Total consensus is rare. A strategic leader must foster open dialogue, build trust and engage key stakeholders, especially when views diverge. To pull that off, you need to:
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![Everything Your Employees Need to Know About Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC]](http://mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/125,jobs-600.jpg)
Who needs an expensive social media consultant when you can train your employees in Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn best practices yourself? This Mindflash infographic breaks down the types of social media users you’ll find in your company — the digital native, savvy technologist, reluctant user, digital newby and digital contrarian — and how to approach training each of them.
Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn founder and member of the PayPal Mafia, has written a book, The Start-up of You. In it he has some interesting insights into personal branding and managing your career from the perspective of an entrepreneur.
Here are 10 good quotes from the book:
1. “All humans are entrepreneurs not because they should start companies but because the will to create is encoded in human DNA.”
2. “Entrepreneurship is a life idea, not a stricly business one; a global idea, not a strictly American one.”
3. “Before dreaming about the future or marking plans, you need to articulate what you already have going for you – as entrepreneurs do.”
4. “When you’re doing work you care about, you are able to work harder and better.”
5. “You remake yourself as you grow and as the world changes. Your identity doesn’t get found. It emerges.”
6. “Whatever the situation, actions, not plans, generate lessons that help you test your hypotheses against reality.”
7. “No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.”
8. “The fastest way to change yourself is to hang out with people who are already the way you want to be.”
9. “If you want to build a strong network that will help you move ahead in your career, it’s vital to first take stock of the connections you already have.”
10. “What will get you somewhere is being able to access the information you need, when you need it.”
(Source: onforb.es)
The Leader’s Checklist comprises fifteen mission-critical, time-tested leadership principles that vary surprisingly little among companies or countries. Taken together, they constitute a playbook for leadership decisions whatever the challenge.
1. Articulate a vision: Formulate a clear and persuasive vision and communicate it to all members of the enterprise.
2. Think and act strategically: Set forth a pragmatic strategy for achieving that vision both short- and long-term, and ensure that it is widely understood; consider all the players, and anticipate reactions and resistance before they are manifest.
3. Honor the room: Frequently express your confidence in and support for those who work with and for you.
4. Take charge: Embrace a bias for action, for taking responsibility even if it is not formally delegated, particularly if you are well positioned to make a difference.
5. Act decisively: Make good and timely decisions, and ensure that they are executed.
6. Communicate persuasively: Communicate in ways that people will not forget; simplicity and clarity of expression help, as do elements ranging from personal actions to grand events.
7. Motivate the troops: Appreciate the distinctive intentions that people bring, and then build on those diverse motives to draw the best from each.
8. Embrace the front lines: Delegate authority except for strategic decisions, and stay close to those most directly engaged with the work of the enterprise.
9. Build leadership in others: Develop leadership throughout the organization.
10. Manage relations: Build enduring personal ties with those who look to you, and work to harness the feelings and passions of the workplace.
11. Identify personal implications: Help everybody appreciate the impact that the vision and strategy are likely to have on their own work and future with the firm.
12. Convey your character: Through gesture, commentary, and accounts, ensure that others appreciate that you are a person of integrity.
13. Dampen over-optimism: Counter the hubris of success, focus attention on latent threats and unresolved problems, and protect against the tendency for managers to engage in unwarranted risk.
14. Build a diverse top team: Leaders need to take final responsibility, but leadership is also a team sport best played with an able roster of those collectively capable of resolving all the key challenges.
15. Place common interest first. In setting strategy, communicating vision, and reaching decisions, common purpose comes first, personal self-interest last.
- Michael Useem
(Source: bit.ly)
“Optimizing marketing activities based entirely or even predominantly on quantitative measures is a Ponzi scheme. Expanding on that theme, metrics such as “Likes,” “Views,” “Shares,” “CTR” and “Page views,” are “paper wealth” that may or may not be backed by actual currency of tangible value such as increased awareness, affinity, purchase intent or sales. And the more paper wealth one creates, the more “schemes” one must implement to meet inflated prior-year benchmarks. While this approach may enable agencies and marketing managers to create impressive charts and graphs for a few months or even a few years, eventually the “investors” (CMOs, CEOs, and actual investors) are going to come looking for their money. And when that day comes, no Excel document or pie chart will be an acceptable proxy—nor should it be.”
@Mike_Wolfsohn
(Source: bit.ly)
Last night, we received a phone call from King Soopers (our local grocer) alerting us that based on our purchase tracked through their loyalty member card, we have recently recalled Excedrin in our medicine cabinet. If we bring it back to the store they will replace it.
You might think, “That’s creepy.” Here we have a retailer using their loyalty program to drill down into what we think is aggregated data to reach out to individuals. But I don’t think it’s creepy. Aside from the fact that I’d rather have the phone call than be poisoned, I think it’s an indicator of the smart evolution of loyalty programs and mobile check-in services.
If I am a member of a loyalty program, be it Nordstrom’s or a grocer like King Soopers or fast-casual restaurant chain like Noodles & Company, with every touch-point, I’m providing useful data that can be leveraged to build a personalized marketing message.
That’s not new. Based on your buying habits you’re presented with coupons for similar products or email offers from retailers. But I don’t think a segmented message goes far enough to add value to today’s consumer retail experience.
An article got me thinking about this, Inventing the future @WalmartLabs. What if instead of generic impulse items at the checkout line, you were presented with something based specifically on your loyalty program activity delivered immediately when you are ready to receive the message?
Amazon and Netflix have invested so much in their recommendation engines that it is a letdown to experience anything other than a hyper-personalized experience. They have a big leg up on personalizing touch points online.
Why can’t this be translated to the brick and mortar retailer or local restaurant? While you’re in-store, through their loyalty programs and check-in services, they can serve a personalized offer to your mobile device. No coupon clipping, just an offer based on your past activity good just for that visit.
“By connecting Foursquare to loyalty cards, it’s seamless,” says Tristan Walker, head of business development at Foursquare.
The local retailer has a secret weapon too. The shopkeeper can look you in the eye, smile and say “There you go, <insert your name here>.”
“Content takes many forms, from white papers to blogs to videos to media outreach and social media,” he notes. “While VPs of Communications and CMOs traditionally handled pieces of this, it became apparent that corporations needed someone who could take the 30,000-foot view of all of these platforms.”
Companies will need to expand their definition of Knowledge Management to fold in social media best practices. Social media however is messy, on purpose. KM organizations will need to loosen up to truly take advantage of the medium.
“Business leaders recognize that engagement is the best way to glean value from the knowledge exchanged in social media — and not by seeking to control social media with traditional KM techniques.”
@BradleyAnthonyJ and @markpmcdonald
(Source: bit.ly)
“The study also found that by creating a keyword-level attribution model, marketers in the study better understand the ROI of each click on a paid-search ad. Retailers with an average transaction of less than $200 found the average click on a paid-search ad generated approximately $15 of in-store revenue, with some merchants seeing as much as $28 of in-store revenue.”
(Source: bit.ly)
“A growing number of people are making purchases online with their mobile devices and retailers must take advantage of this new channel. However, their efforts should not distract them from the opportunity to harness the power of mobile to enhance brick-and-mortar retail. Mobile apps are creating new ways for people to shop smarter, bringing the online offline to transform the retail experience and entice people back to stores.”
