So Here’s Your Challenge

While corporations are trying to figure out how to use the Social Media carrot to entice their customers to buy, their customers are using a powerful Social Media stick when it comes to expressing their disappointment and dissatisfaction.

In the olden days, corporate policy may have been the customer is always right. Today it is a bit different.

When was the last time you considered your craziest, wildest dreams of professional success? For many people, it was probably a very long time ago. Others do so more often, but consider these dreams ridiculous, unattainable, and beyond their station in life. In both cases, the end result is the same: no action, and no movement to achieving their ambitions.

Many people are interested in writing a blog or starting a podcast, particularly if they have special expertise. Yet, the specific topic area usually eludes them. Choose the wrong topic area, and you’re stuck with it, and because of Google, it sticks to you… forever.

In 1903, Elias St. Elmo Lewis coined one of the most important marketing frameworks: AIDA. It has stood the test of time, and has helped many marketers more strategically plan their campaigns. AIDA is an acronym for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. But is AIDA intrinsically flawed, or at least no longer relevant for today’s more complex marketplace?

Are your networking activities strategic? .... or is "learn a networking strategy" one of your new goals...? 

The common theme with networks is that one must “exist” before you can use it — and therefore without one, you are at a distinct disadvantage. This woe-is-me attitude rests upon the assumption that a network is a “thing” that you have, as opposed to a process that you engage in.

The purpose of networking is to meet new people, and deepen the relationships with those that you already know. Networking is the journey, not the destination.

Is your perspective the best perspective? How adept are you at shifting your position to improve your problem solving... and your writing?

One way to do so is to use a zoom lens. Zooming out gives you a top-down view; max zooming in gives you a bottom-up view of the problem.

Of course, with a maximum zoom, you lose the overview, but this isn’t the only problem. No matter how much (or how little) you zoom, your perspective is always the same. Looking at a problem from someone else’s perspective is the only way to see the situation… from their perspective. (Truly great problem solving requires both zooming and shifting.)

In this week's podcast, I apply the zoom lens metaphor to communication. Listen closely… (or zoom out…?)

Is the inertia of the past stifling innovation in your organization?

Many organizations face a problem: they have rules and regulations that have far outlived their useful lives. Innovation requires flexibility — yet rules and regulations breed inflexibility.

In fact, under cover of terms like “policy”, many organizations are stifling not just innovation, but also customer service, employee motivation, and ultimately profitability.

In this week's podcast, I invite you to look carefully, and identify the rules and regulations at your organization that directly impact your goals. Is there room for openness, innovation, and connection?

There is no question that professional certification in your area of specialization provides enduring value.  Becoming certified differentiates you from your competition, and signals to others that you uphold certain standards and practices.

But what if you haven’t?  Is it even worth it to start?

How often do you research a product online, and then purchase it at the store?  Or, check out the product at the store, and then use the internet to make the purchase? If so, you’re not alone.

These newer consumer behaviors are both the new reality for retailers — and a special challenge: Omni-channel.

Lester Thurow, one of last century’s great economists, coined the phrase (and wrote a book) called “Zero Sum Society”. In it, he described an economic system that had a finite limit, where one person’s gain would precisely be another person’s loss.

Unfortunately, many of us seem to use this mindset as we progress along our careers.