A little doldrum: the top-down has turned from the bottom-up

A culture to be considered
I've been quite enjoying the start of a four-day weekend.  The first day spent taking care of me.  I went for a mani-pedi.  I started a marathon of paint-ing while today I took my dog Buddy for a long walk, with ear buds setting pace to my walk and singing to my spirit.  You'd almost think that it would be classical wouldn't you?  Nahhhh, it is more rock.  Not pop music, country or ballads for me.


When writing slows down
I want to take a look inside and reflect upon why that would be so?  I maybe feeling uninspired?  That can happen to the best of us.  Pulling yourself out by the collar, takes strength, resilience and determination.  I have taken a break from painting and nothing of interest draws me to the TV.  (I've heard enough about "Brexit" for years, not even days, never mind hours).  



In keeping with the positive
An attitude adjustment may be in store.  Which is where I will write about "theCLUBHOUSEproject" I'm about to embark on later on.  Am I feeling melancholy?  Fed up? or Flipping out?  None of the above.  Just nawhthing that is rocking my boat of late.  I got a nice note from a colleague that I had written a recommendation for, and that gave me some umphhh:
there is hardly a better way of springboarding out of the doldrums than making someone else feel special.  If they happen to notice, or better yet, respond with a positive vibe, I know I have hit my mark.  It does make me feel better.  

A reflection from within
surfaced a concise take on a situation with these words:

I'm sure you'll go far now you're out in your-new-land, circulating

 around the head honchos.  I still get the giggles over that email that was sent out that day from your computer because you left it on .... "tomorrow pizza's on me!!"  Too funny eh?  I hope you will check out my blog

 and share it around your circles.  It is the truest to who I am,

 not the stifled version that works at a company

 we both know, that's for sure. 

 They put me on a new team and it is like working

 under a vice grip.  My TM is just waiting for me to mess up

 to enable it to pounce on me.

  I find it hard to believe that they are trying to make people

 when it looks like they really want to break them.  

Do you really know your cultural?
Or is it an image drummed up by the marketing and creative types?  I keep trying to tell people who are not listening carefully:  if you say it is so, it does not make it to be.

Who mans (or WOmans) your ship?
I sure hope it isn't a 20 something who can't get a grip on what your customers want, and cannot relate to who they are.  That seems to be the most common.  The value an organization puts to their social media is atrocious for the most part.  I'd bet they are paid less than your receptionist.

The value of first impressions
Centrically lies at your front door, who people see first when they enter your castle.  In today's world, I'm going to guess that something like 75 percent (conservatively speaking) outsource their reception kingdom.  Chances they are very young, very poorly attired, misappropriately mannered.  

A call for Ms. Manners
Do they even have such a thing around anymore?  Golly, we all remember Audrey Hepburn in that role about a rough-around-the-edges girl turned into a lady!  Yet we park the "before" version as the first person your very best customers, investors, creditors, shareholders, potential employees see.  

The tables are turning
The potential investor, customer, shareholder, sought after graduate is going to cross you off your list based on how important everything is in your organization, where responsibility lies at the top-down, not the bottom-up.   

A Sergeant Major leading troops
Belongs in the army or marine corp, not your company!  Yet, so many top organizations lean on to lean into the masses, push the bad ones out and the good ones too, where the mediocre survive, deafened or immune to management style that intimidates or incriminates, bracketed by a title that would indicate is your support person or advocate but is more inclined to promote themselves long before anyone else, unless it is one of their cohorts in the middle management aisles, defending each other, protecting themselves.

What is your personality?
We know what you tell the shareholders and the media viewers who skeptically buy everything you dish out.   If you were to walk into your company fresh tomorrow, as though you were looking from the outside, what would you see?

People friendly and engaged
Falls far behind stats, metrics, diplomas or degrees.  You really aren't looking for anyone that can think for themselves when you've kept the guard strong, stifle any ingenuity because that would only threaten the troops and take the majors off their game, briefly, before they are marched out or escape themselves.

As the economy rebounds
Many will have good memories.  They will recall the mishaps they scanned a while ago and have your company on the "stay away from" list faster than a nod on the "apply inventory".   

Respect, professionalism, ethics
Will far outway corruption, politics,  nepotism,  favoritism.  The leaders of those gangs exhausted and put out to pasture to make way for energy, enthusiasm, ethics, put out the steam of egos.

Roll up your sleeves and work
Without concern for who gets credit, because credit will always fall on the most deserving, not the stolen ideas.

Where training prevails
 Not as a fake lost leader but a real orchestration of talent pooling and magnetic to only the best of the best surface from.  

Out with the same ole same old

ART credit:  

er_cervello on instaGRAM 

Today is one of self-reflection
Thoughts uncorked.  Am I doing my purpose?  Do I love what I do?  What makes me the happiest when I'm doing it?  Out with the same ole same old and in with the new, refreshing, optimism.

Negative
The only negative vibe I have on my brain right now is why the heck am I getting so many job invites? It does irritate me that my information is spread around the big blue yonders of Twitter and Facebook.  I try not to be judgemental, however, it's harder to do when I get so many emails inviting me to be a Shipper or Receiver because my profile jumps out at them.

Savvy does
There is this really savvy recruiter with the last name McCabe that has caught my attention.  Brilliantly, he sends me snapshots of jobs he thinks I should apply for.  I've never connected virtually or otherwise.  He Am I doing my purpose?  Do I love what I do?  What makes me the happiest when I'm doing it?

Website delights
Or horrors depending upon which one you go on.  The people creating those forms are razzle dazzling the person with the wallet while they walk away snickering.  A sarcastic sense of humour with a superior knowledge, that is so relatable to the stats without any clue on how to do things like create, teamwork, imagineer creatively.  I could go public with the more excruciating ones.  The really savvy ones have already had me create a extended profile by answering the psychographics questions all nestled into the safety of their site.  One really really REALLY big BIG brand out of the US, which is known for its marketing ingenuity have already gotten answers from my test results.  

I already had this done 
Before I had set aside a website I had to go back and finish.  Then miracle by miracle they had an email address to response and attach Resume, references the old fashion way.  That is, before digital cartwheeling. 

Act your job
I decided that a National Social Media Director of an internationally recognized brand had to have some jive ... beat of their own song, know themselves a bit more, and share it honestly and transparently:  So here I went:


Of note
That big gihumongous company just sent me a note saying I fit in their cultural mode.  Interesting.  Is that a reflection that big companies are trying to create a positive culture by hiring the right people who will work together fabulously?  Fascinating eh?  Oh, back to the application.  Which by the way, will hardly be recognized because Calgarians are known to consider outsides and bring in the best from afar, so they don't hardly look at someone in their own backyard.  Or is that companies that are failing in establishing strong culture?  For pondering more, I'm sure.

_____________________________________________________________________ //
Good afternoon,

I am really happy that I stumbled upon your ad on Linked In.  It jumped out to me.

You see, I have been working actively in Social Media since 2010.  I was wondering what the fuss was all about, so I hopped on and happily formed a hobby.

The dream is to take all that great, juicy knowledge and apply it to someone who I can resonate for.  

I'm a kind of results driven gal.  Does that make me bossy or pushy, nah.  I've figured out that the best way to get people's attention is with well timed humour, think deeply about meaningful things, blog about it, tweet a message, share a quote, pin an image, and just promote promote.

If you're willing.  It is a new adventure for Big Rock.  Can we do it together?  Let's decide when we meet face to face to see what unfolds:  having me as your National Social Media person.  

I'm not completely a leap of faith.  I studied about demographics way back when I was at Western Living magazine starting in the late 80s. I'm particularly proud of one claim :: all awards, president clubs, aside :: I sold the outside back cover of the Olympic 1988 issue for Calgary Magazine's commemorative printed host for those Winter Olympics.  That was after the company I worked for doubted any one of us locally could sell one small ad, never mind the coveted position on any magazine.  The organization sought out an ad agency from Toronto.  See, that city has been the center of Canada's universe for quite a few years.  I learned how to collaborate, corroborate before "Team Work" was just important as creating revenue.  

I would welcome the opportunity to be considered.  Kindly reach out by reply to myemail@email.com or my cell 000.000.0000 which you will likely receive a message.  It would be nice if you would suggest a few optional times for this momentous event.

To show that I am completely legitimate, I've attached my resume for you to gaze through and think of a few questions to ask me.  After you read through some things people have said about me.  Or, you can find me on Linked In.  (Or I could make it easy for you by including thelink). https://ca.linkedin.com/in/jeannette-marshall-4075a11b   

Best,

Jeannette Marshall

_____________________________________________________________________ //

Sidebar

Maybe there are myths floating around that we're in a recession.  Lots of naysayers around, not enough jobs, outta job.  Well, apparently great companies are looking for outstanding talent.  They cast out a wider web to find the best real fit.  For the direction of the company, who they want to be their Ambassadors, their voice.  So keep on trying to be better at who you are and hang on to who you want to be.  It isn't impossible.  You just have to focus a little big more. 

Mystery Company?

Maybe I'll announce that company after I get the chance for a face to face.  Last time I did that, LOL (snickers out loud) I was called in to interview with one of the biggest, greatest technology companies of our time.  Guess who I go in to interview with?  A guy who managed a big box store, rhymes with Dome Peepo.   Another side story, that's me, definitely.  On my last real Goof Off day, I was in a mall and the store with the really big fruit was packed while the other had staff talking to each other to keep themselves awake.  I didn't say they were wrong.  I just wondered at the very moment after asked about him, good interview etiquette  by the way.  What was a guy who is seasonally oriented towards tools doing being the leader of a big technology name?  Earth to Mr. sounds like Yates.    Maybe opinionating is a worthy root for this blog.  I seem to have a number of topics I comment on.

Thank you

I thank you for popping in.  I enjoy having you.

When honesty hurts

"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

~Martin Luther King, Jr.

I’m thankful I ran across the story afire on Twitter to draw me  to MEDIUM to read what the fuss was all about for myself.  It made me want to comment, respond, and say a few words.....

If I were her mentor, I would have advised Talia to stay away from broadcasting her frustration with her company and employer so publicly. It has ramifications that one may not have anticipated, such as losing a job, as it did happen. Many organizations have Code of Ethics with social media rules that protect themselves from this very thing, which would state “loss of employment” if you violate the rules.

Having said that, let me applaud and share my respect for the courage that it must have taken to publish this not-so-secret plight. It is a sad state of circumstances that many 20 somethings are dealing with: not being able to afford a living while working: often called the “working poor” or forced to live at home.

If she had asked me, which she certainly didn’t. I would have recommended that she reach out to HR to ask for advice so that they may have guided her on what extras could be done to move up the ladder. (However, these same advisors are usually people who are hired fresh out of university themselves, without life wisdom, because they will accept a lower wage with the same optimism that they can work their way up the ladder to a better paying job). 

Or, she could have asked her direct manager, what skills she should focus on to become a higher valued contributor in order to be promoted within the company. (Which those same managers may not be equipped for career mentoring while to juggling high turnover from the constant revolving door of employees who get fed up or luckily are snapped up by a competitor or another company willing to pay a little more for all that training and experience that the former company cast aside).  Thanks for training your competitors?  Huh?

Steve Jobs was certainly known for NOT keeping his opinions to himself.

There are a lot of remarkable examples the world over who were often  considered rebels: think Steve Jobs … getting hired and fired, committed to his beliefs and passionate about perfection, who ended up paving a way to a career on his own terms. Difficult to imagine when you don’t know where the money for groceries or having to turn off the heater to save on costs.

Talia was very brave in her expression. However, being as smart as she is, she may have anticipated that she could lose her job over self-expression: telling it like it is. She is a lesson and champion for her generation, even if it doesn’t feel like it right now. She had the tenacity and realization that it isn’t a plight of hers alone, but of many similar in age who are saddled with student debt, not finding a good job because you need a good job in order to get the experience to get a better one, or still living at home which destroys any self-confidence or optimism you may have once had. Forced to accept minimum wage for an important role: speaking to customers.

I suggest she continue to be passionate about her beliefs even when the world seems to be knocking her down. We don’t always know where we’ll end up, but having integrity and passionate about injustice, is a character trait that should serve her well in your future. Someone WILL recognize someone who is prepared to go the extra mile for their customers, their career, their company. Sometimes true honesty is a thermometer of what is really going on. It is not rocket science that happy employees create positive experiences with customers. Society and the corporate world don’t always recognize that although the truth can hurt, it may foreshadow a downward turn in their good fortune. It often appears in the end, with executives scratching their heads, revolving disruptive CEO or executive turnover who make change for the sake of making impact, without asking the frontline people if it makes sense. We know them as media darlings who are constantly being broadcasted about their demise, their layoffs, their diminishing shareholder value.

Yes, it took guts. But the ramifications are indicative of the world we live in: it is safer to take your grief to your employer-sponsored benefits to a counselor, who may be better equipped to help you handle it.

I hope others will recognize, as I did, that if you ignore a problem or keep quiet about it, doesn’t necessarily mean it will go away.  Typically, it masks a much bigger problem. The company is simply doing what is acceptable practice: protecting their reputation so that they don’t lose customers or shareholders. The same companies that hire juniors, train them for responsibility, and then hope that it will turn out in their favor …. all at a much lower wage than they could hire someone with greater experience who can’t afford to start all over again.

Many employees keep quiet about how they feel to protect themselves

Many quality organizations promote honesty and create platforms to voice complaints about a manager, express how they really feel.  Yet, many employees are frozen with fear that the same manager or situation will get flagged and travel back to them, causing more undesired issues, ramifications and sometimes retaliation.   

At least, they try:  often,  they are the bigger corporations that have accountabilities to shareholders, if not always employees.  Then, there are the smaller or mid-size family run businesses where staff can be fired on a whim or a bad day.... with little to no fear of ramification.  At least, some companies hold their entire organization accountable and are known for firing executives for  violating behaviors.   

Above surface: what the world sees; below surface: what is really going on

That is a slippery slope of discussion best not expressed by an employee who could be misunderstood or misperceived that they're talking about their own organization when they are not.    Safer to keep away from slamming former employers or a nasty former boss unless one doesn't care that they could be held accountable.

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." 

~Albert Einstein

How many organizations, I wonder, evaluate employee turnover and examine if there are trends?  Are managers with higher results or performance forgiven more frequently for high turnover because they may be perceived as driving results when the real reasons may be disguised?  

 I like my job, I love my company.  I consciously stay far away from writing about or participating in corporate politics.  I have a focused decision to do my best to write positively and help others be more optimistic while improving their skills .... a more constructive way of moving ahead ... in my opinion.

Thank you for your honesty, Talia, it is precious. As a mother of four 20-somethings it isn’t anything I haven’t heard before …. although albeit a lot less publicly.

 +Jeannette Marshall (mother of four 20-somethings aka Millennials)

"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."

~Albert Einstein

tenacity TRUST follow up

I'm pretty pleased with myself because I am here once again, in my commitment to give insights to what characteristics identify a potentially top performer in sales.  

Just so we're clear, however, I want to emphasize that the three qualities identified:  tenacity + TRUST + follow-up are inter-twined.

I recognize that I may have made recruiters' jobs a tad more challenging by stating that these three characteristics go hand in hand with the ideal candidate for sales superstardom.

• Tenacity:  those that are committed to a career in sales have one common trait, that is uncommon. They don't give up easily.  If you happen to be in their horizon or sphere of targeted prospect, be ready for a ride.  They might write, call, email or post to get your attention that you should be talking to them.  They have a value proposition that will solve a business need that they just know will make your business' life easier.  Why? Likely because they have an uncanny ability to instinctively identify the ideal prospect and set out to understand everything that makes you tick.  That is before they even hit a keyboard or pick up the phone.  They more than likely know who your customers are, who your competitors are and play to that.  They may sense that their offering will be a winner for you, even if you haven't figured that out yet.

• TRUST:  they give off the air that they are not solely intelligent, charismatic enough to be on your team.  They portray an aura of trust.  You instinctively sense that they have your best interests at heart while simultaneously achieving their own goals.  They call or follow up when they say they will.  They start at the top, because really only the important top executives will recognize that this smart, pro has communicated in a fashion that mirrors your values, image and goals.  In other words, they will make you look fantastic in others' eyes for trusting this new avenue or approach ... and it pays off.

• Follow up:  Forget the over-promise and under deliver -- these keeners will do what they say they will.  And, if you think you're savvy, you've got nothing on them:  they have a diary, calendar, Outlook system that would make the most gifted project manager blush.  They may have their own system for following up, or they may utilize the tools available to make them a stellar professional:  a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool.  When they are following up, they have all the details on what they perceived resonated with you, or you told them.  They know the who, what, why and where your problem lies, or what they have to solve them.  

Pretty simple?  You'd think so.  Yet, only the very BEST have these combined attributes.  Your talent recruitment system may have some identity metrics, but not as captivating as this.   Think about it, your recruitment process is to try to fit a

square peg into a round hole.  Yes, you have search power to make it easier to cast out a web of candidates, but you haven't identified these important qualities have you?  Trust me, they're important.  

Get out of your own self-absorbed importance and open your eyes to what qualities make the best in your camp:  tenacity, TRUST and follow up!

Smooth, soft to the touch and embraces you

All about the magazines ..... you would almost think I was talking about physical intimacy wouldn't you?  Naw, of course not, that's not like me to talk about that stuff on a blog... yet, LOL.

I miss the mass of magazines I used to accumulate and in a scattered pile.  The pillar of my information, absorbed, read and experienced in my chosen leisure time.  When I could have soft music playing and a fireplace on, creating the ambiance of the world I was entering:  a magazine.

Today, when I got home, like most of us do, at least twice a day to the millions of people who some appear nonchalant about, while some can barely lift their eyes from the smartphones no matter where they are, driving, on the bus, under the desk, feet up on the desk pretending like it is a really important email from a client or shareholder or employee, or handset glued to the ear as if what you are listening to FAR exceeded in importance in no matter what you are doing: a seminar, a meeting, or online company page.

I drifted off from my point for a few seconds.  As often I do when I'm hit with a flurry of ideas or responses to something I read, and sometimes I hear.

I was inspired so overwhelmingly, I rolled up my sleeves and composed a comment.  Again, perhaps some spend their days posting and commenting lest somebody forget that they're online.  I don't very often.  I want to far more.

I admit that as a huge fan and connoisseur of magazines, my attention will drift to the better known and simultaneously printed magazines, first before any online avenue.  

I often detour to read one major player's articles first before the scattering of other noise posted on various social media.  In this instance, I saw a distance from writing perspective. 

One can't help but understand that traditional printed media who are defining their online power, default to Bloggers.  I am even connected to this writer on Linked In and read his/her posts there.  So, I clicked on the article seeing the title and who it was issued by default. 

I observed some disturbing things:

The most glaring error of NOT editing Bloggers is the key differentiator:  Bloggers are typically selling themselves, their beliefs and promoting their services, shouting  "for sale, FOR SALE" to rise among the noise.  

Typically, as a traditional magazine avid fan, it is not hard for me to gravitate towards magazines over newsprint, as I did today.  I always relate traditional magazines as credible, carefully crafted design, and intimacy with its readers which they feel embraced by this safety net.
  
Alas, the distinction is blurred to my grave dismay.  I discovered this article included by an online self-promoter, Blogger, expert, social media personality all tied into one.  It was a quick scan, not even an absorbed read (which the intellectual online reader is, above average in intelligence), it was ablaze with me, I and my.  

Slipped through the cracks of editorial review, where now is too late, the distinction of credible traditional magazine experience, was lost.  Real writers don't talk about themselves, they lose themselves in their topic or their characters or subjects.  

It is a huge disservice to loyal readers who have graceful swayed from the printed environment to the online environment.

People forget that magazines are about the experience, where fact checking is taken for example, and rarely without editorial hand.  If you are going to give Bloggers a spin, don't allow them to promote their spin.  They should talk to their subject and let their words stand.  Just like.  Beautifully touching (sliding sheets) softly dimmed (photographic brilliance) where the naive think that most just read it for the ads, like Vogue.  The most gifted presentations allow the readers' eyes to drift from article to advertisement to advertorial, with little differentiation with a lot of trust in hand.  

Now that online former credible printed magazines have been overtaken by Bloggers, they will dimmer and diminish among the noise trying to become noticed in a crowded clouded assembly of just about anybody. 

Who in the heck is Jeannette Marshall?

BIO

Jeannette Marshall

as @optioneerJM

from Calgary, Alberta CANADA

 DEFINITION: 

A knowledge junkie, social networker extraordinaire, Calgary gal, leadership fan, business developer, publishing pro, new business rocket launcher, personal brander, demography student, artistic eye, talent curator, content creator and sharer, visual presenter, spokesperson and advocate.

 CAREER                                       HILITES

Easy to find and figure out when you go to see my profile on LINKED IN where it tell you that I've worked for magazines,

museums and art galleries.  I bounced around in technology, major corporations and major players where I’ve sold, lead sales teams, published, launched, project managed, security   clearance,  loyalty reward and retention specialist, having had the privilege to work for the finest organizations in the world, like Xerox and HP, who have experienced failure and dug from asunder dismal shareholder value while working with talented colleagues there, many of the best, along with those in golden star Telus winning by reputation, superb advertising campaigns and customer loyalty, strong leadership team. 

 I am a student of life, growing up figure skating competitively, post-secondary at a technical institute instead of the Ivy League. 

I often post my Blog on Linked In on career, business, sales matters.  Constantly on the look out for ways to improve myself.

VISUAL CURATOR

 I present myself as s a "fabulous fashionista fighting her fifties"

I write about things that catch my attention or what I’m thinking about  i.e. fashion, beauty, cosmetics, movies and so on: 

I ove visual images. 

 http://meanderingsabout.blogspot.ca

STUDENT:

I study and observe a lifelong passion about generations' stereotypes and demographics on 

"The inBETWEENers"

Who are neither Baby Boomer nor GenX.

For those

who were born

1960-1965

https://optioneerjm.wordpress.com/

CONNECTOR:

Reach out to me personally if you would like promotion of your photography or content to share, tweet or PIN via @optioneerJM (you can follow me there or on Facebook 

My audience is steadily climbing upwards of 15,000 being quality followers, #RTers, clickers, PLUSers, likers, Influencers, pros and experts. Etc.

 I give credit where credit is due:  you, the talented imageers, adventurers and visionaries.

77 KLOUT SCORE

CONTRIBUTION:

Facebook51%          

            Twitter40%

     LinkedIn3%       Instagram3%            Google2%

    Foursquare0%            Youtube0%                           Klout1%

 

PERSONAL BRANDING

I share awesome photography on #Pinterest on several boards, curated and organized by theme:  social media, foodies, #bestofeverything, Books and Reading; Movies and TV watchers; I promote and share news source leaders like Mashable, CBC Canada. Photography via 500px and Flicker for images; Guest pinner of Best of Pinterest Photographers,  Developed Blog as Jeannette Marshall on business, leadership, sales and social media on The OptioneerJM 

Writer, blogger  with presence under multiple blogs, boards, pages, groups of influencers; contributor on PINterest boards, Member of several GROUPS. 

I'm continuously testing new content services and sources.