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Pivot! How to take your marketing in a new direction

Brie Ragland Marketing

In an iconic scene from the show "Friends," Ross has purchased a brand-new couch, but decides to deliver it to his apartment himself, instead of paying the outrageous delivery fee the store charges. As he waits for help from his friends, he sketches a plan for easy movement up his apartment's stairway. To the characters' chagrin, the couch doesn’t fit up the stairs the way Ross originally planned in his drawing. Thinking on his feet, Ross "pivots" to a new plan…and the hilarity ensues. So, how can you apply this strategy to your own company? Well, no executive wants to admit his/her marketing efforts are failing, but when the numbers tell a story so grim even Phoebe Buffay couldn't put a good spin on it, it's time to pivot.

8 tips for promoting employees

D. Albert Brannen Business Management, Services & Risk Management

Many successful companies prefer "promoting from within." This policy is especially important in a labor market where many jobs remain unfilled and employers need to focus on retaining and advancing current employees as much or more than attempting to find brand-new ones. This article outlines some tips for implementing promotion practices that help retain employees and avoid or minimize risk of litigation about promotion decisions.

Find something more important than your passion

Catherine Iste Business Management, Services & Risk Management

It turns out that trying to find our passion may be a futile search. For those of us who believe a passion is something we have and just need to discover, we may be setting ourselves up to fail. Researchers at Stanford and Yale found that those of us who believe passions can be found also tend to believe that once we find our passion, it will provide us with limitless motivation. Unfortunately, this means we may bounce from one thing to another, because as soon as the activity becomes difficult or unmotivating, we tend to believe it is because it is not our passion.

Beating age discrimination just got harder

Patrick Gleeson Law Enforcement, Defense & Security

Fighting age discrimination in employment was never easy. Perhaps the most important obstacle is that age discrimination isn’t easy to prove. Historically, when age discrimination in employment suits do go to trial, they’ve been decided overwhelmingly in favor of corporate America and against workers — about 99% of the time. As daunting as this sounds, recent significant appellate court decisions will almost certainly tilt the playing field even further toward corporate America and away from an increasing number of aging workers.

Why you should stop trying to get better at multitasking

Terri Williams Business Management, Services & Risk Management

There aren’t enough hours in the day for everything you want to do, and this realization leads many people to multitask. However, multitasking can actually be counterproductive. While you may consider yourself an exception to the rule, the science and the experts disagree. Exhibit 1: In a Stanford University study, people who frequently engage in multitasking — and think they’re excellent multitaskers — shift back and forth so often that it negatively impacts their ability to distinguish between important and irrelevant information. Over time, they can’t even focus when they’re not multitasking.

The one thing you can do to prevent your star employees from bolting

Roberta Matuson Business Management, Services & Risk Management

Another company is about to lose a star employee. But they don't know this yet. You see, their star employee hired me a few months ago as his coach to help him better manage his relationship with his boss. We discussed his situation over a few sessions, and it became clear to me that his efforts to change his boss' way would fall on deaf ears. He said he wanted to see if he could make things work with his current employer. That was six weeks ago. He's now seen the light and is ready to move on.

What about Bob? My influences for a career in associations

Robert C. Harris Association Management

"What about Bob?" is a movie title often cited when I am introduced to audiences. The typical introduction is a paragraph with a few career highlights. This article describes the pathways that have influenced my association career. Entry into association management was like many others — by accident. My college major had nothing to do with nonprofit work. A job in Washington, D.C., was interesting. I moved from Florida without questioning the unique aspects of membership organizations. The impact of associations never crossed my mind, nor did the importance of 1.5 million nonprofits in America.

Infographic: The cost of downtime

Brian Wallace Science & Technology

When the system stops, so does business. So, it is in your interest to resolve any problem as quickly as possible, and more than that, to prevent downtime in the first place. This is where infrastructure monitoring comes in. Every operating system is unique, and if you have a mixed IT infrastructure, you need a server monitoring service that caters to them all. There are several ways to look after your IT infrastructure. Learn more with this infographic.

6 ways to improve your confidence during a presentation

Lisa Mulcahy Communications

A shaky voice...no projection...stuttering...you may have dealt with all these issues prior to a big presentation. A fear of public speaking, as you probably know, is an incredibly common issue even the most experienced businesspeople face. You might be unsure how to nip these problems in the bud if you're not used to speaking before groups, but you can. These strategies will stop public speaking jitters from becoming a long-term issue and give you a lot more confidence!

Providing risk infrastructure to support opportunity management

Dr. David Hillson Business Management, Services & Risk Management

Failure to provide an appropriate level of risk infrastructure can cripple risk management in an organization. Too little support makes it difficult to implement the risk process efficiently, while too much infrastructure adds to the cost overhead. Getting the supporting infrastructure right is essential for effective risk management, enabling the risk process to deliver the expected benefits to the organization and its projects. It’s particularly important to get all the elements right if we want to use an inclusive risk process that addresses both threats and opportunities.

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