Here’s one little thing you can do to make your video meetings better.
Smile.
Just smile. That’s it. See what happens.
I bet you’ll be surprised by how the tenor of the meeting changes. How people respond. How they engage.
Most of all, I bet it changes you. Your thoughts, your reactions, your outlook.
Try it. In Zoom, Teams, Skype, BlueJeans, WebEx, whatever video conferencing app you’re using. Go ahead. Smile.
My company just gave every employee $100 for margaritas.
Well, Mexican food and margaritas. The occasion was celebrating National Margarita Day. The 250+ employees from Aptive Resources pumped a good chunk of money into the economy to take part in this momentous holiday with dinner and drinks on the company.
It was totally unexpected. They let us know in an email in the morning that they gifted us $100 for food and drinks. I had to ping someone at work on Teams to see if it was a legit email. It was. Straight from our COO.
It’s the third unexpected gift my company has given to me since I started just two months ago. And word has gotten out. I may have shared my good fortune in my circle of friends.
Now two of them are asking for referrals.
Generous. Caring. Empathetic. Kind. Professional. Smart. Talented. Listeners. These are just a few of the words I use to describe my colleagues and company in just a few months on the job.
How does that compare to your company? What would you say are the things that define your co-workers, your leadership, your company culture?
And how do you contribute?
My first taste of remote came in the last century. For real.
I worked remotely in Prineville, Oregon, starting in 1993. I was a newspaper reporter covering two counties about 45 minutes from the The Bulletin main office in Bend, Oregon.
Dial up internet, landlines, the works. Even these little black walkie-talkies when I was out in the field reporting stories and my editors needed to talk to me.
I’ve been a remote worker since then for almost my entire career. So it was nothing new for me when the pandemic hit two years ago and forced employees to work from home.
Like I did almost 30 years ago, we got used to it. We made it work. Companies made money. Employees thrived.
Why go back?
For some it might simple be for control. Or they like to see people working. For others it might be lack of trust. And other reasons, I’m sure. One company claims their culture works best when everyone is in the building.
The remote work/office gig is causing problems for companies demanding their employees come back to the office. A friend of mine has had it with their company. They demand all the employees work in their office, except for a chosen few who are “grandfathered.”
Another friend wants out of their remote work unfriendly company because of the commute. They say they also work less efficiently in an office with lots of distractions who are mainly other employees.
There’s got to be a middle ground. Some people love working in the office. They like the vibe, or the collaboration, or the snacks, or the extroverting playground. That’s great. Enjoy!
There’s room for some give and take. On both sides.
I remember many years ago, 2003, exactly. I was interviewing for a newspaper job but wanted to work at home and asked if I could do that. The editor who was interviewing me thought about it for a few seconds.
“I don’t care where you work,” he said. “Just get your work done.”
Amen.
Your company’s brand is how you connect with your community. And communities you want to connect with.
Brand and culture are closely connected. It’s simple then: Good brands connect culture with community.
Think of Patagonia. Apple. Porsche. Rolex. Amazon.
They all have such a strong brand because they connect so well with their community.
These are all thoughts my friend and branding and marketing guru/mentor Josh Rowe said to me recently. Josh is marketing director at Harvard Innovation Labs, and formerly worked in marketing at Nike and New Balance.
I called him because I was really curious about how brands connect with audiences.
He told me a brand reflects what the community expects. Great brands know what their community wants.
Maybe their community wants low environmental impact. It might be technological innovation. I mean, what will you stand in a line for five hours for? For some people it’s an iPhone.
A brand’s community may want quality. Or performance.
Longevity. Sustainability. Luxury.
Josh talked about Porsche, for example. He said “Porsche” and these words popped into my head: Performance. Sleek. Engineering. Speed.
Or a Swiss watch. You expect it to last forever.
Then he asked me a question.
“You know who might be the strongest brand in America right now?”
I said I didn’t know.
“Trump.”
I wasn’t expecting that.
“They’re all in,” he said. “So much so that they are driving a Biden bus off the highway in Texas.”
I really wasn’t expecting that. But it’s true. Sadly?
Anyway, good brands do a great job connecting their culture with their community. Foundering brands don’t do that.
They just give you a product. There’s no identity. No affinity. No connection. Hello Reebok, Kmart or Oldsmobile.
Brands need to create ambassadors to survive. Your product then, is a medium to connect your culture to a community, often through ambassadors.
Good companies have brand values. What are your brand values? How do you deliver them to that customer base or community?
Your brand is a mirror, reflecting you, your culture and your values.
This is why it’s so important for companies and organizations to establish their brand values.
Here’s a link from Ogilvy I found super valuable to help you with that: https://www.ogilvy.com/ideas/whats-big-ideal
Establishing brand values is essential. It can’t be a shotgun approach.
Josh said something that sticks with me. He quoted marketing guru Simon Sinek: It’s all about the why, not the what.
People connect with the why.
What’s your brand’s why?