Val Wright's Blog, page 3

How Strong Is Your Digital Footprint and Why Should You Care?

Does it really matter?

I don’t have the time - why bother?!

Social media is a distraction and a waste of time!

My company is forcing me to repost corporate content on my personal social channels -is that right?

Can it really make a difference to my business?

I was speaking at Xchange’s conference in Denver last week answering all of those questions and more about why it matters and how to strengthen your digital footprint. 

I asked everyone in the audience to rate if they thought they were magnetic, memorable, a mystery, or completely missing when they think about their digital footprint. It was fascinating to see how many wanted to strengthen how they showed up digitally to their customers, partners, peers, and communities. 

Timing was perfect as an executive, Dawn Ringstaff, VP at Cloudflare, who had applied some of my advice, was in the audience and was able to tell the story of how she originally was a cynic about the idea of increasing their digital presence. We had discussed the idea of using video to share that she was hiring, she was reluctant, but did it anyway. Dawn made a brilliant video sharing that she was hiring. 

Dawn’s video captured the attention of a great candidate who was hired, started, and even was also at the conference so I got to meet them! Glad it worked out Jessica Chavez!

Customers, partners, your bosses peers, future hires, conference organizers, board members, and your peers are all googling you. Don’t be like the one executive I was working with last month who had an unusual name and STILL the third hit for his search on Google was his antiquated MySpace page!!

Many people ask me “ so what exactly is a digital footprint?” and my answer is simple…. Showing up digitally where ever your customers and partners hang out. 

Want to learn more?

You can hear more of a recap of my talk from CRN’s coverage here. https://www.crn.com/news/managed-services/here-s-how-a-digital-presence-grows-your-business

Chapter One of Rapid Growth Done Right gives you more details on your Magnetic, Memorable, Mystery or Missing evaluation and you can download that chapter free here

Chapter ten of Words That Work has an Executive Social Scorecard that you can use to go deeper to understand the steps to increase your digital presence. You can view the Executive Social Scorecard here.

Share and tag me in your thoughts on this topic…

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

P.S. I hope you enjoyed this week's VAL-uable Insights, sign up here to get them in your inbox each Monday morning: http://valwrightconsulting.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Why Ideas Are Easy But Implementing Them Is Hard

Ideas are easy. 

Changing. Adjusting. Learning. Growing. Making them happen is the HARD part. 

Brash bold goals are exciting. Watching them happen is the most rewarding. 

2.5 years after crisis bankruptcy talks and retailer francesca’s is taking the retail world by storm. Under new ownership the results are pretty remarkable 

It has been a pure joy being on the journey with the francesca’s team. 

One example…Check out the new tween brand francesca’s franki 

Another example : WWD featured article. 

Want to hear more? You can download chapter one of Words That Work here as a gift from me where you will hear about the francesca’s CEO who wanted to create a truth telling company. 

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

P.S. I hope you enjoyed this week's VAL-uable Insights, sign up here to get them in your inbox each Monday morning: http://valwrightconsulting.com/newsletter-sign-up/

The Greatest Truth Telling Fallacy

Do you really know if everyone around you is being honest with you?

No one wants to be lied to, yet untruths are everywhere. No one wants to admit they may occasionally lie, but they hypocritically expect everyone else to always tell the truth.

It is one of my recent most popular requests to work on in my strategy work with executives: Helping teams understand the value of, and putting into practice, truth telling.

In my corporate work life at Microsoft, BMW, Amazon, and Marconi, I found the Truth-Telling Fallacy to be the most frustrating part of business life. It became clearer as I rose through the corporate ranks, but I also found it everywhere—from larger international companies to family-run businesses and privately held companies. The Truth-Telling Fallacy affects businesses of every size, impacting senior executives, managers, and teams alike.

Here are the five factors in play:

1. THE MORE SENIOR YOU RISE, FEWER PEOPLE TELL YOU THE TRUTH
If you’re a CEO or at the top of the organization, think back to earlier in your career. Remember how much feedback and real talk you had about your performance? Did you notice that start to evaporate throughout your career as you got promoted?
“I need your unfiltered advice on this acquisition strategy, Val.”

That is what one CEO client called me to say as she was reviewing two potential acquisitions as part of the company’s growth plan. She had not been with the company long and was still changing its truth-telling (or lack thereof!) culture, and they needed a blunt assessment. There is unique value in having external unfiltered advice, but as a leader your real opportunity is unlocking it internally, because sadly, too many people are afraid to give senior people the truth.

2. THOSE AT THE TOP OF THE COMPANY NEED THE MOST FEEDBACK
I’ve been in far too many product reviews, board discussions, and leadership meetings where the attendees could be replaced with those bobble-head figures that are given out before sports games! If these executive gatherings are not truth-telling opportunities, where exactly are senior leaders supposed to get their truth telling and straight-up feedback?

3. YOU NEED TO BE COMFORTABLE WITH BEING UNCOMFORTABLE
It is not easy to hear truth telling. It can be awkward, difficult, and even painful to receive. Not everyone has the knowledge, skills, or mindset to get comfortable with these feelings. Throughout this book you will learn specific tools to use, words to quote, and preparation to follow to receive such feedback. The greatest news is that this is all teachable, but the tough news is that the greatest barrier to changing here is you. - You need to be ready to build new habits for asking for and receiving the truth from those around you.

4. COMPANIES INVERSELY SPEND ALL THEIR TIME ON TRUTH TELLING IN THE WRONG PLACES
Billions in resources each year are spent on training across companies. Unfortunately, the majority of this is spent in the most junior ranks of the company, when the opposite is needed with top teams, executives, people managers, the CEO, and the board.

Actual truth telling is inversely proportioned to the need for truth telling. Similarly, the investment in giving those who need it help with changing the level of truth telling is spent in the wrong place. When I talk about training and development here, for any investment, I don’t mean bland instruction or click-happy online guides, but true intentional investment in time, accountability, and resources for how to create a truth-telling company.

This extract comes from my third book Words That Work. In Chapter 2 you will learn how to raise the performance bar of your teams, in Chapter 8 you will learn how to unlock the power of your board, and finally in Chapter 11 you will receive the playbook of tools to make all this happen.

5. TRUTH TELLING NEEDS TO BE REWARDED
The final, and perhaps most critical, factor in creating a truth-telling company is how you reward truth telling. The much-critiqued Fyre Festival of 2017 had everybody fooled that there really would be a celebrity-packed luxury holiday with headline musicians and exclusive accommodations. The reality was that it was a disastrous, food-starved, cheap camping trip without any entertainment. When Netflix and Amazon filmed their exposé documentaries, hindsight whistleblowers came out in full force. I’ve seen CEOs publicly thank truth tellers who point out mistakes they have made. Amazon has a leadership principle named has backbone. During my corporate career on the Amazon fashion leadership team, you could not be promoted to a manager, director, or vice president if your immediate manager could not give strong evidence that you had displayed backbone with those more senior than you.

I simply love watching teams realize the value of, and then put into practice truth telling.

It could have stopped WeWork calling cappuccinos lattes for many years because their CEO got mixed up with the two drinks and no one corrected him. Instead, the barista and all the employees at the headquarters renamed the coffee drinks to fit with what CEO Adam Neumann incorrectly believed they were called based on his preference of frothy foam versus steamed milk.

This almost unbelievable tale is the modern-day version of the emperor who has no clothes. Not one single person at WeWork felt they could tell Neumann the truth about coffee. Instead, it became a widespread part of the WeWork culture of drink ordering. Every time any intern, new employee, senior executive, or visitor ordered a coffee, they played along, changing the name, explaining to those not in the know the façade that had been built because of their CEO.

Which begs the question, if they were dishonest about coffee, what else were they covering up or lying about?

Do you have any cappuccino err I mean latte moments in your team?

Only a conversation with your team will tell…

Want to hear more? You can download chapter one of Words That Work here as a gift from me.

How To Make Your Teams Eyes Light Up With Pure Excitement

Scanning faces around a physical room is so much easier than trying to translate expressions on Zoom or Teams!

Do you ever see in someone’s eyes that “oh wow now I see it!!” moment? That is one of my favorite parts of the work I do. My stomach flips, I get goosebumps, and I feel the excitement becoming contagious. 

We had many moments like that last week with the Ingram Micro Canada executive team in a strategy session seeing the possibilities that will impact partners and associates around the world. Take a look at the pictures here on Instagram and hear more from the executives taking part here on LinkedIn. 

Words That Work in action creating real impact that would make any CFO or CEO proud.

As I approach my ten year anniversary as an entrepreneur I love moments like this as it reminds me why I do what I do…

Wondering how to replicate it in your team?

Gather your team in person and explore how the value of your company can grow in the next three years and how you can accelerate it.

Immerse yourself in your competition, your industry, and your customer feedback to have the latest context.

Paint a picture of the future that goes beyond your regular thinking.

Give your team space to tell their story, give input, have space to share their ideas.

The spontaneous conversations and idea generation is returning when you bring your team together. After too many years solely focusing on your quarter results and immediate tactics. 

When you add a few drops of water to a dehydrated pop up sponge you see it dramatically increases in size….same applies to discussing the future of your business. 

Of course it helps being in a fabulous venue too!

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

P.S. I hope you enjoyed this week's VAL-uable Insights, sign up here to get them in your inbox each Monday morning: http://valwrightconsulting.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Will You Join Me In Making August Catch Up Month?

Three dear friends have been diagnosed with serious conditions in the last few weeks. They each caught the issue early because they went to their check up / scans / appointments. 

The last three years has put many routine self care appointments on hold. 

“The Covid-19 pandemic dealt a crushing blow to the preventive services that can catch potential health problems before they become life-threatening. Screenings for several major cancers fell significantly during 2020, according to  a study published in December 2021 in the journal Cancer . Colonoscopies dropped by nearly half compared to 2019, prostate biopsies by more than 25 percent. New diagnoses declined by 13 percent to 23 percent, depending on the cancer — not because there was less cancer in the world, but because less of it was being detected. The screening backlog was still growing by the end of 2020, according to this recent study, albeit at a slower rate.

Full report from Vox 

It's easy to deprioritize routines you may have previously followed by clockwork. Sadly sometimes it takes hearing about someone dear to you to remind you it’s time to get back on track. 

We are going to use August as catch up month in the Wright House, for all the screening, health check ups and scans we need to take. Will you care to join me?

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

P.S. I hope you enjoyed this week's VAL-uable Insights, sign up here to get them in your inbox each Monday morning: http://valwrightconsulting.com/newsletter-sign-up/

8 Essential Tips To Make Your Summer The Best Yet

Follow these 8 guides for your best summer of reflection yet!

Tips for how to successfully prepare for your next vacation.

Find some peaceful time to answer these three simple questions this summer.

The most important question to ask yourself this summer is: Did I create memories and impact?

Why 70% of Americans lie about their vacation.

How to perfect your summer meeting reset.

How to delight your team with summer hours and no meetings days.

Why you need AirTags in your luggage for every trip.

The best way to return from vacation.

Enjoy your summer!

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

P.S. I hope you enjoyed this week's VAL-uable Insights, sign up here to get them in your inbox each Monday morning: http://valwrightconsulting.com/newsletter-sign-up/

The Number One Travel Hack You Can’t Leave Home Without

Ever stood at the baggage carousel and watched the final suitcases going around and around hoping yours will magically appear? That happened to us last night after a smooth running 23hour door to door trip to Spain. 

Luckily I’d read about this tip and followed it prior to boarding, so when our fifth bag didn’t appear we could quickly see it had been left in Madrid and didn’t make our final destination!

Everyone needs an  air tag  in every piece of luggage they own!

Nope I’m not on commission with Apple, but it was so helpful for us not just to know it had been misplaced during our connection, but when it was arriving back to us when it got delivered to our villa the next day. I’ve never seen my husband so happy to see a suitcase!

Best $29 we’ve ever spent, we even got one for our puppy Winston that he can wear on his collar should he ever escape!

Time to go shopping before your next business trip or summer vacation!

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

P.S. I hope you enjoyed this week's VAL-uable Insights, sign up here to get them in your inbox each Monday morning: http://valwrightconsulting.com/newsletter-sign-up/

The Ultimate Way To Welcome Someone New To Your Team

Does how you welcome a new team member beat this?

Friday evening I watched the LA local MLS derby LAFC vs. LA Galaxy. Gareth Bale, the Welsh national team captain, had just flown in after signing a new contract for LAFC. Bale was a free agent after 8 seasons with Real Madrid winning three La Liga championships and five Champions League titles. He scored 106 goals in 258 appearances for Real Madrid. Pretty impressive record.

After beating Galaxy 3-2, the celebration started…

Normally only reserved for the man of the match winner, Bale got to lead the end of game chant in front of the 3252 North End Terrace. I can’t do it justice describing it, you have to watch the video…

Are you welcoming your new team members in unique and creative ways?

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

P.S. I hope you enjoyed this week's VAL-uable Insights, sign up here to get them in your inbox each Monday morning: http://valwrightconsulting.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Do You Have This Important Skill Every Leader Needs Today?

A few years ago I met Martin Seligman, best selling author of more than twenty books including Learned Optimism. Seligman has long stated that positivity and grit are the two factors that differentiate outstanding performance.

…I’d like to suggest there is an essential third factor we need to add to that list…

Resilience.

I’ve observed this in my most remarkable clients in the last two and a half years.

Positivity and grit have long been talked about as essential for every leader…but the speed in which you can adapt and recover when the unexpected or unwelcome happens - your resilience- that is the new factor that sets apart the remarkable from the successful.

Over half of my current clients are making strategic acquisitions, mergers, or planning intentional change of ownership structures. All of which require a new approach to how you adapt to the world you work in.

It wasn’t always this way. An acquisition, IPO, going private, or recapitalization would distract many CEOs and boards sideways. But the matter of fact approach I am seeing leaders take is calming everyone around them. Your resilience is contagious. Your teams mimic your response.

Consider for a moment your team. How are they adapting and course correcting given the reality of today (rather than looking backwards on last week, last month or last year?)

This is true in your whole life not just your work life. I got to experience just that this weekend. Because…

40% of the Wright house have Covid!

What we have avoided meticulously for two and a half years finally changed all of our July 4th long weekend plans. Fortunately the symptoms are mild so it was an inconvenience more that a health crisis. But it did get me pondering how our family of five all rapidly adapted to our new long weekend plans in isolation. - Deja Vu for sure!

We’ve all developed thicker skins over the last two years and perhaps haven’t taken a moment to realize the resilience we have built up.

You are stronger than you realize. So is your team.

Looking for more on this topic including a trick my therapist taught me for strengthening my own resilience?

What does it mean to be imperturbable ?

How to recover from intense stress

Strengthening Your Zone of Resilience - Chapter Seven of Words That Work

To your endless resilience!

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

P.S. I hope you enjoyed this week's VAL-uable Insights, sign up here to get them in your inbox each Monday morning: http://valwrightconsulting.com/newsletter-sign-up/

New Job? How To Successfully Ride The New Executive Rollercoaster

That is what the most successful companies do.

Unfortunately, while best-selling books such as The First 90 Days might provide some short-term relief, they create a false sense of security with a quick-fix solution to succeeding in a new role.

The reality is you need to focus on Day 365 from Day 1. It takes one year, sometimes two, to fully integrate and be successful in a new company, but most companies only focus on the first two weeks or on the first ninety days, and then leave leaders, executives, and employees to figure it out for themselves.

You need to plan your perfect launch for your first month, first quarter, and in your first year.

New executives’ satisfaction with a new role and company is like riding a daring rollercoaster. You can go from “I love it here!” to “what have I done?” and “now I get it!” all in one week! For those in a new role take a look at my Executive Rollercoaster and tell me where you are today.

Understand from your peers and board what peaks and troughs you can expect and how to continue to lead and influence through them. The greatest risk of an executive leaving is during their first twelve months. Have you hired someone recently? Ask them where they are on the Executive Rollercoaster and what you can do to help them.

A strong inner circle of advisors, clear definitions for success, and a willingness to make and learn from mistakes are three ways to make sure you aren’t thrown off track.

In June 2021, as I was writing my latest book, a survey from Microsoft revealed that 41 percent of the global workforce is likely to consider leaving their current employer within the next year, with 46 percent planning to make a major pivot or career transition. I predicted then that by the time the book hit the bookshelves in January 2022, many of those moves will have happened, generating additional need for comprehensively supporting those new executives, leaders, and teams as they seek to be productive in their new role. So I dedicated a whole chapter on how to be successful in your first year.

Know someone who is in their first year in a new role? Comment with their details and for the first five commnets I will send them a copy of Words That Work as a gift on your behalf.

Enjoy the ride!

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

P.S. I hope you enjoyed this week's VAL-uable Insights, sign up here to get them in your inbox each Monday morning: http://valwrightconsulting.com/newsletter-sign-up/