Monthly Archives: March 2011

Danger – Spontaneity Ahead! Why You Need a Communications Strategy for Social Media.

Posted on 30 March 2011 | 2 Comments
Image representing LinkedIn as depicted in Cru...

We live in a complex but highly networked world!

Never before have so many people had the ability to communicate cheaply with each other, and the rest of the world, at length!

  • You can broadcast and you can have conversations through networking sites like Facebook, Twitter etc and through messaging services!
  • You  can publish and broadcast if you choose through blogs, and through sites like YouTube.
  • You can produce your own radio programmes and even become a DJ through music sites like Blip.fm sitting at home and on the move!
  • Increasingly LinkedIn is a key tool in professional networking and recruitment.

A little while ago this digital world belonged to techies and school kids.  Now it can belong to all of us.

Increasingly, it will play a role in both career and business survival.  A little while ago all you needed to know was how to surf the net to find and download information. Now you need to know how to put it back up there so that you can control and develop your personal brand.

Messages flow fast!  Once you have sent them, they continue to exist on the web for a very long time.  So to be purely spontaneous is to take a risk. If you are in business or hoping to develop your career, you need a strategy for your communications.

Before you start here are a few tips.

1. Integrate online and offline.

Your communication’s strategy needs to cover both your offline and online activities!

If you meet up with contacts you have made on the web, will they know who you are? No, I’m not talking about having a photo that bears some relationship to how you look today.  (Although, it makes sense to choose a flattering photo that does you justice, have a care if you want to avoid embarrassment)

What I’m talking about is authenticity and integrity.  Don’t express views on line that you don’t really hold, or that you wouldn’t be prepared to express in public, to your boss, your work mates, your neighbours and, of course, your customers! You’d be surprised what people remember and what people find on the web!

2. Start with a plan!

Before you jump in, make sure you have a plan!  Think about who you are trying to influence.  Who has an interest in you, your business or your career and what you do?

List them and then decide how important they are and how much influence they have over your future!  What heading will you put them under?  For example;

  • government
  • your sector
  • customers and potential customers
  • shareholders
  • potential business partners
  • board/top management
  • suppliers  and potential new suppliers,
  • managers,
  • staff,
  • trade unions
  • wider sector interests,
  • personal contacts
  • family,
  • your community
  • interest groups

You can take it as far as you wish!

Who has the priority?  You can score them out of five under each heading!

Those with the highest score are the people to concentrate on.

For social media you are usually looking at communities – what communities are you going to engage in?

Now how will you engage and what will that  engagement  look like?

What is the message and where are you going to communicate it – blogs, social network sites, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook etc.?

How much time have you got and how many resources do you have available? Do you have resources available to take professional advice?

3. Engage in Conversations.

Remember although organisations use social media to broadcast, that isn’t how they are best used.

When you use social media, it’s important to engage in conversations and get to know people just like in the offline world.

Don’t just get in there and start pitching – it will just put people off!  And on social media sites people get put off pretty quickly. You’d be surprised how quickly they can switch you off!

Don’t be anxious to promote yourself or your business at first!  You have to give, to get.  Add value and expertise and win respect in your conversations.  You need to win the right to pitch!

The courtesies are just as important as they are in the off line world!  Say please and thank you and acknowledge when someone has bothered to spend time with you or done you a favour!

If you are polite and engage in real conversations, relationships will begin to form.  You will see opportunities open up to talk about you and what you want to offer!

4. Monitor your “Brand”

Use tools like Google Alerts, and Yahoo Alerts to monitor what’s being said about you, your organisation, others in your sector and the market you are targeting.

Knowing what is being said about you and/or your brand can make you aware of your impact. Knowing what’s being said about your sector, your competitors and your market can also make you more competitive.

I use Google Alerts as well to find out about the latest developments in my professional discipline.

But simply putting your name and the name of your organisation into a search engine regularly will tell you a lot about your web presence!

5. Focus and Ignore the Noise

There are so many conversations taking place and so much interesting content that it is easy to be distracted.

I have to work very hard each morning to switch off from Twitter to concentrate on my in-tray! This is where your plan comes in!  Remind yourself what you are trying to say and the communities you want to address.

Stick to the plan!

But review it at regular intervals as you get to understand more about social media.  You can streamline your plan to better target individuals and the communities that you need to be a part of, as you gain experience and knowledge.

Streamlining saves time – as I’ve hinted above, social media is so enjoyable that  it can be the greatest time waster in the world!

Above all remember: “If content is king, then conversation is queen.” – John Munsell, CEO of Bizzuka.

I would love to hear about your own experience of social media and if you need any help please get in touch!

A shorter version of this post was posted here in June 2009.  I’ve revised and expanded it based on my own experience of social media.

Related articles
Wendy Mason works as a consultant, business coach and blogger. Adept at problem solving, she is a great person to bring in when that one thing you thought was straightforward turns out not to be! If you have a problem talk to Wendy – she can help you – email her at wendymason@wisewolfconsulting.com or ring ++44(0)7867681439


StumbleUponPinterestLinkedInEmailBlogger PostShare

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Branding, Social Media

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

>Self Belief and how to change the world!

Posted on 29 March 2011 | Leave a comment

>

Faroe stamp 130 amnesty internationalImage via Wikipedia
This post appeared yesterday at my other blog www.wisewolftalking.com.  As some of you will be “baby boomers”, I thought you might like to read it here.

There is a great piece in the April edition of Management Today by Denise Kingsmill about the potential for baby boomers  to become entrepreneurs.  Among othet things, Baroness Kingsmill is currently a non-executive director of British, European and US boards.

As the first of us reaches sixty five this year, she argues against the view that we are the ‘me’ generation, expecting the world to change to meet our needs and with a highly developed sense of being special. She goes on to illustrate her point by referring to our achievements quoting the social changes that took place in the second half of the 20th Century, for example, civil rights, feminism and gay rights etc.

She goes on to talk about the pensions’ burden we will put on future generations and that we probably will have go on working much longer!  But as you would expect from a baby boomer, she quotes an academic study* that suggests we will be peculiarly well-fitted to do so as entrepreneurs!

Apparently the mature mind has abilities critical to successful entrepreneurship.   Academic research is showing that with age there is improved coordination between right and left sides of the brain – between analytical skills and creativity.  The part of the brain that regulates emotion starts to work better, making us much less likely to get bogged down in the detail and more likely to come up with holistic creative solutions.  We are more likely to stay focussed.

Already baby boomers make up 60% of the annual Management Today ranking of Britain’s Top 100 entrepreneurs.
It gave me a great boost to read her piece.

Yes we do have to work longer!  But if that is so, my generation will set the world on fire doing it! Oh yes, by sheer force of number we will turn the world of enterprise grey or rather bright, shining and energetic silver.
And then I stopped and thought a bit.  Oh dear this is the Sixties people doing their thing, all over again and we won’t be loved for it.

Yes, this great creative generation of mine will change the world at sixty five, seventy and possibly eighty just as we did at twenty and forty.  Part of it will be force of numbers and part of it will be that other thing the boomers have.  It’s a kind of cross-cohort self belief.  Far from thinking the world should change for us , we thought each and every one of us could change the world!

But we didn’t get to finish the agenda.  Many of us in the sixties recognised the pressures of an increasing population and scarcity of resources as well as the lack of justice in the world.  Green Peace and Amnesty International are a typical baby boomer response. Most of us just got bogged down in the usual pressures of family and work.  In reality, most of us did very little!

Now we do have to work on into our old age and many of us will do it well, with ingenuity and verve.  But it will be a pity if we make such a song and dance about it that yet again we alienate those who come after us.  One thing the baby boomers never did learn was to shut up and just get on with it.   Yes, we started out believing each and every one of us could change the world! But as for me, I just wish we had passed that same self belief on to our children!

Related articles
·         First Baby Boomers Turn 65 (npr.org)


        Wendy Mason is used to working with people moving out of the Public Sector! She is a performance, programme, contract management and change specialist. She works as a consultant, business coach and blogger.  Adept at problem solving, she is a great person to bring in when that one thing you thought was straightforward turns out not to be! If you have a problem talk to Wendy – she can help you – email her at wendymason@leavingthepublicsector.net or ring ++44(0)7867681439
        You can find her business blog at www.wisewolftalking.com  






StumbleUponPinterestLinkedInEmailBlogger PostShare

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Aging, Amnesty International, Baby Boom Generation, Baby boomer, Baroness Kingsmill, Brain and Aging, Denise Kingsmill, Entrepreneurship, Management Today

Self Belief and how to change the world!

Posted on 28 March 2011 | 2 Comments
Faroe stamp 130 amnesty international

There is a great piece in the April edition of Management Today by Denise Kingsmill about the potential for baby boomers  to become entrepreneurs.  Among othet things, Baroness Kingsmill is currently a non-executive director of British, European and US boards.

As the first of us reaches sixty five this year, she argues against the view that we are the ‘me’ generation, expecting the world to change to meet our needs and with a highly developed sense of being special. She goes on to illustrate her point by referring to our achievements quoting the social changes that took place in the second half of the 20th Century, for example, civil rights, feminism and gay rights etc.

She goes on to talk about the pensions’ burden we will put on future generations and that we probably will have go on working much longer!  But as you would expect from a baby boomer, she quotes an academic study* that suggests we will be peculiarly well-fitted to do so as entrepreneurs!

Apparently the mature mind has abilities critical to successful entrepreneurship.   Academic research is showing that with age there is improved coordination between right and left sides of the brain – between analytical skills and creativity.  The part of the brain that regulates emotion starts to work better, making us much less likely to get bogged down in the detail and more likely to come up with holistic creative solutions.  We are more likely to stay focussed.

Already baby boomers make up 60% of the annual Management Today ranking of Britain’s Top 100 entrepreneurs.

It gave me a great boost to read her piece.

Yes we do have to work longer!  But if that is so, my generation will set the world on fire doing it! Oh yes, by sheer force of numbers we will turn the world of enterprise grey or rather bright, shining and energetic silver.

And then I stopped and thought a bit.  Oh dear this is the Sixties people doing their thing, all over again, and we won’t be loved for it.

Yes, this great creative generation of mine will change the world at sixty five, seventy and possibly eighty, just as we did at twenty and forty.  Part of it will be force of numbers and part of it will be that other thing the boomers have.  It’s a kind of cross-cohort self belief.  Far from thinking the world should change for us , we thought each and every one of us could change the world!

But we didn’t get to finish the agenda.  Many of us in the sixties recognised the pressures of an increasing population and scarcity of resources as well as the lack of justice in the world.  Green Peace and Amnesty International are a typical baby boomer response. Then most of us just got bogged down in the usual pressures of family and work.  In reality, most of us did very little!

Now we do have to work on into our old age and many of us will do it well, with ingenuity and verve.  But it will be a pity if we make such a song and dance about it that yet again we alienate those who come after us.  One thing the baby boomers never did learn was to shut up and just get on with it.   Yes, we started out believing each and every one of us could change the world! But as for me, I just wish we had passed that same self belief on to our children!

*Mental Wellness in Aging, Strengths-Based Approach – Judah Ronch

Related articles
Wendy Mason is a performance, programme, contract management and change specialist. She works as a consultant, business coach and blogger. Adept at problem solving, she is a great person to bring in when that one thing you thought was straightforward turns out not to be! If you have a problem talk to Wendy – she can help you – email her atwendymason@wisewolfconsulting.com or ring ++44(0)7867681439
StumbleUponPinterestLinkedInEmailBlogger PostShare

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Baby Boomers

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

What are your customers telling you they don’t want? Learn from experience and stay focussed!

Posted on 25 March 2011 | 2 Comments
Red Herring

Today, I was going to write a third piece on scenario planning.

But I’ve decided not to!

This is for three reasons.

  • First the guidance on scenario planning produced by Shell provides a very good “how to”  guide
  • Second, I’m going to learn from the experience of my first two posts on this subject!
  • Third I’ve looked again at my mission statement and well…!

The first post was applauded as being an excellent summary.  But really I should have stopped there! The second post wasn’t taken up at all!

Oh I’m sure in due course it will get picked up by search engines.  It will pop up somewhere down the list of results when someone googles “ Scenario Planning”.

But really is that what I write for?

I write here to provide simple advice and guidance to those managing or going through change.

A detailed guide to scenario planning doesn’t quite fit the bill does it?

I got a little bit fascinated by scenario planning and off I went!

How often do you get distracted from your goals in life?  You set your heart on achieving a certain goal and something interesting comes along and off you run – the poor little pup is chasing the hare again – unless of course he is distracted by a red herring – see below!

Of course the journey may be interesting.  You may learn new things and find new directions.  But you certainly don’t achieve your goal.

Beyond the brief summary, there really wasn’t any reason to continue on about scenario planning and it certainly was not becoming more simple.

So now it is back to living the mission!

As for the second point, I need to learn from my customers/readers.  No point at all in going on delivering something that my readers don’t want to read.

Message, if you want to stay in business listen to your customers and stay focussed on what they tell you they want.  Make it your mission!

Note: The term “red herring” probably originates from an article published 14 February 1807 by journalist William Cobbett in the polemical Weekly Political Register. In a critique of the English press, which had mistakenly reported Napoleon’s defeat, Cobbett recounted that he had once used a red herring to deflect hounds in pursuit of a hare, adding “It was a mere transitory effect of the political red-herring; for, on the Saturday, the scent became as cold as a stone.” Courtesy of Wikipedia

Related articles
Wendy Mason is a performance, programme, contract management and change specialist. She works as a consultant, business coach and blogger. Adept at problem solving, she is a great person to bring in when that one thing you thought was straightforward turns out not to be! If you have a problem talk to Wendy – she can help you – email her atwendymason@wisewolfconsulting.com or ring ++44(0)7867681439

 

StumbleUponPinterestLinkedInEmailBlogger PostShare

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Customers, Vision

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

>Learn from the past but look to the future – getting ready to make your choices

Posted on 24 March 2011 | Leave a comment

>

A photo of The Thinker by Rodin located at the... 
My old school motto was Respice Prospice – learn from the past but look to the future.  A great motto but you need to make sure your time looking backwards is well balanced by your time spent looking forwards.

You need to know when to flip your thinking forward and begin to find your choices

I spent more than 30 years as a Civil Servant.  But I can truly say I felt like a teenager when I left!  I was anxious about the future.  But I was excited about the possibilities as well.

Once I got over the shock of not being allowed to go on doing what I had chosen to do, it was like being in a room with a lot of doors.  But the door I had come through was very firmly shut behind me.  It takes a while to come to terms with that and for me it felt very strange!

As I began to peep though some of the other doors, it began to be exciting.  I was free to make a choice!
Well not completely free.  I had financial responsibilities and I did have commitments I shared with my other half! There were other constraints as well of course!  As a friend of mine remarked, it really was much too late take up brain surgery.

But provided I could generate a certain level of income and was prepared to stay in South London, I had a lot of choice.  It was like being a teenager again and time to think about what I really wanted to do with the rest of my life.

That was four years ago and the economic climate has changed a lot since then.  But when you are ready to start exploring you will be surprised by how many choices you still have.

Getting to find and make your choices can be quite a challenge.

When you feel you have been forced out of what you chose to do, the temptation is dwell on the negative parts of the past!  That can get in the way of finding your opportunities.

You ruminate on why it happened and how it could have been different.  Sometimes you can become quite obsessed with finding someone to blame. That process can be peculiarly satisfying! In some ways it’s comforting because it is a way of standing still and staying where you are! But it is comfort based on a fantasy and being angry takes a toll on you physically and mentally, as well as on those about you!

You can’t change the past but you can change the way you think about it.  If you’ve started work on your star stories, then you have some very good things to remember.  Try to concentrate of them and make a determined effort not to ruminate on the negative!

Now here you are, and I’m telling you, you can mould your future!  And you need to flip your thinking forwards! But how do you do it?

Well, you may find this recommendation from Ann Lewis useful
“In her book, Change Your Questions, Change Your Life, Marilee Adams PhD has a really useful model that she calls the Choice Map.  You can download it from her site. My clients find it really helpful when they’re dealing with difficult situations at work.”
The Choice Map will help you to start focussing on the road ahead and where you might want it to lead.
When you do start to think about your options – here are a few thoughts from me
1.    Don’t let age limit your thinking – people have gone off in all kinds of new directions before you. It might be too late to be a brain surgeon but there are still lots of interesting and worthwhile things ahead of you.  

2.    People do all kinds of things after leaving the Civil Service in mid-life.  One my former junior managers is now a barrister!  He didn’t start his legal training until his late forties!  Some former colleagues have trained as paramedics, opened shops or become complementary therapists. Others have opted for a portfolio career as non-executive directors and project and programme reviewers. Guess what, I know one person who signed up with an agency to work as a film extra!

3.    Don’t make assumptions about what your spouse/partner and your family want you to do.  Talk to them about the change.  You might be very surprised by how they see what is happening and how they are prepared to work with you to establish your new life.

4.    Be open-minded about possibilities.  When I left the Civil Service I was invited to an interview for a role that I thought was ‘below me’ and completely unsuitable.  I went along to the interview for experience.  When I got there I found the job was going to be challenging and the people were great. I took the work!

5.    Be prepared to be flexible and possibly mix and match. Many people these days have portfolio careers.  I’m afraid the days of secure employment until retirement are no more.  So your security will come from your experience, skills and training. If you are prepared to put the work in, they could still take you to a series of different roles – each one building on the last.  Or maybe you could combine a number of part- time roles – I combine being a consultant, coach and blogger with sometimes working as an interim manager!

6.    Be prepared to consider training or re-training for a role you really want, or for work available in your area.

7.    Expect working in new sectors to be different!  But remember different doesn’t necessarily mean worse, it just means you need to be prepared to get used to it. 

8.    When you need it, be prepared to ask for help.  There is lots of help out there.  If you are lucky enough to be working with a coach then you know you have support.  Help will come from friends and family.  And we will be identifying other kinds of help here on our tips and resources page.  In the meantime if you have a question, get in touch and I will do my best to point you in the right direction.
I hope all this helps. I would love to have your comments and your thoughts on your own experience.  If you have tips and observations to pass onto others please let us have them by email (wendymason@leavingthepublicsector.net) or in the comments below.


Wendy Mason is used to working with people moving out of the Public Sector! She is a performance, programme, contract management and change specialist. She works as a consultant, business coach and blogger.  Adept at problem solving, she is a great person to bring in when that one thing you thought was straightforward turns out not to be! If you have a problem talk to Wendy – she can help you – email her at wendymason@leavingthepublicsector.net or ring ++44(0)7867681439
You can find her business blog at www.wisewolftalking.com  

 
StumbleUponPinterestLinkedInEmailBlogger PostShare

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Boosting Self Confidence, Career choices, choices, Civil service, Cuts, Early Retirement, Help, Leaving the Public Sector, Links, Mid Life Changes, Public sector, Redundancy, Resources