Month: August 2015

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What’s Conflict Costing You?

office-colleagues-in-conflict-at-work

It doesn’t take a superhero to stop conflict from becoming crisis

Everyone knows conflict creates issues, but did you realize just how much it’s costing your organization to let clashes run out of control? Take a look through this creative infographic from WorkFront and you’ll find some shocking stats that will have you ranking conflict resolution higher on your list of priorities:

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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. Erik Bernstein is vice president for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

– See more at: https://staging.management.org/blogs/crisis-management/2015/08/03/meltwaters-muddled-metrics-can-ruin-reputations/#sthash.3WsMRsUJ.dpuf

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Meltwater’s Muddled Metrics Can Ruin Reputations

An-elderly-female-executive-compiling-documents-with-her-laptop

Pushing for higher numbers at the sake of accuracy is bound to create problems

A glossy report created by the NFL’s Washington Redskins isn’t having the desired effect of seeding goodwill for the organization thanks to the muddled metrics included within. The report, created with the help of media monitoring services Meltwater and TVEyes and obtained by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, states there were “7,845,460,401 unique visitors of print/online coverage of the 2014 Bon Secours Washington Redskins Training Camp from July 24-Aug. 12.” That’s a staggering number, especially considering that the entire population of earth is estimated at around 7.26 billion people.

The Redskins are being heavily scrutinized by Richmond, VA locals after promises that bringing the team’s training camp would bring revenue to the area fell flat, and while we’re certain a desire to show a return on investment drove the search for impressive numbers to show everyone, they went too far.

Although Meltwater has stated that “unique visitors” should have instead been “impressions”, the definition of impressions Meltwater Corporate Communications Expert Riana Dadlani shared with SBNation’s James Dator seems to be constructed to return outrageously high numbers:

Impressions/Potential viewership/Reach: Impressions/potential viewership/reach is calculated by taking the reach figure of the media outlet from comScore multiplied by the number of articles matched from that media outlet for a search query/agent. For example, Yahoo Finance has a reach of 100M viewers. If five articles were collected from Yahoo Finance then the impressions/potential viewership is 500M (i.e. 5 x 100M).

This is essentially passing on the notion that any time a story could conceivably have been read by someone counts as an impression, glossing over the fact that the vast majority of these people never noticed they saw a piece about the camp.

Analytics can be a major help to campaigns when used in sync with and to evaluate the effectiveness of your efforts. Problem is, the constant push for ROI today means more and more often they become a tool to prove results, whether the results are actually there or not. For both businesses and B2B services of all kinds, putting out bad stats is a quick way to damage reputation. Find legitimate ways to show value, or determine why you failed and how to improve, because tweaking formulas to ensure they only show what you’d like is an easy way to drag your own good name through the mud.

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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. Erik Bernstein is vice president for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

– See more at: https://staging.management.org/blogs/crisis-management/2015/07/30/crisis-management-advice-keeping-your-food-safe/#sthash.FHfQiaqc.dpuf

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How to Build Trust and Engagement in your Introductions

a lady introducing herself in a meeting

hello_my_name_is_badgeAre you prepared to introduce yourself in a way that builds credibility and trust? If you are uneasy or uncomfortable introducing yourself, or do it poorly, your presentation, meeting or training session can get off to a bad start. Take time to plan and rehearse your openings.

Guidelines:

  • State your name clearly, maybe more than once.
  • If it is unusual, hard to pronounce or remember, provide a memory device or write it on a flipchart.
  • Briefly give your credentials, expertise or experience. You may wish to supply these in a handout so you can move through your introduction faster.
  • Mention why you are the person conducting the session. What special skills or experience do you bring? How do you feel about the content?
  • Mention the purpose of the training. Often people don’t know or don’t remember why they were asked to attend.
  • Stress the WIIFM*. How will participants benefit from participating? Why is this important to them?
  • Keep it simple and fairly brief. Once you are into the content you can tell more about your experiences.
  • It is OK to use a little humor but don’t force it.
  • Make it “all about them” not “all about you.”
  • Do something that engages or surprises them (like asking a question, or for a show of hands.)

*What’s in it for me, the listener or learner

More tips:

Make your openings brief and positive. This is not the place to begin rambling, to provide a long description of your background and expertise. They don’t want to hear an apology or a description of your travel woes, unless you are really funny in describing them. Start our crisp and upbeat, getting to the point pretty fast.

Talk about listeners and their concerns more than about yourself. If you speak about them and show them you have something to offer, they will be more impressed than they will just hearing your credentials. If someone else is introducing you, they can mention your credentials and accomplishments, then you won’t have to. It is smart to bring a short bio for whoever is introducing you to use.

Encourage audience interaction whenever appropriate. Keep it simple, a show of hands in a large audience, a few simple questions, carefully planned, for a smaller group. Plan these questions carefully and be ready for any kind of response–the audience may surprise you.

Never apologize in your opening. Don’t tell them it is too long, the content is technical or boring, that your slides are going to be too busy, or that you are not an expert. Put on your game face and tell them you are so happy to be there and looking forward to sharing information with them.

Rehearse your opening out loud until you know it cold. Make it short and snappy so it is easy for you to remember. Better yet, rehearse this with a trusted colleague or record your voice and listen back until you have really nailed it.

Work on making the people connection first. Skip all the detailed information, facts, figures, research and technical jargon. Tell a story. Talk about why your ideas matter. Give them an informal quiz or test. Make them think. Make them feel something. Show them you care and you are going to provide something of value. Now they are ready to hear what you have to say!

Remember that listeners form a first impression in just seconds. Make the most of your openings with thorough planning and rehearsal so you can start off on the right foot with your audience.