An Opinionated Dame’s Advice On Absolutely Everything You Should Be Doing

 

Well. Almost everything.

And the opinionated dame? Me.

Here it all is: my best advice for 2015, shortened to a few words that will get 2016 cranking for you.

• Don’t waste your time or money on Learning and Development. I mean really.

• Unless you have trust, you’re dead where you stand.

• Don’t waste time chasing clicks. Clicks do not equal engagement, and they certainly don’t equal business.

• If you’re leading or managing change, watch your language.

• Watch what you do. Everything you do communicates something.

• If you’ve gone to the trouble of creating personas, don’t just let them sit there: tell their stories.

• Stop believing in writer’s block: it doesn’t exist.

• Don’t Photoshop yourself out of your brand.

• Build trust through integrity and engagement.

• Intimately know your people. No one else matters.

• You already know what to do to be trustworthy. So just do it.

• Cultivate your damn voice.

• Don’t confuse marketing with communication, and vice versa.

• Don’t confuse content strategy with content marketing strategy, either.

• Once you know the difference, have one of each.

• Deliver the right content, to the right people, via the right medium, with the right vehicle, at the right time. Anything else is a waste of time and money.

• You will screw up. Make the best of it and move on…

• … unless you need to make something up to someone. If you do, don’t be a jerk.

• Also jerky: either paying for, or offering, a $15,000 program for writing your own business book. Don’t do it.

• Don’t write a blog unless you absolutely have to. On my orders. And the orders of everyone else who is sick of crappy blogs.

• Examine your return communications regularly.

• If you’re more creative, you’ll be more creative.

• Before you book a trainer because your staff is problematic, check that it isn’t management, in fact, who is problematic.

• Forget your precious ego, and your special, special feelings.

• Simplify! 

• Stop talking about getting out of your comfort zone already.

• Stop using personality tests as a measure of whether people can do the job. It doesn’t work.

• Say thanks. Often.

• Slash and burn through your social media contacts.

• Be consistent.

• Be present.

• When you tell your stories, focus on the emotional truth.

• Know what you want, and what the problem is.

• If you don’t know why anyone should care about what you’re trying to say, you’re just being self-indulgent. Quit it.

• Stop using any kind of –ist language.

• It’s never too late to make a difference in someone’s life. Start now.

 

See you all in 2016! Happy New Year!