Archive for CEO
How Do You Define a Leadership Brand?
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That was the question that Bea Fields, a top leadership coach, asked 14 business leaders. I’m flattered that she included me in that group.
There were a variety of answers, as you might expect. She printed them, including mine, in her post Gaining Loyal Customer By Building a Strong Leadership Brand.
Bea’s Definition
Bea’s summarized own take on the question as follows, “When you build a brand based on true, enduring leadership, each person in the company not only speaks about the brand and the promises you make to your customers in your marketing strategies… each person in your company truly lives those promises every day in both their personal and professional lives…”
What is Your Definition?
Both personal and company branding can be confounding to define. How do you define your leadership brand? Don’t be shy. Please leave a comment below.
Woman to Head IBM and No One Mentions It
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Virginia Rometty
Dow Jones reported late yesterday afternoon that Virginia M. Rometty will become IBM’s new president and chief executive. History was made because the Dow Jones article did not mention her gender. No headline that a woman is taking the reins. Just a straightforward story. Oh, have we come a long way, baby.
I just had to write about this because it’s so significant for the women who were the pioneers in establishing equality for women in the workplace. It took a long time but a woman CEO is no longer considered unusual. There still aren’t enough of them. This condensed Dow Jones article is another sign that it isn’t unusual for a highly-capable woman to become CEO of a Fortune 500 company without it being a big deal. Whoopee!
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) tapped company executive Virginia M. Rometty as its new president and chief executive, electing a company insider who was long seen as a front-runner to succeed current chairman and CEO Samuel J. Palmisano. Read More→
Answers to the Quiz: Is Your Company Socially Media Savvy?
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A couple of weeks ago, we posted a quiz: “Is Your Company Socially Media Savvy?”
My guest author, Bea Fields, asked these questions and, while the responses keep dribbling in, I decided to stop at 25 so that I could report the cumulative scores.
I’ll do that later in this post. But if you haven’t taken the quiz before, why not have a little fun.
Take the Quiz
Here are the questions. Cover the bottom of the page and answer “Yes” or “No” for each question. Then see how you scored:
- Our company is blogging a minimum of two times per week to add value to the lives of our customers and to keep them constantly updated on company events.
- Social networking (use of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) permeates our company. It is being given top priority in our marketing department and is being used as a way to gain customer feedback to help us improve our products and services.
- Our company has employed a social media professional/professionals to manage our social networking programs to ensure their effectiveness across all departments.
- We have educated our entire company about the use of social networking and how to leverage social sites to expand our business partnerships and to increase our company’s visibility online.
- We have integrated our social media sites into our business website and mobile devices such as smart phones and iPads.
- Our company is using YouTube as a way to let our customers actually see our top leaders and to learn more about them as people.
- We are using tools like Facebook and Twitter to follow current trends and discussions so that we can improve our products and services and recruit top talent.
How Did You Score?
If you answered “Yes” to 6-7 of these questions, congratulations! You are moving in the right direction of being social media savvy, and will want to refine any steps you are not currently taking.
If you answered “Yes” to 3-5 of these questions, you are moving in the right direction and you still have some work to do.
If you answered “Yes” to less than 3 of the questions, you are a beginner and bringing in a social media expert to help you move forward with your social media marketing will make you more competitive.
If you answered “No” to all the questions in the quiz, the time is now to begin a very proactive campaign to begin using social media and leveraging it so that you can stay competitive in your industry. If you do not take these steps your future clients will more than likely be choosing one of your competitors who is social media savvy so that they can interact with company employees and receive the value that you cannot provide without using new media.
How Did Respondents Score?
Here are the results from the people who took the online quiz.
- Yes: 10 No: 15
- Yes: 17 No: 8
- Yes: 10 No: 15
- Yes: 16 No: 9
- Yes: 16 No: 9
- Yes: 7 No: 18
- Yes: 21 No: 4
As you can see, our respondents are quite media savvy – barely savvy, though, on question 6 which asked about their use of YouTube. That’s the next frontier for companies that want to integrate all their social and online marketing activities.
If you just took the quiz and need help with your social media program, contact Jeannette Paladino.
Blame Our Leaders for Incivility in Politics and a Hostile Workplace
Posted by: | CommentsThat’s the conclusion of a new report Civility in America 2011. The 2011 online survey* was conducted in May among 1,000 American adults to assess attitudes towards civility online, in the workforce, in the classroom and in politics.
I was particularly struck by the statistics on workplace civility: 65% of the respondents blame corporate leadership for making the workplace more uncivil.
More than 70% of Americans consider political campaigns, pop culture, the media, government and the music industry hubs of incivility. Not surprisingly, Congressional Democrats, Congressional Republicans and Tea Party supporters are all viewed as more uncivil than civil.
According to the study, “while more than one-third (39%) expected things to turn less civil when surveyed in 2010, now more than one out of two Americans — 55% — expect a lack of civility to become the norm. Only nine percent in this year’s survey expect civility to get better compared to 26% who expected some relief last year. Incivility seems to be here to stay.”
Workplace Incivility Hurts Sales
Approximately seven in 10 Americans (69%) have either stopped buying from a company or have re-evaluated their opinions of a company because someone from that company was uncivil in their interaction, says the study. Not good for sales or a company’s brand. In another disturbing finding, over four in 10 Americans — 43% — have experienced incivility at work.
Respondents blame workplace leadership and other employees for the growing incivility problem. As I wrote in an earlier post, Treating Fired Employees Like Criminals, losing a job can be devastating. But when companies mistreat employees they are letting go, it poisons the workplace and, now we learn, can add to incivility.
With the 2012 Presidential campaign heating up, I guess we need to be resigned to even more incivility as the battle lines are drawn by politicians and we’re subjected to mud slinging in commercials. How sad.
*Study sponsored by Weber Shandwick and Powell Tate and conducted by KRC Research
