Congratulations!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself 
any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

Oh, The Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss is the ultimate graduation story. It encapsulates both the joy and the terror regarding graduation, from the parent’s point of view.

One of my best friends has two children who are graduating this year. What is ironic is how different the two celebrations are. Her youngest son is graduating from high school, and they are celebrating in a big way. His grandparents are coming in town for the ceremony. My friend and her husband are hosting a party and inviting all of her son’s friends and many of their own friends to come celebrate with them. They ordered special decorations and a custom cake to commemorate the occasion.

Her daughter is getting her Master’s degree. To celebrate, my friend invited a few family members for dinner. Her daughter didn’t even attend the graduation ceremony.

What is particularly ironic is that virtually all of the kids in our community graduate high school, but it is truly an exceptional accomplishment to earn a Master’s degree. And then it hit me; graduation celebrations are not about celebrating accomplishments, as much as they are about motivating children for the future. The hope is that we, as parents, can still motivate our high school graduates to do well in the future. The graduation celebration reinforces the idea that if the young man steers himself in the right direction, he will be rewarded for his efforts. A parent may (or may not) be able to influence an 18-year-old to behave according to certain standards, but by the time someone has earned a Master’s degree, it’s clear that he or she is internally motivated to succeed.

In Great By Choice, Jim Collins suggests that unsuccessful parents and bosses have one thing in common—demotivation. I recently attended a conference for senior Public Relations Counselors and David Baker reinforced this concept when he said, “Quit trying to motivate employees–it cannot be done. Motivation is an internal force. You can, however, demotivate them. If you’re doing that, stop.”

According to Collins there are three main ways for managers to demotivate employees:

1. Hype – failing to acknowledge the real difficulties the organization faces.
2. Futurism – being obsessed with distant goals or visions without keeping an eye on the present.
3. False Democracy – inviting employees’ input when the leader has already made a decision.

One of the best articles I saw about how to demotivate your staff is by Wayne Mates. He suggests five factors:

1. Set unrealistic expectations
2. Waste their time
3. Create constant fire drills
4. Treat them as expendable resources
5. Don’t share the wealth

On the other hand, celebrating our employee’s successes may not be a true motivator, but it certainly makes for a better work environment.

And in honor of my friend’s daughter, Mazel Tov! You should be proud of your accomplishments.
I know I am.

Now having been at Morningstar Communications for a year, here is my advice to those about to enter the adult world:

• Seize opportunities. While unpaid internships, jobs heavy in administrative duties or 60-hour workweeks may not be ideal, it’s a foot in the door – take it! I’m not saying give up on your high aspirations, but good things take time. Your career is a building process and most everyone starts at the bottom.
• Take initiative. In a new job, don’t wait around for someone to tell you what to do. Be proactive and seek out opportunities to help co-workers – they’ll appreciate it.
• Continue learning. You’re no longer expected to take finals – yay! But don’t quit educating yourself. Keep up on trends, best practices and news in your industry.
• Be professional. If you want people to take you seriously, look and act professional. Be prompt, fully engage when others are speaking, dress a notch above what you think is required and, yes, it is time to retire those embarrassing photos on Facebook.
• Seek out constructive criticism. There are a lot of things you won’t know in your first job. Take advantage of your status as a newbie and ask for constructive criticism – you will most likely receive really helpful feedback.

The transition from college life to the working world can be challenging, but it is also exciting. You are in full control of your future and the possibilities are limitless.

Everyone should have a minimum level of proficiency in basic math skills, but instead of forcing Susie to “get” math, I think we should pour fuel on her passion for English, build on her strengths and simply accept she’ll need help with math.

The same can be said for business. Stop focusing on your weaknesses, recognize what you’re great at and do more of it. Hmmm, sounds a lot like the serenity prayer.

I often think about a parenting class we attended shortly after our first son was born, more than 20 years ago. The teacher began by asking all parents of “average” children to raise their hands.

Obviously, not a single hand went up in the air.

We all think our kids (insert our job, our business, our lives) are “above average.” He went on to suggest average isn’t bad, it’s just the middle of the pack. These days, I often say I aspire to average, particularly when receiving reports on my health!

The teacher continued to explain that if your kid loves making music … or being entrepreneurial … or is fascinated by history, well, give them more of that. Ignite those embers!

The reality is that all of us are truly “average” at most things, but we’re all “above average” on some things, just as we are “below average” at others.

A simpler approach to growing your business

We used to start with a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis. Think differently – focus on the S and skim over the rest. Our foundation positioning philosophy is Think Excellence, Not Difference, which is diametrically opposed to traditional marketing thinking that espouses differentiation and niches. So you can see, I’m used to thinking differently.

My goal for my business is focus on what we do great, and work toward making ourselves even greater. For example, our clients appreciate our holistic integration of all marketing and communications touch points – so, let’s do more of that!

We know our strengths and we build on them. It’s the most effective strategy to grow a business, just as it’s the best approach to helping your children succeed.

I never could hit a curve ball. I stopped playing baseball in seventh grade.

My stick figures barely represent people. I try not to draw in public.

But we’re pretty darn good at helping our clients clarify their messages, connect with the people who matter most, and change opinions and behaviors.

Do what you do best, and you’ll not only be more successful, you’ll have more fun along the way.

Onward and upward.

The Bronze Quill Awards promote personal and professional growth and recognize excellence in the field of business communication. Various agencies and corporations around the area entered their work into the contest and, just as in years past, there were some outstanding entries.

Morningstar Communications brought home two awards for excellent client work:

• Award of Merit for Hallmark Business Connections Webinar Series
• Award of Merit for Youth Entrepreneurs Kansas Quarterly E-newsletter.

Our client, Stinson Morrison Hecker, also received an award of Merit for its 2011 Holiday Greeting e-card.

The night also featured special individual awards honoring leaders in the communications community. Along with other former Arthur E. Lowell award recipients, our own Eric Morgenstern co-presented the 2012 Arthur E. Lowell award to Mike Goff, who was most recently vice president of corporate marketing for Sprint.

Thursday’s event was a great celebration acknowledging winning nominees’ hard work over the past year. It was also a wonderful networking event where I was able to meet some of the best business communicators in the city as well as spend time away from the office with my wonderful, intelligent clients and co-workers.

I found an incredible opportunity in the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce Centurions Leadership Program. Each year Centurions welcomes a new class of business professionals into its close-knit organization. I was one of those lucky people last year and I’m excited to see who will join as a member of the Class of 2014.

Centurions opened many doors for me, both professionally and personally, over the last year. In addition to gaining a network of some of the most talented professionals in our area, I’ve been exposed to Kansas City’s elite business leaders and given an insider’s perspective on the issues facing our bi-state region.

Some of my favorite memories from the year include:

• Learning from Saint Luke’s Heath System President and CEO, Melinda Estes, M.D., in a small group setting.
• Touring Shatto Milk during our Agribusiness Task Force, where I had the opportunity to check milking a cow off of my bucket list.
• Our Centurions Benchmarking Trip to Boston where we heard from top individuals, including Mayor Menino and Senator Sonia Chang-Díaz, and learned valuable lessons we can implement in KC.

If you are passionate about Kansas City, leadership, service and learning, I encourage you to apply for the program. Application packets are due by end of business on Friday, June 1, 2012. To learn more about the program and how to apply, visit http://www.centurions.org/Join-Now.aspx.

Yet, two stories I read just today demonstrate we still have a long way to go to achieve equity in the workplace. The HBR article “Nice Girls Don’t Ask” leads with the fact women still, on average, make less than men for the same work and are under-represented in top jobs. It accounts for part of this disparity because women don’t ask for what we want and don’t negotiate. It then goes on to encourage managers to coach women to develop these critical skills. Here, here!

Monday’s Wall Street Journal featured a story on how more women are queued up for CEO positions with corporations in the coming years (although they only highlight 10 women in the story, which underscores the need for more progress) than ever before. Thankfully, businesses are beginning to realize they need women in leadership roles, especially with some fairly recent data emerging, like the fact corporations with at least three women on the board deliver a higher return on investment. And initiatives like the Win|Win campaign spearheaded by the Central Exchange in Kansas City help by enlisting large corporations to commit to increasing gender diversity at the executive leadership and board level.

So, while we’ve made strides since the era of Mad Men, I’m guessing if Sterling Cooper Draper Price were around today, women would be under-represented on the executive team.

The top five reasons we like top five lists:

1. Scan-ability. Let’s face it, we have the attention span of squirrels. If we open an email and see long, text-heavy paragraphs, our eyes go cross-eyed. When material is condensed, numbered, bolded or bulleted, our eyes sigh with relief.

2. Curiosity. We like to try to predict what is on the list. Curiosity is what made me click on the recent Kansas City Star article 50 things every Kansas Citian should know. We want to know how our thoughts match up with the writer’s thoughts.

3. Easy action steps. Lots of list articles include self-help tips, teaching readers how to better their lives or solve a problem. There’s something comfortable about scrolling through the familiar numbered list format, and seeing action items clearly listed like punchlines. The list style fosters quick learning and makes action items seem achievable.

4. Organization for our messy lives. As Herbert Simon put it, “A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.” With so much information at our fingertips, it is refreshing to see content organized into simple bite-sized pieces.

5. Personal and engaging content. Lists can be targeted to a specific audience or  universally appealing. Either way, the list format makes people want to chime in and add their two cents. In fact, check out this snarky NPR article “The 20 unhappiest people you meet in the comments sections of year-end lists.”

A numbered list may immediately spark our interest, but it is the content in the list that ultimately holds our attention. Consider incorporating numbered lists with compelling content into your communications. Your readers will thank you for it.

Photo courtesy of www.huntingtoncopper.com

Engagement and fulfillment at work are fueled by a variety of factors. For most of us, it’s a combination of the work we do and the people we do it with. My philosophy is to do good work with good people. It’s pretty simple.

So much of the office experience is colored by the relationships we have with our co-workers. We all know the things that make for a difficult workplace, no need to even touch on them. And we have a pretty good idea of what makes a positive working environment and the importance of strong leadership.

Inc. Magazine identified eight core beliefs of extraordinary bosses. My favorite is No. 5 – Management Comes from Vision, Not Fear. The mark of an extraordinary boss, according to this list, is “inspiring people to see a better future and how they’ll be a part of it. As a result, employees work harder because they believe in the organization’s goals, truly enjoy what they’re doing and (of course) know they’ll share in the rewards.”

It’s so simple, but not often practiced. Once you’ve had a chance to read the article, let me know what you think. How does your organization measure up? If you have an extraordinary boss, doesn’t it make all the difference? I’d love to hear some of the things your extraordinary bosses do to enrich your workplace.

Check your grammar and spelling: There is a reason most email programs come with a spellchecker. Please use it, but don’t stop there — read over your message before you hurriedly hit send. You might have used a word that is spelled correctly but doesn’t really work in the sentence.

Mind the attachments: For those of us using Google Mail, there’s a cool feature I discovered by accident. It’s intelligent enough to pop-up a warning that you haven’t attached a file but you mention “attached” or “attachment” in the body of your email. How cool is that? For those who are not on Google Mail, check and check again before you send. One thing I still do despite super Google Mail – I make sure to attach the file first before typing the body of the message because I have noticed I forget when I I leave it to the end.

Keep it short and sweet: Some people tend to ramble on in their emails instead of being concise and to the point. The goal is to get your message across and not lost in the sea of words. If the email is going to be three paragraphs or more, perhaps picking up the phone and calling the recipient is a better option. Trust me, people do not like to read extra long emails, especially in these busy times.

Have a Subject: Make sure there is a short and appropriate line in the Subject section to avoid having your email relegated to Spam and never seeing the light of day.

Check the recipient email address:  The Autofill feature on email programs are both a boon and a bane at the same time. Make sure the autofill picks up the right Mary@XYZ.com and not Mary@ABC.com before sending. I like to type out my message, proof and spellcheck first, before adding in the recipients. I have also been known to override the autofill and type up the full addresses myself, especially with important emails that I do not want going to the wrong people.

Mass email etiquette: If you are sending an email to a large number of people, try blind copying all the recipients instead of adding to the Copy or To section of the email.  When they reply to your email (if it’s required), they will not be clogging everyone else’s inbox unintentionally. When you receive a mass email, be kind and only reply to the sender, do not Reply All. The sender will be thankful for it.

Hopefully these tips are helpful. Anything that makes our work more efficient and tidy is interesting to me and any gems you would like to share on how you avoid these unnecessary bloopers are welcome.

This week is World Creativity and Innovation Week, and it’s the perfect reminder to step out of your comfort zone, welcome new ideas and think creatively. Too often we are so consumed with our day-to-day we forget to challenge our thinking and embrace new possibilities. Here are a few ways you can channel your creativity this week, and all year round:

Get up and move.  It’s probably no surprise cubicles can stifle creativity. If you are looking to be inspired, get up and take a walk around the office.

Embrace a new perspective. Try assessing the problem from a different point of view – i.e. your customer’s. Looking at the world through different lenses can help you gain clarity and consider new options.

Be ready for genius at any moment. Some of the best ideas come at unexpected times. Keep a notepad next to your bed. Use the voice-recording feature on your smartphone. Always be prepared to capture thoughts as they come to you.

Be passionate. Make time for hiking, painting, cooking, whatever it is that inspires you.

Accept some ideas will be better than others. Some concepts will be brilliant and others will fall short. The sooner you accept this, the more confident and successful you will be.

If you’re interested in additional tips on how to be more creative and innovative at work, check out Hallmark Business Connections’ blog.