What Open Really Means

Apr 14, 2009 | blog

It’s hard to be a medium or large corporation these days.  The demands are not small, with expectations of investors, disappointing market performance, employee needs, government regulations and oversight… there’s almost no time left for the most important part of any business: customers.

Of course, that’s where the current craze around social media comes in.  The expectation is that any company can use all sorts of free tools to stretch marketing and PR dollars, and maybe make the customer feel more welcome picking up your brand at Wal-Mart.

But that whole scenario is bound to bust as surely as your pick of economic bubbles.

The reality is that to really engage using social media and realize honest benefits requires more than a passing interest in new shiny things.  Social media requires real openness, and if you’re not willing to be open, people can tell.

The power of this new ideal comes from the willingness to have an open culture. That means that there are no artificial barriers between departments, positions, business units, or people. It means that interacting with the public is a part of every position, not just the domain of marketing, PR, and an occasional press release from the CEO.

Openness means that the C-level is talking in public forums alongside the shipping department, or accounting, or human resources.  Bringing openness to a culture means that everyone is able to talk about nearly anything.

With that being said, it’s ok to still have intellectual property and protect that.  You’re right in protecting developing business plans, or new products, or several other types of information an organization holds and makes money from.  However, beyond that, an organization can talk openly about the challenges it faces, or hold up a consumer enthusiast group as a model, or any such thing that shows a human side of a company.

Sometimes we, that is companies, worry too much about what the competition may think.  Organizations can get wrapped up in being too professional.  Being open about things doesn’t take away from any of this.  When done from a position of transparency, and honest intention of open interaction, a company can grow a much more loyal consumer base, and open source their own PR army. But that’s another post.

Happiness Under Construction

Apr 6, 2009 | happiness

I don’t know if anyone’s been wondering yet, but I thought I’d let you know that my “Happiness” series of posts is being moved to it’s own location.  I’ve still got a bit of work to separate out the 300+ posts into it’s own database, so I’m not posting more to it at the moment.  I hope to change that in the next week, and have Happiness as a tab or sub-site of by blog here at rickmahn.com.

Please feel free to let me know of what you’d like to see as I work on improving these posts.  More often? More types of media? Less frequent?  I’d love to learn what you’d like to see in the future for Happiness.

Kind Regards,

Rick Mahn

Walk Your Walk

Apr 2, 2009 | blog, leadership

'There Are Places I Remember' by Thomas Hawk If there’s one thing you should always do, it’s to keep your unique individuality.

As an individual we need to recognize how and what we do differently.  Protect and nurture those qualities that make us who we are.  It’s important to realize that these qualities are what others see in us, and differentiate us in a crowd.

Quite a bit of this relates to your personal brand, and perhaps that context helps make the most sense.

Walk Different

Walk a funny walk, have fun, explore who you are and what others see in you.  Dare to be different.  In doing so, you’ll start to learn what others value in you.  You’ll also be able to realize that there’s opportunity in doing things differently.

Try those new things, find ways to step out into the future and expand your skills and worldview.  You may be great at what you do today, but there are other things you may be well suited for.  It’d be a shame not to find out what those may be.  It’s rewarding to relearn things about yourself that you may have forgotten.

Walk Tall

Be proud of where you come from, what you do, and how you accomplish your work. Your walk can be compared to your “brand personality” when you meet a person , often the first thing you see is them walking towards you. Much like the t-shirt you brand from Print My Logo, you have control over what is seen.

There are no unimportant jobs in society, and it’s what we do with our lives that’s the real testament to each of us.  It’s what we do day-in and day-out that people remember, and this is the base of who we are.  It’s always a good idea to start from a firm foundation, and that is what walking tall is about.

Don’t let others define your success as success is a subjective label to begin with.  Only we can define what that is, because only we know what’s important, or what the next step in our path was supposed to be.

Walk Straight

Sticking to your values is what this is all about.  Its when we stray from our ideals that we begin to loose our way.  By following through on your plan and remaining true to your core values, its easier to reach those goals that you prize most.  This is also something that people remember about us.  It’s about being consistent, honest, and following through.  Not always easy, but never ignored either.

Walk With Purpose

Having a purpose to things is just as important as everything else.  It’s about direction.  There’s a reason that we’re all good at different things and make different decisions every day.  Define for yourself why you do things the way you do, get to understand what that purpose is, and refine it as time goes on.  This is ultimately what drives each of us in our own way.  We have some ultimate goal that we alone hold.

Stepping Up

Finally, taking the time to map out a path to walk in life is a great thing to take time to do.  Plan out short and long goals, match your pace in life with your ultimate goals.  Enjoy the each step along the way.

rickmahn-hrThis is a post from my ‘inspirational’ list.  Not sure if it really is, but I like to give it a try from time to time.  All feedback is welcome!  That’s one of my goals as I walk through life, to learn from anyone willing to share suggestions or criticism.  It’s all good from my perspective as I just want to learn.

Pin It on Pinterest