I was part of a panel at the Gartner Portals, Content and Collaboration Summit yesterday (March 10^th). I was on stage with Jeanne Homl from NASA and Walton Smith from Booz Allen Hamilton. The moderator asked how many participants in the room worked for companies that ban social media access. About two-thirds of the audience raised their hands. After seeing this many hands go up, I had a change of heart.

I’ve changed my mind from my prior opinion. I now believe that organizations should BAN social media access.

Here are the Top 10 reasons why:

Number 10: Social media is a fad. Two years from now we’ll be moving to the next marketing or management fad.

Number 9: Social media takes control away from the corporation; and you can’t have that. Controlling the message is what it’s all about.

Number 8: Employees are simply going to goof off. They don’t do anything non-work related now like go to the water cooler, the coffee machine, or even the bathroom.

Number 7: Social media is only good for watching funny YouTube videos and knowing what a former classmate is eating for lunch. Social media, please, what a waste of time.

Number 6:Social media serves no business purpose. Your salespeople are top notch. Come on, will teaching them how to use LinkedIn really make them more effective?

Number 5: Employees simply cannot be trusted and will likely say things in social networks that will become bad publicity for your company.

Number 4: Millennials expect access to social media at work. Hey, Millennials, wake up! It’s a bad economy. Be happy you have a job.

Number 3: Your team already shares knowledge effectively and adding another technology to the mix is simply going to make it more confusing.

Number 2: Social media will simply bring viruses and Trojan horses into your network. For security reasons alone it should be banned!

And the Number 1 reason for banning social media access:
Your competition isn’t using it, so why should you.

Add yours in the comments below.

The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games just came to an end. Canada did a great job at hosting this year. I think I now want to hike the Canadian wilderness…but that’s a different blog post altogether.

As I watched the Olympics the spirit of competition was in full display. These athletes, though partially driven by internal motivation, were also driven by the athlete that was only a step behind or a goal ahead. Competition drives us. It improves us. It helps athletes, businesses, and individuals perform at a higher level.

Sure, competition taken to the extreme can have dangerous consequences (remember Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding?). But remember anything taken to the extreme can be harmful. Heck, drinking too much water can kill you (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=strange-but-true-drinking-too-much-water-can-kill) .

The spirit of competition fosters innovation, growth, and I’d argue greatness. I personally have performed my best at work, in athletics, and in other areas of life when I know there is direct or perceived competition.

As you proceed in your career and your business, realize that competition is a great thing. It keeps you on your toes and forces you to strive for greatness.

from telegraph.co.uk

I was astounded by the disqualification of Netherland speed skater, Sven Kramer. Kramer was going to win the gold medal but his coach, Gerard Kemkers, signaled him to switch lanes. Kramer followed his coach’s instructions; which were wrong. Kramer was disqualified for being in the wrong lane and lost the gold medal. You can read the full story or watch the video. 

What leadership lessons could possibly be gleemed from this situation? Here are a few. 

1. As a leader, you must be ready for others to follow
   Being a leader is an incredible responsibility. People count on you. They have expectations. They follow instructions. They trust.Kramer, the speed skater, trusted his coach, Kemkers, implicitly. If you watch the video Kramer doesn’t even hesitate when his coach signals him to switch lanes. He trusted his coach’s direction.

   As a leader, you hold a tremendous weight of responsibility. Make decisions carefully. Be ready for others to follow you.

2. As a follower, question your leader
   In this speed skating incident there was no way for Kramer to question or consult his coach. But in the workplace where decisions don’t need to be made in thousandths of a second, question your leader’s direction. Do it with respect but don’t simply follow a leader because he or she possess the title of ‘manager’, ‘director’, ‘vice president’, or ‘president’. Ask questions. Probe. Listen. Make suggestions. Being a follower is about being part of the leadership process; not following blindly.
3. Forgive
   I was wondering what was going to happen to the coach. The talking head shows on CNN, Foxnews, and MSNBC all said the coach should get his resume ready. He was going to get fired. Right?

   As it turns out, the athlete and the coach make peace. There was forgiveness. In an article in the Washington Post, Kramer says, “The past years were simply too good to drop someone just like that.” Kramer focused on the positive. His coach helped him to become a three time world champion, four time European champion, and many World Cups and Olympic gold in the 5,000 meters.

   Mistakes will be made. Trust will be broken. In these instances, the power of forgiveness can help mend the pain and move forward. My guess is that Kramer and Kemkers are focusing on their next race in the Olympics; aiming for gold.

These are simple leadership lessons from a single lost opportunity for gold at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games.

Corporate sustainability is all the rage these days; and for good reasons. Not only can organizations reduce their negative impact on the environment; but they can also potentially boost profitability.

I bought a Poland Spring water recently and saw this on the label.

One could argue that bottled water in general is “bad” for the environment. I’m not going to defend or refute that claim. I simply want to draw attention to this type of creative thinking in order to help lessen negative environmental impact.

A smaller cap…who knew that a smaller cap contains 20% less plastic than the average cap on disposable bottled water? I’ll admit that the cap is a bit more difficult to open but I’ll survive. All organizations need to start looking at their packaging and determine how they can reduce materials used.

Here’s an example of packaging waste and an opportunity for improvement. This Christmas my daughter opened one gift after another. Some packages were huge but the product inside could easily fit in a 1 quart plastic bag. Is all that packaging really necessary? Can the company achieve the same branding and visibility with a different style of packaging that would reduce materials used?

Innovation is the bedrock of American capitalism. With a little ingenuity I believe companies can re-create product packaging to be more environmentally sound, cut costs, and perhaps even improve the overall package design to attract more customers.

I recently read the book Monday Morning Leadership by David Cottrell. Overall, I’d give the book four out of five stars. Though the book regurgitates leadership ideas that have been proposed before by various other authors and researchers, it does so in a unique and simple to read fashion.

The book is about a manager, David Cottrell (the author), who is having a variety of leadership and managerial issues at work. He is at his wits end and decides to seek the council of a seasoned, successful leader by the name of Tony Pearce.  Tony agrees to mentor David for eight consecutive Monday mornings.

In this time, Tony listens to David and imparts his wisdom. He doesn’t tell David what he should do but guides him in his decision making.

The eight lessons Tony imparted to David were:

1. Take total responsibility for results without excuses. In addition, being a leader requires that one makes different decisions.
2. Be certain that everyone has bought into the shared vision and rowing the boat in the same direction. He also states that employees quit people rather than companies.
3. The job of the leader is not to lower the bottom but raise the top. He suggests really knowing and getting in touch with your employees.
4. Act with integrity. Be proactive and develop an action plan before a crisis.
5. Hiring high performers. It sends a message to the current team.
6. Manage your time and by being more effective at whatever you do. 
7. Coach, encourage, recognize, reward, and respect your employees. 
8. Be open to new opportunities, always learn, help others, stay positive.

If you’ve read most of the best selling business books over the past 20 years this all sounds very familiar. There is a bit of Covey’s 7 Habits and First Things First, Collins’ Good to Great, Rath and Clifton’s How Full is Your Bucket, Lee’s The Power Principle, and other random books on management and leadership.

What this book does do well is tell a story and puts all of these concepts into action. We all have been (or will be) where David was in the book. We struggle at various points in our career and question our own leadership ability. This book shows that simple principles can have big positive effects. Though the principles are simple, they are not easy to implement as we see David Cottrell struggle to live the eight lessons.

There was one “ah-ha” moment I had while reading the book. Step five states that a leader must hire top performers. That sounds obvious but the rationale was unique. All leaders want the best performers (would you seek out a low performer on purpose?). Tony says that by hiring the best performers you are positively impacting the team. You are sending a message that you respect the team enough to only bring on board those of a certain caliber to enhance the team. It was about respecting the team first. Performance was an outcome of this respect.

I’ve noticed that most management and leadership books these days simply repackage what’s already been said. However, this is a good thing. You read enough of these books and one will eventually strike an emotional or intellectual cord that will spur personal or professional change.

Yesterday I explained social identity theory (SIT) and why it was a challenge to building a successful, highly effective, diverse team. In this article I describe the ten ways to strengthed a diverse team and counteract the negative side of SIT.

Why is Diversity Important

1. The workplace is becoming and will continue to become more diverse. As a leader, you need to know how best to strengthen your diverse team. SIT says the odds are against you. Or are they?
2. Organizations exist in a complex and ambiguous environment. Some call it the post-modern era. Research shows that diverse teams are much more adept and effective at solving today’s complex business problems (McShane & Von Glinow, 2009)

There are other reasons but this should suffice for our discussion.

Please note: I’m using diversity in its most broad sense. This includes diversity of expertise, ethnicity, level within the organization, nationality, gender, and generational.

10 ways to strengthen a diverse team

1. Celebrate what everyone has in common
   In most diversity literature I’ve read the common theme is “celebrate differences”. That’s true, but differences can be a source of contention as well as strength. Celebrate what you all have in common. You’re on the same team. You work for the same company. Create a sense of emotional attachment to the team. Build social identity within your team.
2. Reward differences
   Instead of “celebrating” differences reward them. Diverse teams can be highly creative bringing different ideas and viewpoints to the table. Reward those who use their diversity to strengthen the team so others will be willing to embrace the differences and contribute their own unique points of view.
3. Be clear on team roles
   Make sure everyone on the team is crystal clear as to each person’s role and the value he/she brings to the team.
4. Provide a clear vision
   Every team needs a strong, clear vision but it is critical in diverse teams. Though diverse teams can solve complex and ambiguous problems, there should be no ambiguity or lack of direction in diverse teams.
5. Don’t tolerate overt or subversive stereotyping or discrimination
   This likely goes without saying but there should be zero-tolerance for this type of behavior.
6. Set milestones and make sure there are quick wins
   If you’re working on a project set milestones in the beginning so the team can celebrate an early victory. This victory can fuel camaraderie and emotional cohesiveness within the team.
7. Guide the team; be a true leader
   I won’t go into the details here as numerous books have been written about true leadership. However, you’ll need to provide leadership that will strengthen the team and ensure that diversity is used to create a highly effective team.
8. Have patience
   Research shows that diverse teams spend more time in the forming, storming, and norming stages than homogenous teams. As a leader, be patient.
9. Volunteer
   Take your team to a shelter, soup kitchen, or organize some other charitable event. Managers I’ve spoken with indicate that this is a great way to build cohesion in diverse teams.
10. Use the “old” rules
    Rules for building teams in general also apply to highly diverse teams. Setting up proper communication channels, empowering team members, ensuring individual and team accountability, rewarding when appropriate, and using the principles in a few of the books below will also build an incredibly effective team.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Teamwork 101
Effective Teamwork: Practical Lessons from Organizational Research

Teams will continue to become more diverse so it is essential for leaders to harness the strengths of team diversity and use SIT to build an incredibly effective team.

Have you heard of Social Identity Theory? It’s a big challenge to diversity in the workplace. Let me explain.

I never heard of it prior to starting my doctoral degree in leadership. Basically, social identity theory (SIT) is our natural tendency to identify ourselves with those similar to us. We often define ourselves by the emotional attachment we have to groups in which we belong. Here is an amazing, yet simple, example of social identity theory (SIT) in action from the ABC series Better Off Ted.

See how that played out? The cat people and the space people sit at different tables in the cafeteria. One employee decides to break ranks with the cat people and is chastised by another “cat person” for doing so.

What does this have to do with diversity? We identify ourselves with groups and those groups include our gender, ethnicity, age, and social class or status. This can lead to stereotyping and perhaps a variety of “isms” (i.e. sexism, racism) which may ultimately lead to discrimination in the workplace.

My next post will discuss the 10 ways to strengthen a highly diverse team. Instead of letting SIT create an environment that builds various “isms” and an ineffective workplace, I’ll give you ways to use SIT to enhance diverse teams and make them amazingly effective.

This post is a bit different from my normal posts regarding social media, personal branding, or leadership. However, the most watched video on my YouTube channel is when I created a test video with an infinite white background using a green screen. You can see it here.

I’ve gotten numerous emails asking how I setup my green screen. I finally had a chance to record a video showing my green screen “studio”. This is a really cheap and easy way to create “semi-pro” green screen effects.

All you need to set this up is:

1. 3 clip-on shop lights available at Home Depot or Lowes ($7 each)
2. 1 piece of at least 6ft x 12ft green fabric available at a fabric store (less than $20)
3. 3 tripods or some other item that stands 4-6ft ($0 – $40 depending on what you may have around your house)

Here is how it is setup:

Finally, here is the video. Enjoy.

‘Leadership’ as a word certainly brings forth an element of mystique and emotion. The word conjures images of great people who stand apart from the rest of us. But it shouldn’t. Everyone can be (and should be) a leader. If you don’t think you’re a leader, think again. The basic definition of leadership according to Peter Northouse is

“…a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal.”

You influence and motivate people every day. Sure, there are different styles and approaches to leadership but we are all leaders. How can you be a better leader? I like to use the model proposed by James Kouzes and Barry Posner in their book, The Leadership Challenge.

1. Challenge the process
2. Inspire a shared vision
3. Model the way
4. Enable others to act
5. Encourage the heart

Read more about each of these steps on The Leadership Challenge website.

Follow these steps and watch what happens. If you’re skeptical, take a look at the video that I link to below. Watch how an unlikely employee becomes an inspiration. It would be hard to argue he is not a leader.

The Simple Truths of Service

Which personality type is the most avid user of social media? Well, according to a study in Computers in Human Behavior, extroverted neurotics open to new experiences are the most likely users. The study titled “Who interacts on the Web?: The intersection of users’ personality and social media use” examined users of social media and three dimensions of the Big-Five personality model.

The Big Five model includes:

1. openness to experience: appreciation for a variety of experiences
2. conscientiousness: careful and dependable as well as self-disciplined
3. extraversion: outgoing and sociable
4. agreeableness: courteous and caring
5. neuroticism: anxious and depressed and sometimes hostile

This study only looked at openness to experience, extraversion, and neuroticism.

The scientific survey was sent to 10,000 qualified U.S. adults with 1,482 validly completed surveys returned. Of these, 959 cases were examined. 67% of the respondents were female and 33% were male. Ages ranged from 18 – 84 with an average age of 46.

After the statistical analysis was complete the researchers found that the most avid users of social media were extroverts open to new experiences. They also found that people who are more emotionally stable will use social media less frequently. The researchers state that “anxious and worrisome individuals tend to use social media more frequently than those who are emotionally stable.”

So, it is good to know that most reading this blog are gregarious extroverts open to change and new experiences but are quite emotionally unstable. I’m just the messenger.

Read the study for yourself and make your own conclusions. Remember that all scientific research has its limitations.

Article Reference
Correa, T. , Willard Hinsley, A. and Gil de Zuniga, H. , 2009-08-05 “Who interacts on the Web?: The intersection of users’ personality and social media use” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Sheraton Boston, Boston, MA Online <APPLICATION/PDF>. 2010-01-15 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p374999_index.html