Timeless Resources

I'm a continuous learner and I love sharing tools, resources and tidbits with others.  Through the years I've learned that just because I know and embrace something, life can get in the way of others seizing these offered opportunities.  It has been such a treat, to have a new colleague enthusiastically use resources I'd long ago provided that had been forgotten by other tenured colleagues.

When we provide ongoing opportunities, we don't always know what the ultimate impact might be.

Link, Tweet and Friend Like a Pro in 2013

Social media is an important part of our lives.  We first presented a Link, Tweet and Friend Like a Pro panel  four years ago.  We just engaged two social media experts, Raissa Evans (Executive Manager of Practice Growth, PKF Texas) and Tracie Welch Brenton (Director, Audience Development, Houston Business Journal) to share their expertise for a capacity crowd at a Comerica Bank Business Forum today.

Tracie and Raissa very successfully embrace social media in their professional and personal lives. They enthusiastically shared valuable strategies, tips, do's, don'ts, success stories and helpful encouragement to launch or expand social media as a crucial, cost-effective part of our attendees' overall marketing and business development plans.

Though, Raissa and Tracie are terrific marketers with strong technology interest, education and experience, I am proof that technology acumen isn't a prerequisite to diving in to social media.  Tracie and Raissa both emphasized the importance of intentional messaging that is beneficial to your target audience.  They both have access to colleagues who have very valuable content to share (reporters and CPAs) and have the opportunity help extend their expertise to others.

Some take-aways from their enlightening dialogue include:

• Know and cater to your audience
• Provide interesting, useful content - don't forget that pictures speak volumes
• Post regularly
• Be authentic, consistent and human
• Don't over-promote
• Listen twice as often as you post
• Time is the biggest investment in social media - use it strategically and wisely

Accountable

It's easy to overestimate the good things we do and underestimate the things that don't meet expectations.  Wish I could invent a general goal tracker that's as exacting as some of the exercise tools I use! 

Regardless of how active I think I am during the day, my electronic trackers, don't let me hedge.  These devices help me hold myself accountable for the activity level and distance I want to achieve.  Without them, I fear, I'd forget the days an early meeting precludes a run, and mentally substitute busyness for actual physical activity. 

Accountability is crucial for goal attainment.  We can monitor ourselves, be monitored by others and/or rely on tools.  The ideal formula includes all three.

Paintdrops Weren't Falling on Our Heads

Years ago, my husband and I realized that we were "have it done for yourselfers" rather than do-it-yourselfers".  However, I recently agreed to join my Comerica colleagues for 4 hours of paining at a United Way agency for Comerica's national day of service.

Thankfully, visions of paintdrops falling on my head, did not materialize.  One of our committed colleagues engaged her accomplished painting contractor husband.  He and she saved the day!

Our small, but eager team was effectively directed to achieve a project that appeared to exceed our abilities.  This experience reminded me that leaders often situationally emerge.

We can keep paintdrops from falling on our heads by bringing the right tools and engaging the best team members.

Don't Forget

I rarely misplace or forget things, but one day this week I arrived home without my cell phone.  Rather than make the trek back to the office to retrieve it, I left the electronic leash disconnected until the next morning. The biggest angst came from hoping that I'd actually left it in my office rather than in a conference room or the 1st floor building restroom (our company restroom was closed for cleaning as I left for the day). 

Thankfully my cell phone was waiting in my office with all the emails, texts and calls (listed in the volume order of my mobile interactions).

To avoid future angst, I've adopted the 4 P checklist for leaving my office:

• Purse
• Phone
• Photo ID
• PC

Consciousness counts.  These 4 Ps make me stop and assess before I depart.

Anything But Manila

Several comments were made about my bright animal print file folder at a meeting last week.  Not only do non-traditional folders provide a festive touch, they are easy to find when you've put them aside to shake hands at a meeting.  My insistence on anything but manila folders for meetings began after I arrived at a podium to deliver remarks and discovered my colleague's photo release forms rather than my notes.  Fortunately, I'd studied the material and no one knew that I was winging it until my post-event confession to the team.

Fitting in has its advantages, but so does standing out.  Knowing when to apply each adds to success.

Too Much Information

We've all been exposed to more information than we desire from over-eager friends and colleagues.  Recently I was presented an offer that was literally too good to be true - 90% discount on an incredible array of personal development books and tools from many noted experts.  My initial reaction was to seize this opportunity.  However, as I reviewed the offer, I opted not to purchase.  There was too much great information.  I knew that not being able to devote time to use each of these now available options would increase rather than reduce my stress level.

In offers and in life, balance is supreme.

LinkedIn

Last Friday I received one of 1 million messages sent by Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder and Chairman of LinkedIn, to the first million LinkedIn subscribers.  He was announcing an amazing milestone: 100 million subscribers.  LinkedIn is a robust, useful business tool and I was delighted to learn from his message that I was among the first half million users. 

Help! My Networking is Not Working!

Here are highlights from my presentation for our Sterling Bank Women’s Business Initiative luncheon in San Antonio this week:

When we find that our networking is not working it’s almost always because we’re not working for our network!  When we work for our network, our network will be effective. We need to create long-term mutually supportive relationships.

We must give before we can expect to get.

We learned the fundamentals of networking in kindergarten:

“Make new friends and keep the old

Some are silver and others are gold.”

Effective networking is a game where everyone wins.  Though our gamesmanship improves from kindergarten through our lives, we learn from each game we play.

Four childhood and one adult game provide networking dos and don’ts:

1. Tag – It’s quick and brief with no meaningful interaction, but at least we’re in the game. Engagement is necessary.
2. Barrel of monkeys – Networking is fun! The links can become sizable, but they are quite fragile.  Bigger is just bigger, not necessarily stronger.
3. Twister - Interconnecting with others reminds us that networking is not an event, but the sum of all of our relationship building activities.
4. Lego – Building a solid foundation allows us to create a mutually supportive network. When we integrate all of the relationships in our lives we netconnect.
5. 21 - My Way (see my 12/2 blog) – Changed rules create unlimited winners.

The common theme of these games is that we increase the number of winners when we don’t keep score.  Before moving from kindergarten analogies, it’s helpful to remember that networking is a long-term process.  It’s like the 5-year old who asks in January how long it is until Christmas. She and we are encouraged to keep believing and be good.

And if we spell NETWORKING as a kindergartner might, we get NETWERKING.  Dissecting this word reveals a fun way to remember the mutuality of networking:

Net We R King (done right, we all win).

There are many ways to maintain, strengthen and grow our relationships including:

• Events
• Face-to-face one on one or small group meetings
• Phone
• Email
• Notes - Send thank you notes, recognition of accomplishments, congratulatory, sympathy
• Recommend books
• Offer time-savers – sending yourself an email with notes from a presentation eliminates the need to transcribe
• Teach someone else what you know
• Recurring appointments in outlook
• Compliment someone in front of others
• Speak
• Write
• Nominate
• Volunteer – active involvement – board development committee
• Recommend
• Ask for advice
• LinkedIn – easy way to follow-up with those you met during the day – Personalize your messages rather than using the standard ones provided.
• Blog
• Share great finds – sales, sites, courses, resources, restaurants, service providers
• When introducing others capture something meaningful about each party

Here’s my big girl expanded version of the friendship poem:

“Make new friends and keep the old

Some are silver and others are gold

Add new people to the fold

But don’t let relationships grow cold

Share the stories to be told

Let your listening be bold

Share advice when you’re polled

But be wary not to scold

We like to buy – not be sold

So put your sales pitch on hold.

Break the networking mold

Netconnect with young and old”

Learning from Others

Our access to information has never been greater.  Trying to sort through all the wonderful sources can be overwhelming.  Here are 6 providers of electronic newsletters that I find valuable:

http://www.hellomynameisblog.com/

http://www.nightingale.com

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/

http://hbr.org

http://www.keithferrazzi.com/

http://littlethingsmatter.com

Tips from Jim Muehlhausen's Book - "The 51 Fatal Business Errors and How to Avoid Them"

In The 51 Fatal Business Errors and How to Avoid Them by Jim Muehlhausen, the author uses colorful language and shares the stories of many CEOs with whom he's consulted to describe 51 ways to become a more effective CEO. 

Some of his tips include:

• Listen and move on.

• A CEO’s job is to provide best solutions, not just a solution.

• When you allow the customer to constantly create one-off transactions you are herding cats.

• The best way to learn to be more objective is to get a fresh pair of eyeballs. This can be a consultant, a board or a hire from outside the industry.

• Manage outputs rather than inputs.

• Find someone outside the company in whom you can confide.

• Being a highly effective CEO involves moving outside your comfort zone.

• Work with laziness, not against it.

• Delegate, but check important results, processes and functions.

• Do what you know needs to be done.

• Don’t be afraid to make dramatic changes.

• Make a list of everything that you have been meaning to do or complete.

• Throwing too many new ideas at a new employee is like dumping bricks in a pile and calling it a house.

Passwords

I have login overload!  Technology is grand, but securely keeping track of all of the access procedures for 40 different accounts is tedious.  How I'd love to have a single secure universal id and password to provide access to all of my protected information and tools!  We truly have the world at our fingertips, when we can remember that newest sequence of case sensitive letters, numbers and special characters.

Random Tips that Have Improved My Life

I maintain an attitude of gratitude and it's always a treasure when I discover a tip that makes my life better or easier. I share a few random tips:

Reusable water bottles - Yes, JuJu, I am reducing my carbon footprint, but I'm also drinking more water. I put one in the dishwasher each evening and fill one each morning as I head to work. Great poolside, too!

Lip moisturizer re-purposed: Gar's lip balm didn't make it through the washer in any condition for him to apply it. However, it's a great cuticle moisturizer and you can scoop it out as needed.

Audio-Tech Business Book Summaries: This is a subscription well worth the $149 per year price tag. I look forward to receiving 2 business book summaries (text and audio) each month. Great value and learning!

Towel drying hair before applying conditioner: Why didn't anyone ever tell me before that getting a bit of moisture out of your hair before applying conditioner makes a remarkable difference in the amount of conditioner that is actually absorbed? Just takes a couple of seconds to squeeze the excess moisture from your hair, apply conditioner, continue with your shower, then rinse the conditioner. This keeps the conditioner from sliding off soaking wet hair.

Calcium with Vitamin D can reverse bone loss! When my wonderful OB/GYN delivered the news that I needed to address my bone loss, I decided to take matters into my own hands. Thankfully, taking calcium +D every day, increased my bone density the first year, and has provided status quo going forward. Yes! It's great to change my bone health without drugs!

Sudoku - Thank you, Anne for providing a daily opportunity to solve a puzzle!

Hammock! No explanation needed!

Mapquest/Televav - Thankfully I am the only directionally challenged person in my family. These tools were made for me!

Keyless Entry - What difference could a few seconds make? Multiply those seconds by each time you enter your car. Not having to dig in my purse for keys is priceless!

List of Things to Take on a Trip - Years ago I prepared a list of items to pack. What a time and stress saver this has been. My only omission in recent years was a toothbrush... This one time I packed days ahead and sent my bags with family... Easy enough to correct!

Methodist Hospital Breast Center Satellite - I asked a few less than a million questions to determine that Methodist's satellite location at Kirby and the Southwest Freeway had the same radiologists, equipment and access to my years of records. Assured by my trusted physician, multiple nurses and everyone involved with scheduling, I had my first mammogram outside the Med Center. The facility is great, access to records is instanteous and the radiologists actually take time to meet you!

WWW.HCAD.ORG - ifile is the most time efficient government tool I've ever accessed. When a disparity exists between appraised value and market value, you can easily file a protest. My experience was amazing! From the time I filed, received and accepted a fair settlement offer was only 4 days!

Random Number Generator - Thank you Amy! If you need to easily find winners among eligible participants, this is the tool for you! In Excel use the formula =randbetween(bottom,top).