Finding Our Thing

It’s often said we should find something we’re passionate about and do it. We'll cool let's do that! Now why are we unhappy again? Oh yeah, because we often have absolutely no idea what are truly passionate about and worse how to even achieve it.  

In his latest book, “Love + Work”, author, speaker, and consultant Marcus Buckingham examines how our lives and our careers are forever intertwined. He writes finding something we love doesn't mean it's going to be nirvana all the time but rather we will find love within it and the challenges will be easier to overcome. Have you ever lost track of time doing something? Yeah that. 

Buckingham also reminds us no one will ever be exactly the same as each of us. No one who has ever existed or will ever exist will be exactly like you. Celebrate that. 

Perfection is impossible.  

We live in woke times. Some have deemed themselves the grand jury of all opinion. Here's the deal, I won't judge you, you don't judge me, and we'll be good. You do stuff you will love most of the time and I'll do that same. I may love auto racing but I won't insult you if you have a passion for flower arranging. It's not my call! 

No one has any right to tell you what you think or feel, nor does anyone have the right to tell you what or who you love. Life is not a zero-sum game to be won. As its own name defines, it is living breathing inaccurate flawed experience. Yet for some reason we measure ourselves against perfection. 

This is your life. Tell her how you feel. Look for another line of work. Stop letting others decide for you. Love who you want, do what you want, don't let others tell you what's best for you. I'm not proclaiming I don't have that doubtful voice in my head most of the time which I wish would shut up, but let's see if we can shift our thinking together.

To me, that sounds like a good plan.

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Checkng the List

I recently found this list I posted back in 2011. If we review, I think we find that all of these are still valid and some are even more important twelve years later.

Read more, skim less. Turn your phone off once in a while. Don't wait for approval. 

Forget the past. Spend more time with people you love. Dream big; do bigger. Be gracious. Make quick decisions. Stop comparing your effort to others. Enjoy the ride.

Stop doing anything that weakens you. Trust yourself. Take a digital day off.

Keep an open mind. Plan ahead then be flexible. Ask for help. Help someone without their knowledge it was you who helped them.

Go for it. Eradicate unnecessary meetings. Eat the cookie. Listen more. Sing often.

Say thank-you. Trust your gut. Make time for think time. Don't wait.

Find the lesson. Keep learning. Thank a friend. Take the nap.

Don’t settle. Collaborate. Consume more funny. Good enough is not good enough.

Be yourself.

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Mentors Wanted

I've been fortunate to have had a couple of excellent mentors in my career and been even more fortunate to be a mentor. It's a special relationship that can't be mandated by any company initiative. It just happens over time and in many important patient steps and it's vastly different than training or taking a course.

Teacher

There must be trust. Your mentor has to care about you and your success not simply put their theories and goals on you. My most influential mentor was my boss Stewart. In just five years, I learned more about leadership and myself than I could have in twenty. He was a student of human behavior and not only understood we were different but accepted and embraced it.

He said leadership was 10% about the work and 90% about life, relationships, and people. It's important to do good work but without human connection, company culture won't be strong and your business will struggle. Stewart knew this and created it in our organization. And he's still doing it today.

Student

Stew understood human systems, team dynamics, and the importance of pushing people to be their best. His biggest gift as my mentor was to find those moments to explain how he did what he did and allow me space to find my own style and process. Oh, and if you know him, don't tell him I wrote this, he isn't the look-at-me type.

I connected with his ability to set the course but also explain how he arrived at the plan and how I could find my own way to lead my team, and years later, even bigger teams. He gave me another view of how to find my own way. I didn't realize at the time, but he gave me the foundation for my work today.

Graduate

Mentors are priceless yet the relationship is often not evident at first. You don't see "mentor" on an org chart or job board. It happens when it happens and can't be forced. But as the mentor relationship develops, it will garner immeasurable results.

If you've been fortunate to be a mentor, are one now, or become one in the future, cherish the opportunity to help someone find their way.

Enjoy the relationship.
__________________________________________________________________

Everything to Everyone

You may often hear others claim they’re good with people or they can increase the bottom line. Those are excellent attributes but need to be further defined and refined. For fear of being specific and potentially losing a deal, many will promise to help anyone who asks them and that can be a dangerous tactic.

Many of us have fallen victim of the plan of trying to have an offer with a wide scope. But if we say everyone is our target customer we can be in trouble. Some feel they don't want to limit their potential. But if we narrow our focus, we can become stronger in those areas we can help the most. We often see this in the start-up world; the company starts to get legs and the offering widens which can be dangerous.

Do one thing really well

The retail space has gotten fuzzy over the last decade. You can buy groceries at your pharmacy and furniture in your electronics store. Widening the offer is watering down the focus and may appear to be working but is actually hurting many of the large companies attempting this strategy.

If you’ve ever been to a general store in a small town it’s like a different world. You can buy everything from candy to camping equipment. But if you looked at your business and more importantly how you grow your team, you probably wouldn’t think it wise to be too wide and hire generalists. Shifting into areas that get away from our strengths in order to grow revenue and market share can be tempting. Doing what we do well, more often, can often be the wiser tactic.

Sometimes offering less can create a lot more.
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One Question

We work thousands of hours each year. Life gets busy. There are deadlines and meetings, commitments and activities. Someday becomes part of our daily routine. We plan for the future, we look forward to a time when we'll have more time or money.

Then suddenly another decade is gone. And no matter how much time or money we spend, we cannot change the past. That is what is going on in each of us, in each of the people in our organization, in each of our clients. That is what is happening with everyone you meet on social channels, in the grocery store, at that business function, in your company. None of us escapes it.

Filmmaker Kamil Krolak asked the same question to fifty people. What's your answer?


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Count the I's

Involve - We've heard the tired cliche countless times; "There’s no “I” in team”. I disagree and here's why.

Imagine - We travel in packs, so it’s safe to say you more often work in a team environment. A group of people all wandering in different directions can be extremely dangerous. When we can share ideas with each other, magic can happen.

Inspire - One of the coolest television shows ever was Long Way Down featuring actor Ewan McGregor along with his best mate and fellow actor Charley Boorman. This was the follow-up to their original trip entitled Long Way Around which began in April 2004. The goal was to take the long way around the earth - on motorcycles.

Instigate - Charley, Ewan and their crew left from London, crossed over to mainland Europe then rode to France, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Siberia, Alaska, Canada, into the U.S. and finally arrived in NYC. You don’t just wake up one more morning and try this. It takes a lot of preparation and a lot of people.

Integrate - In January 2004 the boys began intense physical training which included weights, boxing, and cardio. In between workouts, they joined the rest of the team for intense road planning research. They also had to educate themselves on issues such as possible bear attacks, language barriers, passports, every possible weather condition, medicine, proper supplies and just for fun there was a television crew filming everything from day one.

Improve - They also had to be trained to deal with survival issues, possible hostile environments and of course first-aid. Nutritionists, GPS experts and seasoned outdoor travelers were consulted. This was all to prepare for their mammoth trip.

Implement - Three years later, they wanted to do another trip. This time, Scotland to South Africa. The same detail had to go in to this trip as with the last. They ran in to some passport issues and Ewan broke his leg which delayed things. But when you see them riding their bikes around the Great Pyramid of Giza or stopping to bungee jump over Victoria Falls, it's proof the prep was well worth it. Long Way Around was 115 days covering 15,000 miles. Long Way Down covered more than 20,000 miles in 85 days.

Initiate - You may not have the desire to spend twelve months of your life training and riding motorcycles but the elements are the same. Working in a team environment takes many moving parts and many talented people who can take thoughts and turn them into actions and results.

You have to imagine the idea; inspire the rest of the team to get moving; integrate everyone involved; then implement the plan.

Count the I's in your team.
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Do You Have a Mentor?

I've been fortunate to have had a couple of excellent mentors in my career and been even more fortunate to be a mentor. It's a special relationship that can't be mandated by any company initiative. It just happens over time and in many important patient steps and it's vastly different than training or taking a course.

Teacher

There must be trust. Your mentor has to care about you and your success not simply put their theories and goals on you. My most influential mentor was my boss Stewart. In just five years, I learned more about leadership and myself than I could have in twenty. He was a student of human behavior and not only understood we were different but accepted and embraced it.

He said leadership was 10% about the work and 90% about life, relationships, and people. It's important to do good work but without human connection, company culture won't be strong and your business will struggle. Stewart knew this and created it in our organization. And he's still doing it today.

Student

Stew understood human systems, team dynamics, and the importance of pushing people to be their best. His biggest gift as my mentor was to find those moments to explain how he did what he did and allow me space to find my own style and process. Oh, and if you know him, don't tell him I wrote this, he isn't the look-at-me type.

I connected with his ability to set the course but also explain how he arrived at the plan and how I could find my own way to lead my team, and years later, even bigger teams. He gave me another view of how to find my own way. I didn't realize at the time, but he gave me the foundation for my work today.

Graduate

Mentors are priceless yet the relationship is often not evident at first. You don't see "mentor" on an org chart or job board. It happens when it happens and can't be forced. But as the mentor relationship develops, it will garner immeasurable results.

If you've been fortunate to be a mentor, are one now, or become one in the future, cherish the opportunity to help someone find their way.

Enjoy the journey!
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Six Important Words

We all have tools to choose from but let's not forget to focus on people. Much has been and will be said and written about the social web; we can't forget the human web.

Business owners and managers may understand that certain tactics and channels will help their business but through research, data, and measurement, we can look at outcomes more accurately.

It takes more than counting beans

Having lots of "likes" on your Facebook group, comments on your Instagram post, views on Snapchat, and a lot of page views on your website without commitment to engage your customers won't magically bring in revenue.

And it begins by engaging your own people. Strong internal customer service happens long before anyone outside your company even cares.

Do you know how you help?
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Our Strategy is Wrong

You may be like me and have had the experience working on and with many teams on business strategy. I grew up with the theory that in order for us to move business forward, we can't do a long list of things each year but rather identify 2-3 objectives and then list the tactics in order to accomplish them.

Big data, big science, and the shared economy have torn that apart. Phillip Evans outlines the models most of us have been deploying are out dated and invalid.


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Kneale Mann | People + Priority = Profit

Five Questions for Your Business

As we settle into a new year and much of those grand plans from late last year are now on the docket, one simple exercise you may want to try is a quick five question survey. It may be good to do it on your own and then do it with your team.

What do we stand for?

How do we help?

Where do we impact?

Why do we do what we do?

What will we not do?
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Kneale Mann | Leadership Strategist, consultant, writer, speaker, executive coach facilitating performance growth with leaders, management, and teams.

roadsigns

Leading Your Culture Plan

Think back to your best bosses or beloved mentors. Did they remind you of all the doom and gloom? Was it their quest to constantly point out and highlight your flaws and shortcomings? Or did they steer you to focus on your strengths and talents?

Businesses, as with each of us, have plans in place to succeed. No one makes a habit of navigating their work into the proverbial rocks. Yet it happens.

It’s not that we make a plan; it’s that we may not even have the challenges facing in the direction. Whatever gets our attention gets our energy. We often see companies that are risk averse or investors who don't want to lose more money.

Mean What We Do

Imagine you’re at an amusement park enjoying a summer afternoon eating junk food, playing games and enjoying some rides with friends. Suddenly you hear a man yelling. As you get closer, you see he is actually screaming at his two young children. As you get closer still, you can make out what he’s saying; “Get on that ride and have fun!” What do you imagine is the kids reaction?

Having a plan that is flexible is essential. But often we can do what we think we need to do and remain stuck. As leaders, we can push our people to work harder without really knowing that we’re even working in the right direction. Activity and progress can get lost in our pursuit to improve. If our plan is flawed, changing the tactics may not help.

Are your best laid plans and your goals aligned?
__________________________________________________________________
Kneale Mann | Leadership and Culture strategist, writer, speaker, executive coach engaging leaders, collaborative teams, and strong business results.

formspring

The Importance of Mentors

I was chatting with a friend recently and we got on the topic of mentors. I have been extremely fortunate to have had several outstanding ones in my career. She lamented she couldn't name one in her life. Then she asked why these people had so profoundly helped me which got me thinking about the attributes of a great mentor.

Teacher

There must be trust. Your mentor has to care about you and your success not simply put their theories and goals on you. My most influential mentor was my boss Stewart. In just five years, I learned more about leadership and myself than I could have in twenty. He was a student of human behavior and not only understood we were different but accepted and embraced it.

He said leadership was 10% about the work and 90% about life, relationships, and people. It's important to do good work but without human connection, company culture won't be strong and your business will struggle. Stewart knew this and created it in our organization. And he's still doing it today.

Student

Stew understood human systems, team dynamics, and the importance of pushing people to be their best. His biggest gift as my mentor was to find those moments to explain how he did what he did and allow me space to find my own style and process. Oh, and if  you know him, don't tell him I wrote this, he isn't the look-at-me type.

I connected with his ability to set the course but also explain how he arrived at the plan and how I could find my own way to lead my team, and years later, even bigger teams. He gave me another view of how to find my own way. I didn't realize at the time, but he gave me the foundation for my work today.

Graduate

Mentors are priceless yet the relationship is often not evident at first. You don't see "mentor" on an org chart or job board. It happens when it happens and can't be forced. But as the mentor relationship develops, it will garner immeasurable results.

If you've been fortunate to be a mentor, are one now, or become one in the future, cherish the opportunity to help someone find their way.

That’s leadership!  
__________________________________________________________________
Kneale Mann | Leadership and Culture Strategist, Writer, Speaker, Executive Coach engaging leaders to build successful talent and profitable business.

kidsknowcanada

FILDI: Let Me Let You

Let me remember that I love helping people and I make mistakes. Let me know that my gut is telling me something when my head is trying to steer me in the wrong direction. Let me realize that everything I did has prepared me for what I’m doing and will do.

Let me play you a brilliant video from the always thought provoking Ze Frank. Let you not be offended by some of the words he uses because they are critical to our success. Let you do something for you after you watch this video.

Let you hit play. Now.

Some language not suitable for all ages but necessary for most.

Kneale Mann

Ze Frank

Getting Narrow

You may often hear others claim they’re good with people or they can increase the bottom line. Those are excellent attributes but need to be further defined and refined. For fear of being specific and potentially losing a deal, many will promise to help anyone who asks them and that can be a dangerous tactic.

Many of us have fallen victim of the plan of trying to have an offer with a wide scope. But if we say everyone is our target customer we can be in trouble. Some feel they don't want to limit their potential. But if we narrow our focus, we can become stronger in those areas we can help the most.

Cross Pollination

The retail space has gotten fuzzy over the last decade. You can buy groceries at your pharmacy and furniture in your electronics store. Widening the offer is watering down the focus and may appear to be working but is actually hurting many of the large companies attempting this strategy.

If you’ve ever been to a general store in a small town it’s like a different world. You can buy everything from candy to camping equipment. But if you looked at your business and more importantly how you grow your team, you probably wouldn’t think it wise to be too wide and hire generalists. Shifting into areas that get away from our strengths in order to grow revenue and market share can be tempting. Doing what we do well, more often, can be a wise tactic.

Do One Thing Well

My best friend ran a successful software consulting firm for 20 years that helped clients with one piece of accounting software. They were focused on one discipline and became one of the key firms in the world at what they did.

The temptation to expand was there but he and his partners stayed focused on what they did well, and did it even better. After selling the software company, he now owns a company in the cloud computing space. His focus is great reminder in my career and how I help my clients in their leadership journey.

Sometimes offering less can create a lot more.

Kneale Mann

fisherbray

Customer Service - Inside and Out

Recently, I was chatting with some friends about their recent road trip. All went well but they did share a couple of interesting stories. One was from a bad experience while trying to grab a quick bite to eat. It was one of those experiences where you feel you're more of an annoyance than a customer. “Someone deserved a four cent tip”, my friend exclaimed. The rest of the group nodded and began sharing bad service stories. Bad service ruins your experience and you wonder why you are the victim of their bad day.

Bad Service is Everywhere

We all want great service. But we are still surprised when we get it. If “four cent tip” guy got the service my friends received, he would be incensed. But he’s having a bad day, a rough shift, his boss is a tyrant, his feet hurt or a wide range of possible explanations that don’t and shouldn’t concern customers. Companies miss an opportunity when they ask us to follow them on Twitter only to find out there is nothing in it for us. Or they request we "like" them on Facebook only to find the same.

Now flip this around and look at your internal stakeholders. We all have a bad day, we all make mistakes but imagine for a moment that whiny waiter dude was your communications department and don’t wannabe there coffee shop woman was running your sales department while get it done faster cheaper guy was your boss.

Good Service: Tell a Friend. 
Bad Service: Tell All Your Friends.

One bad customer experience can dismantle thousands, even millions of dollars in marketing investment. To my friends, the grumpy server is now attached to the name of the restaurant. They had a bad brand experience.

Envision spending the next three months simply working on improving service inside your organization. That’s the stuff that happens between each person in your building. Any one of your stakeholders may be the only person a customer may ever meet. And this is true in all industries and across all levels of leadership.

The creation of strong internal and external customer service is far more valuable than a well crafted advertising campaign.

Kneale Mann

image credit:  helpscout | original: may 2011

Why Are You in Business?

Focusing on what you want and why you want it, not on whom you’re going to sell it to or how you’re going to sell it.

That is from an email a friend sent me. It caused me to pause and read the line a few times. I don't sell paint or fix plumbing or increase revenue in one meeting. The value I bring is tougher to measure in a world of instant wins and spams that claim to solve all your problems with a click of a mouse.

Clients and prospects don't care about my quarter century of experience, they have issues that need attention. And that remains the challenge when deciding what companies to approach in the first place.

Narrow the Focus

No matter if you run a publicly traded multi-national organization or work for yourself, you cannot be everything to everyone. You do some things well, you need to improve on other items and you are not tapping into the true power of your people and your network. Or perhaps I'm alone on this.

If you are unclear on what you want and why you want it, your customers, direct reports and colleagues will be unclear as well. And perhaps that is where we slip up when trying to grow business?

Find the Quiet

Our lives are full of chatter and meetings, opinions and deadlines, politics and stress. We aim to please while we lose ourselves in the process.

Big company or sole proprietorship, it is imperative to have an honest look under the hood. You may discover the reason you're doing all this in the first place.

Do you know what you want and why?

Kneale Mann

image credit: soshable | original: mar 2011

Counting the I’s in Your Team

Involve

Earlier this year, I was meeting with a client and we got into exchanging business clichés. When she used the “There’s no “I” in team”, I corrected her. I relayed a post I had written here a couple of years ago and it reminded me that most people don’t sift through the archives. This was originally published in January 2009.

Imagine

We travel in packs, so it’s safe to say you more often work in a team environment. A group of people all wandering in different directions can be extremely dangerous. When we can share ideas with each other, magic can happen.

Inspire

One of the coolest television shows ever was Long Way Down featuring actor Ewan McGregor along with his best mate and fellow actor Charley Boorman. This was the follow-up to their original trip entitled Long Way Around which began in April 2004. The goal was to take the long way around the earth - on motorcycles.

Instigate

Charley, Ewan and their crew left from London, crossed over to mainland Europe then rode to France, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Siberia, Alaska, Canada, into the U.S. and finally arrived in NYC. You don’t just wake up one more morning and try this. It takes a lot of preparation and a lot of people.

Integrate

In January 2004 the boys began intense physical training which included weights, boxing, and cardio. In between workouts, they joined the rest of the team for intense road planning research. They also had to educate themselves on issues such as possible bear attacks, language barriers, passports, every possible weather condition, medicine, proper supplies and just for fun there was a television crew filming everything from day one.

Improve

They also had to be trained to deal with survival issues, possible hostile environments and of course first-aid. Nutritionists, GPS experts and seasoned outdoor travelers were consulted. This was all to prepare for their mammoth trip.

Implement

Three years later, they wanted to do another trip. This time, Scotland to South Africa. The same detail had to go in to this trip as with the last. They ran in to some passport issues and Ewan broke his leg which delayed things. But when you see them riding their bikes around the Great Pyramid of Giza or stopping to bungee jump over Victoria Falls, it's proof the prep was well worth it. Long Way Around was 115 days covering 15,000 miles. Long Way Down covered more than 20,000 miles in 85 days.

Initiate

You may not have the desire to spend twelve months of your life training and riding motorcycles but the elements are the same. Working in a team environment takes many moving parts and many talented people who can take thoughts and turn them into actions and results.

You have to imagine the idea, inspire the rest of the team to get moving, integrate everyone involved and implement the plan.

Give some thought to the I's on your team.

Kneale Mann

image credit: birthplaceofhockey | original: jan 2009

Challenging Your Best Laid Plans

If you have read any formal information about marketing, you know about the four P’s.
If you have been exposed to anything with regards to growing business, you have undoubtedly heard the phrase strategy before tactics. And if you have been in the workforce as either a stakeholder or someone who has direct reports, you may be familiar with the difference between a boss and a leader.

So with all the formal and informal training, seemingly endless information and learning why aren’t we living in a world of unlimited success and riches? Politicians are grappling with debt load, companies are making blind cuts in a quest to improve the bottom line and we can’t go anywhere without reading about the global economic crisis. Is it any wonder we have a collective pang in our stomachs most of the time?

Energy and Attention

Now think back to your best bosses or beloved mentors. Did they remind you of all the doom and gloom? Was it their quest to constantly point out and highlight your flaws and shortcomings? Or did they steer you to focus on your strengths and talents?

Businesses, as with each of us, have plans in place to succeed. No one makes a habit of navigating their work into the proverbial rocks. Yet we do it all day long. Our best laid plans may, in fact, be our biggest downfall. It’s not that we make a plan; it’s that we may not even have the challenges facing in the direction. Whatever gets our attention gets our energy. So if we build a plan to get out of a negative spot, our focus isn’t on positive footing but rather eroding foundation.

Mean What We Do

Imagine you’re at an amusement park enjoying a summer afternoon eating junk food, playing games and enjoying some rides. Suddenly you hear a man yelling. As you get closer, you see he is actually screaming at his two young children. As you get closer still, you can make out what he’s saying; “Get on that ride and have fun!” What do you imagine is the kids reaction?

Having a plan that is flexible is essential. But often we can do what we think we need to do and remain stuck. As leaders, we can push our people to work harder without really knowing that we’re even working in the right direction. Activity and progress can get lost in our pursuit to improve. If our plan is flawed, changing the tactics may not help.

Are your best laid plans aligned with what you want to accomplish?

Kneale Mann

image credit: architecture411

Clocks Back • You Forward

In parts of the world, clocks fell back an hour this weekend. An extra hour of sleep we lost in the spring. Strange things happen around these two events each year. Some find autumn tougher while others think adding an hour of daylight in March messes them up. One thing to be thankful for is that most gadgets have a clock that automatically makes the change for us.

Great ideas often come from short bursts of inspiration. Companies have been born over a lunch. An hour can be spent on the couch or used to change the world. Thirty-six hundred seconds to accomplish anything we want, what are we going to do?

60 Ideas for 60 Minutes

• Update your resume
• Empty your in-box
• Say no
• Offer your time to a charity
• Call mom
• Make cookies
• Get rid of self-doubt
• Have coffee with someone new
• Write your business plan
• Listen without talking
• Go skydiving
• Tweet
• Write a proposal
• Ignore the naysayers
• Share an idea
• Start a business
• Call a sibling
• Gain some perspective
• Plan a trip
• Apply for your dream job
• Build a chair
• Learn euchre
• Do something that scares you
• Make soup
• Stop making excuses
• Find new websites
• Call a friend
• Go for a drive and get lost
• Ride a horse
• Invent a product
• Have a bath
• Go easy on yourself
• Prepare a meal
• Take a nap
• Start a graffiti wall
• Remove negative influences
• Make amends
• Say yes
• Update social profiles
• Have lunch with a friend
• Get off your ass and do it
• Paint a t-shirt
• Quit your whining
• Watch a webinar
• Learn to juggle
• Prepare a presentation
• Call dad
• Play squash
• Help a friend
• Clear your desk
• Contact a potential business associate
• Enjoy nature
• Go bowling
• Listen to a podcast
• Plant a tree
• Help someone with their list
• Prepare your will
• Go square dancing
• Write a chapter for your new book
• Lose the fear

What are you doing in the next hour?

Kneale Mann

image credit: istock

Let’s Connect and Get to Work

From Cave Walls to Instant Messages

Since the dawn of human existence, we have been working to improve our lives. There are better tools, advanced medical procedures, cleaner water purification, improved supply lines, more advanced urban development and enhanced communication tools.

We live in a time where there are more scientists alive than in any other time in history, combined. There are reports that the world’s population will reach seven billion this week.

The Shrunken Globe

We can send complicated documents across the globe with the press of a thumb. Our ability to share ideas is now instantaneous though some are working on improving that. And we are attempting to digest more content every day than we can ever consume.

So it’s curious when we get stuck with how to reach new customers, find new collaborative partners and share ideas with those who will want to work with us. It has become an embarrassment of riches in a time when patience is scarce.

The Best Social Network

We seem to be able to grow our personal and professional networks on the social web yet the question remains how much human connection is going on. So it is my new mantra to connect on the phone or in person with ten new people every week. If you and I haven't done it yet, let's fix that.

It's time for us to utilize the true power of social media for what they are meant to do - socialize and collaborate for real. Let's stop counting "likes" and Klout scores and get some work done. It's an over used cliche but I believe in you win/I win - not you win/I lose or I win/you lose. This is not about either of us asking for what we're not prepared to reciprocate. Teamwork is required.

So contact me and let’s find a way to utilize all these cool tools to truly connect, compare notes, do some business and help each other. Does that sound like a plan?

Kneale Mann

image credit: youthspeak