Month: July 2012

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Choices Make all the Difference

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There are a number of examples in the news currently of people whose legacy has recently changed from positive to negative. The removal of the Joe Paterno statue at Penn State is one that shows how poor decisions can wipe out years of positive acts. Paterno will now be remembered more for the scandal surrounding the university and less about wins and losses of a football team.

Another example is the CEO of Yahoo who misrepresented his educational credentials. This one is a more common scenario and usually has less recourse. I have even heard many suggest that “fluffing” the resume is an accepted practice in the workforce and that recruiters expect it. While recruiters may actually expect it, it doesn’t mean it is an accepted practice. The “everybody does it” argument in business is flawed.

There are times when many of us find ourselves in critical moments and may not even realize the significance of the moment and the choice we are about to make. There are so many justifications one can find to do the wrong thing. I often hear employees make statements about their value in organizations. Top performers (and sometimes not so top performers) often develop a sense of ego that makes them feel as though they are irreplaceable and can get away with anything because the organization cannot function without their presence. This sense of ego drives poor decisions and sometimes decisions that change their legacy.

For many, the ramifications of the choice may only be a lost job; they may be able to move to a different company or industry and start over. Regardless, at some level their legacy has changed.

Use these situations as an example. Do a self-analysis. And always choose well. Your legacy may depend on it.

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For more resources, See the Human Resources library.

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What Kind of Feedback Are You Getting From Employees?

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Management is a team sport not a superstar sport. What happens over time is that some managers begin to believe it’s all about them. It’s not, it’s just the opposite.I t’s about the people they lead.

Allan Ditchfield, former executive at AT&T, realized that you cannot lead without getting involved.

“When leaders remain behind their desks, they loose touch with reality – the key issues with their employees, and most importantly, the key issues with their customers.”

So he created “Donuts with Ditch”. It was a regular scheduled coffee and donuts session with no more than 10 people, chosen randomly, from different parts of his business unit. He asked one question:

“What’s getting in the way of you doing your jobs well and serving our customers?”

He listened, took notes, and followed up with solutions. The most important ingredient for success was not the donuts but rather the trust that had been established between him and the employees. He had what he called a sacred open door. No ones’ going to be hurt by what they say. That there will be no retaliation. He lived by that rule. He walked the talk and therefore people believed him and trusted him.

Management Success Tip:

This simple two way communication tools was the grease that kept the operational engine humming. It’s a great example of how leaders can build relationships with their people, create conditions that encourage two-way communication and also get real time information about problems before they turn into big hairy monsters that will eat up their time, energy and resources. Also see Are You Getting the Word Out

What’s your version of Donuts with Ditch?

Do you want to develop your Management Smarts?

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Corporate Giving: Foundation Grants vs. Sponsorships

As your NPO looks to increase its revenue from corporations, it is important to distinguish between grants from corporate foundations and corporate sponsorships.

Both are important sources of revenue, and both come from corporations – many even from the same corporation… But, since they differ in many significant ways, it will impact how you prospect, cultivate, solicit, and steward the corporate donor.

First let’s take a look at some facts about corporate giving published in the GivingUSA Foundation, “Spotlight” Issue 2, 2008. Corporations give a mixture of cash donations, in-kind gifts, and cash from corporate foundations. Approximately 44% of total corporate giving is cash gifts, 20% is in-kind gifts, and 36% is from corporate foundations. Corporate matching gifts, event sponsorships, and cause-related marketing all fall under the category of cash gifts.

Also according to this GivingUSA report, corporations tend to give for philanthropic, strategic, commercial, and political reasons. Where “in small companies, giving is often an extension of the owner’s generosity … giving by large, publicly owned companies is almost always influenced by enlightened self-interest.” The business benefits of philanthropic giving can include: increased employee loyalty, public goodwill, increased sales, and community or public infrastructure support.

The following table looks at how prospecting, cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding of corporate foundation grants differ from the same activities in securing corporate sponsorships:

Corporate Foundation Grants Corporate Sponsorships
Funded through the corporate foundation Generally funded through the corporation’s marketing budget
Generally from larger corporations From small and large corporations
Prospect using online resources such as Foundation Center or Guidestar, annual reports from NPOs with similar missions, and foundation 990s Prospect using annual reports from NPOs with similar missions, and local media advertising of fundraising events
Usually publish grant submission and reporting guidelines, and deadlines Usually have minimal or no guidelines and deadlines
Solicit the foundation manager, and submit grant request following corporate guidelines Solicit the marketing department with a sponsor packet that outlines the value proposition
Typically want recognition for the corporation Definitely want recognition and advertising value for the corporation, and naming opportunities depending on sponsorship level
Typically want employee volunteer opportunities at the NPO Definitely want tickets to the event, and may want employee volunteer opportunities at the NPO
Important to follow-up with outcomes for the program that was included in the grant request Important to follow-up with event outcomes (how many attendees, dollars raised, etc.) and corporate recognition outcomes (media mentions, website hits, e-mail open rates, etc.)

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Lynn deLearie Consulting, LLC, helps nonprofit organizations develop, enhance and expand grants programs, and helps them secure funding from foundations and corporations. Contact Lynn deLearie.

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Spread a smile at work today!

A lady smiling and holding a glass of water in her hand

Smiles are so contagious. They are a glorious gift you can give for free.

Smiles cost nothing and have great value.

Pass a smile along today for no good reason.

In case you can’t think of anything to smile about, here’s a cute video of two sisters singing and laughing. They so freely share their laughter and joy. http://youtu.be/9W6Uh8jUahk

These girls are a good reminder to connect with your inner joy and smile today. I dare you not to smile when you see this 😉

Make someone’s day special

Pass this along to a colleague who can use a smile or little laugh.

Even Monkeys know it’s important to have a good smile every now and then.

For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Click this link to order Linda’s 10th Anniversary edition of “Path for Greatness: Work as Spiritual Service”.

Read inspiring stories and learn new ways to work more meaningfully.

Visit Linda’s website- www.lindajferguson.com for information about her coaching, keynote presentations, seminars, and books.

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Paterno Family’s Reputation Management no Touchdown

A football player trying to make a touchdown

Hasty announcement will lead to trouble down the line

The Freeh Report contains seriously damning reports of Joe Paterno’s help in covering up allegations against Jerry Sandusky, and even as Paterno’s statue is removed from the Penn State campus, his family is continuing to rail against the idea that he played any part in the matter. Most recently, they have announced that they believe the Freeh Report has missed “critical information,” and stated that additional information clearing Paterno’s name “will emerge.”

While it is their right to disagree with the Freeh Report, and to seek their own answers, the way the Paterno family has handled the announcement has backed them into a corner. In the following quote, from an AP article, published by Sports Illustrated, Jonathan Bernstein explains what advice he would have given the family:

Public relations expert Jonathan Bernstein, president of Bernstein Crisis Management Inc. and the author of texts on crisis communications, said he would have advised the Paterno family to issue a “short message of compassion” for Sandusky’s victims and then conduct its own investigation quietly if it disagreed with the conclusions of the Freeh report.

Announcing the probe now could wind up backfiring on the family, he said, because there will be pressure to release the findings publicly and “the results of the investigation could end up corroborating what was said in the Freeh report.”

In any crisis management situation, you want to have the facts in front of you before guaranteeing any specific information. Things would have gone much better for the Paterno family if they had simply run a quiet investigation of their own and shared their findings, if they did indeed contradict the Freeh Report, that is. If not, then they’d simply need not announce the investigation, and let the issue rest.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training, and co-host of The Crisis Show. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

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Key Words Technical Writers Need To Understand

A young woman working while taking down notes

I’ve come across certain words and terms that Technical Writers should be familiar with. The following are just a few outstanding key words that I felt were worth reviewing.

Compliance – is adherence or sticking to rules, policies, and procedures. This is very important for the Technical Writers as they need to be excruciatingly correct and precise when writing involves compliances (guidelines, policies, procedures, agreements, etc.) to avoid events such as errors, accidents, organizational catastrophes, etc. Compliance covers requirements for format and content; regulatory compliance, information governance, environmental compliance, compliance costs, coding, designs, etc. just to mention a few. Technical Writers compliant documents present what is expected.

Content (Document) Management– involves developing a content structure. It consists of creating, establishing, and distributing content and most importantly involves organizing content logically to make it easily accessible. It is also associated with knowledge management and information architecture which Technical Writers are involved in.

Cloud (computing) –allows you to upload, share, download and archive documents. The cloud is an offsite (remote) server or data center that people share and which provides a software service. It securely manages your documents (information or data) on a machine. It could also be known as SAAS (Software as a service), PAAS (Platform as a Service), etc., but that’s another topic.

Data (base, integration, set, value, management, metadata, mining, warehouse) – all involve the handling or management of data or information that is critical to a project or organization. How to manage ‘big data ‘is a growing concern for all organizations from small to large businesses as the volume of data keeps growing. Technical Writers help to interpret the information.

Gamification – is applying a game. Technical Writers now need to write about game-based applications which grant rewards to users, i.e., points, badges, bonuses, etc. Gamification is now becoming more and more a part of leaning, social media, and organizations.

Governance (of information, data) –is the controlling of or authority of information. It is a common term among businesses. Writing about the guidelines and policies needed to maintain the authority and regulation of information involve a great deal of work for Technical Writers who have to investigate and interview all the leads to create a structure that is understood and acceptable to the organization.

Hierarchy, Taxonomy, Information Architecture – are terms used to describe how a collection of information is organized (hierarchy), classified (taxonomy), or structured (information architecture). A Taxonomy is a form of Hierarchy and together they help to present the framework of an organizations Information Architecture.

Lifecycle – is the continuous work performed on applications, data, or products from the day they are developed to the day they are put into production or till they are no longer used. While working on a project, the Technical Writer is involved from the beginning starting from the presentation of an idea, to requirements gathering, to development, testing, and finally to the production phase.

Stakeholders – are the people involved in a project, i.e., graphic designers, web developers, business analysts, software engineers, clients, etc. Marketing stakeholders include designers, reviewers, and users. Stakeholders have an investment or interest in the project.

If you would like to see more like this, please leave a comment.

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‘Fusion’ Project Management

Fusion. It’s all the rage in culinary circles, right? Restaurants that prepare great dishes from pan-Asian countries, or pan-Latin American countries, or even European and Asian combinations. All with great, flavorful results.

We can bring a similar mindset to the management of our projects. By combining different methods and strategies we can craft our own ‘fusion’ project management structure, so it includes the best of different schools of thought, yet fits the project well. Although my basic methodology, as those who follow this blog know, relies on the PMBOK® from the Project Management Institute , I often supplement it with some of the following concepts:

From PRINCE2:
In PRINCE2, the project manager takes input from a ‘Project Board’ on important decisions. This Board is made up of representatives from three groups: a Customer, a Senior User, and a Senior Supplier. The combination of skills balance the decision-making very well, so I try to incorporate such a Project Board into my projects whenever possible. Say, to review the Risk Log once per month. More detail on PRINCE2 can be found at ‘prince-officialsite.com’ .

From Agile:
Certain projects see a great deal of change and re-prioritizing. Maybe a technology is new; maybe management wants to react to the market’s shifting requirements quickly. Whatever the underlying reason, when the mandate of the project is to be reactive, the team needs an Agile project management framework. SCRUM is such a framework.

It is based on a focused effort, called a “Sprint” towards fixed goals. What is important is that the scope delivered in each Sprint provide the highest possible market value. By the next “Sprint”, the scope of the project will most likely have changed again. So in some projects, we will have milestone-to-milestone scope definition, knowing full well that the Scope Document will have to be revised (again!) after the next milestone is reached. For more information on SCRUM, you can visit ‘scrumalliance.org’.

From “The Lazy Project Manager”:
Peter Taylor advocates in his book, The Lazy Project Manager, that in running our projects we should exercise “productive laziness”. This means that we concentrate our efforts where they are really going to make a difference to project goals, rather than just running around looking for things to do, sometimes of dubious importance. It also means artfully saying ‘No’ more often than we are probably accustomed to.

There is more about Peter’s methods at ‘thelazyprojectmanager.com’ . I could give more examples, but in the spirit of The Lazy PM, I think I will go for a coffee now. Thanks for reading.

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For more resources, see the Library topic Project Management.

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Glaxo’s $3 Billion Deceit

tired-office-worker-getting-more-more-work.

Dishonest promotion leads to massive fine

Drug giant GlaxoSmithKline will plead guilty and pay $3 billion to resolve federal criminal and civil inquiries arising from the company’s illegal promotion of some of its products, its failure to report safety data and alleged false price reporting, the Justice Department announced Monday.

The company agreed to plead guilty to three criminal counts, including two counts of introducing misbranded drugs — Paxil and Wellbutrin — and one count of failing to report safety data about the drug Avandia to the Food and Drug Administration.

With reports like this one, quoted from a USA Today article, still making headlines weeks after the story first broke, you’d think GlaxoSmithKline would be running in crisis management mode. Not so, however.

Why, you may ask? Because, as BCM President Jonathan Bernstein put it in last week’s episode of The Crisis Show, the phrase “unethical pharmaceutical company” has become redundant. Glaxo and its peers act as if they factor billions of dollars in fines and legal settlements into the cost of doing business, and the majority of consumers live with the knowledge that these pharmaceutical giants don’t exactly share their sense of ethics.

The good news for those harmed by Glaxo’s dishonesty is that by agreeing to pay the government fines, Glaxo has made an admission of guilt, which should open the organization up to legal attacks, including batteries of class action lawsuits assembled by lawyers seeking an easy payday. And if they consider down that path, they should remember that Arthur Andersen was destroyed by the court of public opinion, not by a court of law.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training, and co-host of The Crisis Show. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

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Emotional Intelligence: Do You Have It? Part 1

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For anyone who wants to advance in their career, emotional intelligence (EI) is essential for success. After all, who is more likely to succeed – a leader who shouts at his team when he’s under stress or a leader who stay in control and calmly assesses the situation?

According to Daniel Goleman, who helped make the idea of EI popular, there are five main elements of emotional intelligence. Here are the first three. How would you rate yourself?

1. Self-Awareness
If you’re self-aware, you usually know how you feel. Most importantly, you know how your emotions and your actions can affect the people around you. Being self-aware when you’re in a leadership position also means having a clear picture of your strengths and weaknesses. So, what can you do to improve your self-awareness?

  • Keep a journal. If you spend just a few minutes each day writing down your thoughts, this can move you to a higher degree of self-awareness.
  • Slow down. When you experience anger or other strong emotions, slow down to examine why. Remember, no matter what the situation, you can always choose how you react to it.

2. Self-regulation
That means in high charged situations, you focus on staying in control of your emotions. You rarely verbally attack others, make rushed or emotional decisions, stereotype people or compromise their values. So, how can you improve your ability to self-regulate?

  • Hold yourself accountable. f you tend to blame others when something goes wrong, stop. Make a commitment to admit to your mistakes and face the consequences, whatever they are. You’ll probably sleep better at night, and you’ll quickly earn the respect of those around you.
  • Find ways to calm. The next time you’re in a challenging situation, practice deep-breathing exercises to calm yourself. Also, try to write down all of the negative things you want to say, and then rip it up and throw it away. Expressing these emotions on paper is better than speaking them aloud. What’s more, this helps you challenge your reactions to make sure that they’re fair!

3. Motivation
Self-motivated leaders consistently work toward their goals. And they have extremely high standards for the quality of their work. How can you improve your motivation?

  • Re-examine where you’re at. It’s easy to forget what you really love about your career. So, take some time to remember why you wanted this job. If you’re unhappy in your role and you’re struggling to remember why you wanted it, find the root of the problem and then decide what actions to take.
  • Be hopeful and find something good. Motivated people are usually optimistic, no matter what they face. Every time you face a challenge, or even a failure, try to find at least one good thing about the situation. It might be something small, like a new contact, or something with long-term effects, like an important lesson learned. But there’s almost always something positive – you just have to look for it.

Career Success Tip:

Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to understand and manage both your own emotions and those of the people around you. People with a high degree of emotional intelligence usually know what they’re feeling, what this means and how their emotions can affect other people. See the last two elements of EI in the next post.

Do you want to develop Career Smarts?

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‘O’ is for ’Oops’

Lady looking embarrassed and surprised covering her mouth

Why did I say that? ‘Oops’ what did I just do? What just happened? When doing a presentation, what do you do after an ‘oops’. You could have gotten too wordy and lost focus, or you went off script and are now lost, or you are experiencing technical problems, etc. So what do you now do? –Well for one thing, do not say,’umm’.

The following are a few tips that I have learned from my co-host Gail.

Be Adaptable – yup, you definitely have to be adaptable and easy going, and be quick, like Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over the candlestick. Be flexible to any change in your environment and work with it.

Be Brilliant – use your imagination and correct any problems you encounter; including your ‘oops’ statements or technical mishaps. How? Be prepared and have back up plans.

Be Courageous – have confidence in yourself that it’s ok that you fumbled or that something went wrong. Things happen, so just continue and don’t let the incident stop you.

Be Dynamic and say – ‘Wow that was a mistake!’ – This is the time to engage your audience or say, “Oops, well that’s embarrassing” and smile.

Be Energetic – show your energy and interact with your audience. Ask them if this ‘oops’ ever happened to them?—and what did they do? This will break the ice for a bit while you gather your thoughts and then continue on with your presentation.

Be Focused – on your next move, not on what just occurred. Take a breath and smile and continue and ask for assistance if need be.

Be Gracious – smile and say “Oops, I just made a mistake.’ There is nothing wrong in saying that. I feel this is an acceptable time to apologize.

Be Humorous – have a backup humorous slide as a backup for any ‘oops’ that might occur, or a story if there is a technical issue. This will occupy the audience while the problem is being worked on.

Be Yourself in an Introduction – during an introduction, if an ‘oops’ occurs, say something amusing, i.e. ‘ ‘So that must ruin my knowledge and reputation in this field…hehe’ and laugh.

Be Joyful – you love learning and teaching so show them the joy you have in presenting even after an ‘oops’.

Be strong and Kill the rise or drop in your voice because of the ‘oops’. Don’t let the audience know you’ve lost confidence. Instead, stay calm and say that there will be a short break if needed.

Be easy going and Laugh with your audience – they are the ones who want to communicate with you. Let them know you are just human and as such, will make mistakes. If you can, make a joke out of your mistake, or just say, ‘well that wasn’t correct, was it?’….and let it go.

Reword, restate, or rework your Message on what just occurred to make it right. Give the audience the right message you meant to convey to them.

And mostly, Never stop believing in yourself.

Why, because ‘oops’ happens to all of us.