In your pursuit to build your brand, you have to separate yourself in a competitive environment. You have to put yourself out there, elevate your game, and stand-out.
This presentation is all about YOU.
• Learn how to determine your keywords for your resume and LinkedIn
• Learn tips and best practices for business & networking cards
• Learn the difference between taglines vs. slogans
• Explore the six-word memoir
• Perform a LinkedIn SWOT analysis of your profile
• Develop personal branding on LinkedIn
• Reflect on your online and offline reputation
• Create your action plan
BIO Lynne Williams
Lynne Williams
Lynne M. Williams, Ed.D. Candidate, is the Executive Director of the Great Careers Group & BENG a volunteer-run 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that provides career education and networking connections for: 1) jobseekers in career transition, including veterans and 2) employed and self-employed for career management.
In addition, Lynne is also the owner of Around the Clock Executive Helper, a writer of resumes and LinkedIn profiles. Lynne presents unique research-based workshops on LinkedIn, resumes, the Applicant Tracking System, the Art of Networking In-Person & Online, and other career-related, social media, and technology topics. She is currently working on writing her doctoral dissertation and is a contributing author to Find Your Fit: A Practical Guide to Landing the Job You Love along with the late Dick Bolles, the author of What Color is Your Parachute?.
“We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.” Max De Pree
Stephen H Dawson, DSL
There is only one person who matters when defining what must be done in any situation. That person is our self. The reality of our impact both now and tomorrow is the challenge of living what we believe by doing what we believe. This impact is the linear connection of worldview, ethics, morality, and virtue.
We are working to resolve your delay in accomplishing your strategic planning work by swapping out some folks in your organization. You have decided to become what you need to be by not remaining what you are now. You are completing your materials summary, your Love Action Items list, and scheduling the first meeting with your boss based on the plan we covered recently. Today, let’s cover what I, in both a dignified and proper manner, call…the stuff. The stuff is the linear combination of worldview, ethics, morality, and virtue. Think of them as indispensable blocks to build your life, your organization, your society, your country, and our world.
I held off discussing the stuff with you earlier, as I did not want to overwhelm you with too much to process at one time. You are growing as a healthy leader by going through the process we are working out together. We are not late discussing the stuff, as you are now working on completing your materials summary and your Love Action Items list. Now is the time to discuss the stuff, to help round out your writing and prepare it for your first stop: your boss reviewing your written forthcoming leadership plan.
I will not bore you with the background of the Greek philosophers who became famous from their perspectives on worldview, ethics, morality, and virtue. They did not invent the terms, they do not own the terms, but they did much to help people understand the terms. I appreciate their help in my learning these terms. Yet, we do not answer to them. We answer to reasoning that can withstand scrutiny.
Here is how I see the stuff: No one cares about what I care about in life unless they are willing to pay me for what I care about in life. Their payment to me can come through countless options. I urge you to adopt a similar perspective. I will now teach you all there is to learn about the stuff in less than five minutes, holding our shared understanding that it takes a lifetime for everyone to do the stuff to prove to our self’s we know our stuff.
WORLDVIEW
What a person believes. It is a singular term. It is the list of items a person believes. The listed items do not need to be defined clearly to the person believing them. There is no mandate to one’s self to prove what that person does by self-debate. Worldview defines the subset of truth to the person but does not define truth entirely. Share on XOne does only need to believe something for it to be a part of their worldview. Worldview is nothing more than what a person believes.
ETHICS
What a person does. It is a plural term. It is the list of items a person does. The listed items do need to be defined clearly to the person doing them. Each ethic is performed both consciously and purposely. There is a mandate to one’s self to prove what that person does by self-debate. Ethics are nothing more than what a person does.
MORALS
What a person must do based only on their worldview. Morality defines right and good. It is a plural term. It is the list of items a person must do as the subset of what they could do to fulfill their worldview. The listed items do need to be defined clearly to the person doing them. Each moral is performed both consciously and purposely. There is a mandate to one’s self to prove what that person does by self-debate. Morals are nothing more than what a person believes they must do.
VIRTUES
The items at the top of a person’s morality list. It is a plural term. It is the list of items a person must do as the prioritized subset of what they could do to fulfill their worldview. The listed items do need to be defined clearly to the person doing them. Each virtue is performed both consciously and purposely. There is a mandate to one’s self to prove what that person does by self-debate. Virtues are nothing more than what a person believes they must do before doing anything else.
Congratulations. You just mastered understanding the terms worldview, ethic, morality, and virtue. I hold the worldview more folks in this world should master what you just learned.
Please understand it is not my intent to trivialize these terms. It is my intent to keep them from causing you harm. You have been doing the stuff since the moment you took your first breath. You will continue to do the stuff until the moment you take your last breath. It is best, as with all doing, one knows what they are doing after a suitable period of learning occurs. We talked about this consideration when I asked if you wanted me to use heavy equipment before I learned how to operate the heavy equipment.
A common phrase in social and political circles today is moral responsibility. I struggle to find a meaningful definition of this phrase as a term, so I do not identify this phrase as a term. A moral can only be held between two people when they perform similar ethics based on their similar worldviews. What the verbal assailant is doing with this phrase is attacking your virtues, not your morality. It is a form of intellectual cowardice, as they refuse to learn the terminology they use in their statements.
I encourage you to remember the linear relationship between worldview, ethics, morality, and virtue the next time someone tries to push you around with their demand that you supply them your morality as they see fit. Think back to our discussion on power when you hear them place such a demand on you.
CONCLUSION
I know we covered some heavy topics this week. Fear not, for indisputable facts help strengthen your leadership ability. Take the stuff for what it is: your stuff. Remember, there is only one person who matters when defining what must be done in any situation. That person is our self.
I encourage you to spend time this week completing your materials summary, your Love Action Items list and schedule the first meeting with your boss based on the plan we covered recently. Also, consider how your followers speak and act in light of what you have now learned about the stuff. Finally, consider how much of an overlap there is between each follower’s worldview and your worldview by considering what they do…their ethics. We will look at their morality and their virtues during future discussions.
So, I ask you: where do you want to go? I hope your answer is to develop the plans necessary to accomplish the strategy you know you need to achieve to arrive at your desired destination. If this is the case, then let’s get to work. If not, then I wish you the best of everything.
I hope we will see each other here next week. Email me if you need to talk before then.
Stephen Dawson is an executive consultant of technology and business strategy, serving significant international organizations by providing leadership consulting, strategic planning, and executive communications. He has more than thirty years of service and consulting experience in delivering successful international business development and program management outcomes in the US and SE Asia. His weekly column, “Where Do You Want To Go?,” appears on Thursdays.
Dr. Dawson has served in the technology, banking, and hospitality industries. He is a noted strategic planning visionary. His pursuit of music has been matched with his efforts to lead by service to followers. He holds the clear understanding a leader without followers is a person taking a long walk alone.
Stephen has lived his life in the eastern United States, visiting most of the United States and several countries. He is a graduate of the Regent University School of Business & Leadership. Contact him at service@shdawson.com.
I hope you enjoyed our point of view and would like to receive regular posts directly to your email inbox. Toward this end, put your contact information on my mailing list.
Your feedback helps me continue to publish articles that you want to read. Your input is very important to me so; please leave a comment.
Join me and the “What’s Your Plan B?” Executive Development networking group for this informative, interactive online discussion.
Am I Cut Out for Self-Employment?
Thursday, June 24th
8:00 am ET (45 min + Q&A)
FREE event (join at 7:45 am for networking) RSVP – click here
While the autonomy and flexibility of self-employment are appealing, how can you know if it’s for you? Can you achieve your desired success as your own boss? What are the risks and rewards? What are your available options? If you are considering self-employment, or find yourself at a career crossroads, this session will answer:
Common traits of successful, happy self-employed professionals.
Pros and Cons of Acquisition, Consulting, Franchising, and Start-ups.
Affordable funding options.
Free resources for new business owners.
The COVID-19 impact for considering starting a small business (benefits and challenges) will be discussed.
Want to chat with me now? Please use my scheduling link to choose a time to take my call: https://calendly.com/leslie_kuban
To your success,
Leslie
Large consumer companies like Coca-Cola, Proctor & Gamble, and Frito-Lay spend millions of dollars each year on marketing research to gain an edge in a competitive market. They have a large staff of people with PhDs, MMRs, and MBAs creating and managing complex research studies to provide data and insights to support business decisions.
But what about smaller or medium-sized businesses? Are the insights leveraged by big companies beyond their scope because of a lack of resources and personnel? Should they depend on guesswork and intuition to drive marketing decisions? The answer is NO.
Attaining insights to drive your business is within the reach of any business. The scope and scale may differ, but the focus should be on five key learnings.
Know Your Company
Know Your Customers
Know Your Prospects
Know Your Competitors
Know Your Communications
A good starting point to addressing all of these is an Awareness, Attitude, and Usage (AAU) study. A comprehensive AAU study provides the necessary component measures to understand and define your place in the marketplace and how you are perceived by consumers and prospects. The study can be scaled to fit the needs of the organization based on the size of the market, the number of competitors, and the extent of your budget.
Awareness (the percentage of the target population who are aware of your brand vs. other brands) helps marketers understand their position in the marketplace and the success of their marketing communications programs. Awareness is measured in three components:
Top-of-mind awareness- the percentage of people who mention a brand as the first one that comes to mind.
Unaided awareness- the percentage of mentions of brands that people recall beyond top-of-mind without any prompting.
Aided awareness-the percentage of mentions after providing a list of brand names from which to choose.
Attitude measures provide insights about the reputation of your brand and competing brands in the mind of consumers, leading to the development of your brand positioning. Attitude is usually measured using a series of statements about brand attributes that respondents rate on how well those attributes fit with or describe the relevant brand.
The final part of AAU, Usage, is directly linked with sales and provides insights into the number, frequency, and timing of purchasing combined with the consumer’s behavior and thought process while purchasing the product.
A well-constructed AAU should also include psychographics, lifestyle, and demographic questions that can be used to categorize and segment consumers in the marketplace. Here is how an AAU can provide insights to the five questions:
Know Your Company
Organizations of all sizes must develop detailed strategic plans that describe their mission, goals, and objectives and define key strengths and weaknesses. Through the AAU study, you will develop a greater understanding of the marketplace dynamics and consumers to identify your unique selling proposition and better target your organizations’ goals and objectives to the needs and characteristics of the marketplace.
Know Your Customers
Beyond understanding how consumers perceive your products and services, the AAU study can help you further understand the needs and wants of your customers and characteristics about their lifestyle, media consumption, and demographics that you can leverage to better meet those needs and wan
Know Your Prospects
Like a shark that must swim forward to stay alive, a business organization must grow to survive. Marketing Research is necessary to learn about the differentiating characteristics of your non-customers, your prospects. Deploy the AAU study among prospective customers to measure their attitudes and usage of your and competitor brands as differentiated from your customers. Additionally, the data can be used to identify prospects in homogenous groups or segments that can be differentially targeted with specific marketing programs to gain their adoption of your products or services.
Know Your Competitors
Having insights about your competitors can identify gaps in their delivery of consumer needs and wants to exploit in your tactical marketing. Of course, the AAU will provide a relative measure of brand awareness for your company and that of your competitors. The AAU should also include interviews with customers of your competitors to measure their attitudes and to understand competitive brand positionings. Ultimately, your analysis should “map” or compare your brands’ strengths and position versus those of your competitors.
Know Your Communication
In a world overrun with messaging, how do you get your messages to stand out? The AAU will provide information about how successful your marketing campaigns are in building awareness and supporting your brand positioning. The attitudinal information will also help guide the development and structure of your advertising and promotional messaging to effectively break through the clutter, clearly communicate, and support the positioning and unique selling proposition of your products and services.
For more on this and other Marketing Research topics, follow me on LinkedIn or reach out to me at carl_fusco@yahoo.com if I can help you in any way.
Carl Fusco
Carl Fusco is an accomplished Marketing Research Consultant who helps businesses more effectively solve problems by applying research techniques and data-based insights.
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Standing in the spotlight can be a scary experience. The focus is on the person or persons in the spotlight, while many others view using some form of judgment. Many people in the world today are prepared to attack anyone in any spotlight. It is becoming more and more popular to be nameless and faceless while seeking fame. This combination results from group thinking, not individual thinking, leading to group identity serving as individual identity. This combination is not only silly, but it is also impossible.
Leadership is achieved by people who lead. Group leadership is a flawed concept resulting in a toxic leadership style. It is flawed because the leader-follower relationship involves specific people following a specific person serving as their leader. Team leadership is a viable means to build an organization, either small or large. The definition of team leadership is not the same as the definition of group leadership. Furthermore, both the team and group leadership constructs eradicate the power of signing paychecks. The power is lost because people work for a mysterious team or group definition, not a boss in whatever form a boss exists in the organization structure even though wages are paid every pay cycle. Neither the team nor the group leadership condition forms the employer-employee relationship. Leadership is only successful when a productive leader-follower relationship is present.
We have been working on resolving the impediments suffering the accomplishment of your strategic planning. We concluded you have a people problem, not a worker skills or workspace problem. We have covered many topics preparing for the action item necessary to resolve your most significant impediment: your need to get different people assigned to the work. We talked about the definitions of love. We considered a concept for how to harness the energy supplied to you by love so you can combine the topics we have discussed to help you form a plan to evaluate the candidates you have as you consider offering them a role in your organization where they will help complete your strategic planning work. We acted last week to capture your action items for how you will deliver love to your followers in a table called the Love Action Items list. Today, we will review your work from last week and further prepare it to be understood by those who will report to you in the operation of your organization’s future structure.
YOUR BOSS
Your Love Action Items list requires the support of your boss to be enacted successfully. You require their support and approval for the following reasons. First, you report to them. They must know what you are doing to run your organization. Second, if you hold a similar worldview as the rest of the world that values reason, then you would do well to honor your boss by coming to them for their input, support, and approval of your efforts to run your organization. Third, their role can help provide you access to more resources to develop further your Love Action Items list than the resources you had access to when you built the list you hold in your hand now. Finally, they may shut down your entire effort to run your organization by way of your Love Action Items list.
It is probable your boss will ask how each HOW item matches the organization’s objectives to accomplish the organization’s goals in pursuit of its mission statement. Have a direct match connecting each HOW item to your organization’s objectives presentable in a flow diagram. The diagram can be as simple as boxes with connecting lines and arrowheads showing flow directions. A picture states a thousand words, so use your flow diagrams to your benefit.
It is doubtful your boss will be willing to step through the detail of the materials we have covered up to this point. You will need to summarize in writing the materials we have covered for them to understand better what you are bringing to them. They will most likely need to take some time to step through your materials summary and your Love Action Items list. The best-case scenario is they meet with you a few times to cover your materials summary and your Love Action Items list.
TEST IT OUT
Take your Love Action Items list and run it by some people who are not in your organization. Take it to people who will not share the Love Action Items list with anyone in your organization at this point. This anonymity empowers both you and them to be as transparent as possible in your discussions with them. I am not saying they must agree 100% with everything you have contained in your Love Action Items list. I am saying listen to their reasoning and modify your Love Action Items list by further development as appropriate.
If your Love Action Items list does not contain wording sufficient to satisfy all cognitive levels present in your organization, then you must wordsmith your Love Action Items list to the point all members of your organization can understand clearly the message of each HOW item, understand how each HOW item matches a specific love definition, and why they will benefit by doing the items on your Love Action Items list. The items are your words stating your leadership plan. This Love Action Items list is work you must accomplish without outside writing assistance. It is understood you will use outside editorial assistance to refine your Love Action Items list after you have written it as a draft.
You testing your Love Action Items list also involves discussing your list with your organization’s general counsel and then with your organization’s human resources after you complete discussions with your general counsel. This strategy assurances all codified requirements match the construct of your Love Action Items list by those who are qualified to make this interpretation. Then, your time with human resources assures their support both to you and to any follower of your leadership who feels they are not being treated fairly by the HOW items in your Love Action Items list.
My strategic partner David Daniels shared with me his input on dealing with the people problems at this point in the process. “Every organization has an IN group and an OUT group. NO company avoids this dynamic. Diverse input, can be sidetracked by those that are perceived to be in control. Share on XOften, when this attitude prevails, many employees feel isolated and not included. The result: you get the prevailing wisdom from those who already maintain the dominant position in your organization. This critical part in the strategic process gets derailed and the CEO loses the ability to surface great ideas that could move the company forward.” David went on to say, “Engaging the GC & HR lead is important, but they may be part of the IN group and will resist giving up their power and influence. The CEO needs an extremely competent Chief Diversity Officer who reports directly to the CEO. This person can identify the IN group to guide them to a much better place demonstrating how to include all relevant voices. Please remember, Diversity is far more than race, gender, sexual preference, etc.”
David and I agree on the central point of your role in your organization. You run your organization. You are seeking the input of the general counsel and human resources. You, after gaining their input, then must make the decision to run your organization.
LIGHT IT UP
You are now ready to take your Love Action Items list and write the job announcements for each role replacement you need to be filled to help accomplish your strategic planning work. Your efforts to this point will connect all of the materials we have covered with the focus of using love to energize the light to shine on these job announcements. Plan to post the job announcements in as many ways possible that are suitable for your organization’s privacy requirements.
It is then time to accomplish communications with your organization’s members of the changes you have decided to make. The communications must include you teaching your people the four definitions of love. It is best you do not accomplish these communications before posting the job announcements. You are the leader of the organization. You are acting appropriately to resolve some people problems in your organization that impair the accomplishment of your organization’s strategic planning. There is nothing about your people replacement decision needing the approval of your followers at this point.
The best-case scenario is anyone who does not want to follow your leadership by way of your Love Action Items list will complain about you as a person, not your leadership. This complaint is a misdirection effort to hide the fact they do not want to act in accordance with the items you have listed in your Love Action Items list. The good news here is you are now able to see clearly who no longer wants to follow your leadership, you see perhaps a bit more of why your strategic planning work is not progressing as you prefer, and you have the opportunity to discuss with the complainers why your Love Action Items list is written as it is for you to lead your organization.
If this discussion, not discussions, is not successful for the complainer to understand fully the future of the organization you lead, then the complaining follower will need to leave your organization. Your single discussion, combined with the well-written contents of your Love Action Items list and associated communication materials, serves as more than enough for any adult worker to understand how your organization will now operate. The time you spent with your boss, your general counsel, and human resources sharing the material we have covered and your work to develop your Love Action Items list will pay off for you immensely. You may be a bit rattled by either the person or persons who complain, but there is no place for either you or them to stand on the same ground anymore. You made the decision for how you both need and want to run your organization. It is now time for you to fulfill your leadership decision.
This review effort may take some time to accomplish. Do not be discouraged at the time and effort necessary to accomplish the review effort. We have other actions we need to accomplish before you start interviewing applicants, so we will be working in parallel with your review effort to achieve these actions as you wait for your reviewers to step through your materials summary, your Love Action Items list, and meet with you.
So, I ask you: where do you want to go? I hope your answer is to develop the plans necessary to accomplish the strategy you know you need to achieve to arrive at your desired destination. If this is the case, then let’s get to work. If not, then I wish you the best of everything.
I hope we will see each other here next week. Email me if you need to talk before then.
Stephen Dawson is an executive consultant of technology and business strategy, serving significant international organizations by providing leadership consulting, strategic planning, and executive communications. He has more than thirty years of service and consulting experience in delivering successful international business development and program management outcomes in the US and SE Asia. His weekly column, “Where Do You Want To Go?,” appears on Thursdays.
Dr. Dawson has served in the technology, banking, and hospitality industries. He is a noted strategic planning visionary. His pursuit of music has been matched with his efforts to lead by service to followers. He holds the clear understanding a leader without followers is a person taking a long walk alone.
Stephen has lived his life in the eastern United States, visiting most of the United States and several countries. He is a graduate of the Regent University School of Business & Leadership. Contact him at service@shdawson.com.
I hope you enjoyed our point of view and would like to receive regular posts directly to your email inbox. Toward this end, put your contact information on my mailing list.
Your feedback helps me continue to publish articles that you want to read. Your input is very important to me so; please leave a comment.
In my previous articles, I illustrated that to conduct “good” Marketing Research, you must Ask the “Right” Questions, of the “Right” People. In this final installment in the series, I explore Asking at the “Right” Time.
Timing research correctly should be obvious. Determine when you need the information to make a decision, how long the research will take, and count back on the calendar to determine when you need to start. But, as with asking the “Right” questions of the “Right” people, it is not always that simple. There are five questions to consider relative to timing when planning research:
Is there enough time to conduct the research? Sometimes you just don’t have the time you need to conduct the research that is necessary. Early in my career, a product manager asked me to provide a proposal to research a new product innovation that was under development. It was the end of March. I was excited by the chance to build a comprehensive research program to assess the feasibility of a product, not only new to the company but a true innovation in the industry. I wrote a proposal that included secondary research, qualitative research, and a number of step-wise quantitative studies, all culminating in an estimate of demand for the new product. The whole program would take 12-15 months, which I felt was pretty efficient considering the scope. But the product manager rejected my plan, not because of the expense, but because of the timing. You see, the product under development was already scheduled to be launched on November 2 of that same year. The launch was on a published schedule at a major industry conference and the company CEO was already slated to make the announcement. So, there was no time to execute any research to support the development and launch of the product.
Are you blessed with too much time? I once rushed a research project into the field at the end of the year to make sure that we used up the money that was in our budget. It was a prudent thing to do from a budgetary standpoint, but it wasn’t effective for the business. I presented the results of the research in January of the following year, only to find that the insights were no longer relevant because the entire marketing program upon which the research was predicated was to be radically changed in the next month.
Do you need to have measurements before and after an event or campaign? If you are conducting a Pre-Post study, you must be sure that the Pre phase of the research is completed before the event that you want to measure in the Post phase begins. If you are measuring the effectiveness of an advertising campaign, the Pre phase must be completed before the ad campaign is launched. Sometimes, it’s impossible to conduct a Pre phase. For example, last April, I was asked if we could compare attitudes of people about healthcare before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, without a 1985 DeLorean equipped with a Flux Capacitor, it was impossible to conduct a Pre COVID-19 survey.
Can your timing be interrupted by external forces? I was managing a packaging test for a brand of fruit juices utilizing personal interviews in three cities. We had a tight timeline to finish the research to provide input to the manufacturer to coincide with the completion of the packaging production facility. Everything was right on schedule until the interviewing facility outside of Los Angeles had to evacuate due to out-of-control wildfires. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but external forces beyond our control delayed our project by a full week.
Is this a good time to be conducting any research? There may not be a “Right” time to conduct a research project and perhaps the best decision is to delay or not do any research. For example, you shouldn’t be testing a new technology before you have a working prototype. I once tried to test a new smartphone concept in focus groups when we only had a wooden model to show respondents. They could not understand the concept at all. Delaying the research until we could better demonstrate the product led to more useful insights.
Timing is a critical component of any research program. By asking these five questions as part of your research planning, you can avoid making errors and wasting resources.
For more on this and other Marketing Research topics, follow me on LinkedIn or reach out to me at carl_fusco@yahoo.com if I can help you in any way.
Carl Fusco
Carl Fusco is an accomplished Marketing Research Consultant who helps businesses more effectively solve problems by applying research techniques and data-based insights.
I hope you enjoyed our point of view and would like to receive regular posts directly to your email inbox. Toward this end, put your contact information on my mailing list.
Your feedback helps me continue to publish articles that you want to read. Your input is very important to me so; please leave a comment.
It’s happened to nearly every business. A difficult employee creates problems for the workplace. At Flex HR, our HR professionals are witnessing more and more problematic behavioral types that are leading to major workplace issues. Some blame the rise of the #MeToo movement for these fluctuating attitudes of their staff. Organizations have definitely shifted their focus to inclusivity; however, this could absolutely be indicative of employee conflicts, harassment, and other workplace violent acts in the future.
Behavior that creates, or has the potential to create risk to the business or health and safety concerns of employees is simply inappropriate and unacceptable at any business and should be clearly outlined in the Company’s Handbook. These intolerable behaviors tend to spread like wildfire and lead to a plethora of issues such as decreases in performance, productivity, communication, employee commitment, and even a toxic work environment. Thus, causing an increase in turnover costs and even legal expenses. The various behavior concerns that business owners and managers need to be aware of, create written policies for and take preventive measures on are outlined below.
Conflicts
In the workplace conflict is inevitable. When you have a group of people that all have different personalities, work motivation, process, goals, and beliefs, a clashing of opinions is going to happen. Some typical conflicts tend to be gossip, communication problems, interpersonal, leadership-driven, task-based, unclear job expectations, or resistance to change.
Unresolved conflict issues continue to snowball into more serious problems. Developing effective conflict resolution solutions are an important component for building, trust, good company culture morale, and overall, employee retention. Conflicts can often lead to positive changes when resolved properly.
Harassment
Flex HR defines harassment as unwelcome or unreasonable behavior that demeans, intimidates, or humiliates people either as individuals or as a group.
Bullying
Workplace bullying is a form of harassment that is targeted, health-harming behavior toward one or more employees that is spiteful, offensive, hurtful, mocking, or intimidating. According to the Workplace Bullying Institute, more than 76 million workers in the United States are affected by bullying. There are 4 main types of bullying:
Verbal – slandering, ridiculing, or maligning a person or his or her family with persistent name-calling that is hurtful and humiliating.
Physical – pushing, shoving, kicking, poking, tripping, assault or threat of physical assault, damage to a person’s work area or property.
Gesture – nonverbal gestures that can convey threatening messages.
Exclusion – socially or physically excluding or disregarding a person in work-related activities.
Sexual Harassment – unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature. There are actually different types of sexual harassment:
Quid Pro Quo, or something for something that typically those with supervisory authority hold over an employee.
Hostile Work Environment where there is intimidation or abuse that is unreasonable, usually repetitive (verbal or non-verbal), and can even be physical.
Sexual Favoritism, a form of hostile work environment by which favored treatment for submission and even unwelcomed sexual favors occurs.
A Third-Party is any person who observes someone being harassed or observes sexual conduct and is adversely affected may claim this sexual harassment.
Every manager, supervisor, or employee has an opportunity, or an obligation to report harassment. Any type of harassment must be reported immediately to management, who then reports the act to their HR professional. Jim Cichanski, Founder & CHRO for Flex HR says “the largest problem built into company cultures is the fear of employees going to HR or management to report a complaint. Many times, situations have gone untouched for 2 or 3 years before an employee lodges a concern”. We encourage companies to establish an Ethics Hotline where employees can state their concerns anonymously.
Discrimination
Now more than ever, discrimination in the workplace has become one of the most talked-about HR-related issues. Laws are in place to protect the workforce of a company, but sadly not all organizations are free of hurtful behavior. Any discrimination issues, such as race, age, gender, disability, religion, and citizenship, should be reported and stopped immediately to minimize the damaging effects to the workplace.
Clearly written policies on not allowing discrimination should be included in the handbook that each employee receives upon getting hired and then signs an acknowledgment of receipt.
Violence
1 out of 7 people don’t feel safe at work, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has recently reported. Sadly, isn’t too surprising given the increasing number of violent work incidents over the past couple of years. It’s critical for companies to make their employees feel safe on the job. This starts with the responsibilities of HR to identify their staff starting with the proper candidate screenings, including background checks, and getting to know workers on a more personal level to see the warning signs.
Establishing a zero-tolerance policy is the first step in outlining a workplace violence protection program. The Safe Carry Protection Act of 2014 — more popularly called the “Guns Everywhere Bill” — clarified the rights of employers to ban guns on their property. Under the law, employers can prohibit the possession of firearms in company buildings and company-owned parking lots “as long as the employer is the property owner or has legal control of the property.” If owners want protection inside their facilities it’s highly recommended that a written policy authorizing an employee to carry a weapon be added upon the advanced written approval of the CEO or Owner.
Whether these rules are composed as a part of the company handbook or as its own separate policy, creating a prevention plan, identifying and defining workplace violence, recognizing warning signs, establishing an emergency response plan, and implementing a response team must be documented. For more information check out our previous article Preventing and Dealing With Violence In the Workplace.
HR’s Precautionary Role
Guidance and training managers are an integral role that HR professionals play to minimize the effects of difficult, and or disruptive employee behavior in the workplace. These challenging situations must be identified and acknowledged right away so that HR and upper management can strategize to formulate the best possible solution. Managers and supervisors must take all complaints of alleged behavioral concerns seriously no matter how minor or who is involved. Repeatedly, managers are very reluctant to ascertain the issues at hand and are unprepared to address the individuals involved. Organizations often decide to outsource these HR trepidations to a firm like Flex HR, which will provide superior HR representation to minimize the risk factors and carry out the proper protocol actions.
Communication and education must start from the top down, where management provides hands-on training and safety instruction to ensure all employees know the proper protocol given a harmful or dangerous emergency situation.
Preventative Measures:
Behavioral policies – ensure your HR expert has clearly outlined and written all these behavior concerns down and identified policies and procedures in the Employee Handbook.
Consistent training – ongoing, preventative training sessions will lay the foundation for company behavioral policies and expectations to be followed on a regular basis.
Check-in /Listen – to your staff and be aware of any unusual behavior that could lead to red flags of caution with an individual.
Encourage team & culture-building – activities between co-workers provide an opportunity to interact and recognize the various personalities and work styles of others.
Employee Appreciation – make employees feel important by recognizing their good behavior and hardworking efforts.
Keep a “paper trail” – document any, and all disciplinary actions and conversations so that there is evidence in an event of a legal investigation.
Employee hotline – establish a hotline for your staff to safely, and even anonymously, get the help they need.
Did you know that Flex HR can host a webinar, seminar, or Bootcamp on employee behavior issues? Send us an email at Info@FlexHR.com and mention you saw this article for more information. Flex HR provides Ethics Hotline Outsourcing. This makes employees comfortable that they are not talking to a workmate inside the office and perhaps feeling very uncomfortable doing so, but they can report a situation anonymously to seek the help they need.
About FlexHR
Jim Cichanski – CEO FlexHR
Flex HR is an Administrative Services Organization (ASO) that provides leadership to deliver customized, scalable, and cost-effective HR outsourcing solutions. Flex HR offers a highly collaborative approach to consulting and outsourcing by aligning core human resources competencies needed to achieve the value expected from your company’s most important assets: your people.
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“Only a life lived in the service to others is worth living.” Albert Einstein
Stephen Dawson, DSL
I met Melissa in the summer of 1983 at a teenager retreat. We spent a lot of time together with the other teenagers and alone with each other during the retreat. We became quite fond of one another. We lived several hundred miles from one another. We ended our time together, wanting more of a relationship. Melissa wrote me a letter a month later she had decided there is no future for our relationship. She planned to spend some of her college years in both the United States and France. She did not see a way we could grow our relationship with distance.
I cried for an hour after I read the letter. I knew she was 100% correct. She had much more intelligence than me, much more class than me, and her family was much more wealthy than mine. There were no viable means to grow our relationship. I ran into her several months later, unexpectedly. Our conversation was awkward. We wanted to continue our relationship, but the spark was gone. I have not talked with her or seen her since that day.
Melissa served both me and us with her leadership demonstrated in her letter. She considered the facts, made a choice, and communicated herself well. Her efforts form the basis for a successful leadership strategy.
Consider the attributes of this story. Then, consider how your people, the followers of your leadership, are wondering how to grow a relationship with you. Who makes the first move? Who makes the next move? How will these moves be made? Oh, and there is accomplishing the work they are being paid to do.
I shared in-depth recently about love. I also shared leading by serving is a formal leadership style. I shared over the past several weeks how leaders I identified have demonstrated love to their followers, along with those outside of their organization. If things went well for you this past week, then you are wondering now how to deliver love to your followers. If things did not go well for you last week, then you are wondering now if loving your followers is worth the hassle. Let’s talk about the second item first, and then we will cover the first item.
HASSLE AVOIDANCE OPTIONS
I see there are three options when it comes to relating to people. The first option is to love them. The second option is to hate them. The final option is to care less about them. This final option may be considered to be a form of hate, but I identify it as a form of ambivalence. It is not a form of apathy.
If I know my leader hates me, then there is no point in my trying to follow them. I may be forced to follow them, but I will not perform at my best potential to deliver my work. It seems to me this combination is an inescapable attribute of humanity.
If I know my leader is unsure of either their love or hatred for me, then I am thinking the day will come when they chose to either love or hate me. I will wonder which option they will choose with more and more thought devoted to this wondering until the day comes when they make their choice. I will not focus entirely on my work, as I will have part of my attention direct elsewhere. It seems to me this combination is an inescapable attribute of humanity.
If I know neither hatred nor ambivalence empowers my followers to work fully to accomplish their work, then it makes sense to be the only viable option is to love them. I know of no credible evidence where I should conserve love. Conserve, in the form of holding back at some point. I may be too tired to give love, but this condition is a call to rest instead of a call not to give love. If I want the best return for my investment of time, money, and perhaps even a bit of social status, then it makes sense to me to maximize my investment of love into my followers so they will have the best potential to deliver to me the work I ask them, and perhaps am even paying them, to accomplish.
LOVE DELIVERY OPTIONS
A relationship involves two or more people. If I have thousands of people in my organization, then it is impossible to spend individual time with each other. I must work with my direct reports to accomplish loving all followers of my leadership. I must instruct, model, and require my direct reports to love their direct reports, all the way to the lowest level of the organization. This step is what I call a mandate.
Next, I must know my direct reports are doing what I mandate of them. I must go to those at different levels in my organization and ask them individually to tell me their understanding of the mandate to understand what I required in my mandate is being accomplished. Talking in person is better. Talking by video is better than only audio. However, audio talking is better than not talking. It is more effective to go to the middle of the organization first, then the bottom when having these talks. This approach gives me accurate first-hand findings quite quickly. This step is what I call a measurement.
Next, I take any corrective action necessary to match what I mandated with what I measured to eliminate any variance. This action occurs speedily over a day or so. This step is what I call a demand.
If any of my direct reports disagree with my leadership, then it is best either I change my leadership, or they cease reporting to me. I am willing to discuss how I accomplish my work. I am not willing to discuss what I mandate. A mandate is derived by what I know must happen to preserve the organization, to grow it, and perhaps even turn it over to another leader at some future date. I know a mandate by the intersection of my worldview, my ethics, and my morals.
So, how about the followers? There must be enough of an intersection between leader and follower in their worldview, ethics, and morality for them to be able to accomplish the work in their hand. The best practices of both diversity and inclusion tell me I have a better chance of success with as much input as I can receive. Yes, there is a condition known as analysis paralysis. This condition is when a person cannot act on their work because they are taking in too many considerations. We covered this condition when we discussed being scared. The inputs never stop. So, it is best to have as diverse a follower set as I can have in my organization to ensure I have the most inputs possible. Furthermore, I had better love each of them if I expect each of them to be included in my organization by their choosing to do the work I have put into their hand.
BONDSERVANT
It is my considered position my loving anyone is a choice I must make daily. I must choose to make myself indebted to love. I do not force anyone to love me. It is impossible to achieve this action, so there is no reason to try and do it.
The idea here is to have a continuous conversation that matters. Matters, in the form of contributing productively to the desired outcome. It is spending the time talking about what organization members are supposed to be talking about: their work. Then, the purposeful conversations occur at all levels of the organization.
CAPTURING
Now, it is time to write out your action plan to know with certainty how you are going to lead your followers by means of love. Review the material we covered in our discussion on the topic of love. Then, write out a table with the following structure:
Column One, HOW. Write a sentence of how you will deliver love to your followers.
Column Two, STORGE. This column is populated with entries of YES or NO based on HOW you deliver love.
Column Three, PHILIA. This column is populated with entries of YES or NO based on HOW you deliver love.
Column Four, EROS. This column is populated with entries of YES or NO based on HOW you deliver love.
Column Five, AGAPE. This column is populated with entries of YES or NO based on HOW you deliver love.
This table now contains your Love Action Items list.
You should be able to write out twenty sentences of HOW you will deliver love without expending much effort. I encourage you to keep each sentence as short as possible while maintaining your clarity. Write out the HOW entries first, then come back and identify which love definition each HOW item matches. The result is each row in your table telling a specific action, matched with one or more specific love definitions, for anyone impacted by your leadership to understand your leadership style better. If you need some help with the HOW part, then read some of the work accomplished by Gary Chapman. Chapman realized there are five common love communication mechanisms.
My strategic partner David Daniels shared with me his thoughts on forming the Love Action Items list. “I have always welcomed different points of view, as long as they came from a positioning of the organization’s values and mission. However, once a decision was made, I fully expected my team to embrace and support the direction. I have watched so many situations where leadership gave the appearance of support to the leader and then went out and trashed the direction or lent unenthusiastic support of it.” I agree with David’s viewpoint. It is best to write your Love Action Items list from the position your people changes may involve changing some of your people who report to you directly, whether or not they serve as leaders.
Your analysis of your table containing your Love Action Items list will help you plan to deliver love to your followers. The best news is your followers will know how you are planning to act, know instantly how your actions match your plan and are empowered to contribute to your table by adding rows as you approve. The key here is your HOW items need to be received by your followers, and your followers HOW items need to be received by you.
Now, some good news. The four types of love expressed through five different options work out to be 465 different combination options. Clearly, there is no shortage of options available to anyone desiring to love anyone. Do some reading on permutations and combinatorics to learn more about combinations. Remember, the leader-follower relationship must work in harmony and not be forced to be effective. We will discuss the work you accomplished with your Love Action Items list next week.
So, I ask you: where do you want to go? I hope your answer is to develop the plans necessary to accomplish the strategy you know you need to achieve to arrive at your desired destination. If this is the case, then let’s get to work. If not, then I wish you the best of everything.
I hope we will see each other here next week. Email me if you need to talk before then.
Dr. Stephen H. Dawson, DSL
Executive Strategy Consultant
Dr. Stephen H Dawson
Stephen Dawson is an executive consultant of technology and business strategy, serving significant international organizations by providing leadership consulting, strategic planning, and executive communications. He has more than thirty years of service and consulting experience in delivering successful international business development and program management outcomes in the US and SE Asia. His weekly column, “Where Do You Want To Go?,” appears on Thursdays.
Dr. Dawson has served in the technology, banking, and hospitality industries. He is a noted strategic planning visionary. His pursuit of music has been matched with his efforts to lead by service to followers. He holds the clear understanding a leader without followers is a person taking a long walk alone.
Stephen has lived his life in the eastern United States, visiting most of the United States and several countries. He is a graduate of the Regent University School of Business & Leadership.
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New Century Dynamics Executive Search places a Strategic Marketing Consultant to support a rapidly growing direct-to-consumer subscription meal delivery company.
Jim Weber, President of New Century Dynamics Executive Search, and Managing Partner of ITB Partners, reports that he has helped a client find a Strategic Marketing Consultant to assist them in charting their future.
Working with the senior leadership team, this Consultant will drive the development and plan the execution of a comprehensive growth strategy to achieve the company’s objectives. This Consultant will evaluate the organization’s branding, digital & traditional marketing, partnerships, event planning, public relations, community outreach programs, and customer experience group.
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Kerri Cufaro will present “Current Trends in Recruiting and Selection”
Kerri Cufaro
If Kerri had a nickel for every time she answered “how did you ever get into recruiting?” she would be on a tiny island, that she owns, sipping frozen drinks with little umbrellas. With a finance degree and an investment analyst background, Kerri walked into an Atlanta staffing office in 2003 and sought help finding another analyst position. As the story goes, she was recruited to be a recruiter.
Kerri always boasts, “I absolutely love what I do; I am passionate about being in Talent Acquisition and helping people find jobs; it is the best feeling in the world!”
Working for several staffing agencies and consulting firms as well as internally recruiting for a few corporations, Kerri has a keen knowledge of managing high-performing teams, strategizing with executive leaders, consulting with hiring managers and human resource partners, and sourcing and recruiting stellar candidates. Kerri has successfully managed relationships at all levels between the client/hiring manager and the job seeker throughout the interview process to ensure timely and effective placements.
What have Kerri’s candidates, colleagues and executives said about her?
“honest, passionate … proven veteran … right kind of leader … commitment to excellence and professionalism … motivated and forward-thinking … best recruiter I worked within 50 years”
“Talent Acquisition leader with a successful track record of leading change initiatives, improving processes and operational metrics, exceeding goals, and managing staff.”
Kerri grew up on Long Island in New York, attended the University of Maryland for 3 years (ZTA love) before transferring and graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from Hofstra University. Shortly thereafter, she moved to Atlanta in 1995.
Large consumer companies like Coca-Cola, Proctor & Gamble, and Frito-Lay spend millions of dollars each year on marketing research to gain an edge in a competitive market. They have a large staff of people with PhDs, MMRs, and MBAs creating and managing complex research studies to provide data and insights to support business decisions.
Is there enough time to conduct the research? Sometimes you just don’t have the time you need to conduct the research that is necessary. Early in my career, a product manager asked me to provide a proposal to research a new product innovation that was under development. It was the end of March. I was excited by the chance to build a comprehensive research program to assess the feasibility of a product, not only new to the company but a true innovation in the industry. I wrote a proposal that included secondary research, qualitative research, and a number of step-wise quantitative studies, all culminating in an estimate of demand for the new product. The whole program would take 12-15 months, which I felt was pretty efficient considering the scope. But the product manager rejected my plan, not because of the expense, but because of the timing. You see, the product under development was already scheduled to be launched on November 2 of that same year. The launch was on a published schedule at a major industry conference and the company CEO was already slated to make the announcement. So, there was no time to execute any research to support the development and launch of the product.
Are you blessed with too much time? I once rushed a research project into the field at the end of the year to make sure that we used up the money that was in our budget. It was a prudent thing to do from a budgetary standpoint, but it wasn’t effective for the business. I presented the results of the research in January of the following year, only to find that the insights were no longer relevant because the entire marketing program upon which the research was predicated was to be radically changed in the next month.
Do you need to have measurements before and after an event or campaign? If you are conducting a Pre-Post study, you must be sure that the Pre phase of the research is completed before the event that you want to measure in the Post phase begins. If you are measuring the effectiveness of an advertising campaign, the Pre phase must be completed before the ad campaign is launched. Sometimes, it’s impossible to conduct a Pre phase. For example, last April, I was asked if we could compare attitudes of people about healthcare before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, without a 1985 DeLorean equipped with a Flux Capacitor, it was impossible to conduct a Pre COVID-19 survey.
Can your timing be interrupted by external forces? I was managing a packaging test for a brand of fruit juices utilizing personal interviews in three cities. We had a tight timeline to finish the research to provide input to the manufacturer to coincide with the completion of the packaging production facility. Everything was right on schedule until the interviewing facility outside of Los Angeles had to evacuate due to out-of-control wildfires. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but external forces beyond our control delayed our project by a full week.
Is this a good time to be conducting any research? There may not be a “Right” time to conduct a research project and perhaps the best decision is to delay or not do any research. For example, you shouldn’t be testing a new technology before you have a working prototype. I once tried to test a new smartphone concept in focus groups when we only had a wooden model to show respondents. They could not understand the concept at all. Delaying the research until we could better demonstrate the product led to more useful insights.
