With deep regret+utter transparency
I am self-tasked to exposing executives who have an army in front of them, answering their emails, linked in messages, and anything else they find favorable.
Face of the corporation
As an executive, you are the face to which others, mostly all, associate your name as a brand within the corporation. Yet so many executives are dilusional to think that it won't catch up with them. I say a LOT sooner than later!
The tides are turning
in the world of employment and recruitment. Those measly applicants that you invited to apply, beat them up persevering through the MAZE (not amaze) of the CAREER section of most websites.
After you playing pinball?
Who has convinced the person on the other end that you dodged pinball bounces without falling into the deep dark black hole.
You are paying for nothing
these days because you can't demonstrate value to joining your organization. A confident prospective professional within range of your company has gracefully navigated your site well enough to get past the red stars * you keep forgetting or actually are deciding whether that is the sort of information you want to impart until there are some serious indication that a job offer is in the immediate mix.
What are u doing to sell ur company?
Should be the thing you ask all of your executives and board members at your next meeting. In fact, it should be prioritized and then teams formed to leave for a week to come back with intelligence and insights to support their argument that everyone and every person is selling their companies 24x7/365 of the year.
Do not allow executives to hide
behind their own personal brand, to be esteemed, somewhat feared, but powerful none the same. Common denominator being internal fame and little public refrain. I know how the system works because I've emailed an executive for the past three years. I would say that actually is two executives that are at the highest chain of command within unsaid organization.
Response is reflective
to the arrogant, egotistical side step. I must importantly convey that yes every email is personally read, even if not by the person to which it was directed. So many executives find this an excellent coping mechanism.
Bernie Sanders kind
Here in our midst, in Calgary, in Canada is a Bernie Sanders of our own. What's that you ask? Well, swap politician with businessman, to get the real drift of the message written here.
Only one of the executives whom I write a brief (and sometimes long) message to has ever responded, written back, and had a message-conversation of only a few. This gentleman answers every single email personally, with humor, anecdotal.
I will share a few, without revealing the names or company to which they are aligned with. I will also share whether there is a response and how it was handled.
A cultural fit
Examine the culture before you go work anywhere. Where I currently work had almost all of the checks in my boxes to agree to go work, some would consider under-employed, I like to think of as a new beginning.
That has gone on far too long
for any sane person. Yet here is the magic. I demonstrate tenacity and sticking to my commitments. I won't dwell on the past where my loyalty was skathed and bruised confidence hang out.
A hang out for disbelievers?
Or a place for optimistic comradely and support to stay connected. Cheering each other on when you see someone heading to the finish line: fame, wealth comes second to the thrill of finding something that people will love.
A legacy we must not forget
fading Steve Jobs back into the backdrop of historical proportions. Where his greatest arch-rival still maintains.
Objets d'art
Creating aesthetically beautiful objects, words, art, songs, melody, photography with innovation and zest. Those are the best leaders because they want perfection. They've been knocked around a few times, but they bounce back stronger.
How many can you think of
who has had that? You know I mean Steve Jobs, I've mentioned Barrack Obama before. Who is really leading the spirit of the social media? Facebook or Twitter may think they've gotten "IT" while instaGRAM or snapCHAT or PINterest display it can channel and expand the audience.
Besides the where-with-all
who is really leading the charge? Google and newly formed Alpabet? Again, I challenge you to think beyond that. Those are companies all aforementioned.
I'm talking about personal BRAND
that has not been sold to the highest bidder ...... yet.
I message to executives in the spring of 2017:
pay attention to your culture, examine it objectively, challenge who is selling your brand. Setting advertising agencies and pre-set social media placement aside.
Who IS selling your brand?
Get rid of the CEOs and boards who collect a paycheque and run the accounting side of your business or investments. They are the short run wagons to hitch a ride on. The enduring, innovative, revolutionary companies in history had a leader and company overlapping by brand.
Hire the writers and the imagineers
who can see the future clearly, not clogged with BS and YES-men (and ever-growing, but still far behind, number of women)?
Fire the ad agencies
who are merely graphic design studios. Nothing like the "Mad Men" era so well depicted in one of my favorite docu-drama series of all time for me.
Ogilvy on advertising
is a worthy read. It should be a mainstay in any creative agency or entrepreneur. His extraordinary vision is like a bible to how to behave online and get sophisticated, academic, creative followers is a mighty key.
Story telling
was clearly the backbone to Ogilvy's approach. How isn't that phenomenal when you think of the brands that are winning because of how they act online? Whether by video or posted words. Tells the story.
The exchange with others
is a one-sided currency ... except where in one instance a time I was online [ Wednesday ] with full force and paying attention, I witnessed a customer with a REALLY big following on Twitter tweet his dissatisfaction with his customer experience for their technology.
Ability to respond
Is your company equipped to respond?
You have to be honest here. Start from the very top and then cascade down the line.
Whoever professes ignorance
are likely your board of directors, of the Baby Boomer age [ born from 1959 to 1945 times ] where spark is of the very limited kind. Who has last had an idea that sat where your company is run?
Whoever professes participation
can fan-dangle and confuse you with so much techno garbage and marketing slogan-ish barbs. They are no more online than your top dog CEO. Some have presence to be sure. Mostly on things not deemed indicative of your brand [ for example, pornography, mean words, falsehoods, sarcasm ]
Operated by robots
who send out your endorsed words ::... usually a campaign, that really is advertising. This is where the gifted online rise above. They can smell a scam or a spam, cloaked in sophisticated disguise.
Whereas the responses
are automatic. As though they've been keyed in by a computer after a roundtable of committee members compose or decide which will be exposed online. [NOTE: if you ever want a NONdecision, get a group together and call them a committee or an association].
Ego can collide
with the noise online. People with much greater value, wisdom and words emerge and rise to the top. Not the brands with their tricks and paid dollars to drive revenue or traffic to websites to justify their existence.
Merely hanging on with a bandaid
will be those who will be faced if they don't wake up and pay attention to the ability to CONVERSE online with your customers, your supporters, your buyers, your vendors, your fans while being made aware of your detractors, competition or negative vibe generators.
Make sure everyone is telling a story
even if it isn't your story. In fact, that would be better. Share stories of employees who reached out to connect online with an idea to help others that generated a response and churned the wheels of progress and communication farther.
Hang up the old standards
and start creating a culture that adapts to the ever-changing world. Ensure your technology is robust enough to withstand cyber attacks.
Hire wikileaks as your defender
of all that is true and exemplary. Less would be exposed, embarrassed and sink off into the moonlight as the werewolves of change howl.
I'd love to sell wikileaks.com services
Can you just imagine? A brand name that anyone who is everyone can ignore any longer. One of the easiest criteria to determine who to sell for. If you have made it past the excruciatingly painful online "SUBMIT" on the CAREER portal, you have proven that you are worthy to work there wouldn't you think? Fear not, that application sits behind technology. It picks out key words in the resume that it has hyperboiled into identifiable words that in all its theory can expose.
Missing key ingredients like instinct
judgement and overall presentation. How can you hire someone so poised and seemingly perfect who has constantly garlic breath and something green stuck in his or her teeth?
A computer taught to think still lacks instinct and human judgement that can unfortunately be pre-determined by bias or self-centered view, yet can also see smiles, sense warmth, sincerity clearly shine. Yet today's forward thinking companies are falling behind in the times.
Becoming more robot
and run by a gaggle of gearheads or geeks [ of the destructive kind like hackers, exhibitionists to namely only two ]. The silliness that it needs to be cautioned against may seem almost alarmist by some.
Where complacency rests
on the shoulders of nuts, bolts, power, fingers, minds is sadly what is happening. They've climb the heap of others, even stepping on a few to get there. These are the people who are behind your company's words? The popular or populist ones.
Maybe they are more expensive
in the thousands an idea and more when delivered on time, if on time. To ignore the ability to resound your message and create a positive vibe is an opportunity so many companies are missing.
Remember, I said it starts at the top?
Proof is not hidden, nor under a disguise. That to which Trump earns my respect for his wisdom of speaking online. For himself, by himself. Rather than the pocket of a few others, the rest allowing a technology or stranger to convey what is on your mind?
How is that possible?
I can tell you how. They're ignorant of the influence they have online, denying the potential to have every single employee, customer communicate and interact online. Where are the skilled manifestos of intellectual power your boast you have? Hidden and trampled on by your sickness going misdiagnosed. Inspected or neglected? Either cause harm.
Your employees' valuable time
is important and you should concede or acknowledge that. Their ideas more rich and fruitful than anyone trying to tell you what you want to hear. They are impassioned by the believers and loyalists lost in your midst. A true voice for your company.
If you can, seek and find
the RT on Twitter from 48 hours ago where I exclaimed over an exchange between a customer and his support service solving a problem, together, in real time, online. No waiting line or number queue. Immediate, solution nailed and resolution intact. Not to mention the proof of your culture not as clearly defined as shown, demonstrated and acted on.
Not by hey-sayers nor digital players
who are usually of the very young mind. No experience or wisdom to fall upon, just speed in clickness and keen savviness they climbed over the backs of the many who built things, helped build the company. Besides the gold pin for 5 years or platinum for 10, retirement parties have become instinct. Those were the best networking environments of my career. If you were well enough liked or respected, you would be invited to a retirement party, a fond adieu by many as they blend into the twilight of years, traveling, not working, painting, writing.
I am self-tasked to exposing executives who have an army in front of them, answering their emails, linked in messages, and anything else they find favorable.
Face of the corporation
As an executive, you are the face to which others, mostly all, associate your name as a brand within the corporation. Yet so many executives are dilusional to think that it won't catch up with them. I say a LOT sooner than later!
The tides are turning
in the world of employment and recruitment. Those measly applicants that you invited to apply, beat them up persevering through the MAZE (not amaze) of the CAREER section of most websites.
After you playing pinball?
Who has convinced the person on the other end that you dodged pinball bounces without falling into the deep dark black hole.
You are paying for nothing
these days because you can't demonstrate value to joining your organization. A confident prospective professional within range of your company has gracefully navigated your site well enough to get past the red stars * you keep forgetting or actually are deciding whether that is the sort of information you want to impart until there are some serious indication that a job offer is in the immediate mix.
What are u doing to sell ur company?
Should be the thing you ask all of your executives and board members at your next meeting. In fact, it should be prioritized and then teams formed to leave for a week to come back with intelligence and insights to support their argument that everyone and every person is selling their companies 24x7/365 of the year.
Do not allow executives to hide
behind their own personal brand, to be esteemed, somewhat feared, but powerful none the same. Common denominator being internal fame and little public refrain. I know how the system works because I've emailed an executive for the past three years. I would say that actually is two executives that are at the highest chain of command within unsaid organization.
Response is reflective
to the arrogant, egotistical side step. I must importantly convey that yes every email is personally read, even if not by the person to which it was directed. So many executives find this an excellent coping mechanism.
Bernie Sanders kind
Here in our midst, in Calgary, in Canada is a Bernie Sanders of our own. What's that you ask? Well, swap politician with businessman, to get the real drift of the message written here.
Only one of the executives whom I write a brief (and sometimes long) message to has ever responded, written back, and had a message-conversation of only a few. This gentleman answers every single email personally, with humor, anecdotal.
I will share a few, without revealing the names or company to which they are aligned with. I will also share whether there is a response and how it was handled.
Congrats on FINALLY being offered a position worthy of you, Mr_. You kinda got a bum rap at ur previous GIG. Now, you may be victorious! Thank you for keeping me on your connected list. I hope u notice how I will reshare on LINKED IN any news with ur name on it ::... which i normally reserve for the CEO of Salesforce.com fame. He and I connected almost immediately when we hitched a ride to LINKED IN back in 2010. I enjoy the opportunity to read the going on of some various wellknown business leaders in Canada and abroad. I am just launching a website called: www.graFX.online < still under construction until my vision is aligned in an execution-able fashion. This unnamed company will get the first right of refusal on advertising allotment, after that we will see. I won't allow competing brands on my page at the same time. The brands have to meet my criteria::... innovative, open to change, leading edge in technology, especially MOBILITY with a dynamic, positive, healthy culture [ marketing literature aside ] and women have half a better chance in moving up the corporate ladder than other places.
A cultural fit
Examine the culture before you go work anywhere. Where I currently work had almost all of the checks in my boxes to agree to go work, some would consider under-employed, I like to think of as a new beginning.
That has gone on far too long
for any sane person. Yet here is the magic. I demonstrate tenacity and sticking to my commitments. I won't dwell on the past where my loyalty was skathed and bruised confidence hang out.
A hang out for disbelievers?
Or a place for optimistic comradely and support to stay connected. Cheering each other on when you see someone heading to the finish line: fame, wealth comes second to the thrill of finding something that people will love.
A legacy we must not forget
fading Steve Jobs back into the backdrop of historical proportions. Where his greatest arch-rival still maintains.
Objet d'art (plural objets d'art) means literally "art object", or work of art, in French, but in practice the term has long been reserved in English to describe works of art that are not paintings, large or medium-sized sculptures, prints or drawings. It therefore covers a wide range of works, usually small and three-dimensional, of high quality and finish in areas of the decorative arts, such as metalwork items, with or without enamel, small carvings, statuettes and plaquettes in any material, including engraved gems, hardstone carvings, ivory carvings including Japanese netsuke and similar items, non-utilitarian porcelain and glass, and a vast range of objects that would also be classed as antiques (or indeed antiquities), such as small clocks, watches, gold boxes, and sometimes textiles, especially tapestries. Books with fine bookbindings might be included.
The term is somewhat flexible, and is often used as a broad term for "everything else" after major categories have been dealt with.
Objets d'art
Creating aesthetically beautiful objects, words, art, songs, melody, photography with innovation and zest. Those are the best leaders because they want perfection. They've been knocked around a few times, but they bounce back stronger.
How many can you think of
who has had that? You know I mean Steve Jobs, I've mentioned Barrack Obama before. Who is really leading the spirit of the social media? Facebook or Twitter may think they've gotten "IT" while instaGRAM or snapCHAT or PINterest display it can channel and expand the audience.
Besides the where-with-all
who is really leading the charge? Google and newly formed Alpabet? Again, I challenge you to think beyond that. Those are companies all aforementioned.
I'm talking about personal BRAND
that has not been sold to the highest bidder ...... yet.
I message to executives in the spring of 2017:
pay attention to your culture, examine it objectively, challenge who is selling your brand. Setting advertising agencies and pre-set social media placement aside.
Who IS selling your brand?
Get rid of the CEOs and boards who collect a paycheque and run the accounting side of your business or investments. They are the short run wagons to hitch a ride on. The enduring, innovative, revolutionary companies in history had a leader and company overlapping by brand.
Hire the writers and the imagineers
who can see the future clearly, not clogged with BS and YES-men (and ever-growing, but still far behind, number of women)?
Fire the ad agencies
who are merely graphic design studios. Nothing like the "Mad Men" era so well depicted in one of my favorite docu-drama series of all time for me.
Ogilvy on advertising
is a worthy read. It should be a mainstay in any creative agency or entrepreneur. His extraordinary vision is like a bible to how to behave online and get sophisticated, academic, creative followers is a mighty key.
Story telling
was clearly the backbone to Ogilvy's approach. How isn't that phenomenal when you think of the brands that are winning because of how they act online? Whether by video or posted words. Tells the story.
The exchange with others
is a one-sided currency ... except where in one instance a time I was online [ Wednesday ] with full force and paying attention, I witnessed a customer with a REALLY big following on Twitter tweet his dissatisfaction with his customer experience for their technology.
Ability to respond
Is your company equipped to respond?
You have to be honest here. Start from the very top and then cascade down the line.
Whoever professes ignorance
are likely your board of directors, of the Baby Boomer age [ born from 1959 to 1945 times ] where spark is of the very limited kind. Who has last had an idea that sat where your company is run?
Whoever professes participation
can fan-dangle and confuse you with so much techno garbage and marketing slogan-ish barbs. They are no more online than your top dog CEO. Some have presence to be sure. Mostly on things not deemed indicative of your brand [ for example, pornography, mean words, falsehoods, sarcasm ]
Operated by robots
who send out your endorsed words ::... usually a campaign, that really is advertising. This is where the gifted online rise above. They can smell a scam or a spam, cloaked in sophisticated disguise.
Whereas the responses
are automatic. As though they've been keyed in by a computer after a roundtable of committee members compose or decide which will be exposed online. [NOTE: if you ever want a NONdecision, get a group together and call them a committee or an association].
Ego can collide
with the noise online. People with much greater value, wisdom and words emerge and rise to the top. Not the brands with their tricks and paid dollars to drive revenue or traffic to websites to justify their existence.
Merely hanging on with a bandaid
will be those who will be faced if they don't wake up and pay attention to the ability to CONVERSE online with your customers, your supporters, your buyers, your vendors, your fans while being made aware of your detractors, competition or negative vibe generators.
Make sure everyone is telling a story
even if it isn't your story. In fact, that would be better. Share stories of employees who reached out to connect online with an idea to help others that generated a response and churned the wheels of progress and communication farther.
Hang up the old standards
and start creating a culture that adapts to the ever-changing world. Ensure your technology is robust enough to withstand cyber attacks.
Hire wikileaks as your defender
of all that is true and exemplary. Less would be exposed, embarrassed and sink off into the moonlight as the werewolves of change howl.
I'd love to sell wikileaks.com services
Can you just imagine? A brand name that anyone who is everyone can ignore any longer. One of the easiest criteria to determine who to sell for. If you have made it past the excruciatingly painful online "SUBMIT" on the CAREER portal, you have proven that you are worthy to work there wouldn't you think? Fear not, that application sits behind technology. It picks out key words in the resume that it has hyperboiled into identifiable words that in all its theory can expose.
Missing key ingredients like instinct
judgement and overall presentation. How can you hire someone so poised and seemingly perfect who has constantly garlic breath and something green stuck in his or her teeth?
A computer taught to think still lacks instinct and human judgement that can unfortunately be pre-determined by bias or self-centered view, yet can also see smiles, sense warmth, sincerity clearly shine. Yet today's forward thinking companies are falling behind in the times.
Becoming more robot
and run by a gaggle of gearheads or geeks [ of the destructive kind like hackers, exhibitionists to namely only two ]. The silliness that it needs to be cautioned against may seem almost alarmist by some.
Where complacency rests
on the shoulders of nuts, bolts, power, fingers, minds is sadly what is happening. They've climb the heap of others, even stepping on a few to get there. These are the people who are behind your company's words? The popular or populist ones.
Maybe they are more expensive
in the thousands an idea and more when delivered on time, if on time. To ignore the ability to resound your message and create a positive vibe is an opportunity so many companies are missing.
Remember, I said it starts at the top?
Proof is not hidden, nor under a disguise. That to which Trump earns my respect for his wisdom of speaking online. For himself, by himself. Rather than the pocket of a few others, the rest allowing a technology or stranger to convey what is on your mind?
How is that possible?
I can tell you how. They're ignorant of the influence they have online, denying the potential to have every single employee, customer communicate and interact online. Where are the skilled manifestos of intellectual power your boast you have? Hidden and trampled on by your sickness going misdiagnosed. Inspected or neglected? Either cause harm.
Your employees' valuable time
is important and you should concede or acknowledge that. Their ideas more rich and fruitful than anyone trying to tell you what you want to hear. They are impassioned by the believers and loyalists lost in your midst. A true voice for your company.
If you can, seek and find
the RT on Twitter from 48 hours ago where I exclaimed over an exchange between a customer and his support service solving a problem, together, in real time, online. No waiting line or number queue. Immediate, solution nailed and resolution intact. Not to mention the proof of your culture not as clearly defined as shown, demonstrated and acted on.
Not by hey-sayers nor digital players
who are usually of the very young mind. No experience or wisdom to fall upon, just speed in clickness and keen savviness they climbed over the backs of the many who built things, helped build the company. Besides the gold pin for 5 years or platinum for 10, retirement parties have become instinct. Those were the best networking environments of my career. If you were well enough liked or respected, you would be invited to a retirement party, a fond adieu by many as they blend into the twilight of years, traveling, not working, painting, writing.
If you read enough news
you can almost start to believe it.
When you choose the news you want
it is much easier to follow it.
~ Jeannette Marshall
