your work culture really is, break out the spaghetti and the marshmallows. Then build on that until those towers are as high as they can be.
https://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Globe.jpg6001018Meghan M. Birohttps://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/TCLogo_web-272x60-1.pngMeghan M. Biro2020-08-07 10:00:192021-02-16 19:19:575 Ways To Foster Belonging At Work
I’m super passionate about the importance of Brand Humanization, that mix of culture, community and corporation which can create magic for employees and shareholders, or signal trouble, not only in the ranks, but in the larger world of brand reputation. There is so much happening in this arena right now. It’s very cool really.
On the one hand we have TOMS Shoes, the oh-so-hip shoe brand with a huge social network sustained by a very human brand with a cause. TOMS hits all the high notes in Brand Humanization. It leverages the power of social networks and attracts a growing community of consumers – brand advocates – who are continually energized by the brand’s charitable mission. TOMS fans trust the brand and its purpose; they see no conflict in spending money on TOMS shoes, because each pair sold triggers the gift of a second pair to a poor child. And the brand encourages social interaction, spurring the establishment of over 1,000 ‘campus clubs’, super-communities which not only follow the brand on social channels but are dedicated to amplifying brand messages across social channels. It’s a classic case of doing well by doing good. TOMS’ founder and his employees have enormous social and economic power and a certain level of moral authority. Combining commerce and charity without compromising his values might have been founder Blake Mycoski’s original concept, but the real engine of the brand is the community the brand has attracted and nurtured.
On the other hand we have a host of companies which have failed to link their brands with people in a way that drives value to the brand and its investors. Oracle, the software giant which earned the distrust and ire of the software community with multiple, predatory acquisitions and subsequent patent suits, is an interesting example. While Oracle ORCL +% has a strong brand, and loyal users and employees, arguably it has failed to demonstrate an ability to master the nuances of Brand Humanization. Let’s look at a few of the ways in which the company has passed on making its brand more appealing – areas where TOMS Shoes has succeeded.
Persona:Oracle, dominated by the powerful personality of Larry Ellison, is a savvy organization, acquiring companies and software assets but in many cases destroying the human aspect of the acquired brands. While the company has enormous technical strength and deep pockets, it has not taken advantage of the social good will of the brands it’s acquired. And Ellison, while respected as an astute businessman, has failed to engage at a human level. Hard to compare with a charismatic CEO who gives away a pair of shoes for each pair sold.
Community: Perhaps the sole exception to Oracle’s lack of brand humanization is the Java community, built by Sun Microsystems and still a force. But that community has been slow to warm to Ellison and the Oracle brand. Arguably Oracle, in its move to capture the commercial value of Java, has sacrificed the brand value of the Java community and missed a chance to humanize its brand. TOMS’ campus clubs bring more awareness and thus value, to its brand.
Value: Traditional measures of brand value, often referred to as brand equity, include loyalty, affiliation, advocacy, information and identity. All of these translate into the world of social media and community, but new models, including Edelman’s Trust Index and the Social Currency methodology, help brands hone in more quickly on the emotional state of their constituents – which quickly affects brand value. It’s difficult to draw a straight line from these tools to shareholder value, especially with tech companies such as Oracle; service, food and consumer goods companies such as TOMS have an easier time tying this most important measure of a brand’s worth to the bottom line.
Relevance: For Brand Humanization to take place, a brand must be relevant not just for the quality its services or products, but because it engages its constituents with relevant information and interaction at each point of contact. The Java Community is relevant to some of Oracle’s constituents, but not all. Oracle OpenWorld, the brand’s annual conference, makes efforts to stay sticky with a FacebookFB +1.47% page, You Tube channel and other social assets, but is it enough?
Emotional connection: Tech brands may find this difficult, although TOMS has mastered the art, but forging an emotional connection with constituents is critical, and may require some direct experience that moves the target – TOMS current ‘One Summer to Change’ efforts and You Review video sharing site are shining examples.
Brand Humanization is incredibly powerful. To ignore it is to ignore communities who care about your products and services; to forgo building bridges through social channels and networks, and to miss opportunities to create new brand interactions driven by social channels. In today’s densely-networked, highly social world, it seems a terrible waste, and a real business risk, to ignore the value and power of Brand Humanization. Rock your brand – Give it a try.
A version of this post was first published on Forbes on 5/22/12.
00Meghan M. Birohttps://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/TCLogo_web-272x60-1.pngMeghan M. Biro2016-02-11 06:30:312020-05-31 14:50:265 “Foot” Steps To Creating Brand Humanization
I checked my latest Instagram/Facebook picture post and one of the comments read: “You really should have your own reality show, Kevin.”
I smiled. KevTV, I thought. Nice ring to it. But no – the movies The Truman Show (1998) and Edtv (1999) and the onslaught of “real” reality TV shows since have turned me off to that prospect. Overexposure and exploitation now, as well before the “Twitters” really took off way back when, continue to raise the bar on offensive banality.
However, I’ll bet some folks who know me well, or not so, raised their eyebrows at my own brand of overly shared social banality (which is thankfully far from being offensive). That’s fine because each of us has the choice to change the channels, right?
Indeed. My latest socially shared channel of late was my own family “Disney” channel when we took our girls to Disneyland right after the New Year. And I shared picture after family picture after funny artsy picture after family picture. Hence the comment, “You really should have your own reality show, Kevin.”
But that’s not why I do it. At least, not the primary reason. It’s not why I’ve had a fairly regular blog about personal leadership, responsible parenting, and domestic violence awareness called Get Off The Ground since 2007. It’s not why I’ve had my own “world of work” blog called Reach-West since 2010 (and it’s not why I had been blogging years before that with HRmarketer.com, since 2004 actually). And it’s not why I’m so excited to raise the bar on the recruiting experience in 2015 with PeopleFluent.
All these self-proclaimed accomplishments and accolades don’t mean I’m “Mister Fancy Pants early-adopter and thought leader” (my LinkedIn number from when I joined is over 1 million). Considering my first tweet was on May 11, 2008 – “I’m setting up my Twitter account and have no idea what to do next” – I’ve only wanted to connect, to share and more importantly, to learn before that and ever since.
Two particular points they made in their Harvard Business Review article titled The 7 Attributes of CEOs Who Get Social Media resonated with me and inspired this piece. Not only for CEOs – for anyone in any leadership position – including leading the social “self,” what I feel is the most important position of all:
They Are Relentless Givers. They give back, they mentor, and they care about real social issues that have nothing to do with Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. They constantly share what they know, connect others and — often for no other reason than because it is the right thing to do — they do good.
They Lead with an OPEN Mindset. “OPEN” – short for Ordinary People, Extraordinary Network – means that no one person, even the highest-level leader, can have all the answers. Instead, we deliberately build personal relationships with those willing to help us discover the answers, together.
Combine that with what Jeanne Meister, author of The 20/20 Workplace, wrote recently, the fact that we’re all “digital citizens” today; it ain’t just the Millennials digging the social scene. And as a recent MIT Sloan research report showed, 57% of workers now consider “social business sophistication” to be an important factor when choosing an employer.
Each of us can and should be social leaders today in work and in life, relentless givers with an OPEN mindset, commiserating and celebrating with one another in collaboratively creative ways we’d never imagined, even way back in 1999. We should even demand it. That raises the bar on the beneficial.
Okay, but Disneyland? Hey, I like to be liked and I like to have fun with my immediate family and extended family and friends (online and off). That I will not deny. I’d argue that most of us do to some extent, but for me, it’s not contingent on how I choose to connect, to share and to learn. 2015 will be the year that the rest of the world finally starts to catch up with their own social mojo – we’ve already seen time and again how the world chooses and uses social to elevate, not denigrate. The TalentCulture #TChat community never fails to inspire.
And the reality is, I do think that this inspiration will make for a very good year.
About the Author: Kevin W. Grossman co-founded and co-hosts the highly popular weekly TalentCulture #TChat Show with Meghan M. Biro. He’s also currently the Product Marketing Director for Total Talent Acquisition products at PeopleFluent.
00Kevin W. Grossmanhttps://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/TCLogo_web-272x60-1.pngKevin W. Grossman2015-01-12 15:00:062020-05-30 11:32:57The Year Of Living Inspirationally
Every day we spend our precious time and hard-earned money out in the market searching for new customers. We advertise, we network, we use social media strategies – all for the purpose of finding ever-elusive hot new prospects and turning them into profitable new customers.
With all this emphasis on attaining new customers, what we are doing to retain our current customers? According to a study conducted by marketing guru, Dan Kennedy, here are the reasons that a customer leaves:
1% die
3% move away
5% follow a friend or relative’s advice and switch to their recommended supplier
9% switch due to a better price or better product
14% switch due to product or service dissatisfaction.
While the first two reasons may be out of your control, you should be able to do something about the other three. However, all of the reasons above still only account for a total of 32%. So, why do the other 68% of customers leave a business? Simply put, they leave because they feel unappreciated, unimportant and taken for granted.
Customer turnover is costing businesses billions of dollars each year. Here are some startling statistics from Emmett C. Murphy and Mark A. Murphy, in their report, “Leading on the Edge of Chaos:”
Obtaining new customers can cost as much as five times more than retaining current customers
Increasing customer retention by 2% has the same effect on profits as cutting costs by 10%
The average company loses 10% of its customers each year
Reducing customer defection by 5% can increase profits by 25-125%
The customer profitability rate tends to increase over the life of a retained customer
Wow – is that a wake-up call or what? Let’s take a look at how you can stop spending so much money trying to attract new clients and instead, learn to take care of the customers you already have.
Here are 10 Strategies that you can begin to implement TODAY for massive results:
1. Keep in touch regularly and systematically.
When your customer places an order, follow up with them to see how satisfied they are with your product and/or service. Invite feedback – both positive and negative. (Chances are you’ll learn more from the negative feedback) Let your customers know that you care about them for the long term and not just for a one-shot deal. Take the time to learn as much as you can about your customers during your follow up calls. A little extra effort can lead to your clients inquiring about other products or services that you offer and you’ll gain new business. Since it’s always easier to sell more to someone you’re already doing business with, think of the lifetime value of each and every one of your customers.
2. Educate your customers with valuable, FREE information.
Sharing your knowledge via a newsletter, social media updates, special reports and blogs will prove your expertise. Providing value will also set you part from all the others that are merely promoting their products and services in every communication. In BNI (Business Networking International), the philosophy is “Givers Gain.” Be a giver. Pay attention to the issues that are important to your customer and make it a point to find answers for them. You’ll become the go-to person for both information and their business.
3. Become a Resource.
Look for other ways that you can serve your customers, even if it doesn’t mean an immediate return on your efforts. Look for occasions when you can refer business, help out with an event or offer suggestions to improve their business. In your clients’ mind, you’ll be the expert and will thereby be “top of mind” for the next time they are looking for your product or service. As you get to know your customers better, you’ll be able to offer them assistance in a variety of areas. Networking events can play a critical role in meeting the “right people” to refer to other “right people.” Be a conduit and you could become your customer’s hero.
4. Write a note of appreciation.
When you send a personalized card or note through the mail (not an e-card), you are setting yourself apart, big time. Not only is a card a pleasant diversion from the junk mail and bills that your customers are used to getting on a daily basis, it adds a personal touch to the relationship, which is priceless. Think about it, you are giving your customer tangible evidence that you value them and support them. Chances are that that card is going to be hanging on their bulletin board or displayed on their desk. When someone picks up the card or asks about it, YOUR name is going to get mentioned – in a good way. Great opportunity for referrals!
5. Respond to customers promptly when they contact your business.
Take care of issues immediately. Ignoring problems doesn’t make them go away, it just makes them bigger and harder to correct. Remember what your mother told you: If you make a mistake, say you’re sorry. Then make things right. Let your customers know that you are committed to a high level of service and that you will do whatever it takes to resolve their issues. Chances are, it will take a lot less than you think it will to completely satisfy (and keep) your customer. There is a study that showed that only 17% of customers would give a second chance to a company that makes a mistake. However, you greatly improve the chances of repeat business when you go beyond their expectations to solve their problems.
6. Pay attention.
Listening to what your customer has to say will provide clues that will help you provide a more personal touch. If your customer talks about their brand new grandchild, send a congratulatory card. If he or she has a child heading off to college, jot a note on the calendar and make sure you ask about it next time you talk to them. Find out birthdays and anniversary dates. Send cards for nontraditional occasions. Remember, you may be the only person that has taken the time to send them a card. It may be a cliché, but people don’t care what you know until they know that you care. Ok, one more cliché – you have two ears and one mouth – they should be used in that proper proportion.
7. Act with integrity.
In everything you do, you want your stakeholders and customers to trust you. Developing trust takes time, yet it can be lost in an instant. When you say you are going to do something, do it. When a mistake is made, admit it, and then make it right. Do whatever you can to earn your customer’s unwavering belief in you and your business. Remember, confidence must be earned continuously. People want to do business with and work for trustworthy companies.
8. Maintain Quality.
No matter how good your customer service is, if you’re providing an inferior product or service, your customers are going to leave. Make sure all of your employees are aware of the importance of maintaining quality. Put systems into place to monitor it. If you have any products that are outsourced, rigorously insure that your quality standards are met.
9. Reward Customers.
Institute a customer loyalty program. Give your customers coupons they can use for their next order. Surprise them occasionally with a free gift. Hold a “Customer Appreciation Event.” Look for different and unique ways that you can delight your customers.
10. Do Good.
Establish a relationship with a nonprofit or charity and invite other local businesses to participate. Share what you’re doing in your newsletter and in your social media campaigns. Remind people when they patronize your business that they are contributing to a greater cause.
All of these strategies work, but don’t overwhelm yourself thinking that you have to perform them perfectly right now. It’s important to get started moving your customer relationships forward. Choose one technique that you feel that you are already doing well, then brainstorm some creative ways you can do it even better.
You may want to rank these ideas in order of importance or impact to your bottom line. Implement systems, one key point at a time, until you see progress and then move to the next one. Paying consistent attention to the way you acknowledge your clients will pay off in way that may surprise you. Go for it!
(About the Author: As Founder of Grategy, Lisa Ryan works with organizations to create stronger employee and customer engagement, retention and satisfaction. Her proven gratitude strategies (Grategies) lead to increased productivity, passion and profits. She is the author of seven books, and co-stars in two documentaries: the award-winning: “The Keeper of the Keys,” and “The Gratitude Experiment.” To learn more, visit www.grategy.com.)
00Lisa Ryanhttps://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/TCLogo_web-272x60-1.pngLisa Ryan2014-07-21 09:41:442020-05-27 17:56:54Kudos To You: 10 Top To-Do’s To Keep Those Customers Coming
Authenticity Is An Inside Job That Starts With Self
Everyday, there’s a flock of people who head to work and experience a daily dosage of empowerment, then there’s the other flock that experiences workplace dread on a daily-basis. Some people get to work in highly engaging workplaces, while others count the seconds till the clock strikes freedom. Within each workplace culture there exists what’s referred to as workplace authenticity, whether it’s real or fake. Few experience it first-hand, and many can only wonder about what it would be like to be true to themselves at work and ideally, in everyday life. This week, #TChat was joined by Jason Lauritsen and Joe Gerstandt.
Both of them get why authenticity is an invaluable workplace mindset that encourages innovation through openness, trust, and communication. Interestingly enough, authenticity is about being real and true to one’s self. Yet, in the workplace, Jason believes that:
A1 Part of workplace authenticity is being able to encourage someone to be themselves even when it annoys the hell out of you.
Yes, even if that person becomes a bit of an annoyance. We must look within ourselves to find who we really are inside our workplace and who we want to be. To do so, we must:
A2 Be bold, others will follow. Speak the truth. Stand up for each other. Make it safe to be unpopular. Invest in relationships. #TChat — joe gerstandt (@joegerstandt) June 18, 2014
Speaking the truth does require boldness and at times being unpopular in the process. It’s through these initial actions that we begin to discover the value in being authentic. We must find it within ourselves to accept authenticity. Instead of authenticity finding acceptance at the bottom of an organization:
Authenticity must flow from the top of the organization to all levels to encourage openness and engagement #TChat — linda l neider (@neideronthemove) June 18, 2014
Authenticity has to begin at the top and work its way down to the entire organization. It should be embraced with open arms. It must be greeted with optimism. Workplace productivity and business results experience a bumpy ride when employees are not allowed the freedom to be themselves at work. Simply put:
A4 Authenticity = engagement = happier workplace = more productivity and better bottom line #TChat
If authenticity generates better engagement and happier employees, then what employer wouldn’t care about the end results? If organizations truly care about the bottom line, then cultivating workplace authenticity can provide the fruition they seek. Don’t have employees sitting around waiting until the clock strikes freedom (and the end of their workday). Have them working at highly productive levels through the empowerment of workplace authenticity. Keep employees engaged by letting them voice their opinions and developing a cultural mindset of being real with themselves and other people that surround the culture. Any organization will see the results are at least worth taking another look at.
00Meghan M. Birohttps://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/TCLogo_web-272x60-1.pngMeghan M. Biro2014-06-19 09:30:092020-05-27 17:45:09#TChat Recap: Authenticity Is An Inside Job That Starts With Self
The Power Of Workforce Culture And Continuous Mobility
Time and time again, employers and organizations find their talent on the move. And why is that? What drives employees to leave? Instead of finding ourselves asking this question, we should be asking, “What drives employees to stay?” Sometimes before you can go forward, you have to go backwards. Meaning, we have to retrace our steps and find ourselves at the early stages of onboarding to discover the secrets of retaining employees. This week, #TChat was joined by Tracey Arnish, Senior Vice President of Talent at SAP, who understands what managing and retaining talent is all about.
Getting new employees onboard early plays a vital role in the outcome of each employee in your organization. Tracey provides us with a glance of the short and long-term effects of new hire onboarding:
A1: Short term – initial perceptions, corporate culture, energy & excitement about the org #Tchat
A1: Long-term – understanding the business, their big picture goals + how they can contribute + career paths #Tchat — Tracey Arnish (@tracey_arnish) June 11, 2014
It’s through this glance that employers can visualize a roadmap to their employees’ engagement and development. From here, employers and new hires can build a career path together and:
A2: Highlight their role in the success of the company and make them feel like a valuable asset, not just another warm body. #TChat — Dr. Nicholas Thomas (@NicholasJThomas) June 11, 2014
Because at the end of the day, all employees are valuable assets, that provide your organization with the brain power and muscle to innovate and achieve success. But if you want your talent to stick around, then you have to develop it. You can do this if you:
A3: Make it clear from day one that employee mobility & growth is a supported goal of your company #TChat
Employees need to know that their career growth matters to you, as much as it matters to them. Why? Simply put, your employees’ engagement, productivity, and happiness is what’s at stake here. This all factors into the kind of short and long-term success your organization will have. And don’t forget, it shapes the kind of workplace culture you’ll have.
https://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Workforce-Culture.jpg6831024Meghan M. Birohttps://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/TCLogo_web-272x60-1.pngMeghan M. Biro2014-06-12 09:30:292020-05-27 17:42:24#TChat Recap: The Power Of Workforce Culture And Continuous Mobility
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) often start with a good idea and then become successful when they learn to do it well. This often involves tight synergies amongst their early employees, who may have very similar visions, attitudes and specific ways of doing things. Sometimes, these come from a shared background. Perhaps they started out as a family owned business.
SMEs must eventually turn to more innovative ideas as they continue to grow. This is often an area where early success stories can turn quickly into failure, or as a minimum, failure to thrive. Growth challenges can be complex, especially if the SME has saturated their original market.
Raising cultural awareness in an SME can occur in many ways. Hiring employees from a different background to those responsible for the original core business can bring a different perspective to their initial success. For example, employees from diverse backgrounds may be able to see what worked well in the core business but also see missed opportunities and what could have been done better. Broader perspectives such as these may mean the original market isn’t saturated after all, but defined in a narrow way. Diversity allowed the organization to see the true total market.
Additionally, employees from diverse backgrounds may also be in a position to understand how to open up entirely new markets, building on the core business that the original employees may not have considered or understood. Addressing these markets may require new skills, which may range from language to understanding different purchasing motivations in various customer groups. They may also be able to leverage markets empathetic to their own backgrounds, such as someone from an ethnic minority who has maintained family connections from their original country of origin.
Raising cultural awareness can be achieved in many ways. Variation in employee background should not be considered purely as diversity of ethnicities or nationalities, although these can be part of the equation. Gender, sexual orientation and disability should also be considered sources of additional cultural values, even in very small companies and can introduce innovation, both in the SME’s core business as well as spawning ideas for appealing to new demographics.
For example, ignoring gender could mean that you have just written off up to 50% of your total available market. Sometimes, these mistakes can be made simply by implementing a poorly worded marketing campaign. Other organizations make assumptions that their product or service would only appeal to a specific gender whereas the reality may be very different. It is also important to keep in mind that gender roles and expectations may vary substantially from market to market and may be more pronounced in some markets abroad.
Nor should generational differences be ignored. Many experienced employees may have accepted the tools of technology but may never have grown completely comfortable using an ever changing array of gadgets, software programmes and a reluctant acceptance of enforced office enhancements.
Younger, more flexible employees are much more likely to be comfortable with quickly evolving technology and, more importantly, can see and enable a fuller extent of their benefits to the SME and their employees. Their value may be widespread, from streamlining processes to facilitating research across new markets. Younger employees may also have much more experience in understanding how technology appeals and is used across various cultures, thus possibly opening entirely new gateways to doing business in more innovative ways.
For example, many older employees may dismiss the commercial value of social networking websites. However, many younger employees use them for many reasons, including gaining information that can be used to decide on whether or not to use a product or service. SMEs in particular can profit from utilizing social networking websites as they are also generally very cost effective – especially if you have enlisted the skills of a young employee who understands the wider impact of social media on your targeted market.
Different work experience can also bring in different knowledge on how to do things more efficiently and effectively. Whether it’s an innovative idea for an enhanced product or a more effective control of financial practices that directly contribute to the bottom line, different corporate cultures and the benefits of hiring people from these different backgrounds are often overlooked.
Well run SMEs that prioritize cultural diversity may be positioning themselves favorably for the time when they may no longer be so small. If and when the time comes to expand their marketplace across new cultural horizons, they will have their corporate mindset in place from which to continue to develop their employee talent. Employees who are culturally aware in their small or medium organization have probably already developed many of the necessary best practices to take their business to the next steps, including to a wider, even more diverse global market.
(About the Author: Declan Mulkeen is Marketing Director at Communicaid a culture and business communication skills consultancy which provides cultural awareness training.)
https://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Cultural-Diversity.jpg7231024TalentCulture Team + Guestshttps://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/TCLogo_web-272x60-1.pngTalentCulture Team + Guests2014-06-11 09:30:482020-05-27 17:41:26Cultural Diversity: Not Just For Large Corporations
“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life he imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” – Henry David Thoreau
Do you have dream stealers in your life? You know, those people who think they are doing you a favor by ripping apart your aspirations and sharing their more “realistic” point of view with you? If your dreams are large enough, chances are good that you will make others around you uncomfortable. Many of the people in your life want you to stay at their level – they want you to do well, just not better than them.
There’s a story about putting crabs in a bucket. If you put one crab in the bucket, it will easily climb out. However, if you put two crabs in the bucket, the second one will hold the first one back so it can’t escape. Think about the people you hang out with most, do they encourage or discourage you? Do they hold you back or let you soar? See how blogger Scott Williams shares how he benefits from his mother’s encouragement.
Your goals and desires are yours and yours alone. If you see yourself reaching the pinnacle of your personal and professional pursuits, you can achieve them. How many stories have you heard of people that went against the odds and achieved extraordinary success? How many more people do you know who are stuck in “woulda, coulda, shoulda” land? The “woulda, coulda, shouda’s” will give you every excuse in the book as to why they didn’t make it. Why they HAD to give up. How they just couldn’t continue. They don’t want to admit that they simply gave up.
Sometimes you also have to make difficult choices about the people in your life. If you are not encouraged and supported by others regarding the goals that you are totally passionate about, you may have to leave those people behind. Joe Barton shares helpful “quick and dirty” tips for getting rid of the toxic people in your life. When you are on the path to your destiny, it’s important to associate with people who see you accomplishing your dreams. Your vocation may not be right for everyone, but it’s perfect for you.
Take out a piece of paper and draw two columns. On the top of one column put a (+) and the other column, put a (-). Think of the people that you associate with on a regular basis. Put the names of the people who leave you feeling better about yourself when you are around them on the PLUS side, and those who make you feel worse about yourself on the MINUS side. Which column has more names?
If you find that you need to change your associations, go where others with your same interests hang out. Meetup.com is a terrific place to start. You’ll find kindred spirits – or at least people who know what the heck you’re talking about. You can also join your industry association and go to their meetings. Attend networking events and talk to “friends you haven’t met yet.” Get out of your comfort zone and consciously look for new ways to meet people. You’ll be surprised and pleased with the quality of friendships that develop when you meet people on a similar path.
What is your passion? What spurs you on? What will you do TODAY to move closer to your goal? Take a teeny-tiny baby step today, and then one tomorrow. As you inch closer to your calling, you will meet with fabulous success in unexpected hours.
(About the Author: Employee Engagement Expert and Motivational Speaker, Lisa Ryan works with organizations to help them keep their top talent and best customers from becoming someone else’s. She achieves this through personalized employee engagement and customer retention keynotes, workshops and seminars. She is the author of six books, and is featured in two films including the award-winning, “The Keeper of the Keys” with Jack Canfield of Chicken Soup for the Soul. For more information, please connect with Lisa at her website: www.grategy.com or email her at lisa@grategy.com.)
(Editor’s Note: Our recent guest from the How To Visualize Real-Time Talent Alignment #TChat Show, Matt Norman, had some kind words to share about the TalentCulture Community and #TChat Show. We appreciate him sharing his experience with TalentCulture. Thank you Matt!)
Leaders today have greater access to resources and support than at any other time. Think about it: You no longer have to physically be in the same place as the people, expertise or material that can help you on your journey. Armed with just a wifi connection and a device, you can tap into a huge wealth of information, insight and encouragement.
That’s good news, because the latest research suggests that resource networks are a critical factor for helping leaders to thrive today. And virtual networks allow for more diverse contribution, easier access and just-in-time answers. Even better, you don’t have to wait to find the one that’s right for you; you can build it. Don’t resign yourself to not having time or knowing how!
As a recent guest presenter at #TChat, a weekly online event hosted by TalentCulture, I had a unique vantage point on what it takes to make a virtual resource network successful. TalentCulture mobilized an army of evangelists, contributors and promoters in just a week, and their recipe for success contains key ingredients that anyone looking to build a thriving virtual network can follow to ensure their own success.
Here are the six intentional activities the TalentCulture community engages in every week.
1. Curate disruptive perspectives.
It’s immediately apparent that TalentCulture searches for new insights and cutting edge ideas to discuss in their group. They remain focused on their core audience while varying the content widely with challenging points-of-view.
2. Preview what’s to come.
Content-rich “commercials” should be distributed to the group to entice their involvement. This allows people to evaluate whether or not the community or event is worth their time. Tools like Zoom and Google+ Hangouts make it easy to record and share a virtual interview of guests or facilitators to give people a tangible preview of the community.
3. Unleash social chatter.
Prior to virtual meetings and events, TalentCulture constantly (and appropriately) distributes links to articles and blogs from their speakers to build excitement and credibility. The most active community members are also frequently posting links referencing the week’s guests and reminding their networks of the event.
4. Keep it human.
The energy that gets the flywheel turning in a virtual community is a live event. TalentCulture does this with a 30-minute podcast/teleconference where the hosts, Meghan and Kevin, exchange friendly banter with guests and then launch a live dialogue for the community using Twitter. Human beings need the chance to hear voices, see faces and connect live to build trust and community.
5. Have awesome facilitators.
As the facilitators of the online community, Meghan and Kevin watch the trajectory of the virtual chatter and periodically injects thought-provoking questions. By affirming contributions and encouraging retweets and responses, an awesome facilitator also creates an environment where everyone wants to participate.
6. Promote relentlessly.
Following every event, the TalentCulture team distributes images showing participant contributions. And they use Storify to create and publicize a summary slideshow of all of the meeting’s virtual contributions.
Whether you’re creating a community from scratch, augmenting a live community with virtual connections or struggling to maintain interest in your virtual community, these are all great tactics for bringing energy and life into your group.
And now to you: What comes to mind when you read these ideas? How could virtual communities be a greater resource for you and your organization?
(About the Author:Matt Norman is president of Norman & Associates, which offers Dale Carnegie Training in the North Central US. Dale Carnegie Training is a global organization that helps individuals and organizations achieve goals by improving the way they communicate, influence and lead.
Matt’s coaching and facilitation has helped Fortune 100 corporations, non-profits and entrepreneurial firms to transform the way they engage employees and clients. He has trained sales leaders across the world on coaching and developing their salespeople, coached physicians and clinical staff on leadership and teaming skills, enhanced the marketing and business development skills of attorneys, engineers and commercial bankers, and helped shared services teams to create more value through their partnerships with the business.
Matt has been named to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal 40 Under Forty list, recognizing the community’s top young business and civic leaders. He has led his organization to double-digit revenue growth and the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal has named Dale Carnegie Training Minnesota a top small company in its Best Places to Work awards for several consecutive years.
Matt is a regular contributor to Training Magazine, he blogs weekly at http://normanblogger.com and can be found on Twitter at @mattnorman.)
https://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/large_11059685.jpg6821024Matt Normanhttps://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/TCLogo_web-272x60-1.pngMatt Norman2014-06-09 09:30:272020-05-27 17:40:35#TChat Buzz: You Might Be Missing A Huge (Virtual) Opportunity
Create A Transformative Onboarding Experience For New Hires
There are millions of disengaged workers out there. Working day-to-day in what they feel is a never-ending cycle of the same old routine. But does it have to be this way?
Organizations are now starting to see the “big picture” when it comes to attracting and retaining talent. The process doesn’t just end when employees are hired. To retain employees long-term companies have to build an onboarding process that transforms and innovates the way new employees are engaged and managed.
This week’s guests, Todd Owens, President & COO at TalentWise; & Wendy Matyjevich, SPHR, HR Executive at Entia Ventures & BlackRain Partners, LLC, explain how providing a thoughtful onboarding experience not only keeps new employees around, but it makes them more productive. It builds a culture that can sustain itself.
Todd Owens mentioned:
A3: Don’t start with the status quo, or follow the pack. Start with the customer (aka candidate) in mind. Think big. #tchat@talentwise.
You keep the candidate in mind during your onboarding process and think big because:
The onboarding experience must be a great one or your hidden costs will grow. Bad publicity. Negativity. Client Loss. Employee Loss#TChat — Wendy Matyjevich (@myhrreality) June 4, 2014
Hiring costs money. Yes, employee turnover is a costly process that ties into how productive and engaged your workforce is, which ultimately, transforms how clients are treated and maintained. It’s vital organizations don’t forget that:
A1. Candidates are paying your organization with their most precious resources: time, attention and energy. #tchat — Michael Clark (@ReCenterMoment) June 4, 2014
Employees anticipate the same amount of time, attention, and energy from leadership that is expected of them when it comes to how they are treated. It’s a two-way street. If employees don’t receive what they want and demand for, then they may walk and your organization will suffer. Leadership has to remember that:
A4) Onboarding is not a welcome lunch. Engagement is not a birthday party. Although it can include both it should mean so much more #TChat
It has to mean so much more, or else employees will feel disengaged and eventually they will walk. Onboarding is about managing new employees and their transition into your community and culture. By providing them guidance and support along the way, leadership will see the results it expects and meet the demands that employees expect.
https://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/large_4893059875.jpg7661024Fernando Ramirezhttps://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/TCLogo_web-272x60-1.pngFernando Ramirez2014-06-05 09:30:362020-05-27 17:39:31#TChat Recap: Create A Transformative Onboarding Experience For New Hires
Managing talent is an art form. It is a delicacy few have mastered, and even fewer, have come to understand. Essentially, managing talent is about managing people, and aligning their goals with your organization’s vision. Employees are a reflection of leadership’s ability to instill and align organizational goals with the goals that employees share. Performance is driven through engagement, communication, and most importantly, transparency of what the organization’s vision is. This week, #TChat’s community was joined by Andre Lavoie, CEO & Co-founder of Clear Company; & Matt Norman, a Dale Carnegie Training franchise president, both whom relayed a vital message about organizational transparency.
They understand and know that managing employees and driving performance is about aligning talent with an organization’s vision through transparency. It starts when:
Leaders align recruiting and onboarding when they “own” the process and outcomes vs relinquish responsibility to HR #tchat
Leadership has to own the recruitment and onboarding process to begin aligning talent with the organization’s vision. Before you can accomplish this, you must know:
A2: This is 1st about understanding resources you need to achieve your strategy. Align those & your Rec & Onb are also aligned #TChat — Andre G. Lavoie (@aglavoie) May 28, 2014
Creating organizational transparency begins when you realize what resources you need to achieve your strategy, then recruiting and the rest can start to fall into place. This matters because:
A2) Leaders need to understand their needs and predict their growth. Most importantly, they need to retain the ees they have. #tchat — Jen (@JRW_SocialMedia) May 28, 2014
Here’s the wonderful catch about understanding your talent needs and aligning employees with your company’s vision. It makes your people want to stick around. Employee retention helps drive organizational growth and the vision that fuels it. This is why:
A5: Leaders need to be responsible for making the vision accessible to the entire organization. #tchat
If you build a culture that gives employees access to your organization’s vision then your talent grows with you. At the end of the day, it’s not always about the “bottom line,” it’s about your people. An engaged workforce is productive, it’s happy, and it’s most likely to stick around. To achieve organizational transparency leaders have to hold employees accountable and must be able to continuously measure their performance to consistently align talent with your company’s vision in real-time.
https://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/alignemnt-e1401335450748.jpg466700Meghan M. Birohttps://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/TCLogo_web-272x60-1.pngMeghan M. Biro2014-05-29 09:30:102020-05-27 17:36:09#TChat Recap: How To Visualize Real-Time Talent Alignment
There’s a basic social contract that exists between workers and their employers. Employees rely on their companies for their living and for a stable work environment where they can thrive. Businesses depend on their workforce to provide the talent and manpower necessary to develop products, serve customers and generate revenue.
It sounds simple, but this arrangement actually requires quite a bit of trust on both ends. For their part, corporate leaders must count on their workers’ honesty and integrity as they give employees access to a whole range of company resources, put them in direct contact with clients, set them to work with sensitive customer information and give them the keys to the office. For the most part, this contract works, and the corporate world keeps on running.
In fact, openness and honesty with employees – which is a natural offspring of this trust – might be even more significant than a foundation that allows basic business operations to occur. According to Fortune, transparency is a key factor in developing positive customer relationships. Part of the reason it’s so important is that greater information about the way the company is running and what its goals are can empower employees to do their jobs better, and this capability leads to better products, higher-quality service and engaged workers.
Transparency In The Workplace
In addition to being open with customers and the public about company operations, fostering greater transparency within a business can contribute to a positive employee culture. Simply demonstrating that executives and stakeholders trust their workers with information about the organization’s successes and failures, strategies and goals helps to build up that social contract of trust and responsibility. Of course, there must always be prudence in determining how much and which information to divulge to the entire company, but greater transparency tends to make a positive impact on workers.
Fortune explained that transparency involves factors such as practices, policies, algorithms, operating data and future plans. It means giving staff members the information they need to develop a deep understanding of what their company stands for and what its objectives are. This, in turn, can foster work pride and inspire innovation, loyalty, independence, positive co-worker dynamics and passion to meet common goals, the source added.
Supervisors who think their company is plenty transparent might want to reconsider. Referring to a recent poll, Forbes magazine noted that 71 percent of employees felt that their managers failed to spend enough time explaining goals and 50 percent said that their organizations were held back by a lack of transparency.
Sharing More information
One place to start is with employee engagement survey results. Many leaders collect information about their workforce by distributing questionnaires and analyzing the responses, but workers are rarely informed about the results. Sharing this data not only helps create an environment of inclusiveness and teamwork, it also brings staff members on board to help solve some of the problems they identified. Letting them know the enterprise’s strengths is a great idea, too, since it can encourage them to continue doing whatever makes the company strong.
Fortune observed that technology makes it easier for leaders to employ resources like surveys and use them as tools to increase transparency. Rather than merely soliciting feedback, the point is to develop constructive conversations about ways to improve. Welcoming employee ideas and providing avenues for them to contribute to problem-solving initiatives builds a strong business community and enables companies to benefit from the collective wealth of knowledge and brain power in their workforces.
As Forbes put it, every organization must determine how much transparency is right for its unique situation, but ignoring transparency completely is most likely a costly error.
(About the Author: David Bator is passionate about programs that move people. As Vice President of Client Strategy at TemboStatus he works with growing companies everyday and helps them bridge the gap between assessing employee engagement and addressing it with action. For the last 15 years David has worked with the leadership of companies large and small to build programs that leverage strategy and technology to deliver extraordinary value for employees, customers and partners.)
Leadership is one of my favorite topics to write about, mostly because; people are so passionate about this topic. Of course, it also relates to recruiting and retaining your most valued talent. And why wouldn’t people be interested in this? Leaders are at the center of every workplace, or at least they should be. As our good friend and #TChat guest this week, Thomas S. Narofsky, Founder and Chief Inspirational Officer for the Narofsky Consulting Group, pointed out, “Leadership is your business and you don’t get a free ride.” For those of you that understand this, take a brief moment to pat yourself on the back, but that’s not what became very clear tonight. What became clear is that leadership development must come from within first and then extend into every organization.
Simply put, if you want to grow leaders and inspire greatness, you need to create a seasoned leadership pipeline that inspires the next generation of leaders you’ll need for tomorrow. If you want to inspire leadership, then your vets have to be able to show compassion, provide mentorship, and guidance towards the leaders of tomorrow. As a leader, eventually, you must learn to pass the torch. If not in Olympic fashion, you must do it with the desire to focus on people and their development.
Thomas S. Narofsky knows that:
@TomBolt@KevinWGrossman people focused leadership development is best. Most people desire to be the best at what they do. Make it so #tchat
— Thomas S. Narofsky (@inspireorretire) May 21, 2014
Remember, leaders are the center of your workplace, because ideally, an engaged workforce is what surrounds them because they are people focused. Smart organizations know that growing leaders is more than just seeing their financial investments returned. Truly:
A1: Orgs. that develop leaders within not only engage employees by providing growth opportunities but create the leaders they need #TChat — Vocoli (@_Vocoli) May 21, 2014
And that’s what we call a win-win scenario. But the journey doesn’t just end there. The reason we develop leaders is because:
If you fail to communicate why leaders are important, then how do you expect to set the pieces to the puzzle where they belong? Yes, leaders are important. They need to be developed. So you start training future leaders by:
A4) Teach them humility and effective listening. Teach them to be open to ideas that are in the best interest of everyone involved. #TChat
That last sentence sums it all up. You can’t expect your organization to grow and flourish if your leadership lacks the selflessness it needs to put ideas that are in the best interest of everyone ahead of their own, and perhaps, their ego. Remember, leadership needs to be nurtured and grown internally through your current leadership.
https://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/leader-arrow-e1400729174822.jpg467700Meghan M. Birohttps://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/TCLogo_web-272x60-1.pngMeghan M. Biro2014-05-22 09:30:042020-05-27 17:34:47#TChat Recap: Inspire Or Retire Leadership Theorem
Employee Engagement (defn.): employee’s investment of time, energy, creativity, knowledge, skills and abilities to fulfill expectations of work assigned.
Business/Corporate Culture (defn.): the philosophy, values, behavior, dress codes, etc., that together constitute the unique style and policies of a company.
The above phrases are defined numerous ways by numerous sources. The above definitions include the factors that comprise Employee Engagement and Business/Corporate Culture. They are offered because culture and engagement are causally related.
Business culture stimulates the quantity and quality of employees’ engagement. This means engagement in performing their individual job. It means engagement in contributing to team projects, objectives, and goals. It certainly means engagement in fulfilling company requirements and obligations.
The more an employee appreciates, identifies with, and receives energy from the business culture, the more eagerly she engages: in her job, with her team, for the company.
If that is true — and it is — so is this: keeping the business culture timely and vibrant keeps the engagement by employees meaningful and intense. Let’s look at 3 Culture Shaping Responsibilities every leadership team owns if they want to keep employees engaged, especially increasingly engaged.
1. Pay Attention To The Big Picture
Pay attention to the needs for your big picture culture and pay attention to the wants for your individual employees culture. Include both in your business culture. The topmost leaders of the business can’t help but see and focus on the big picture. Success in the specific industry and the current economy may require a culture that is intense, independent, and entrepreneurial. Or success may be better generated by high levels of teamwork and measured progress. Or success may come from a think-tank strategy that keeps the business ahead of the competition. More than likely, business leaders already have this in mind as part of their company definition.
Just remember to pay attention at the individual level as well. What kind of employee best serves your business? That is answered, of course, by their specific skills and abilities, their work habits and their views of individual success and satisfaction. Social media? (Un)structured work-environment? Health & wellness offerings? Creative opportunity?
The goal is to fit together individual wants with business needs to form a seamless and satisfying corporate culture. That culture encourages employees to engage in their work because they want to.
2. Pay Attention To Your Culture
Pay attention to making your business culture “front of mind consciousness” throughout your company. Culture can be like vision: put into a neat phrase, engraved on a pretty plaque, hung up somewhere and forgotten. The frequently and regularly managers and employees should talk about the business culture — in real terms, in real time. Business culture is meant to live, breathe, and change as the business situations change. That happens when culture is embedded in communication, when people constantly talk about what’s going on. Try these:
Have “Culture News” as a 5 minute regular agenda item for meetings. The team can decide what to do with it. Just be sure it’s talk about the corporate culture.
Invite informal feedback that essentially answers this question: “What do you like about our company culture?”
Invite informal feedback that answers this question: “What don’t you like about our company culture?”
The purpose is more to bring individuals’ awareness/appreciation of culture to the forefront. If the culture vibrates positively, they will make added effort. That’s engagement. If there’s no vibration, the sooner you find out, the sooner you can make the changes.
3. Pay Attention To Your Behavior
Pay attention to behaving the culture. In her discussion of culture change, Nancy Rubin cites “Guiding behavioral principles: how [leaders] expect all associates to behave” as a critical element.
Take that one step further: expect leaders and managers to pay attention to their own behavior. Guarantee that leadership behavior matches culture expectations. Employees are quick to emulate their managers’ behavior. They are even quicker to notice when the walk doesn’t match the talk.
Becoming a more effective leader involves more than defining the culture. It requires more than espousing the culture. It demands living the culture for the workforce to see. Because seeing is believing.
(About the Author: As an Employee Engagement and Performance Improvement expert, Tim Wright, has worked with businesses and national associations of all sizes. His company, Wright Results, offers proven strategies and techniques to help businesses increase employee engagement, improve personnel performance and build a strong business culture by focusing on performance management from the C.O.R.E. For more information, visit www.wrightresults.com or connect with Tim here: tim@wrightresults.com)
Yes, that’s what we said. The first part of this theorem is a reminder that from the junior employee to senior management, leadership is everyone’s business. When organizations are in a VUCA environment (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity), they are usually flatter and everyone must lead.
You’ll learn more about the theorem soon, but until then, inspirational leaders encourage their team by example and allow their people to take the lead in accomplishing the organizational vision.
The most significant contribution we can make as leaders today is to leave a legacy of inspired leaders behind to take care of tomorrow. We can leverage our skills, talents, and experiences to transform our people into leaders.
Join #TChat co-creators and hosts Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman as we learn more about the inspire or retire leadership theorem with this week’s guest: Thomas S. Narofsky, Founder and Chief Inspirational Officer for the Narofsky Consulting Group, a leadership development, team effectiveness, and executive coaching consultancy.
#TChat Twitter Chat — Wed, May 14 — 7pmET / 4pmPT Immediately following the radio show, Meghan, Kevin and our guest will move to the #TChat Twitter stream, where we’ll continue the discussion with the entire TalentCulture community. Everyone with a Twitter account is invited to participate, as we gather for a dynamic live chat, focused on these related questions:
Q1: What are the current and best leadership development approaches and why do they work? (Tweet this Question)
Q2: Why is it important to teach leaders of all stages how to develop themselves? (Tweet this Question)
Q3: How can next-gen leaders be comfortable in a volatile and uncertain environment? (Tweet this Question)
Q4: How can we train new leaders to inspire future leaders? (Tweet this Question)
Q5: What technologies improve the delivery of inspiring leadership development? (Tweet this Question)
Throughout the week, we’ll keep the discussion going on the #TChat Twitter feed, and in our new TalentCulture G+ community. So feel free to drop by anytime and share your questions, ideas and opinions. See you there!!
https://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/large_2051756510.jpg8191024Meghan M. Birohttps://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/TCLogo_web-272x60-1.pngMeghan M. Biro2014-05-18 18:00:142020-05-27 17:32:09#TChat Preview: Inspire Or Retire Leadership Theorem
Acknowledging the costs and efforts to manage mental health and chronic health issues
Changing HR function
The potential organizational paybacks of having resiliency as a key set of factors are impressive. They enhance workplace productivity and lower costs for:
Recruitment
Safety
Retention
Chronic health issues
Mental health issues
Special attention to the sales force needs to be taken. In the past two decades the ability to connect with key decision makers has gotten easier due to technology. However it is now often much tougher as the decision makers have been flooded and are over communicated with. What used to take 5 – 7 calls to engage a buyer is over 11 to 19 contacts to get that first appointment.
In the world-of-work keeping staff and organizations on an even keel takes time and effort. Each client I’ve have worked with has been on a path of diligently working to gain staff, management, and supplier engagement and to ensure a high quality and congruent approach. They’ve ranged in size from small software start up with a staff of seven, to an international firm with an excess of 10,000 employees; governments, NGO’s, health care and educational organizations, and all are challenged by this.
How is this an issue?
One international client started off locally by hiring several facilitators and had 900+ employees brainstorm what key factors they wanted to have introduced, changed or released in the workplace. Spouses were also invited to participate in round three of the brainstorming session. They where prompted to discuss workplace culture and “missing links” and added insights on next steps they felt would assist their partners in being happier and more productive.
One of my smaller clients in retail made a bold category-busting move. They decided to break all industry pay-scale standards, and over time started rewarding staff who had stayed more than a year… this was 20 – 60% above industry standard. Productivity went up significantly and retention soared. Last time I knew, the owner reported that his business was at a factor of six times the national average for productivity and was at only 9% of the national average for damaged and broken products.
The clients that made successful use of technology to assist in their business, felt this helped better engage their employees. One had a toll-free line installed so staff could call to learn late-breaking corporate news. There they heard from the President, all VPs and on occasion a few key customers took turns sharing brief 30 – 120 seconds thoughts on current corporate and market place news. The organization has an FM radio station that broadcasts the key message of the day, themed on the week and the month.
An Example Of One Client’s Approach:
Staff developed mini educational programs 12 minutes in length, which they present at weekly meetings.
Leadership developed a tightly woven vision statement. It was created as a powerful message that drives the three key points of their mandate to their staff, suppliers and management team.
All employees conduct 15-minute meetings at the beginning of every work shift to recap key issues.
How Is This Helpful?
Having and creating from the bottom up and the top down, plus having suppliers and spouses on board helps.
When spouses understand that safety in the work place is not just “talk” and that in heavy-industry lives are at stake and that things change.
When sales teams is on-board with the approach.
When Quality Control understands that their role is about how products need to be perfect.
When people need strive for excellence things change for the better.
Use of encouraging language brought everyone into the loop on the “Language of Resiliency” and using it to change for the better.
For my clients the payoffs have included: reduced cost of production, increased quality, higher sales, more stable market share, reduced absentee rates and according to one General Manager, “more happiness” in his offices.
The cost of ignoring the warning signs and not becoming a resilient organization has many potential outcomes. All of them are expensive. I do know that organizations and individuals that embrace resiliency in the workplace respond to and resolve issues faster with less turmoil.
So, let’s get started! Want to learn more? Join me on the #TChat discussion tonight, May 7, at 7pm ET by tweeting @TalentCulture using the #TChat hashtag. For a preview of the questions and topics we will be discussing tonight click here.
(About the Author:Michael H. Ballard specializes in building resiliency by helping groups and people of all ages learn how to deal with change and adversity in the fast pace of modern life with its overwhelming situations and stresses, through Resiliency for Life™ (RFL). Michael has delivered breakthrough solutions for over 207 organizations across North America and around the world from the beaches of Bermuda to the skyscrapers of Singapore, dedicating his life to helping others prepare for, or recover from, life’s challenges. Michael delivers actionable solutions that reflect the depth of his experience, applying a practical yet science-based approach to instill a courageous point of view. His goal is to help people get back up and “dust themselves off” after an upset, develop and deepen their resiliency and out-perform their former selves. He knows what’s possible. He’s lived it. Despite his multiple battles with cancer, and a near death experience due to a failed medical procedure, Michael still reached sales success placing 7th out of 78 professionals in a year when he was off work for four months. Michael knows exactly what it takes to be resilient.)
https://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/bigstock-Rear-view-of-a-male-kayaker-pa-48258671-scaled.jpg12881920TalentCulture Team + Guestshttps://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/TCLogo_web-272x60-1.pngTalentCulture Team + Guests2014-05-07 09:30:592020-05-27 17:26:50How To Create A Resilient Workforce
Every company wants increasing employee engagement. Engaged employees are good at communicating and putting forth extra effort to fulfill expectations. I’ve recently seen articles about student athletes becoming great employees. Therefore, having an athletic mentality can help grow employee engagement. You may not want flag football in your office hallway or field hockey in the foyer. Still, it’s worth translating athlete mentality to worker mentality in your workplace.
Athlete / Worker Mentality 1: Communication
Success in any sport depends on communication. Same is true of business. Communication between the coach and the player is critical in the game’s final minutes when victory is on the line. To execute the play perfectly, team members must talk, listen to and understand one another. The same applies at the workplace: communication matters, in every direction.
Coach To Worker Mentality: Practice the skill of collaborative conversation. Then provide opportunities for your people to learn the skill as well.
Athlete / Worker Mentality 2: Achievement
Rarely does the team that does not want to win, win. Desire to achieve is the fire in the athlete’s belly. Running an extra mile at practice, taking another 50 free throws, swinging at 25 more baseballs feed that fire. Ignite and fuel that same fire in employees and they will engage in striving to accomplish. An individual who wants quality in her work brings quality to her work. An employee who seeks improved performance calls out actions and resources to better skills.
Coach to Worker Mentality: Support and celebrate accomplishment. Make clear to the entire team what individuals/teams are working to accomplish. Publicize progress as it happens. Hype the publicity as achievement gets closer.
Athlete / Worker Mentality 3: Loyalty
A familiar sports phrase is “no I in ‘team'”. It’s putting ego aside for team success. Notable are athletes who utilize their skills and talents for the team. They put stardom lower on the priority list than victory. Loyalty to the company shows itself in full-fledged engagement employees. This leads to success that is greater than the sum of each individual’s efforts.
Coach to Worker Mentality: Encourage frequent, pragmatic discussion of loyalty. Examples: WIIFM related to work assignments, personal relevance of company values, individuals’ comfort with corporate culture. Verbalizing causes of and reasons for loyalty keeps loyalty in front of mind.
Athlete / Worker Mentality 4: Resilience
The team loses. Players learn from mistakes. Successful team moves on, preparing to win the next contest. Power to bounce back is essential to success. Resilience in the face of business setbacks is key to successful employee engagement, too. Consider how many events can knock someone off track, if not for a loop. Imagine the shortstop who’s bumbled a hot grounder or the halfback who’s fumbled a handoff. Each has to shake it off before next pitch or next play. Same with workers: shake it off, bounce back, get ready for the next play.
Coach to Worker Mentality: Learning from mistakes builds resilience. Make discussion of error and/or failure a regular behavior. Ensure this discussion emphasizes what can be learned, rather than finger pointing and blame shoveling.
Athlete / Worker Mentality 5: Confidence
Confidence boosts resilience. An athlete’s can-do belief spurs the “try again; do it better; on to victory” commitment. Confidence in ability and dedication stimulates confidence in the team. And confidence in the team increases self-confidence. A pitcher believes she will throw a strike. She also believes that if it’s hit, one of her teammates will make the out. That seamless confidence between individual and team produces wins. At work, too.
Coach to Worker Mentality: Demonstrate your trust and confidence in workers. Recognize their success and link to future possibilities. Encourage creative ideas and procedures.
Athlete / Worker Mentality 6: Awareness
Every player on a football team, a softball team, a basketball team – on any team – has specific expectations to fulfill. They are aware of these expectations. The more explicit their awareness, the better. Victory tells them they’ve performed as expected. Loss tells them the opposite. Workers need the same clear awareness of what managers, supervisors expect of them. The more clearly they know these expectations, the more likely they are to engage in fulfilling them.
Coach to Worker Mentality: When giving an assignment to new hire or veteran, be explicit in what’s expected. Ask for validation that expectations are heard and understood. As assignment progresses, verify expectations with the worker, especially if the expectations are tweaked.
Those coaching suggestions are normal behaviors a good manager possesses. It pays to keep them in mind. It pays more to put them in action. It pays to have your worker’s mentality similar to the athlete’s mentality.
Play on!
(About the Author: As an Employee Engagement and Performance Improvement expert, Tim Wright, has worked with businesses and national associations of all sizes. His company, Wright Results, offers proven strategies and techniques to help businesses increase employee engagement, improve personnel performance and build a strong business culture by focusing on performance management from the C.O.R.E. For more information, visit www.wrightresults.com or connect with Tim here: tim@wrightresults.com)
https://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/large_6133591974.jpg6331024Tim Wrighthttps://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/TCLogo_web-272x60-1.pngTim Wright2014-05-05 14:30:422020-05-27 17:25:596 Ways To Build A Better Team
Did you know that when an employee leaves their job, 67% of the time it’s not the job, it’s the boss? Of course you know the importance of keeping your best employees from becoming someone else’s top talent, but exactly how do you do that? Here are four ways to build trust and earn their loyalty.
1. Face Time Matters.
Personal contact is important as it creates an emotional connection with the organization. Whether you have an onsite or a remote workforce, make sure you regularly connect with them. It’s more than offering an “open door policy” – get out of your office and walk around. Pick up the phone and talk to your team. Connect with your team members in the way they want to be contacted. Some people prefer text, others email, while others still like to talk face-to-face. Personal contact matters. Take a hint from the television show “Undercover Boss” and put yourself in your employees’ shoes. Understand what they deal with on a daily basis and they will be much more willing to give their job their personal best.
2. Express Appreciation.
Catch your employees doing things right. What gets recognized gets repeated, so let them know specifically what they are doing well. It seems that organizations are spending a ton of money on “stuff” – providing employees with copious catalogs from which they can choose any number of rewards. Although a nice gesture, it’s not the prize that creates an emotional connection. It’s the sincere verbal expression or handwritten note in appreciation for a job well done that is treasured. A woman in one of my programs recently shared that thank you notes she wrote to her staff members two years ago are still pinned on their bulletin boards. Writing it down makes a difference. Handwritten notes are tangible evidence that employees can refer back to whenever they need a lift.
3. Ask Questions.
Are you afraid to ask your employees what they want because you fear their “unreasonable demands?” Oftentimes what you’ll find is that it doesn’t take a lot to keep your team happy. Once their basic needs are met, little tweaks make a big difference. Check out this article for some great ideas. Asking for your staff’s suggestions and ideas can give you a perspective that you may not have considered. Inviting your staff members to share their opinion means a lot, acting on their suggestions seals the deal.
4. Welcome Complaints.
Marshall Fields said, “Those who buy, support me. Those who come to flatter, please me. Those who complain teach me how I may please others so they will buy. The only ones that hurt me are those who are displeased but do not complain. They refuse me permission to correct my errors and thus improve my service.” This quote is just as applicable to employees as it is to customers. The office grapevine is not going away, however you can circumvent its negative consequences by making it safe for employees to express their opinions. When you know what is really going on within your organization, you can take the steps necessary to correct what needs to be fixed and not suffer long-term negative effects. Remember – if you’re asking the question, be willing to be open to the answer, no matter what it is.
Using these four simple strategies not only increase employee engagement, loyalty, and retention, they lead to the big 3 “P’s” – productivity, passion, and profits. The best part? These ideas are not going to cost you an arm and a leg to implement.
(About the Author: Employee Engagement Expert and Motivational Speaker, Lisa Ryan works with organizations to help them keep their top talent and best customers from becoming someone else’s. She achieves this through personalized employee engagement and customer retention keynotes, workshops and seminars. She is the author of six books, and is featured in two films including the award-winning, “The Keeper of the Keys” with Jack Canfield of Chicken Soup for the Soul. For more information, please connect with Lisa at her website: www.grategy.com or email her at lisa@grategy.com.)
According to a recent Gallup study, worldwide, only 13% of employees are engaged at work. In a 142-country study on the State of the Global Workplace, that amounts to about one in eight workers — roughly 180 million employees in the countries studied — are psychologically committed to their jobs and likely to be making positive contributions to their organizations.
Companies that understand the value of employee engagement know that motivating high performance and aligning talent with business strategy requires getting to the heart of what matters to employees. Employee engagement is largely about social connections happening in organizations and aligning work experiences with employees’ cultural needs.
They demonstrate appreciation for contributions big and small.
They commit to open, honest communication.
They support career path development.
They engage in social interactions outside work.
They know how to communicate the organization’s stories.
Rob Markey, coauthor of the book, The Ultimate Question 2.0: How Net Promoter Companies Thrive in a Customer-Driven World, believes he knows the Four Secrets to Employee Engagement.
Direct supervisors who set their teams up for success, observe them in action, ask for feedback, identify the root causes of employee concerns, and then follow through with meaningful improvements have happier, more engaged employees.
Bain & Company and Netsurvey analyzed responses from 200,000 employees across 40 companies in 60 countries and found that organizations that invest heavily in creating a culture of employee engagement have the following characteristics:
Line supervisors, not HR, lead the charge. It’s difficult for employees to be truly engaged if they don’t like or trust their bosses. Senior leaders must give supervisors the responsibility and authority to earn the enthusiasm, energy, and creativity that signal deep employee engagement.
Supervisors learn how to hold candid dialogues with teams.
They also do regular “pulse checks.” Short, frequent, and anonymous online surveys (as opposed to a long annual survey) give supervisors a better understanding of team dynamics and a sense of how the team believes customers’ experiences can be improved. What matters most, however, is not the metrics but the resulting dialogue.
Teams rally ‘round the customer. Companies that regularly earn high employee engagement tap that knowledge by asking employees how the company can earn more of their customers’ business and build the ranks of customer promoters. And they don’t just ask; they also listen hard to the answers, take action, and let their employees know about it.
Join the TalentCulture community this week to share your ideas on the topic of employee engagement. Radio show co-hosts Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman will be joined by expert Kevin Kruse on Wednesday at 6:30 PM EST followed by the Twitter Chat at 7 PM.
https://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Colorful-hand-e1396283152532.jpg964700Maren Hoganhttps://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/TCLogo_web-272x60-1.pngMaren Hogan2014-03-31 11:30:332020-05-27 17:11:43Employee Engagement: Is There a Strategic Advantage?
Perhaps nothing drives a brand forward more than its community.
An estimated 55% of consumers are willing to recommend companies that deliver great experiences, and 85% are willing to pay a premium for great services. But who are the “people” making those recommendations and purchasing decisions?
They’re members of your community, right?
I’m certain that if I asked every CMO and marketing leader I know to describe their brand community, I would get a different answer from each. “Community” is a subjective concept, with wide varying definitions.
There are also wide variations in how brands are seen, heard and felt by their respective communities. How deeply does a community feel connected to a brand?
For instance, think about Apple and its community. Apple gets attention because its brand recognition is extraordinary. But have you considered the powerful impact that Apple’s community has had on the success of the brand?
To demonstrate my point, think of the last conversation you’ve had with an “Apple fan” about the company, its products or its competitors. What did that conversation sound like?
If your experience is anything like mine, the conversation was probably wonderful, as long as you agreed about how wonderful Apple and its products are. However, if you dared to question the quality of Apple’s products, ideas or ability to innovate, you no doubt soon realized that you had crossed into enemy territory.
Those kind of conversations are a lot like telling your child that Santa isn’t real — only worse. But it speaks highly of the Apple community.
What is the catalyst for Apple’s insanely powerful connection with its community?
By-in-large, Apple doesn’t behave like a “nouveau” social company, so they’re not building their brand army through Facebook and Twitter. But it has brought together a passionate, global community by creating a sense of “belonging” that customers feel deeply when they use Apple products.
The iconic Apple slogan, “Think Different” epitomizes its cult-like following. On any given day at Starbucks around the world, people who want to be seen as broad-minded, creative thinkers are often found hovering over a Macbook — almost as if the presence of an Apple product is synonymous with their identity.
For Apple, this works. Through a customer experience focused on the idea that being different and innovative is “cool,” Apple has built one of the tightest brand communities on and off the web. But of course, Apple is a huge, established company, with a massive budget for community development. It leads me to wonder — how can other brands, smaller brands, newer brands tap into the power of community?
Not Just Community — A Close Community
Think about the neighborhood where you grew up. What was it like? Was it urban or rural? Were there many houses or just a few? Did you know your neighbors, or were they merely passing strangers?
Regardless of their shape, size and geography, most neighborhoods provide some sense of community. However, all neighborhoods aren’t the same. In my hometown, there was a “Community Center” — a place where folks from the neighborhood would congregate, connect and discuss issues affecting the area.
In that kind of environment, as citizens drew closer, the more they worked together to get things done — for example installing a stop sign where kids played in the street, and passing a referendum to build a new school. Over the years, as traditional urban settings gave way to modern models, subdivisions often created a community “on purpose,” with a Neighborhood Watch, a Board of Directors, and sometimes even a pool and recreation center.
This intentional approach to community brings stakeholders closer, by making neighborhood issues and events more visible, and helping community participants see the impact of their involvement.
Building a Brand Community Like a Neighborhood
When you boil it down to its simplest form, a community is the sum total of your brand stakeholders. I say stakeholder (rather than customer) because many people can participate in a brand community, beyond those who purchase a company’s products and services.
First, there are obvious extensions, such as employees and friends. Also, there are less obvious community players, such as those who are interested in learning more about your products and services, but may not have an immediate need to buy.
Let’s use automobiles as an example.
In 1995, when I was 14, my favorite car in the whole world was the new Pontiac Grand Prix. It had just been redesigned as a “wide track” model, and as a 14 year old, I thought it was one bad machine. However, at 14, I wasn’t legally or financially able to buy a car.
Four years later, I had scraped together all the loose change from under the sofa cushions, and I was ready to buy a car. Guess what I bought? The Grand Prix! That’s because I had emotionally tied myself to the brand, the car, and the community. When I was ready to purchase, it wasn’t even a question who would earn my business.
While my story is just one example, this type of brand loyalty exists with everything from the food we eat to the blue jeans we wear, and beyond. When people become a part of something, their purchasing sentiment changes. And guess what? So does the way they evangelize for your product. You think someone that likes your product is a good ambassador. Just think of someone who recently bought your product and likes it! That is another great frontier for brand building.
Which takes us back to building a close-knit community. It requires a setting for cultivation and nurturing. Much like a neighborhood — only different — to suit the needs of the brand and its community.
Community in the Connected World
If you think about the neighborhood example, you’ll likely think that a good community is small, tight knit, and somewhat directionally aligned.
But in the new world — the connected world where we manage communities on our blog, Facebook, Twitter and what seems like a million other places — the idea of community can become overwhelming. That’s because the “massiveness” of the online sphere is hard for many marketers to imagine in meaningful terms.
This can lead marketers to make some key community-building mistakes:
1) They aim too large: Mere numbers (pageviews, visits, likes, followers) aren’t relationships; 2) They don’t engage: Communicating with a “faceless” digital community can seem like a daunting task; 3) They miss out: Online communities are a powerful way to build influential brand advocates, but sometimes inaction takes over when brands don’t know where to start.
While these mistakes are typical, they can be avoided with a few common-sense tactics:
1) Aim for relevance: Rather than shooting for a large community, start by aiming for those that are most likely to buy your product/service now or in the near future. Also, with online networks (especially social networks), research where your target audience invests its time, and go there first!
2) Engage more than you promote: Share your stories, ideas and information, but make sure you allow the community to become part of the conversation. Ask more questions. Build more testimonials and case studies. Invite participation.
3) Start: Even if your “start” is small, don’t miss the opportunity to build a community by putting your head in the sand.
Remember: Building A Community Can Take Time
Apple has an amazing community of insanely loyal brand advocates. It also nearly crashed and burned on multiple occasions, and was saved by innovation that focused on consumption of music on a tiny MP3 player. For other companies, community takes time and work to build.
This starts at the core — building products and services that your customers can love. It also may include places for customers to congregate and talk about how they put your products to use.
On the flip side, community building also requires brands to acknowledge shortcomings and respond transparently when things go poorly. Think about what Target and Snap Chat will need to invest in rebuilding brand confidence after recent security breaches. Neither of these incidents was intentional, but trust was lost, and recovery will take time and monumental effort.
However, there is a certain beauty in community. When you build it, nurture it and engage with it, your community will tend to stand by your brand in good times and in bad. While never perfect — like your family, your neighborhood or your city — your brand community is one of the most powerful tools in the connected world.
Whatever you do, don’t ignore or underestimate the power of your community!
(Also Note: To discuss World of Work topics like this with the TalentCulture community, join our online #TChat Events each Wednesday, from 6:30-8pm ET. Everyone is welcome at events, or join our ongoing Twitter conversation anytime. Learn more…)
https://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Aggie-12thman.jpg348700Daniel Newmanhttps://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/TCLogo_web-272x60-1.pngDaniel Newman2014-01-19 11:52:432020-05-27 16:53:52Community: A Brand’s Most Powerful Friend
Perhaps nothing drives a brand forward more than its community.
An estimated 55% of consumers are willing to recommend companies that deliver great experiences, and 85% are willing to pay a premium for great services. But who are the “people” making those recommendations and purchasing decisions?
They’re members of your community, right?
I’m certain that if I asked every CMO and marketing leader I know to describe their brand community, I would get a different answer from each. “Community” is a subjective concept, with wide varying definitions.
There are also wide variations in how brands are seen, heard and felt by their respective communities. How deeply does a community feel connected to a brand?
For instance, think about Apple and its community. Apple gets attention because its brand recognition is extraordinary. But have you considered the powerful impact that Apple’s community has had on the success of the brand?
To demonstrate my point, think of the last conversation you’ve had with an “Apple fan” about the company, its products or its competitors. What did that conversation sound like?
If your experience is anything like mine, the conversation was probably wonderful, as long as you agreed about how wonderful Apple and its products are. However, if you dared to question the quality of Apple’s products, ideas or ability to innovate, you no doubt soon realized that you had crossed into enemy territory.
Those kind of conversations are a lot like telling your child that Santa isn’t real — only worse. But it speaks highly of the Apple community.
What is the catalyst for Apple’s insanely powerful connection with its community?
By-in-large, Apple doesn’t behave like a “nouveau” social company, so they’re not building their brand army through Facebook and Twitter. But it has brought together a passionate, global community by creating a sense of “belonging” that customers feel deeply when they use Apple products.
The iconic Apple slogan, “Think Different” epitomizes its cult-like following. On any given day at Starbucks around the world, people who want to be seen as broad-minded, creative thinkers are often found hovering over a Macbook — almost as if the presence of an Apple product is synonymous with their identity.
For Apple, this works. Through a customer experience focused on the idea that being different and innovative is “cool,” Apple has built one of the tightest brand communities on and off the web. But of course, Apple is a huge, established company, with a massive budget for community development. It leads me to wonder — how can other brands, smaller brands, newer brands tap into the power of community?
Not Just Community — A Close Community
Think about the neighborhood where you grew up. What was it like? Was it urban or rural? Were there many houses or just a few? Did you know your neighbors, or were they merely passing strangers?
Regardless of their shape, size and geography, most neighborhoods provide some sense of community. However, all neighborhoods aren’t the same. In my hometown, there was a “Community Center” — a place where folks from the neighborhood would congregate, connect and discuss issues affecting the area.
In that kind of environment, as citizens drew closer, the more they worked together to get things done — for example installing a stop sign where kids played in the street, and passing a referendum to build a new school. Over the years, as traditional urban settings gave way to modern models, subdivisions often created a community “on purpose,” with a Neighborhood Watch, a Board of Directors, and sometimes even a pool and recreation center.
This intentional approach to community brings stakeholders closer, by making neighborhood issues and events more visible, and helping community participants see the impact of their involvement.
Building a Brand Community Like a Neighborhood
When you boil it down to its simplest form, a community is the sum total of your brand stakeholders. I say stakeholder (rather than customer) because many people can participate in a brand community, beyond those who purchase a company’s products and services.
First, there are obvious extensions, such as employees and friends. Also, there are less obvious community players, such as those who are interested in learning more about your products and services, but may not have an immediate need to buy.
Let’s use automobiles as an example.
In 1995, when I was 14, my favorite car in the whole world was the new Pontiac Grand Prix. It had just been redesigned as a “wide track” model, and as a 14 year old, I thought it was one bad machine. However, at 14, I wasn’t legally or financially able to buy a car.
Four years later, I had scraped together all the loose change from under the sofa cushions, and I was ready to buy a car. Guess what I bought? The Grand Prix! That’s because I had emotionally tied myself to the brand, the car, and the community. When I was ready to purchase, it wasn’t even a question who would earn my business.
While my story is just one example, this type of brand loyalty exists with everything from the food we eat to the blue jeans we wear, and beyond. When people become a part of something, their purchasing sentiment changes. And guess what? So does the way they evangelize for your product. You think someone that likes your product is a good ambassador. Just think of someone who recently bought your product and likes it! That is another great frontier for brand building.
Which takes us back to building a close-knit community. It requires a setting for cultivation and nurturing. Much like a neighborhood — only different — to suit the needs of the brand and its community.
Community in the Connected World
If you think about the neighborhood example, you’ll likely think that a good community is small, tight knit, and somewhat directionally aligned.
But in the new world — the connected world where we manage communities on our blog, Facebook, Twitter and what seems like a million other places — the idea of community can become overwhelming. That’s because the “massiveness” of the online sphere is hard for many marketers to imagine in meaningful terms.
This can lead marketers to make some key community-building mistakes:
1) They aim too large: Mere numbers (pageviews, visits, likes, followers) aren’t relationships; 2) They don’t engage: Communicating with a “faceless” digital community can seem like a daunting task; 3) They miss out: Online communities are a powerful way to build influential brand advocates, but sometimes inaction takes over when brands don’t know where to start.
While these mistakes are typical, they can be avoided with a few common-sense tactics:
1) Aim for relevance: Rather than shooting for a large community, start by aiming for those that are most likely to buy your product/service now or in the near future. Also, with online networks (especially social networks), research where your target audience invests its time, and go there first!
2) Engage more than you promote: Share your stories, ideas and information, but make sure you allow the community to become part of the conversation. Ask more questions. Build more testimonials and case studies. Invite participation.
3) Start: Even if your “start” is small, don’t miss the opportunity to build a community by putting your head in the sand.
Remember: Building A Community Can Take Time
Apple has an amazing community of insanely loyal brand advocates. It also nearly crashed and burned on multiple occasions, and was saved by innovation that focused on consumption of music on a tiny MP3 player. For other companies, community takes time and work to build.
This starts at the core — building products and services that your customers can love. It also may include places for customers to congregate and talk about how they put your products to use.
On the flip side, community building also requires brands to acknowledge shortcomings and respond transparently when things go poorly. Think about what Target and Snap Chat will need to invest in rebuilding brand confidence after recent security breaches. Neither of these incidents was intentional, but trust was lost, and recovery will take time and monumental effort.
However, there is a certain beauty in community. When you build it, nurture it and engage with it, your community will tend to stand by your brand in good times and in bad. While never perfect — like your family, your neighborhood or your city — your brand community is one of the most powerful tools in the connected world.
Whatever you do, don’t ignore or underestimate the power of your community!
(Also Note: To discuss World of Work topics like this with the TalentCulture community, join our online #TChat Events each Wednesday, from 6:30-8pm ET. Everyone is welcome at events, or join our ongoing Twitter conversation anytime. Learn more…)
https://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Aggie-12thman.jpg348700Meghan M. Birohttps://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/TCLogo_web-272x60-1.pngMeghan M. Biro2014-01-19 11:52:432020-05-27 16:53:38Community: A Brand's Most Powerful Friend
The holidays are a perfect time to reflect upon the past year’s experiences, and look ahead to new opportunities — something the TalentCulture community does continuously.
But earlier this week, Kevin W. Grossman joined me for a brief hangout to compare notes about what it has meant to connect with all of you this year, what our holiday plans are, and best of all, why we’re so excited for 2014!
Of course, we’re not the only ones with ideas, plans and goodwill to share with the community. We’d love to hear from you, too!
Just leave a comment below — or post a tweet, photo or video from Vine or Instagram, and include the hashtag #TChatHoliday. As we roll into the New Year, we’ll curate and share your greetings, memories and aspirations for all to see.
THANK YOU for being part of our growing, thriving, continuous world of work conversation! We appreciate everyone who is helping us explore this new form of community building.
We hope that you enjoyed Hanukkah and Thanksgiving holidays. And we wish you a Merry Christmas, Heri za Kwanzaa and Happy New Year!
Looking forward to our next #TChat on January 8 — but until then, make the most of this time to catch-up with those who matter most to you. Stay safe, and be merry!
When loss blots out all other light, that’s when the stars around you shine the brightest.
It’s counterintuitive, I know. The times when life is bleakest, what you’ve sown is reaped in the form of torches guiding you through the blackest labyrinth.
This time last year was tough for me, having lost my father in July and then my mother in December. Both were very ill, and it took quite a toll on me, my family, and my world of work. This included my usually dedicated participation in the TalentCulture community and #TChat Events.
There’s a kindhearted warming that can occur in times of desperation and need — like coming in from a freezing rain to thaw in front of a fire, surrounded by supportive family and friends. This reciprocal positive power moves us into lighted places, into rebirth, into healing, into growth, into bettering ourselves so we can better others, in turn. The economics are simple and powerful. Yet, they require transparency, authenticity, trust and love — essential elements that cynics squash like bugs underfoot.
Healing Power: Community To The Rescue
Thank goodness for the light (as we watch the bugs scurry into hiding – or their metamorphosis into believers). This uplifting energy is the heart of community — and the heart of community is you.
We see community spirit at work time and again, when help mobilizes after global disasters, disease, war, and injustice — or simply when we grant a child one magical wish. (Here’s to all Batkids in the world!) It’s okay to get good news once and a while, you know?
After this rally from my greater Northern California community last weekend, I was uplifted. And coming on the eve of #TChat’s 3rd anniversary, it reminded me of the mutual support that comes from within our TalentCulture community — through bad times and good.
That’s one of the most powerful aspects of online communities like ours. They spring from the wild, virtual earth, in many different forms. They’re often vibrant and complex, even in their simplicity. Their roots are nurtured by the diverse individuals who come to learn, network, share and support one another around relevant topics, both personal and professional.
That’s what #TChat has become since its founding. The proof is evident after 150 Twitter chats, and 50 radio shows in the past year alone.
The first #TChat occurred on November 16, 2010, and the topic was emotional intelligence, which seems appropriate, since most of the time we try to be self-aware and manage our emotions — whether we agree with one another or not. Trust and mutual positive regard are just as important in our community interactions as they are in the larger world of work.
Best of #TChat
Since then, my favorite #TChat events include all of them. Although it’s tough to choose, I’ll list just 15 here that stand out:
I’m so excited that #TChat continues to break new ground as one of the largest and longest-running online learning and networking communities in the “world of work.” A very special thanks to the thousands of loyal participants who have participated during the past three years.
And a very special thank you to those who keep the weekly wheels of #TChat turning each week:
The TalentCulture (#TChat) Community is an open online network of business leaders and innovators, human resource and recruiting executives, organizational development and learning professionals, HR technology vendors, industry consultants, job seekers and more who collectively create, curate, crowd source and share timely “world of work” news and information critical for all professionals to grow and succeed in business today.
And that means you and you and you and you…
What’s your role in the TalentCulture Community? Just as it’s always been since the beginning:
Sharing your real world expertise and candid perspectives.
Actively participating with others in expanding the depth and breadth of your reach.
Contributing as much as you benefit.
There are many possible paths through life and career. Every so often, we’re presented with a decision: Take one path (maybe it’s a new job with an existing employer), or choose another route (maybe it’s an uncharted role at a new company with no clear business model or understanding where it is headed).
More than three years ago, I chose the second path — launching a talent-focused management consulting practice, creating #TChat as a TalentCulture community beacon, and embarking on a life at the crossroads of social media, knowledge sharing and collaboration. And what an incredibly interesting and rewarding journey it has been!
There have been too many high points to mention — the exhilaration of weekly Twitter chats; the roller-coaster dynamics involved with growing a professional online community; the great times Kevin W. Grossman and I have had connecting with many of you at live events — SHRM, HR Demo, Recruiting Trends, HRO Today, HR Tech, HR Evolution and so many others. It’s fun to push the technical limits with experimental “simulcast” chat/radio shows, and other new ways that connect our global community with the best minds and forums in the HR and social media realm.
Along the way, we’ve had the opportunity to meet hundreds of HR practitioners, business leaders and social influencers, both via #TChat and in person. I became a blogger – contributing to many niche blogging communities with whom I’ve been fortunate to forge strong social partnerships. These three years have opened my eyes and heart to new ideas and friendships that have enriched me more than I could have imagined.
Throughout this TalentCulture adventure, I’ve been guided by a vision of community, leadership, learning and innovation in HR. It’s the same today as it was the very first day — everyone is invited and everyone’s unique voice matters. Together, we’re exploring innovative topics – emotional intelligence; collaboration; evolving social and HR technology; the multi-generational workplace and the natural tensions that exist among Boomers, Gen X and Millennials; as well as the role that trust, influence and intent play in today’s most innovative organizations.
We had the courage to take this winding road, to live this social experiment, and we did it without a safety net of financial support. Like many bootstrapped ventures, we lived an online experiment, while sometimes risking our own security during past three years. We became, and are, the #1 and longest running Twitter Chat focused on “The World of Work” in the HR, Leadership, Innovation and Social Business niche. And I am proud of the way we navigated to that destination. This “organic” effort was the right approach. It gave us the freedom to stretch our limits, and really listen to our inner voices — even when others cautioned us that this endeavor was a huge time sink.
I’ve learned a lot during these past three years:
1) Patience. It takes time to create a community that’s designed to be a metaphor for the social workplace. It takes take time to connect, share, and earn trust. Initiative is imperative — but when relationships are on the line, patience can be even more important.
2) Courage. We didn’t chase after easy money. We stayed with a bootstrapped, organic growth model — and it gave us the freedom to find our true voices and passion. We believed that the community would guide us, even when the road wasn’t clear. And the community has risen to the challenge.
3) Perseverance. It isn’t easy to work 10-20 hours a week or more without compensation. But we stuck to it. We kept showing up. That commitment has made it possible for us to arrive at this third anniversary of #TChat.
4) Engagement Through Trust. Since Day 1, everything we’ve done has focused on engaging with a larger community of HR practitioners, workplace visionaries and leaders. This is a big open tent, filled with people from a vast spectrum of expertise and interests. That’s what makes it such a vibrant, interesting place to be! What makes it possible? Mutual trust. It’s our foundation — and it’s the thing I value most. Above all, we are a community of trust.
5) Learning And Moving On. Through the years, I’ve discovered that growth means leaving some ideas behind. From time-to-time, we need to mix things up, as we continue our mission of serving this eclectic community of practitioners, partners and constant learners.
Change is in the air again, as we look ahead and consider new ways to serve our community’s mission.
This week, which marks #TChat’s third anniversary, presents us with another set of paths. We can continue the community as is, without funding. Or we can embrace a new model that involves careful monetization to fuel additional growth. The second path will give us the financial support we need to add new capabilities for better communication and interaction, integrate new channels for commentary and thought leadership, and create new opportunities to engage with and influence a broader “world of work” for the benefit of all. I’m excited by the challenges these choices present, and I’m eager to move TalentCulture to another level in its growth. But most of all, I’m humbled to lead such an extraordinary community at a time when the very nature of work, itself, is being reinvented.
For three years, we’ve been engaged in an experiment to understand how social innovation can transform work culture, evolve leadership practices, develop trust, and inspire continuous learning. Now, we’re ready to take our first steps toward the next horizon. We hope you’ll join us on that journey. The road ahead may not be entirely clear, but the path is wide, and there’s room for all.
https://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/street-sign-141396_1280-2.jpg351700Meghan M. Birohttps://talentculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/TCLogo_web-272x60-1.pngMeghan M. Biro2013-11-20 15:09:032020-05-27 16:33:00#TChat Road Trip: Going To The Next Level Together
(About the Author: Declan Mulkeen is Marketing Director at 
Athlete / Worker Mentality 2: Achievement
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