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Worlds are Colliding Jerry!

In 1995, George Costanza – one of the quirky characters on Seinfeld – shouted, “World's are colliding!” when he learned that his friend Elaine had invited his fiancé to join her on a visit to the museum. George acted differently with his friends than he did in the presence of his fiancé. In Susan’s presence he was Relationship George and around his friends he was Independent George. George feared his two worlds would explode if Susan were to join the group of friends. Independent George ‘s world would cease to exist if she joined the group because he would have to maintain his Relationship George persona with his friends going forward. George wanted nothing more than to keep his worlds separated.

Today, a short 15 years later, George would not survive. In 2010, it is nearly impossible to separate our worlds because social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have blurred the line between professional and personal. We connect with our families, friends, bosses and business partners alike through social media.

Imagine your professional resume circulating among your college friends and the laughs it might provoke. Worse yet, imagine if the hiring managers at the company you’ve applied to had a resume of your college spring break experiences.

Too often, the latter is not imaginary but reality because interviewers increasingly look at candidates Twitter or Facebook pages where the applicant has posted such photos or status updates. How much damage can posting wild weekend photos and drunken status updates do to your credibility? A lot.

When using social media, it is a good idea to only post things you’d be comfortable with your boss or even your mother seeing, because chances are they can. It is essential that we always put our best foot forward to maintain our credibility. Re-think every post because it really can affect you down the line.

Sorry George, but the worlds have collided!

Practice What You Preach

Recently there was a blog post calling out a PR person’s blunder of sending out an email to the masses without blind copying or restricting replying options. In reality, it was a small error that was put on a stage and made into a catastrophe. Ultimately, the blogger publicly apologized and vowed to not highlight such small issues and call others out in the future. But, the situation brings good points to light. Within a matter of a couple hours, not only had this woman’s error made its way around to her clients and prospects, it was being talked about on the Internet for all to see.

We all make mistakes. It’s human nature. It’s what we do about those mistakes that seperates us. More than the error itself, she was being called out for disappearing for hours, not returning messages and dealing with the problem. We coach our clients in crisis management, but are we taking our own advice? Why would the guidance we offer to clients not apply to us as well? While I don’t know her circumstances, I do know that it made me look at myself a little closer. Are my expectations for others higher than what I expect of myself?

I can’t count the number of times I have wished I could turn back the hands of time and redo a situation. But you can’t. The best each of us can do is to apply to our own situations the techniques that we work so hard at every day to guide our clients with. We want them to use these techniques for a reason- they work. And when you do make a mistake, and you will, face it head on, deal with it and move on. You can beat yourself up for something for the rest of your life, but it won’t change it. Learn from it and grow. I think it not only improves our own worth, it helps us give real-life advice to our clients. They will value the truth in our guidance knowing we aren’t just preaching, we are living what we are saying.

Letting the Power of the Idea Stand for Itself

I recently read an article in Sports Illustrated about Joe Paterno, head football coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions. “Joe Pa” as he’s called is 82 and has coached at Penn State for 60 years. He holds the record for most football victories in college football history and doesn’t have plans to retire as long as he’s, “still making an impact.”

The article talks about arguing and how Paterno grew up in a family that argued about everything. In fact, arguing was encouraged. When I was growing up, arguing was not encouraged but I thought Joe’s explanation for arguing made sense and is something that when approached this way should be encouraged.

Paterno will often attack an assistant coach’s idea with a barrage of questions and doubts just to see if the coach’s idea will withstand the challenge. He’ll also occasionally throw an idea out that he doesn’t really believe in just to see how his assistant coach’s respond to it and if they have the strength to speak their minds.

 “Why can’t we talk without calling each other names?” Joe asks. “I mean in the world. Everyone around, they scream at each other about politics or what’s happening. Why can’t someone just stand up and say ‘Why? How? When? What does it matter?’ Let the power of the idea fight for itself.”

The more I think about it the more I like what he says. If done in the right way and in the right spirit, there really isn’t anything wrong with challenging an idea, asking questions about it and arguing about it. If the idea is a good one it will survive and everybody involved will understand it better and be more committed to it. A challenge or argument shouldn’t be done as a “screw you” to a colleague you dislike but as a way to understand or strengthen the idea.

In my experience, if the concept is good, a challenge or debate about the idea can only make it better. It will either fortify the idea in the presenters mind and everybody else’s minds or it will find the weaknesses and make it stronger. Also, if others feel like they have a say in it they’re more likely to buy into and support the idea from the beginning and feel as if they have some ownership in it.

Writing How You Speak

Writing is an essential element for most jobs and has been on my mind a lot lately. I went to journalism school at Arizona State and I remember a couple things with regards to writing (I probably should remember more right?). The one main saying I heard over and over in school is to “write how you speak”. If you write how you speak you’ll see a significant flow in your writing. You will also become more comfortable with your writing.

However, it would be silly to write in slang or swear or whatever you might use in every day language, that’s not what I mean. When you write how you speak, people know it’s you. You develop a certain style, just like you speak with a certain style.

It’s also important to note that with press releases and contributed articles there are exceptions. Sometimes you must write in a certain tone that may not be yours by nature. But by still being you (writing as you speak) you’ll be able to adapt to the tone needed in your piece.

Additionally, after you write something make sure you proofread out loud to yourself. If it sounds forced, it probably was and needs to be changed. Take care of yourselves and each other.