What's more important: strategy or tactics? What's your first impulse? Don't worry about getting the right answer, because there isn't one. It's a trick question. I think it's a false dichotomy and that neither is more important. It's likely, though, that your knee-jerk response favored one or the other. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but it's worth noting which way you leaned. Your unconscious tendencies have a strong impact on where you put your focus. This means they also can give us clues as to what we are missing. I've built my career looking at how professionals can be more successful by paying attention to how … [Read more...]
Create Momentum First
And We’re Back at the Beginning
In the closing days of 2014, are you looking back at the year that passed or are you looking forward into the next? I've found that most people do one or the other. They rehash the previous year, the good or the bad. And they rate themselves on how it went. Or they plan out the upcoming year, with goals, resolutions, and dreams. Sometimes, in a fit of introspective intensity, they do both! Which is better? I'm sitting at my desk, thinking about what I want 2015 to look like and the goals of 2014 that I hit (wrote a book) and missed (did not learn Spanish fluently). And I realized that the analysis of the past and the dreaming of … [Read more...]
Should You Really Put Recent College Grads in Charge of Your Social Media?
"Give the job to Mikey, he understands this stuff!" "Mikey" in this scenario is a 24-year-old recent college grad who is looking for his or her first job in marketing (or probably anything because of the crappy job market). "This stuff" is the entirety of your company's social media marketing and branding work. Strategy, tactics, execution...the whole shebang. Instead of kids trying to get their brother to eat cereal, it's executives trying to fill their social media positions. It's an understandable response considering how quickly social media has evolved and how much influence it is exerting on business. Trying to keep up with … [Read more...]
One of the Best Time Management Tools I’ve Found
I recently visited the Zen Garden at the Chicago Botanic Gardens, and found it a profoundly calming experience. Like many of us, I find myself bouncing around from activity to activity during the day. My mind is usually even more frantic as it works on what I need to do in the future and what I've done in the past. And, oh yeah, tries to pay attention to what I'm doing right now. For a few moments I was surrounded by the quiet in the Zen Garden. I could almost feel the cogs in my mind slowing down. My breathing became deeper and more relaxed. I was peaceful and felt a sense of clarity that is often elusive. When You Are Busy... … [Read more...]