October 2008 – Page 3

Working With Stereotypes

We are all in danger of
being stereotyped in our career.
It can harmless or even beneficial
(the always punctual German)
but sometimes it can derail a career.

How to fight a harmful stereotype?

Be aware of it
and don’t give anyone an excuse to apply it.

A Jamaica born buddy
is often viewed as ‘easy going.’
Great for personal,
damaging for a project manager.
She makes it a point to
always be on time,
always have agendas for meetings,
always follow up on assignments.
Her tabbed binders are a visual reminder
that she is not a person to flub off.

As a woman,
I am very aware of the irrationally emotional label.
I scrap all negative emotions.
I vent in private to buddies
but on the job, I have a quiet anger
(as effective as the noisy kind).

I do show positive emotions though.
That helps counter the cold hearted bitch label
many businesswomen earn.

It sounds challenging
but remember, we are building personal brands.
Any brand should be managed carefully.

Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton, And Branding

Love her or hate her,
Sarah Palin is in touch with her own style,
her own brand, and her own target market.

It irked me when,
upon her nomination,
she was set up to take the Hillary Clinton vote.
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Yes, both are women
but they are completely different women and
they appeal to completely different voters.

Like Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
Both are colas
but they have very different brands.
Coke is traditional while Pepsi is edgy.
When Coke tries to be edgy,
they fail.
When Pepsi tries to be traditional,
they fail.

Is your product trying to be something it isn’t?

The V-P Of Human Resources

An executive announced proudly
that his company has a female Vice President.
“Let me guess,” I replied,
“she’s in human resources.”

I was right.

How did I know?
Unless the company has staffing as its product,
the V-P of Human Resources
is overlooked as a candidate
for the President or CEO position.

By placing their only female exec in that position,
the company is sending a message
‘Women can only advance so far.’
She’s a token.

Now, if the company has a female V-P
in critical areas
like sales, operations, even finance,
then I know that company is
walking the talk.

How To Get Laid Off

Yesterday, I talked about one way
executives avoid paying severance.

So what do you do
if you’re the target of
an isolate and ignore campaign?

You get yourself laid off.

Laid off, not fired.
Fired means no golden parachute,
no cash to fund your transition.
Not good.
You have to be annoying
but not break any of the written rules.

If your workplace is suits and ties
(and there is no written dress code),
you go in semi-casual.
If meetings are stuffy and formal,
you crack (clean) jokes.
You ask your boss tough questions
in front of others
(bring out some of the dead bodies).
You do what you’re told
but you don’t volunteer.

Eventually, you will be let go.
You’ll get no reference
but if they were trying to get rid of you,
you wouldn’t get that anyway.

How To Avoid Paying Severance

In these tight financial times,
executives are doing their best
to avoid giving costly severance packages
to downsized employees.

One way to do that?

Isolate and ignore.
A loved one’s manager was replaced.
He had been with the company
for decades.
The severance package would have been substantial.

So the company didn’t lay him off.
They moved him to a smaller office,
took away his assistant
and his staff,
gave him a useless task to do
and then ignored him.

Completely.

The manager was upset
but there was no basis for a lawsuit
(ignoring someone is not a crime).
Eventually his ego couldn’t take it
and he left.

No severance paid.

Measuring The Right Things

Peter Drucker said
“What gets measured gets managed.”

True
But the important decision is
what to measure.

An author buddy told me
her contest promotion didn’t work.
Why?
Because she didn’t get a single entry.

When we dug into her site stats,
there was a clear spike in traffic
during the contest.
As increasing traffic,
not receiving contest entries,
was her goal,
she clearly met it.
The promotion was a success.

Look at what you’re measuring.
Are they tied to your goals?

Why We Should Be Hopeful

The media is focusing on
the gloom and doom.
They may be right.
There may be a legit reason to be worried.

But when the big guns are promoting one emotion
(fear),
there is always a marketing opportunity
for small business
to promote the opposite
(hope).

Now, I’m not saying
stand up and say the economy is going to be fine
when no one thinks it will be.
That’ll make you look like an ignorant jack a$$

What I’m suggesting is
focusing on the positives
in
other areas.

For example:

On reader loops,
a lot of people are talking about the economy.
Heavy, depressing, tiring stuff.

I, instead, talk about the great books
I’ve read recently.

This positive promotion makes me stand out.

Standing For Something

Seth Godin has a great post
reminding us
that when we stand for something,
we have to say no.

This is more challenging to do
when sales are not-so-hot.
It is, however, still necessary.

On my romance blog,
I have one regular reader
who is very much against eBooks
(yet she reads blogs, go figure).
Every month,
I give away an eBook
and receive an unhappy email
from this reader.

As a flag waving member
of the eBook community,
I continue to give away eBooks.

Sales for Breach Of Trust
are not great.
I could be walking away from a sale
by irritating this reader
but I can’t say eBook is the future
and then give away print.

No one would trust me
and we only buy from those we trust.

A Tradeshow Partner

There was a huge bookfair in my city last week.
I didn’t have a booth but
I wanted a presence.

What did I do?

I walked up and asked a smaller booth
if they would like some free pens to distribute.
These pens had my logo and website on them.
After a couple tries,
a booth said yes.

Win-Win

The distributor had freebies
to lure participants in with.
I had click thrus to my site
for the next couple days,
all for the cost of some pens.

Cash and time strapped entrepreneurs
CAN have a tradeshow presence.
All you have to do is partner.