by Fronetics | Aug 21, 2014 | Blog, Leadership, Strategy, Talent
Want to advance? Stop whining. Whining won’t get you to the top.
Whining. Just writing the word makes me cringe. Whining is a truly unattractive characteristic. It is unattractive in children and it is even more unattractive when adults partake. One of the reasons why whining is just so unattractive is that it is ineffective and it can make a brilliant leader look like, well, like a blithering child.
Given this, why is there so much whining in the office? Ron Ashkenas, a senior partner at Schaffer Consulting and author of several books on organization change and effectiveness, wrote in a post for the Harvard Business Review:
The reality is that all of us whine, complain, blame others, and try to avoid responsibility. It’s part of the human condition. Nobody likes to clean up problems caused by others — or admit that they’ve created problems themselves. We also try to preserve a positive self-image and we go to great lengths to get others to perceive us positively as well. Given these basic human dynamics, most of which are unconscious, it’s often easier to talk to colleagues about what somebody else is doing wrong. At worst we’ll get sympathy. At best, we’ll convince someone else to take care of the problem.
Ashkens continued, noting that the current economic environment and organizational structures have made it so that “it’s tough to get things done — which leaves people feeling frustrated and in need of a sympathetic ear.” But let’s be honest. When your co-worker comes up to you whining (again) about this or her workload — do you really feel sympathy?
Let’s look a little closer at what Ashkenas said. Essentially, whining is used as a tool to “blame others” and “to avoid responsibility.” Neither blaming others nor avoiding responsibility are positive traits. Neither of these traits will get you hired nor will they get you promoted. The qualities that will get you that next job, which will get you recognized, and will get you promoted are stepping up, taking responsibility, and taking action — the antithesis of whining.
In his book The Last Lecture, Randy Paush astutely wrote:
If you took one-tenth the energy you put into complaining and applied it to solving the problem, you’d be surprised by how well things can work out… Complaining does not work as a strategy. We all have finite time and energy. Any time we spend whining is unlikely to help us achieve our goals. And it won’t make us happier.
Want to be taken seriously? Want to be effective? Want to be successful? Stop whining.
by Fronetics | Feb 25, 2014 | Blog, Marketing, Social Media, Supply Chain
Twitter is one of the more powerful platforms to influence consumers and grow a business. Is your business on Twitter? If not, here are three reasons why your business should be on Twitter:
1. Be Found
When business consumers are searching for products and services, they typically start online. According to a recent study by Pardot, 72 percent of B2B buyers begin their research with Google. Other starting points for research: personal networks (15.58%), Yahoo (5.53%), Bing (2.76%), LinkedIn (2.51%) and social networks (2.01%).
Having a strong presence on Twitter- which has nearly a billion users – will significantly increase your business’ search engine rank and increase visibility. Why is this important? If you don’t rank well you won’t be found – 75 percent of users don’t scroll past the first page of search results.
2. Provide Customer Service – In Real Time
Twitter is an increasingly effective way to provide customer service – and a channel to which many consumers are turning. Your customers may run into issues with your product or service and not have the opportunity to simply make a phone call to a call center or customer service center to take care of this issue. Furthermore, in this day and age, people are using mobile devices more often for their business needs, and Twitter – being a primarily mobile social media network – provides an excellent outlet for customer service representatives to help customers in need. Customer service representatives can communicate more effectively and execute troubleshooting techniques with Twitter than with most other platforms due to the ease of accessibility.
The number of companies handling more than 25 percent customer service inquires via social media has increased from nine percent (2012) to 18 percent (18 percent). Even as more consumers are turning to social media for customer service, many companies are falling flat with respect to providing quality customer service. Only 36 percent of consumers report that their customer service inquiry was dealt with efficiently and effectively. This an opportunity for companies who can/do provide excellent and timely customer service via social media – a J.D. Power and Associates study found that 87 percent of consumers reported that their online social interaction with the company positively impacted the likelihood that they’d purchase from the brand, and that the responsiveness of the service representatives were a key of that satisfaction.
3. Keep an Eye Your Competitors
Since Twitter is a public platform, it enables you to see what your competitors are doing. When performing an industry or business related search, Twitter can provide valuable insights into what kind of information and services your competitors are providing for their customers as well as help you keep an eye on significant achievements – and sometimes, failures – that your competitors will experience, helping you to make important decisions.
This post previously appeared on DC Velocity.
by Fronetics | Feb 25, 2014 | Blog, Marketing, Social Media, Supply Chain
Twitter is one of the more powerful platforms to influence consumers and grow a business. Is your business on Twitter? If not, here are three reasons why your business should be on Twitter:
1. Be Found
When business consumers are searching for products and services, they typically start online. According to a recent study by Pardot, 72 percent of B2B buyers begin their research with Google. Other starting points for research: personal networks (15.58%), Yahoo (5.53%), Bing (2.76%), LinkedIn (2.51%) and social networks (2.01%).
Having a strong presence on Twitter- which has nearly a billion users – will significantly increase your business’ search engine rank and increase visibility. Why is this important? If you don’t rank well you won’t be found – 75 percent of users don’t scroll past the first page of search results.
2. Provide Customer Service – In Real Time
Twitter is an increasingly effective way to provide customer service – and a channel to which many consumers are turning. Your customers may run into issues with your product or service and not have the opportunity to simply make a phone call to a call center or customer service center to take care of this issue. Furthermore, in this day and age, people are using mobile devices more often for their business needs, and Twitter – being a primarily mobile social media network – provides an excellent outlet for customer service representatives to help customers in need. Customer service representatives can communicate more effectively and execute troubleshooting techniques with Twitter than with most other platforms due to the ease of accessibility.
The number of companies handling more than 25 percent customer service inquires via social media has increased from nine percent (2012) to 18 percent (18 percent). Even as more consumers are turning to social media for customer service, many companies are falling flat with respect to providing quality customer service. Only 36 percent of consumers report that their customer service inquiry was dealt with efficiently and effectively. This an opportunity for companies who can/do provide excellent and timely customer service via social media – a J.D. Power and Associates study found that 87 percent of consumers reported that their online social interaction with the company positively impacted the likelihood that they’d purchase from the brand, and that the responsiveness of the service representatives were a key of that satisfaction.
3. Keep an Eye Your Competitors
Since Twitter is a public platform, it enables you to see what your competitors are doing. When performing an industry or business related search, Twitter can provide valuable insights into what kind of information and services your competitors are providing for their customers as well as help you keep an eye on significant achievements – and sometimes, failures – that your competitors will experience, helping you to make important decisions.
This post previously appeared on DC Velocity.
by Fronetics | Feb 13, 2014 | Blog, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy, Supply Chain
demand generation infographic
by Fronetics | Feb 13, 2014 | Blog, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy, Supply Chain
demand generation infographic
