Pirate Looks At 40: What do you do when your skill set is not valued?

This past week marked the point in my life when I officially am closer to turning 40 than I am to the point when I turned 39.  With that in mind, I found my ole’ buddy Jimmy to help work through my crisis.  What I found was something altogether different…

Pirate Looks At 40:  What do you do when your skill set is not valued?

When I was in college, and throughout my 20’s, I caught Buffet fever and envisioned a comfortable life filled with warm weather and margaritas.  Furthermore, the lyrics to his 1970’s song ring true.  In the paragraphs below I will parse through them and reveal my circumstances.

“…Wanted to sail upon your waters 
since I was three feet tall…”

I grew up with a father who spent his life in sales, sales training, and sales management. Not that all three are mutually exclusive, but I did have the pleasure of being on the job with him on several occasions and heard the stories from his salesmen about his training and development initiatives.  One such initiative was to have his men read a book on dressing for success.  Combine this outlook with a mother who instilled etiquette and good manners, I was well on my way to conducting myself professionally.

“Yes, I am a pirate
Two hundred years too late.
The cannons don't thunder there's nothin' to plunder
I'm an over forty victim of fate; arriving too late
Arriving too late.”
 

I went on to earn two Bachelors Degrees and a Masters Degree.  These credentials combined with a good upbringing prepared me for success.  But just like the lyrics, I arrived too late. The common decency and business structures of the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s gave way to angst, abruptness, and a shortened attention span of the 90’s, 00’s, and the beginning part of this decade.  All the devices that are designed to bring us closer together, have resulted in private conversations and communications and heads looking at their laps instead of looking at others around them.

It use to be that you would be introduced to someone.  You never walked up and introduced yourself, rather a mutual party would provide an introduction.  Of course this added a hurdle, especially to a sales person, who would have to do business with individuals.  However a professional sales person would seek out a mutual connection and receive that introduction.  Over the years, this custom has disappeared.  People will walk up and introduce themselves and the person being sought out doesn’t punish this behavior, but ignores the etiquette and rewards the act.  Right now you are probably thinking, “what century is this person living in?”  I am just arriving too late.

That being said, LinkedIn does provide for this social grace.  Have you taken advantage of it?  Social Media makes it easier to connect with others and you can do it in a professional way.

“I made enough money to buy Miami, but I pissed it away so fast 
Never meant to last, never meant to last”

Yes, I have had financial success and financial failure.  Looking back it would have been nice to have the “slow and steady wins the race” mentality but it is not me.  I like to think I am cautiously risky.  I understand the risk, choose to accept it or decline it.  I have known people that have made and lost their fortune 3 or 4 times in their life.  The way I see it, I am halfway there. 

“I go for younger women, lived with several awhile 
Though I ran 'em away, they'd come back one day 
Still could manage to smile”

I have been married and divorced.  Over the past decade you could call me a serial monogamist.  Approaching 40 and having the notion of children, I suppose younger women are in the cards.  It is just amazing how this song does seem to mimic my life. 

“My occupational hazard being that my occupation’s just not around”

And we come to the point where we finish with where we began.  My upbringing, education, experience, and skill set is such that my occupation is just not around.  However I can’t end this on such a down and out tone.  My occupational hazard is true in that my occupation is just not around, but not because it is relegated to the past.  It is being recreated in the offspring of technology.  The “old” ways have value, but need to be brought into the “new” ways of conducting business.  

For 18 years now I have been a student of Business & Professional Development.  I embraced electronic communication from its earliest uses and have adapted it and other new media for Business Development purposes.  So if your endeavor needs a more polished, professional image or if your sales and client relations could benefit from an Organizational Behavior Analysis along with Professional training and development, feel free to contact me.  You know where I’ll be…

“gonna head uptown”

The American Work-Year

On this Labor Day I was thinking about the American work-year.  Coupled with some statistics I heard over the weekend, I thought it would be worthwhile to review and post my thoughts.

We know that are 52 weeks in a year and we often think of Americans as getting two weeks vacation bringing our work-year down to 50 weeks.  When calculating hourly rates and salaries this 40-hour week multiplied by 50 weeks per year, works nicely to a 2000 hour-year.  But do Americans work 50 weeks per year?  Let’s take a look at my Holiday schedule. (some would call it “generous”, but I call it “practical”)

New Years Day 

Presidents Day*

Easter Monday

Memorial Day

Fourth of July

Labor Day

Columbus Day

Wed. Before Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 

Fri. after Thanksgiving

Christmas Eve

Christmas Day

Day after Christmas

New Years Eve

A persons Birthday

*Lincoln and Washington have been condensed into Presidents Day.  You could through in MLK Day as an extra day or alternate the years in which you switch the day that the company observes.

Some might say that the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is not a real day off.  Well try telling it to the person that is trying to drive or fly a good distance to be with family.  Moreover, is there any real work getting done on this day?  The day after Thanksgiving has historically been extended as part of the Holiday. 

Christmas Eve is also included for practical reasons. Thoughts are not really on work.  The day after Christmas I will accept legitimate criticism over, however I include it just for the additional family time. 

Even though the activities for New Years Eve do not take place until evening, it is an international day of celebration that takes place throughout the day all around the world.  In addition, if you are really doing something special, your mind is probably not on work and you would be leaving early to get ready for the evening anyway.

A company providing their employee with their Birthday off is just good policy.  A person should not have to work on their Birthday.

So we, arguably, have 15 days off.  In a statistic I heard, it was said that Americans get 13 paid days off per year.  Moreover, only half of all Americans take all their time off.  What this means is that most Americans do not even get all the days off mentioned above, let alone time off for vacation.

Furthermore, the 50-week work-year, by my Holiday schedule, is now down to 49 weeks.  Throw in another 3 weeks of actual vacation time along with 5 sick days, you have 20 days of paid time off (PTO). PTO is a concept that enables the employee to take time off at their discretion without having to provide exaggerated, falsified, or completely made up rationales.  However, the company may still have policies in place for what qualifies as ample notification as well as restricted times based on historic “heavy” work periods.  That being said, it overall brings the American work-year down to 45 weeks.

My rationale for breaking down the PTO into 15 days off for vacation and 5 for sick days is as follows:  I figure two family vacations a year for a week each (10 work days total) and 5 days to take separately, as needed for possibly a long weekend, making a Holiday weekend longer, or for just family/household matters.  However, as expressed above, PTO is just that, paid time off and how an employee actually uses their time is up to them.

Now if anyone out there knows me, they know I am not a socialist or a supporter of Labor or Unions. However, as a person that studies Organizational Behavior, Labor Economics, and is Pro-Family, I think a 45-week work-year is good for the health of the business, good for the wellbeing of the employee, and good for the institution of the family.

With technology tethering us more and more to work, the time we are away we are not truly off.  So by providing more time away from work, even if not completely in mind and spirit, makes up for less time away and truly being away; a concept that appears to be less and less realistic.

In all, we can take our 2000 hour work-year and shave it down to 1800.  In the whole scheme of things, I do not think that 200 hours off, spread out over 12 months, is going to hinder the American Spirit or the concept of American Exceptionalism. In fact, I think it strengthens and solidifies both.

Enjoy your Labor Day.  Summer is unofficially over.  It is time to get back into “work” mode and prosper.

I have been on Google+ for 48 hours now. I believe Google has a quality brand. I have a gmail account, I use Chrome, you are reading this via Blogger, we all enjoy YouTube, some of my pictures were sent to me and viewed on Picasa, I utilize Buzz, Images, and Maps. So when I got my Google+ invite I set up my profile, got my “makeshift” vanity url (http://gplus.to/dws) , sent out some invites of my own, got some circles populated, and put it to work.

I read an article by Mike Elgan at http://computerworld.com that essentially anointed Google+ as the “end all, be all” of shared communication. He was very deliberate in not calling it another Social networking site, but rather a Shared Communication site. He went on to say that Google+ is where you can send an email, send a message to a group, blog, microblog, share photos and videos, group chat, video conference, et al. And the potential is certainly there but is it the interface that we want? Are we looking for a one-stop shop?

Each of the big three (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) has their own unique look, feel, following, and purpose. I don’t know if the “Friends” I have on Facebook, and the “Connections” I have on LinkedIn are going to equally embrace Google+. As a result, I don’t know if this one platform is going to enable me to reach all those “friends, followers, and connections” respectively. Can I reach, for instance, a middle-aged person that just discovered email 5 years ago and set up a Facebook account 2 years ago via Google+? And will the “C-suite” executive that I have connected with on LinkedIn via a professional group embrace the Google+ circles?

Mike Elgan sees Google+ as the end of email writing, e-newsletters, and blogging as he knows it. He views the circles as an end around the Spam filter of the company network email server. Perhaps he is right. However it is interesting that one of those in my circles is already complaining of being spammed and is posting to find solutions around it.

As a business development consultant, messaging is critical. My clients look to me to find the best utilization of Social Media to project their message. Each of the big three has enough features and tools, that clients can obtain a tailored presence. That presence can be managed as humanly or as automated as they want. I think Google+ can certainly aide in the efficiency of shared communication, but as the saying goes, “Jack of all trades, master of none”, the Google universe should be wary of mediocrity. Yes, it has the potential to be the end all be all, but in doing so may only do it adequately.

Obviously this is an on-going paradigm shift. Perhaps in a year or two, Google+ will have realized the potential that Mr. Elgan envisions. I personally like to see my handyman work with a hammer, saw, and screwdriver; not a Swiss army knife. That being said, I think Google+ will hold its own and will find its own, true, best utilization.

Earlier this week, a connection of mine on Twitter and LinkedIn sent me an article from Business Insider regarding Social Media Management. The article entitled, “Why I will never ever hire a “Social Media Expert” by Peter Shankman, is satirical yet thought provoking. It is satirical because Mr. Shankman is in the social media/public relations business. So having him publish an article on a site that has twitter and facebook links as well as a link to Mr. Shankman’s own site with its own Social Media profile, all the while harshly criticizing the role of a social media specialist, is like reading something out of National Lampoon.

It is thought provoking in that there are many avenues one can take in calling themselves a “Social Media Expert”. Does your business have the need for the services of such a person or firm? If so, how do you go about choosing the right one? To get to that point, let me just lay out the expertise as I see it.

In my mind there are three ways to arrive at becoming a Social Media Expert. The first way is by becoming a specialist. A person can be viewed as a specialist by offering one of two services. The first service is by becoming a guru of one particular platform. There are LinkedIn experts, there are Twitter experts, and there are Facebook experts. These people do know a great deal about their particular platforms. If you are lucky enough to link up with them or follow them or friend them or like their professional page you can gain tremendous insight into each platform. The second service one can provide and still be considered a specialist is in understanding code. Web design is one thing, but setting up a great looking Facebook page with all the bells and whistles is something else. Codes change and update frequently and keeping up with those changes can be daunting. Having access to this type of skill set could be very valuable.

The second way that one arrives at becoming a Social Media Expert is from the field of marketing or public relations. Someone with a strong PR background understands that social media outlets could be a great way to get their message out. However, they too are a one trick pony in that their specialty is in PR, not New Media.

This brings me to the third way of becoming a Social Media Expert. Like Mr. Shankman above, you can arrive at a certain level of expertise by approaching social media from the perspective of an entrepreneur. By understanding the various outlets, how they work, and managing a well crafted message, you do not have to be myopic with platforms, marketing, or public relations.

It is from this perspective that I assist my clients. I do not claim to be a Social Media Expert nor do I claim to have spent a career in the PR business. But I do strongly claim to be a Social Media educator, a curator of social media sites, and a manager of content. I do this from the perspective of understanding the clients’ corporate culture and organizational behavior and projecting the desired image onto a marketing strategy that utilizes social media. Everyday new outlets and tools are percolating onto the social media scene. The key is finding the ones that are relevant for your business. Having a social media presence is one thing, but understanding how they can work together and work for you is something else.

Getting Back to Basics

We all have cell phones. Though to more accurately describe their widening capabilities it is better to refer to them as “mobile devices”. I remember my first mobile device was a car phone that was installed to the underside of your dashboard. And whose antenna was run under your car to your back window where it connected to an exterior extension.

These devices have come along way since then. First they became portable, then lighter, then with camera’s, then with email and organizing systems. The phone today is not just a phone. The components are very sophisticated, then the phone as a whole, is manufactured. These devices then require a platform such as Windows or Android for example. After you have the device and its components (taken together as hardware), you then need the platform (software), and then you need a carrier for voice and data. Can you still call them phones? Is the device still primarily used for telecommunications or has it transformed to omnicommunications? Is this our version of the Star Trek tricorder?

I lay this out not just to exhaustively protract the innovations and overall strides that have been made but to ask a broader question. Are we better served? Look at what all these devices can do. But do they do them well? It is said of governments (municipal for example and not to get political), but all you really want from your town is for the police to respond, for your trash to be picked up, and for your roads to cleared and drivable. Look at New York last week. Again, not trying to get political but just to prove a point, New York government services provide a great deal more than the basics. Yet when it came to clearing the roads they couldn’t get it done. When governments set out to do more, the quality of what they should be doing goes down. Can the same be said of mobile devices and the service providers?

How many of us still get dropped calls? Should this really be happening? And how many devices require service? And when you take them for service do you get a repair or do they simply give you a new, replacement device? I guess what I am asking here is “are we settling for mediocrity?” Are these devices the 21st century embodiment of the expression “jack of all trades, master of none”?

2011 is here and DWS can help with your marketing and development endeavors. From Branding and Imaging to Sales Training and Management, DWS works with you to enhance your Client Relations and bring you on board with Social Media and Content Management solutions.

Welcome to the DWS family of Social Media venues. DWS can be found on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn as well as various blogs. Below please find links and descriptions.

Professional Profile:

www.linkedin.com/in/drewstraub

Facebook Presence:

www.facebook.com/dwsgroup

Twitter:

www.twitter.com/ucdws

DWS oversees various discussions in the form of blog postings. Depending on your need or interest, each site can offer just the insight you are seeking: everything from an academic perspective to everyday examples of professional development and client relations management.

The Enlightened Consultant:

www.enlightenedconsultant.blogspot.com

This blog is for those that are in sales or sales management, follow a consultative sales approach, or provide consulting services. The purpose of this blog is to foster a sense of shared learning; hearing about what works, what doesn't work, and how events or activities in your daily life are integrated into your profession.

This blog is more academic in nature and will often mention books or generate a series of discussions based on a book or collection of works.

The Duck Pond Wall:

www.duck-pond-wall.blogspot.com

While on campus during my college years there was a duck pond. It intersected the dorms to the lecture halls and the library to the student union. If you sat on the wall at the duck pond you would see everyone on campus throughout the day. Topics of all kind were discussed. I took this setting to create a venue for sharing concepts and ideas. Hope you find the posts worthwhile.

Everyday CRM:

www.everydaycrm.blogspot.com

This blog is created to share those everyday moments when client relations issues rise to the level of being noticed. For better or worse, this blog will provide real life examples and what lessons can be learned. Hope you find this blog to be a regular destination on a weekly basis through out 2011.

The goal for all the blogs in 2011 is to post twice per week. That being said, there should be fresh content everyday. Furthermore, by following on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn you will be notified immediately of the latest posts.