Another great lecture from Seth Godin, one of my favorite authors, on how to create change through the strong relationships we develop.
From Ted.com
"Seth Godin argues the Internet has ended mass marketing and revived a human social unit from the distant past: tribes. Founded on shared ideas and values, tribes give ordinary people the power to lead and make big change. He urges us to do so."
One of the best lessons I learned through my corporate training and experience working as a manager with Disney, Gap and Apple was the concept of respecting our channel partners and competition. Whether it was Universal Studios (Disney), Abercrombie (Gap), or Microsoft (Apple), our training and dialogue with others always was respectful of both competitors and strategic partners alike.
Not everyone I run into subscribes to this M.O. Many companies or individuals within companies have no problem running down their competitor or their strategic partners. These choices are unfortunate; they do nothing but bring down morale and create an atmosphere of distrust.
The next time you have a chance to say something negative about a competitor or partner, think again; you'll always look like the bad guy.
Sometimes the best experience is gained by giving back to others. Catchafire.org gives people on both sides of the volunteer equation the ability to make it easier to give back and gain experience at the same time.
From their website:
Catchafire is a website that makes it easy for professionals to volunteer their on-the-job skills for nonprofits and social enterprises that need their help in areas such as marketing, PR, design, social media, strategy, and finance on a pro bono basis. You can think of us as an eHarmony for skilled volunteers and social mission organizations.
First and foremost, we match you with an organization that has made a strong commitment to work with you on a Catchafire Project. We also connect you with an organization whose cause(s) you care about and whose mission you support. We currently only serve organizations that have a presence in NYC, though many have other offices across the country and around the world. We connect our volunteers to both nonprofits and social enterprises who represent a wide range of diverse causes.
Early on my career, I always had to travel to a different office, different town, or take a day off from work to attend training. Today, it's easier than ever to access training remotely.
Whether the tool is GoToMeeting, WebEx, or tools like it, there are no reasons any more to justify having to take multiple people out of their routine to attend a 30minute to half day workshop. In some cases, a face to face meeting still makes sense, but it is a better use of resources to meet online or via phone conference to accomplish the same goals as a face to face meeting.
I'm a fan of self-paced learning as well. I belong to the Apple Consultants Network, where I have access to some self-paced training and certification prep courses that allow me to stay on top of the latest trends.
Another great self-paced resource is lynda.com. For a low monthly fee, they offer training videos and tutorials on a variety of topics.
My company is now offering more and more options for online training as well. Visit my new website for Braathe Online Education.
It's that time of year again where it's time to rethink your resume.
If you submit your resume to me between now and 5pm on February 18th, I'll share some feedback with you on it for free and get that feedback back to you by next Friday the 25th.
Any company seeking to manage transitions smoothly should always have people waiting in the wings in the event of a departure. Continually training and preparing your staff to move up in the company, either with more responsibility or more pay (not necessarily tied together) keeps your company ready for any transition.
The complaints I hear from people about having a transition process like this are "if I train people to do more, they will get a job elsewhere" or "if I train people for a promotion and they don't get it, they will be dissatisfied."
It's better to have an over-trained team than one which lacks skill or personality. I've worked for companies who always were smart about transition; at any time, these companies always had someone who could step in in the event of illness, resignation, or change in volume of business.
As for the departing employees themselves, it is important to get a "data dump" from them before they leave and perhaps hire them on as a freelance consultant as needed to enable the transition process to proceed properly.
To grow your business, sometimes getting the right person on your ad or website or working with the guests customers is the best way to add to your bottom line, attract new employees, or meet new clients with professionalism.
Here is a video of a local business, Prestwick Chase at Saratoga, who does a great job of speaking about some of the services they offer by having their activities director, Kellie, interact with the guests in a light-hearted ad featured on their website.
Add pizzazz and personality to your phone interviews by having them on Skype or iChat or AIM. The cost of a webcam has come down so much that there really is no excuse for companies (or potential employees) not to have one if they own a computer.
By using video for a phone interview, you can recreate the environment of a face to face interview and get a better judge of character and presence by seeing each other. Test it out for yourself, but I have a feeling that once you do a video interview, you may give up the phone interview altogether.
Last week, I spoke about getting back to the basics, and reviewing past successes to look to repeat them in new ways. Here are some "back to basics" strategies I've used over the years I gained from delivering papers:
Back when I was 10 and was delivering papers for the News-Times, I had a couple customers who really gave me a hard time, especially when it came to paying. With one, he'd pay in advance and forget how many weeks he had paid, and then I'd show up and he'd start yelling at me that he had already paid me for that week. Another wouldn't pay at all, and I still delivered the paper knowing I'd eventually get paid.
With the first customer, I cried the first time he yelled at me, and then the second time I let him have it. Even at 10, I knew that sometimes you had to give it back to the customer, especially when they were wrong.
With the second, I learned that good customers will sometimes pay late, and sometimes that means that you have to do what you can to get by without the payment, knowing it's a minor sacrifice for a long-term commitment.
The lessons I learned from these two customers live on today. I am very tolerant of people who give me a hard time now, but in rare instances I need to give it right back to them. As well, I have had customers who go for a long time without paying, but with gentle prodding and continues good service (without threat of cancellation), I've been able to keep customers happy.
One of my favorite bands from my childhood, Duran Duran, recently recorded a new album that sounds very similar to one of their most successful albums, Rio, which was recorded over 25 years ago.
A producer, Mark Ronson, joined the band in helping put together this album. One of his visions for it was to create a sound that would create the feeling of a sequel to what was done on Rio, while still sounding modern.
After listening to the first single off of this album, I must say they have matched the success of Rio with this new song and CD.
In your career or HR strategy, what successes can your revisit from the past to create new ones? Next week, I'll share some of the successes I have found over the years by doing just that.
Here is the new single from Duran Duran (and as I have been telling my friends, if I was a professional wrestler or athlete, this is the song I'd use as my entrance music.)
Are you looking for a way to recognize your employees? Or as an employee, are you looking for ways to add credentials to your resume? There is a program through NRAEF called the ManageFirst program, where you can take courses and tests that award you with certificates in areas such as Human Resources and Supervision as well as Customer Service.
If you are interested in finding out more about this great program, visit
Individual or group courses are available, and you can earn one to several certificates through this program, including the ManageFirst (MFP) credential
ManageFirst Professional® (MFPTM) Credential
The MFP credential recognizes students as having the academic and practical knowledge they need to succeed in the restaurant, foodservice, and hospitality industry.
To earn the MFP credential, students must:
Pass four Core Credential exams and one Foundation/Elective exam
Provide documentation for 800 hours of industry work experience
One of my favorite authors, Seth Godin, presented this talk on standing
out at a TED conference. I've shared this with my students, and also
with some colleagues.
Very often, standing out from
the crowd can be something people fear. However, with the ease of
applying for jobs and the ease of reaching out to others, you do need to
find ways to stand out.
Watch this video, and learn how you can apply some of the marketing principles within to promote yourself and your work.
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