NexGen Advisors Blog

As I was thinking about what business or economic topic to blog about this week, I could not STOP thinking about some recent experiences I've had with social media. They made me ask myself, "What the heck happened to professional etiquette?" 

In the world of social media with sites like Twitter, Linked In and Facebook, it is easier and easier these days to reach people that we don't know, but want something from. I guess if I break it down to it's a form of solicitation, but much more disruptive because it's passive aggressive. With the veil of a web interface, a person can be as aggressive as they like, without actually having to interact with you. A faceless person, with an agenda or goal, that they need you for, but don't actually want to interact with you.

Now I don't know about you, but that pisses me off. If you want something from me, ask me...personally. Here are some examples of what I mean.

Linked In: This site is sacred to me. Most of the people I have connections with I have worked with as colleagues or clients and I respect their position and experience. It is not something I share willingly with people I don't know. 


Yet, I get Linked in requests from consultants, sales people and job hunters asking me to "accept" them, and I have no idea who these people are! Seriously, consultants from firms looking for connections will ask me to accept so we can "work" together. Let me give you a hint, I know what your hidden agenda is, and i take offense to it. 

I know, some of you are saying, just ignore it, and sometimes I do. But sometimes, if you are an unlucky one, I will respond, and it's not pretty. For me it's about principle. Maybe if they would contact me and say they have a desire to meet some of my contacts because they could add value to them in some way, and would I please have a discussion so I feel comfortable about a possible introduction, that would be fine. But the backdoor approach is the most common, because it's easy. 

Twitter: I am a tweeter, I like to tweet. It makes me laugh sometimes and I love to laugh. So I do it often. However, this has caused me problems with getting people using my name @Carla_Zilka to endorse products and services I never heard of. 

This is plain fraud, granted it's not a crime, but it's still misrepresenting my views and support of companies products and services I have no interaction with. Spamming, in my mind, is very disrespectful. 

I understand that social media is the new marketing channel, but people should use it the way it's meant to be used, not as spam. 

Facebook: I use Facebook for what it's meant to be used for, connections with "friends". That's why it's called a "friend request" not an "acquaintance" request or "I know someone who knows you" request. 

To that end, and because I am a private person,  I have put very clearly on my profile that my Facebook is for "close friends, and you know who you are". Yet I get requests from people I don't know. Again, it's the principle of it all. 

So, my question is: Has life changed so much that the value of our relationships is based on quantity over quality? Is it more important to have thousands of followers, or friends or contacts instead of a small group that have similar content, concepts or relationships, both personal and business?

Steve Jobs tweeted a great quote that I say over and over in my mind, and frankly, believe wholeheartedly in: "A small group of A players will run circles about a large group of B players."  A wise man. 

Sometimes less is more.

It's no surprise that many company initiatives fall short of their expectations, and most companies blame it on leadership's inability to execute it. This is true, but the underlying factor can be linked to one very important skill...Change Management. While most leaders are experienced in functional specialties, like finance, sales, marketing or operations, the one speciality skill that is required to drive change and make it stick is usually lacking. Why is this?

As a change management expert, I am asked often about "how to" ensure an initiative, project or transformation is successful. I always come back to the same question to them: Do you have a change management strategy and do you have change management expertise in house? 

Almost always the answer comes back, "No, that's why we hired you." I usually laugh, because that's a great answer! My response back is also always the same, "Got it, but we need to build this skill in house, because it is a basic function that you need to run your business, just like finance." 

It starts with understanding the WHO. Who will be trained in the company in Change Management. This is not an easy, quick decision. Most companies put it all on Human Resources...wrong answer. They also think it's someone lower in the company...wrong answer again. Leadership, beginning with the CEO, need to be trained in the tools and processes to drive the right behaviors to deliver on their goals. From there, you can go to the next level of the organization, then the next level again, until each function and layer of the organization has someone trained. And if you are smart, you train several people per function per layer as a contingency plan should people leave. 

The next step is HOW. This is where NexGen comes in. If you went through our services page, you know we have a toolkit to train people, so I'm not going to get into detail of how we do it...call us in and we'll review it with you. The "How" I'd like to discuss is the process for embedding it in your organization as a skill. Like finance, there are certain basics you must learn before you can get to the complex stuff. Tools like a Stakeholders Analysis are easy, it's what to do with it once you have it that's the hard part, and frankly where most companies fall short.

We help you build a program that can be part of your normal Training and Development program that acts as a sort of reward for the people chosen. While Human Resources manages it, they don't own the execution, the people who have been chosen do, acting as Train the Trainers once NexGen has trained them. Of course we monitor to ensure the training is being delivered properly, but this is an example of our philosophy of "teach a man to fish...". If you didn't read my Letter from the Founder, go back to it so you understand what I mean.

So how do you MEASURE the benefits? This is the easy part. As part of your normal metrics (please tell me you have a Balanced Scorecard!) you add an Employee Morale Indicator (EMI) to your scorecard. There are TONS of survey's out there to measure this, it's become a commodity and NexGen has one should you want us to manage it. The key is to get the right questions on the monthly or quarterly survey, and to change them at the right time. Yes, you want to see consistency for trending, but you also want the employees to want to take the survey, and not just click through mindlessly, as some do when the questions are always the same. You can ask the same question in may different ways...its knowing when to change it up so people stay engaged. This is critical when working on specific initiatives, but should become a regular practice in your organization.

While this all seems logical to most, and easy to do, it's the execution of this and the embedding it as a part of how you run your business that's the difficult. Like anything, it's takes a strategy, plan, owner and rigor to make it part of your normal processes. I can guarantee having a skill like Change Management in house will not only save you lots of consulting fees, but will help you reach your strategic and operational goals, and give you a competitive advantage in the market.

Have questions? Contact me: carlazilka@nexgenadvisors.com