Mentor Meetings that Matter

By Morag Barrett, Founder and CEO, SkyeTeam and CWCC Member

Wherever you are in your career my guess is that your success has been influenced by the advice and guidance of others; whether it was feedback from a boss, observing your colleagues, a teacher at school or university, your parents, the list goes on.  All of us seek the advice and guidance from those we trust and respect and these relationships are invaluable in helping us to successfully navigate the world of work.

Mentoring is a process by which you benefit from the experience and knowledge of someone in support of your own goals. Choosing to work with a Mentor is a more formal approach to your development.  A mentor acts as a sounding board, they provide a perspective that can help you to overcome roadblocks to success.  They can suggest options or new courses of action that you may not otherwise have considered.

A mentor relationship is an opportunity to learn and grow, for both you and your Mentor. Here are four best practices to ensure that your mentor meetings matter and deliver real benefit for you both.

Have a goal in mind: It may sound obvious but the most fundamental step in getting the best from your mentor is to have an idea of what it is you are trying to achieve. Whether it’s to learn a new skill, tap into their expertise, overcome a gap, knowing where you are trying to go is the first step. You don’t need to know HOW to get there, that is where the power of the mentoring conversations will come in!

Agree to a schedule – and [try to] stick to it: Will you be meeting monthly, every two weeks, weekly? In person or by phone?  Whatever the frequency of your mentoring conversations and whether they are in person or not, try to schedule those meetings at the outset. You can always move them if necessary, however by scheduling them up front it means that your other commitments fit around you and your mentoring, rather than trying to fit your mentoring around other things. Move yourself up your own priority list!

Clarify Expectations: Mentors and mentees typically enter their relationships with underlying expectations of each other. To prevent misaligned expectations and the possibility of disappointment make sure you discuss and agree: Confidentiality, response times (if I email or phone between scheduled meeting how quickly can I expect to hear back?), communication methods, how long the mentoring relationship is expected to last, and so on

Take Action: This is the most critical step to a satisfying mentoring experience. The conversations you have with your mentor will likely be interesting, challenging and insightful. However you need to be prepared to move out of your comfort zone and take action; practice the new skills and behaviors, attend a program or networking event, read relevant articles and books. Learning requires both knowledge and skill, put it into practice!

What advice do you have for ensuring that you get the best from your mentor relationships?

 

About Morag Barrett

Morag Barrett is the best-selling author Cultivate: The Power of Winning Relationships. She is also the founder and CEO of SkyeTeam, an international HR consulting and leadership development company. Morag’s experience ranges from senior executive coaching to developing teams across Europe, America and Asia. SkyeTeam works with clients in a range of industries including: Healthcare, Telecoms, Mining, Manufacturing, Engineering, and Technology.  http://www.skyeteam.com

Five Tips for Drafting A Crisis Communication Plan

By Ramonna Robinson, President of GroundFloor Media and CWCC Member

The PR team for Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling recently learned the value of having a crisis communication plan that includes a variety of potentially damaging scenarios.

Many boiling issues can become a full-blown crisis, yet some can be mitigated with a thoughtful and immediate response. Undoubtedly, how they are handled can define an organization’s future.

While the Sterling scenario, one in which a private voicemail laden with racist comments from Sterling became public, was probably never one of the scenarios included in a crisis plan, we can use this opportunity to dust off our crisis plans and make sure they are up to date. If you don’t have a plan, here are some crisis communication and issues management tips to consider ahead of time:

1. Create a crisis communication plan that includes scenarios, sample messages and a response plan. Revisit it at least annually, and update sections that are likely to change, such as the potential crisis scenarios and members of the crisis communication team.
2. Develop a social media policy, and share it regularly with your employees. All too often what an employee believes to be an innocuous remark on social media can come back to harm a company’s reputation.
3. Train staff on how to respond to a crisis or issue at hand and provide them with media and message training.
4. Be proactive and hire an agency or outside consultant—even if they don’t execute, their strategic counsel and outside perspective on the issue can be invaluable.
5. Learn from your mistakes and understand that trying to cover up the truth instead of making real reforms will continue to harm a company’s reputation over the long term.

In the case of Donald Sterling, it’s definitely a good reminder that what you say can and (likely) will be used against you. If you haven’t already, add voicemail to the list of things to be very cautions on.

 

Social Media…what works?

By Alexis Anderson, Senior Communications Director | Social Media Strategist
and CWCC Member

In a Social Media World, the Audience is in Charge

It used to be that marketers often led double lives as statisticians. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), Marketing percentage of CAC, Time to Payback CAC, Ratio of Customer Lifetime Value to CAC… all things that used to be figured by an A+B=C model. But with so many new avenues for information (studies show that we all see more than 45,000 marketing messages per day) – combined with the fact that more than 80 percent of individuals go to friends and colleagues for referrals before purchasing a product or service – long gone are the days of assuming your audience(s) will take action as a result of buying more ad space or air time.

Effective social media strategy is less about what you want your audience to do, and more about what your audience wants. You can have the most creative, groundbreaking campaign in the works, but if your audience doesn’t care, you’re going to fail. Successful social media strategy starts with four questions:

1)     Who is your audience?
2)     On which social platforms do they interact?
3)     What are they saying?
4)     How can my brand/organization enter that conversation in a useful/helpful way?

There are certainly plenty of tactical statistics that can help you craft a successful social media strategy. (i.e., Facebook usage is more prevalent during mid-afternoons, and posts with photos and links receive up to 60% more engagement than posts), but if your audience isn’t on Facebook, and your links or photos aren’t being seen by your audience, your social media strategy is bound to fail.

It’s more important than ever to understand your audience well, engage with them on the platforms where they’re active, and most importantly, provide them with content they genuinely find useful and interesting.

Questions or comments?  Contact Alexis at aanderson@groundfloormedia.com.

Success Stories: REC & Fresh

By Alex Becker, Vice President of Real Estate Consultants of Colorado, LLC and
CWCC Member

One of the most exciting clients we started working with in 2013 was Fresh Nail, Wax and Dry Bar—a company that started in Colorado and also happens to be a member of the CWCC. As a commercial real estate broker, I am always on the lookout for dynamic business concepts that are experiencing aggressive growth and therefore have a real estate need. One of the many reasons I like to attend CWCC events is to meet these businesses. I first heard about Fresh during a CWCC lunch, but it wasn’t until I started to attend the Tech Center leads group that I was able to speak with a member of the Fresh leadership team.

Fresh Nail, Wax & Dry Bar is the place to go for hair blow-outs, manicures, and European waxing. The stores have incredible design and offer a place to relax with a glass of wine or champagne—and they are owned by incredible women franchisees. In its short history, Fresh has received many accolades resulting from its corporate parties, bridal parties, and an elite weekly lunch for businesswomen short on time. With the success of the Fresh stores in Colorado, the company has now set its sights on expansion throughout the country, which is where my company, REC, comes into the picture.

On a hunch that Fresh needed our help, I began a conversation with the member of my leads group who works with Fresh. By listening to Fresh’s real estate needs, I was able to present our company as a great fit to represent Fresh for its future site locations and lease negotiations both in Colorado and out-of-state. I am delighted to report that we have been working together for the past several months and so far, it has been an awesome experience!

All too often, we make the excuse that life and business boil down to luck. Do you? In commercial real estate brokerage, it is true that we have to be in the right place at the right time to engage new clients, but I argue that has nothing to do with luck. So long as we are building relationships with complimentary businesses, attending events at the CWCC, exceeding our clients’ expectations by delivering an incredibly high level of customer service, etc., then we will be in the right place at the right time… sometimes. For every success story, I have five others that haven’t yet worked out, but that’s part of the excitement of bringing in new business to our company. The bottom line is that we can all make great things happen in our organizations if we take a thoughtful approach and have the diligence to stick with it. A great place to start is at the next CWCC event.

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About REC: Need business space? Real Estate Consultants of Colorado, LLC is a commercial real estate brokerage that represents businesses seeking to buy or lease commercial real estate throughout Colorado at no cost to you.

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Contact:
Alex Becker, Vice President
Real Estate Consultants of Colorado, LLC
303-532-8668
abecker@recofco.com