Social business: The rights, responsibilities and cultural impact

Source
Social collaboration platforms in the enterprise are giving employees more power and more perks. But in return, they’re going to have to be on their best behaviour.

---

inShare12

Computers don’t collaborate — humans do — and it’s really company culture that will experience the most profound transformation as communication of every sort is funneled into a unified system.

With multiple channels open in a single place, employees with varying backgrounds, skillsets and quite simply, different personal preferences, will be able to choose how they collaborate.

This is a right that hasn’t existed for very long. In the not-so-distant past, we were limited to a telephone and a corporate e-mail system. But just as educators came to realize that students learn (and thus, achieve more) in different ways, enterprises have learned they need to give employees a larger toolbox of collaboration tools and let them pick their favourite.

Collaboration starts with a conversation, and the latter takes many forms in a social media platform: activity streams and forums, video conferencing, telephony and instant messaging, among others.  There are plenty of options here. But who is choosing what form of communication? That’s an important thing for a company to know.

Many have put it down to age: older workers are simply more comfortable with older technology, they say.
Not necessarily true, counters Alan Lepofsky, vice-president and principal analyst of collaboration software at Constellation Research Inc. In a recent Jan. 31 titled ‘Why Social? Why Now?’ he cautioned against such presumptions.

Companies can and should perform analytics on the use of their social business platform to gauge its appeal, a form of internal sentiment analysis, said Lepofsky.

Hear, hear. Empirical evidence easily trumps presumption, and analytics will tell you a lot more than that your millenials enjoy instant messaging while the old guard prefers phone calls. In fact, the results may surprise you.

Or you can always just talk to your employees. The low-tech approach still works surprisingly well. As Lepofsky put it, the key to a successful roll-out of a social media platform is “engagement.”
Engagement is listening to the people who work for you, asking them how they can be more productive and collaborative using social media, he added. But a healthy workplace is, once again, integral to the success of your strategy: “Does your culture promote creativity? Does your culture accept multiple viewpoints?” he asked his audience.

Along with this right to choose how to collaborate, or at least make their preferences known to higher-ups, employees should get the most personally relevant content through social platforms, Lepofsky said. He acknowledged the anxiety that can come from following activity streams every day, which are a backbone of the system.

To avoid the problem of information overload, which is bad for the business as well as the individual, the most relevant data should flow to the right people, he said. In doing so, the business gains agility. As for the hapless employee frantically monitoring daily activity streams, Lepofsky tells them not to sweat it too much.
“Don’t feel like you have to keep up. Choose a couple times [a day], dive in, find out what’s important. Don’t get overwhelmed, don’t get scared. If you miss something, it will bubble back up.”

Missing something? Bubbling back up? Sounds like it’s time to talk about responsibility, which I think is an important element of social business that gets overlooked. Having a single place through which all communications pass (and are recorded in some form or other) is going to make the new workplace far more transparent.

Everyone has a role to play in an enterprise, and social media will offer-real time information on how well they’re doing their job.

Case in point: one of the reasons hospitals (including the Ottawa Hospital here in Canada) are adopting social business platforms is because of the potentially lethal results of a page that goes unanswered, a face-to-face conversation that’s forgotten, or an e-mail that is dumped into a junk folder. One person can screw up, and another person can die.

A unified system of communication can not only prevent these disasters, but if something bad does happen, there won’t be any dispersion of responsibility. Going back along the social media chain, the hospital will find the broken link and act accordingly.

This is just one extreme example, but the same holds true for any large organization. Social business is going to keep us all honest.

Love Is in the Air at Work. What Can You Do?

Source

You'll be hard-pressed to extinguish office romances. Here's how to ignore them (and why you want to).

Getty

 

19
inShare

What should you do if your employees fall in love with one another?

Most people have very strong views on this subject. Those who are opposed argue that romantic attachments disturb the equilibrium of the workplace, interfere with professionalism, and unnecessarily confuse work and pleasure. They are right about all of this, of course. Work-based romances do get complicated. But is work so important that you can expect those working for you to sacrifice their emotional well-being for it? If your vice president of sales fell in love with a cubicle neighbor, could you seriously contend that work must come first?

According to CareerBuilder.com's annual romance-in-the-office survey, 39 percent of workers have dated a colleague and 30 percent of those got married. I'm just surprised the number is so low. We know that similar people (not opposites) attract. Statistically, you are highly likely to marry someone whose eyes, hair, height, body shape, and life experiences closely mirror your own. It's what psychologists call positive assortative mating, and all it means is that humans are drawn to people who are similar to themselves--those who make them feel comfortable and safe. Though straying out of that comfort zone may happen occasionally, such forays rarely end in matrimony.

Add to all that the fact that occupation choice says a huge amount about people: what they enjoy and value. As such, your employees are all highly likely to find they work alongside people who share their tastes and preferences. Who would be surprised that some of those people are attractive in other ways, too?
I met my first husband at work. I'm afraid we conformed to all the statistics: roughly the same everything, including initials. Dating while working in the same department was stressful because it felt so visible, because meetings were tremendously distracting. When we got married, we felt we had to invite the whole department. And when, years later, my husband died, I felt as though there was nowhere I could go that would not remind me of him.

But I wouldn't change a thing. There's no job or salary that would have dissuaded me from our relationship and denying it for the sake of work would have been preposterous. Our romance didn't undermine my work or lessen my commitment; if anything, just the opposite. I was so driven to prove that I wasn't merely lovelorn that I worked even harder than usual. After we got married, the one smart thing we did was to change departments. It was boring talking about work all the time, at the office and at home. But we were still devoted to the company and to our colleagues.

So if you find there are multiple valentines in your company this week, here is some free advice for them (and how you can help them handle it from a distance).

1. Try to keep the relationship private until it is secure.
You really don't want the ups and downs of the romance to be a matter for public discussion. According to the CareerBuilder.com survey, 35 percent said they had to keep their relationship under wraps. The acid question is: How will you feel about work if the relationship peters out? If it would be embarrassing or awkward, keep quiet until you're more confident.

2. When at work, focus on work.
Nobody will object to the relationship if your professionalism is uninterrupted.

3. Don't lie.
Efforts to stay private can get complicated, but lying about the relationship causes a lot of bad feeling later.

4. Don't ever go out with the boss.
The power issues are too complicated. If he or she is the love of your life, change jobs now.

5. Don't forget the outside world.
Living, breathing, talking work all day and all night is tedious and makes you boring. When you get a love, don't forget also to get a life.

http://www.frontrow-solutions.com/

Selling Face-to-Face Is Almost Obsolete

The new salesperson is "plugged into" an industry rather than plodding from customer to customer.

Getty

 

 

 

 

63
inShare

Traditionally, business-to-business selling involves face-to-face conversations. However, "road warrior" is becoming increasingly rare in the business world, according to a study by Dr. James Oldroyd, the world's top researcher in the mathematics of selling.

His research recently revealed that corporate hiring for "outside" sales positions had leveled off at a measly .5 percent annual growth. By contrast, corporate hiring for "inside" sales positions was growing fifteen times faster!

Even salespeople who DO meet with customers face-to-face are doing so much less frequently than in the past. Oldroyd's study revealed that over two fifths of all customer conversations conducted by "outside" salespeople are done over the phone.

The shift away from face-to-face selling is driving many top firms to hire and cultivate people who can become subject matter experts and communicate with customers with a combination of email, phone, texting, social media, and web conferencing.

Oddly, the sales training world doesn't seem to have caught up with this trend. Probably 90 percent of the sales training courses available today assume that there will be  face-to-face meetings. The other 10 percent cover cold-calling.

Every day I get emails from business owners and salespeople who are struggling to adapt to this new way of selling. The problem is that they're attempting to use selling concepts and skills that are rapidly becoming obsolete.

If you read Sales Source regularly, you've probably noticed that I seldom post about sales situations that crutch on a face-to-face meeting (e.g. "having a great handshake" or "dress for success.") Now you know why.

http://www.frontrow-solutions.com/

2012 Cloud Networking Report Reveals Drivers for IaaS and SaaS

Webtorials released the “2012 Cloud Networking Report – Part 1: The Emergence of Cloud Computing and Cloud Networking”, which outlines the “network-related challenges and solutions that are associated with cloud networking”. Part 1 of the report takes an in-depth look at how companies are using IaaS and SaaS.
Part 1 of the report takes an in-depth look at how companies are using IaaS and SaaS. When it comes to private cloud, 48% of organizations are in the process of developing a strategy for how they will use IaaS solutions, while 15.2% already have a well-defined strategy. The biggest drivers for IaaS are lower costs (30.4%) and the ability to dynamically add capacity (30.4%).
Meanwhile, 63% of respondents are currently using an SaaS service. Respondents cited the biggest SaaS drivers are lower costs (39%) and reduction in the amount of time it takes to implement an application (35%). For more information, see the full report.

http://www.frontrow-solutions.com/

8 Things Remarkably Successful People Do

The most successful people in business work differently. See what they do--and why it works.

Getty

 

5,207
inShare

I'm fortunate to know a number of remarkably successful people. I've described how these people share a set of specific perspectives and beliefs.

They also share a number of habits:

1. They don't create back-up plans.
Back-up plans can help you sleep easier at night. Back-up plans can also create an easy out when times get tough.

You'll work a lot harder and a lot longer if your primary plan simply has to work because there is no other option. Total commitment--without a safety net--will spur you to work harder than you ever imagined possible.

If somehow the worst does happen (and the "worst" is never as bad as you think) trust that you will find a way to rebound. As long as you keep working hard and keep learning from your mistakes, you always will.

2. They do the work...
You can be good with a little effort. You can be really good with a little more effort.
But you can't be great--at anything--unless you put in an incredible amount of focused effort.
Scratch the surface of any person with rare skills and you'll find a person who has put thousands of hours of effort into developing those skills.

There are no shortcuts. There are no overnight successes. Everyone has heard about the 10,000 hours principle but no one follows it... except remarkably successful people.

So start doing the work now. Time is wasting.

3.  ...and they work a lot more.
Forget the Sheryl Sandberg "I leave every day at 5:30" stories. I'm sure she does. But she's not you.
Every extremely successful entrepreneur I know (personally) works more hours than the average person--a lot more. They have long lists of things they want to get done. So they have to put in lots of time.

Better yet, they want to put in lots of time.

If you don't embrace a workload others would consider crazy then your goal doesn't mean that much to you--or it's not particularly difficult to achieve. Either way you won't be remarkably successful.

4. They avoid the crowds.
Conventional wisdom yields conventional results. Joining the crowd--no matter how trendy the crowd or "hot" the opportunity--is a recipe for mediocrity.

Remarkably successful people habitually do what other people won't do. They go where others won't go because there's a lot less competition and a much greater chance for success.

5. They start at the end...
Average success is often based on setting average goals.
Decide what you really want: to be the best, the fastest, the cheapest, the biggest, whatever. Aim for the ultimate. Decide where you want to end up. That is your goal.

Then you can work backwards and lay out every step along the way.
Never start small where goals are concerned. You'll make better decisions--and find it much easier to work a lot harder--when your ultimate goal is ultimate success.

6. ... and they don't stop there.
Achieving a goal--no matter how huge--isn't the finish line for highly successful people. Achieving one huge goal just creates a launching pad for achieving another huge goal.

Maybe you want to create a $100 million business; once you do you can leverage your contacts and influence to create a charitable foundation for a cause you believe in. Then your business and humanitarian success can create a platform for speaking, writing, and thought leadership. Then...

The process of becoming remarkably successful in one field will give you the skills and network to be remarkably successful in many other fields.

Remarkably successful people don't try to win just one race. They expect and plan to win a number of subsequent races.

7. They sell.
I once asked a number of business owners and CEOs to name the one skill they felt contributed the most to their success. Each said the ability to sell.

Keep in mind selling isn't manipulating, pressuring, or cajoling. Selling is explaining the logic and benefits of a decision or position. Selling is convincing other people to work with you. Selling is overcoming objections and roadblocks.

Selling is the foundation of business and personal success: knowing how to negotiate, to deal with "no," to maintain confidence and self-esteem in the face of rejection, to communicate effectively with a wide range of people, to build long-term relationships...

When you truly believe in your idea, or your company, or yourself then you don't need to have a huge ego or a huge personality. You don't need to "sell."

You just need to communicate.

8. They are never too proud.
To admit they made a mistake. To say they are sorry. To have big dreams. To admit they owe their success to others. To poke fun at themselves. To ask for help.
To fail.
And to try again.

http://www.frontrow-solutions.com/

6 Ways to Get Customers to YES!

Source

Influence your customers to buy from you using these six easy methods.

shutterstock images

329
inShare

I've got some good news, some bad news, and then some even better news.
The good news is that most customers truly want to say yes! The bad news is that, although people love to buy, they hate being sold to.

Finally, here's the even better news: There are six ways to influence a customer to buy without explicitly selling to them, according to Dr. Robert B. Cialdini, author of the bestseller Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion:

1. Make yourself likeable.

Customers are far more likely to say yes if they know and like the person who's selling to them. That's why so many TV commercials use celebrity spokespeople, because consumers like and "know" them.
The true key to being likable is to be genuinely interested in the customers. Never fake friendliness, as in, "Hi, howya doin!?" Instead, cultivate curiosity about the customer and the customer's life.

As you have a conversation, discover characteristics about the customer that you appreciate and respect. As you express those emotions, the customer will naturally echo them back to you.

2. Become a respected authority.

People are more likely to buy from you if they see you as having specialized knowledge or unique credibility. There are many ways to create this impression.
One common method is to sell for a well-known corporate brand, like IBM. Another is to sequester a fancy job title. Some sales groups have dozens of titular vice presidents simply because customers respect the title.
A more honest way to create the impression of expertise is to actually become an expert. This is much easier if you find the subject matter interesting, of course. Hobbyists, for example, often make great salespeople.

3. Get the customer to owe you a favor.

People feel obligated to say yes to people who have already given them something or helped them in some ways. For example, charities double their response rate when they include small but useful gifts in direct mailings.
In the business world, the "gold standard" of such favors is to find a customer for your customer. For example, when I wrote freelance for high-tech trade magazines, I often referred potential advertisers to them. As a result, I was usually first on the list for the plum assignments.

Creating a sense of obligation need not be so explicit, though. Sometimes it's just enough to enter the sales situation with a sincere desire to help (rather than be helped). Customers sense this and respond positively.

4. Position buying as consistent with self-image.

Customers say yes more often if the yes is consistent with a prior statement of their identity. For example: Research firms double survey participation when the first question is: "Are you a helpful person?"
During your conversations with customers, listen for statements that define the customer's identity and sense of self. Then, tie purchasing your product or service to the customer's commitment to fulfill that identity.
For example, if a customer says, "I feel personally responsible for the security of this organization," emphasize those elements of your product that make the organization more secure.

5. Get endorsed by the customer's peers.

Customers are more likely to buy when they know that people "just like them" are also buying. That's why TV infomercials always feature interviews with happy buyers in the target audience.
The same principle applies in business sales, which is why so many companies feature reference accounts and case studies on their website. However, there is a more effective route.

The easiest opportunities to close are always the ones that start with an unsolicited referral from an existing, happy customer. How to manage this all-important technique is described in this (heretofore neglected) post.

6. Make your offering soon-to-be scarce.

Customers value offerings that are rare or dwindling in availability. Classic example: When GM announced the death of Oldsmobile, cars that had been on the lot for months sold in a matter of days.
The reason that so many companies use "limited time offers" is that they work. They work even when companies trot out the similar offers week after week after week!

For business-to-business selling, a more sophisticated way to use this rule is to focus the discussion on the financial loss the customer will incur through a delay in buying your offering. In other words, make the ROI scarce!

http://www.frontrow-solutions.com/

How Much Poor Performers Cost You

Source 

Chances are, you're spending too much time on employees who don't deliver. Here are seven tips to pull yourself out of the time suck.

shutterstock images

414
inShare

Ever feel that dealing with underperforming employees is a huge time suck? You're not alone.
In a recent survey of 1,400 chief financial officers by the staffing firm Robert Half International, respondents reported that managers at their companies spent an average of 17% of their time on underperforming employees--nearly one day out of every week.

You don't have to be part of that awful statistic, says Paul McDonald, senior executive director at Robert Half. There's an effective strategy for dealing with a poor performer without letting that employee take over your life or your mental well-being. And it's important to tackle the problem ASAP. "Don't put it off till the performance review in three months," McDonald advises. "Take care of it right now so it doesn't get worse."

To swiftly get the problem under control, he advises following these steps:

1. Plan a face-to-face meeting.
Don't discuss the employee's performance over the phone, and don't criticize him or her publicly, or privately for that matter. "You're not going to take care of the problem till you meet with the person in person," McDonald says.

2. Spend time preparing.
"Don't wing it," McDonald advises. "Have your facts lined up. If you're new to managing, role-play the meeting with an HR professional or a peer, or an outside mentor whom you trust."

3. State the facts clearly.
"Don't sugarcoat the problem," McDonald says. "Be direct, up front, and honest--while trying to maintain a positive, noncriticizing tone."

4. Shut up and listen.
Once you've laid out the problem, don't dominate the conversation, McDonald says. It's time to listen to the employee and try to find out what might be causing the problem. "Is there a situation outside work affecting the person's performance?" McDonald says. "Is the employee overworked and needs some responsibilities reassigned? Discuss your expectations, and offer whatever tools the employee may need to meet those expectations."

5. Write it down.
Create a written record of what was said and what the problems and expectations are. "That's great to do from an HR and legal perspective," McDonald says. "If the person's doing a good job and this is out of the ordinary, it becomes part of his or her file. If the situation does lead to termination, now you have documentation."

6. Use your judgment.
Once you have all the information in hand, you're equipped to make a decision whether to reassign the person, change the parameters of the job, or replace him or her.

7. Recognize improvements.
If after your conversation the employee's performance improves, even just incrementally, make sure to acknowledge that improvement. "History shows that many employers and supervisors often forget when
 there is improvement to give the proverbial pat on the back," McDonald says. But there are real advantages to making note when performance improves, especially if the employee has made progress on any of the metrics you laid out during your meeting.

"Positive morale is a key motivating factor and usually improves productivity and retention rates," McDonald notes. "So by recognizing improvement, you increase the chances that the improvement will continue."

http://www.frontrow-solutions.com/