Business Articles

Article / Updated 09-08-2023

If you’re responsible for your company’s B2B marketing strategy, you face the ongoing challenge of reaching new prospective clients and explaining your products and services. In today’s business world, where most marketing is digital, simply posting ads is not enough — it’s a short-term solution to what should be a long game plan, especially for businesses with complex products and services. That’s why most marketing leaders turn to content marketing. Reaching your target audience with content marketing Content marketing involves producing and distributing educational information on topics your target audience finds valuable and interesting. This can include blogs on your website, social media posts, videos, podcasts, white papers, infographics, and ebooks. These strategies help establish your business as a thought leader, get the attention of potential clients, and strengthen connections with your existing partners and clients. Why does content marketing work? Most decision-makers these days research companies online and take more time to make their buying decisions. Custom created, educational content that is of high interest to your audience, written in a straightforward and no-nonsense way, answers their questions, offers something new, and is an excellent way to establish your expertise. Custom content makes the all-important connection breakthrough. And, once you have the attention of a potential client, you’re able to further explain your company, its specialties, and why it’s better than the competition. Dummies Custom Solutions: Great value for boosted recognition Social media, blogs, and email marketing campaigns are important tools to stay on top of, but if you’re looking for a truly unique way to distinguish yourself in today’s competitive marketplace, consider Dummies Custom Solutions, a Wiley offering. You know Dummies — everybody does. People around the world turn to Dummies books and eBooks when they want Learning Made Easy. We’ve been around a long time, and our brand awareness and book sales continue to grow. That’s because Dummies specializes in translating complex subject matter into content that is accurate, straightforward, and easy-to-understand. Working with the Dummies Custom Solutions editorial team, you get a fully customized Dummies eBook (and printed book, if needed) for your company or product that you can distribute in a variety of ways, including: Sign-ups on your website Webinar attendance Professional conferences and other events Email marketing campaigns Dummies Custom Solutions also produces infographics, iPapers, animated videos, and more to complement your eBook and drive traffic to your website. These products create an integrated content marketing approach. They distinguish your business among the noise in the market with something unique — increased exposure through the Dummies network of properties, a book, and other materials that help you: Boost awareness of your company or product Nurture relationships with current clients Establish your company as an authority/expert/thought leader Generate leads We help you make that all-important connection to your audience in ways that build confidence in your brand and deliver results for you. What’s more, Dummies is a brand of Wiley, a multinational publisher and global leader in research and education. You can boost your sales, leads, and recognition as an authority by co-branding with Dummies and Wiley. a.drops-article-callout.callout-mobile{display:none}[data-v-d27f2bfe] a.drops-article-callout.drops-callout-generic{padding:35px 0 40px 0;margin-bottom:35px;border:0;border-bottom:1px solid #d8d8d8;background:#fff;width:100%}[data-v-d27f2bfe] a.drops-article-callout.drops-callout-generic:focus-visible{outline:none}[data-v-d27f2bfe] a.drops-article-callout.drops-callout-generic img{margin-bottom:0}.drops-callout-col.has-drops-callouts[data-v-d27f2bfe]:after{content:"";display:block;margin:40px 0 35px}.drops-callout-col.has-drops-callouts[data-v-d27f2bfe] a.drops-article-callout{background:none;border:none;padding:0}.drops-callout-col.has-drops-callouts[data-v-d27f2bfe] a.drops-article-callout img{max-width:100%;height:auto}@media only screen and (max-width:1023px){[data-v-d27f2bfe] a.drops-article-callout.drops-callout-generic{padding:32px 0 30px 0;margin-bottom:28px}.drops-callout-col.has-drops-callouts[data-v-d27f2bfe]{padding:0!important}.drops-callout-col.has-drops-callouts[data-v-d27f2bfe]:after{margin:32px 24px 27px;border-color:#d8d8d8}.drops-callout-col.has-drops-callouts[data-v-d27f2bfe] a.drops-article-callout{background-color:#f2f2f2;width:100%}.drops-callout-col.has-drops-callouts[data-v-d27f2bfe] a.drops-article-callout img{width:66.7%}}@media only screen and (max-width:767px){[data-v-d27f2bfe] a.drops-article-callout.callout-desktop{display:none}[data-v-d27f2bfe] a.drops-article-callout.callout-mobile{display:block}[data-v-d27f2bfe] a.drops-article-callout.drops-callout-generic{background:#ffd200;padding:0;margin:22px 0 60px;position:relative}[data-v-d27f2bfe] a.drops-article-callout.drops-callout-generic:after{display:block;border-bottom:1px solid #d8d8d8;position:absolute;padding-bottom:35px;width:100%;content:""}.drops-callout-col.has-drops-callouts[data-v-d27f2bfe] a.drops-article-callout{padding:0 16px}.drops-callout-col.has-drops-callouts[data-v-d27f2bfe] a.drops-article-callout.callout-mobile{width:100%}.drops-callout-col.has-drops-callouts[data-v-d27f2bfe] a.drops-article-callout.callout-mobile img{width:414px}} Case Study: Thron Key objectives: Increase awareness of Content Intelligence and the THRON brand, thanks to the proven authority of the Dummies books Become recognized experts on Content Intelligence, thanks to the easy way to explain difficult things that characterizes the Dummies books Find new companies interested in our Intelligent DAM How were the assets used? Free e-book to download from our websites to inform and develop people on CI Free promotional materials for events to widen the audience and make them aware of the topic Gift for our clients and THRON employees to strengthen engagement What results did you see? 8,000 e-books downloaded 750 print books given out How have your customers reacted to the book and what feedback have they shared with you? The book was really welcomed. It helped the customers to improve their usage of the software; on the other hand, it speeded up the onboarding process of new clients. Some of them even chose Content Intelligence For Dummies as their summer reading! “The proven experience of Dummies was a great lever for us to spread the voice about an increasing strategic topic, like Content Intelligence.” –Nicola Meneghello, founder and CEO of THRON, author of Content Intelligence For Dummies

Cheat Sheet / Updated 09-05-2023

To stay organized and on top of your nonprofit’s bookkeeping and accounting responsibilities, timely complete accounting tasks need to be done daily, weekly, quarterly, and yearly. Keep necessary financial information up to date so you’re prepared to submit paperwork to your independent certified public accountant (CPA), the government, and all stakeholders, both within and outside your nonprofit organization. To ensure your nonprofit’s activities are completed, organize a to-do list, prioritizing the tasks so the important ones are done first, and other jobs are scheduled around them. Managing your nonprofit means sticking to your plan to stay organized and run efficiently. Apply these guidelines to your nonprofit’s weekly plan: Set up daily priorities. Knowing what you need to accomplish each day allows you to take care of the most pressing matters. Surround yourself with professional staff. Surrounding yourself with professionals eliminates the pettiness of daily office drama! Professionals are self-motivated and focused on doing their jobs, and they require minimum supervision. Keep your goals before you. To maintain a clear vision, keep your eyes on the prize. Post your vision or your goals in a place where they’re visible to you every day. Manage your time by planning and scheduling your daily activities. Be mindful of distractions that pull you away from completing your tasks. Stay out of politics. Avoiding politics at work protects your nonprofit’s status.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 09-05-2023

People have to make choices because of scarcity, the fact that they don’t have enough resources to satisfy all their wants. Economics studies how people allocate resources among alternative uses. Macroeconomics studies national economies, and microeconomics studies the behavior of individual people and individual firms. Economists assume that people work toward maximizing their utility, or happiness, and firms act to maximize profits.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 09-05-2023

Storytelling is one of the most effective tools in presentations for several reasons: Stories engage the audience and evoke emotion responses. They make information more relatable and memorable. They can increase retention and make messages more compelling. And they help build trust between the presenter and the audience. This handy Cheat Sheet provides some guidelines to make your presentations more interesting and powerful.

Article / Updated 08-16-2023

Before I get into the value of setting objectives and key results (OKRs), I should probably answer a question many readers might be asking: What are OKRs? Basically, OKRs is a method of setting goals for an organization. Humans are avid goal setters, constantly striving to improve our performance, regardless of the field or endeavor we choose. Perhaps you have experience in setting goals in some of these domains: Family: Partner, children, extended relations Physical: Health, fitness, and wellbeing Work: Career, volunteering Spiritual: Religious or other spiritual affiliations Relationships: With friends or others Hobbies: Interests beyond work Some of my goal-setting memories bring me a few chuckles, such as my goal of winning a “Best Screenplay” Academy Award after taking one screenwriting class. I even pictured Steven Spielberg having the honor of bestowing the Oscar on me. Hey, the more specific a goal the better, right? Your company probably has goals related to sales, customer satisfaction, retaining the best people, and a host of other elements designed to propel you past your competition. Whether people have their companies or themselves in mind, there is little doubt that setting goals is a very healthy and positive activity, one that everyone should pursue with rigor. Goal-setting challenges Problems often occur in how people go about writing and constructing goals. That’s where many people, whether crafting goals for companies or themselves, get stopped in their tracks almost instantly. It’s common, for instance, to write goals that are vague and nebulous: “Get more fit.” “Be the best company in our industry.” They sound good — and few would argue with the merits of either of those examples — but the quality that specifically marks real success is missing from both. A number of other pitfalls loom out there in the goal world as well, such as: Setting unrealistic goals that you have no genuine chance to achieve Having too many goals at one time Failing to account for any assistance you’ll require from others in achieving your goals Despite the potential challenges, goal setting is one of the most powerful things you can do in your organization (and your life). You just need a better, more reliable system, and that’s where OKRs — objectives and key results— come in. Sounds good, huh? Maybe if I’d have known about OKRs back when I was practicing that Oscar speech, I’d actually be clutching a gold statue now. The good news for me and you is that it’s never too late to succeed. Setting goals really works Maybe you’re already convinced and are a believer in the power of setting ambitious goals, with a lifetime of experience to back up that claim. If so, great — we have that in common. On the other hand, perhaps you do need to be convinced of goal setting’s value. Maybe you came up in the school of hard knocks and don’t believe in the woo-woo world of setting goals. Well, I’ve got news for you: Goal setting, especially with the use of OKRs, really works, and I’m going to win you over to this idea, I promise. Back in 1968, when the Beatles song “Hey Jude” was dominating the airwaves, a little-known professor from the University of Maryland named Edwin Locke published a blockbuster article that would revolutionize the field of goal setting. “Toward a Theory of Task Motivation and Incentives,” based on Locke’s pioneering research, showed that setting goals led to higher performance in a wide range of domains. Whether it concerned office workers toiling in smoke-infested offices (it was the 1960s, remember), loggers felling timber in northern British Columbia, or truckers rolling along the blacktop, Locke demonstrated that setting goals improved performance in a statistically significant fashion. It wasn’t uncommon, for example, to see performance gains of more than 200 percent! Forget free love and flower children; the real revolution of the 1960s was goal setting. Locke went on to collaborate with a professor from the University of Toronto named Gary Latham. Together they conducted hundreds of studies on goal setting and reviewed hundreds more, all culminating in their 1990 magnum opus, A Theory of Goal Setting & Task Performance. Although it’s not a page turner a là Dan Brown or Agatha Christie, it’s a revelation. Locke and Latham demonstrated unequivocally that setting goals led to improved results, and as an added bonus, working toward a goal boosted motivation. Locke and Latham made clear that certain types of goals are better than others. Specific and challenging (but not too challenging) goals were critical to improved performance. Both of these characteristics (specificity and challenge) are vital to OKRs. The components of OKRs The heading of this section sounds cold and clinical, but the fact of the matter is that goal setting, especially using OKRs, can be … wait for it … fun. As Locke and Latham (see the previous section) made clear, goal setting improves motivation, and who doesn’t like the feeling of being motivated to pursue something you care about? More good news related to the question "what is an OKR?" is that the framework is light on terminology. It involves just three terms: objectives, key, and results. Actually, it’s three words and a conjunction. Yes, I looked it up; “and” is a conjunction. But really it’s just two terms: objectives and key results, more commonly referred to as OKRs. In the upcoming section, I define these terms and look at an example. Terminology matters in any kind of change initiative, including OKRs. You may find that some people will abbreviate the acronym to OKR, omitting the s. There is no agreed-upon acronym, but in this article, I use the plural OKRs and suggest that you do the same. However, what’s most important is that whatever acronym you choose, you use it consistently throughout your organization. At this point in the article, you might be thinking: OKR vs. KPI? (oh, the wonderful world of business acronyms). KPI stands for key performance indicator and it applies more to specific projects, programs, products, and other initiatives. OKRs are used more to outline organization and team goals. Defining an “objective” An objective is a statement of a broad, qualitative goal designed to propel the organization forward in a desired direction. There are a few things to unpack in that simple definition. The first is the word qualitative. This word points to the fact that objectives are aspirational statements and don’t include numbers. The second word to put under the microscope is organization. You can, and most likely will, create OKRs at multiple levels of your organization: the company-level; business unit; department team; and so on. Thus, the word organization in the definition is meant to be generic. Finally, the last part of the definition notes propelling the organization forward in a desired direction. This is the essence of an objective, which, to keep things nice and simple, asks, “What do we want to do?” Writing a basic objective Now comes one of the hardest tasks I faced in writing a book on OKRs: providing the very first example of an objective. Why was it so difficult? Because no matter what field or industry I draw on, there is a risk that some people will think, “Oh, so OKRs are for only those types of companies.” Or, “Well, that doesn’t apply to me.” Oy! Always remember that you can use OKRs anywhere and everywhere, from writing pop songs to ending malaria. So don’t read too much into the following example. Say that your company has a mobile app that has been crashing lately, much to users’ chagrin. That’s a strategic problem, and OKRs are very well-suited to help you overcome strategic challenges. So here’s a possible objective: Reduce mobile app crashes in order to increase user satisfaction. Ta-da! You’ve just had your first exposure to an actual OKR-style objective. Exciting, isn’t it? (Surely it’s one of those “remember where you were moments” as you soak this in.) This example objective is a relatively simple statement, but it is composed of three parts that all effective objectives have in common: It starts with a verb. By its very nature, an objective is action oriented, so you always want to begin one with a verb. Your verb choice will depend on the objective you’re striving toward, but every word matters in the objective, and the verb you choose sets the stage for the rest of the statement. The verb is followed by a description of what you want to do. In this case, you want to reduce mobile app crashes. Now, a lot of people would stop right there. “Reduce mobile app crashes” sounds like a worthy objective. But, there is a third component to a well-written objective, and that is … The “in order to” or “so that.” This final part captures the business impact of the first two components of the objective. Why is it important to reduce mobile app crashes? Because you believe that it will lead to increased user satisfaction. That final component is the most important, because it makes clear the strategic relevance of the objective: why it matters. I’ll bet you could stop reading right now and quickly brainstorm a dozen things you’d like to get done in the next few months. Doing that is relatively easy, but when you add that third component of why the objective is strategically important now, you quickly recognize what really matters, and which objectives are the critical ones to pursue. Share this formula for writing an objective with your team: Verb + what you want to do + in order to / so that (business impact) Some people bristle at formulas and a paint-by-number approach to objective creation, but goal setting is not a natural muscle for most people. They need all the help they can get in writing effective OKRs, especially in the beginning. Providing a formula or template simply gives people a leg up on the task without inhibiting their creativity in any way. After all, the formula doesn’t dictate what verb to use, or why their objective is important. It simply provides a path for creating objectives that will be technically sound and add value. For much more on setting OKRs and how to make them do wonders for your organization, check out my book OKRs For Dummies. Defining a key result Part of the OKR definition is "key result," and now you can turn your attention to that part. A key result is a quantitative statement that measures the achievement of a given objective. The key results answer the question “How will you know you’ve achieved the objective?” Of course, the most important word in the definition of “key result” is quantitative. A key result should consist of raw numbers, dollar amounts, percentages, or even dates, which you will use in the case of milestone key results. Writing key results In the earlier “Writing a basic objective” section, the example objective was “Reduce mobile app crashes in order to increase user satisfaction.” Now you have to decide what set of key results will demonstrate the achievement of that objective. You may want to try these: Study app crashes and determine the three most common causes by May 15. Develop fixes and update the app by June 1. Decrease the number of mobile app crashes from five to one. Increase app store rating from 4.2 to 4.8. A question I get frequently is, “How many key results should we have for each objective?” Although there is no absolute right or wrong answer to the question, a good rule of thumb (as rules of thumb go) is three to five. But beyond the number, you should think in terms of telling a story with your key results. By that I mean that the key results should work together in a coordinated way to demonstrate the success of the objective. Continuing with the example objective, if you’re going to reduce mobile app crashes, you first need to find out why the app is crashing by determining the common causes. That topic provides a good opening “chapter” in your story of success for this objective. This key result is a milestone, which is binary – either you achieve it or you don’t. Milestones are like hurdles that you need to get over in order to measure the ultimate business impact outlined in the objective. A milestone key result always includes a date — how quickly you believe you can achieve the milestone without sacrificing quality. After studying the reasons for the crashes, your next key result is devoted to developing fixes and updating the app. Think again of your story: First you study the causes, and then you develop fixes. This, too, is a milestone key result. Now things get interesting. Your third key result measures the reduction of mobile app crashes from five to one. This is a metric key result because it has numbers. This key result also slots nicely into your story. You’ve studied the crashes, applied a fix, and your hypothesis is that by doing so, you’ll see a reduction in app crashes. Hypothesis is a critical word in the context of OKRs, and in measurement in general. Whenever you measure anything, you’re making your best guess that it is related to your desired outcome. The final key result, “Increase app store rating from 4.2 to 4.8,” is also a metric, again because it has numbers. It also holds the distinction of being the most important of the example’s key results because it directly measures the business impact of increasing users’ satisfaction that was identified in the objective. Therefore, it’s a great and logical ending to a strategic story. When you're doing your OKR planning, I strongly encourage you to use the story concept as you're constructing your set of key results. Begin with the end in mind by identifying your business impact key result and then work backward, asking what drives, or leads to, that key result. Doing so will help you craft a comprehensive and cohesive set of key results.

Article / Updated 08-15-2023

No matter whether you’re just starting your own micro-business or you’ve been working for several years, you want everything to run smoothly and cost effectively. As a micro-entrepreneur, your focus is to meet your target market’s needs while staying ahead of your competition. These free resources can help you. Get a free email account for business use. Email is indispensable for communication, marketing, and other pursuits. You can get free email at Gmail or Yahoo, and other providers. Try Open Office Software Suite. This powerful suite of business productivity tools includes word processing, spreadsheet, presentation software, and other software programs. The software is free and regularly upgraded and refined by open source software developers. Network with LinkedIn. On this site, you can network with other businesses and professionals. You can make lots of valuable contacts, find prospects, and get answers to many of your questions from other professionals and specialists. Market through e-mail. Mailchimp is a free email service to do e-mail distribution and marketing. You can send an email blast for up to 2,000 addresses on your list at no cost, which is perfect for businesses just starting out and needing a good way to manage a list of prospects and customers. Use YouTube. This popular video platform gives you the ability not only to gain information and news (including lots of free how-to videos on a variety of business topics), but you have the ability to create your own videos (ranging from providing content to doing sales and marketing presentations) at no cost.

Article / Updated 08-14-2023

Your ability to get the most out of the interviews you conduct for your business invariably depends on how well prepared you are. Here’s a checklist of things you should do before you ask the first interview question: Thoroughly familiarize yourself with the job description, especially its hiring criteria. Do so even if you draw up the criteria yourself. Review everything the candidate has submitted to date. That includes a résumé, cover letter, online profile, and so on. Note any areas needing clarification or explanation, such as quirky job titles, gaps in work history, or hobbies that may reveal aspects of the candidate’s personality that can have a bearing on job performance. Set up a general structure for the interview. Create a basic schedule for the interview so that, as the meeting progresses, you reserve enough time to cover all the key areas you want to address. Having a rough schedule to adhere to will help you begin and end the session on time, allowing you to be more efficient and showing that you respect the candidate’s time. A phone screen is a great use of time to provide the candidate an opportunity to answer general questions you have and for you to determine if he’s worth the time investment to bring on-site for an interview. Write down the questions you intend to ask. Base your questions on the areas of the candidate’s background that deserve the most attention (based on the job description and your hiring criteria). Keep the list in front of you throughout the interview. Hold the interview in a room that’s private and reasonably comfortable. Clear your desk, close the door, and either set your phone so all calls go to voicemail or have your calls forwarded somewhere else. Try not to schedule job interviews in the middle of the day. The reason: You’re not likely to be as relaxed and as focused as you need to be, and you may have a tough time fighting off interruptions and distractions. The ideal time to interview candidates is early morning, before the workday starts. You’re fresher then, and so is the candidate. If you have no choice, give yourself a buffer of at least half an hour before the interview so that you can switch gears and prepare for the interview in the right manner.

Article / Updated 08-10-2023

In this article, I share the most common choices for where to create objectives and key results (OKRs) within an organization, including at the company level only, or for the company and business unit, or for the entire organization. However, just because these are common choices doesn’t mean they’re right for you. When it comes to deciding where to begin OKRs for your organization, you should give careful consideration to the best group or groups to lead the way on your implementation. That decision will hinge on the following: The amount of sponsorship you have at the top The availability of strategic background materials Your desire to foster collaboration Your philosophy on individual involvement in OKR setting I cover your primary options, those used by most organizations, in the following sections. There are other areas where OKRs are useful, including pilot groups, projects, and support groups, and while this article doesn’t cover those, you can learn about them in my book OKRs For Dummies. Creating OKRs at the company level only First, let me define some terms. When I say “company-level,” I mean OKRs that would exist at the very highest level of the company. So whether you’re General Motors, Netflix, or Uncle Morty’s Wax Emporium, company-level OKRs are those created and used to gauge execution at the very top of the house. Whenever possible (and sometimes it isn’t, as I’ll explain), drafting OKRs at the company level is the preferred way to kick off your efforts. Some benefits to starting at the top level Starting at the top has several benefits. Foremost is the fact that OKRs you create at this level make it crystal clear for your entire employee population what you consider to be the most important items for the organization to focus on in the days ahead. Also, I can’t overstate the communication value provided by these OKRs. Keeping in mind how few people can name their company’s top goals, by creating a small number of OKRs at this level, you send a powerful signal of what employees should pay attention to. You also provide the context that all lower-level teams require to create their own, connected OKRs. I was going to continue on to drift into my next point but I’m not sure you’d be with me. Your eyes may be seeing the words but your brain may be stuck on something I slipped into the last paragraph: “small number of OKRs.” You’re wondering, “What does he mean by ‘small number.'" Allow me to turn the tables on you. What do you think is a small but appropriate number of OKRs at the company-level? If you’re like most of the CEOs I’ve worked with, your estimate of the appropriate number of OKRs at the company will be very low, maybe two or three. If so, it’s likely because you want to instill the discipline of focus in your organization, and you’d be correct in wanting this. However, when it comes to actually drafting the OKRs, if you attempt to tell your story of success with such a succinct number of them, the tendency is to lump concepts together or devise such generic OKRs that they could fit any company in the world, Uncle Morty’s Wax Emporium included. The number is also impacted by your current situation. If you’re in crisis mode and mere survival is your goal, perhaps one or two well-chosen OKRs is exactly what you need. If, however, you’re in steady-state, moderate-growth mode, you may be able to balance four to seven OKRs. The old adage “less is more” applies to company-level OKRs. An abundance of OKRs at this level results in a lack of focus and prioritization, causing confusion and skepticism in your employees as to what truly matters. More benefits of starting at the top Having settled the number of OKRs quandary, you can consider a couple of additional advantages of starting at the top level. An obvious benefit is the accountability that it yokes to your executives. It is their responsibility to see these OKRs through, demonstrating success that lifts the entire company. Also, wins at this level will go a long way in generating enthusiasm for OKRs throughout the company. After people see the impact of OKRs at the very top, they’ll be anxious to create their own OKRs, making it clear for all to see how their unique piece of the puzzle fits into place. Now for the disadvantages of top-level OKRs Although beginning at the top with your OKRs offers some clear benefits, you should also consider some potential disadvantages before automatically making it your default choice: The potential of creating generic OKRs that could apply to any organization: The lack of specificity will greatly reduce the power of those OKRs to inspire lower-level teams, and may in fact signal to everyone that the status quo is just fine and your company’s biggest aspiration is to be like everyone else. The possibility that your OKRs will be irrelevant: This possibility comes into play if yours is a very large organization with dozens (or more) of business units around the world, each the size of significant businesses on their own. Think conglomerates with assets spanning the globe. For these companies, job one of the corporate group is allocating resources effectively, and most if not all of the metrics are financial in nature, providing little in terms of guidance or inspiration for lower-level groups. Prerequisites for company-level OKRs If you determine that company-level OKRs are the way to go for you, be aware of a couple of “must haves” before convening your C-suite colleagues for a drafting session. The first requirement is access to, and the participation of, your CEO. If you can’t rouse the sincere support of your CEO, you should reconsider not only starting at the top, but starting OKRs at all. A second prerequisite for company-level OKRs is the existence of some form of strategic plan for the organization from which you can derive the OKRs. They shouldn’t be created in a vacuum. If you’re sitting around a boardroom table engaging in blue-sky brainstorming and pondering, “Hmmm, what should we do?” you have a problem. OKRs will help answer the question, “To successfully execute our strategy, what has to happen?” but only if you have a strategy in the first place. The word strategy can be tricky, though. You don’t require a 300-page leather bound, gilt-edged report from the head office of a global consulting firm. Some answers to basic questions like, “What do we sell?” will get you on track. OKRs are a strategy-execution system, not a strategy-formation system. If you’re relying on the process to help you create a strategy, you’re putting the cart before the horse. Creating OKRs at both the company and team levels A second option for where to create OKRs is at both the company and business unit or team level, which provides the obvious advantage of involving lower-level groups, thereby upping the odds of execution because more people within the organization are creating aligned OKRs. Although this section’s heading suggests that OKRs would be created simultaneously at both the company and team levels, there should be some lag time between those efforts. Company OKRs are written first, widely communicated to ensure understanding, and only then, after that context has been created, should team-level OKRs be considered. Most of my firm’s clients choose this option (company and team OKRs) when embarking on an OKRs process. Deciding which teams and units to include Should you decide to go the route of OKRs at both the company and team levels, your next order of business will be defining the word team. I’m using that word in a very generic sense because as far as I know, no universal terms exist for creating a company’s organizational chart. For example, engineering and IT may be business units at your company, or they may be called departments, squads, or teams. Rather than focus on the titles appearing on your org chart, a simpler approach is to determine how far down the chart you want to go with your initial foray into OKRs. Maybe it’s the first level, those reporting directly to the CEO; or perhaps you’ll go two levels down on the chart. The obvious caveat is that the deeper you go, the more complex your rollout becomes, and you need to carefully consider how much complexity you can take on as you’re getting your feet wet with OKRs. A phased approach, going one level at a time, is the most conservative and likely the safest route; my experience shows that most organizations are excited to expose as many people as possible to the power of OKRs. Thus, going deeper faster has major appeal. Deciding between following the org chart or linking dependent teams If I had been writing this book back in, say, 2016, this section probably would have ended right here. Pick your teams and swish-boom, move on to the next section. But having worked on hundreds of engagements with organizations all over the world, I know it’s not that easy. You have another fundamental question to answer after you’ve chosen who will create OKRs at the team level: Do you write OKRs based simply on titles in the org chart? For example, Sales would create Sales OKRs, Marketing would create Marketing OKRs, and so on. Given its simplicity, this approach was the default answer for many organizations as OKRs rose to prominence, but a downside quickly emerged: Creating OKRs in this way had a tendency to reinforce silos and discourage cross-functional collaboration, which is anathema to the spirit of OKRs. Simply following the org chart may not be your best alternative for drafting team-based OKRs. Another option is to find teams that are highly dependent on one another and create OKRs for the merged entities. For example, in most organizations, the Sales and Marketing teams must work closely together in order to drive demand and revenue. Marketing finds the leads and supplies media and collateral, which supports Sales’s efforts to convert interested onlookers into paying customers. In this case, it could make sense to create OKRs for Sales and Marketing as one cross-functional unit, which of course enhances collaboration and diminishes the silo mentality. A potential challenge with the dependent-teams approach is the fact that in modern organizations, the pairings aren’t likely to be so clean because of the vast web of interconnectedness among most teams operating today. When I ask teams who they depend on for success, they rarely isolate their response to one other team. There’s often a dominant partner, but other dependencies exist as well. In deciding whether to use the dependent-teams method, determine whether the core relationship or partnership among two teams is strong enough to warrant working together on creating merged OKRs. In other words, if they can’t be successful without one another, there is a legitimate case for merged OKRs. Creating team OKRs for customer segments And now, in the spirit of a 3 a.m. infomercial peddling that hydrospa hand massager you just can’t live without: But wait, there’s more! You may also want to create team-based OKRs in reference to specific customer segments, or points along the way of the customer’s journey with your company. An online retailer, for instance, could create OKRs for teams aligned with the checkout process, or the subscription process, or something else. Doing so has the advantage of driving collaboration among teams devoted to a specific outcome, but on the flip side it’s not immune to the difficulty of ensuring that the relationship between the groups is strong enough to warrant shared OKRs. (In case you’re wondering, I didn’t make up the hydrospa hand massager; QVC really did sell them at $40.) Creating individual OKRs for the entire organization Encouraging OKRs at the organization-wide level includes, of course, the controversial practice of having individual OKRs. You may be thinking, “Google uses individual OKRs, right? So shouldn’t everyone?” And besides, is the question of using individual OKRs even up for debate, and what makes it a “controversial practice”? Yes, Google does it, but you may not want to Google, the poster child for all things OKRs, does have a history of using the framework at the individual employee level, but you have to keep in mind that OKRs were literally baked into the culture of Google practically from day one through John Doerr’s influence with the founders. The system grew along with the company and has become an ingrained part of their culture, which is something most organizations cannot say. But even within the Googleplex, there are whispers of discontent over the practice, and some question its value. Most organizations should consider individual level OKRs optional, if they consider it at all. If you do believe that individual OKRs are right for your company, it’s most likely because you can envision the system driving alignment throughout the entire enterprise. You also likely subscribe to the notion that giving employees the chance to write an OKR will boost their support of the system because they will no longer see OKRs as a “corporate thing” but something that they themselves engage with and can potentially benefit from. Both are valid points, but on the “pro” side of the ledger, that’s all I’ve got. Switching to the “con” side, however, reveals a host of potential problems with individual level OKRs. I’ll use an example of an individual OKR to introduce some challenges with the practice. Following is one from a software engineer — and I’m not picking on engineers; I’ve seen similar (in tone, style, and direction) from finance professionals, marketers, HR staff, you name it: Objective: Improve my programming skills to help the company release products faster. Key results: Read the five most popular books on programming on Amazon.com. Take three courses on programming languages. Attain Oracle MySQL certification. When charged with creating OKRs, most individuals will automatically default to personal development goals like those above. Absolutely nothing is wrong with personal development, and of course everyone should be actively encouraged to set goals for improvement. However, if you’re hewing to the true intent of OKRs, your aim is to demonstrate business impact. The key results in the preceding example are binary “outputs” that fail to demonstrate how this programmer is contributing to the company’s goal of releasing products faster in a quantitative fashion. Determining and communicating your OKRs philosophy, whether or not you’ll allow personal development goals as part of OKRs, will help ensure consistency in the OKRs created across the organization.

Article / Updated 08-03-2023

Effective interpersonal communication is a critical soft skill, both in professional and personal interactions. It's the process by which people exchange information, feelings, and intention through active listening and verbal and nonverbal messages. To successfully communicate with others both at work and in life, you must first be able to connect with them. I want to repeat that because it’s so important: Connect first. Communicate second. That means you have to listen. Listen first and talk second. Wait. What? Who does that? People with effective interpersonal communication skills, that’s who. Interpersonal communication is all about making connections; it focuses on building meaningful relationships. Listening first, talking second Human beings have one mouth and two ears for a reason: so I would listen twice as much as I speak. Sadly, that’s not the way it works most of the time. Our ears may work perfectly well, and we may hear just fine. The problem is I don’t put them to work often enough. I don’t really listen. The difference between hearing and listening is important: Hearing is what happens when you receive the auditory stimulus of someone else speaking, and you go through motions of listening: nodding your head and/or changing your expressions while your mind and/or your fingers are busy doing something else. Listening is what happens when you receive the auditory stimulus but you also connect and communicate with your entire person and keep your mind focused on the message the speaker is conveying. Listening tells the person speaking to you, “I’m here, front and center, and I hear you. I get it.” Framing the walls of disconnection Making a connection with someone when you’re hearing but not listening is hard. If you’re doing something other than focusing on the conversation happening right in front of you — for example, thinking about what you want for lunch or what you want to do this weekend — rather than building an effective relationship, you’re erecting a wall of disconnection blocks that keeps you from really communicating and connecting. We need to talk about those pesky disconnection blocks and how people build walls with them. As they say, knowledge is power. The following are common disconnection blocks that get in the way of successful communication. Not all of them come into play in every personal and professional communication situation, but being aware of them when communicating with others at work and in life is essential. Think about your listening skills as you review each block. Rehearsing: When someone is talking and you’re busy silently rehearsing or planning your own reply, you’re breaking your listening concentration and blocking the opportunity for a real connection. Judging: If you’re focused on how the person you’re communicating with is dressed or how they look or speak, you can prejudge the speaker, dismiss their idea as unimportant or uninformed, and put up a disconnect block. Identifying: When you’re listening to someone tell a story but are so occupied thinking about your own experience that you launch into your own story before the person is finished telling theirs, you may lose sight of what the other person was trying to communicate, and you definitely miss the connection. Advising: If you try to offer advice before a person has finished explaining a situation, you may not fully understand the situation. Sparring: If you’re focused on disagreeing with what someone is saying, you’re probably not giving that person an honest chance to fully express their thoughts. Put-downs: When you use sarcastic comments to put down someone’s point of view, you can draw that person into an argumentative conversation in which neither of you hears a word the other says. The result: dis-connection. Being right: If you’re so intent on proving your point or adamantly refusing to admit to any wrongdoing, you may end up twisting the facts, shouting, and making excuses. These actions may confuse and upset both you and the person you’re talking to. Derailing: When you suddenly change the subject while someone is talking or joke about what they’re saying, you’re likely to weaken that speaker’s trust in both you and your ability to show understanding. Smoothing over: When you’ll do anything to avoid conflict or often choose to agree with what someone is saying simply because you want others to like you, you may appear to be supportive. However, never expressing a personal point of view is an obvious signal that you aren’t fully engaged in the conversation. Daydreaming: If you tune out while someone is talking to you and let your mind wander from random thought to random thought, you’ve completely disconnected from the conversation. Listen with curiosity. Speak with honesty. Act with integrity. The greatest problem with communication is that people don’t listen to understand. They listen to reply. When you listen with curiosity, you don’t listen with the intent to reply. You listen for what’s behind the words. Completing the connection with the three Vs Effective interpersonal communication is less about how well you’re able to converse and more about how well you’re able to be understood. Your ability to make that oh-so-important connection comes into play. Connecting and communicating effectively with others is as easy as the three Vs: the visual, the vocal, and the verbal components of a conversation. The three Vs represent how much information you give and receive when you communicate with others. When you incorporate all three Vs into your interpersonal communication skill set, your personal and professional interactions can be amazingly easy, effective, and successful. To create and cultivate effective interpersonal communication skills and to make a 100 percent genuine connection with another person, you must communicate with your entire being: your ears, your eyes, your words, and your heart! Doing the math Most people probably think “verbal” is the most important of the three Vs for effective communication. After all, if you’re not saying anything, how can you possibly communicate? The real math tells a different story: Visual interpersonal communication (your body language) controls 55 percent of all interpersonal communication. Talk about actions speaking louder than words! Vocal interpersonal communication (the tone, quality, and rate of your speaking voice) controls 38 percent of all interpersonal communication. Verbal interpersonal communication (the actual words spoken) controls only 7 percent of all interpersonal communication. Surprise, surprise. On the interpersonal communication importance scale, verbal skills come in dead last. Yep. You read that right. Ninety-three percent of all information given and received in every single conversation is directly related to nonverbal communication skills, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that for effective and successful communicators, how you say it counts more than what you say. Lucky for you, you only need to sharpen two tools to cultivate your nonverbal communication skills, and you already have both: your eyes and your ears. When you connect with your ears, you give every conversation a 38 percent interpersonal communication boost. Add in your eyes, and you get an extra 55 percent of successful interpersonal communication and connection power. Speaking from the heart Because nonverbal communication elements make up 93 percent of each personal connection, finding a way to make the verbal element — the 7 percent — really, really count is crucial. Every single word matters. And to make the words matter, you also have to connect with your heart by speaking with sincerity and honesty. The ability to share and care matters as much in interpersonal communication as it does with your attitude.

Article / Updated 08-03-2023

Tens of millions of people in the United States, and hundreds of millions of people around the world, supplement their primary jobs with some type of business activities on the side. These people all spend at least some of their professional lives embracing the idea of side hustles. If you've decided to join the side-hustle world, and you've brainstormed your side hustle idea, you'll want to start pulling together a business plan. For help with exploring side-hustle ideas, brainstorming, and the planning steps that lead to this business plan phase, check out my book Side Hustles For Dummies. If you’ve ever done a jigsaw puzzle, you know that you typically start with a little portion of the overall puzzle in, say, the top left corner. Then maybe you shift to working on the bottom right side; then move to somewhere in the middle; and so on. That's sort of how you put a business plan together — a document that eventually shows the whole picture. When it comes to business plans, you have a little bit of a challenge on your hands: If you put 10 people in a room, you’ll get 20 opinions about what a business plan should look like! You’ve probably come across this same problem when you worked on your résumé, with one person telling you to structure your résumé one way, and another person indignantly disagreeing and insisting that you write your résumé a totally different way! I have some good news for you when it comes to trying to make sense out of all the different guidance you’ll find for how to write a business plan: For a side hustle, you have a lot more leeway in the order of topics that you cover — and even what you do and don’t include — than if, say, you’re putting together a business plan in search of a large bank loan or millions of dollars of venture capital investment. Maybe, someday, if your side hustle really hits its stride and starts growing toward your ideal scenario, you’ll have to worry about making sure that your business plan matches the structure that a bank or private equity firm, or some venture capital company, insists on seeing. For now, though, think in terms of pitching your side hustle to yourself — an audience of one. Are you painting a cohesive and compelling picture of how to get your side hustle going? If your side hustle is a gig-economy job, such as delivery services or ridesharing, you can probably skip over the whole business-plan stuff. However, if your gig services are along the lines of pet-sitting or bartending or doing handyman work — basically, if you’re setting up a small-business structure even though you plan to land gigs from side hustle–oriented platforms — you should at least jot down bullet points for most of the business plan sections. Your side hustle business plan should include the following sections. A short overview and a really short elevator pitch If you're in the business plan phase of your side-hustle planning, you should be able to clearly articulate exactly what your side hustle is going to be, so write it down! In fact, write it down twice! Start off your business plan with both: A one-paragraph (two paragraphs at most) highly summarized version of every key aspect of your side hustle A single-sentence elevator pitch that summarizes your summarized version (got that?) even more! Having an elevator pitch means being able to describe an idea so persuasively in about the duration of the typical elevator ride that the person to whom you’re talking is crystal clear about the most critical or unique aspects of your concept. As an example, one side-hustle starter's — let's call her Sarah — business plan starts with: "I will design, craft, and sell custom-made jewelry. I will build a Shopify site that I will promote using online marketing and advertising techniques, such as Facebook and Instagram ads, Google Ads, and short demonstration videos on YouTube and TikTok, that will link to my site. I will run the business out of my house. I’ve lined up primary and backup suppliers for all materials and tools." Then Sarah adds her elevator pitch: "I will sell custom-made jewelry from my Shopify site that I will promote through a variety of online ads." As Sarah works her way through the rest of her business plan, she can refer back to this section and adjust the wording as necessary. For now, though, she has placed a stake into the fertile side-hustle soil and is ready to start planting. Your time commitment Your business plan is for a side hustle, so you need to be crystal clear with yourself about exactly how much time you plan to spend on your venture. Plus, if you have specific time constraints, like “only evenings after work,” or “only on weekends,” or “only on Wednesday evening and all day Saturday,” you need to acknowledge these constraints and write them down. As you go through the rest of your business plan, you now have an “official statement” that describes your available time that you can use as a sanity check for your side hustle’s details. For example, suppose you plan to do software development on the side. However, because of extra hours you need to work at your full-time job, you only have about 15 hours a week available for your side hustle. You can certainly take on a little bit of software development here and there, but you’ll need to focus on shorter-duration tasks, such as building template-based websites or doing some light software configuration rather than heavy-duty application development. If you don’t have a full-time job and, instead, have a portfolio of several different side hustles, documenting your available time is still important to help make sure that your side hustles don’t clash because of conflicting demands for your time. Your schedule and major milestones Whatever your side hustle is, you have an idea of what you'd like it to be in the future. Maybe your longer-term plan is built around expanding your business, or maybe you have no intentions of growing your business at all, and you just intend to get a little business up and running and keep it going. Think about what your side hustle will look like in time increments that make sense for you — three or six months from today, in a year, three years, etc. Regardless of your expectations and the timeline for those, document it all in your business plan, along with key milestones and decision points along that timeline. Key players in your side hustle Your business plan also should include the other people and companies you'll need to connect with. If you plan to make and sell clothing, who will be your wholesale suppliers? Who will be your key points of contact — the actual people — at each one of those wholesalers? As another example, if your side hustle will be buying and selling baseball cards and other sports collectibles, will you do this via eBay, or other auction houses? Revisiting our jewelry maker, Sarah, who will be her suppliers of metals and tools? No matter what your side hustle is, and even if you’re going solo, you’ll almost certainly be involved with other people and companies at some point. Write all of these details down in your business plan, including any designated backup companies or services that you may switch to at some point. Your customers You need to identify who will comprise your target market (the people to whom you’ll try to sell your products or watch your videos or take your course, or for whom you’ll provide weekend landscaping or bartending services, or whatever your side hustle is). Sometimes, your target market can (and should) be as broad as possible. After all, if you have a potential customer out there somewhere in the world, why not try to attract that person to your business? For example, you might be selling clothing and accessories online to “the world at large” — basically, anybody who wants to place an order on your website for a blouse or leisurewear or a necklace can do so. You might get to know some of your regular customers, but for the most part these customers will be anonymous to you. In other situations, you should narrow your target market to better focus on catching the attention of a person or another business even more likely to be in your side hustle “sweet spot.” For example, Sarah’s customer base will be broad, at least initially. At some point down the road, Sarah may wholesale her jewelry to other online and in-person retailers for them to retail. At that point, she needs to go back and adjust her business plan to more precisely target certain customers — maybe not specific names of people and businesses, but at least descriptions of the types of retailers to which she’ll sell her jewelry. Startup money, budget, and financial projections This part of your business plan includes how much startup capital you’ll need, how to budget, how to forecast sales and expenses, and more. Your business plan needs to include the key aspects of the financial side of your side hustle. (How to figure out all of these things is my book Side Hustles For Dummies.) Pretend that you’re pitching your side hustle to an investor, and you also happen to be that investor. Convince yourself that you have all your financial ducks in a row. How you’ll operate This part of your business plan should include the business processes through which you’ll operate your side hustle. And you should add as much detail as possible. For example, Sarah’s side hustle has nine internal processes: buying materials and tools, deciding on her product list, building her website and storefront, and so on. She needs to take each of those processes and break them down into the underlying steps that she’ll do. She can simply list the steps as bullet points or a numbered list. Risks and mitigation It's important to consider the risks involved in your side hustle idea, and how you could mitigate those risks. List how you intend to counteract and neutralize the risk. As you’ve been working through your business plan, you may have come across a new risk or two, or come up with a new mitigation strategy for a risk that you’ve already documented. So, spend a little bit of time and take a fresh look at your list, and make any necessary updates. You can check out Business Plans For Dummies by Paul Tiffany and Steven D. Peterson for much more information about business plan structure and content, especially if your side hustle really catches on and you’re looking to take it to that mythical “next level.”