Successful Blog

Be a Good Citizen

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A Guest Post by
Rosemary O’Neill

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Like it or not, it’s political season in the United States. We must sort through the debates, talking heads, and town halls, and do our duty as citizens.

There are clear rules to being a good citizen of the US. Obey the law and vote, and you’re pretty much good. Throw in some volunteering, and that’s even better.

Online, in the social world, it’s a different story. Depending on where you are, the rules are different, and often unwritten. It can be tricky.

But don’t fear, I’m here to give you some simple tips that will keep you out of the Internet version of Turkish prison. We’ll cover Twitter and LinkedIn today:

Twitter

  • Fill out your bio – it’s the equivalent of politely introducing yourself.
  • Replace the “egg” with an avatar – you don’t walk around town with a mask on, do you?
  • Don’t use auto-direct messages – unless you’re getting hundreds of new followers every day, you can spare 5 minutes to send a personal greeting.
  • Don’t order people to “like” you on Facebook – need I say that this is rude?
  • Vary your stream – don’t just be all retweets, all quotes, all broadcast. Throw in some mentions, replies, original thoughts.
  • Don’t follow hundreds of people at once – it’s best to grow your following organically, over time. Get to know them first, then add more. Also, if your ratio of following to followers is way out of whack, you look desperate.
  • Help people – if you see a Tweet like, “can anyone recommend a good Chinese restaurant in Phoenix” and you know one, jump on it!

LinkedIn

  • Go in with a plan, are you open or not – if you decide to accept invitations from people you haven’t actually met, you are a LION (LinkedIn Open Networker); most people do not accept invitations from strangers, so tread carefully.
  • Be a contributor – when you first join a group, don’t make your first post a “promotion.”
  • Webinar spam – likewise, don’t make your first contribution a webinar announcement.
  • Don’t direct-link your Twitter stream to your activity stream – if I see you in both places, I want different content; come on, it’s not that much work!
  • Answer questions – go to the Answer section and help where you can; remember your manners and thank people who answer your questions as well.
  • Be generous with your recommendations – this falls into the “good karma” category. Spread your good recommendations where they’re appropriate, without expectations. Trust me, it’s good.

If you keep these guidelines in mind, you’re well on your way to being a solid social citizen. And don’t forget to vote.

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Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out their blog. You can find her on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee
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Thank you, Rosemary!

You’re irresistible!

ME “Liz” Strauss

Have You Found the Great Leader in You?

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A Guest Post by
LaRae Quy

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Good Leadership Begins with You

Everyone talks about developing good leadership skills. The truth is that the only person who can really teach you how to be the best leader is . . . you.

It’s tempting to rely on an expert to show you how to mine the hidden truths about good leadership. The bookshelves are stuffed with leadership assessments and techniques. They can all add value but they cannot answer the most important questions: Who are you and what do you believe?

No expert can tease those answers out into the open except you, no matter how much money you spend or how hard they try. A lack of self-awareness and self-knowledge produces a leader who is grounded only in the latest model or theory—a little like switching religion when the going gets tough or when something better comes along.

Models and Theories

I wrote a blog a few weeks back that talked about how I used different strategies as an FBI agent to surround the foreign spies I was trying to recruit to work for the U.S. government. An individual commented and asked why I didn’t use a leadership model that is currently very popular in training circles.

In actuality, there is nothing wrong with the leadership model he mentioned, but he missed the point because anytime you’re dealing with people, models and theories can only guide a leader so far. At some point, good leadership comes out of what is inside of you.

To paraphrase the venerable Jim Collins, if you’re a leader who doesn’t know who you are and what makes you tick, you will never move from good to great.

I relied on sound theories and dependable models when leading a team, but I distinguished my investigation from the others in the pack by drawing from my personal strengths. I’m not talking about the strengths that come from a skills assessment—I’m talking about the strength of character that girds and sustains us when we’re not sure where else to turn to or who else to trust. This is the type of self-awareness and self-knowledge that is our true north in any situation.

The admonition to become more self-aware can create a point of stickiness because many leaders can be self-absorbed. This is the opposite of what I’m talking about. A leader who is self-aware has not only accepted their weaknesses, they’ve faced them head on and have learned how to manage them as well. There is no room for fantasies or ego.

The heart of good leadership is connecting with others so they will follow us. Like the Wizard of Oz, people will only follow a promise for so long before they pull back the curtain to get a good look at who is behind it. Don’t let them see an empty suit.

The Key Areas for Self-Awareness

People are diverse and complex which is why it’s hard at times to accurately interpret our reaction to different situations. Here are key areas for self-awareness and self-knowledge:

Personality

  • Remember that it does not change as you age
  • Spot ways it impacts the way in which you interact with others
  • Identify your strengths and assets
  • Recognize your weaknesses and vulnerabilities
  • Create opportunities that allow you to thrive
  • Minimize situations that trigger the less desirable personality traits

Personal Values

  • Make a list of values that are important to you.
  • Prioritize the following values: honesty, self-awareness, listening to others, attentiveness, spirituality, authenticity, gratitude, trust, gentleness, humility, courage, self-knowledge, self-discipline, patience, integrity, forgiveness, compassion, charity, freedom, generosity, peace, joy, hope, and decisiveness.
  • Think of times they have provided direction in your life
  • Identify how you keep sight of your most important personal values in the busyness of your day-to-day activities

Patterns

  • Recognize that you are a creature of habit and are predictable in your response to the unknown, the unexpected, and the uninvited events in your life
  • Identify the patterns that emerge in those responses
  • Distinguish between the patterns that are beneficial and those that interfere with your effectiveness and productivity.
  • Pinpoint the patterns that help you succeed and minimize those that impede your progress.

Emotions

  • Identify the emotions that reveal themselves most often
  • Name the ones that rarely reveal themselves
  • Recognize the triggers for negative emotions
  • Make an association between your emotion and your behavior
  • Consider that awareness of your emotions leads to greater control over them

Good leadership begins with you. You will always be the best expert on you—no matter how much you pay a consultant or coach.

How can you begin to reflect on your daily experiences to gain more self-awareness and self-knowledge? Do you want to make that commitment even if it means you’ll need to eliminate something else? What external factors will help you be faithful to the process? What doubts do you have about digging deeper into understanding yourself better?

What are your questions about reading the leader in you?

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Author’s Bio:

Larae Quy

LaRae Quy was an FBI agent, both a counterintelligence and undercover agent, for 25 years. She exposed foreign spies and recruited them to work for the U.S. Government. Now she explores the unknown and discovers the hidden truth via her blog Your Best Adventure. You can find her on Twitter as @LaRaeQuy

Thanks, Larae!

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Be irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Find the Genius in YOU — Stop Believing in the Box

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There Is No Box

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That box that everyone talks about — the one that we’re encouraged to think outside — came to be without a thought. No one decided or built a process called “Thinking Inside the Box.”

It was an accident, a management issue.

It’s easier and more efficient to run a school or a corporation of people when we teach, talk, and manage to the group.

Can you imagine how chaotic a school or a corporation would be if every student or every employee got to decide on his or her own creative version of “what works”?

So how can we bring leadership to every level and not ignite a mess that makes things worse? In the name of management, we build a bias toward one way of thinking in a sea of creativity.

Find the Genius in YOU — Stop Believing in the Box

When many of us weren’t looking, we learned about looking:

  • how to look at things the way other folks do particularly at the things our teachers revealed.
  • how to solve problems and show our work — or how to work them out the way we were shown.

We learned useful and appropriate skills for working in top-down managed groups:

  • to finish the calculation to the deadliest detail even though we already knew the answer wouldn’t solve the problem we were trying to solve.
  • to paint by numbers,
  • to color inside the lines,
  • to keep our curiosity inside the comfort of the teacher, the goals of the curriculum, and the norms of the group.

Within those boundaries our thoughts were caught much like a mime stays inside an invisible box.
And like the invisible box that the mime pushes and touches. The box that we think inside isn’t real.

The way to start thinking outside the box is easy enough — stop believing in the box.

Life Without the Box

The biggest problem with thinking inside the box is that for the mostpart, we’re relying on a model we learned, and so when we “show our work,” we’re really showing how someone else figured it out it.

Life without the box opens us.

New mind channels become available — creativity, flexibility, fluency, elaboration, and original thought. We break the habit of always doing “someone else’s work.”. The resources of your brain are freed up. Even better, it’s more fun, once you get used to it, because thinking outside of the proverbial box involves playing with ideas not just thinking.

DaVinci knew it.
Einstein knew it..
Lots of folks with divergent hair do it.

Most inventors only find the inside of the box to test things after they’re through seeing what they can do. Nothing new is achieved or gathered by staying where everyone else is thinking. And when we do get out of our usual ways of thinking, we land smack dab inside our own genius.

So let’s get on with getting out of it so that we can get into it.

Here’s one way to find the genius in you …

Even new creative, flexible, fluent, elaborative, original thinking needs structure. Let’s use a problem-solution format.

  1. Pick a problem.
  2. Move outside it. You can’t really see a situation when you’re part of it.
  3. Identify your greatest weaknesses.
  4. Look for how those weaknesses provides openings … Ask yourself “how can this weakness be a strength?” If your back is against the wall, no one can sneak up behind you. If you’re smaller, you’re more agile. If you’re unconventional, you’ve got surprise on your side.
  5. Leverage all of those new found strength into a single unexpected opportunity.

So, if you’re ready, I am. Enough with this introduction, let’s let the games begin. Everyone can think like a genius. It only takes a little practice, and a firm commitment. Throw away the darn box.

Put together your best out of the box thinking to find the strongest opening. Then check it against what a traditional in the box thinking would do to shore up any inconsistencies. That’s how to use your genius thinking to reveal opportunity.

Is inside or outside the box more comfortable for you?

Be irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Don’t Hunt IDEAS — Be an Idea Magnet
SEO–Five Traits of Relevant Content

Irresistible Consistency: Are You Suited Up for Soccer When Golf Is the Game?

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Right People, Right Positions, Right Game

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In the NYTimes bestseller, Good to Great, author Jim Collins laid out the foundation of an outstanding enterprise class organization. When I heard him speak, last October he said that the winner is the one with the best team. To achieve the best team,

  • A leader has to identify the right people who are the smartest.
  • A leader has to put them in the right positions.
  • A leader has to value, reward, and celebrate teamwork.

Those who change the world are enormously consistent in how they do it. The signature of mediocrity is chronic inconsistency. – Jim Collins, World Business Forum, 2010

It’s my experience that Mr. Collins’ short list brings constant improvement in situations where the game never changes. The hidden assumption is that the playing field, the conditions, the climate, the trends, and rules of business remain the same.

They didn’t. They don’t. They never will. They won’t.

Are You Suited Up for Soccer When Golf Is the Game?

I don’t doubt for second that Mr. Collins knows that and chooses his people to match the game that’s currently in play. Yet, when I work on strategy with big corporations and small business, too often I find their still suiting up and running the plays for the game that was on the field yesterday. It doesn’t work if you’re suited up for soccer and golf is the game.
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The Internet has moved the field, changed the rules, disrupted conditions, upset the culture, sparked new trends, shifted the playbook with new models and more flexible teams, and relocated the executive locker room.

The consistency that was a strength also built silos, sales scripts, and standard procedures that has lead some of those “smartest people” not to see what they see and not to know what they know in deference to rules build to ensure one-size-fits-all consistency.

Those companies suited up for a highly consistent playing field are finding their sales numbers and their service reports frustrated by customers who value responses that are custom-made for what they need. Because to over-value consistency is to focus on process, when it’s people who help a business thrive.

So how can we use Jim Collins’ Good to Great research and insights to leverage the opportunities of the new people-focused game — the social business culture, changes in the way companies and customers communicate, constantly moving metrics and toolkits, trend shifts, and elastic team dynamics of the 21st century online and off?

What Are the Highest Values of Your Business?

For 21st century organizations to move fluidly and fluently through multiple platforms and cultures, we need to look at the old short list in a slightly new way. The winner will still be the one with the best team, but now to achieve the best team, leaders will ignite communities of like-minded leaders at every level inside and outside the organization — employees, partners, vendors, customers, evangelists, friends, and fans who also want to invest in taking something from good to great.

Long-term, loyalty — trust — is a value-based relationship.

  • Live your highest values.
  • Be able to recognize the people who share them.
  • Invite those people to help build your business.

Consistency will win — a consistency of valuing the people who share your highest values is irresistible business strategy.

What are the highest values of your business?

Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Right People, Right Positions, Right Game

10 Steps to Save You and Your Team from Structure Damage

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We All Have Expectations We’ve Not Even Thought About

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I’m not a person who likes to over plan. Still, when I get up in the morning I check in on my calendar and my obligations to have a certain idea of what needs to happen that day. After a little reflection — a few minutes of imagining, sorting, prioritizing, and ordering, I sketch together a loose picture of what, where, when, making sure to leave a couple of hours for the amazing fun surprise or the unexpected hitch in the giddy-up that might enter in.

And if other people weren’t involved this simple way of setting up a day would always win.

But alas, sometimes another person will shift the wind and the fine vision of a smooth sail will sink.
It doesn’t have to be an irritation, a devastation, or a break in a relationship.
It might be a good shift from one way to an even better way that is actually a win.
Still, I sometimes get difficult when the structure of my day caves in.

10 Steps to Save You and Your Team from Structure Damage

It’s a subtle effect, but I see it cause problems almost daily. One person sets up a situation that damages the structure of another person’s vision of how something was going to happen and that other person responds in a negative way. We call it drama, over-reaction, or being touchy, but really it’s a situation that can be avoid with just a little forward thinking.

This happens most often when we gather a new team. Everyone brings their old work ideas, interpersonal rules, and process structures to the new group and seldom do we all have the same clear vision of what we’re going to do. Here are some ways to manage expectations to save yourself (and others) from structure damage when planning your next meeting, event, or project:

  • Define the meeting, event, or project goal / outcome clearly.. Know why you’re doing what you’re doing.
  • Set meaningful priorities based on your values. Describe how you will recognize a great version of the meeting, event, or project.
  • Enlist the right participants. Identify, enlist, and invite the people who share the same values and priorities.
  • Determine roles and process that builds from the strengths of the participants. Explain the purpose and the value behind the activity. Take time to invite participants to suggest what their role should include more of and what it should include less of for optimal performance.
  • Review the objectives, the process, and the necessary resources with the participants. Ask them to help determine the time and materials needed to achieve the best version of success. While you work out the process also work out the vocabulary — agreeing from the beginning on what we call things will avoid semantic miscommunications that could explode!
  • Provide the resources and the time agreed upon to execute the meeting, event, or project.
  • Decide on a standard way of alerting the group to things that aren’t working.
  • Track and communicate progress.
  • Discuss outcomes and compare them to the original goal definitions.
  • Celebrate successes and change that exceeded expectations!

Planning a project, meeting, or event is a exercise in change. The act of forming a new team or adding a new event is an alteration of past events. Every person brings slightly different expectations to how and why we do things. Investing time to manage those expectations before we start can minimize the drama and the structure damage caused by those different visions of how the whole thing should work.

Depending on the size and scope of a meeting or project and the team gathering to make it happen, you may not need every step. But with an eye to the commonality of values, goals, vocabulary, process, and standards, you’ll know which need the most attention. Spend your time re-aligning places where people may have different expectations and the chances of structure damage will decrease exponentially despite a high rate of change.

The key to change is to manage expectations.

How do you minimize the stress of change when a new team gathers to work?

Be irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

3 Keys to Keeping Women Leaders in Your Company

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A Guest Post by
Jacqueline Snider

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Don’t Let the Women Leave

When women leaders leave a company, the company loses talent, mentorship, and a distinct point of view. If it’s happening regularly, you might wonder about their reasons for leaving. It’s probably not what you’re thinking.

Did they leave because of the work schedule?
No.

Did they leave because of the salary?
No.

Did they leave because of the workload?
No.

Changing those circumstances might make a happy woman leader even happier, but those aren’t the keys to keeping strong women leaders. Why did the women leaders leave?

When asked why they left, women leaders often say the company just wasn’t worth the sacrifice.

So what are the keys to keeping great women leaders?

Key #1: Acknowledge the power of ‘broad spectrum’ vision

If you only reward the leaders that focus on single tasks and perceptions, you are alienating your broad spectrum thinkers and ultimately losing a lot of your talent.

Women leaders tend to notice a variety of things all at the same time. Rather than focusing narrowly on a single perception or task, women leaders are able to simultaneously engage in a variety of thought processes. They are using ‘broad spectrum noticing,’ a way of engaging in an all-encompassing way with their coworkers.

While women are working they may be aware of their coworkers’ emotions, may be anticipating what other people need or want in a given situation and may then make subtle adjustments in their environment to avoid conflicts that could arise. Most companies don’t encourage this way of thinking and their women leaders leave once they approach senior positions.

Acknowledge their unique way of viewing their work world.

And then reward that vision.

Key#2: Acknowledge the value of daily work experiences

A lot of organizations try to motivate their employees by emphasizing the possibility of upward advancement in their companies. Women leaders, however, do not perceive their trade-offs—including stress, time and relationships—to be adequately compensated by the rewards being offered in return, such as promotions, higher salaries and higher profiles.

Women leaders don’t see their present work experience as only a stepping stone to their future. The quality of their everyday work life affects them significantly and women leaders are not satisfied with sacrificing their now simply for some goal in their future.

What do women leaders want everyday?

Women place a higher value on carrying out their daily work experiences than what the job might give them as far as future career goals and advancement. That doesn’t mean women aren’t concerned with their career advancement possibilities, but it does mean that they’re not willing to work in a suboptimal work experience to get to the next level.

When management says things like, “Everyone has to takes their bumps and knocks when they first start out. Putting up with some bad managers and difficult working conditions is all part of getting promoted,” it just doesn’t ring true.

Women leaders simply aren’t interested in slogging away at a difficult position everyday just to get somewhere higher up once they’ve paid their dues. In fact, they’ll leave that position for another and another until they find a job that pays attention to the texture of their everyday experiences while they’re at work.

This means that if you want to keep talented, driven women in your company you must encourage a daily work experience that is rewarding for your employees.

Believing your women leaders will put up with and hang in until they are eventually promoted is an old-school mentality that’s outdated.

Acknowledge their experiences.

Key #3: Acknowledge that larger vision motivates daily actions

A lot of old-style companies link performance to game metaphors. For example, If you attain this volume of sales you’ll be able to spin the ‘Leaders wheel’ and win a great prize. Women leaders find these ideas, which traditionally defined purpose, as too limiting and often pointless and childish.

Women leaders are motivated by their daily work when it is tied to a larger vision. They see their work through a social lens and are most inspired when their work performance is acknowledged as being tied to relationships—not treated like a game.

Women are concerned with their work relationships and the social fabric and climate of their everyday work experience. They feel encouraged when their work relationships are strong and dynamic, ever-growing and evolving. These building blocks of a successful team are central to women leaders’ work goals.

Games, on the other hand, encourage competition—pitting individuals against each other. After all, there can only be one winner. This type of reinforcement doesn’t foster teamwork and doesn’t recognize that other people helped get that ‘winner’ to the Leaders wheel.

Acknowledge the larger vision that drives the people of the organization.

As companies grow more web-focused and rely more on the quality of their relationships to survive and thrive, the social fabric of their everyday company experience becomes more important. If organizations want to keep their top talent, women leaders’ visions need to be acknowledged and rewarded meaningfully.

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Author’s Bio:
Jacqueline Snider writes and works at Snider Editing and Writing where she creates images for clients through words she chooses. You can find her on Twitter as @JackieSnider

Thank you, Jackie. Great thinking. 🙂

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!