Improve My Business

I recently gave a presentation at a well-known conference in my industry - something that I enjoy doing.  I get to share new ideas (or ideas combined in a different way), interact with folks, and get a conversation going.  Most gratifying to me was to hear a colleague whose opinion I admire and respect say, “Mary gave me such food for thought - I had never thought to combine these two techniques before, and she not only showed us how she did it, but gave us some ideas of how we can do it ‘back at the ranch’ “…

The presentation went well according to feedback (did it have anything to do with the fact that the presentation included lunch?), and I’ve been able to hear some interesting talks on diverse topics, as well as meet some great new business contacts.

What are YOU doing to improve your skills/business? Please comment on how you ensure that you’re staying on top of your particular market… is it

- reading trade journals?

- attending seminars? conferences?

- in-house training?

- online webinars? teleseminars?

- etc.

Do tell - I’d love to hear how you’re staying on top of your game!

And, if you’re not doing anything right now - take a minute to search online for some form of professional development; type some keywords into a search engine and read some relevant articles; find and bookmark / RSS some key websites or blogs and set aside 30 mins every week to read (may I suggest improveyourbusinessnow.com, blog.efficiencydr.com, or blog.sustainabilitydr.com ?)

Technorati Tags: Add new tag, Business, communication, mcdonald consulting group, preparation, training

Steven Covey, in his groundbreaking work The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, tells us to “begin with the end in mind”. The concept is to know what you want to accomplish, and to set up your tasks to assist you in reaching that goal. This is nothing more than knowing what you want to accomplish, and aligning your tasks and assignments with that goal.

Many folks get caught up in the social media craze – I admit that I did too for a while. The good news is that my personality gets ‘tired’ with things pretty easily – whether it’s posting 5-6 times per day on twitter, or connecting with acquaintances on Facebook, or answering questions in the Q&A on LinkedIn Answers. Why is that good news? Because I know that, once I ‘master’ this new application, it will lose its allure. So, I can focus on my new obsession in the knowledge that it’s only because I’m not expert at it yet; once I get there, my nature will allow me to naturally ratchet back on the time, effort, and brainpower I’ll put in on this.

Let me give you an example: when I first logged on to Twitter, I was one of the earlier adopters (I won’t say early adopters, but certainly am not a newbie to the app). I was focused on identifying posters who were interesting, humorous, leaders in their field, and leaders in my field. I grew my follower list thoughtfully (I don’t automatically follow those who follow me; and if someone follows me, I go to their profile, read 2-3 pages of the most recent posts, and decide to follow or not based on whether I want to hear what they have to say. If their entire post history are either retweets (RTs), responses (@twittername) or links to their own products (“come check out my 50% off sale!”) I don’t tend to follow them.)

My twitter followers to @marymcd has grown organically to around 1,000 – 1,100 followers – every week I gain some, and I lose some. I check out who I lose, and it’s invariably people who have followed me for 48 hours, seen that I don’t automatically follow them back, and they drop me (Twitter Quitters). Conversely, I’ve built online relationships with folks that I’ve never met IRL (In Real Life) and have a network of professionals I can tap at any given time to get their thoughts on something I’m struggling with. So, although I devoted a bunch of time to building this network, I don’t spend NEARLY that much maintaining it (and yes, I do post regularly on Twitter except when I’m travelling…)

What was my original goal? To understand this new tool, to figure out if I could build a revenue stream from it (yes, but indirectly only), and to connect with colleagues in far-flung locations. Did I accomplish this? You bet. Was it worth the effort? Yes, when I consider the friendships I’ve developed (you know who you are, @my-virtual-twitter-friends…) Am I a twitter guru? Not even close. I use the tool, and am happy with my use, but do not aspire to be a Twitter queen.

Re-examine how you are spending your time – are you doing things that support your ultimate goal? If not, why not? What can you do differently?

Technorati Tags: blogging, Business, communication, efficiency, goals, managing your time, Time Management, working smarter

To close out this relationship themed month on our blog I want to talk about online relationship building, and before you ask, no I am not going to talk about online dating sights. By now everyone knows that your business needs a website, and if you are reading this blog chances are you are relatively tech savvy and have a nice website set up. What is the purpose of your website? Does it give information? Is it simply a place to list your phone number where prospective clients can find you? Or is it a community? Are you using your website as simply an informational tool or are you using it to build relationships with clients and prospective clients? This is what I mean when I say I want to talk about online relationship building.

When the internet first came around it was a great source for easily search-able information, and this is still true. Now days most any question can be answered if you know how and where to look on the internet. However, this is not the only use for the internet, like anything else it grows and evolves. Recently we have seen the rise of social networking and what is being called Web 2.o. The importance of these new innovations from a business standpoint is that they are shifting the way our customers use the internet, and therefore we need to shift the way we use the internet.

Web 2.0 is changing the internet from a simple search-able database of information into a forum for creating community and fostering relationships, and as business people who realize the importance of relationships this is great for us. People are no longer content to simply find information posted on your website, they want interaction, both with you and with other customers. We need to  make sure that we are tapping into this new way of building relationships and using it to reach a new customer base that we may have never thought of before.

To me it makes sense to think of the new internet as one big trade-show. At a trade-show you can have your booth and just put on information for people to come by and pick up and look through, or you can stand at your booth and invite people in, engage people in conversation, and start building a relationship with that person. The growth of web 2.0 has given us the opportunity to stand out front of our online booths and interact with the people coming in, not just let them pick up information and leave. As anyone who has worked at trade shows will tell you, it is the interaction more then the information that is valuable, and this is becoming true on the internet as well.

One final point that I think a lot of people forget is that the rules and tips for building personal relationships apply just as much on the internet as they do in person. This means that whatever you do to start building your relationship presence on the internet you need to make sure it is honest and genuine or you won’t get the desired response.

So I encourage all of us to start thinking about how we can increase our presence on the internet not just from an information stand point, but from a relationship standpoint. That is part of what we are trying to do with our blogs at McDCG. We want to use these blogs to not only provide information, but also start growing a community. This is why we always encourage you to leave comments and start discussions. So how is your business using the internet? Leave us some comments so we can all see what you have done and learn together.

Technorati Tags: blogging, Business, Business Relationships, communication, twitter

This week I want to continue our relationship theme and talk about how we relate to the people we work with. Whether they are employees, bosses, or partners, at some point in time we all have to work with other people, which is sometimes a great experience but can also be a total disaster. If you are like most of the people I know you have had both kinds of experience, sometimes you really click with a co-worker and your collaborative productivity is great while other times you just don’t seem to mesh and you spend as much time trying to get on the same page as you do actually working. Have you ever wondered why this is?

One way to start to figure out why we have such different experiences with different people is to look at Myers Briggs personality type profiles. If you are not familiar with the Myers Briggs questionnaire and personality types you can find more information here. Basically what Myers Briggs does is go through a series of questions designed to assess your personality. By personality I mean your personal strengths, weaknesses, motivating factors and, perhaps most importantly, communication style.

Myers Briggs testing has been successfully used in the workplace for quite some time to improve teamwork and understanding with in a department or organization. Typically each member fills out the questionnaire then the facilitator will go through the results with everyone, thus you and your team gain a better understanding not only of your own type, but everyone else’s too. Through this process it often becomes clear why you click so well with one coworker but struggle to communicate with another.

Perhaps you will discover, as Mary did when she did her first Myers Briggs test, that you are a big picture person while your boss is much more detail oriented. This can be incredibly valuable information, now you know how your boss thinks and can anticipate what they will be looking for when you present something to them, in this case a higher level of detail. The boss on the other hand can understand that perhaps it is not due to laziness or lack of skill that work and reports aren’t meeting his satisfaction as much as because employees have a different view of what is necessary. This mutual understanding of how the other person operates can make everything in the office run more smoothly. In this example the employee now knows to cover things in more detail and the boss now knows that they need to be specific in asking for detail because not everyone is going to just assume it is necessary like he does.

This is just one example of how a Myers Briggs test can improve workplace productivity. If you find you are constantly butting heads or disagreeing with someone in your office place, chances are it’s because of some personality difference. Once you can understand these differences you can learn to work around them. This is the true power of Myers Briggs, it allows you to understand personalities and like anything else, the problems caused by personality differences can’t be addressed until the cause of the problems is understood. Think of Myers Briggs as root cause analysis for work relationships.

Technorati Tags: Business Relationships, communication, Myers Briggs

There are several key differences between being a manager and a leader. For people running their own business or acting as parts of a management structure in a larger business it is important to recognize the differences between managing and leading and use these different methods appropriately. The biggest difference between managing and leading is that managers push groups to achieve specific goals while leaders pull groups in a general direction, letting the group decide on the specific goals.

When you are managing a group you are looked at for direction and answers, you are the driving force or push behind your team. Managers are focused on individual contributions and making sure that everyone on the team is doing exactly what they need to be doing to achieve the specified goal. At critical junctures in the process the team will defer to the manager to steer them in the right direction. All major decisions are made by the manager of a team.

Leaders on the other hand let the team make their own decisions. Instead of pushing the team into specific solutions, a leader pulls the team toward the goal, letting the team figure out the best way to get there. As a leader your role is not to provide the answers but to facilitate the team in coming up with their own answers. Leaders are more concerned with the overall functioning of the team and the relations between team members then the individual tasks of each member of the team.

Clearly each of these styles has its place and it is important as a team lead to recognize when you need to manage your team and when you need to lead them. Typically as employees grow more accustomed to the business they need less management and more leading. As an employee grows comfortable with her daily tasks she no longer needs someone looking over her shoulder, however she does need someone motivating her and this is where a great leader will excel. On the other side new employees don’t need motivation and leadership as much as they need someone there telling them how to do their new job.

This is not to say that only new employees need management, or that experienced employees will always excel with great leadership. As a team lead it is up to you to figure out what the members of your team need from you, and typically this means walking a line somewhere in between managing and leading. At times it will be important to be the task master and manage the members of your team, however if you default to this mode you will stifle the creativity of your team members and will not be allowing them to achieve their best. So at time is it important to take on the role of the leader and let the team figure out the solution, again though it is important to not go too far in this direction. If left completely to their own devices employees may wind up off track or pursuing ideas that are not practical for the current situation, it is your job to step in and make sure this doesn’t happen.

I encourage you to take a look at your current management practices and skills and see where you fall, are you more of a manager or a leader, and then examine the effects this may be having on your team. Considering trying the opposite approach from how you typically interact with your team and see how they respond. It may be that some of your employees have been waiting for an opportunity to be more creative, or have needed more direction in the workplace. The important thing to remember is that, as a team lead, you need to always be monitoring your team members and tailoring your interactions with them to help them achieve their best. This is the true goal of any leader, whether she is managing or leading, she is always trying to bring out the best in those around her.

Technorati Tags: Business, communication, leadership, problem solving