Category Archives: Leadership

How to Manage a Multi-Generational Workforce

Posted on by
Reply

In the past, we’ve discussed the different outlooks of each generation; how they like to give, their values, their buying habits. But, what happens when you put them all in one place? How do you manage an office where you have employees from Baby Boomers to Generation Z all working together? Each group has given criticism of the other over the years. How can you get them to work as a team and create a cohesive work environment in which Multi Generations in the Officeindividuals of all generations and outlooks have the chance to succeed? Let’s take a look at what makes each of these generational cohorts tick as well as how to manage and motivate these groups in the office.

First let’s breakdown the main characteristics, values, and attributes of each cohort. Keep in mind these are generalizations of each group and can vary from person to person.

Baby Boomers

  • Born between the years of 1946 and 1964.
  • In 2015, Baby Boomers numbered around 74.9 million in the U.S. and at that time made up 33% of the workforce.
  • They are work-centric, competitive, and goal-oriented in the workplace; and are motivated by positions and prestige. Many are in supervisory roles.

Generation X

  • Born between the years of 1961-1981.
  • This cohort has a population of about 46 million in the U.S. Because of their relatively small size compared to that of the Baby Boomers and Millennials they often get ignored by marketers.
  • In the workplace they are looking for a work-life balance, are tech-savvy, and independent in their work.

Millennials

  • Born between 1980-2000.
  • As of 2012, Millennials numbered around 80 million in the U.S. They now edge out Baby Boomers in size and are the largest generation in Western history as well as the most educated.
  • They are entrepreneurial in nature and value collaboration, diversity, and wellness in the workplace.

Generation Z

  • Born around 1995-2010.
  • Are around 74 million in number in the U.S. This number may continue to grow depending on immigration.
  • The oldest of this cohort are around 21 and just entering the workforce. They are entrepreneurial and practical.

Looking at these generational groups there are many different values and characteristics across them. Each has different aspects about work that drives them and what they value in a job. Managing a workforce which includes members of most if not all of these groups may seem impossible, but it is not. Here are several things to keep in mind when managing a diverse group:

Create a communication standard: Each generation has its own preference when it comes to communicating and these differing opinions can cause friction between the groups. For example, Baby Boomers are more formal in their communication, Millennials and Generation Z are fine with a text message. Setting a standard for how certain information should be communicated within the office can take personal and generational preference out of the equation and help avoid any confusion and tension.

Get them talking: Bring together a diverse group of individuals from each cohort; have them get to know each other and keep it casual. Let them talk about their differences, what they care about, and how they can better workplace relationships between the generations. In this group, you can create a new hybrid group, a “cocktail cohort” which can help foster understanding throughout the office.

Consider the individual: Though we are talking about characteristics of different age groups, this does not mean you should blindly assume that depending on which generation they fall in that they embody all or any of the attributes of said group (this Millennial hates that). Get to know your employees’ interests and be flexible and open; adjust management styles when needed. All employees want to feel they are needed and the work they do matters.

As the office demographic ebbs and flows with the retiring of Baby Boomers and additions from Generation Z, management styles will be in flux. It is important to also keep the outlook of your organization in mind when managing all employees. A multi-generational office should not be looked at negatively; use the diversity it allows to your advantage.

Looking Back on INBOUND16

Posted on by
Reply

Cold calling is dead.

It’s just that simple. We now live in a time where marketing no longer reaches out by annoyance but by content filled with rich stories, SEO, automation, analytics, and so many other intuitive methods. Generally anything besides making those awkward phone calls in hopes of securing a customer.

img_8953

That’s the beauty of Inbound Marketing. The barriers have been taken down. The opportunity for creativity and passion to be instilled in the way we choose to represent our brand is endless. Inbound brings forth a new frontier where captivating attention–and day trading it–becomes the holy grail of our marketing efforts.20161108_175314

INBOUND16 brought together over 18,000 attendees who live and breathe in the world of marketing, sales, and CEO-land, as well as HubSpot customers and agencies who understand the mentality and passion behind inbound and organic reach. All of us scurrying from session to session, taking notes and absorbing as many thoughts and tactical tips as possible to bring back to our organizations.

A few INBOUNDers from our marketing department flew to Boston to be a part of the gathering and came back full of insight. Upon landing, these three scattered throughout the convention center to gain the best marketing knowledge in the industry.

In the three and a half days of attendance Cherie, Cody, and Mark witnessed powerful keynote presentations from marketing gurus such as Gary Vaynerchuck, the “eloquently” spoken founder of VaynerMedia and host of #AskGaryVee, as well as Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, Founders of HubSpot. Celebrities filled the halls of INBOUND as well. Stories of the rise and grind were told by Anna Kendrick, Michael Strahan, and Serena Williams. Even Alec Baldwin graced INBOUND16 with his presence one morning! The passionate life-tales and insight didn’t end there. Hundreds of breakout sessions filled all 80 rooms of the Boston Convention center as well as both of their grand ballrooms.20161110_141831_001

To summarize INBOUND completely is almost impossible. To experience this wealth of powerful knowledge and standout mentors, as well as those sharing the field of inbound from around the globe together in one location is something you truly have to be there for.

To squeeze just a little bit of this experience out of the conference we asked our three in-house-INBOUND-incumbents what moments of enlightenment, insight, actionable tips, and fun they experienced individually.

Cherie – PR & Social Media Specialist, ABG Capital: “INBOUND16 was such an incredible experience that it’s difficult for me to pick just one takeaway as my favorite. The initial thought I have anytime I reflect on INBOUND(16) is how amazing it was to be among other people in my field who just “get it.” The fellow attendees understand how crucial it is for us marketers to do what we do for a business. They also understand that while we have the “fun” jobs of the company, what we do takes hard work, strategic planning, analyzation, concentration, and creativity.

I’m downright giddy at INBOUND listening to others in my field “talk shop.”  And while my focus at work is on PR and Social Media, I have the opportunity to attend sessions on design, video, content creation, and storytelling, which aids in rounding out my expertise. If you want to be at the top of the sales and marketing field, a trip to INBOUND is a must for getting there!”

I was downright giddy at #INBOUND16 listening to others in my field “talk shop.”

Click To Tweet

 

Mark – Product Manager, InspiraFS:  The Session titled: ‘The Science of Selling: How to Sell the Way our Brains are Wired to be Influenced and Form Buying Decisions’ really stood out for me.

David Hoffeld, The Hoffeld Group stated “63% of the behaviors salespeople deploy decrease the likelihood of a sale.” SAD! As marketers, we should care deeply about how prospects’ brains react to sales strategies. At the end of the day we are trying to drive sales, just in a different environment. There’s no reason we shouldn’t incorporate the science of selling into our content.

 

As #marketers, we should care deeply about how prospects’ brains react to sales strategies. #INBOUND16

Click To Tweet

 

Cody – Inbound Marketing Specialist, ABG Capital: INBOUND showed me that your story matters. Something that outbound, or “interruption marketing,” doesn’t necessarily embrace. Interruption marketing is simply the interruption of someone’s activity to grasp his attention…it’s an annoyance. We’ve all seen in it with spam, pop-ups, ugly banner ads, cold calling, and even TV.

#INBOUND16 showed me that your story matters.

Click To Tweet

In Gary Vaynerchuck’s keynote he explained that the television networks we know and love are becoming extinct. What’s replacing them? Intuitive social media platforms that tell stories. Our iPhones have become the basis of our entertainment. They’re our new television sets. They’re filled with the networks we know and love–Facebook, Twitter, SnapChat, Instagram.

We follow brands and celebrities by choice. Not by interruption. We “tune-in” to their stories, latch onto their content, and implement their output into our daily lives. Not because we were caged into watching a 30 second spot in the middle of the Walking Dead because our On-Demand isn’t working–but because we as a society, we as a human race, place emotional ties into what we view and love–the quality of story-telling.

 

Tactical Advice You Can Use Today20161109_144812

As I said earlier, summing up the lessons learned from INBOUND in their entirety is nearly impossible. However, we can give you few actionable tips that can improve your website and your conversions today!

 

 

Here are some tips you can incorporate right now:

  • Remove your slider/carousel hero banner. These diminish CTR (Click Through Rate) and take away from your value proposition.
  • A value proposition–you should have one! Peep Laja with ConversionXL has one of the best articles on how to create a great value proposition. Read it and test yours starting today. If you find this hard, just pretend someone asked you what you do and how you’re different. Once you’ve compiled that, organize it into a value prop and get it up on your site.
  • Define your conversion funnel assumptions. When someone lands on your homepage, where would he or she logically go next? Make that next step easier. That’s conversion optimization in a nutshell, and you can try that for each page. Use any data you have, or start with assumptions and test, test, and test some more.
  • Optimize your blog. Aside from your homepage, your blog is probably the second highest visited part of your website. You’d be surprised how your blog is leaking opportunities to convert.
  • Testing…Testing…Testing! So how can you do that? Add Hotjar to your site today. This will show you heatmaps, user recordings, and more.

Start using these tips today! We’ll be sure to enlighten you with more after INBOUND17. Grab your tickets for next years INBOUND with your company; you never know, we might just happen to see you there!

 

ABG Capital to Attend Fall 2016 Growth Summit

Posted on by
Reply
logo-copy

Source: gazelles.com

Staying current on the latest strategies for recruitment, execution, development, and operations is key. It’s a tool that ABG Capital uses to sharpen their current skill sets. It’s hard to argue that attending the Gazelles Growth Summit isn’t worth the time and travel. Especially when you’re recognized and awarded time and time again for growth, culture, and employee satisfaction. This year alone ABG Capital and its portfolio companies have reeled in eleven awards from Inc. 5000, Pittsburgh Business Times’ 100 Fastest Growing Companies, and Inc.’s 50 Best Places to work…just to name a few!

As some of you may or may not know, ABG Capital attends the Gazelles Summit, presented by Fortune, twice a year. The spring Summit focuses on leadership and the fall Summit focuses on growth. There, top news-makers and thought-leaders along with hundreds of executive teams from participating companies are gathered for two intense days of learning, networking, and idea generation.These recognitions have been earned as a result of not neglecting their own education and development as a whole.

This past spring the Growth Summit focused on Verne Harnish’s book Scaling Up- Mastering the Rockefeller Habits. A book designed to scale a “hyper-growth” business. The book and the seminar have a very specific focus; it’s written with so-called “gazelles” in mind; ambitious, small, entrepreneurial firms that make the transition to hyper-growth companies. Those are companies where a month, or a quarter is more like a year for a regular business. When you’re growing that fast you need some guiding principles, or rules to run by. Verne Harnish created the “Rockefeller Habits” based on the leadership and management principles used by John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil. (Often regarded as the richest person in history).

It’s safe to say that whatever stage of business you’re at, this book is packed with practical things you can implement in this moment to make a noticeable difference to the performance of your company.

As we’ve discussed in a previous post, the book focuses on 3 habitual pillars:

  • Priority: Does the company have their Top 5 objective priorities for the year and quarter, and a clear Top 1 priority? Does everyone in the company have his or her own priorities aligned with these? Priorities matter because you’ll make faster progress by focusing everyone’s energies on one area.
  • Data: Does the company have sufficient feedback on a daily and weekly basis to ensure the company is running and the market is demanding? This will also help you predict the near-future.
  • Rhythm: Does the company have an effective pattern of well-organized daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual meetings to maintain alignment and drive accountability?

The book goes into depth on how to make sure you’re doing these three things right, as well as touching on company culture and how to recruit effectively.

What about this fall’s Growth Summit? It will focus on the idea and implementation of acquired contacts, deal flow, and knowledge as being the fundamental key sources of business development. Gazelles International will bring together experts in leadership, strategy, marketing, sales, operations, and finance to create a best-in-class interactive educational experience.

This gives #businessowners the opportunity to become the leader they’ve always imagined they could be–while surpassing all competition.

Click To Tweet

This gives business owners the opportunity to become the leader they’ve always imagined they could be–while surpassing all competition. This Summit will teach the ideas and tools of connecting with people that will propel any enterprise to the next level.

Some of the ideas and principles at this fall’s Growth Summit:

  • Building new connections & nurturing leads
  • Discovering best practices & discussing case studies
  • Develop skills surrounding client acquisition & facilitation
  • Participation in spirited round tables & challenge convention
  • Presentations from renowned news makers & thought leaders
  • Expertise gained by implementing the Four Decisions
It has never been more important for #leaders of growth companies to make the right decisions about people, strategy, execution, and cash.

Click To Tweet

It has never been more important for leaders of growth companies to make the right decisions about people, strategy, execution, and cash. ABG Capital will continue their education in the days to come at the fall Growth Summit in order to continue cultivating their growth in all facets.

Keep checking in for our follow up post as we uncover what we have learned and improved on, all stemming from the lessons learned at the Growth Summit!

4 Keys to Success from the Gazelles Growth Summit

Posted on by
Reply

It’s that time of year again–time for the annual Gazelles Growth Summit! ABG Capital’s top dogs are fortunate enough to travel once again to this learning event in Atlanta to continue their growth and education in the world of leadership.

ABG Capital, along with hundreds of other business owners, will learn from CEOs of some of the world’s top companies to understand their habits, experiences and insights to craft an industry dominating strategy!

gazelles 1This year’s summit is focused on Verne Harnish’s book Scaling Up- Mastering the Rockefeller Habits 2.0. There will be a buffet of knowledgeable guest speakers presenting, including Jim Whitehurst, David Butler and Aubrey Daniels just to name a few. Also, team workshops that focus on the “Rockefeller Habits 2.0” in a day-long spirit of “how-to” interaction, collaboration and networking will be featured.gazelles 2

Today we’re going to dig right into the meat and potatoes of Scaling Up and showcase how ABG Capital practices the four main strategies found in the book on the day-to-day.

To summarize the book (which is almost sacrilegious to do), Harnish focuses on four keys to scaling your business. Keys that allow some companies to “make-it” and the rest to fall.

The keys are:

  1. Attract and keep the right people
  2. Create a truly differentiated strategy
  3. Drive flawless execution
  4. Have plenty of cash to weather the storms

The People

The book states that the job of the leaders is to make sure the right people are doing the right things.

Your values and culture should be so strong that they act like an immune system, forming a system of protection against those who may not align, all for the greater good and health of your organization.

At ABG Capital we invest in our employees. We cultivate them and promote their growth and success. We shape our employees into their roles and allow them embrace their passions. When everything aligns, it’s almost magical. It’s wonderful to see our teams share our C.O.R.E. Values, make them their own and embrace their responsibilities. Our organization exists almost as an accounting statement. Each produced effort has a column with numbers of the extraordinary people responsible. It only becomes problematic when those names in the column don’t align with the work and values presented.

Some companies may think turnover is a scary outcome within their business. It’s actually a good outcome. Only when you invest in your employees are they at the peak of strength. Why? You’re weeding out the B and C players that eventually become toxic to your A players–the players in which you invest.

The only way to grow a company is people first. Invest in development and your outcomes will flourish.

Click To Tweet

The Strategy

Core values are the rules and boundaries that define our company’s culture and personality. They’re also the rules and boundaries that define our strategy. We developed a set of C.O.R.E. Values that have helped define our niche, simplify our execution and turn our revenue into profit. Our strategy is differentiated due to the fact that each of our portfolio companies has a Profit Per X. Meaning that our companies individually have one product, service, technology etc. that sets them apart from the rest.

gazelles 3

We each also have a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal), a long term goal that changes the nature of business. For example VoIP Innovations, one of ABG Capital’s portfolio companies, differentiates their X Factor, which is their BackOffice software that is unlike anything in the industry today. VoIP Innovations also has a BHAG of offering complete Choice, Automation and Control of their telecom services. Scaling Up teaches us that we need to sandbox our brand promises. Who are our customers? What are we really selling them? What are our three brand promises? And the most important; how do we measure?

The Execution

At ABG Capital we like to focus on three key components to steer our ship in the right direction: priority, data and rhythm. We pride ourselves in focusing on these three words in all that we do. What does that mean exactly? Well let’s break it down. Priority–when you come in to the office bright and early, just poured yourself a coffee and sat down at your desk, you should have a piece of work carried over from the previous work day that needs to be finished before your meeting. This task becomes your priority. Each business day should present a new priority; that one project, simple or complex that needs to be completed before moving on to anything else.

Collecting data requires us to have data. Key performance indicators (KPIs) must be identified, and effort needs to be expended to capture this information. ABG Capital’s KPIs vary between companies and KPIs enable us to measure how we are performing by revealing both areas in which we excel and those in which improvement is needed.

Rhythm is the heartbeat of your organization. Have a daily huddle. This 5-15 minute meeting should be implemented to discuss tactical issues and provide updates. Brief, daily meetings will help establish a rhythm, as can weekly, monthly and quarterly meetings. Meetings are useful for obtaining feedback, getting “real” information, reviewing KPIs and identifying problems that prevent things from running smoothly.

Meetings can even provide those all-too-rare opportunities to pat people on the back and “recharge their batteries.”

The Cash

In Scaling Up,  Harnish says to never blame the industry for your company’s financial situation. “Well, this is just the way it is in our industry,“ isn’t a phrase you’ll hear uttered from top executives. Could you imagine Warren Buffett or Mark Zuckerberg giving a shrug followed by these words? In fact, Harnish says there are only two time-frames that matter: 90 days, 10 years and nothing in between.

Your 90-day plan is data driven, and you’re focused on overcoming the choke point. This is your time to review a daily report of available cash and to note why it has changed in the last 24 hours. Recognizing these changes and following the efficiency and progress of your “rhythm” will promote huge growth in the next decade. So no more excuses–only improvements!

Leadership in a Small Business

Posted on by
Reply

At some point in everyone’s career, they will have a supervisor who gives them direction and expects them to be followed with no deviation. In most organizations today, this can be considered an “old school” way of overseeing an organization or department. This way of thinking has been replaced by models of leadership. Being a leader, rather than a “by the book” supervisor is incredibly important in any size organization, but especially in a small organization. So how do you ensure you have leadership in a small business?

office meeting

Small organizations, such as ours (which has around 55 employees), need to use resources wisely. By leading your team, rather than telling them what to do, you are able to give everyone a voice which leads to ideas and invention; rather than just “getting the job done.” Leadership also inspires future leaders and helps with organizational succession planning.

“If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.” – George S. Patton

Click To Tweet

The following, from General Patton’s book on Leadership, will help you understand the basics of good leadership. At ABG Capital, we try to inspire current and future leaders through innovative leadership training.

L – Leaders develop through ability, desire, and opportunity

E – Effectively develop people

A – Address issues proactively

D – Develop potential by leading and making decisions

E – Earn the respect of others

R – Respond

S – Single out and clearly define expectations

H – Have desire and trust to lead unpredictable times

I – Identify the right questions

P – Provide open, honest, trusting, and respectful communication

We’ll leave you with a few more Patton quotes to take with you and keep in mind while you’re leading at the office.

“Always do everything you ask of those you command.” – George S. Patton

“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” – George S. Patton

Do you have any favorite quotes or mantras that help you as you lead your team?