While many businesses have developed a strategy for using social media, many more are still fumbling in the dark. How can business owners join, update, and respond to users on Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Yelp, CitySearch, blogs, and other socially-driven sites while still managing their day-to-day operations? The task seems daunting before you’ve even started.
via Small Businesses Still Lost in Social Media | News & Opinion | PCMag.com.
When I first start working with a new client, one of the things I listen for is whether or not the client has a powerful, clear, and compelling vision for the future. There are many reasons why having this kind of vision is important, but what I focus on first is whether I can hear that the client’s vision is informing their thinking and decision making.Often, when a client is explaining the challenges they’re facing, and telling me what they wish to accomplish, I can hear that the most significant motivating factor is their fear, rather than their vision for the future fear of never making it, fear of taking risks, fear of losing control, fear of not knowing what to do, or fear of making a mistake.While fear is sometimes what motivates clients to enlist my services, it only goes so far as a motivational influence, and in my experience it is not sufficient to bring about the kind of changes that most of my clients say they really want. Vision, however, is another story.Vision can bring about real, deep, observable benefits and sustainable change. In his book “The Fifth Discipline” author Peter Senge writes, “There are two fundamental sources of energy that can motivate organizations: fear and aspiration. The power of fear underlies negative visions. The power of aspiration drives positive visions. Fear can produce extraordinary changes in short periods, but aspiration endures as a continuing source of learning and growth”
The power of a clear and compelling vision to act as an organizational compass, or a guiding force, is often underestimated in business. Many businesses go through a strategic planning process of some sort, some of them shelling out big bucks for consulting in this area, only to end up with a vision that sits in the background and doesn’t really live and breathe as part of the fabric of the organization itself.
When this happens, it can be sign that the vision lacks personal relevance — the kind of relevance that comes from a vision that’s connected to all of the different personal aspirations of the people who make up an organization. This is one of the key characteristics of a great vision — it is “shared”? by all who serve it because it emerges from personal aspiration — from personal vision. Senge explains, “Shared vision involves the skills of unearthing shared ‘pictures of the future’ that foster genuine commitment and enrollment rather than compliance”.
His point is that what makes a great (shared) vision a potent and compelling influence on the culture of an organization is when that vision captures what it is that people long for and genuinely desire to work toward. “A shared vision, especially one that is intrinsic, uplifts people’s aspirations. Work becomes part of pursuing a larger purpose embodied in the organization’s products or services.” (2006, p.193). When an organization is holding a shared vision, that vision is palpable, and its influence on thinking and decision making is clearly evident. Strategy is dictated by what course of action best serves the fulfillment of the vision.
References
Senge, Peter M. (2006). The fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organization. New York, NY: Doubleday/Currency.
In any organization, the flow of communication between people is vital to productivity, and plays a huge role in shaping organizational culture and influencing your experience of being at work.
When communication is open and easy, people are more likely to contribute their thoughts and ideas, accept accountability, and provide leadership.
When communication is suppressed, controlled, or dominated, people are less likely to contribute their thoughts and ideas, and less likely to engage in the kind of new conversations that can lead to new results.
As a leader, what can you do to get the communication flowing in your organization?
As a leader, what can you do to get the communication flowing in your organization?
Here are 5 questions you can ask yourself to get the ball rolling:
The point of answering these questions is to cultivate your awareness of new opportunities to generate communication, and to help stimulate the flow of communication around you. It’s important to realize that this isn’t a free pass to start dishing out all the complaints and criticisms you’ve been holding onto, since that wouldn’t actually serve to stimulate anything but resentment and subversion.
Instead, use these questions to help you see what conversations have been missing, that could help unlock the creative potential of the people around you, and free up their ability to express their own thoughts and ideas.
In small business, getting the people you manage to perform at their very best is a function of having the right conversations with them.
Successful CEO’s, executives, managers and entrepreneurs know how to use the right conversations to inspire, motivate and compel the people they lead.
One way to engage people in the right conversations is by asking them the right questions.
In addition to simply keeping you in the loop, asking people what they’re out to accomplish helps them focus on producing results. The thought process provoked by this question helps people clarify their own objectives and organize their work around those objectives. In addition, answering this question requires that the person take some degree of ownership over their work, and their results.
While this question is admittedly similar to the first, the focus is a little bit different. In this case, ownership is paramount, and the answer is apt to be more conservative. Rather than tell you everything they might accomplish, a person responding to this question is likely to think carefully about what they say they will produce, knowing that they may be held accountable. This question helps the person focus on what absolutely must get done.
The purpose of this question is to help people identify with success, and establish their own personal expectations for successful performance. Someone who answers this question is more likely to keep measuring their progress against their expectations. Since human beings are fundamentally endowed with the belief that success is desirable, someone who answers this question is more likely to adjust their own level of productivity to ensure that they meet their own expectations for a productive day.
What makes all of these questions useful for improving performance is that they foster ownership and independent responsibility. The point is not that the answers to these questions will help you manage people more effectively. The answers are not the point at all.
What really makes a difference is that these questions create opportunities for people to distinguish, articulate and declare their own parameters for successful performance, which in turn provides personal motivation and fosters the desire to succeed.
“Good leaders make people feel that they’re at the very heart of things, not at the periphery. Everyone feels that he or she makes a difference to the success of the organization. When that happens people feel centered and that gives their work meaning.” Warren G. Bennis
As a leader, your ability to inspire the people you lead is a function of your willingness to allow them to shine.
Inspiration is never a matter of proving yourself or your own point of view, or suppressing the opinions of others. Inspiration isn’t about impressing people with your own intelligence or ability.
In order to inspire the people you lead, you need to recognize their unique gifts and abilities, and reward them for expressing their own creativity and dedication. Inspiring people means letting them be great, and letting them know that you know they are great.
Here are 5 ways you can start inspiring the people you lead:
Being able to inspire the people you lead is critically important to creating a vibrant and productive company culture. It’s not just about making people feel good. It’s about what people are capable of producing when they believe in themselves, and when they find meaning and purpose in their work.
