Business. Communications. Social Media. Strategy. | Daria Steigman | Steigman Communications, LLC
From the category archives:
Why do workshifters “dare to be different”? And what implications might this have for innovation across the business landscape? For today’s food for thought, read my inaugural post for Workshifting.com.
And thanks to Justin Levy for inviting me to become a regulator contributor. I’m excited to be joining A.J. Leon, Melissa Leon, and the rest of the stellar Workshifting crew.
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I was a little surprised last week by all the attention surrounding Chris Brogan’s day rate. A little of it reminded me of when I started my business and a few (former) friends decided I was really sitting around eating bonbons and cashing trust fund checks. Mostly it reminded me that too many people don’t know how to value their work.
My day rate may not be $22,000, but I do not allow organizations to pick my brain by the hour. My hourly strategy rate is primarily used to establish a retainer or a project fee–both of which build in start-up, research, concepting, and so forth. Not to mention intelligence, know-how, and expertise.
Why would anyone walk into a room and discount that?
Photo by Esparta (Flickr).
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One of the toughest challenges of consulting is the “feast or famine” syndrome. If you’ve been doing this work for any length of time, then you have probably experienced both those times when you’re working really crazy hours and the weeks when you’re climbing the walls waiting for that next project to start. So how do you effectively juggle multiple client projects and professional commitments?
My three keys are prioritizing, productivity, and perseverance:
While juggling projects can be a challenge, I often find the bigger challenge for many small businesses and independent consultants is reluctance to take on more work because of fear of overload.
Has this happened to you? And what strategies do you use to juggle effectively?
Photo by Helico (Flickr).
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Should you be on LinkedIn? Plaxo? BizSugar or Open Forum? While it’s easy to be online, the vast array of options can leave even the social-media-savviest business person overwhelmed. At last check, my AddThis button linked to over 230 separate platforms/sites.
Because time is a finite resource and we can’t be everywhere, I recommend applying a simple three-pronged business test for social presence:
I explore these questions in some detail in a new IABC CW Bulletin article, Bringing Social Media to Your Business. Check it out and let me know what you think.
Photo by jenny downing (Flickr).
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Remember the Deck of Cards that the U.S. military unveiled after the 2003 invasion of Iraq? In addition to Saddam Hussein, it featured a who’s who of the regime’s inner circle. If you’d diagrammed it, you would have been ended up with a traditional hierarchical chart with Hussein at the top and the lines going down from there.
But that’s not how the military found Saddam Hussein. Instead, Col. Jim Hickey and his colleagues developed a social diagram to understand the Iraqi leader’s network of family, close friends, and tribal ties. (Stick with me here, I promise this post isn’t about politics or military strategy.)
At a recent New America Foundation panel discussion on Social Networks and Modern Warfare, Hickey stressed that filling in the pieces and capturing Saddam Hussein was the result of tremendous teamwork–not just by his troops, but in conjunction with special forces and others operating in Iraq.
Hickey also stressed that:
I’m going to suggest that the way the military pursued its objective offers three lessons learned for businesses:
1. We need to rethink influence. Hickey and his colleagues understood that family structures, not government officials, were the key to finding their man. We still over-rely on traditional org. charts rather than looking at how information truly flows within organizations. This has huge implications not only for how companies operate, but also for how we identify good business intelligence.
2. We need to do, then ask. Best Buy’s Results-Only Work Environment is a good example. The people who developed the strategy didn’t ask permission to implement it; they tested it and proved it worked–and then sought permission to roll it out more widely.
3. Silos have to go. I’ve written about silos before. Hickey did something atypical of many hierarchical organizations: he shared information, and shares the credit today. Companies also need to let go of their fiefdoms.
What would you add?
Photo by striatic (Flickr).
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