Archive for the ‘Non-Profit’ Category
Boosting the Bottom Line Through Retention
Tags: business, cognitve elaboration, Higher Education, mentoring, Non-Profit, retention
Posted in Business Development, Communication, Higher Education, Internal Communication, Non-Profit on March 1st, 2009
A New York Times article raised an interesting question. Is the GOP losing a generation?
Americans identifying themselves as Democrats outnumber those who say they are Republicans by 10 percentage points, the largest gap in party identification in 24 years.
I wrote shortly after Obama’s election that he had garnered a 66% share of the 18-29 demographic or about 16 million people. Brand loyalty is created as a result of cognitive elaboration (thinking about it) by an individual. Since 16 million young voters assigned a positive attribute to Obama and ultimately the Democratic Party, chances are good the large majority will live a life loyal to the democratic brand. It is a fundamental principle of positioning.
The challenge before us as communication practitioners is not only gaining market share but also retaining those that are loyal to our brand. Higher education needs to retain the students enrolled. Nonprofit must retain core individuals who are active with time or money. Business must retain clients and key employees.
Higher Education
A top down approach to staff and faculty mentoring of students creates a family environment and identifies potential problems before they arise. International or minority students are an extremely high at risk demographic. Faculty and upper classman who reach out to the new students, prior to arrival, are sure to create a bond. It is this sense of inclusiveness that will tie the student to the university well beyond their four years.
Non-Profit
Shifting money from salaries to other priorities sends managers into a never-ending downward spiral of dealing with frequent turnover. An alternative approach is paying more to gain stability, maturity, and the skill sets to sustain long-term initiatives. Retaining those grass roots organizers and donors will be enhanced as the time manager spent on training and retraining staff can now be devoted to personally strengthening key relationships.
Business
Engaging your new clients is very much like higher education. Your account executive should be communicating with the client between projects and not just during the projects. Personal client engagement by senior executives creates an environment of partnership instead of a vendor status.
Employee retention may not be an issue today, however there is a way to thwart key staff turnover when the economy heats up again. Authentic engagement, mentoring and training by senior management today will pay dividends in the future.
None of us can afford to lose a generation of students, customers or employees. How we manage our human relations with stakeholders will ensure that we don’t fall into a chasm of disconnect and disinterested.
I Can See Clearly Now
Tags: commitment, jim collins, Leadership, Peter Drucker, right thing, standards of excellence, Vision, warren bennis
Posted in Higher Education, Internal Communication, Leadership, Non-Profit, Recruitment, Vision on November 24th, 2008
I can see clearly now, the rain is gone,
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It’s gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)
Sun-Shiny day.
This Johnny Nash song (listen here) always picks me up. So when I heard it the other day, I took a timeout from the task at hand. The lyrics got me to thinking about how leadership’s vision can help everyone “see clearly”.
Authors Jim Collins, Peter Drucker and James Burns to name a few, talk much about getting the right people on the bus in the right seats. Jim Collins specifically identifies one key trait that was held by all successful leaders, humility.
One definition of leadership for your consideration is that of Warren Bennis, Ph.D., “Managers are people who do things right, while leaders are people who do the right thing.”
Doing the right thing for our businesses, employees, families and ourselves is not mutually exclusive. In fact, I would suggest that they are inextricably woven together. It defines the overall leadership quality of an individual. When you can achieve that balance in the leadership paradigm you have reached the leadership equivalent of nirvana.
Advancing the right thing requires effective vision and the ability to communicate. Henry Kissinger said, “If you do not know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere.” It’s important to note that your vision is not the same as the company’s mission. The vision is where you are going. The mission describes who the organization is and what it does.
Behavioral research scientist and author Burt Nanus suggest that there are four characteristics of effective vision.
Attracts Commitment and Energizes People
People are willing, even eager, to commit to worthwhile projects. An effective vision inspires people by transcending the bottom line.
Creates Meaning for Followers
People look for and find meaning in their work lives. When groups and organizations share a vision, individuals see themselves not just as sales clerks or assembly workers or whatever else their job demands, but as part of a team providing a valuable product or service.
Vision Establishes a Standard of Excellence
Most people want to do a good job. A shared commitment to excellence provides a standard for measuring performance. Establishing a standard of excellence, helps followers identify expectations and provides a model for the distinctive competence of a group or organization.
Bridges the Present and the Future
By bridging the present and future, an effective vision transcends the status quo by linking what is happening now with what should happen in the future. This is why many are calling Barack Obama a transformational politician. His rhetoric has consistently linked the present with the future.
As James Collins and Jerry Porras explain in their book, Built to Last, organizations with a well-articulated vision that permeates the company are most likely to prosper and have long-term success. And isn’t that what we all want?
Look all around, there’s nothin’ but blue skies
Look straight ahead, nothin’ but blue skies
