How to Toot Your Own Horn Without Annoying Others

I participate in several LinkedIn groups, and one question that caught my eye the other day was whether journalists should have a blog as a way to promote their personal brand.

I answered the question by pointing out that by developing a personal -- yet professional -- blog, I've been able to make some really cool connections and find wonderful sources.

Still, I've seen other "journalists" who make a real hash of their personal brand. They think being rude and nasty makes them more popular, and sharing their most intimate personal details on a blog is a good idea.

Not.

Read this column I did for Gannett/USAToday on the right way to go about establishing your personal brand and online presence to help your career, not sink it....

It sometimes can feel intimidating to be told you need to be more active online to promote yourself professionally.

You may feel uncomfortable with the thought of calling attention to yourself by blogging or jumping onto Twitter. Who cares, after all, about what you had for lunch?

But Michael Hyatt says it's not about ego or being the center of attention when you direct notice your way. It's more about finding ways to add value for others.

As the author of the popular blog, Intentional Leadershipand chairman of Thomas Nelson Publishers, Hyatt says many authors have been turned down for publication because they didn't have a "platform." He says that got him to thinking about the lack of online presence and personal brand many people lack in the workplace today and how that can affect a person's ability to succeed overall.

Still, he acknowledges it can seem difficult to get attention with all the different communications channels. Many people try to write a blog and give up after a while because they fail to garner any attention.

Or, they don't know how to participate in online conversations and soon feel discouraged and quit using Facebook or Twitter when no one responds.

The result is that they've lost the chance to become a voice in their industry or make valuable connections that can help them find a new job or sell their product, he says.

In his new book, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World, (Thomas Nelson, $24.99), Hyatt says he tries to break down the idea of participating online into smaller parts so it doesn't seem so overwhelming.

Among his suggestions:

• Give 30 minutes a day. You may believe you don't have time to chat on Twitter or Facebook, or comment on other blogs.

But just a half hour a day is enough to devote to this effort and can reap rewards over time with critical connections.

"Success today is not so much about what you know. It's about who you know," he says.

• Blog. Hyatt says his blog has more than 400,000 visitors a month, and while not everyone may be able to see even a fraction of that, he says a blog is the only way that you have complete control over your brand and your message.

That can be especially important if you are criticized online or in other forums, he says. Your blog can be a way to directly defend yourself or communicate your message.

• Participate in Twitter. Don't use this 140-character medium to post inane comments like what kind of coffee you're drinking, but rather as a way to engage others in a conversation or promote a product.

A note of caution: People will quickly unfollow you if you over-promote a product or post when you're angry or frustrated. As many celebrities have learned, posting emotional responses before thinking them through can garner an immediate backlash.

• Set up a Facebook fan page. These public pages enable you to keep your Facebook profile pages private and still have a way to interact with others on a professional level.

Hyatt says as least 5 percent of his blog traffic comes from Facebook.

• Write guest posts. Maybe you're not ready to launch a website and blog with your name attached, but you admire others' blogs.

Study the content and look for a way to contribute. Maybe you start out commenting on a blog post. In time, you can approach the blog author with an offer to submit a post. Then help promote the post through your networks and let it build your connections.

Any platform has to begin with taking personal responsibility for it, Hyatt says. No one knows your product better than you do or has more passion for it, whether it's a book or a blog.

It's your job to become chief marketing officer of your brand.

What are some ideas you would add to this idea of developing a personal brand?

If you're a student, what you should be doing this summer

Source: www.bachelorsdegreeonline.com

How to Get Along Better With Your Boss

I thought the manager’s face would explode.

I was at lunch with a high level finance executive the other day when his cell phone rang. He looked at the number displayed on the screen and his face turned beet red – I think I even saw a couple of purple splotches mixed in.

He let the call go to voicemail and his face color returned to normal after a few minutes.

“Everything OK?” I asked.

“My employees are going to kill me,” he said. “They’re driving me crazy.”

Since I’ve written a book about how employees drive their bosses crazy, I couldn’t resist pursuing more questions. After a while he shared a story about an employee who constantly called or texted him, reporting some perceived misdeed in the office. Other employees continually griped about what they didn’t have, always giving the impression that whatever he did for them wasn’t enough.

The executive told me that he wondered if employees ever realized how much additional stress they piled on him. He said that he was never off the clock, often putting in 14-hour days, working weekends and receiving emails from his boss at 2 a.m. While he knew that stress was part of his job, he told me that he felt like a non-person in the eyes of his employees who seemed to think nothing of dumping even the most trivial problems on him.

Sometimes workers believe that whatever the boss is going through can never be as bad as what they’re experiencing, and often make no attempt to put themselves in the boss’s shoes. Managers often are blamed for everything from diminishing health benefits to broken snack machines. But they can get just as discouraged and feel just as unappreciated as any other employee – they’re just not supposed to show it.

However, learning to show a little appreciation for the job a boss does can pay off in a number of ways, not the least of which is a better relationship between you and your boss. While you don’t want to be a total suck-up, there’s nothing wrong with showing a little compassion for what the boss goes through every day and respecting him as a person.

me ways to score points with the boss and make both of you feel good include:

• Sending the boss a thank-you note. Make sure you send a note thanking the boss if you get...(read the rest here.)

How Tribridge is Growing Its Own Talent

As the economy starts to improve, more workers who have felt overworked and underpaid may be ready to jump ship.

But in looking for greener grass, where will these employees land?

A good bet is that workers will look not only for better paychecks, but for companies where they can grow their individual talents. After the job market of the past several years, workers are more aware than ever that they need to keep their skills up to date if they want to stay viable in the marketplace.

For companies, the improving economy means that they will be competing more and more for top talent, especially in industries such as high tech where employers may use big bonuses or other perks to attract and retain employees.

One company facing a talent shortage is Tribridge, a Tampa-based information technology services and business consulting firm that is one of the two largestMicrosoft Dynamics partners in the world.

Tribridge Chairman and Chief Executive Tony DiBenedetto says the industry is moving "at such a fast pace" that it's difficult to find employees with the necessary skills. The company has 12 locations in 35 states, serves about 3,500 customers and wants to add about 250 people to its current ranks of 450 employees this year.

But DiBenedetto says he knows Tribridge faces stiff competition for talent, especially for workers who have cloud-computing skills.

A recent Sand Hill Group and SAP American Inc. study found 80,000 jobs were added worldwide from January 2010 to January 2011 at 11 companies where cloud operations are a significant part of their business.

In the next five years, about 472,000 jobs are expected to be created in cloud-related companies worldwide.

Why such a demand? For one reason, popular social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter wouldn't be possible without the cloud, and nearly half a billion users will connect to the cloud from their smartphones and other mobile devices this year.

Further, mobile application downloads are estimated to reach 98 billion by the end of 2015.

But those demands mean some very specific cloud-computing skills are needed now and in the future — so the pressure is on to find the right employees for companies like Tribridge.

"We're growing so fast we're outpacing the industry. There's only so much talent out there" that can be lured from competitors, DiBenedetto says.

So instead of trying just to attract talent away from competitors, Tribridge launched Tribridge Academy 18 months ago to train new workers in necessary skills and keep the current work force on the cutting edge, DiBenedetto says.

Doug Blitzer, head of the academy, set up a virtual academy that offers 3,000 online courses to new and current workers. While a new employee may attend the academy every day for three months until up to speed, other workers with more experience participate in the two-year program partly during regular work hours.

All employees may attend the academy, no matter their job duties, he says.

"The program is very highly mentored," says Blitzer, director of talent strategy and development. "That's one of the things that makes it so successful."

Mentors include immediate supervisors and other team members, but employees also are encouraged to get outside mentors, DiBenedetto says.

"We believe because the market is constantly changing that getting an outside perspective is valuable," DiBenedetto says.

This commitment to career development and constant learning is critical not only for the company to survive in an internationally competitive marketplace but also to hang on to workers Tribridge has trained, he says. Right now, the company has a 95 percent retention rate.

Another key for Tribridge is seeking people who fit in with the company culture. Managers want those who welcome constant learning opportunities and express a natural curiosity, he says.

"Skills can be taught. You can't teach someone to be more entrepreneurial," he says. "We don't care if you're 20 or 50 years old. It may sound corny, but it really is about loving people and helping them develop to the best of their ability. If you have to have that kind of culture, then you become a place where people want to come to work."

Do you think employers are doing enough to train workers today?

Do women talk too much?

Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg became a hero to many women when she publicly stated that she leaves the office at 5:30 p.m. every day to be with her children. Not only was this a call for the 40-hour week many of us have abandoned, it was a statement from a powerful, successful woman.
Unfortunately, according to a new study, not enough top-level women like Sandberg are speaking up – about anything.
A Yale School of Management study finds that women executives don’t express their views as often as their male counterparts because they fear they will be seen as too outspoken.
“When men talk a lot and they have power, people want to reward them either by hiring them, voting for them, or just giving them more power and responsibility at work. But when women do it, they are seen as being too domineering, too presumptuous. Women perceive this, and that’s why they temper how much they talk,” says Victoria Brescoll, assistant professor of organizational behavior at the Yale.
Many men may scoff at this idea, citing their own significant others as being completely assured in stating their opinions on a regular basis. But Brescoll turned to the U.S. Senate when investigating the issue, since every word is recorded in that chamber.
Brescoll looked at the 2005 and 2007 sessions, analyzing gender, amount of time spoken (using C-Span and the Congressional Record) and then assigned a “power score” to each person. That score was given based on the lawmaker’s position, indirect influence, legislative activity and earmarks established by Knowlegis, a non-partisan firm.
While powerful male lawmakers talked more, the same could not be said for powerful female lawmakers, Brescoll found.
Interestingly, the powerful women didn’t even talk more than (read more here)

What Makes a Great Leader?

I've interviewed many leaders over the years, and the one thing that comes up consistently is that great managers don't have to use a bunch of fancy voodoo to motivate or inspire workers. They don't have to offer cool perks like parachuting off the office building during lunch hours to get the most from employees. 

It just comes down to being a genuine person who really listens to workers and shows some humility. But based on the number of Wall Street types who have been doing the perp walk over the last several years, this may be a lesson worth revisiting as I did in this column for Gannett/USAToday....

If you could eavesdrop on a conversation among chief executives discussing their business concerns, what do you think you would hear?

Gary Burnison knows.

Not only is he a chief executive, but his company,Korn/Ferry International, is the world's largest executive recruiting firm.

"The most common theme I hear from CEOs is that it's less about the product made or the technology used, and that it's much more about the people," he says. "CEOs are asking more out of people with less people to do the work. So, what I found that it's much less about the strategy and setting forth a purpose and much more about empowering, motivating and inspiring people."

CEOs are focused on inspiring workers to be more innovative to be able to compete globally, Burnison says. They understand that no employee will stay for 20 years in one job and is more likely to stay just a few years.

Yet CEOs say if they can motivate workers to stay another two or three years with an employer, that can be critical to business success.

Part of getting top talent to stick around depends on leadership. Because many companies lost potential leaders during the economic downturn, the demand is on for managers who can inspire and motivate workers, Burnison says.

If you're interested in being one of those future leaders, what are some of the management skills you need?

"The No. 1 predictor of success is learning agility. In other words, knowing what to do when you don't know what to do," he says, adding that those seeking leadership positions also should show humility and authenticity.

Some young workers haven't learned the importance of face-to-face communications, a hallmark of successful managers, Burnison says. He believes they and people in other generations spend too much time staring at their palms as they use smartphones or other gadgets.

"Ultimately, leadership is about making others believe," he says. "They (workers) have to be able to look into your eyes and see your soul."

Burnison, author of The Twelve Absolutes of Leadership, (McGraw Hill, $28), has some advice for those who want to become leaders:

• Make it count. "I was counseled a long time ago that as a leader, you need to make the other person feel better than before with every interaction," he says.

"That's actually taxing and very difficult," Burnison says. "But when you're a leader, you can't have a bad day. What you project, others feel."

• Manage the first 3 minutes. More than 50 percent of communication is visual, which is why it's key that you take note of your tone of voice, facial expression and body language when meeting someone.

Leaders always must be aware of what they're projecting to others, such as confidence or optimism.

• Be fully present. "Don't be looking at your BlackBerry.

"Don't read something. You have to be in the moment," he says. "Fully engage the other person."

• Have an "outside-in" perspective. "Find out what others are thinking," Burnison says.

"You have to be able to listen, learn and lead," he says. "Ask questions."

Finally, as a leader looking to hire new talent, Burnison says he always will "choose hunger over pedigree any day."

"Why? Because while pedigree is important, performance is the great equalizer," he says. "I know that person who is hungry will work harder, will try harder and will wake up without the alarm clock. They're going to want it, taste it, live it and breathe it."

Any leadership lessons you would like to offer?

How To Deal With Negativity at Work

Sometimes there is nothing more irritating than those trite phrases like “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” When you’re having a tough time in life, your first inclination may be to tell those full of such homespun logic to go suck a lemon.

Those people don’t have to deal with an ogre boss or a long commute, you think, so they don’t know that it’s difficult to just be so darn positive all the time.

But what if there was a way to flip the switch in your life? To start seeing negative aspects of your work in a way that helped you be happier and less eaten up by guilt or stress or unhappiness?

Christina Tracy Stein is a psychotherapist and co-author of Kiss That Frog: 12 Great Ways to Turn Negatives into Positives in Your Life and Work.

She says that as children, we respond to the caregivers in our lives. For example, that means if you had someone in your life that was responsive to your needs – such as knowing you needed a bit more comfort when life handed you lemons – then you may feel more comfortable with yourself and your feelings.

“Negativity often comes when you aren’t honored for being an authentic person,” she says. “If people in your life have encouraged you to be who you are, then you’re honored for being an authentic person. But if you can’t be honest and you’re constantly being a fake version of yourself, then that’s when you get frustrated and negative.”

Dealing with nasty moods

Because of the difficult job market, many employees feel stuck in jobs that further sour their mood. Stein says in those cases, it can be helpful to lower your expectations. In other words, don’t expect so much from a boss or colleagues and then you’re not attaching yourself to an outcome that disappoints you and is “like a letdown every day,” she says.

If you’ve got a mean or angry boss, then Stein suggest learning not to take his or her behavior personally. Accept that the boss is in a bad mood and just let that person (read the rest here...http://quickbase.intuit.com/blog/2012/04/30/how-to-reverse-negativity-and-come-out-on-top/...)