Thinking Out Of The Box And Learning From Other Companies

No matter what business or industry you are in, you will always benefit from studying and listening to other companies’ experiences, even if they are working in a different industry.

I have had the amazing experience to work for different companies and in very different industries. The common factor is that in many companies they believe that their industry is so “special” that nobody from outside will be able to understand. I encourage people to see what different industries are doing for inspiration and for thinking out of the box, or better to say out of their industry. Looking around can help us to get new ideas and to find different ways to do something that can shake a bit our marketing, communications and our general way of doing things. 

It is normal that, if we stay in the same place for long, we feel like we are the best for this job, because we have developed this “specific expertise” and therefore, we believe we know what is the most suitable for the company. The truth is that somebody from outside without that much specific expertise can bring a lot of value to the company. 

Listening and Learning From Others: 

When listening to other companies we need to be very open minded. Instead of thinking that “this will never work here” we should think of the way we can take the best of their experience, adapt it and apply it to our business. It is not about copying their ideas, it’s about figuring out what we can learn from them and how we can use their experience and make it a suitable part of our development.

When you listen or study other companies ‘move, it is worth analyzing why they made that move. Do you face similar situation? Does this apply to your business? If you want to focus on products and processes, bench-marking with other companies will help you to evaluate best practices and perhaps, save money before implementing new processes in your company.

When applying other companies’ ideas, if you think to stop because this is too experimental or too risky for your business, reconsider. Being the pioneer in your industry might be very beneficial. It is great to be the first one implementing something nontraditional. If this work, somebody in your industry might be following soon. 

It is also important to take a look at what the other companies' customer are talking about. What do you see?  Do they like the company’s initiative? How do they react to e.g. the new marketing campaign? For example, if their customers are sharing comments and info on the social media channels their info might be useful for you. This is their live testimonial, you’re getting direct insight into what customers want. How this company is managing this communication? Is there something that you can learn from them or even to do differently?

Listening to other companies experience will be useful for your company and for your employees. It will help you to think out of the box and catch new movement that are not yet trendy or common in your industry. Encourage you employees to be active in learning from others, this knowledge is perhaps more valuable than any other that they can get from books or courses. 

Why To Encourage Your Employees To Use LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the largest professional network in the World. Saying that, you might not be surprised that, if your employees are joining this channel, they will get exposed, and perhaps they might be discovered and contacted by other companies looking for new employees. However, this channel is not something to be afraid of. If your employees join LinkedIn it is not necessary to find a new job. In fact, they might be more interested in helping your company to get more (free) visibility.

LinkedIn is a rich channel, full of clients or prospects, business partners, potential hires, etc. Use this strategically and encourage your employees to do so.

Start by creating your company page/profile:

You need a good picture and a -even better- company presentation.

Remember to be clear and to use the right keywords to be found. You need to think as a marketer to provide clear information about what your business is all about. Of course, you also need to talk about your products and what you can offer to your audience. As in every marketing step, you need to know your audience well. Please, do not get the terminology too complicate. You want new prospects to find you. They need to understand you.

Remember to show your website address, your blog, and your links to other channels such as your company Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Keep your Profile Updated.

Encourage your team to join LinkedIn

Invite your employees to create their own LinkedIn profile.  Make sure that they describe your company well. Again, keywords are essential! Your employees are your brand advocates. Your company name and brand will be exposed which can be translated into more traffic to your website and more customers.

Encourage them to actively participate sharing information and joining the discussion groups. At the end of the day, LinkedIn is a channel for networking, so they need to network there.

Instead of checking what you employees are doing on the channels, create interesting and good quality material that your employees feel very proud to share. When your employees share e.g. news on LinkedIn they will help you to increase media mentions. This applies to other channels, too. When your people are using any social media they are a great source from information for journalists.  

Being on LinkedIn has become more and more important every day, not only for companies but, also for individuals. Take this channel seriously and prepare relevant and good quality information to share there.  You will see better results by getting your own troops, your employees, well trained, encouraged and especially, involved.

Team Management: When Your Team Is Everywhere

I heard once in a job interview that you recognize a person who has worked for a real global organization when you see his/her ability to work remotely and interact with people in other locations. Do you agree?

Nowadays, the possibility to work when traveling or from a different office than the HQ is easier than ever before in terms of the technology available to do the work and to communicate. We have emails, CRM systems, document management systems and videoconferencing to mention some examples. Those are affordable and globally available, however, there are many other relevant aspects which need to be considered when dealing with employees and managers sitting in different locations. 

Communication plays an essential role when building and managing geographic dispersed teams. 

Let’s see the both sides of the story. On one hand, if you are the employee who is working from other location, you might feel abandoned, misinformed and why not, ignored if you are not communicating often with your team. The same feeling if you are all the time on the road. On the other hand, if you are the manager, you might feel uncomfortable because you cannot see exactly what this person is doing; perhaps you are afraid that the person is not getting the job done or  you are not even sure if he/she is aware of what is happening in the company. It is a difficult situation for both parts.

Managing a team that is spread out in many locations or with people who are traveling continuously is a huge challenge, even for the most experienced bosses. The videoconferencing, intranets, and emails are very useful tools but, by themselves are not enough to create employees commitment or engagement. An efficient information flow and communication are essential to get powerful results, but those only work when are strategically managed.

  

You as a manager need to ensure that your voice is heard. You are responsible for getting your employees "happy" or at least you need to make sure that your employees are not feeling isolated at any point and that they feel confident to contact you to ask for more information or for anything they need. 

Finding the right people to work in different locations

To successfully work in teams located in different parts of the world you need to be careful already at the recruitment process. Selecting the right people is a key point to make your team work:

- These people need to be self-motivated to keep on track and inspired even if they are far away from their bosses and other team members.

- Communication skills are also crucial and at this point I am not just talking about speaking various languages, but more about being able to interact with other people, understand others and make him/herself understood.

- Opening and trust are also essential for making this relations work. This will help you to avoid misunderstandings.

Team creation and motivation

It does not matter where your team members are sitting, make sure you develop a strong team spirit. Things will only works when your team members feel integrated and part of an “all”. They also need to know what their purpose is, in order to actually go for it.

Don’t forget to give continuous feedback and reward their performance. Be positive and keep the interaction with an inspiring tonality. As you cannot see exactly how they feel about a particular situation, make sure to be open and try to get (and to give) as much as you can for each interaction. Instead of dropping two lines emails all the time, invest some minutes in a phone call or in a video call. Be consistent and fair with all the members of the team. Stay in regular contact to follow-up goals and challenges but, especially to guarantee that they never feel forgotten. Get involved.