Your Real Bottom Line

Training is important for any business, but I believe action learning is the best way to create positive and lasting improvement in your company. We spend more than 12,000 days at work during our life, so why not find a way for us to enjoy them?

Your employees want to enjoy being at work. Your profits will grow if you make your people your priority. It's not a nice to have; it's essential to the growth of your business.

Every employee in your company wants to know they can bring their best work and have the chance to improve, grow, and learn. You may think selling more products is the fastest way to improve your bottom line, but it’s people who will get you there and strong internal culture is the critical ingredient.

Each year, Gallup does a survey of the global workplace and through over 60,000 one-on-one interviews in 90 countries last year, only 13% of respondents said they were emotionally invested in creating value to their companies and organizations. That’s a problem. Engaging your employees is the most important way to realize measurable results. Your bottom line depends on your people.

Leadership and Team Development

I provide workshops and webinars customized to your company and team’s needs. We begin where you are right now and we address your specific needs integrated with your current business challenges.

These can take on various iterations from half-day and full-day workshops to ongoing team, department, and individual sessions, to leadership development programs which include your employees working on their growth while solving a real business project.

Business and Executive Coaching

There is a myriad assessment tools and training methods available and I deploy many of them but like the leadership and team development, we begin where you are right now. From one-on-one to team to group sessions, we create solutions-based meetings and modules to address those things that are keeping you up at night.

Call me at 519-803-7130 or email knealemann at gmail dot com and we can chat about your needs. We will create a customized solution with identified goals and objectives to ensure measurable results.

It begins with a conversation. Let's chat!
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Snow Day Revisited

As the US East Coast gets slammed with another “storm of the century” we can reflect on two things – leadership and technology. I have a friend whose boss demands she is at her desk every weekday no later than 8:30am and cannot leave the office any earlier than 4:45pm. That may be helpful if you’re working on an assembly line but frankly I think it’s short-sighted.

We are connected through email and mobile devices, webinars and virtual teaming technology, and if you look at the forward-thinking companies in the world, people aren't measured by the number of hours they spend warming their office chair.

No School Today!

Of course the words “snow day” were joyous when we were kids. It meant that school was closed and we all get a free pass to go play in the same snow that canceled classes. Now we see a big storm crush the city and the commute to that seat to keep it warm is longer, dangerous, and frustrating.

If you are experiencing this latest storm, stop and think of how your work is being done differently this week. Less people may be able to make it into the office, many will have to work from home, email and phones will be utilized more, and fewer will be as concerned about punching some imaginary clock to put in their hours.

Now remember this in six months when the sun is baking us and these same options are available. Productivity is not about the numbers of hours we spend in an office. But if you are forced to be there.

Be safe!
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Kneale Mann | People + Priority = Profit

maviskb

Social Media and Small Business

Misunderstandings

It is fascinating to listen to the discussion surrounding social
media in regards to the view
of some that it is a fad and to
others that it is a quick fix.

It is neither.

Now What?

So you’ve been dabbling in social media. You have a Facebook profile with a few hundred friends and perhaps you’re now on Twitter. You aren’t interested in blogging or webinars; YouTube is fun to watch but you don’t want your own channel and now you wonder if it’s time to introduce the company you work for or own to this space.

This is Business

Your social media commitment must be completely in line with your strategic objectives. You wouldn’t treat any other part of your company with this type of haphazard approach so it is not wise to do so in the social networking space. In fact, it can hurt you.

No Time - Don't Bother

Companies can get caught up in their own ‘too busy’ mentality and let things slide. Social media is not something to do ‘when you have some time’ – make time for it or you won’t see the benefits. Watch that it doesn't take too much of your time either. Yes, it is a delicate dance.

In a previous life I would consult radio stations that didn't have the money or people but wanted to do a lot of fancy things on their website to actually do very little. Do it right or don’t bother.

Hey! There Are Humans In Here!

And you will need patience and all those other traits that make you a bright business person. It’s tricky to resist the temptation to use the social web as a giant advertising medium but figure out a way to curb that desire.

Social media is not a campaign and your company will not gain millions in revenue after a handful of tweets – though there are a couple of stories where this has happened, those are rare. And if you aren’t willing to pay attention to how people interact with your company online, this may be a struggle for you.

Metrics and Missteps

Oh yes, and this is paramount. Grasp this immediately. Metrics are not the same as the ‘sleep at night’ estimates from other mediums. Just because you put up a billboard at the corner of East and South Sts., doesn’t mean anyone saw your message. That is the same with social media, it takes time and commitment.

It Begins Within

You need a corporate champion. If someone in your organization is committed to online social networking, you can begin to be a part of the conversation where your customers and potential customers may be as well.

Focus the Funnel

There are many social networking spaces but it’s difficult to keep profiles and contact on each because of the law of diminishing results. You simply don’t have the time!

Pick the channels you want and do them well. Skip the rest.

Congratulations if you are in the space with your business. If you haven’t but are thinking about it, have a blast!

@knealemann
Let's create experiences, not campaigns

This Weekend: PodCamp Montreal

image credit: openrain.com

Appearing Tonight: Social Media

Sold-Out!

Tickets sold out weeks ago. The anticipation has been building to a feverish pitch. People are talking about it on the radio, on the Internet, on television, the newspaper did a pullout section and it’s on all the talk shows.

The Claims Are True

It helps your business grow and is the answer to all of your dreams. Some can get you instant meaningful relationships with other people in a matter of days. Nothing like this has hit the human race since the invention of individually wrapped cheese slices.

Also on the bill are; Twitter, Facebook, BackType, Bebo, Flickr, MySpace, Plaxo, Blip, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg and about 40 others. Scalpers are expected to fetch five times face value. Some are saying that blog and podcast may also make an appearance but unconfirmed reports say that webinar and chat room weren't able to make the trip.

Tonight's The Night

The parking lot is jammed; the line-up is around to the back of the venue, the throng shuffles quickly to their seats. The lights dim, the curtain rises, the excitement is palpable and then thousands stare at an empty stage. The sound of rustling popcorn bags, coughs and throat clearing echo throughout the venue.

Unrest begins to brew. Mumbles of refunds and claims of a rip off begin to circulate. How could they charge such an outrageous price for such a letdown?

After what seemed to be an entire full minute, the angry mob begins to walk out. Threats of lawsuits can be heard far and wide.

Clearly social media had not lived up to the hype like all the other liposuction, one-way conversation, get-rich-quick, what’s in it for me, have it now pay it never promises.

Social Media: Meet Human Networking

If all the world's a stage, perhaps we shouldn't wait for others to begin the performance? If social media is scary to you or your impatience as gotten the best of you after a handful of tweets, keep in mind how long it took to gain the trust of others and others to earn yours in real life.

Are you waiting?
Are you looking for the refund?
Are you participating?

Twitter Doesn’t Make You Hemingway

A couple of years after the invention of what is now known as the Internet, Ernest Miller Hemingway died of a self inflicted gun shot wound on July 2, 1961.

Today you can have the choice of creating a multitude of social media profiles, picture sites, and blogs with gadget add-on doohickeys and thingamajigs. Most offer the choice of colors and backgrounds, font choices and design options.

But none will make you a better writer or contributor.

There seems to be quite a bit of chatter in the blogosphere lately about the responsibility we all share as our own personal broadcasters, content providers, writers, editors and information givers and takers.

Start a blog. Get in the game. Have your say. Add your thoughts. But don’t expect any of the trappings to make you interesting or entertaining. Hemingway used paper and a pen, a typewriter and a bottle, to create timeless literature. Today, with a cup of coffee and blog software you can start.

Writing and being a writer are vastly different things.

I have worked in radio, television, and online for quite a while and there are two camps in this world. The scared old-school bunch that is afraid of an open source user-created entertainment model. And the ever-growing group that understands we have the power to; create, contribute and share.

That still doesn’t guarantee any of us are any good.

Some say Ernest Hemingway was the greatest short story writer in history. That’s a personal decision. But forty years after his passing, his books are still sold and his work is still studied in the most respected schools on earth. And he did it without templates and software.

If you have a passion, follow it with fervor. If anyone follows you, bonus.

km

Ode to Road Warriors

If you travel for work you may relate. Hotel life loses its luster very quickly. There are wonderful comfortable places to stay all over the world but there is still something missing. The little things become the big things.

If you travel, you become a master of tiny soaps and mini-shampoo bottles. Towels are in abundance and tossed in the tub. You leave for the day and return to a bed made and a fresh supply of towels.

But anyone who lives on the road more than at home should be commended, or perhaps committed? It's not as easy at it seems. I know of many very successful business people and consultants who have chucked it all for a more stable work enviornment.

With all the worry of the financial crunch we take advantage of technology in the form of teleconferences, PDAs and webinars, the airport is still a snarled mess on any given Monday morning.

Business travel can be a great way to meet new people and share different experiences. But it's not so exciting when you are toiling in your hotel room, eating another chicken sandwich, while the game is on. An activity shared with a lot of the people lined up at the airport that morning.

I’m sure most of us have experienced the unforeseen trip extension. Murphy’s Law #871: This is the trip where you packed ‘just enough’ for the original length of time. It's day five and you have to shop for clothes because you were supposed to be flying home on day three.

Maternal wisdom can prove paramount for the survival of any road warrior. Those immortal words ring true no matter what; “Take care of yourself, eat properly, and get some rest”. And bring some extra clothes just in case, I'm speaking from experience. Recent experience.

This does not solve the worst part of travelling - the travelling part.

km