Workplace Romances – Jared Woods

Talent Communities Around Brands Aren’t Communities At All

// May 8th, 2011 // 1 Comment » // Behaviour

Kevin Wheeler, as always, is thought-provoking. His recent post on ERE.net about social media trends struck a chord with me, on one issue. He suggests that ‘communities’ as a term is inaccurate, and that ‘special interest groups’ is more applicable to what we’ve been building with online engagement in the talent space. Some comments agree, some disagree – I’m sure almost all have an opinion. Have a read. It’s good stuff.

And given this is my blog, I have an opinion too. And it’s that ‘communities’ is inaccurate for a completely different reason.

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Work tips from my time playing video games – Chime

// November 25th, 2010 // No Comments » // Behaviour

For those of you that don’t know it, Chime is a surprisingly enjoyable puzzle game. The player is required to use pre-defined shapes to build over an area, by creating modules which build up a point score. These modules then contribute to a whole-of-map coverage area. When 100% coverage is reached, the level clears. Additionally, the game is timed to music, with each differently shaped module creating a melodic element that plays over the background music.

It’s fun and relaxing and complex, and it’s taught me a few basic concepts completely outside the game itself.

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People are strange and awesome (or: Ten things I learned at the AAGE)

// November 17th, 2010 // No Comments » // Behaviour, Branding

Last week I went to the Australian Association of Graduate Employers’ Conference in Melbourne. It’s a hearty affair, with more than 350 industry types attending, across the range of employers, academia representatives, suppliers and industry associations. It was a good week, but rather than write lengthy sections on every session, here’s a quick ten things list. And very little of it has to do with grad recruitment.

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The difference between “leading” and “being in front”

// July 23rd, 2010 // No Comments » // Behaviour

Being better is always about metrics. You need to define the scale on which you measure ‘good’ before you can become better. “Better” as a label always leads to “better… at what?” So knowing how you’ll measure a good performance (and subsequent improvement) is always the right place to start. The issue is that so many companies use a group metric to label themselves as ‘leaders’.

Leadership is about knowing the path you’re walking, and being prepared to push a few branches out of the way to get there.  Leading an industry, or a market, or a sector, isn’t about comparison to everyone else – it’s about comparison between you and where you want to be. It’s working to reach an ideal, not to outpace a crowd.

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Rejection And Criticism

// April 15th, 2010 // No Comments » // Behaviour

Rejection.

If a client chooses another option over the one you’re selling, there are two things you can do.

The first is to attack the client directly – accuse them of being unprofessional, complain that you didn’t do your best and deserve another chance, bad-mouth the competitor, complain and use all your sales skills and existing knowledge of the client to try and guilt them into reversing the decision.

The second is to take it on the chin, to wish them well and tell them that the door is always open if there’s anything you can ever do for them. Keep it professional and objective, get feedback on what you could have done better, and stay in touch.

Guess which one means you might get the business back eventually? That’s right – the one most of us don’t do.

Criticism.

There’s a poster on my wall at work that says “If you’re tired of people exposing your mistakes, don’t attack the people. Attack the mistakes.” I’ve seen a few people in the industry respond to criticism by publicly attacking the critic. How does this make you look more credible? If you have issue with the review, address the review, not the reviewer. Attacking people, instead of issues, just weakens your argument. Or, just for something different, be confident enough in what you’re doing to ignore the criticism. If you don’t credit the reviewer, don’ respond publicly – just ignore it. Drawing attention to nasty things someone said about you on the internet doesn’t create anything but antipathy. And I’m pretty sure we’ve got enough of that already.

If it works, do it again. if it doesn’t, do it again. And don’t feed the trolls.