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I have been talking with quite a few teens lately (and no I didn’t need a translation service to allow this to happen). Teens traditionally see themselves as 10 foot tall and indestructible. There have been a myriad of scientific studies explaining why this is the case … and yet to date all our focus has been on stopping our teens doing physical damage to themselves with cars and alcohol.

What I have noticed though is teens really don’t have any clue of the concept of “forever”. They think in the now which is all great and fun, but what happens when now turns into tomorrow and tomorrow after that. What am I talking about?

Teens post all sorts of wonderful and creative things on Facebook and Twitter. Sharing their birthday seems like a lot of fun – but it opens the way to identity theft. Once your birthday is public on the net – it stays there, no matter how much you try to remove it later.

Teens make throwaway lines about other students, parents, teachers and friends. They also make less than positive comments about social issues, work and study. These are the equivalent of getting these comments tattooed onto their skin. They last and will impact on future employability.

Photos of them in strange costumes and doing things and people make the net and can’t be removed. It used to be that embarrassing photos were the province of parents at your 21st, now they are there forever.

Listening to Bernard Salt on 612ABC this week he raised the issue of our future MPs and Prime Minister in years to come. If today is anything to go by, when someone aspires to public office the media checks out all the dirt they can find on the net. I have this vision of our future leaders being Amish, as they are the only ones without embarrassing historical photos & comments on the net. Unless our culture of digging for dirt changes, it will make our political ranks rather thin.

The other problem is their comments stick. Social media sites rank well in search engines. If they make a derogatory comment about a teacher or other person (whether true or not), then these comments tend to appear at the top of Google.  This damages the person’s reputation and can cause amazing stress.

Most people don’t know how to deal with this, so there is a whole new industry out there doing “Online Reputation Management” – cleaning up the electronic mess left by unthinking people.

So, what can we do about it? Well for my kids I have tried to explain it like this…  “Remember when you loved Barbie. Everything had to be Barbie and pink. Now imagine that you had had Barbie tattooed onto your skin back then. Would you be happy with your tattoo today? Your tastes change. Tattoos are like wearing the same set of clothes for the rest of your life. Writing anything on the web is like getting a tattoo. Whatever you write stays with you forever, so you had better seriously work out what you want to wear for the rest of your life when you write each word”.

I have no idea if my little homily has worked with my kids, but we can only hope. What do you do to help the next generation understand net permanence?

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance Copywriter

I have just been going back through some New Scientist issues. There was an interesting article on the psychology behind why sports people take drugs and while others stay clean. In summary, the series of studies referred to found:

• those motivated more by a desire to beat others had more permissive attitudes to doping than those who were motivated more by mastering their sport

• athletes who said their coaches frequently criticised them, punished them for mistakes, encouraged rivalries and gave unequal recognition to teammates had the most favourable attitudes towards doping.

They also found that those who did take the drugs did so because they felt they had to do so to compete.  They also found health concerns of taking banned substances caused very little mental concern, and yet the feelings of guilt about letting themselves and their families down weighed the most heavily.

So what? Well these studies give us an insight into a lot of other areas (and yes the purists would say we need to test each area individually to ensure there is a correlation).

The factors causing people to cheat sound a heck of a lot like a lot of workplaces. How many stock traders for example are motivated more by a desire to beat the other traders than simply master the stock-market? How many company directors want to beat the competition rather than just being great at what they do? Do these feelings encourage breaking the law?

What about managers and how they manage. How many managers either deliberately or inadvertently create rivalries between team members and other work areas? How many managers punish people for mistakes or give unequal recognition? By their actions are they creating the toxic work culture that encourages people to take short-cuts with the truth?

This leads to some other interesting ideas in terms of marketing. For example – emphasising how you are letting yourself and your family down may be more effective in cutting smoking than focusing on health warnings.

Imagine the shift in behaviour of some of our footy larrikans if the impact their drinking and partying had on their family or team members.  Video footage of fallen greats wives, kids and parents giving “victim impact” statements of how it felt to be front page news may be more powerful than bravado filled chats.

Teaching ethics or stopping shoplifting by focusing on the impact a breach has on your family may be more effective than hundreds of hours of “thou shalt not” teachings. Perhaps politicians should be shown video footage of fallen QLD politicians heading off the jail, complete with comments from their spouses and families about the impact on their lives as part of their ethics programs.

It pays to keep in touch with studies looking at unravelling human behaviour. How can you implement this in your business?

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance Writer

Over the past few years we have heard a lot of managers complaining about the time their employees spend on Facebook. Many companies have taken drastic measures to close their internet access to these types of sites, while others have looked the other way.

Managers who are not technologically savvy deal with the issue as atraditional performance issue – that social media reduces time available for work in the same way that smoking breaks limit the available time for work.

Managers who are technologically savvy argue this is the way the world is going, and to retain good employees they need to allow a window into that world.

In the mean time we have scientists trying to prove that open access is great for productivity or is the worst thing possible for productivity, depending on who has funded the study.

But … all of these issues pale into nothingness compared with the whole raft of ethical issues arising from social media that have not adequately been debated.

What am I talking about?

• Managers “Googling” potential candidates to see what their social profiles may say about them. Smart managers ask more questions about candidates who list their hobbies as “getting wasted every night with mates”. Is this an invasion of privacy or should candidates realise that their information is public domain once they have posted it on sites such as MySpace and Facebook?

• Companies putting in permanent Google Alerts, Blog searches and Twitter searches to alert them whenever their companies’ name is mentioned in the social media – and then disciplining or sacking people who vent their anger at the boss in social media.  Recently a US coach was fined for an ill-considered comment on Twitter about the referee after a match.

• Companies are starting to hire Social Media Managers and teams to find and respond to customer complaints in social media. But what happens if they cross over the line into deliberately planting waves of positive stories? We all know spin happens – but where is the grey line between spin, propaganda and bald faced lies?  How do these strategies blend with corporate Codes of Conduct? What happens to the person who disagrees with completing a positive spin directive on moral or ethical grounds.

• Social media team members in  a company building a fantastic following on Twitter while they talk about their company – then being hired to work elsewhere. Who owns the followers – the company or the individual? (Thanks Duct Tape Marketing for raising this issue)

• Employees responding to questions on forums and sites like LinkedIn arguing that this is building the company profile, when they really are aiming to build their online personal profile and expertise (and then leave).

• Insider trading becomes much murkier, as people track comments by employees about their organisation in the social media, which can then impact on share prices.

• Managers deliberatly searching out the Twitter and Facebook accounts of their team and either joining as a friend/follower or just regularly checking in to see what is being said/done. Visa Versa for employees doing the same for managers accounts.

At this point of time, the ethical discussion about what is acceptable and appropriate within companies and within society around social media has not yet been had. There are some blanket policies in HR manuals and employee manuals, but in most cases managers have not had any discussion with their team about the relevance and impact of these policies.

Many managers are flying blind and don’t yet know what questions to ask to even begin the discussion with their team. Given at least 40% of all small businesses don’t yet own a website, let alone any form of social media presence – how many of these managers will have the knowledge or skills to be able to deal with these questions when they arise in their company?

For example, I put in a Twitter search to track people tweeting about their performance reviews. Comments like:

“I have to worry about costs on my performance review? #FAIL! I only deploy projects on free software from now on. No support contracts.”

“I sure hope the new bosses will review our payscales. @ev STILL hasn’t done my last performance review”

“I have my annual performance review today. No raises, so what’s the point?”

“Performance review was totally boring.”

“Annual performance review meeting coming up top of the hour. Bogosity shall ensue I’m sure.”

“There’s one person I work with who I’d really like to vote off the island. Typically, she’s now responsible for my performance review. Blah.”

“Just got a message from YMCA saying I have a performance review tomorrow- only worked once in the last 7 months. It’ll probably be bad.”

These are all just samples from a 3 day period. It isn’t hard to figure out where these people work – in most cases it is recorded in their profiles. How would you as a manager feel if one of your employees tweeted to the world about you and your reviews in that way? What action would you take? Would you even know how to find out what they were saying?

What other ethical questions do you think that social media creating for managers?

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – HR writers

Many creative businesses rely on the business owner’s creative spark.

Recently my colleague at EP Designs has not been well – so lost her creative spark. Another colleague in a local creative business has became jaded and couldn’t find excitement in her work any more.

What happened to their passion and creativity? Often through illness or disaster people get out of the routine of being creative. They then start to layer on fear about whether they still have it in them, which builds more fear about what if they try … and fail.

Others find they lose their creativity when the work they are doing is not quite the sort of creativity they really thrive on. For example if they love painting huge modern masterpieces and all their clients want are small 8×10 paintings of traditional seascapes. Yes, they are being creative, but they are using their creativity in ways that don’t fill their souls – so they slowly wither and die inside.

What is the way out when you have lost your spark? I usually recommend first taking a few days breather by the sea or in the mountains just to take yourself out of the situation.

Then have a go at creating something that will not be sold – it is just for the joy of creating. Now this can be within your genre – painting, design, writing or whatever, or it can be totally left field – carpentry, gardening, finger painting.

The trick is to reconnect with the fun of creating something without the pressure of it having to be for money.

Once you have found your creative fun side, then reconnect with what exactly you do love to create and why – and be more choosy about the clients or projects you accept in future.

Don’t waste your creative gifts doing things that you don’t love. Find your passion and do that – and do it well. Clients will come if you work from your truth and your strength, so take time to rediscover your spark.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance writers

Today as I was sitting in on a meeting on behalf of a client, I couldn’t help but be fascinated with the manager sitting opposite.

She talked a lot about how important it was to focus on people’s strengths as a way to build their skills and to boost productivity …

… yet she was so clearly in the wrong job it was frightening.

The role in the Not For Profit this manager occupied needed a high degree of human touch  and interaction. It required a deep love of people and the ability to connect and care for each person. The manager had her heart in the right place, and knew all of the theories … but she did not have the intrinsic qualities the role needed.

However, she was obviously an exceptional policy maker and strategic thinker. Her focus was on the big picture to the extent that she missed the common touch. Place her in a policy role and she would blossom and the organisation would grow exponentially.  I would have fought tooth and nail to have her in one of my policy teams in the past as she was a real natural. But in her present role she struggled with what was really needed and did not seem aware of the gap.

How many other managers and business owners know the theory, and know they should only work in their “flow” or strength areas – and yet are not truly aware of what their signature strengths are?

If you are not sure what these are for you, what do you find easy that other people find hard? Where do you lose track of time?

By discovering your strengths and capitalising on them you will boost the profits of your business as well as your job satisfaction.  So first focus on your strengths.

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance copywriters

I was reading the Tall Poppy blog where Ann talked about the invisible leader – the person who is not up front leading the troops but staying behind bringing issues into focus, marshalling people and resources and planning for the future.

It is similar to the concept of Leader as Servant by Robert Greenleaf

“It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead…The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: do those served grow as persons, do they grow while being served, become healthier, wider, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?”

Through extensive work with Greenleaf, Larry Spears, the director of the Robert K. Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, identified ten characteristics, which describe the essence of a servant leader. The characteristics are listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of others, and building community.

Unlike leadership approaches with a top-down hierachicalstyle, Servant Leadership instead emphasizes collaboration, trust, empathy, and the ethical use of power. At heart, the individual is a servant first, making the conscious decision to lead in order to better serve others, not to increase their own power. The objective is to enhance the growth of individuals in the organization and increase teamwork and personal involvement.

(Source Wikipedia)

This style of leadership naturally suits women – Quentin Bryce who has been just announced Governor-General of Australia epitomizes the servant leader style of leadership.

In a workplace the servant leader is often not the nominated “boss” of the company – often it is the Executive Assistant, wife of the boss or some other female role within the company. These women are the real leaders of the company – often invisible, generally under-appreciated and yet without them the company would not be financially successful.

At your next meeting look for the traits of the servant leader – see if you can spot the true organisational leader from the one in the role. The results may surprise you.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff
Heart Harmony

Today my kids go back to school after a long summer break. Last night as we lay talking about their hopes and fears for the year it became clear one fear was quite strong – “would they make a mistake and be embarrassed in front of everyone”?

The fear of embarrassment is a fear for people no matter their age. The fear that you will make a mistake and people will laugh at you can paralyse you from doing anything.

How can you break that fear? Telling it to go away won’t cut it. Sometimes you just need to laugh at the fear and learn from others who have had the very experience you fear the most (and survived).

As a leader – sometimes you have to be the one who shares your experiences to your team, to allow yourself to be open and vulnerable to help others to grow. So here is the story of my worst embarrassment – and how I survived.

Picture a tall, gangly, pimply 12 year old (me). I had just started a catholic high school in the fringes of Sydney and knew no one at the school when I started. It was about 2 months into the school year – still warm as I was enjoying sitting on the bench outside my classroom in the sunshine.

Our classroom had windows that opened up and out and I was sitting beneath one of the open windows. A girl popped her head out of the window and started teasing me – I took it silently for a few minutes before I reached up and started to shut the window to silence her words. The only problem was the girl just at that moment leant even further forward, so the window smashed onto her head – and the glass shattered.

I was marched to the office in tears and fear and told by the principal (a very stern nun) that I was to inform my parents that night what I had done and return the next morning with a letter from my parents about what they would do about my error.

Fast forward a few hours – I used to catch the bus down to the local library after school. One of the boys at the library from the boys school near us handed me a note. It was a typical teenage love note all full of how much he liked me and asking me to be his girlfriend. The day wasn’t a total loss after all!

That night I copped a hiding from my parents and was handed a letter to give to the Principal in the morning saying what had been done at home and how they were going to pay for the broken window.

The next day I walked with wobbly legs and dry mouth into the Principal’s office. I handed the Principal the note – watched her read it and then with growing horror realised that I had given her the note from the boy and not my parents. My heart sank beneath my feet and I grabbed the note and ran out of the office.

I wanted to curl up and die from embarassment. … But I didn’t. The Principal never mentioned it again. My parents had a great laugh about it and my friends helped me through it.

I didn’t die. The world moved on. In a few short weeks it was old news in the school.

If you have ever stuffed up ask yourself – what will this really matter in a few weeks time. Will this really make a difference to the world? Yes, there will be times when you are embarrassed – but if you don’t stuff up every now and again you aren’t human.

How do you deal with a team member or colleague that has made a mistake? Do you make it easy on them or do you make their embarrassment harder to deal with?

Do you share your stories with your team? Love to hear your thoughts.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff
Heart Harmony