Category Archives: Helpful Hints

June 3, 2015 · 1:01 pm

GenY And Their Managers

If you follow tech at all you’re probably aware that Mary Meeker‘s annual report on the state of digital came out a couple of weeks ago.  It’s always a great read and gives excellent thinking on where we’re all heading on the technology front.  As an aside, by now I hope we all recognize that no matter what business we’re in, what’s happening with the internet and with technology will affect us, so this is probably worth a few minutes of reading.

Buried in the report is a nugget that’s our topic today.  It has to do with what young employees ages 18-34 (often called GenY or Millenials) want out of their jobs vs. what their managers believe those Millennials want.  The differences are startling and I believe have great implications.  Let’s see what you think.

If you have a look at the chart, you’ll see that managers are pretty clueless.  They believe that most younger employees are after big bucks while the truth is that only 27% of actual Millennials report that as an important factor.  Granted, the data is a couple of years old but I doubt things have changed very much.  Where the Millennials say they want “meaningful work” and the importance they place on feeling a “sense of accomplishment,” mangers dismiss those factors as being important almost entirely. Quite the disconnect.

I suspect that this is due to a couple of things.  First, I’ve known many managers who rarely interact with people several layers “beneath” them.  Maybe a “hello” at a holiday party is as close as they get.  One could write that off to the demands of the job and the lack of time in the day.  That’s crap – you need to make an effort and the people who make the actual work happen are worth the effort.

More importantly, I suspect that for many of these disconnected managers this is how they treat their customers as well.  They don’t make an effort to understand the truth about their customers’ needs and wants, believing that they have a full understanding already.  And we wonder why businesses fail…

What your staff wants, how they value work, and how their priorities might differ from yours is something about which you shouldn’t be guessing.  Are you?

 

 

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May 27, 2015 · 10:37 am

Working For Free

Given my topic this morning, this could be the shortest post ever. With respect to doing work for prospective clients or others without being compensated, it’s a one word proposition:

Don’t.

Let me explain, after my 7 years in consulting, why I feel this way. Yes, I do some pro bono work but that’s different. Helping out a charity or other worthy cause is different from helping a for-profit. Similarly, I try to be a resource for my friends, and have looked at many friends’ business plans, websites, social media plans, and analytics over the years with zero expectation of reciprocity (I know they will be there in a heartbeat if I need something).

What I’m talking about today is spec work. Obviously I realize you need to discuss the prospective client’s business issues with them ahead of time in order to figure out the scope of work. You might even want to begin to do a bit of a deep dive so you can pinpoint how best to move their business forward. That’s an exercise for ME, so I can establish a mutually beneficial working relationship and we (the client and I) make best use of the time they’re buying. Over time the focus of the work always changes as the business changes and grows, but you need to have a starting point.

That said, there is a difference between identifying the issues and opportunities and providing a roadmap to a solution. When clients demand lots and lots of spec work, I politely but firmly say “no.”  Much of why people hire me is for the expertise that comes from experience.  The strategic and tactical documents I give clients are roadmaps.  They probably believe they can find people with less experience and knowledge to follow that map.  They forget that the business road usually takes unanticipated turns after which it’s easy to become lost.  Who gets the blame?  The map maker (me!) so I’d like to be in the car with them to get them pointed back in the right direction.

A client paying for your advice is their skin in the game.  It also makes them pay attention.  I don’t like to spend my time providing guidance and observations that, ultimately, get ignored.  Inevitably the recipient makes the mistake(s) that I warned were going to be the outcome of their direction or decision. It is a waste of both of our time.

Your job is to remind them of the value (NOT the cost) of what you bring them and then to deliver.  The old saw about free advice usually being worth what you pay for it rings true to most clients.  To me as well.  You?

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May 11, 2015 · 9:39 am

What Did You Learn Today?

On those rare occasions when the entire family would gather at the dinner table when I was a kid, one of the inevitable questions posed by one parent or the other was “what did you learn today?”. My brother or sister or I would launch into a minimalist explanation of whatever was shoveled our way in school, trying desperately to give a quick answer and let the other kid get grilled. The question, however, has stuck with me and it’s a good one for each of us to ask ourselves.

Business is constantly changing. Obviously so are the tools with which we attack our business issues. I routinely use a number of them – social media, web analytics, SEM, and CRM – which didn’t exist several years ago and the digital world in which I work most of the time didn’t exist at all (save for in science fiction novels) when I left my formal schooling several decades ago.

I use that question when I interview people –  “tell me something you’ve learned recently.” I’m not really looking for a specific skill. I want to be sure that the candidate feels an imperative to keep learning and to continually grow their skill set to keep up with a constantly changing business world. It’s even better if they don’t tell me about a program their employer sent them to – who knows if they went willingly. If they’re willing to invest in themselves the odds are that I can safely make an investment too.

So let’s start the week by asking ourselves that question – “what did I learn today?”  If you don’t really have a good answer, maybe it’s time to think about the blind spots in your skill set and to put together a plan to fix them.  You might not like analytics but I can pretty much guarantee they’re having an impact on your business.  I’m not particularly fond of accounting but I’ve learned how to read financial statements as well as how they’re put together and why.  One of the best things about our connected world is that much of the world’s learning is accessible to anyone, or at least to anyone with a motivation to absorb something new.  You?

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