Successful Blog

Employee Management is Culture Management

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By Dave Crenshaw

Have you ever seen a business caught in the crossfire between management and employees?

It’s not pretty. It’s distracting, and most of all, it’s damaging to customers. Employees are more powerful than you may think. First, there’s more of them than the boss. Second, their interaction dictates a company’s culture.

I once was asked a great question that I think many people have: Why does it seem that so often employee and manager relationships deteriorate? How can I keep that from happening?

Perhaps you have seen this: you work in a position where you have a great relationship with either someone you manage or your manager, but over time – because you’re busy and there’s stress – it starts to fall apart and a little hostility starts to creep into the relationship. And, when one relationship goes sour, it’s easy for more to follow.

I have seen many companies with successful employee/manager relationships, and the key to their success is that they focus on culture management instead of employee management.

I want to share with you three insights that I have gained from these companies.

#1. A strong company culture.

Create a strong company culture by hiring people whose beliefs and values are in tune with your company. Companies that have great employee/manager relationships usually have a very strong company culture. This means there is an established set of values and an established set of norms that people use to operate and interact with each other. And, when new people are hired into this company, they’re hired based on their compatibility with the culture. This goes a long way in avoiding a lot of the friction that can often happen in the workplace.

#2. Strong communication.

Managers that maintain great relationships with their employees have consistent meetings. I can’t stress enough the importance of having one-to-one “huddles” with employees. If you’re too busy as a manager to have these meetings, you’re just plain too busy. These one-to-one huddles create an oasis that offers the opportunity for a manager to ask employees questions and for them to ask you questions – away from the hustle and bustle of the business. Regular one-to-one meetings are key to reducing workplace chaos.

#3. Avoid the “Peter Principle”.

The Peter Principle is a term coined by Dr. Laurence J. Peter in his 1969 book, The Peter Principle (more info on the Peter Principle here) in which the selection of a candidate for a position is based on the candidate’s performance in their current role, rather than on abilities relevant to the intended role. As a result, employees only stop being promoted once they can no longer perform effectively, and “managers rise to the level of their incompetence.”

So often we see that in business. Someone is successful in one entry-level position, so they’re promoted. And they’re successful in that position, so they’re promoted. And then they fail, because they’re promoted to a position that really isn’t a fit for their personality or their skill set. How can we avoid that?

  • If you’re the person making the promotion, make sure that you’re promoting people and hiring people based upon personality traits and learned skills. Ensure that they have the personal characteristics that are necessary to succeed in that position, not just past performance in an unrelated position.
  • If you’re the person receiving the promotion, that should be a sign for you that it’s time to go back to school. I’m not necessarily saying that you need to go get a higher degree.

But, it’s your responsibility to update your skills—and even your point of view—to ensure success in your new role. Become a life-long learner; don’t just rest on what you’ve done in the past.

 

AUTHOR BIO:

Dave Crenshaw works 30 hours per week or less, plays video games, and has plenty of time to spend with his wife and three children. He is also the master of helping business owners triumph over chaos. He has appeared in Time magazine, Fast Company, USA Today, and the BBC News. His first book, The Myth of Multitasking: How ‘Doing It All’ Gets Nothing Done, has been published in six languages and is a time management bestseller. As an author, speaker, and business coach, Dave has transformed thousands of businesses worldwide. To get free access to Dave’s online Time Management Fundamentals course on Lynda.com, please visit: http://davecrenshaw.com/freetime. You can connect with Dave on Google+.

5 Unique Ways for Social Media Managers to Save Time

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By Jessica Davis

As an entrepreneur or business owner, you must be familiar with the feeling of never being done with your work.

You’ re always on the move – daily tasks to complete, stats to analyze and new goals to accomplish –and there’s not much down time.

Time management is tedious but crucial. Without time management, you might as well work 24/7 without any extraordinary results. Find out how you can save time (and your sanity) with these five unique tips.

1. Social Content Calendar

Create a social calendar that helps you organize your upcoming posts. This could be done monthly to keep track of articles or topics.You can also figure out which articles/topics work best for your audience as they are all logged.

A simple spreadsheet with the name, themes, keywords and links (once published) is all it takes.

Once you find out what works for you – you can change the calendar accordingly to accommodate new topics and remove old ones.

A calendar is also useful for allocating your writing – you already know the topic and keywords, all that’s left is a little research and actually writing the post. If you’re meant to publish on Thursdays for example, you can start writing bits and parts on Tuesday, finalize the piece on Wednesday and make final edits before publishing on Thursday.

A social calendar will make it easier to stay motivated and organized.

2. Create Templates

Create templates for everything – blog posts, social media posts and even your emails. The amount of time this saves is mind blowing. Instead of custom creating every blog post/ social media post – you can just copy, paste, make relevant changes and you’re done.

If you know it’s a list post about social media tools, for example – having a template of your most used tools and small points about their features will allow you to spend less time while still putting out quality content. You can then create templates for social media – short templates focusing on individual points for Twitter, longer posts for Facebook and Google+ etc. This is the same for emails, having templates is like having your own FAQ page – copy and paste is all you have to do to save time.

3. Scheduling

Scheduling content in advance is a life saver. Many brands/ pages focus on pushing out as many posts a day as possible – this waters down the content and may even push your readers away. It is recommended to focus on scheduling content to go out at specific times of the day – based on your target audience’s location, most active time, the tool itself, etc.

There are various tools that help you with this – including DrumUp, Sprout Social and Commun.it – these tools let you schedule in advance on various social media platforms with ease. Also limit the number of posts you put out in a day – don’t push your audience too much.

4. 90-minute rule

As the name suggests, the 90-minute rule is a block of 90 minutes where you remove all the distractions from your life and focus completely on your work. Create a space for these 90 minutes every day and pinpoint one main task that you feel is most important. For those 90 minutes, all distractions need to be eliminated – close your email, close all the other tabs on your browser, put your phone on do-not- disturb mode – do whatever else is necessary to remain 100% focused on the tasks at hand.

It takes a while to get used to this, but once it becomes a part of your routine, you’ll notice that you get more work done in those 90 minutes compared to the rest of the day. A plus point is that you don’t have to worry about important tasks for the rest of the day and can work on already scheduled daily tasks from your social calendar.

5. Write Everything Down

You would have noticed that inspiration doesn’t really come when you’re sitting at your desk. It is a waste of your time to sit and wait for ideas to come along. More often than not, they come at the most random times – while commuting, eating, out with friends – and you tend to make a mental note about it but eventually end up forgetting.

To avoid this, write everything down – topics, themes, ideas about different areas – no matter how small you think it is, write it down. When you’re more focused, come back to the ideas and see which ones are actually beneficial and start working on them.

As a bonus tip, always remember to measure and analyze your efforts, this allows you to eliminate the least effective strategies and stay consistent. Using these tips in combination with each other will help you save time and open up your calendar for new ventures.

 

AUTHOR BIO: Jessica Davis has a keen interest in social media and content marketing, and writes extensively about it. She represents Godot Media, a leading content marketing firm.

Featured image: Business vector designed by Freepik

Beach Notes: There’s an artist in each of us

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By Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

Wandering around this year’s Sculpture by the Sea at Bondi (Sydney) Australia we were delighted to see a work displaying the unmistakeable talent of our friend, glass artist Sallie Portnoy.  Its title is nascentia blades of grass.

Sally Portnoy sculpture
We reminisced about the time years ago when Sallie hosted a dinner at her place.

Before we ate we were all shepherded into Sallie’s studio where each of us was given a partly baked clay plate and told to decorate it prior to it being put in the kiln. Des held back – “I’m not an artist” –  and said he’d just watch, but we persuaded him to have a go. He did, with a result that impressed the gathering and surprised Des.

Sadly, we don’t have the plate, because it broke on the way to the kiln.

But Des has the memory of being artistically creative. He likes that – #notjustanobserver.

There’s an artist in each of us. How have you explored your creativity lately?

Authors’ Bios: Suzie Cheel is the Heart Whisperer at Suzie Cheel You can find Suzie on Facebook and on Twitter as @suziecheel

Des Walsh is a Digital Disruption Navigator at Des Walsh Dot Com You can find Des at LinkedIn and on Twitter as @deswalsh

Beach Notes: Change Your Perspective, Change How Life Looks

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By Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

beach with cockatoos

From a distance Des assumed these were the usual flock of seagulls. When we got closer he saw they were cockatoos. We’d never seen them at the beach before.

Sometimes our assumptions can be wrong.

Keeping an open mind – and our eyes peeled – helps enrich our experience of life in all its diversity.

Authors’ Bios: Suzie Cheel is the Heart Whisperer at Suzie Cheel You can find Suzie on Facebook and on Twitter as @suziecheel

Des Walsh is a Digital Disruption Navigator at Des Walsh Dot Com You can find Des at LinkedIn and on Twitter as @deswalsh

Beach Notes: Lost Shoes

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By Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

beach notes - lost shoes

Would these shoes have been left behind if they were really valued?

In a throwaway society it’s easy to be relaxed about losing items people in other societies or circumstances would treasure and care for.

One of the most memorable experiences of Des’s childhood was seeing the sign in the local shoe store: ​ ​

I had no shoes and complained, until I met a man who had no feet

How grateful are we today for what we have?

Authors’ Bios: Suzie Cheel is the Heart Whisperer at Suzie Cheel You can find Suzie on Facebook and on Twitter as @suziecheel

Des Walsh is a Digital Disruption Navigator at Des Walsh Dot Com You can find Des at LinkedIn and on Twitter as @deswalsh

How Local Businesses Can Run Their Blogs Like Online Pros

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By Jessy Troy

Local businesses have a bit of a reputation for having awful blogs. It isn’t surprising; local companies tend to be brick and mortar, and the ever changing world of online marketing can be difficult to keep up with, even for experts. Local businesses are used to promoting on a more traditional level.

But blogging offers a cost efficient, simple and effective means of reaching your target audience. Having a good content strategy in place means getting more for less, and competing with those local companies that have managed to figure out a good social angle.

Here are some ways that local businesses can run their company like pros.

Remember That SEO Counts, But Has To Be Modified For Location

Search engine optimization has moved leaps and bounds since the days of keyword stuffing and page spamming. Google’s shifting algorithm has made the rules a lot harder to follow, but thankfully taken some of the power from shady practices that rewarded bad, or even stolen, content.

When scaling for local content, you have to remember that location is going to be your best friend. Your industry is probably vast, so you can’t compete based on those keywords alone. But add your city and you have a much smaller pool.

For example, “Thai restaurant” is going to generate way too many leads, and Google will narrow it for the user, but maybe not narrowed enough. But “Thai restaurant San Francisco” is much better. “Thai restaurant San Francisco Hyde Street” is another one you could use, or your area code.

Not only will this narrow results, but it is what people are more likely to search for.

Make sure you submit your blog to high-quality local directories like this one. This helps you get found!

Being hosted locally increases search visibility dramatically. Here’s the list of hosting providers where you can use country filters to search. Handy!

Integrate With Social, Then Target Based On Geolocation Stats

You can integrate your blog with social networking, and start taking advantage of ads. Then use those pages to target people as they come into your area. It is one of the many benefits of mobile social use, such as through Facebook apps.

In fact, Facebook has a whole host of ways to market as a local business. Check out their page on Local Awareness Ads for more information.

Write About What People In Your Area Care About

Most of your blog’s success is going to come down to the content. While you can offer general information about your industry, including helpful how-to’s, people can get these anywhere on the web. You should be trying to exploit the fact that you are local, and so have a local touch to your business.

Write about things you know your community cares about. Follow a tone that is appropriate for the customers you know you will be looking to speak to. Are these people with large families. Young professional couples? Singles?

Advertise Your Blog On Local Media

You can make people aware of your blog by talking about it on local media. Many local news shows, radio stations, newsletters and newspapers will do features of local businesses. You can casually mention during one of these spots that you have a blog people can go to for whatever information you provide.

Of course, this should not be the primary message behind a media spot. But it is a nice aside that could help create a loyal reader base.

Find Other Blogs With A Following Locally, Then Guest Post

Are there other blogs that are locally based and get a decent amount of visitors? They might be a good place to go to look for a guest spot! Contact the blog owners and pitch a post that you think would be valuable to their readers. Tell the who you are and offer to put a link to their blog on your website.

Connections like this can be very helpful for both parties. Not to mention a good chance to begin networking offline with others in your area.

Ask Local Experts For Interviews, Advice, and Quotes

There is a local blog in my city that has an attorney on every two weeks to write a blog post answering people’s questions about accident claims and issues. The company in question is an auto shop that specializes in fixing accident damage.

Notice how they managed to expand out of their direct industry topic, while remaining relevant, and in a way that is much more helpful to their customers. After all, people are going to them to fix their car, so blog posts teaching how to do anything more than basic maintenance would be pointless. But they know their customers would be facing legal claims, and so offer help that way.

It is an ingenious idea we can all take note of.

Blog About Local Events

What local events are coming to your area? Find out, build hype, attend, and then blog about it. Write a big post showing pictures taken, telling stories, and thanking people for attending. Run a contest in the lead up to get customer participations. Set up a booth with gifts, or interactive party activities.

You can even microblog live, using the event hashtag on Twitter. This is a great way to piggy back off the popularity of, say, a festival.

Tell Local Stories

You have an entire community of people who you can introduce on your blog! Tell the stories of those around you. Do interviews, and find out the interesting details about people’s lives. Do spotlights, and show your appreciation for the people in your area that make your city a great place to live.

Small, local businesses can really get away with this tactic in a way corporations can’t. Imagine for a second that Walmart releases a campaign talking about an old woman who has saved money and lives off of her small pension shopping at Walmart. Seems exploitive, and possibly a fake story by an actor, right?

Now imagine that same situation, but on the blog of a small, local shop. The impact is much greater there, more genuine.

Take Your Local Business Blogging Level To ‘Expert’

Blogging is a great way for local businesses to get into the online marketing game. Do you have any tips? Let us know in the comments!

Author’s Bio: Jessy Troy is a creative writer and editor at Social Media Sun. She Tweets as @JessyTroy.