Back from Vacation

I took some time off to revitalize this holiday and it has taken me awhile to get back in the swing of it all. One of my biggest lessons learned as a manager of a large group of people is take care of yourself first. If you are run down, stressed out or on edge it affects more people than you realize. When you have positive energy and are optimistic that ignites others. Take a moment to feel the difference in energy in your office before the holiday and after. If you see leaders in your office or company spreading negativity work to refocus them. You may be surprised that when you find the source a shift can take place quickly. The key: find it before it becomes an epidemic.

Understand Yourself Personally

I have been struck by all the stories about Oprah leaving daytime television. At the root of it all is her ability to follow her intuition and as Gayle King said, "..knowing when to say no and when it is time to go, is worth studying at every business graduate school in the country." She always knew the talk show was the core of her brand and she took the relationship with her viewers very seriously. At the same time it seems she understood what was important to herself personally. She maintained control of her company, pursued projects she believed in, endorsed people she trusted and stuck with a business model she understood. All important lessons for corporate leaders.

Can A Southern Gal “Unfriend”?

The newly named word of the year according to the New Oxford American Dictionary is “unfriend.” It beat out words including “netbook” and “hashtag”. As technology evolves we all adopt new words, but the key question for this one is how do we put it into action?

According to one article entitled “ 12 Great Tales of De-Friending” it seems that there can be fall out and hurt feelings if this is not handled well. An agency is insulted by someone leaving and everyone drops him at once or politics come between friends. Since so many of us have a mix of professional and personal contacts in our Facebook or linkedin lists, I suggest we carefully consider an unfriend strategy.

What does that mean? In my mind it means going back to the manners you learned growing up. Consider whose feelings will be hurt, who else might see how you behaved and be affected, and how you will be perceived. We have now opened many aspects of our lives to the scrutiny of others and who we associate with and how we treat them in the social space is now part of our reputation.

PRWeek Guest Blogger

I wanted to let you know I am the guest blogger on PRWeek's website this week. The key topics are around digital transformation. As leaders if you follow the columns you will see I believe it is critical for each of us to personally transform and embrace this new space. We can opt in to training but it takes a daily commitment to listening and participating in the social media space to be able to counsel clients.

Are you a value add or a value minus?

As the Dilbert strip above demonstrates you can chime in without much value. My goal as a manager is to contribute to each meeting I attend. That can mean asking questions that lead a team in a new direction, bringing forth a unique point-of-view or helping them combine information to create a new outcome. Sometimes you can rest on the years of experience you bring in the room; however, most of the time it means doing your homework and thinking about the content in advance. And, if you have no value to add, my best advice is to cancel the meeting or stay quiet and let the team work it through themselves. Just talking for the sake of it never pays off.

Why Employee Engagement Is the New Buzz Word

Every human resources department today seems to be worried about employee engagement.
As the recession improves and jobs open up companies are worried about their best jumping ship. Thus, the question how to engage them now and what drives loyalty. According to Paul Herbert of Business Week the topic should be flipped to discuss poor management. Managers with vision who stretch employees and provide opportunities for them to strive do not need to discuss employee engagement he argues.

You have 24 seconds-Go

As managers I believe we can often do a better job planning ahead for meetings and headlining. How many times do you begin typing on your bb or tuning out because you truly do not feel you need the level of detail or jargon being presented? I came across an older story about a crowd sourcing contest to take 24 seconds to Save the World for MTN Dew. What I found fascinating was what you could communicate in 24 seconds. In the attention deficit world we have today managers need to learn to headline and quickly communicate key points.