Much as been written about today’s multigenerational workforce with its diversified work styles, communication ways, language, values, and perspectives. Having three or four generations interacting in an organization is the beginning of creating a community where everyone can feel that they belong and have something to contribute.
When a workplace community exists, it provides ways for new employees to feel welcomed and enables them to integrate into the organization more quickly and effectively. A viable workplace community strengthens ties between people no matter position, status within the organization, allowing loyalty, respect, bonding, and trust to deepen. And, last, but certainly not least, a true organizational community gives the senior-level staff and executives a reason to remain motivated, engaged and involved.
How do you find and build on the common and compatible points that exist among the generations? Storytelling is a powerful tool that everyone can use and see its application in building a talent community. People love to tell a story, an anecdote, an incident that reflects who they are and experiences that have had an impact on them. Stories allow people to share, empathize, find their common ground, identify with, and learn outside a structured classroom and formalized training.
Stories can be told from either the individual or organization’s perspective. Junior-level employees can tell stories/anecdotes, for example, about their background, passions, career goals, work expectations, interests, images of organization – information that their peers can identify with and that management can begin to form ideas about potential leadership candidates. On the other hand, senior-level staff can share stories about the organization and their own work achievements, for example, regarding the organization’s brand, culture, vision, mission, and epic successes.
Stories can be exchanged, for example, during new employee orientation, introduction of a work team, initiation of a mentoring program, an organizational networking event, at a department/division meeting – with a facilitator for this activity. The role of story cannot be ignored when trying to create a community – its authenticity, purpose, and power leads to a sense of belonging, greater productivity, and identification. The end result is that a multigenerational workforce will feel, “we aren’t that all different after all, we can work together with understanding acceptance and respect!”
Email comments to: Annabelle Reitman, Ed.D. Career Management Strategist, Author
Email: anreitman@verizon.net
Friday, March 12, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Communicating Your Professional Branding: What are the considerations?
Whether you are marketing your professional branding verbally, in print, or on the web, you need to take into account a number of considerations as you plan and initiating a branding campaign. That is, if you want to target the right audience with the right message and have a successful outcome. Make no mistake, it does not matter if you are looking for a job, want to move up your organization’s ladder, grow your clientele base, or have other career/professional marketing goals in mind, you are promoting a product – yourself!
Exactly what are you trying to do when developing a professional brand? The goal is to create an individualized professional niche; projecting your ideal image in a highly visible, powerful, and memorable way. Your established brand sets you aside from your competitors and showcases what you bring to the table.
How do you go about establishing a focused targeted brand? What are the considerations you need to think about to achieve your goal?
Communications begin from the moment someone comes into contact with your brand – either when they meet you in person or read a communiqué from you. First impressions are formed almost instantly and thus, are the essence of your professional branding. Once an image is established in a person’s mind, it is quite difficult to change it.
Purpose and audience determines what is highlighted in your profession brand message - which expertise, knowledge, accomplishments, personality characteristics, etc. Way of communicating influences language, style and style. Each communication method has a distinctive impact and span of attention. Be aware of how different generations and cultures react to various communication styles, format, and language.
Length of time you have with the person – 3 minutes (e.g. networking situation), 30 minutes (e.g. 1st round of job interviews), or 1 hour (e.g. marketing your services/products). Decide what is the priority info to present within the time frame allotted to project your ideal image.
Message you want your audience to take away and remember. Think about how someone would describe you and your professional brand and how strong would the recommendation be to develop a working relationship with you.
By taking into considerations the above listing, when creating the message relaying your professional brand, communications will be successful.
Email your comments to: Annabelle Reitman, Ed.D. Career Management Strategist, Author: anreitman@verizon.net
Exactly what are you trying to do when developing a professional brand? The goal is to create an individualized professional niche; projecting your ideal image in a highly visible, powerful, and memorable way. Your established brand sets you aside from your competitors and showcases what you bring to the table.
How do you go about establishing a focused targeted brand? What are the considerations you need to think about to achieve your goal?
Communications begin from the moment someone comes into contact with your brand – either when they meet you in person or read a communiqué from you. First impressions are formed almost instantly and thus, are the essence of your professional branding. Once an image is established in a person’s mind, it is quite difficult to change it.
Purpose and audience determines what is highlighted in your profession brand message - which expertise, knowledge, accomplishments, personality characteristics, etc. Way of communicating influences language, style and style. Each communication method has a distinctive impact and span of attention. Be aware of how different generations and cultures react to various communication styles, format, and language.
Length of time you have with the person – 3 minutes (e.g. networking situation), 30 minutes (e.g. 1st round of job interviews), or 1 hour (e.g. marketing your services/products). Decide what is the priority info to present within the time frame allotted to project your ideal image.
Message you want your audience to take away and remember. Think about how someone would describe you and your professional brand and how strong would the recommendation be to develop a working relationship with you.
By taking into considerations the above listing, when creating the message relaying your professional brand, communications will be successful.
Email your comments to: Annabelle Reitman, Ed.D. Career Management Strategist, Author: anreitman@verizon.net
TRUST: One key element in talent retention
For employees to commit to supporting and helping one another to grow their individual and collective talents benefiting the individual, work groups, and organization, trust becomes the necessary springboard for:
· Finding innovative ways to quickly build trust development among co-workers, supervisors, and leaders, especially when involved in short-term projects and/or virtual realty teams.
· Building loyalty to the company and commit to its culture and values.
· Promoting open collaborative communication among diverse work team members to develop and grow talent.
· Establishing credibility and reliability for talent’s “believability” in a promising future with the organization and identifying with its “brand”.
TRUST DIMENSIONS: What are the elements?
· A general definition: the reliance in a person or group’s honesty, dependability, strength or character is authentic.
· Confidence that an individual does posses the ability or knowledge claimed in a specific area or specialty.
· Belief in an individual or group commitment to being supportive and encouraging of each other’s efforts, work and success.
· Sincere and meaningful intentions and agendas of individuals and groups.
· All are in firm agreement about what are the project or team’s goals, methods, process, and roles.
· Active caring and respect of each other – that is – feel that they are a family.
· Alignment of an individual’s feelings (inside) with actual actions (outside}.
TRUST & THE WORKPLACE: A Survey
Regarding your relationships with people in your organization:
The following questions are from a trust survey that Charles Feltman conducted:
Please use a scale from 1-10 where:
1 = Can rarely or never be trusted 10 = Can always be trusted in all situations
QUESTIONS and RATINGS
How would you rate:
a. YOUR trustworthiness? ____
b. The average trustworthiness of the people
you work with as a group? ____
c. The trustworthiness of your immediate
supervisor? ____
d. The trustworthiness of your company’s
top management in general? ____
e. The trustworthiness of your peers? ____
f. The trustworthiness of your staff, if you have any
direct reports? ____
g. The trustworthiness of others below your level
of responsibility in your organization as a group? ____
(From The Thin Book of Trust by Charles Feltman, Bend, OR:2009, p.10.)
Are you satisfied with your assessment outcomes? Were you surprised by any overall general attitudes that emerged from this short survey? If you believe that the levels of trust can or should be improved,, what do you think you can do?
In summary, if trust is not happening on a one-to-one basis, it cannot happen on the organization level. If trust is not happening among and between employees, horizontally and vertically, then individuals will not trust the organization’s entity.
Email comments to: Annabelle Reitman, Ed.D. Career Management Strategist, Author: anreitman@verizon.net
· Finding innovative ways to quickly build trust development among co-workers, supervisors, and leaders, especially when involved in short-term projects and/or virtual realty teams.
· Building loyalty to the company and commit to its culture and values.
· Promoting open collaborative communication among diverse work team members to develop and grow talent.
· Establishing credibility and reliability for talent’s “believability” in a promising future with the organization and identifying with its “brand”.
TRUST DIMENSIONS: What are the elements?
· A general definition: the reliance in a person or group’s honesty, dependability, strength or character is authentic.
· Confidence that an individual does posses the ability or knowledge claimed in a specific area or specialty.
· Belief in an individual or group commitment to being supportive and encouraging of each other’s efforts, work and success.
· Sincere and meaningful intentions and agendas of individuals and groups.
· All are in firm agreement about what are the project or team’s goals, methods, process, and roles.
· Active caring and respect of each other – that is – feel that they are a family.
· Alignment of an individual’s feelings (inside) with actual actions (outside}.
TRUST & THE WORKPLACE: A Survey
Regarding your relationships with people in your organization:
The following questions are from a trust survey that Charles Feltman conducted:
Please use a scale from 1-10 where:
1 = Can rarely or never be trusted 10 = Can always be trusted in all situations
QUESTIONS and RATINGS
How would you rate:
a. YOUR trustworthiness? ____
b. The average trustworthiness of the people
you work with as a group? ____
c. The trustworthiness of your immediate
supervisor? ____
d. The trustworthiness of your company’s
top management in general? ____
e. The trustworthiness of your peers? ____
f. The trustworthiness of your staff, if you have any
direct reports? ____
g. The trustworthiness of others below your level
of responsibility in your organization as a group? ____
(From The Thin Book of Trust by Charles Feltman, Bend, OR:2009, p.10.)
Are you satisfied with your assessment outcomes? Were you surprised by any overall general attitudes that emerged from this short survey? If you believe that the levels of trust can or should be improved,, what do you think you can do?
In summary, if trust is not happening on a one-to-one basis, it cannot happen on the organization level. If trust is not happening among and between employees, horizontally and vertically, then individuals will not trust the organization’s entity.
Email comments to: Annabelle Reitman, Ed.D. Career Management Strategist, Author: anreitman@verizon.net
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