The Latest in Fast Company Leadership

It's 10 P.M., Do You Know Where Your Employees Are? 4 Steps To Set After-Hours Work Expectations

The other day I sat with three senior leaders from three different industries. One was the CEO of an international PR and communications firm. One was a partner of a professional services firm, and the other the president of a national not-for-profit. As it often does, our discussion about work and life turned to technology. I asked them how they used their smartphones and laptops to stay connected to work after traditional business hours:

”I keep my phone on 24/7, but I don’t respond to everything, all the time.”--CEO of the PR and communications firm.

“I sometimes send emails at 4 a.m., and on the weekends just to get a jump-start on my day and week.”--president of the national not-for-profit.

“My phone goes in my briefcase when I get home and I don’t look at it again until the next morning.”--partner of a professional services firm.

Three leaders, with three very different uses of technology. So I asked them, “How many of you have sat down with all of your direct reports and explained how you prefer to connect with work, and specified what you expect of them?”

All three shook their heads and said some variation of the following statement, “No, I haven’t done that, but they all know that I don’t expect them to do what I do.” My response was, “I’ll bet that isn’t true,” and I shared what I see too often in many organizations:

Leaders fail to clarify their personal preferences for staying connected to work with technology, and don’t share their expectations of the responsiveness with their direct reports. This leads to misguided assumptions that can wreak havoc on the work/life balance of their employees. And most leaders have no idea any of this is happening.

Here’s my advice:

Recognize that you have to initiate the conversation with your direct reports. They won’t because they don’t want you to misinterpret their questions as, “I don’t want to work hard.” For example, I worked with a senior leader who always caught the 5:00 a.m. bus to the office. On his ride, he did all of his emails and was so pleased that his team were "morning people, too--they get right back to me!" Imagine his surprise when I told him, “Actually, many are setting alarms for 5 a.m. to be awake and reply to you.” “What?!” he responded, “Why didn’t they say anything?” To the person, they all told me they were afraid he would question their commitment if they did.

Decide what you really expect in terms of response and connection. Part of the problem is that leaders are so busy using technology to manage their own work/life balance that they haven’t thought about what they actually expect from their team. The leader who emailed from the bus at 5:00 a.m. told everyone that if he really needed them he’d call their mobile phones. If an email was priority, he’d identify it. Otherwise feel free to respond whenever they can.

Have a meeting, state the parameters clearly, and then be consistent. People watch the behavior of leaders like a hawk. If there’s even a whiff of inconsistency between what you told them and how you actually behave, they will go back to assuming they need to follow your technology schedule. So if you state, “You don’t need to respond to emails at night, I’ll call you if anything is urgent,” don’t penalize someone who missed an important issue because they didn’t answer an email, but were never called.

Finally, keep the lines of communication open and encourage ongoing clarification. Assumptions people make about their manager’s expectations are rarely accurate, especially when it comes to connection and access to work via technology. Set the record straight. It’s an easy way to offer your people more control and consistency over the way work fits into their lives--something we all need.

If you’re a manager, have you clarified your expectations of access and connectedness with your direct reports? If you haven’t, why not? If you did, what did you learn? What difference did it make?

Cali Williams Yost is the CEO and Founder of the Flex+Strategy Group / Work+Life Fit, Inc., flexible work and life strategy advisors to clients including BDO, LLP, Pearson, Inc., EMC, the U.S. Navy, Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Novo Nordisk. Yost is the author of “Work+Life: Finding the Fit That’s Right for You” (Riverhead/Penguin Group, 2005). Connect with Cali at the award-winning Work+Life Fit blog and on Twitter @caliyost. 

[Image: Flickr user Amir Jina]

What Were They Thinking? The Morning Java That Left Us Cold

Cup of joe, eye-opener, black gold, the daily grind--coffee goes by many different names, and Americans love it. We drink a total of 400 million cups of coffee every day, which translates to an average consumption of 3.1 cups per person. Whether you consider it a necessity for conducting business, a morning energizer, or simply a relaxing pleasure, one thing is certain, coffee is here to stay.

General Foods launched Maxwell House Ready-To-Drink Coffee in 1990, long after the invention of Mr. Coffee and right before Starbucks exploded onto the scene. The Maxwell House carton was found in the refrigerated section of the store, promising a convenient new way to enjoy the rich taste of Maxwell House Coffee.

So what happened to make this day-starter disappear so quickly from the shelf?

Where They Went Wrong 

Packaging: The packaging stated the key consumer benefits--brewed with “crystal clear water” and “the fresh-brewed flavor and aroma...are locked in this exclusive foil-lined fresh-pack.” Foil and microwaves don’t mix very well, so it was necessary to pour the coffee into a mug first, then heat it up in the microwave. A microwaveable package--or better yet, individual cups of coffee that were microwaveable--would have better delivered on convenience, particularly when we are running out the door. 

Hot or Cold?: The imagery on the package showed a steaming cup of coffee, indicating that the coffee should be served hot. It makes sense since most coffee is drunk this way. But there was no suggestion to drink this as iced coffee (if consumers even would at the time), possibly creating an additional usage experience for the product.

Consumer Need: With the popularity of the automatic drip coffee maker, was there really a need for a ready-to-drink coffee? The Mr. Coffee brand has a category household penetration of more than 80%. Coffee is already fast and easy to brew, so what benefit was the Maxwell House Ready-To Drink Coffee really bringing to consumers?

The Takeaway

So what can we learn from this product failure?

Deliver The Goods: Again, common sense tells us that if you are delivering a benefit of convenience, then you need to make sure the product is convenient in every way. The foil-lined package was a killer from the beginning --and the concern should have come up in focus group research with consumers. Better packaging may have saved this new product.

Know Your Market: Was this product really more convenient than making a pot of coffee at home, or getting it from the coffee cart at work? With a little more investigation and market research, General Foods may have realized that this product better served the foodservice channel rather than the consumer channel.

Create New Trends: Sure, hindsight is 20/20, and seeing how Starbucks has literally transformed the specialty coffee industry and educated us on iced coffee and cold coffee drinks like frappuccinos, you might say that this product was simply ahead of its time. But only if the key package visual wasn’t a cup of steaming hot coffee.

Sandstorm Inc. is an innovation firm specializing in the upfront insights and innovation process. Sandie Glass and Laura Wolfram bring a combined 34 years of experience in helping Fortune 500 companies like Procter & Gamble, Disney, Nike, American Express, GlaxoSmithKline, and M&M/Mars tap into their creativity to achieve remarkable business solutions for market success. 

[Image: Flickr user CoffeeGeek]

Cellhelmet, The iPhone Case Guaranteed To Protect Your Phone

What if you could buy a protective case for your iPhone 4/4S that not only looked great, but also came with a guarantee that would cover repairs and replacement? The folks at cellpig.com are looking to Kickstarter to offer what they claim will be the world’s first and only case to do just that.

Designing a protective case for an iPhone is no small feat. It has to be the perfect blend of form and function, shielding the phone from damage while also being sleek enough to show off the phone’s design. 

Cellpig.com has partnered with Global Warranty Group, the insurance administrator, to create “cellhelmet,” a case for the iPhone 4/4S that includes one full year of guaranteed accidental damage insurance for the device which covers pretty much everything under the sun except water damage (so just be sure to stay away from swimming pools and bathtubs). 

"The case was designed from the ground up to be as sleek as possible so you can still tell it’s an iPhone and not an autobot” says Mike Kane, CEO and co-founder of cellpig.com “You'll also appreciate the fact that you have full access to every port and button, without having to remove the case.”

Unlike most other options currently available on the market, cellhelmet’s insurance protection also covers new, used, unlocked and jailbroken iPhone 4/4S's...great news if you’re looking to pick up a gently worn iPhone of your own. 

Will cellhelmet put an end to those annoying monthly insurance premiums from your friendly neighborhood cellphone provider? With just over 30 days to go in their Kickstarter campaign, the folks at cellpig.com have already raised more than $8,000 of their $10,000 goal and are well on their way to going into production in early March at a facility in Latrobe, Pa., just a stone’s throw from their headquarters. 

Find Shawn at shawngraham.me or continue the conversation on Twitter.

[image: cellpig.com]

Brand Endearment Is Why Super Bowl Ads Aren't Dead Yet

There is an old truism in the sales profession--people buy from people they like. The same goes for brands. Being “liked” is certainly not the only reason people buy your product or service, but it’s the foundation of a strong and lasting relationship and something that needs to be nurtured and developed. There are certain times when a brand should be “selling,” and there are other times a brand should be building that deeper emotional bond--something I call brand endearment.

The Super Bowl is certainly one of those times. Super Bowl advertisements have become their own form of entertainment, and as such play by a completely different set of rules. Ads shouldn’t be in hard sales mode, they should be trying to build greater brand endearment. As the world quiets down to actually watch a Super Bowl commercial, they are expecting to be entertained, moved, inspired, or made to howl. Beware to advertisers who don’t understand these rules--they'll wake up Monday morning with a multi-million-dollar case of buyer’s remorse. 

Many think Super Bowl advertising is a waste of time and money. I disagree. For big brands it’s a unique weapon in the marketer’s arsenal. Unlike normal TV advertising (which many people despise), people are actually excited about watching Super Bowl ads. It’s part of the Super Bowl ritual. We rank them, debate them, post them, share them, re-watch them, pre-watch them, and sometimes claim they are more entertaining than the game itself. People want to watch the advertising. That never happens when someone tunes in to Modern Family.

So what makes for a great Super Bowl ad? In my opinion it is an ad that creates the deepest emotional connection possible, which leads to engendering your brand with an endearing quality. Why do you think kids and dogs show up in so many ads--it’s the cheapest trick to creating an endearing moment. Back to my sales analogy, if you take your client to a Super Bowl, you will have an amazing shared experience. You will talk about the crazy pre-parties, and the wild halftime show, you will analyze the game in ridiculous detail, but you won’t talk about work. You’re not there to pitch your product, you are there to build a relationship. Your TV spot should be doing the same thing. Spots that focus on building deep brand endearment can use that equity and goodwill throughout out the year. It will make all of your subsequent selling moments more effective. People find ways to justify buying brands they like.

The stakes are high for Super Bowl advertisers. If they understand how to use this special medium, the buzz for a good ad results in a storm of incremental exposure, coverage they cannot buy, and goodwill that is invaluable. But if they’re selling too hard, or come off as offensive and obnoxious, that negative backlash can be brutal. Last year’s winner was VW’s Darth Vader spot, which was both endearing and off-the-charts funny. As a result, it was the most shared TV spot in history, and VW went on to have a very strong 2011 year in sales.

My assessment of the 2012 Super Bowl spots? Ads for Bud Light Platinum, Lexus GS, and GE didn’t work well because they were selling too hard and were self-serving. The GoDaddy and Cars.com spots were just obnoxious and creepy, thus might help with brand awareness but not brand endearment. My winners: Chrysler’s dramatic rallying cry to America; Acura’s Seinfeld tease campaign; and Bud Light’s Weego (so sue me, I thought the dog was cute).

Read more post-game analysis of social media campaigns at Co.Create: 

Related: The Best Spots Of Super Bowl XLVI

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8 Surprising Ways To Delight Customers

As a 16-year yoga practitioner, I often wish that I could find a place to practice while I travel. Most of the time, I have to traipse halfway across a city. But recently, I was surprised and delighted to learn that San Francisco Airport--which offers harried travelers a room specifically set aside for yoga practice--may be my next yoga destination.

If an airport--the bastion of sterile, boring holding places for weary travelers--can delight a yogini, then you can surprise and delight the toughest of B2B clients.

Look across the universe of possible ways you could delight your clients this month. It's easier and less costly than you think.

Skip the traditional "drinks and dinner" route. Our Western business society is overfed and sated. Instead, consider these alternatives:

By the way, I was not properly dressed to practice my yoga poses inside the SFO terminal. Yet I was far from disappointed. The mere gesture to delight passengers was enough to make me want to fly through the American Airlines terminal again. Your client will feel the same way. If your client declines on your offer, avoid feeling you failed.

And the next time I fly through the American Airlines terminal, I will be sure to pack the proper yoga attire.

Related posts:

[Image: Flickr user Joe Fakih Gomez]

Beyond The One-Time Click: 6 Social Media Rules For Creating Brand Evangelists

There’s a vast expanse between the transactional moment when a consumer likes, friends, or follows a site and the instant that same consumer becomes a brand evangelist, entering into a state of emotional commitment.

The former isn’t difficult to achieve; observe how many sites have hundreds of thousands of friends, very few of whom feel any real passion for the brand, or would go out of their way to recommend it to somehow (least of all defend it in a the social-media equivalent of a barroom brawl.)

The latter is the bell-ringing marketing challenge of today. It’s not surprising that there isn’t more deep-down devotion among the millions of superficial friends and followers. Most brands do very little to cultivate a more meaningful, psychologically grounded relationship.  

Sure, they can convince a consumer to step into the friend category through some form of social or economic quid pro quo--become a friend and get a discount, or get a badge or incentive. But they do very little after that to create a co-equal, honest relationship that has feels personally and not algorithmically generated.  

There’s a ton of work being done on how to measure and track true “engagement” on Facebook, and elsewhere. Mashable recently identified three important metrics that brands should use as markers for success: Track “People Are Talking About,” Track “Engaged Users,” and Track “External Referrers." 

These are all perfectly useful, if not important, criteria and filters. And they are far better metrics than simply adding up the popular vote. But looking beyond the sheer numbers is one only challenge. The other challenge is to understand what ignites evangelism--from the point of view of psychological affinity, message content, stylistic posture, communication cadence, and of course, financial rewards.

Here are six new rules of engagement, based upon an analysis of brand successes, behavioral psychology, and trends in consumer marketing and the social context. Nothing here is all that complicated; they are fundamentals of human psychodynamics, ported to the digital setting. But it’s tough for companies and brands to adapt to them because, well, corporations have a hard time inhabiting human skin.  

That’s not surprising; corporate structure and organization is largely part based upon taking subjectivity out of the decision calculus, and imposing a set of processes that attempt to systematize behavior, and through that, reduce risk.

But nothing here should be that strenuous for companies that truly want armadas of evangelists (to mix a metaphor) on their side.

1. You See Numbers, People See Themselves

Marketers who are trained in the nuances of insightful segmentation and consumer nuances seem to forget all that when marketing through social media. They blast one message to hundreds of thousands of people.  Even millions.  But creating a brand evangelist starts with a personal connection, and personal connections can’t be built with impersonal messaging.  Acquiring giant quantities of friends makes this more difficult, but the growth of Big Data and customer intelligence solutions makes it possible.

2. When People Share Values, They’ll Share A Lot More

Brands today are complex, impressionistic constructions of product, performance, perceptions, and belief systems. More and more, brands are taking stands on social and even political issues; companies like Whole Foods  and The Container Store, for example, are active members of the Conscious Capitalism movement.

Brands can also share values through the choices they make in how they communicate. Style is substantive. Zappos is widely regarded as brilliantly adept at creating wildly devotional brand partisans, and the Twitter feed of its CEO, Tony Hsieh, is a large part of that.

Here’s a perfect example of that; a Tweet he made last July. No sell, no offer, in fact, an anti-consumption message: Want happiness? Don't buy more stuff--go on vacation!

It was preceded by a Tweet about research on getting kids to consume more vegetables, and a quote from Ann Frank.  This random glimpse into the mind of a CEO displays an emotional transparency that builds loyalty. You know that it wasn’t rubber-stamped by a Twitter Approval Sub-Committee.

So social media is the ultimate platform for communicating your values and energizing people around them. Of course, you can’t satisfy everyone, but the process of creating brand acolytes means that you cannot be equally meaningful to everyone. Deal with it.

3. Lameness Can’t Create Loyalty

Have you noticed how much social media is represented by Tweets and posts like this triteness display from McDonald’s:

Morning! How's everyone's week going so far?

24 Jan Favorite Retweet Reply

Would you want to be friends, and hang out with someone who always feels obligated to spout something, even when they have absolutely nothing of interest on their minds? So if you want to create evangelists, start with being excruciatingly demanding about every single thing you say. And how you say it.

4. Real Friends Don’t Impose--Unless There’s a Good Reason

Offline relationships are the psychological model for brand “friendships.” Well, before you ask a friend for a favor, you think through the implications. How important is it to you? How difficult or emotionally fraught might it be your friend to act on your request? When does the request over-stretch the implicit boundaries of the relationship?

Brands need to go through the same social calculus, but they seldom do. So a brand will ask you to forward something to a friend, or invite a friend to join a group, without really thinking through the implications.  They are pushing hard, if not violating, the natural limits of the “friendship”--and then they are surprised when they don’t get the results they expected.

To create evangelists who are ready, willing and able to use their social graphs to advance your brand, you need to develop some rules of reciprocity, and real customer intelligence about which of your current fans and friends are most likely to share. For example, those who have large networks, and high Klout scores, might be better evangelist than those who keep to themselves. But are you treating them all the same?

5. Surprise Everyone, Including Yourself

We become emotionally attached to those who bring unexpected twists and surprises to our lives. That’s because disruptive surprise and intrigue release dopamine, which creates pleasure (and its evil cousin, addiction.) Insufficient novelty creates dopamine boredom.   

Surprise can be the way you say something (style) or what you give them as far as rewards or incentives go (content). It’s a rich area for innovation.

Trouble is, many big brands see surprise as a risk, because it requires unexpected behaviors, which by definition, haven’t been done before and might be considered “off-brand.” Dopamine boredom is always safe. Hence the paradox of evangelists: to create them, you need to push on the limits of institutional norms. But if you do so, and surprise them and yourself in the process, you might actually find your dopamine will be flowing as much as theirs.  

6. Go Out Of Your Way For People, and They’ll Go Out of Their Way for You

One of the most powerful ways to create evangelists is to behave with breathtaking responsiveness. Many are halfway there. Increasingly, more and more companies are turning to social media to address customer service issues. So we’re seeing tons of responses like this from Target:

@XTEDDIX That's frustrating! Thanks for letting us know. We'll be passing your comments along to our Store Leadership team. Matthew

But what we’re not seeing are a lot of results. The average friend or fan is exposed to a torrent of problems, not solutions. So in the interests of being a responsive organization, brands can come across as customer-service train wrecks.

Wouldn’t it be cool if a brand posted, each day, the resolution of its most triumphant, confounding, and amusing customer services issues.  

These little human-interest packages would be terrifically entertaining to read, and would create evangelists by demonstrating corporate flexibility, a stop-at-nothing obsession with consumer satisfaction. So even if the experience didn’t touch you directly, you feel touched by it.

It’s a form of social osmosis, which, like the other five rules I’ve described, can turn the passivity of fandom to the activism of discipledom.

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[Image: Flickr user carlo cravero]

The Ultimate Crisis-Communications Checklist: 6 Steps To Master Your Disaster

Whether you’re digging your way out of a negative PR avalanche or simply need to scrub a less-than-squeaky-clean outburst, here are tips from branding experts on how to handle public outrage with grace and style.

So you torpedoed your brand. Or maybe you just want to learn how to handle a media sh*tstorm like the one that ensued when Susan G. Komen For The Cure announced it wouldn’t renew its grants to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer exams. 

Though Komen For The Cure reversed its decision to pull about half a million in funding for low-income women to receive breast-cancer screening only three days later, it’s going to take a lot of elbow grease to remove the black marks now marring all its pink ribbons. And while the Komen dustup doesn’t tip the ethics scale like BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster, according to the MIT Sloan Management Review, the negative effects of such events have a substantially greater impact on consumer willingness to pay than the positive effects of ethical behavior.

Whether you’re digging your way out of a similar mess or simply need to soap a less-than-squeaky-clean outburst (ahem, Giselle), here are some tips from branding experts on how to handle the public’s outrage with grace and style.

1. Own Up To Your Mistakes

No one knows this better than Mikkel Svane, CEO of Zendesk. The cloud-based helpdesk software company nearly caused a riot among its 10,000 clients in 100 countries last year with the launch of a series of new features and changed cost structure. Svane and his team took a breath before diving in (with its own software solution) and addressing all the complaints. Now that things have cooled off and customers are once again satisfied, Svane says that "building a business, especially at this pace, you are making mistakes all the time. The best thing a company can do is embrace its mistakes."

2. Use Empathy

One of the first things to do after acknowledging the mistake is to show empathy. Let them (your constituents, customers, user base, etc.) know you care about how they feel and that you want to know how they feel, says Rebecca Saeger, executive vice president and CMO at Charles Schwab.

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3. Show Vulnerability

Lady Gaga may not be the first person who comes to mind when you need first aid for PR disasters (think meat dress, refusing Al Yankovic the right to spoof, numerous public stumbles in airports on vertiginous heels) but she sure knows how to keep millions of fans hooked. 

Her secret sauce? Spilling “secrets.” Gaga’s never been shy about revealing her foibles to the growing throng of “Little Monsters,” as she calls her fan base. Sharing her imperfections allows fans to relate to Gaga, and in doing so she also manages to unite them in a tightly knit tribe. If your brand is becoming disconnected from humanity, it’s time to take a lesson from Gaga’s authenticity. 

4. Don’t Use Traditional Media to Quash a Social Media Frenzy

Let BP stand as an example for companies of any size on what NOT to do before, during, or after a disaster. Dogged pursuit of its "Beyond Petroleum" rebranding, the deep-green position was at serious odds with a lousy environmental record that included refinery explosions, the devastating Prudhoe Bay spill, and the Gulf disaster. 

To make things worse, BP’s PR efforts were mostly contained to TV and newspaper ads. The estimated $100 million spend to stem damage to its reputation was pitted against social media such as the Boycott BP page on Facebook that received three quarters of a million "Likes" and essentially allowed negative conversations around their brand to rage unchecked on the web.

When social networks allow people to bypass traditional media outlets and talk among themselves, it’s time to come up with a sound strategy for steering the conversation. That’s what David All, president of the David All Group, did when hired by South Carolina's Congressman Joe Wilson, who stepped into the glare of the media spotlight when he shouted "You lie," to President Obama during his health care address.

"Twitter is not the end-all, be-all, but it proved to be another tool to help us achieve our online goals. We used it to share information with influencers, help shape the debate, listen to the conversation as a real-time focus group to gauge our response, set the tone that we were fighting back with social media, and to essentially get our side of the story out.”

5. Own Your Search Results--Positive and Negative

Ever try to Google “Santorum?” Instead of getting the website of the presidential hopeful, the first result is a fake definition of "santorum." The term for a sexual byproduct was fixed in the firmament of Google search results back in 2003, when Santorum outraged the gay and lesbian community when he appeared to tell a reporter that gay sex was not entitled to privacy protections, and could therefore be banned by the government. And 2007 was the year when "miserable failure" searches began pointing to a biography of George W. Bush.  

While Google maintains control and hasn’t agreed to manually remove such pages, companies could fend off similar attacks by taking charge of SEO and owning search results--good and bad. Toyota grabbed the Google bull by the horns during its $7 billion brand crisis when the company was forced to recall more than 5 million of its faulty vehicles in May 2010. That’s when plaintiffs' attorneys turned to the web in droves to recruit class action litigants and cement the perception that Toyota had acted irresponsibly.

At the height of the recalls, a Google search for the term "Toyota recall" displayed 10 paid advertisements with Toyota at the top spot. It also had dedicated Google adwords campaigns (SEM) for terms such as "Toyota Recall," "Toyota Problems," and "Toyota Issues,” a strategy that allowed the company to buy the negative terms about itself, not just positive or generic ones.

6. Weigh Your Options Before Making a Hasty Decision

Lowe’s Home Improvement and KAYAK.com pulled their ads from The Learning Channel’s All-American Muslim in a knee-jerk response to pressure from the one-man fundamentalist group known as the Florida Family Association. Lisa Mabe, founder and principal of Hewar Social Communications, says it never pays to pull the trigger too quickly, but make such decisions thoughtfully, especially while the storms are raging. “One lesson here is to carefully consider the credibility of the individuals or companies doing the complaining in the first place. Often times we see a lot of noise from groups who aren’t even shoppers at the company in question,” says Mabe.

Did you get all that? If not, here’s a 30 Second MBA video recap of how to address social media storms head on from Mitchell Harper, cofounder of BigCommerce.com.

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Now it's your turn. What leadership lessons have you taken from PR debacles? Tweet us @FastCoLeaders with the hashtag #FCweighin to join the conversation, or leave a comment below.

[Image: Flickr user Nimrodcooper]