Often with reducing budgets HR professionals choose to spend the diminishing training resources on other members of the team sometimes due to altruism or sometimes due to the misguided belief that they would never be able to justify the spend on themselves.

This can be a factor of HR not being seen as credible or serious by the organisation, even if the company funds the CIPD (seeing it similar to other basic skills training like CIMA), negotiation skills or conflict resolution training may be harder to source. Sometimes the senior team expect HR to somehow just ‘have’ the knowledge to succeed in their role without any significant training. In this, senior HR professionals are similar to CEOs (competency assumed, further training not required!), which although flattering can be disadvantageous to your career but even worse damaging to the organisation.

Almost all companies where the CEO or MD voice dissatisfaction with HR a common sentiment is that the HR professional is competent and good at their job, just that somehow they just don’t add value or are able to ‘step up’. What they are struggling to articulate is that they want more from HR than just transactional duties or ‘best practice’, they want to see HR as equal partners in the business – in the same way as Finance or Marketing.

No one expects the Finance Director to just put together the management accounts so why should the HR Director just ensure that employees are paid correctly?

There is more to running the company that just ensuring that the basics are done, and there is nothing wrong in seeking help to enable you and the company to succeed. If it’s acceptable that key individuals (like the CEO or the Marketing Director) are mentored to make them more effective and productive then my challenge to senior HR professionals to consider whether mentoring is an effective solution for them achieving the personal and/or organisational goals.

Senior HR professionals and a need for a HR Mentor

There are a number of reasons why a senior HR professional would consider mentoring rather than hiring an interim or consultant to come into the organisation and facilitate change for them. One of the reasons is that the task in hand requires the HR professional’s input and not a ‘stranger’ to the organisation. This could be due to credibility, culture or trust.

Another is professional development or a need to rapidly learn the key skill being transferred by the mentor whilst you are working on the project in hand. Finally executive coaching is not appropriate for the task in hand. Mentoring works well for more senior professionals who have the core competencies but just don’t have the specific knowledge for the task in hand.

Here are some examples of where HR mentoring has enabled HR professionals:

• Taking HR from a transactional, administrative department to an embedded, added value one

• Supporting HR become more credible to the business

• Embedding the HR Business Partner model into the business

• Enabling the HR professional to ‘step up’ and be seen as an equal partner in the business

• Having an objective person outside the organisation to discuss things with and if necessary seek guidance

Senior HR professionals that require an external mentor is best suited by someone who has a strong HR and operational background who is able to facilitate the transfer of knowledge with credibility and efficiency. It is important that this expert has knowledge outside of the HR arena.

Your mentor enables you to have the ability to confide in someone outside of the company, who is an objective sounding board. Often it’s lonely at the top! If you are the most senior HR professional in your organisation there is often no one to confide in. You are unable to share your concerns or frustrations fully with your team – whether that’s your own HR team or the senior management team.

You face many important strategic decisions and it can be beneficial to work with someone who has been in your position and knows the path that you need to take to secure success. Enabling your department or your team to ‘add value’ can sometimes benefit from an external mentor or consultant who not only has the ability to make this change happen, but can guide and advise you if you wish to facilitate this change yourself.

In the same way that training spend is invested in the professional development of the CEO and the other members of the senior team, HR professionals need to ask for the investment that they believe they need. It is perfectly acceptable for senior HR professionals to use external mentors to enable them to complete either specific tasks or enable them to facilitate big changes such as increasing the skill of the HR team or enabling the HR department to become more credible to the business.

After all, the future of the organisation is at stake

In this day and age these can be tough choices.

If you choose to keep your prices and business offerings the same then you need to ensure that your potential clients see you as ‘attractive’. Being ‘attractive’ to our customers begins with ensuring that you have a business proposition that is clear and understandable. If you have more than one business proposition then you need to ensure that you only describe or explain your proposition to the right audience at the right time, and increasingly on the right online network. Unless you are speaking to your inner network describing all your propositions will be seen as confusing and condemn you as a generalist. Only very few generalists with high end, high value services are bought these days. Our sceptical buyers want to buy from ‘the’ expert. It provides a comfort factor and is more likely to reduce any potential buyer’s remorse. Below I have outlined two must do things that you need to achieve to ensure that potential clients buy your services.

How to have a winning proposition

There are a number of things that you need to do to ensure that your proposition has a chance in standing out. These include the following:

v  Be sure of what it is that you have to offer. This may sound like an obvious statement but I have found that clients who start my business accelerator session (whether they have just started up in business or who have been in business for a long time) can often miss exactly what it is that makes their business special and the magic ingredient that they bring to it. This is more than having a Unique Selling Proposition, this is about knowing the deep roots of your business and what it is that you bring to your clients that no one else can.

What is it that you bring to your business that makes it sing?

v  Get back to basics or first principles. When you have been running a business for awhile it is easy for you to divert away from your core proposition or to confuse your offering with industry jargon. A lot of business people first had a career in corporate land and then unwittingly use the same language when they describe their services. This doesn’t really work unless you have a well known brand and have been able to spend the time educating your potential audience on what you have to offer.

What does your service do – in plain compelling English?

v  Ensure that your offering has a market. It is very easy to get swept up in the service that you want to deliver and miss what it is that your customers want to buy. Often your proposition is close to what the market wants and a few people buy – a slight tweak can enable you to have mass appeal.

Listen to what your customers are telling you – and fish where the fish are

v  Learn how to articulate your proposition so that others understand. This is a key crux as to why it is hard to buy your services. One of the best ways to solve this is to work with a mentor that has experience in helping people like you that can solve this conundrum. Another way is to spend time asking your previous clients what they got from your service (there are always pleasant surprises there!), breaking down the core components and then crafting a compelling story that describes your service and how you help your clients.

Ensure that what you do fits your business strategy

Leveraging your reputation

Buying high end, high value, high cost services are considered purchases and in a recession one that a buyer cannot afford to make frivolously.  In which case before they buy your service they will check out your reputation first. Last century a lot of this checking would have been offline with people that you know well and by referencing paid for advertising. This century, offline referencing is still vital but online referencing of your reputation is becoming all important and essential first steps prior to a purchasing decision being made.

The first thing someone does when they are considering buying your services is to check you out on the web. Reputation and credibility is made up of trust, character, competence and track record. It is possible to leverage your reputation but first you must decide what you want to be known for.

What you are known for is essential for people to buy your services.

To leverage your reputation online you should include (amongst other things) the following:

v  Having a Networking Strategy. Your networking strategy should include your strategy for what you are going to do online and offline to integrate your Outer, Middle and Inner networks. You will have clear goals and objectives, and understand the messages that you will be articulating to each group. Demonstrating that you are networking for advocates rather than customers is likely to endear you to your audience. Being able to have cohesive and professional conversations across a number of platforms with diverse people will enhance your reputation as an expert in your field.

v  Having a reputation management strategy. Are you aware of what people are saying about you and your brand? Do you have a strategy in dealing with both supporters and detractors of your message? Are the things that you are doing adding value to your reputation and business?  These amongst others are important questions that your strategy should be answering.

v  Dominate your niche – be the only person considered the best in your niche. Do your online profiles demonstrate your expertise in your chosen field? When you are ‘googled’, what will people find? If people are searching for your expertise are you easily found? To be able to leverage your reputation so that you are ‘attractive’ to your potential customers you need to be seen to dominate your niche. That means using the appropriate Social Media tools in your arsenal and being the only person who other people talk about when discussing your area of expertise. It is a lot easier to do this than you imagine!

v  Have a clear and consistent online/offline message. A great way to destroy reputation is to be inconsistent. People do not trust inconsistency so if you say ‘you help your clients by providing conflict training’ don’t be seen having an online argument with a group of people on an internet forum! You should never assume that something that is said negatively or ‘robustly’ in a private forum will not have an impact on your public persona. In this century your personal and business personas are explicitly linked.

Wondering why it seems so hard for potential clients to buy your services, especially in this climate is a question that is being asked constantly by business people every way. The key to solving this dilemma is to have a clear understanding of what you do and how you add value, providing a clear and consistent message and finally leveraging your reputation as an expert in your field.

Whilst the intent is laudable often the implementation is not, with only a few exceptionable companies getting the results that they expected or receiving a good return on their investment. The consequence of getting this wrong is not just financial; it can also result in a lack of trust towards the company and the departure of the very people that the company wants to keep.

What is mentoring and does it differ from coaching?

Coaching begins with the premise that the answers are within the person being coached. The coach’s role is to help the individual understand that and via the use of encouraging and questioning techniques, helps elicit the solution. A coach is generally non directional and does not provide advice. Good companies with a strong empowerment culture tend to encourage its managers to have a coaching style and may even employ executive coaches for its top performers. Aspiring companies prefer to have internal coaches to improve the performance of its employees.

By contrast a mentor is an expert who provides guidance and advice within a more developmental relationship. Mentoring requires flexibility of the mentor and their ability to use a wide range of techniques to guide the mentee. Good mentors will apply coaching techniques where applicable and will be unafraid to provide detailed advice on what the mentees next steps are. Mentoring works best for senior executives and Directors – for these individuals coaching is less relevant and useful. This is especially true where it is specific ‘how to’ knowledge that is required rather than a reflective sounding board.

A lot of internal mentoring schemes subscribe to the myth that mentoring needs to be provided by an older more senior employee. This is no longer a truism, mentoring should be provided by a person that is able to provide knowledge and direction in an area that they are experts in. (Not withstanding having the right knowledge, skills, character and behavioural traits).

Often the mentor is a senior manager chosen not because of his skills or the fact that he is a role model but because he is in a senior position. This is problematic for a number of reasons:

• The senior manager does not wish to be a mentor

• The senior manager is very busy and cannot see the value of being a part of the Internal Mentoring Scheme

• The senior manager is a poor role mode

• The senior manager is not credible

Having the wrong mentor for the scheme can have a very adverse effect on the entire mentoring programme. Setting up an internal mentoring scheme without clearly defining and communicating the purpose can also be problematic. I was hired to run a workshop for a group of employees around how they felt they were treated and perceived by their managers and a discussion around why they felt they were being held back in their career. Most of the group felt that they needed an external mentor to help them learn the behaviours and skills that they needed to progress in their careers. I understood that there was an internal mentoring scheme so I queried why they were not using it. The message that came out loud and clear was that they did not trust the scheme. The perception was that it was being used to discover information to be used against them. Many employees quoted examples that they believed reinforced this idea.

The perception that internal mentoring schemes are set up for ill is more common for schemes that are devolved to all employees rather than schemes that are more ‘traditional’. This perception is however one of the reasons that corporate internal mentoring schemes or programmes does not work. There is a lack of trust in the system, especially when the organisational culture does not support the level of openness that a mentoring scheme needs to encourage.

Ill equipped mentors who have not been trained properly and who are unable to deal with the conflicts that will ensue from their role as a mentor, has the capacity not just to destroy the scheme but to irrevocably impact the trust in the organisation. It is important that mentors of internal schemes have an external supervising mentor who can provide guidance as and when appropriate.

Sometimes organisations send out mix messages about their mentoring scheme. For example not allowing the mentor and mentee sufficient time to meet to discuss issues, or by having appraisal systems that actually discourage the use of a mentor. Peer pressure can also discourage their usage as other employees see time spent with the mentor as ‘time off’ and dissuade their colleague for utilising the scheme.

Mentoring schemes are often appropriate ways to develop talented employees who need to understand the key activities that they require to achieve to complete a task, change behaviour or enhance their career. Companies need to understand the environment in which the schemes operate and ensure that there is sufficient trust engendered.

It is understandable, therefore, that companies want to ‘fix’ failing teams or find ways to improve the performance of teams following mergers or mass redundancies as soon as possible. Unfortunately, companies can often seek a ‘quick fix’ and by doing so determine that a team building exercise over a day or so will solve the problem.

Most people’s perception of a teambuilding day is something akin to a military intervention with either assault courses, with complex problems to solve or paintballing where you are encouraged to compete against fellow work colleagues. These type of events can pose concerns around being very male orientated, difficult for disabled employees to participate and can reinforce stereotypes.

Often these events are seen as a desperate attempt to improve motivation and morale and without good communication the event can be stalled prior to anyone’s attendance on the course. A lot of employees are fearful of what to expect at one of these events and are often reluctant to spend time with their colleagues. It is important to dispel an anxiety prior to their attendance.

Here are the most common reasons why team building events often do not work:

• There is often misunderstanding as to whether the company wants to build a team for a specific purpose or to engender a team working environment. This is an important distinction. When a company is considering teambuilding events they are usually hoping to create a lasting environment that enables employees to understand each other better and to improve their performance in the team. It is this goal that is often not factored into the team building event.

• The team building event is not aligned to the company’s objectives. For example these events concentrate on the attendees having fun and not on achieving set goals. They often do not look at the desired competences required by the company.

• The event may focus on competition over all else. Whilst in a hiring situation competition can provide a useful insight into someone’s character, within a teambuilding setting it can be divisive and destructive if appropriate care has not been taken. This is often because completion brings out the worse in people. It’s possible that having seen someone at their worse you no longer want to work with them!

• The team building event is a one off event without any changes to the company structure, mind set, culture or procedures. This is where organisations believe that a one off event (building bridges out of planks for example) will be the only solution to improving the performance of a failing team. The team becomes confused as to the purpose of the event.

• The team are very busy and would rather concentrate on clearing the outstanding work rather than ‘running through fields’ with their co-workers. They can see the team building event as another example of ‘the management’ not understanding the pressure that they are under.

Recently we were hired by a HR Director who wanted us to deliver a leadership training course that had a large team building component to it. When questioned it became clear that team building wasn’t the biggest issue that he was apprehensive about. He was concerned that the new management team, whilst technically competent were too used to working in silos and not as a consistent strategic team. The biggest issue with the management team was their inability to lead their teams and be able to consider the impact that their decisions were making on the rest of the company. The consequences that the company were facing was reducing market share, increasing employee turnover, poor morale and managers that felt uncomfortable with their enlarged management roles. This was having a significant impact on the profitability of the company and the managers’ poor leadership was having a ripple effect across the company and impacting on the once positive supplier relationship.

In order to enable the company to have more empowered, effective leaders and to reduce the downward trend and have an improved team we designed and delivered a leadership course that also had team building at its core. This meant that rather than having team building sections – we concentrated on increasing the leadership competencies of the team by ensuring that a team working atmosphere was fostered. Having an evening component as part of the course enabled the attendees to relax with each other, put into practice the behaviours that they had learnt and enabled the team to begin to grow together.

It is important to have effective and productive teams working within your organisation. Whenever you are considering running team building interventions to ‘fix’ problem or failing teams, you should consider whether your intervention will meet the strategic and operational of the business.

For example, when assessing company performance the senior team may see the following:

v A loss of market share

v Reducing customers

v Increased employee absences

v Poor customer service

v Bad morale and worker inefficiencies

The most common solution proposed to solve these things is employee training. On the face of it this appears to be an acceptable solution, after all if the employees were appropriately skilled they would enable the company to retain customers and innovate. Employees that receive training that they perceive they need are more motivated, have improved morale and are more likely to enjoy work, reducing their number of absences.

For companies that are profit or cash flow focused then they will radically cut training or cease it altogether. These types of company see training as either a luxury that they can no longer afford or a way to reward high performing employees.

The problem that I see is that businesses in difficult times appear to decide on two things when it comes to training:

v To reduce ‘non essential’ training

v To increase ‘technical’ or soft skills training

Reducing ‘non essential’ training usually means that the company does not implement the learning and development plans agreed with employees at their last performance review. Often how this is communicated to employees is by a mass message that says the company needs to reduce costs and will therefore be putting ‘non essential’ training on hold. It isn’t as common as it should be that this impersonal message is followed up by a personal conversation with the employee’s manager who can put this into context for the employee. This usually means that the employee feels undervalued by the company and is unlikely to trust the company’s future messages when they either relate to them personally (ie ‘next year we will definitely ensure that you get the training that we agreed or there is no money in the budget for a proper pay rise this year but next year we can address your performance properly’) or more generic messaging that ‘our employees are our biggest assets’.

Increasing technical training when reducing ‘employee centric’ training is often seen by the employee as another example of how poorly the company treats them. They can feel that the company is only ‘doing it for themselves’ which often means that there is reduced benefit of the employee attending as their learning isn’t maximised. When increasing soft skills training I see progressively more of a ‘sheep dip’ approach being utilised by companies. This is an expensive misstep as it often increases the costs to the business as the training is not tailored to their particular needs – but has the knock on effect of taking employees out of the business for a day or so to attend the course.

Now more than ever companies need to concentrate on the business and do the right training inventions that will work for them. Expensive gap analysis to determine training needs is often not necessary. An informed look at performance reviews, disciplinaries and grievances, customer complaints and strategic direction can be all that is necessary to determine training priorities. Competent HR practitioners can work with the Operations team to ensure that there is a good match between business need and employee fulfilment.

Training and HR practitioners should ensure that they never buy off the shelf training for their company. One size does not fit all, especially when you factor in company culture, risk awareness and industry setting. All training should be bespoked and delivered by credible trainers that who not only know their subject manner well, but are able to converse knowledgeable on the issues that the employees are facing. Attendees must be chosen carefully to ensure that the right people receive the right training for their needs.

Sometimes the best training intervention for particular employees will be either a coaching or mentoring solution, rather than attendance on a training course. Most companies initially believe that internal coaching or training programmes will deliver best value compared to using external providers. This only holds true in company cultures where the employers are trusted by the employees and that they have good systems in place that match the mentor/coach to mentee/coachee appropriately and where there is true learning and development. Often attendance onto a mentoring/coaching programme is by reward rather than need, which can affect the credibility of the scheme.

Where there are trust issues or competence issues with the company or mentor/coach then an external practitioner is a must. Often timely intervention in this way is more effective than attendance on a course. Where there is little trust the employee will not engage with their internal coach/mentor which means that a solution to their real issue is not found and that the company has wasted the valuable time of two employees.

In times of difficulty there is often a need to ensure that employees are skilled, competent and willing to learn to ensure that the company is one step ahead of the competition and are working within operational budgets. The best way to ensure that this takes place is to be innovative with training interventions ensuring that there is close alignment with the business objectives and training delivery.

When your team is being affected by a troublesome team member it is important to decide which camp they belong to because how you manage them will be quite different. If the person is someone who enjoys causing trouble, perhaps because they have a grudge to settle or they just find it amusing to be the centre of attention, then you will find that ‘traditional’ management techniques will work well with them. Those that are willfully independent (mavericks), will need a different intervention because they are more likely to need more of your attention and are not motivated in the same way as the rest of the population.

One of the telling differences between these two groups of people is one of intention. Troublesome Talent®, wilfully independent mavericks, only want to do what their believe is right and will risk everything to deliver against that. Difficult people by their very nature, wishes to cause trouble regardless of whether they are right or not in their assumptions. These individuals are easier to manage!

Troublesome Talent® has a particular way in which they need to be managed to ensure that you get the best out of them and they improve the performance of the team rather than distracts and derails it. For best results you should:

• Be available. It is very important that you give Troublesome Talent® the attention that they need at the times that they want it. The worse thing that you can do is ignore them, this will just prompt them to be disruptive to the team and encourage them to undermine you at every opportunity.

• Recognise their expertise. All mavericks thrive on others recognising their expertise and their uniqueness. Do not fall into the trap of constantly praising them as they will not trust constant reinforcement of how good they are. It is more beneficial to look out for the moments when they do something particularly outstanding even for them – and then let them know that you were impressed.

• Be realistic in regards to the necessity of rules. Unlike other types of employees, they find it very difficult to work within rules that appear bureaucratic in nature and do not support the stated goal. Draw up guidelines that they work within rather than constraining rules.

• Give them a compelling reason to change. Let them know that their behaviour is unacceptable, at times when they have gone too far. Get this right and you will have their respect for ever. Remember, the way to do this is to influence them to change their behaviour – employing command and control tactics will make things worse.

• Let them create, even if that means they do this at odd times during the day. If they respect and believe in you, they will work tirelessly to ensure that your vision is implemented and is successful.

• Demonstrate belief in them. Trust is a great motivator and if your Troublesome Talent® senses that you don’t trust them they are likely to turn their talents elsewhere.

Troublesome Talent® is often your most productive member of your team and if managed properly can be a great influencer. Frequently they are described as charming or manipulative, often it is down to you on which behaviour they will exhibit!

Get the basics right and practice what you preach

The business can expect you to get the HR basics right and that you have enough capability and integrity to ensure that you deliver higher competence levels than you expect from line managers. For example, a basic HR competency is ensuring that the HR Strategy is totally aligned with the business strategy. Always remain objective and holistic in your outlook, avoid group think and a silo mentality.

Spend some time outside of HR

To be credible it’s very important to have spent some time in your career working in other business areas so that you are able to understand and have experience in how business works (from a non HR perspective) and the difficulties that CEOs and the senior team face. Having solid operational experience enables you to have credibility and confidence when you proffer solutions to the business.

Learn to live in the grey – there is no black and white

Often there are no right or wrong answers only gradients of risk, so when you are advising the business be sure to recommend your preferred solution whilst notifying them of the risk or otherwise that they may be facing. Be sure to let them know that it is their decision not yours whilst being supportive and assertive if necessary. Live outside your ‘policy’ and where necessary rewrite it if it no longer suits the business.

Admit what you don’t know and pay attention

Never be afraid to admit what you don’t know and ask lots of questions to clarify the situation for you. One way to build understanding of the business is to do an ‘appreciation’ of it. This can mean spending time ‘on the shop floor’ understanding what it is like to work in that department as well as the particular components/needs of the department that is necessary for it to function well. For some functions/areas of the business you can get a good appreciation of it by asking pertinent and searching questions. Seek to find linkages so that you can build a holistic picture of how things work across the business. It is possible to see connections that are missed by ‘the line’ because they are solely focused on their on area of the business. It is here that you can add real value.

Focus on the outcome and not the process

One of the areas where credibility can be lost is when the process is being stuck to rigidly with scant regard to the achievement of the outcome that you are hoping to achieve. This can happen with any process not just HR ones, so be prepared to discuss with the business any concerns that you have that the processes in place are not designed to deliver the right outcome. A good example is bonus objectives that encourage managers to ignore good leadership principles in favour of attracting big bonuses.

Help the line achieve their objectives

Regularly ‘sit down’ with the line to understand what their objectives are, what are the drivers to their achievement and what obstacles that they face. Work together to find solutions that will enable the line to succeed in their endeavours.

Key points

v Ensure that you spend some time out of HR so that you can learn and understand business and be able to view things from a non HR perspective

v Live in the grey and understand that nothing is black or white – even HR policies!

v Focus on outcomes rather than processes

The unique competition, which was officially unveiled at an exclusive press conference at Adam Street last week, offers the chance to win a lifetime’s worth of coaching from international speaker, author and thought leadership expert Mindy Gibbins-Klein a.k.a The Book Midwife® who has just launched her third book 24 Carat BOLD: The Standard for REAL Thought Leaders (£10.99 Ecademy Press).

Judith Germain, Vice President of the BlackStar Life Members Community on popular business social network Ecademy, MD of Dynamic Transitions and an established business mentor and author, has officially endorsed the month-long campaign. Agreeing to sit on the judging panel she reveals that wilfully independent ‘maverick’ business owners are likely to benefit most from the million pound prize as it will help them enhance their natural predisposition to stand out from the crowd.

“Mavericks tend to be top performers but also have a fierce sense of independence, are easily bored and need to be given constant challenges to ensure that they are as productive as they can be. When running a business, be it a global organisation or cottage industry in size, this wilful independence needs to be harnessed effectively to ensure that they can achieve their true potential which is why long-term support is a great way of keeping focused,” says Germain.

With the worst of the recession now over, Germain believes that the pressure is now on for many business owners to get ready to ride the upturn and advises that those who can channel their maverick energy positively to build a good reputation will have a far better chance of succeeding in the long term.

“With the economy improving, business owners need to focus on how they are perceived by people in their outer network (i.e. those that know of them but do not know them well). Mindy’s competition to win a lifetime’s worth of thought-leadership will be an invaluable resource to any Maverick serious about growing their business. I’m a great fan of anything which helps people to build their credibility and reputation and for me, this competition ticks all the right boxes,” says Germain.

The competition will run for one month. There is just one stipulation; you need to have purchased a copy of 24 Carat BOLD: The Standard for REAL Thought Leaders from Amazon during the month of September, which then qualifies you to enter the competition.

Entrants need to forward their Amazon proof of purchase with a statement of up to 15 words on why they deserve a lifetime of thought leadership coaching to emma@bookmidwife.com. Entries will be reviewed by a panel of judges. Eligible entries are Amazon purchases dated August and September, closing date is Sept. 30th, with the winner being announced Oct 1st.

Community Trust Systems™ are where products and services are exchanged on the basis of trust that has been conceived and conferred within a trusted community. Peer review and approval becomes the basis that services are bought and reputation is the determinant for selection. Many examples of Community Trust Systems™ already exist to buy and sell products, such as Ebay and Amazon. Social Networking sites, as an example of a thriving Services Community Trust System™, are now becoming essential places to establish your reputation and credibility. You cannot be active on these systems as a ‘broadcaster’, constantly talking about yourself or trying to sell your wares. To survive you will need to be having conversations with individuals (not push marketing), providing good quality content and aiming to help those that you are able.

Networking on these places requires a different and perhaps more consistent, networking strategy. I have long believed that when you go networking you go to be remembered and that you shouldn’t confuse your network with multiple messages of who you are or what you do. Keep the message simple especially as most of the people you meet (especially online) will be in your Outer Circle.

Designing an online networking strategy to leverage your reputation and credibility

For businesses providing services it is particularly pertinent to be active on social networking sites where businesses are able to integrate into the community, develop a reputation and establish credibility. If your business (and/or yourself) has a good reputation and credibility it is more likely to be trusted by your potential clients, therefore increasing your revenue and sustainability. Community Trust Systems™ require transparency, and the ability of the business to be clear in what they deliver and have an understandable niche. The community members need to be able to trust the networker and be able to advocate their services to others.

A good networking strategy has the following points:
 A holistic strategy designed around business objectives
 Clarity of what the business owner wants to be remembered for – what’s their expertise?
 A clear niche and ability to articulate what the business does
 An offline and online strategy – which networks should you be participating in
 A well structured network
 An understanding of your current reputation and credibility standing in the marketplace
 An ability to leverage time and assess results

Having an effective networking strategy can make the difference in how quickly you can establish yourself as an expert, attract and retain loyal ‘followers’ and impact on your bottom line. When I have worked with clients in designing their networking strategy we have found that their ability to attract advocates and gain results from their networking have exceeded their expectations and has delivered bottom line results. One client saved £7k after one meeting by understanding how to use networking as an attraction strategy rather than using traditional print media.

The greatest results have come from those that have structured their networking contacts as part of their networking strategy. This allows them to leverage their time and seek a better return on the investment that they have made in the relationships that they have garnered. Referrals are when a contact has made a recommendation that one party meets or does business with another. This is often prompted by a specific request. Advocacy is where an individual, usually unprompted, recommends another with so much detail and influence that the advocated person is not required to sell their services. A good networking strategy enables a business to have many advocates therefore significantly reducing advertising spend.

Structuring your network

Most business owners are unaware of the types of people that reside in their network. To be an effective networker you need to understand who is in your network and what relationship they are to you. For example I have over 12,000 business contacts although I do not know them all individually, I am aware of a vast number of them, refer a great many and advocate a few. Belonging to good social networking sites enables me to manage and maintain conversations with my network, therefore enabling me to extend my reach and help many businesses by making the appropriate connections and providing support where ever possible.

Below is a representation of my network split into three areas:

 Inner Circle – these are my advocates and close contacts. This is a relatively small number
 Middle Circle – these are my main referrers and people that I have conversations with. This number extends into the hundreds.
 Outer Circle – there are people that are aware of my business and what I do personally. Introductions and some referrals take place with these individuals. This number extends into the thousands.

Figure 1 Division of networking contacts

Understanding who is in your network and where – helps to develop how the conversation takes place. ‘Conversation’ in this context means how you interact with them. This includes online messaging, blogs, newsletters, and face to face meetings to name a few.

Structuring your network and how it relates to your networking strategy becomes more pertinent when you consider the following representation of your network.

When designing your networking strategy you need to be aware of how you are remembered by your contacts to ensure that you are not confusing them and they take away the message that you want them to.

My Outer Circle are aware that I specialise with working with Mavericks – the wilfully independent. It is important that when networking your message is clear and easy to remember. This is particularly true online where you may be networking within a Community Trust System.

My Middle Circle understands a number of my business propositions, for example I’m a CEO mentor and Leadership trainer/speaker.

My Inner Circle knows a lot more about me, for example that I come from a strategic senior operations background; I have a solid HR knowledge base and regularly provide expert opinion to the national and trade press.

As people get to know me – I aim to turn my Outer Circle into my Inner Circle etc therefore increasing my reach and ability to have advocates. A more intimate knowledge of their business enables me to help and assist them better also. By understanding my network I am able to engage with them more effectively – perhaps using some automated tools or by regular meetings. This enables me to achieve the other aspects of my networking strategy.

Leveraging your time

It is extremely easy to spend a lot of time on social networks and yet receive very little results. This is because it can be difficult to understand how to leverage the network and your time spent on it. It is also possible to be on the wrong network for the type of business that you run and therefore your results will be variable. When you decide to spend significant time on a social network, it is best to understand the etiquette of the network and remember that whatever you do on the network will be visible to your advocates and potential customers. Consistency is the key when networking.

You need to work out how much time you have available to network and the best way to utilise the time. For example the Business Social Network Ecademy (www.ecademy.com) allows members to receive email notifications of their activity on the site. This means that by using your email system effectively you can remain up to speed with what is happening within your network without expending much time and energy. This enables you to spend your valuable time on doing the right things rather than searching on what to do, or meet next.

Another common error is to spend a lot of time offline networking and coming home dissatisfied and out of pocket. This is often because when networking your message is unclear and your 121s are ineffective. There is an art to holding a 121! Our advice to our clients is to ensure that they spend the appropriate amount of time with their network dependent on their business objectives and their relationship with their network. (For example you should spend more time with those in your Inner Circle than those in your Outer Network).

In a saturated and depressed marketplace – where there appears to be many competitors selling the same service or product, having an effective networking strategy enables all businesses’ (but particularly small businesses and consultants) services or products to be advocated, for them to secure more referrals and for the business to cut their marketing costs, increasing their chances of survival.

Despite the fact that they often do not utilise their talents effectively, Judith Germain, MD of leadership development company Dynamic Transitions is keen to remind organisations of the importance of their mavericks in helping the business to recover from the recession and why it is so important to recognise and manage the traits of their most troublesome talent®.

“The recession means that organisations need troublesome talent® more than ever to survive, and these individuals need understanding because they are different from the rest of the talent pool. Unfortunately the huge focus on redundancies and managing ’survivor syndrome’ of recent months could mean that many managers have taken their eye off these hugely valuable but high-maintenance team members,” says Germain.

According to Germain, mavericks tend to be the top performers in companies and within business but often displaying common traits such as low boredom and impatience, meaning that they often have trouble articulating what they want or what they mean.

“A more holistic approach to talent management is more likely to enable the manager to nurture and develop their troublesome talent® who are often ignored or excluded from management development programmes due to their personalities or ability to cause disruption within a structured organisation. Whilst your maverick at work is very articulate, they may have problems communicating with others in a way that their audience can understand and accept. If you ask your troublesome talent® whether you are doing a good job, and they feel that you are not, expect to receive blunt, to the point feedback on your shortcomings,” reveals Germain.

Germain is also concerned that senior management may have lost sight of their role in nurturing talent and could end up switching back to the old ways of talent management where HR carried all the responsibility for talent management initiatives.

“Historically, there has been a general lack of accountability for leadership development by senior management and many organisations had realised this was an outdated approach, just as the recession hit. Managers need to be aware that it is no longer just HR’s responsibility alone to develop talented individuals – troublesome or not – they must be nurtured by senior management. Mavericks should not be ignored and companies that do, run the risk of slipping behind global competitors who recognise their part to play in piecing the business back together as the economy improves,” says Germain.

Ends