Are They Wearing The Right Hats?

You’re running your own business. It's going well. Growth is happening. Then suddenly you start hearing and reading reports of an economic collapse.

You wonder how it will affect your business. Will you lose money? Will you make less than last year? Will you need to curtail your growth plans? Does this mean the death of the five-year plan?

Yes. Maybe. Perhaps. Your call. Long ago.

What’s In The News?

So you ask around to other business owners, start sifting through mind numbing financial sites and blogs and circle around the cul-de-sac of bad news. Some are downsizing, some are decimating their marketing budgets and major corporations’ foundations are cracking before your very eyes.

Self Doubt Is Not Your Friend

Suddenly you may question your motives, your tactics and your own staff. Perhaps others are right, you do need to lower your prices and fire some people? Possibly the answer lies in making people wear more hats and work harder? Conceivably you will simply need to cut the highest paid on your roster and hope for the best?

Take A Moment

It might be time to examine your external and internal communities. After all, customer service begins at home. If you and your team are not giving each other good service, it’s doubtful you can do your best for your paying customers.

Obviously fiscal responsibility is crucial. There is no shortage of situations where a dysfunctional community negatively affects the bottom line. Many are now being told as a benefit for keeping their gig, they are now doing two.

Reality Bites

I remember years ago working with an ad agency that had three founders. One was creative director, one was head of sales and the third was art director. They went out and hired a president to run the day-to-day. They realized what hats fit them best.

Forest: Meet Trees

It’s tough to think clearly when we hear downsizing at Google and Microsoft but that doesn’t mean it has to happen to you. But long before wondering if you're widgets are right or what your competition is doing, it's time to examine accountability – when everyone in the building is accountable to everyone in the building. Now could be your opportunity to sharpen everyone so the wasted time on backstabbing and butt covering can be removed in place of progress. Your competitive advantage could be better teamwork, for real.

Do you wear too many hats?
Are you wearing the right hats?
What about your entire organization?

@knealemann

photo credit: flickr.com/photos/mamluke

Possibilities Predictions and Positivity

With the Canadian election done and the American election three weeks away, trillions of words have been spoken, written and thought about government, the economy, and the future. I don't view myself as a futurist, I am a broadcaster and producer but from my many years of unscientific research – you and I have about as much luck at predicting the future as anyone.

So we have two choices – and not the la la la I can’t hear you approach.

Integration is one of my favorite words and it when it works, it’s magic. And to quote Obama last night, this is the worst economic time since the great depression. I live in Canada, but trust me no one is waltzing around this gorgeous nation thinking we’ve dodged any financial bullet!

As I talk with clients, partners and potentials, we discuss integration more and more. Sure this is about matching content with context and building the community but not just in entertainment where I preside most of the time. This is about (sorry for the centurion cliché) teamwork! But it's about teamwork on a much larger scale.

That sounds simple enough. It’s not. The human mind seems to adopt the negative much swifter than positive. But with open discussion and using how rather than no, when we feel ourselves slip can we should remember that we’re all in this together.

km

WE Are The Network

I woke up this morning, had some coffee, and listened to some tunes. And while The Thievery Corporation filled my office, I caught up on the news and sifted through emails, various blogs and social networking sites. Then it hit me. The comments and updates that were most prevalent were about family and weekends and great weather and sharing pictures of experiences.

After a few tough weeks for all of us, I was looking at pictures shared and comparing music tastes again. Oh yeah, that’s what we’re supposed to be doing. It isn’t all about work and having the most friends on Facebook!

We get caught up on work and issues and problems and technology and what’s next and how each of us contributes. But through honest open moments, people were sharing simple human pleasures. It made me appreciate that stuff too. The coffee was delicious too.

It may sound trite but we tend to forget that the endgame is to be able to enjoy ourselves for the instant we’re here.

We are not on this sphere sharing and comparing and building to keep doing the same without breaking the cycle to breathe. We are here to stop once in a while and enjoy the important element we tend to forget – us.

We are the network. And once in a while, it's okay to share on a much more human level.

As I sat in my backyard with the laptop off and a book in my hand, I let the unusually warm October sun wash over me while I laughed at a wonderfully written and hilarious book a friend gave me three months ago. I had been too busy to give myself the break to enjoy it. By the way, if you want a great belly laugh, check out Bill Bryson’s “In A Sunburned Country”.

Happy Weekend.

km