My "Journey" continues...

As many of you know by now, I have thrown myself into the "social media fray" and have become fully engaged in learning, understanding and using this revolutionary new media.  It has been an eye-opener to say the least.

When I first met Blaine Millet and Clay Loges, my consultants and coaches, I realized the world was changing for me and for every business out there.  If you haven't been to one of their presentations, I would highly recommend it.  You can get more information out about them and what they do at WOM¹⁰ .  They will open your eyes to an entirely new way of thinking about your business.

What I am realizing as I get more and more involved is this is a huge "mind shift" for me to make - away from "promotion" and more toward "sharing useful information in real-time".  Everyone wants something of value and fast - exactly what social media offers.  Because of this, one change you will see me making is away from the larger, more formal Breakfast "e-mail newsletter" to shorter, summarized e-mails you can read in less than 30 seconds and decide if you want to know more.  If you do, there will be links to a brief story.  This will "help" my audience get more without having to sift through information that might not be as relevant to them right now.

Let me know what you think when I send some of these out to you over the next several weeks.  The beauty of social media is I can react to your comments and make changes immediately - how cool is that!

Social Media - Inside and Outside

We all know Social Media is one of, if not the hottest topics of conversation today.  So what?  Why should we, as business owners and leaders, care?  Great questions and EXACTLY what we are lively presentations and discussion are going to be in the next CEOtoCEO Breakfast Series.

As a business owner, there are some questions you might want to be asking yourself in regard to social media.  How is this going to help me increase sales?  How is it going to bring in more of the "right" customers instead of wasting our time with the "wrong" customers.  How is it going to replace my expensive traditional media I have used for years - even though the results are going down?  How can I use it to increase employee loyalty?  How can I use it to create a better "teamwork" environment inside my company?  How can I use it to attract the "right" employees?  These are just a few of the questions that are being asked and will be answered in March.

If  you have thought about social media at all for your business - whether it is thinking "outside" the organization to increase your sales and build more business or whether it is thinking "inside" the organization on how we can use it to improve internal communications and teamwork, we will have some great discussions about BOTH these topics.  Blaine Millet and Clay Loges of WOM¹⁰ will talk about how this will "change your business" in regard to sales and Richard Law of Allyis will talk about "changing your business" on the inside. 

Increased employee engagement a key to improved team performance

One of the keys to the improved performance of the Mariners that Jack shared is the focus on building a roster of engaged team members.  Engaged employees are those that exert discretionary effort, are enthusiastic about their jobs, and their intend to stay with the organization.   

An increasing number of business leaders that I work with are taking note of employee engagement because of the growing evidence that an engaged workforce shapes more traditional business outcomes like retention, client satisfaction, sales, costs, and profit. 

In a three year study involving the winners of Best Companies To Work For initiatives across the United States, we assessed the impact of high engagement on business success. Among winning companies:

• 87% reported increases in sales

• 86% reported an increased market share

• 57% reported improving employee turnover

• 90% reported higher stock prices (among publicly traded companies)

Leaders of some of the Best Companies to Work For in Washington shared ideas on how they improve their team’s performance at our recent CEOtoCEO Breakfast.  Best Workplace CEOs participating at the breakfast include Mike Mayes of Mayes Testing, Tim Gibbons of Pharmacy One Source,  Jeff Lyon of GVA Kidder Matthews, Eric Overton of Sparling, Brian Paulen of the Madrona Solutions Group and Richard Law of Allysis.

I welcome your thoughts and questions on employee engagement.

Business Tools??? - Executive View of Social Media"

Social Media is on just about everyone’s mind these days. It has been on mine for a while and I've been busy pioneering and learning the art of social media with my own blog. In fact, it just happens to be the topic for our March meeting.

Last year I had the privilege and opportunity to get my first real meaningful introduction to Social Media at a seminar led by Blaine and Clay of WOM10. It was an exciting and very revealing 2 hours for me. I decided it was a new direction that this old dog should take. So I committed myself to learning some new tricks for both me and the CEOtoCEO Breakfast Series. In the past four months I've already learned how game changing social media can be – and I'm slowly becoming a master of the new "social media speak".

Enough about me - here's the GOOD NEWS FOR YOU! Blaine and Clay have compiled an executive introduction to social media in an e-Book called, “Business Tools??? - Executive View of Social Media”. It's a great executive overview of the driving force behind this new form of marketing and communications. The book is short, to-the-point, and practical. It offers a business view of social media. 

Because of my relationship with them, I've arranged for a limited number of copies to be given to our CEOtoCEO group for FREE. If you are one of the lucky few who can act quickly, you too can get your own copy of their powerful e-book, courtesy of CEOtoCEO. Just CLICK HERE and you will be on a page where you can simply enter your name and e-mail address and it’s yours! Doesn’t get any easier than that. I hope you will take advantage of their generous offer and get your own copy today.

Strategic Map is a great tool for teaching leadership

I had the privilege of getting to meet and talk with Randy Gardner, CEO of Red Dot Corporation a while back and he shared with me a great story. He attended one of our CEOtoCEO Breakfast meetings and saw David Katri from Clark Nuber present their Strategic Map. He really grabbed onto that idea and felt he could use a tool like this in his own company. Below is a recent letter he sent me that I wanted to share with you because it is applicable to just about every CEO and business. Thanks Randy...

Over the past several years Red Dot had identified its Core Values, and established its Mission and Vision Statements; which have been placed on placards throughout the business. Red Dot has also gone to great lengths to communicate these strategic company choices, but as they stand alone, it isn’t entirely clear to the average employee or often managers how they fit into an over company strategy (the big picture).

When I saw the Strategic Map developed by Clark Nuber at the CEOtoCEO Breakfast, I immediately thought it might be a tool to help me communicate the place that Mission, Vision and Values have in Red Dot’s “bigger strategic plan or thinking.” I found it relatively easy to put our thoughts in to Clark Number’s Strategic Map structure, and our Graphic Design Manager worked his magic with regard to the final visual.

In the end, It helped me more easily put the pieces of our strategic thinking in to a succinct, easy to understand graphic that I could use to explain the associations, intent, and roles of Red Dot’s Strategic choices. Even then, strategic thinking is a very conceptual domain, and isn’t grasped by everyone who sees it. However, it is a great teaching tool for Red Dot’s leadership, and a solid reference for up and coming management prospects who will need to do this type of conceptual planning as they progress.

I hope this helps!

Randy Gardiner
President & CEO

RED DOT CORPORTATION
direct line (206) 394-3553
http://www.reddotcorp.com/

Mariners secret to retaining top talent Felix Hernandez

At our recent CEOtoCEO Breakfast speaker Jack Zduriencik, GM of the Mariners, was asked to share the secret to retaining Felix Hernandez the team's Ace pitcher for the next five years. Jack modestly told us it was easy …. "What's not to like about being paid $78 M for 5 years when you're 23 years old?" Baseball pundits say Felix's performance was worth significantly more money than what he agreed to with the Mariners.

A secret to keeping top talent? Jack told the executives in attendance that when the Mariners shared the organizations values, vision and mission of the future, and strategies to develop and retain top talent with Felix his response was "I'm in."