Don’t Fall into the Too Long, Didn’t Read Pile

We know this is when many of you are catching up on your weekend reading. You’re probably distracted by the NFL playoffs or having some fun on the slopes, at the pool, in the mall or at the museum. But we know you can’t help yourself from staying connected to the grid. You’re still doing your best to absorb the endless flood of information you feel you to process in order to keep pace with the rest of your world.

Here’s our advice: Stay connected, but be selective.

The great thing about today’s technology is that you can keep track of your messages, workflow, calendar, project plans and contacts just about anytime, anywhere on any device. The bad thing about today’s technology is that YOU’RE EXPECTED to keep track of your messages, workflow, calendar, project plans and contacts anytime, anywhere on any device.

Here’s another conundrum about the modern professional’s life. With today’s technology, anyone with an Internet connection can be a publisher or broadcast network with a worldwide audience. The BAD THING about today’s technology is that anyone with an Internet connection can be a publisher or broadcast network with a worldwide audience.

“There's too much noise, too much poorly written, overly written, defensively written and generally useless stuff cluttering your life,” futurist and blogger, Seth Godin posted this week. As a result, he said we have too much TLDR --"too long; didn't read."

As most of our clients know, you can’t be a thought influencer unless you share your insights regularly with a TARGETED audience that you’ve carefully built over your career. You respect them and they trust you. They’ll forgive the occasional typo, grammatical error or broken link. What they won’t forgive is anything that isn’t relevant, or get to the point ASAP. Sell your content we always say, but make sure you deliver what you’re promising in the headline and the subject line. And for goodness sake, respect how busy your followers are.

That’s why we’re such sticklers for Key Takeaways at the top of each story, post, article or video you create. Our blog has more as well as the FREE Resources page of our website.

Conclusion

There are many very smart, insightful people out there who are worth following….and worth having as followers. Why not be one of them? True thought leaders are consistent, disciplined and concise. They deliver on what they promise and return favors done unto to them. This hasn’t changed much over the past 2,000 years. We just have better, faster and more powerful tools for doing so.


Tags: Seth Godin, thought leadership, TLDR; tl;dr, importance of being relevant

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Burnout Redux and the Brain Drain
9 key signs you (or a key employee) could be in the danger zone

Happy Monday. Our recent post about professional burnout obviously touched a nerve. Thanks again for your great comments, even those of you disagreed with us.

As New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman opined yesterday: “The truth is, if you want a decent job that will lead to a decent life today you have to work harder, regularly reinvent yourself, obtain at least some form post-secondary education and make sure you’re engaged in lifelong learning.” In other words, you’re going to have to max out your career goals every day just to keep up with the pack.

Our friend Gavin Pommernelle, President of Darien, Conn.-based HR Talent Driven Value, said “The sad thing is that [burnout] is more and more common now and the loner in the office is getting more company--except that they are all just as stressed. This is partly due to much leaner organizations and people doing everything to protect their jobs.”

Blogger and futurist Seth Godin posted Saturday that it is “sad to think” that the only reason you work is because you get paid to do it. “Now that you've got a skillset and trust and leverage and a following and the tools to make something happen, are you going to invest your heart and soul into something that's important or waste it selling something you're not proud of?”

You also have to factor in the importance of interaction with others. As Pommernelle noted, “Not having time to interrelate with others outside of the day to day role, both socially and professionally, actually hurts your current and future career.”


9 Key Signs of Burnout

Suzanne Burger, Psy.D. points to 9 red flags that signal you or a key employee might be in the burnout danger zone:

1. A continual increase in job responsibilities, either without a raise, or beyond your ability to comfortably manage.
2. Having to put on too many faces for too many different people.
3. Working under a micromanaging boss
4. Chronic, repetitive, boring work- a job that requires little thought and creativity, one that rarely changes, and offers little challenge.
5. Required to work long hours to complete your tasks, frequently working more than 40 hour weeks.
6. Feeling "stuck" in a job or career that is not your ideal job or career.
7. Having a long history of loyalty to a company, but without receiving expected promotions or raises.
8. Being consumed by your job, so that your job goes home with you. You may even fall asleep thinking about work and have little or no outside life.
9. Being forced to work under an oppressive environment, either with difficult or harassing co-workers, or under strict company rules, or strict managers.

Conclusion

While Berger’s “red flags” are designed for the overwhelmed worker, take a moment to consider how many of your key staffers are treading dangerously close to the burnout zone. In this economy, it just takes one well-timed call from a recruiter when they’re having a bad day to convince them to jump ship….and all the smarts and know-how they’ve built up over the years often goes out the door with them.

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TAGS: Gavin Pommernelle, Talent Driven Value, Thomas Friedman, Seth Godin, Suzanne Berger

TAGS: Building permits, Commerce Department, Seth Godin, James Hackett, Steelcase, cutting corners

Now Is Not the Time to Be Cutting Corners

We know it’s late August. It’s hot, muggy and you’ve already used up your vacation. The business and political climate is still uncertain and you’ve got too many deadlines to possibly handle before the real post Labor Day sprint kicks in. At times like this, there’s always the temptation to “mail it in,” cut corners a little and maybe try to get by with 90 percent effort or even 80.

Don’t do it.

As Steelcase CEO, James Hackett revealed in yesterday’s New York Times, “you have to practice for moments when your integrity might be tested,” such as a bad earnings quarter or a tough issue at your company. “People tend to double down and do bad things under the most extreme pressure.”

In this hyper competitive age of outsourcing and technological one upsmanship, we’re pressured to squeeze every penny out of our production process and every hour of productivity out of our workforce. But cutting costs and cutting corners in order to pump up your bottom line won’t work in the long run, argues futurist and blogger, Seth Godin in his post today, “The Race to the Bottom.”

“There's always the opportunity to cut a corner, sacrifice lifestyle quality and suck it up as we race to grab a little more market share. But the problem with the race to the bottom is that you might win.” Instead, he argues, we should strive to win the race to the top which is focused on “design and respect and dignity and guts and innovation and sustainability and yes, generosity when it might be easier to be selfish.”

OUR TAKE: As we’ve opinioned again and again in this blog, you can’t replace the value of high quality products, high quality client service and going the extra mile for your employees, strategic partners and stakeholders.

The bulls eye prioritization system

As Hackett observed, one technique that’s helped him prioritize for short-term, medium term and long term goals is to think of your work life as a bulls eye. “You put now in the center,” and the outer ring is “near” and the furthest ring is “far.” If you analyze your work calendar, how much time do you spend in each of the three zones?  “You’ve got to train yourself to work in all three zones simultaneously.” Unfortunately, it’s human nature to get pulled into the “now,” Hackett argues, and unfortunately at most organizations, the reward systems are build that way. Great leaders, he says, can transcend the short term thinking.

Macro View

Building permits rise to a 4 year high

Last week the Commerce Department reported that new building permits surged 5.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 717,000 units last month, the highest since October 2008. The numbers are yet another signal that the housing market is improving and experts say it could be the first time that home building adds to U.S. economic growth since 2005.

OUR TAKE: What we like about this indicator is that it points to “new” building activity, not just “sales” which in recent years has mean clearing out old inventory of bargain basement homes, factories, office space and apartments. This is potentially real investment activity and shows signs of confidence on both the consumer and business fronts.

Conclusion

As preseason football gets underway, focus hard on your basic blocking and tackling. Nail down the basics before you get too visionary, but again, don’t ever try to cut corners. As a great leader and marketing organization, however, you have to spend a little time up in the film room and up in the coaches tower to get the overview of where you are now and where you are going. No one wants to get blindsided by the unexpected or caught offside for moving to soon and too carelessly.

There are too many competitors, referees and video reviewers watching your every move.


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TAGS: TAGS: Building permits, Commerce Department, Seth Godin, James Hackett, Steelcase, cutting corners

 

Tablets Continue to Pull Business Prospects Away from Their Laptops
Learning to embrace the dance of the unfinished


According to IDG Research, one in eight (12%) iPad users already say their device has completely replaced their traditional laptop, while another 54 percent said tablets have partially replaced their laptops. What’s more, nearly half (44%) of marketers believe tablets will have a high or very high impact on laptop use in 2012.

The opinions of marketers on the future of laptops are divided though, says the report. The majority sit somewhere in the middle, with 37 percent suggesting it will have a high impact and 37 percent indicating it will have some impact.

IDG’s analysis concludes that tablets are widely used, and four out of five (79%) iPad owning professionals always use them on the move, is all the evidence marketers should need to target this medium.

Getting comfortable with things being unfinished

Blogger and futurist Seth Godin, had a great post recently about the never-ending state of our work lives. “There's always one more tweet to make, post to write, words with friends move to complete,” he explained. “There's one more bit of email, one more lens you can construct, one more comment you can respond to. If you want to, you can be never finished."


For the marketer, the freelancer and the entrepreneur, Godin observed, it’s not like how we were brought up--trained to finish our homework, our food, our errands and our chores. You’re never really done and you have to embrace that.

Conclusion

We may not have time to smell the roses anymore, but at least take time to notice them. It’ll be Labor Day before you know it. Don’t kick yourself again wondering where the summer has gone.
As Godin said: “Today, we're never finished, and that's okay. It's a dance, not an endless grind.”



Conclusion

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TAGS: Seth Godin, IDG research, tablets, iPad, replacing laptops, B2B marketing