Sharing the Challenge Means Sharing the Victory: The Two-Way Street of Team Leadership

	Blog Update #604 - Tuesday, June 28, 2016 Sharing the Challenge Means Sharing the Victory: The Two-Way Street of Team Leadership Many people work their entire lives to achieve a leadership role within an organization. They've put in their time, tirelessly working their way up through the ranks and then, it finally happens: they're trusted enough to be given the responsibility of bringing a team together for the benefit of a business's long-term goals. And yet, unfortunately, far too many people tend to veer off course with this almost immediately by assuming that respect is a given (which we've talked in detail about before), and by looking at "the team" as one thing and the "team leader" as something separate. They're not separate, and they never were. The sooner this is understood, the sooner you'll be generating the types of results you were after. There IS an "I" in Team - It's Just Silent An old saying has told us for years that "there is no 'I' in 'team'", meaning that in order to become a successful, respected leader, you have to put aside your own needs and look at yourself as just one part of a larger whole. While this is certainly true, from the perspective of a leader there actually IS a pretty important "I" in team. It's just that most people use it incorrectly. As a leader, you don't lead by delegating authority or even by simply demanding excellence from those around you. You lead by example. You always have (whether you realize it or not) and you always will. You set the tone for everything that happens. Think about it - if you like to joke around throughout the work day, your team members will probably joke around a bit, too. If you like to keep things a bit more on the serious side, the mood of your team members will reflect that. This is a clear-cut example of the two-way street of team leadership, and it is one you NEED to know how to use to your advantage. Never, under any circumstances, should you ask something of your employees that you would be unwilling to do yourself. Don't say to your new graphic designer, Timothy, "Hey, we're a bit behind on this upcoming project and I need you to come in on the weekend." Instead, say, "Hey, so that we can get caught up, I'm going to be coming in on the weekend and I would really appreciate it if you could find the time to as well." This goes above and beyond just showing your team members that they're appreciated. It lets them know that you're not JUST the team leader, you're a part of the team as well. Of course, you might not always be able to come in on the weekend yourself, but showing your willingness is more of the idea here. Pay attention to the way this idea plays out in visual cues, as well. If you want your employees to dress more professionally in the office, don't call them together and reprimand them for their current appearance while you're wearing beach shorts and flip-flops. Doing so will end in slowly chipping away at that high-functioning team you worked so hard to build in the first place. If you show up every day at the office dressed in a suit and tie, just watch how your employees will rise to meet your dress code. A Team Shares EVERYTHING This idea also plays out in how you celebrate your accomplishments or lack thereof. By making yourself a more ingrained part of the team and sharing the challenges, it means that you truly get to share in the victories as well. Remember - you don't work in a vacuum. When a project finishes successfully, people may want to give you the credit because "you told the right people to do the right things." You didn't. Never forget that you're just one small part of a larger whole. If you were willing to share the challenges, you have to share the victories as well - this means that any success is the TEAM'S success, not yours. In the end, the phrase "team leader" is actually something of a misnomer. People tend to think of it as immediately positive - you're in a position of authority and that is something to be celebrated. While this may be true, it's also something that can be far too easily abused - even unintentionally - if you're not careful. If a chain (or team) is only as strong as its weakest link, you need to understand that the weakest link will ALWAYS be the team leader by default. Your number one priority is making sure that the entire team is moving forward through the way you treat your team members, the way you behave, and the way you show them that you're all in this together.

As a Leader, Helping Your Employees Grow is One of Your Most Important Jobs

	Blog Update #603 - Friday, June 24, 2016 As a Leader, Helping Your Employees Grow is One of Your Most Important Jobs As a leader within your organization, it's understandable to feel like the list of things you have to look over gets longer and longer all the time. While you're being pulled in so many different directions, it can be easy to forget about one of your most important jobs of all: doing everything in your power to make sure that your employees are getting better and stronger with each passing day. Make no mistake: this is absolutely something you'll want to spend time thinking about every day for a number of compelling reasons. Helping Your Employees, One Step at a Time One of the most important ways that you can help your employees grow is by encouraging them to take an active role in their own professional development. One of the major reasons that you became the leader you are today is because you were not content to "spin your wheels" as far as your career was concerned. Help your employees understand that the status quo is never something they should be satisfied with and provide them with guidance in the form of mentorship opportunities along the way. Another one of the most important ways that you can help your employees grow involves showing that you trust them by constantly pushing them outside of their comfort zones. One of the ways that we get better in our professional lives involves stepping outside the box we normally live in and doing something that makes us fear what might happen. By constantly challenging your employees, you not only help them move forward - you help show how valuable they are to both you and your organization by establishing a bond of trust that is very difficult to break. An Investment in Your Employees is an Investment in Your Future Another reason why helping your employees grow is one of your most important jobs has to do with the positive effect it can have on your company as a whole. Think about things from a hiring perspective - you aren't just looking for someone to fulfill certain job duties. Anybody can do that. You're looking for someone who can regularly surprise you and exceed your expectations on a daily basis. If you're having a hard time finding or attracting these candidates in the interviewing process, the next best thing is to essentially build them yourself by investing in their development over time. This not only presents you with a workforce capable of doing higher quality work on a daily basis, but it also helps cement your business's reputation in your industry and with your own clients as an entity that can be trusted and relied on. Yes, it's true that this will also make your employees more marketable. But with benefits like these, this is one risk that you should be more than willing to take. At the end of the day, outward success in the world of business begins from within. By looking at your employees as what they are - a solid foundation from which to build the business you've always dreamed of - you can then begin strengthening that foundation brick by brick through employee growth and development initiatives. Not only will your employees themselves thank you, but your clients and ultimately your bottom line will thank you, as well.

Using Customer Data to Create a More Powerful Customer Experience

	Blog Update #602 - Tuesday, June 21, 2016 Using Customer Data to Create a More Powerful Customer Experience Make no mistake: the data revolution is upon us and has, perhaps, affected no industry more than the wonderful world of marketing. Your average marketer now has access to huge volumes of information about who their customers are, how they're behaving, what their thoughts are on certain issues and more - all of which can quickly prove overwhelming. It's important to look at the big data phenomenon for what it is, however: an opportunity. It's a very real chance that marketers have to realign their efforts and create the type of powerful customer experience that creates a loyal army of brand advocates. Broadening Your Customer Personas Customer personas have long been a tool marketers have used when trying to relate to their target audience. These fictionalized, typically generalized versions of theoretical people can be a great way to help the designers of a campaign keep their "eyes on the prize," so to speak. After all, if you're setting out on a road trip across the country, it can be helpful to know exactly where you're going before you back out of the driveway. However, the huge influx of data that marketers now have access to is a terrific way to deepen these customer personas more than ever before. You no longer just have things like age, gender, employment status or income level to work with. You can now draw from not only what has influenced past purchasing decisions, but WHO. You have volumes of analytical data pertaining to lifestyle, interests, and behavioral patterns. You can even draw valuable information from how a person might respond emotionally to a certain event in their life. All of this means that an already powerful tool, customer personas, can now be put to even more meaningful use in the future. These personas are no longer generalized at all, which is very much a good thing for marketers everywhere. Redefining the "High Value" Customer Another great way to use customer data to create a more powerful customer experience is to reassess your "best" or "highest value" customers through the lens of this new data you're working from. You've always been able to call up data like average purchase size, lifetime value, and acquisition costs pretty easily, but now you can go deeper. You can get a real sense of how satisfied your customers are with your products or services and look at how that information may affect what you need to do for your customers in order to get them to remain loyal. You can also see whether or not the people you're actually targeting with your marketing materials are the ones who are actually spending money on what you have to offer. If there is a discrepancy there, who ARE your buyers? Is this a problem, or is this a happy accident? What does this new information say about decisions that you were previously making on assumptions? This is all incredibly valuable information to have moving forward. At the end of the day, the huge volumes of customer data that marketers now have access to is absolutely NOT a burden. We live in an age where it's now easier than ever to glean the type of valuable, actionable insight that you can use to make more effective, strategic decisions. All of this allows you to drive home the most important benefit of all: creating a much more powerful, organic, and deeply rooted customer experience than what was possible even five short years ago.

Mutual Respect: The Secret Ingredient When It Comes to Managing Employees

	Blog Update #601 - Friday, June 17, 2016 Mutual Respect: The Secret Ingredient When It Comes to Managing Employees Many business leaders are still operating under the mistaken impression that the key ingredient to managing employees involves learning how to delegate responsibility. So long as you tell the right people to complete the right tasks, your business should pretty much run itself, right? Wrong. You can't just demand that your employees dedicate a huge part of their waking days to helping you accomplish your own professional goals. They have to want it. You can't buy it, either - high salaries and competitive benefits help, but they'll only ultimately carry you so far. So how do you make not only managing employees easier than ever, but also turn them into true, loyal team members instead of passive subordinates at the same time? The answer is simple: mutual respect. What is Mutual Respect? The most important idea to understand about mutual respect is that you're dealing with a two-way street. You can't force someone to respect you just because you happen to be their boss or because your name is on the door. You have to earn it. You have to show them that you're worthy of it. However, generating mutual respect isn't as easy as flipping a light switch. It involves a lot of small things that eventually add up to a pretty significant whole. It's about being genuine in your interactions with employees. It's about going out of your way to do the right thing and recognize a job well done. It's about making sure that all employees, regardless of position, have an equal voice in all decisions that affect them. It's about taking the time to show an employee that those eight hours they spend in the office on a Sunday didn't go unnoticed. That they were appreciated. That you wouldn't be where you are without them. What Mutual Respect Means in the Long Run If you're able to foster an environment where mutual respect occurs organically, you'll begin to feel a wide range of different benefits almost immediately. Mutual respect means that an employee is willing to put in a little extra effort and work harder because they know that you appreciate what they do and that you would be willing to do the same if the situation was reversed. Mutual respect means that if you do make a mistake, an employee is going to give you the benefit of the doubt because it's the same courtesy you've afforded them in the past. Mutual respect also means that all employees understand and even believe that they have an equal voice. They don't feel like they work FOR you, they feel like they work WITH you - because you feel the exact same way. Even when a conflict does arise, it never gets heated or even contentious because people who respect each other don't argue and fight over issues, they discuss them like civilized adults. These are some of the many reasons why mutual respect is the secret ingredient when it comes to managing employees. Creating a workplace where mutual respect is encouraged creates a "trickle down" effect almost immediately - conflict management is easier, collaboration is more efficient, and even the types of personality or cultural differences that stood to divide employees in the past only work to bring them together. Mutual respect allows everyone to come to the simple yet important realization that at the end of the day, you're all part of the same team.

Assembling the Team: How to Get the Right People Into the Right Roles in Your Business

	Blog Update #598 - Tuesday, June 7, 2016 Assembling the Team: How to Get the Right People Into the Right Roles in Your Business One of the most important things to do BEFORE you start assembling a team to work on a particular project for your business is to gain a better understanding of your options. In particular, you'll want to take a long, hard look at each employee and see what they bring to the table in a way that nobody else quite matches. Every one of your employees has a strength - something they do better than anyone else. Assembling a team requires you to temporarily think less about who they are as a whole and more about how you can use their particular, unique strength as a tool to service a much larger goal. Take marketing, for example. A standard promotional flyer essentially has two core elements: the visual design and the language being used. If your team consists of two people and both of them are expert graphic designers, you will likely end up with something that LOOKS fantastic but that isn't actually as effective as you need it to be when communicating a message. If you match up your best graphic designer with someone who truly has a way with words, on the other hand, now you're cooking with gas. Is this a gross oversimplification of the situation? Sure, but the underlying truth is incredibly relevant - you need to identify what is truly unique about a person and put them in an environment where that talent can shine. Putting the Pieces Together Once you've identified some of the unique talents that your employees possess, the next step invariably becomes putting all of those disparate elements together to form a more cohesive whole. It can be helpful to think of this process a bit like putting together a baseball team. Even though everyone loves a good home-run hitter, not every single person in a lineup is a power slugger. A few batters are known for their home runs, while others are known for dependability. Sometimes you don't want a home run at all - sometimes you need someone who you know is going to get to first base nine times out of ten. Other times you need speed - after all, those bases aren't going to steal themselves. The point is that you're trying to put together employees who aren't JUST high quality, meaning they not only bring something unique to the table, but their skills also compliment everyone else's. In the context of your business, a team needs to be exactly that - a collection of people who are great on their own, but when they all focus their talents together on the same goal are practically unstoppable. Making sure that you understand how these talents not only work, but work TOGETHER, is one of the biggest things to focus on in this regard. At the end of the day, assembling the perfect team for your business and getting the right people into the right roles is less about the people themselves and more about your own perspective on the situation. Provided that you enter into the situation from the right angle, know how to identify and bring out the core qualities of these employees, and understand how they all fit together to form a cohesive whole, you'll be creating the type of situation where success isn't a matter of "if," but "when."

	Blog Update #597 - Friday, June 3, 2016 When it Comes to Your Marketing Goals, Don't Forget About Consumer Education Whenever you begin to execute a marketing campaign, you're usually trying to service a few key goals at the same time. One of your top priorities is most likely brand awareness - you don't just want to get the word out about a product or service, but you're also trying to position your company as an authority on a particular topic. You may also want to help inform your target audience about the product in question. One of the most important marketing goals that far too many people overlook until it's too late, however, is consumer education. When it comes to your objectives, consumer education must ALWAYS be a top priority for a number of key reasons. The Benefits of the Consumer Education Push For marketers themselves, an increased emphasis on consumer education brings with it a host of different benefits that can't be ignored. For starters, it allows you to take a deeper level of control over the narrative that you're trying to tell than ever before. You're essentially reframing the information that consumers are actively looking for in a much more positive way. Instead of making a declarative statement with your campaign like, "Here are all of the amazing and incredible features that my product or service has," you get to instead take a decidedly less sales-oriented approach and offer advice like, "Here are the problems you have, here is why you have them, and here is how my product or service is the answer you've been looking for." Perhaps the biggest benefit of all to taking a consumer education approach to marketing, however, is that you're no longer trying to convince your customers that your product or service is necessary. Instead, you get to essentially PROVE that it's necessary and let your customer base come to the same conclusion on their own. This helps to deepen the sense of confidence that consumers get from your company, which almost always leads to loyalty sooner rather than later. Transforming the Landscape Another key thing to keep in mind about making consumer education one of your core marketing objectives has to do with the subtle ways in which you change the relationship between company and customer. With consumer education, marketing is no longer a passive approach. Instead, it's decidedly active - consumers are no longer HEARING about your product or READING about it, they're LEARNING about it. They're engaged with your materials in a whole new way. It officially transforms the marketing experience into a two-way street by way of empowerment. Consumers will WANT to keep learning about what you have to say and what you have to offer, helping to increase penetration rates at the same time. The more satisfied with the marketing experience a consumer is, the more confident they ultimately are with the ways in which they spend your money. If you can turn the tide of the conversation in your direction through consumer education, you're looking at a powerful opportunity that you can no longer afford to ignore. These are just a few of the reasons why consumer education NEEDS to be one of your marketing goals at all times. Not only does it bring with it the added benefit of affecting consumer behavior in a positive way, but it also helps establish you and your organization as the authority on a particular topic that people are actively looking for.

Realize the Amazing Power of Your Blog: Blogging and Social Media

	Blog Update #596 - Tuesday, May 31, 2016 Realize the Amazing Power of Your Blog: Blogging and Social Media Digital marketing, it’s pretty simple, right? Draft up 500+ words of amazingly educational and entertaining content, upload it onto your blog, maybe sprinkle on a little SEO magic and you’re good…right? Well, let’s just put it this way: if you have teenagers, they’re rolling their eyes at you. If you have dogs, they’re staring at you with that head-cocked-to-the-side look they give you when you’re missing the obvious. Ok, maybe it’s not as obvious as pick up ball…throw ball, but if you spend any time reading about online marketing, you’ve got to know how important of a role your blog can play in growing your client base. Don’t worry, though, you’re not alone. It’s surprising how many established and emerging businesses underestimate the power of their blog. With a few added steps, you too can realize the amazing power of your blog. Active Content Distribution When you were planning your wedding or "Sweet 16" party, you didn’t spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on gorgeous invitations just to leave them in the box, did you? Of course not! You sent them out into the world so they could tell the world the exciting news. The same concept rings true for your blog content. They key is to actively push your content out into the world so people can line up to dance with you, money in hand. You want to get your content out on as many channels as you can. So this means: • Tweet out your headlines and grabbers with a link to your content • Post a summary of your content to Facebook • Add your blog to your Google+ and LinkedIn Feeds • Upload the cool images you post with your blog article to Pinterest and Instagram • Turn your blog into a podcast or video and upload to YouTube • Find out where your clients are hanging out and get your content out there! It may sound a little daunting, but most of that can be done in one step using online tools that will help you to schedule your releases to touch your prospects and clients on a daily basis. Aim for 2-3 releases per day. Sales Funnels Depending on your business, your sales funnel can look much different than the business next door. So, without getting into too much detail, let’s take a high-level look at what a sales funnel is and how your blog and other web content plays a role. Typically, your blog articles will have one or more links to other pages of your website. You can be strategic about this and push (“funnel”) them to where you want them to go. The page(s) that you’re pushing your readers to may have a certain call to action that encourages them to give you their email address in exchange for something they find valuable. This could be a free white paper, free trial, webinar or other free consideration to obtain that valuable email address. Once you have the prospect’s email address, you can now trickle out relevant content (likely from your blog) into their brains via email. You’ll have additional links to free content or additional sales pages that your prospects can click to when they’re ready to make their purchase. The sales funnel is all about grabbing that email address and using it to establish yourself as an expert in the field so that people will trust you enough or like you enough to buy what you’re selling. Strategic Alliances Too many business owners think they have to do everything alone. This is not only sad, but also a dangerous fallacy that may be choking off your business revenues. One of the big keys to building your business is teaming up with other complementary (not competing) businesses to expand your reach. According to Andrew Davis, author of “Brandscaping: Unleashing the Power of Partnership” businesses that partner usually experience rapid success with their content. The key is to make your content noteworthy, so when you reach out to potential partners, they’ll be impressed and want to work with you. There are a host of ways to initiate strategic alliances. They all start with recognizing those businesses that complement your product or service and share your audience. From there, consider reading their blogs to see what they’re writing about. Send them an email proposing a guest blog article that would be of interest to their audience and a link to your site. That opens a dialogue that can lead to tremendous collective success.