Eight LinkedIn mistakes to avoid

LinkedIn is the only professional B2B networking site that exists today, with more than 165 Million users worldwide.  I have been for six years on LinkedIn; the core of my business is generated through LinkedIn.

I am one of the daily users of the Q&A LinkedIn forum; after seeing the same questions in the “Using LinkedIn” category asked few times every single day; I decided to write about them so they could help the new LinkedIn users

1-    Avoid creating duplicate accounts:  LinkedIn allows users only ONE personal profile.  A very common mistake that new LinkedIn members do is creating duplicate profiles without even realizing that they did that.

The results is the dilution of your brand and scattering of contacts and information over two or three profiles

The solution is simple: Make sure to add all your email addresses on your profile, including your business profile.  Make your primary email address a personal one in case you leave or change jobs.

You will also need to delete your duplicate profile and keep only one profile.

2-    Importing email address book: After new members sign up to LinkedIn, LinkedIn suggest that they import their email address books contacts to add as connections on LinkedIn.

This can be very tricky as in fine prints LinkedIn by defaults invite every single person in your address book, and then sends two invite reminders.  This can have a couple of negative repercussions

a-    The people that are invited get annoyed

b-    Some might even IDK (I Don’t Know) you; five of these will restrict your LinkedIn account.

c-     The only solution is to manually and individually withdraw, NOT delete these invites one by one and that might be very strenuous and time consuming

3-    Web Resources: LinkedIn allows you to add three web resources to your profile.  Many members just leave the generic “My website” or “My blog”.  It is highly suggested that you customize your web resources not only it does increase SEO to your sites but also help increase traffic to your sites as intended.

4-    Personal profile VS. Business profile: Many new LinkedIn users add their business name as their profile name.  This is against LinkedIn Terms of Service (ToS).  All LinkedIn profiles have to be personal with a first and last name.  If not LinkedIn can and will suspend the account.

Members can always add a company page based on their personal profiles as long as they have an email address on their domain name.

5-    Professional photo: Only a professional headshot is allowed as a profile photo.  There are some guidelines for the photo used.  Logos, QR codes, Family pictures, Pet pictures, or any other form of pictures are against LinkedIn Terms of Service (ToS) and the account can and will be suspended if found or flagged.  If LinkedIn removes your photo three times you will not be able to add any photos ever on your profile

6-    Vanity profile URL: It is important to customize or personalize the generic profile URK or link that LinkedIn assigns to your profile not only it eases the search for your name but also increases SEO as well.

7-    Not optimizing profiles: Using the proper keywords are a MUST to be found on LinkedIn and on the internet as a whole.  Placing the right keywords is the difference between having a LinkedIn profile and having a great LinkedIn profile.  There are five places to add your keywords on a LinkedIn profile:

a-    Tagline or the line under your profile name that acts as your brand message or USP

b-    Present job titles

c-     Past job titles

d-    Summary

e-    Skills

8-    Adding website or email address in the tagline: It is against LinkedIn Terms of Service to add your website address or email address in the tagline and your profile can be suspended.

Also adding LION or linking yourself to LinkedIn in any overt or covert way can get your profile suspended as well.

These are common missteps new LinkedIn users usually do, this blog is also a part of my upcoming social media eBook series; so stay tuned.

Cheers,

Sahar Andrade, MB.BCh
Diversity Consultant – Social Media Strategist
Sahar Consulting, LLC. - Home of the D.I.A.L.O.G.™ Programs
Diversity& Inclusion in Active Leadership Organizational Growth™
(Exchanging Ideas through Conversation)™

http://www.saharconsulting.com

(818)861 9434

Let’s connect on:        
Contact me:  saharconsulting

Social Media For Business Marketing

Social Media marketing is an extremely powerful tool for business marketing especially small business, though it is not a stand-alone solution or a silver bullet, but is highly efficient if the social media marketing is used as part of the overall marketing business plan.

 

Some companies and businesses are still skeptical about the use of social media marketing, some think that:

1.  “It is a waste of time.”
2. “It is a fad and it will go away.”
3. “My clients are not online.”
4. “Only people with too much time on their hand use social media.”
5. “We will lose control of our brand.”
6. “Our confidentiality will be jeopardized.”
7. “Only my children are on Twitter and Facebook.”
8. “Our employees will have a license to play online.”

* I will start with the following figures and statistics about social media usage by the audience to show why businesses should care about social media:

• 45% visit social networks to find out about product sales or discounts
• 47% will go to social networks to download a free gift or coupons
• 73% of active online users read a blog, 120,000 new blogs are launched daily
• 22% would read or write a product review online or in a blog, 1.5 million posts per day, 45% have started their own blogs
• 39% subscribe to an RSS feed
• 57% joined social networks- LinkedIn has 150+ members; Facebook over 750 million users increasing by the minute, Twitter exploded to a 1382% growth rate.
• 10% of all internet traffic is generated by Youtube, which ranks with Wikipedia among top brands.
• The 5 top 10 websites ever are social
• The Internet users’ ages of 70+ jumped exponentially

(* Sources are Compete, Alexa, MSNBC, Nielsen &Technorati)

To simplify the process of using social media for business marketing, it is important to define their segment markets the business need to reach, set goals, define a strategy, then execute.

Social media marketing is no different than planning any other marketing aspects of a business, and should be a part of any business’s overall marketing plan.

The first step in setting goals, before even thinking about filing any social media channel profile, is for a business to ask itself the following basic questions:

• Who is the audience they are trying to reach and what is the individual persona in that audience?
• Where do they hang out online?
• Are they a part of any online communities that the business should join?
• What do they expect from a business like theirs: solution providing, unique products, customer service?
• How should they engage the audience emotionally and appeal to their sensitivity and senses?
• How do they approach the audience, in what format, and with what content?  Also, most importantly what are the keywords used by the audience to discuss the aspects of their industry or business?
• Who will be assigned to engage in the online discussions with the audience and how will they channel the leads, inquiries, comments and to who?
• How will they measure the results?

Then you are ready to proceed in the first steps of your social media marketing for your business

1.  Identify:

• Your audience and key influencers and know where they hang online.
• Protect against brand hijacking.
• Where is more demand for your products or services?
• What kind of problems does your audience have in your field, and what solutions they are looking for?

2.  Listen:

• Use Google alerts, RSS feeds, Twitter, email analytics, social buzz, Backtype, Trenderr, Board Reader, then learn the proper keywords they use

3. Engage:

• Become a contributing member of Q&A boards like LinkedIn, Google and ask.com
• Have your own blog that shares valuable content about your industry and solutions that can help your audience and not focused on your business or products
• Comment on blogs and articles
• Add to groups on Facebook/Yahoo/LinkedIn/ Google
• Offer specials/promos on Facebook/Twitter

4.  Promote:

• After establishing relationships, PULL your audience to your services by constantly adding new, relevant and fresh content, instead of pushing your products on them.

Social media is an interactive tool built on communications and two way dialogs.  Using social media, your business audience may be exchanging notes about your products, companies and services at this very second — knowing and participating in those exchanges will impact your bottom line, either by generating leads that will lead to sales and revenues, or by reducing or elimination your brand hijacking or negative comments, or by offering better customer service which in turn will increase your revenues by referrals or return customers.

Social media for business marketing is a necessity and is no longer a luxury.  Till next time

 

Sahar Andrade, MB.BCh
Diversity Consultant – Social Media Strategist
Sahar Consulting, LLC. - Home of the D.I.A.L.O.G.™ Programs
Diversity& Inclusion in Active Leadership Organizational Growth™
(Exchanging Ideas through Conversation)™

http://www.saharconsulting.com

(818)861 9434

Let’s connect on:       
Contact me:  saharconsulting

Blogs For Small Business

I am back from my dormant phase, I took a break from blogging to recharge my batteries, I am so happy to re-connect with all of you again.  This year will be the best year ever, it is the year of the “Dragon” prosperity will reign! So here we go:

Blogging is one of the most under-estimated tools to enhance small businesses in their marketing plans.  Many have come to realize the value of blogging as a means to promote expertise, and establish credibility with their potential customer audience base.

A well-maintained business blog can out-perform a traditional, static business web site in search engines.  In more direct terms, this means that a well-maintained blog can provide a smart business person and his/her business with a competitive advantage online that will translate to more traffic i.e. increasing potential revenue.

From a marketing stand-point, business blogs, in general, have demonstrated that they can:

1. Generate ways for consumers to discover old and new businesses and their respective products/ services.
2. Act as a communication medium that offers marketing visibility opportunities for businesses well beyond the search engines.  Business blogs have, in some instances, been known to generate buzz and word of mouth marketing for their businesses (let’s see a static, business web page do that).

 

Benefits of Blogging for Small Business:

• It tends to be cheaper for a small business to keep up a blog than to keep up a website.  For small business owners without the time to learn web HTML or the money to hire a web designer/developer, blogging offers an inexpensive method to get their company’s name out on the Internet.
• Having a well-maintained blog may provide small businesses with a powerful edge vs. larger, “blog-silent” businesses pursuing the same customers in the market-place.
• Blogging has shown time and again that it can be a great marketing tool that boost sales, provides a perfect opportunity for product promotion and helps brand a small business and its products.
• It tends to improve the customer experience since it allows for public, two-way business/customer conversations (value: customers who feel like a company is listening to them and responding to their needs have been found more likely to develop an emotional connection with that company — something important for a small business seeking to build customer loyalty and generate repeat buyers).

Some Words of Warning about Blogging for Businesses Large and Small:

A well-maintained business blog does involve a significant investment of time.  Also, it tends to communicate best when its writing is humanized and personal-sounding rather than cold and robotic (avoid using corporate jargon that can turn your audience away).

And although a business person may find it challenging, s (he) must take the time to respond to all non-spam comments left on his/her company’s blog — particularly negative comments.   Keep in mind, however, that if these comment responses satisfy an angry customer, that same customer can potentially turn in to an evangelist for the same business down the road.

Once you start a blog, as a business you need to be consistent and start an editorial calendar meaning that you need to maintain your presence by writing regular blogs on your blogging site.

As they say “Content is king”, add useful, clear content that can help readers to become your loyal evangelists or customers waiting for your next blog.  Blogs should never be about the business itself abut about what solutions this business offers, what issues it helps overcome, and what advantages it offers to the readers that look for (WIIIFM: What Is In It For Me)

With all the noise in the social media sphere the people’s attention span is extremely short, you need to grab it from the get go, starting by your title using attracting keywords.

Some free resources for blogging:

-        www.wordpress.com

-        www.blogger.com

-        www.tumblr.com

They are free and paid versions, I would suggest that you start with the free version and see how comfortable you are, then down the line you can shift to a paid version or host one on your website.  You can export your blogs later on to your paid blog version if you decide to do so.

Happy Blogging

Sahar Andrade, MB.BCh
Diversity Consultant – Social Media Strategist
Sahar Consulting, LLC. - Home of the D.I.A.L.O.G.™ Programs
Diversity& Inclusion in Active Leadership Organizational Growth™
(Exchanging Ideas through Conversation)™

http://www.saharconsulting.com

(818)861 9434

Let’s connect on:       
Contact me:  saharconsulting

Diversity Equals Positive Work Environment

First appeared on Technorati: http://technorati.com/lifestyle/article/diversity-equals-positive-work-environment/#ixzz1TndkVPib

A 2006 survey by Gallup Management Journal found that 56 percent of the US workforce are “not-engaged,’ or sleepwalking through their workday, costing their organization money by putting in time without any passion or personal involvement. Fifteen percent of the United States workforce is “actively disengaged,” where employees are unhappy and manifest their unhappiness not only by undermining the efforts of the engaged employees, but also by creating a hostile work environment that is toxic for all employees possibly leaing to workplace violence. In April 2009, the U.S.Bureau of Labor Statistics published a press release reporting that the usual weekly earnings of wage and salary workers for the first quarter of 2009 were: “Median weekly earnings of the nation’s 100.2 million full-time wage and salary workers were $738 in the first quarter of 2009.” A yearly median salary will be $38,376.00 ($738X52 weeks), the actively disengaged employee will cost their employer 41 percent of their annual salary i.e. $15,922.00. Multiplying that by 15 percent of the workforce, and it demonstrates employer’s loss of millions, if not billions of dollars. Gallup estimates the lost productivity of actively disengaged employees costs the US economy $370 BILLION annually. In February 2010, the number of employees voluntarily quitting surpassed the number being fired or discharged, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The issue becomes how long an organization can afford to survive before dealing with the problem of actively disengaged and disgruntled employees. The solution is available for a fraction of the cost of the loss incurred by these organizations. The solution is fostering a positive work environment through diversity and inclusion, training, action plan, execution and follow-up. Creating an organizational culture where all employees feel valued and a vital part of the organization.

Positive work environment is created when the employees feel that they are part of a team working collectively with the senior management towards common goals, be part of decision making and collaborate towards the success of the organization.

Culture will eat strategy for lunch anytime of the day, so it becomes evident why a culture of respect and acknowledgment goes a long way.

The foundation of positive work environment lies on the commitment of every single person at the organization to engage with each other, manage diversity and inclusion, transparency, develop cross-cultural leadership skills, and being accountable for their individual actions, progress and goal achievements.

The most successful workplaces are those in which everyone works well together to create a positive work environment by living the mission, vision and core values of the organization, in alignment with its culture of respecting the diverse talents, valuing and embracing the differences.

In a positive work environment teamwork is appreciated and builds on each others’ strengths and abilities; a strong belief that every single employee is unique and bring their own unique abilities and capabilities to the table and have the right to be treated with dignity and respect; Diversity & Inclusion are weaved through the threads of the organization’s culture where exclusive clubs and ISMs do not exist

Diversity starts at home.

 

Sahar Andrade, MB.BCh
Diversity Consultant – Social Media Strategist
Sahar Consulting, LLC. - Home of the D.I.A.L.O.G.™ Programs
Diversity& Inclusion in Active Leadership Organizational Growth™
(Exchanging Ideas through Conversation)™

http://www.saharconsulting.com

(818)861 9434

Let’s connect on:       
Contact me:  saharconsulting

Diversity And Isms

Today, I found a card on top of our mailbox, it read “Love your race”, and the back read”Stop affirmative action” with a link to a website that spewed hatred, with messages as: “We must have new societies throughout the White world which are based on Aryan values and are compatible with the Aryan nature. We do not need to homogenize the White world. What we must have, however, is a thorough rooting out of Semitic and other non-Aryan values and customs everywhere.”

I stopped for a second in disbelief, not because of the intolerance, and hate messages but because it was so blatant, and destructive.

When cultural differences present themselves in any community it can go either way depending on the surrounding factors. They can become an advantage; conflicts can arise or even worst the symptoms of “Isms” start showing when people don’t coexist peacefully.

Racism is perhaps the most problematic of these “Isms”. Simply put, racism is hatred without bounds. It affects all types of organizations and societies.

Racism is when people dislike others simply because of their race, color, religion, gender or even sexual orientation. Those infected by this hatred cannot work well in a diverse environment as they are overcome by their “ISM.”

Sexism, classism, ableism, homophobia, xenophobia and ageism are also other “Isms.” Although homophobia and xenophobia are not necessarily “Isms,” they are based on hatred.

Many of the “Isms” are the result of a lack of understanding of the various cultures in society. Many individuals confuse culture with race, and lack of communication or knowledge regarding that particular culture creates additional turmoil due to this lack of understanding.

Culture is not only about race or ethnicity but is about common characters such as age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, physical ability, education, marital and parental status that allow people within a group to have a common identity.

For example, some Native Americans are raised in a tribal group that does not permit compliments in front of peers in public. Therefore, a Native American individual may exhibit displeasure at a public compliment, not because they are unappreciative, but because it is against their beliefs. However, if the person complimenting him does not understand that, they may take offense to it.

When English is a second language or poorly spoken, language can create misunderstandings leading to issues of loyalty. This lack of understanding often leads to xenophobia, a fear of anything that is foreign or unknown.

In a multicultural diverse society, zero tolerance for racism and prejudice should be adopted, celebrate the uniqueness of each culture, learn from it and use it as strength for our community or organization to build a stronger culturally diverse nation. Diversity and multiculturalism are NOT affirmative action created to right a wrong, and was not created to adversely impact anyone.

Granted, there have been cases where some organizations mistakenly applied Affirmative action alienating deserving employees to be employed or promoted because they were not minorities. Does it justify intolerance? Does it justify racism and prejudice? 
Diversity and multiculturalism should neither be a demand for special rights for minorities, a threat to protecting one’s own cultural identity and safety, nor a majority ruling.

First, we all need to confront our own bias and prejudice first. Who gets to decide what is normal? Who gets to decide who is right and who is wrong and most of all who are we to judge? We are all human beings sharing more or less the same values and desires, it is not a Kumbaya song, but is reality. We all have in common the love of our families, yearn for freedom, want to love and be loved, want to be safe, want to trust and be trusted, be equal in our rights and responsibilities, and most of all we all look for happiness.

Diversity is about dignity, respect and most of all being human. We spend too much time looking for our differences when we have so much in common to celebrate. We keep looking at the five percent differences while ignoring our ninety five percent commonalities. Join me in looking for our similarities rather than our differences to embrace our different cultures in harmony.
Diversity starts at home.

 

Sahar Andrade, MB.BCh
Diversity Consultant – Social Media Strategist
Sahar Consulting, LLC. - Home of the D.I.A.L.O.G.™ Programs
Diversity& Inclusion in Active Leadership Organizational Growth™
(Exchanging Ideas through Conversation)™
http://www.saharconsulting.com 
(818)861 9434 

 

Let’s connect on:       
Contact me:  saharconsulting

Diversity Challenges- Stereotyping

First appeared on Technorati:  http://technorati.com/lifestyle/article/diversity-challenges-stereotyping/

We discussed the Diversity Challenges in the last post. An important item in the diversity challenges is stereotyping, so let us start by defining it.

Stereotypes lead to assumptions and conclusions based on a person’s race, gender or sexual preferences. Making these assumptions and conclusions then leads us to discrimination. Stereotypes can be about race, religion, gender, age, disabilities, income, geographical locations.

Stereotyping, has its root in prejudice, is an unjustified negative attitude based on a person’s group or class identity acquired either through past personal experiences or through preconceived wrong beliefs. It includes having an attitude, opinion, perception, or belief about a person or group.

Stereotype is a mental picture developed as a result of a myth. People don’t often realize manifestations of their own bias and prejudice towards others.

A clear example is shown in the case of a Republican official, from Orange County, Ca, a couple of months ago; forwarding an email to some friends depicting an image of a family of chimpanzees, with the superimposed face of President Barack Obama over the baby chimp’s face. The caption read, “Now you know why no birth certificate; thinking it was just a joke. She apologized by saying that she has never been a racist; she just thought it was funny

While we are not judging the behavior, the morale of the story is that we can have our own bias and not even be aware of it, which is the real challenge when it comes to diversity, inclusion, and acceptance.

Important also to note that there a fine difference between generalization and stereotyping. Generalization is a starting point indicating common trends and patterns, for beliefs and behaviors that are shared by a certain group, to make it a bit easier to study its culture, and that there are individual differences even within the same group of people

While generalizing is a positive, stereotyping that might seem similar, functions differently, and can negatively influence interpersonal interactions. Stereotyping is an ending point and can be defined as the process by which people acquire and recall information about others based on their race, sex, religion, etc.

To understand the difference: If I assume that all Middle Eastern are Muslims is stereotyping as a good percentage is Christian, Jewish, Druze or Baha’i. But if I ask myself if a Middle Eastern is Muslim I am making a generalization

One of the publicized stereotypes in the workplace is the “gender” stereotypes, indicated in class action lawsuits as the Wal-Mart and the recent KPMG case.

Gender issues often have a strong impact on a workplace because these types of issues elicit different communication styles and perceptions. These issues can also lead to sexual harassment and other types of discrimination and those that are very subtle. However, these issues are not limited to gender issues, but also include sexual issues, cultural issues and lifestyle issues.

Gender issues are excellent for exploring how stereotypes develop and discrimination occurs. For instance, women often feel undervalued in the workplace, while men often think that they cannot do the same jobs as them. This is a classic stereotype.

Age is another issue, including whether an employee is too old or too young for their position. For instance, Gen Y are presently in leadership positions at the workplace, some may wonder whether they have enough experience for their position as well as life in general.

Sexual orientation issues also arise causing stereotypes and discrimination. As more gay men and lesbian women make their presence known in the workplace and openly talk about their sexuality and partners, many people simply do not understand it. These people are often the center of disrespectful jokes and commentary. Organizations are also openly hiring these individuals into managerial positions. These types of situations often cause tension and even violence between these individuals.

Individuals with disabilities might also be stereotyped and discriminated against. Although the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 ensures workplace corrections so that disabled people can work easily in their positions, they often feel as though they are left out of the office culture.

Stereotyping and discriminating against certain people and classes that are mostly protected by law, not only affects the bottom line revenues of the workplace, but decreases morale, where employees are disengaged, increase absenteeism, diminishes the capability of recruiting and retaining talents. All these factors will not only decrease productivity, but also subjects the organization to major lawsuits that costs million of dollars in settlements and punitive damages, with a risk to tarnish its reputation forever and can be detrimental to small and middle size businesses.

Diversity starts at home.

Sahar Andrade, MB.BCh
Diversity Consultant – Social Media Strategist
Sahar Consulting, LLC. - Home of the D.I.A.L.O.G.™ Programs
Diversity& Inclusion in Active Leadership Organizational Growth™
(Exchanging Ideas through Conversation)™

http://www.saharconsulting.com

(818)861 9434

Let’s connect on:       
Contact me:  saharconsulting

Diversity Challenges

First appeared on Technorati: http://technorati.com/lifestyle/article/diversity-challenges/#ixzz1PYLCI4vt

Work place discrimination charges filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) hit an unprecedented high of 99,922 during the fiscal year of 2010.

EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) that has a the task of ending employment discrimination in the United States by allowing individuals to sue private employers for discrimination, and serves as an adjudicatory for any claims of discrimination brought against federal agencies.

That means that we still have a big problem with discrimination and application of diversity and inclusion – finding the barriers to diversity and inclusion can guide the way to finding solutions to at least decrease the amount of these claims, and can help building bridges in the workplaces for better harmony and inclusion.

Diversity goes way beyond race, color and religion. Diversity is the many differences between individuals including race, culture, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical abilities, socio-economic, jobs, education, geographical locations, personalities, and even diversity of thoughts. Diversity is what makes each and everyone of us unique

Diversity means challenge and to overcome the “isms” such as racism, ageism, sexism, and homophobia. These issues cause many rifts in a successful society and workplace and often prevent goals of the organization and the teams within from accomplishing their goals and achieving their missions.

Most importantly, leaders must be aware of these challenges in order to rise above them and lead successful teams, while also reaping the many benefits that diversity provides.

There are several challenges to diversity that exist including:

• Fairness: Diversity creates questions about fairness because discrimination and equality in the workplace is always a factor. Because of this, mechanisms must be put in place to assure that questions of fairness do not arise and to ensure that everyone in the organization is treated equally.
• Management Complexity: It often seems easier to manage a group of people who all have the same or similar mindset, but these people do not always get along. However, in a homogenous group, there tends to be less conflict and management does not have to adjust their style. They do not need to approach or listen to people differently and they do not need to find new approaches to tasks, as they are always completed successfully using one method, if it is not broken why fix it?.
• Differences versus Similarities: It is simpler to think that working with people that have similar backgrounds is easier. We don’t have to worry about different styles or understanding new perspectives. We also don’t have to adjust to different attitudes. 
• Loyalty and Identity: As members of a homogenous group, we believe we know who we are. We don’t feel the need to constantly redefine ourselves and we don’t need to wonder if we can trust those new people with new values, if they will back us up or if they will be loyal to the organization.

Although these all read as challenges, the fact is that these can also be benefits to diversity. When you find new approaches, you define innovation. Although it may be difficult to deal with, change is good.

Organizations that are flexible and willing to think clearly and outside of the box are able to use their diversity skills to make diversity work in their organization.

Diversity is mutual acceptance and value placed on differences among people with respect to age, class, ethnicity, physical and mental ability, race, sexual orientation, spiritual practice, and other human attributes. Workplace diversity means new opportunities for both employees and employers and that translates into more revenues.

 

Diversity Starts at home

Picture credit to thefreemanonline.org

Sahar Andrade, MB.BCh
Diversity Consultant – Social Media Strategist
Sahar Consulting, LLC. - Home of the D.I.A.L.O.G.™ Programs
Diversity& Inclusion in Active Leadership Organizational Growth™
(Exchanging Ideas through Conversation)™
http://www.saharconsulting.com 
(818)861 9434 

Let’s connect on:       
Contact me:  saharconsulting

Respect For Human Dignity

How many of us get those chain jokes in our mail boxes daily; jokes about gays, older people,  Polish people, some about women, Muslims, Jews,  etc…and the list goes on.    

These jokes that may be intended to be funny can be taken the wrong way, and be considered of extremely bad taste. How do you react to these jokes?  

Do you delete them or just hit the forward button to the next person that will do exactly the same thing. Did you ever stop and think that these jokes might be offending to  someone else, even if they don’t speak up and voice their discontent? Did you ever stop,  and put yourself in their shoes and how they could feel excluded?  Did you know that this could be considered a type of harassment?

Harassment is verbal or physical conduct that belittles and shows hostility or aversion towards an individual or a group because of their race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation age or any other characteristics protected by law.

Harassment causes an uncomfortable feeling that can distract a person from doing their job if done all the time. It is abusive words or phrases, jokes, slurs or negative stereotyping, threatening, intimidating, or hostile acts that are derogatory or disrespectful, even if not intended. Describing these actions as being insensitive is a major understatement, as well as using expressions like: you people, you all look-alike,  learn to speak English, you foreigners, very articulate for a Puerto Rican, all men are the same, older people can’t handle technology… 

You will be surprised how many of these expressions I have heard and how many of these jokes I have seen, and the sad part is that whoever is expressing them don’t feel that they being insensitive, or wrong, and  they actually ask you what happened to your sense of humor.  Humor? I wasn’t aware that hurting someone’s feelings these days was called humor.

Humor is required in every aspect of our lives, I am not asking anyone here to walk on egg shells, I am not asking anyone to inconvenience themselves, but at  least be aware of what you say or act and how do you say it.  

All what I am asking for is RESPECT one another. Understanding sensitivity in the workplace is a step forward to instill respect. Harassing conduct is never justified; not knowing it is harassment is not a legal defense. Wherever there is harassment; morale suffers and as a result: Productivity decreases; absenteeism and employee turnover are high, inability to hire or retain talents; legal fees to defend the lawsuits in courts soar, and damage to the company’s image and reputation can be permanent.  Bottom line loss of revenues is the result.

Why do people keep their silence and don’t correct the wrong, and what are the ways to handle these sticky situations?  – that is what I will discuss in the next post 

Diversity starts at home, Inclusion starts with each one of us,

Sahar Andrade

Diversity Consultant – Social Media Strategist

Sahar Consulting, LLC.

http://www.saharconsulting.com

(818)861 9434

Let’s connect on:        

Contact me:  saharconsulting   

Picture credits:jemima.files.wordpress

Break Down Barriers to Cross-Cultural Communication

First appeared on Technorati:  http://technorati.com/business/gurus/article/break-down-barriers-to-cross-cultural/#ixzz1LLnW0mVi

In the first part of the post: The business case of cross-cultural communication, the meaning of culture and the different aspects of diversity have been clarified.

Communication is a crucial element in relationships either personal or business. Effective communication is one of the foundations of leadership, diverse team building and cooperation. Effective communication can be the difference between a successful organization and a failing organization. It is directly tight to the bottom line revenues, to employee morale, retention, loyalty, and increased productivity which is directly related to increased profits.

Ineffective or lack of communication results in high turnover, inability to recruit or retain diverse talents, absenteeism, low morale and most importantly low productivity that leads to low revenues.

The real causes of ineffective or weak communication are excuses. In other words, the only things holding people back from great communication are themselves or their perceptions.

Any interruption or noise during the communication process causes a disconnect, or results in miscommunication. The communication process consists of 8 main items:

1. The message: What is being communicated
2. The source or the sender: Starts the decision to send a message, and define its purpose.
3. Encoding: The message is generated through the source’s past experiences, perceptions, thoughts and feelings.
4. The channel: The means, pathways or devices by which the messages are communicated. Channels can be verbal or non-verbal.
5. The receiver: The person (persons) who attend to the source’s message
6. Decoding: Interpreting the message by the receiver based on their past experiences, perceptions, thoughts and feelings.
7. Feedback: Receiver responds to sender showing understanding or not. Feedback can also be total silence.
8. Noise: Any interference with the transmission of the message that will inhibit the proper understanding of the message and can act as a barrier.

Knowing the common barriers to effective communication, makes it easier to either avoid them or even better find a solution to these barriers. The most common barriers are:

1. Physical: Can be an actual physical structure or distance: Walls, desks, cubicles, doors, or being located in different buildings or rooms. Physical barriers are also anything that causes distractions or breaks concentration as background noises in case of continuous phone ringing and loud music, or the room temperature either too low or too high
2. Perceptual: No two people view the world the same way; we all have our own assumptions and perceptions tinted by our own past experiences, values and beliefs which can get in the way of productive dialogue
3. Psychological: Being emotionally disconnected: Emotions or personal feelings that cause misunderstandings that hinder effective communication. A person’s emotion at the time the message is communicated can impact how it is sent or received. Fear, mistrust, happiness, sadness, anxiety, or anger are all strong emotions that can directly influence communication
4. Gender: As it is said that men are from Mars and women are from Venus. Men and women think, speak and decide differently. Men approach the subjects from facts, wanting bottom line. Women have nurturing natures, love details as they need to build relationships and they hint in their communication where men are just direct to the point
5. Generational: We have four generations interacting together at the workplace. Every generation has its own style of communication. To bridge the generational gap, we need to know the different times, and conditions surrounding each generation that influenced their lives a great deal.
6. Language: Miscommunication occurs when people from different areas or companies are communicating and assign different meanings to words or are unfamiliar with the different terminology. Using slang as: slam dunk, throw me under the bus, stop on a dime, kick the bucket especially while communicating with people to whom English is a second language; using jargon (medical terms, IT people); dialects; or semantics all hinder effective communication.
7. Cultural, racial and religious: We are all products of our environment. Our culture, race or religion are the lens through which we view the world and code or decode the messages we receive.

The communication continues in the next post

Diversity starts at home.

Sahar Andrade
Diversity Consultant – Social Media Strategist
Sahar Consulting, LLC.

http://www.saharconsulting.com

(818)861 9434

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Contact me: saharconsulting

Cross-Cultural Communication

Last weekend, I gave a presentation about cross-cultural communication. To my surprise, I found out that a vast majority of the population has a misguided perception that cultures are only about people’s skin colors, different ethnicities or religions, which is very surprising considering the emphasis that is being placed on diversity and the importance therein.

Also, many people didn’t quite grasp the difference between both communication and effective communication; and the concept that there is a difference between hearing and active listening.

Taking all of the above into consideration, I then decided to write this post about the actual definition of effective cross-cultural communication and why it is important to focus on it.

I always like to build a business case around any subject I tackle. When I researched the business case for communication these were the results:

1- The demographics in the United States are rapidly changing: It was perceived that the minorities in the United States will become majorities by 2050; but according to new data, we will see the shift earlier in 2042- 2043.
a- The Hispanic population will increase from 15 to 30 percent within the next 30 years
b- Asians will increase from five to eight percent
c- African Americans will increase only by one percent from 14 to 15 percent.
d- There is at least one million legal immigrants moving to the United States yearly
2- The increased number of female executives where inter-gender communications becomes vital
3- There are four generations communicating at work, where some even consider the presence of 5 generations (dividing generation Y to pre & post 9/11)
4- The buying power of the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and trans-gender community is increasing

We spend 70 percent of our daily time communicating with each other. Sustaining productivity and increasing revenues can come down to the point if communication is conducted effectively or not.

Let us go back for a moment to the cross-cultural term: it means communication across different cultures. The world around us especially in the United States is very diverse as demonstrated in the business case.

Diversity includes but is not limited to race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation; it also includes other factors like socio-economics, education, titles, job descriptions, geographical locations, and marital status, to the point where the diversity of thought, is also included.

And why do we care about diversity in communication? Because each category of diversity has its own culture and each culture has its own communication style, which should also be taken in consideration for product marketing campaigns to different segments of the market.

Then, we need to consider the individuals’cultures, social cultures and the organizational cultures. So, are we fighting a losing battle? In actuality it is much simpler than it sounds, although some flexibility and sensitivity to the different diversity factors and cultures is needed.

The subject might seem a no-brainer, but I have been surprised by how many people never thought about cross-cultural communication in this way. And most importantly:

Diversity starts at home.

Sahar Andrade
Diversity Consultant – Social Media Strategist
Sahar Consulting, LLC.

http://www.saharconsulting.com

(818)861 9434

Let’s connect on:       
Contact me:  saharconsulting