Resiliency First

While I typically focus on career and life resiliency issues, many of you have asked me to discuss ways blogging can be used for professional as well as for personal endeavors. My free resiliency blog, which began as a way for me to stay healthy and focused after a layoff, has now helped me very humbly gain visibility and credibility worldwide on resiliency topics. I am so grateful that the blog has also assisted me in beginning my successful speaking and writing business.

In these challenging times, blogging can be one of many very effective and resilient tools in communicating with your employees and the world on a whole myriad of topics. As many of us use blogging as a way to express ourselves, there are numerous ways corporations can find ways to strategically make blogging work for them internally – and externally.

In a recent national survey, blogging for work purposes is now seen as an important way to help maintain a resilient mindset among employees. Many corporations – large and small – are looking at blogging as a way to get their executives closer to employees, while offering them a “real time” way to communicate with each other – especially in different offices and remote locations.

As I’ve talked with terrific folks like you worldwide, finding ways to further communicate messages or bring teams closer together are definitely at a premium in these very challenging economic times. If done appropriately, corporate or business blogging can become one of your most innovative and resilient ways to communicate messages that may be more effective than using traditional communications techniques.

A Resilient Beginning

Firstly, I’d encourage you to think about the following workplace questions:

Do you see blogging as only a fad with little obvious use in a business setting? Are you a bit apprehensive that your supervisors at your company would not see recommending corporate blogging positively? Do you see your current set of communications vehicles at work satisfactory in effectively getting information out throughout the company? Are you not sure of the various “out-of-the-box” ways of communicating such as business blogging is right for your company or corporate culture?

If you’ve answered “yes” to any of these questions, don’t feel alone. A recent national survey of managers and supervisors found that 83 percent of us said “yes” to at least one of these questions. More than 50 percent said “yes” to all of them.

Are you surprised? I wasn’t. I have spent the last 25 years successfully (or at least mostly successfully) testing and implementing new communications techniques. I remember when e-mail was in its infancy and there were good folks saying that such communications vehicles would not be used much except in personal correspondence.

As I highlight my journeys with blogging, here are a few corporate facts to mull over:

- 55% of corporations have adopted blogs for both internal (91.4%) and external (96.6%) communications, and are finding significant benefit to both forms.

- 70% of those corporations not yet blogging plan to start.

- More than half of all corporate blogs have started within the last year and penetrated nearly all industries.

The Possibilities Are Endless

After a layoff earlier this year because of the economy’s perfect storm, this truly tragic and painful experience led me to create a personal life and career resiliency blog for my health – http://resiliencyfirst.com. My blog’s success is now attracting more than 20,000 great folks like you worldwide monthly. This has propelled me to start a resiliency speaking and writing business reaching 100s of thousands – and I hope eventually millions – worldwide with the strategies for those who are struggling at work or looking for their next great work adventure.

Unique Ways to Convey Messages

As I was creating my business blog, I have made sure my writings stay “real” using my personal business experiences and my life-long challenges as a person with a physical disability (Cerebral Palsy). Both highlight common-sense resiliency strategies for career and life success.  The keys for me have been to be authentic, write about something I know about and tell my true feelings about myself and my resiliency topics – warts and all.

Importantly for my business, this also included:

1. What value will I provide my audience? If you don’t provide value you won’t get folks back.

2. What specific subjects can I write about in a timely manner?  I’ve now written 40 articles reaching so many folks worldwide.

3. What will get your attention? How do I get them to read it and think they should. Headline and first paragraph are everything. If they read nothing else that gives you the gist.

4. Write like you’d like to be written to…

Our Own Individual Deck of Cards

My physical disability (Cerebral Palsy) affects my walking and the right side of my body. While I don’t mention this lifelong challenge upfront in my speeches, webinars or blog articles, I do highlight some of my personal life experiences that have formed my resilient mindset in life. These “real moments” are so important in keeping your messages worthwhile to your audiences – whether corporately or for your personal experiences.

I suggest you always remember that the needs to be passionate, real, not preachy, gauge your audience and, most importantly, understand the right writing tone the blog should be. A corporate or business blog should not be written like a newsletter or an e-mail. Through my experience, it is best to write the piece in first person – as you may talk with someone over coffee.

Understandably, this is easier said than done. But as I write my own business blog, I use personal business experiences as well as my life vignettes to provide practical resiliency examples and strategies to my worldwide audience. I openly talk about my layoff experiences and my physical disability challenges to connect with audiences in my unique way. Again, I try to understand my audience and compassionately relate to their struggles and needs.

I, however, never put my life challenges above anyone else…there are many terrific folks like you that have your own unique set of experiences that may be more challenging than mine. Very humbly again , many have commented that my blog is like talking with them one-on-one…whether they are in Australia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and six of seven continents so far. I am so gratified that this is how I can keep my audience interested – and coming back for more.

For my business, I blog folks to help them tap into their own resilience. I mix in my personal and professional vignettes to show that all of us need to dust ourselves off once in awhile and get back in the “game of life.”

Whether it is me falling and hitting my head on a marble floor in front of work colleagues because of my disability or inevitable work challenges, my messages are always about adapting to circumstances sometimes out of a person’s control. Such real examples resonate with folks because I’m giving them a little of myself and showing that I’m successfully adapting to the cards all of us are dealt in life.

My business blogging  strategy is to show folks they can be more resilient than they think. All of us have a lot going on if only we believe in ourselves.

Why was I Motivated to Create My Blog?

Besides offering me a way to stay healthy after my layoff, helping folks through their struggles – whether looking for work or trying to find their next great adventure – was one of the main reasons I created my site. All of us need a little help and understanding once in a while, and I thought my common sense resiliency strategies might crack open the door to those who have had it had just shut in their face. It’s been a humbling experience having so many great folks like you worldwide follow and comment on my writings on a weekly basis.

This has allowed me business-wise to get established as a great resource, which has translated my demand for resiliency speaking gigs at corporations, colleges, associations and conferences. My blog’s success also has given me the opportunity to create an upcoming web site where I can offer resiliency e-books, taped presentations, audio podcasts and webinars to reach out for those of you looking to build own your own life and career resiliency.

Corporate or business blogging can make a difference in so many ways…

So Blogging is Hard Technically…Not!

As I thought about writing a blog, my main worries were not being able to write effectively or speak in front of terrific groups like this. When I was getting started, my biggest perceived challenge was how to do it technically. What blogging software should I use? How would I update my site regularly, etc., etc.? I may be able to write a speech or article like this in a couple hours, the infrastructure of computer technology can sometimes bring me to my knees for mercy.

I realized I needed to stick with my skill sets of writing and speaking, and seek the assistance of others to set up the technical and infrastructure aspects of my blog. I did some research and contracted with one of my Linkedin friends to set me up, so I could just focus on the creative end of things.

For less than $10 per month and a small set up fee, my Linkedin friend created a blog for me on Word Press, a publishing platform that makes it a snap just to post, post, post.

The key in posting, however, is the frequency in which you do it.

Setting a Schedule

Whether you are doing a business or personal blog, an important key to its on-going success is the frequency of your posts.

The blog became so fortunately a “regular read” for so many folks worldwide. People write me back messages using the words “great,” “fantastic” and “right on” in reaction to my resiliency messages. This “excitement” has translated to a large readership and the opportunity for me to reach out more with a new web site, speeches and webinars.

For my business blog, I post at least one new article every week. My readership is used to the routine now. If I disrupt their expectations and leave the site static for too long, I could ultimately lose credibility, visibility and influence.

Keeping on Subject is Important

I mentioned earlier about understanding your audience and only writing on subjects you know and feel confident about. While I have been a corporate communications executive  for more than two decades, my business blog is not about corporate speak. My business brand is about resiliency in your life and career. My readership is based on discussing candidly – through personal and professional experiences – about such resiliency issues. If I would go off my brand, I would potentially confuse and alienate my audience.

There’s an old saying that I think sums it up for me: “A company’s brand takes much work to attain and an instant to lose.” Staying on subject in a professional or personal blog will keep enriching your brand, so your messages stay pertinent to what your audience expects to hear from you. Please always remember, my friends, to stay on brand.

My Echo Can Be Heard

O.K., I thought I had a great idea about establishing a blog about resiliency. But then I worried about how my potential audience would find my messages. In a corporation, it is a bit easier because you’ve got a captive audience – so to speak – it is just getting them to read and see value in the corporate blog, which we chatted about earlier.

For me, I was out in cyberspace with ten trillion other sites wanting folks to click on them. To build my base following, I used other social media avenues – like Linkedin, FaceBook and Twitter – to link my blog and articles to the world. I also joined an online news publication that I wrote articles about resiliency and “advertised” my blog. It takes a lot of work to get noticed and move your Google analytics get higher and higher.

By using such social media and Internet tools, I’ve been able to get my business blog usually on the first page of searches in Google when folks are looking for info about life resiliency. Updating the blog on a regular basis also helps with the frequency to where my blog is seen.

That’s Great and Everything But What Else Corporately?

Possible ways to use business blogs is to establish a CEO or management blog as a way to offer alternative options to communicate sensitive messages.  Then, to make such a strategy more effective, the next step is to allow employees to post comments in reply to management’s blog entries…this builds a link between the two groups. In this way, executives can keep a finger on the pulse of their workforce, and managers can gain feedback on projects or ideas they might implement. This enables a “flatter” corporate hierarchy in the fashion of many modern corporate structures.

There is, however, more chance for a blogging mishap once you enable employees to leave messages on the blog. The opportunity for something inappropriate to be posted increases drastically.  If employee commenting is to be allowed, a much more involved policy on blogging must be developed. Also, this is a much larger undertaking for the HR and IT departments.

The riskiest and potentially most rewarding internal blogging model allows any employee to start new posts. I have used this corporately in the past. This situation can create a collaborative environment not possible without an online forum having the functionality of blogs. Without blogs, an employee might ask a question of a single or a few co-workers. By posting the question on a blog, a solution may be solicited from anyone in the organization with expertise in the topic.

The right architecture can connect employees from around the world for resource and idea sharing. Teammates can easily keep the whole team informed on project progress, and managers can announce to a whole office when their employees have completed impressive tasks.

Likewise, employees can use the blogs to stay in touch on a personal level. Blogs can be used to organize extracurricular sports leagues or other events, facilitate ticket and garage sales, or share birth and marriage announcements.

Externally Speaking

External blogs are made available on the Internet for the world to read. These are intended for marketing and for developing a community based around your products, brand and thought leadership. External blogs offer a forum for company representatives to communicate with the public. Executives can release important industry relevant news, developers can share product documentation, employees can provide a window into daily life at the organization, and marketers can communicate directly with their target audiences.

Like internal blogs, the external model may also implement systems based on the privileges granted to various users with similar risks and advantages. Stricter

policies create a safer, more legal-friendly blog while looser policies can create a larger and tighter community. Wherever in the policy spectrum a company’s needs lie, there are a number of best practices to follow.

Transparency is Key

People who read and write blogs generally speak plainly and expect others to do the same – whether in the corporate world or not.  Since blogging has become part of the main stream – at least on a personal level – folks are use to quickly dismissing messages that employ buzzwords and marketing speak. It is important that internal or external corporate blog posts always be candid and honest.

As I’ve mentioned, it should also be clear who is blogging and why. Most people want to know the source of any information and blogs are no exception. In the case of corporate blogs, readers will want to know the poster’s position in the organization and the motivation for making public announcements on the Internet.

Bloggers are already on the Internet and use it to relentlessly to check facts and sources. If they feel like a post is an attempt to hoodwink them with half-truths or camouflaged marketing messages, bloggers will make short work of discrediting an author — and the parent company. Credibility is particularly hard to recover in the blogosphere, and failed attempts at slighting the blog community frequently make head- lines. Several case studies address this golden rule of blogging.

There are definitely many more applications you can use corporate or business blogs to your advantage.  My own business example is one of many possibilities for you to ponder. I encourage you to look on the Internet to further expand your business or company’s world of corporate blogs – from customer relationships, to internal collaborations, to knowledge management to, yes, even recruitment.

In my business journeys, I’ve definitely come to realize that blogging is more than just a personal way to communicate your views. It’s a business strategy to enhance brand, image and profit margin.

I hope it also will be a great strategy and opportunity for you and/or your company!

You unfortunately did not receive that deserved promotion or increase in pay at your company. A supposed friend decides to end your 10-year relationship with an e-mail message saying out-of-the-blue, “We have nothing in common anymore.” Your teenage kids are having too many “teen moments” testing your sanity and patience. Your boss tells you today that layoffs will be happening soon including your position.

Those Inevitable Potholes

Life is definitely full of potholes in our world, and I suppose (once or twice) you’ve asked yourself, “Why Me.” I’ve also been through similar obstacles i my life, and I always remember something my Dad told me when I was young: “Never hang your head and focus on the things you can truly control in life.”

For me, this was my attitude when I was younger – I will be turning 50 next month. You see, in addition to all the typical challenges in life, I also had to deal with something not so usual – a lifelong physical disability known as Cerebral Palsy. The disability affects – sometimes significantly – my walking, balance and the right side of my body.

I don’t bring my disability up to tap into your empathy. Some of you may have life challenges more significant than I could imagine. I do bring up my life history because I still sometimes say “Why Me” as I unfortunately trip and hit my head on an unforgiving floor, or my back seizes up if I don’t treat it with “kid gloves.”

Reacting to Inevitable Life Moments

Wow! All of us have our crazy life moments, but my true success in life is how I react from those inevitable obstacles of my disability, a previous job layoff, or humbly starting my successful resiliency speaking biz. Do I pity myself? Do I think my life and career are too much? Do I retreat into an inner safe zone and not come out? Do I make my able-bodied wife, daughter and other loved ones help me unnecessarily?

Getting Back in the Game

No!!! I have rarely hung my head…I have dusted myself off and, to quote a famous Frank Sinatra lyric, “Got back in the game.” This is definitely easier said than done. The pain and heartache you may be going through with your own life challenges could be immense. “A distant connection of mine said he did not want to get out of bed anymore after enduring many, many months of trying to find a new job.

As I mentioned to him, if you are at that point, please see a professional to help guide you through. As I learned with my disability, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. My family and friends have helped me muster even more courage to make a difference and very humbly show the world my unique gifts and talents.

Stopping the Excuse “Merry-Go-Round”

All of us can make excuses, and I especially used the words “I can’t” a lot when I was growing up with a difference in a “normal” society. My parents, again, came to my aid saying, “Never use the words ‘I can’t’ despite the challenges you face every day.” I have never forgotten their words – although inevitably I fall off the “I can’t” bandwagon once in awhile. For you, please don’t worry about things that have happened. Nothing can change a lost relationship, lost job or in the less-than-resilient way you have felt about yourself in the past.

What you can control – and what have found so reassuring – is your resilient attitude to move on and use the values you were taught to overcome, really, anything. If I had let the challenges of my disability consume me, I would not have a very successful 25-year marriage or great career including a very successful resilience speaking business today. I am so gratified that more than 20,000 of you are reading my resiliency blog worldwide on a monthly basis. My family and business have helped allow me to stay resilient and keep believing in myself. I am so fortunate!!!

I have turned my disability into a lifelong, resilient learning experience for me in this sometimes unforgiving but wonderful world. Please view your own unique life circumstances as opportunities for you to do things a bit different and open the true potential of the next stage of your life. I found that I could do it, and I know you can be as fortunate and successfully continue your very rewarding resilient journey!

Take care until next week. Thanks, again, for your continued comments and terrific support as we share a few valued resilient minutes with each other…

By Steve Beseke, beseke1@earthlink.net

Go figure…

You just finished a fantastic job interview that could not have gone any better that day. Your friend also just completed a month-long work assignment feeling confident and refreshed. You both stop at the local pub and have a cool one to share the moment.

Managing Expectations

Your friend the next day meets with his executive team but doesn’t get the terrific response he thought. While he has attained “rock star” status at his company, his superiors tell him “nice job” on the project and “we come to expect such work from you.” He comes out of the meeting a bit mystified that a project potentially saving the company millions was treated so matter-of-factly.

You are just waiting for the company to call for the next interview, which it said for sure would happen in a couple of days. You write a very gracious “thank you” e-mail to the interviewers but nothing happens that day…the next day…or three weeks out even after politely e-mailing them a second time for an update. Then, finally they called back and said another candidate was a “better fit.” Your world comes crashing down…at least for the moment.

All of us have been in similar situations in life…been there, done that. From personal experience in both scenarios, the key for you and your friend is to truly know how to manage your expectations…

You were a great candidate. You had all the skills, experience and know-how to do the job wonderfully. The company’s culture, it seemed, fit you like a glove and the interviewers were very impressed by how you’ve handled job situations in the past. What could you have done differently or better? Absolutely Nothing!!!

I’ve heard this nebulous comment of being the “right fit” too often as I’ve talked with so many friends who are trying to find their next great work adventure. I’ve also been personally part of such interviews in the past, and it is like your gut is kicked several times with increasing intensity.

Your friend also was so use to hearing glowing accolades at work that the “what we come to expect” statement was just not on his/her radar screen. Your friend still did fabulous work but he has set the bar very high because of his past, exemplary work.

In both situations, there was nothing that could have been done any differently on you or your friend’s part. The impressions of the interviewers and superiors were in a sense remarkably the same. “Yes, we know you are very, very good but show me that X factor to get me to react differently.”

In the interview situation, you should have made it into the final group. Your friend should not have his wonderful work taken for granted. Unfortunately, in today’s society, companies never want to be wrong, so they have 10 interviews instead of the more than adequate one or two. Many companies in this economy also look at high performers as oranges waiting to be squeezed dry. They don’t realize that their reactions can prompt a supposedly valued worker to shut down and/or move on.

Because of these tight employment times, some companies will use their advantage to not have the proper personal resp;ect for employees or would-be employees. If we don’t understand these types of unfortunate and unnecessary realities, our expectations come at a sometimes unhealthy price for our mindsets.

Instead of leaving my friend hanging for weeks about the potential job, why couldn’t the company have simply answered his inquiries with a short note like: “We definitely enjoyed our conversation with you and the decision process is taking us longer than we thought. We will be in touch as soon as a decision is made.” Sure, they have a lot on their plates. A five second note, however, is definitely doable…

With your friend, his superiors could have easily said: “Another great job for the company and we appreciate your work.” Today’s economic meltdown should not mean a freeze in the way companies should treat any of us.

I will get off my “soap box” but the point is you cannot control the actions of others. You can control how you manage your own thought process and getting too concerned over the semantics of life. Yes, the companies in both circumstances should have responded differently. Yes, your friend should have received more recognition, and you should have been part of the next interview phase.

The economy is rough and so many good folks are desperately looking for their next paycheck or a little increased recognition by their present employer. I, however, suggest thinking about what I’ve mentioned before in my articles. The only thing you can truly control in your life is your attitude, values and ho you relate to people.

There’s no need to go down the “dark side” and let such incidents disrupt your confidence and belief – as I have sometimes travelled in the past. You are too good a person to let others unduly control your present and future happiness.

Please stay strong my friends. Until next time, take care!

by Steve Beseke, beseke1@earthlink.net

All of us get discouraged once in awhile…it’s only human. A particular day might not be going well because you had a challenging conversation with your spouse, children, your boss or just that your bio-rhythms are a bit out of sync.

Because of my physical disability (Cerebral Palsy) I have to be very careful that my creaky body does not lead me to falling or otherwise “hurting” myself in some other way. This can become very discouraging if I don’t maintain my resilience. In a previous article, I mentioned my inner resiliency voice that has helped me pull through such discouraging life moments – such as smacking my head on a marble floor after a fall in front of work colleagues, or needing stitches after a similar spill many years ago.

While my challenges of walking may be more obvious, all of us must face our own unique discouraging moments – in work and in life – that we’d like to forget. The key in not staying discouraged for me is how I react to those moments. Do I pity myself and become more discouraged…no! Do I want to blame others or retreat into my inner-world…no! Do I dust myself off – whether it is a physical, life or work event – and contine striving for my best…absolutely yes!!! Of course, I may get discouraged once-in-awhile, but I rarely let it consume me where it affects the most important parts of my life – family, friends and believing in myself.

How do you deal with discouraging moments in your life and career? Do you too often let it affect all parts of your day thus perpetuating the discouragement into something less healthy? I truly hope not. If you do, then other parts of my day don’t seem to go as planned, and the discouragement and apprehensiveness will grow.

To minimize such tendencies, I began several years ago to become much more “compartmentalized.” If one part of my day did not go particularly well, I’d quite literally shut the door to that compartment for awhile and open another resilient door I am dealing with currently.

I found, of course,  it is  definitely easier said than done. I’m still not perfect at it, and sometimes a creaky door or two doesn’t firmly shut. But having this mindset allows me to have a life/career strategy that is more healthy and resilient for me. What are your strategies to stop dwelling on things sometimes out of your control?

What I’ve learned, which I suggest you think about, is don’t lump all your worries, challenges and discouraging thoughts into one overwhelming compartment, Instead, find ways to break up these moments into smaller, more manageable subsets that you can deal with individually and not as a collective whole.

I have a number of strengths and, of course, a few weaknesses along the way. One of my “learned” strengths is not trying to deal with all of my day’s challenges together… I’m not very good at dealing with “floods,” and my challenges can group together in a Hurricane Katrina deluge if I don’t stick to sorting them out individually.

I was laid off a number of months ago because of of our country’s economic perfect storm. Man, was I discouraged because this was a dream job and I was tagged as a “rock star” in the organization. Well, such rock stars and more than 1,000 others were let go – not because of performance – in the worst economic meltdown since the great Depression. While I’ve very happily landed on my feet in my successful resiliency speaking biz, the lay off happened at a time when I was not feeling great physically among other issues.

Instead of dwelling on things, you may want to think about what I did: I used my compartmentalization model to reassess what I truly wanted to do for the rest of my career and life at 49. I shut my physically-disabled door to focus on how I could re-craft my personal brand to truly make a living and a difference in this world. Sure, the discouragement of being let go was still there, but I looked at my strengths rather than the past to guide me in a way that increased my confidence, my belief in myself and, quite honestly, a renewed sense of liking who I was/am.

Such discouragement has now led me to a resiliency blog attracting more than 20,000 of you every month, resiliency speaking/webinar gigs to local and national audiences, and a sense that I have found my calling to help you – and me – get through the inevitable struggles of life.

My advice is don’t let discouraging moments overwhelm you. Try to find ways to separate those moments from the other terrific parts of your life. My very dear father died a number of years ago but I kept on -albeit more lonely. I also have been able to bounce back from – what seem like – hundreds of falls in life…

Never feel too discouraged. You bring a unique and marvelous perspective in this world, and you deserve to stay resilient no matter what life holds for you!

Thanks, again, for reading my award-nominated blog. I would feel discouraged without you! Until next week, my friends… Also, please let me know if you’d like me to write about other aspects of resiliency…you can make the difference!