Since our last newsletter there have been a number of significant sporting occasions. Regardless of who you support, there are wonderful analogies between sport and business. Hawthorn’s Grand Final three-peat, the Cowboys fairy-tale Grand Final win with Johnathan Thurston’s extra time drop goal, a fourth RWC finals appearance for both the Wallabies and All Blacks and the complete dominance of Australia and New Zealand in world netball all have the hallmarks of not only successful teams, but outstanding organisations.

Arguably the most successful team in sporting history, the All Blacks have won 77% of their games since 1903, are the only international side with a winning record over every country they have played and have only been beaten by 5 nations in their 112 year history. As the first team to defend the RWC and to win three RWC finals, the question is how has this remarkable feat been achieved by the All Blacks?

It begins with the clarity of purpose, the structure to achieve that purpose, an uncompromising belief in themselves and those around them, detailed planning to leave no stone unturned, inspirational leadership at multiple levels and trusting that by putting everything in place, the results follow.

As I reflect on the many wonderful presentations at the Leadership Symposium held in Wellington two weeks ago, a common theme was about getting back to basics. The longer term strategic direction implemented through annual operational plans and sticking to your knitting. Really understanding who your constituents are and delivering valued products and services to them. Ensuring you have the best team around you, providing leadership to those people who are on-board with the organisational vision and allowing everyone to contribute in a meaningful way so the organisation can thrive.

AuSAE is also getting back to basics and I’m looking forward to sharing our new strategic framework with our constituents in the coming months. In the meantime, I’ll be having my once a year flutter on the race that stops the nation(s). 

Brendon Ward, CEO, AuSAE 

It can be tempting for managers to remain vigilant over every activity their team members are performing, especially if the employees are working remotely. However, doing so will only breed feelings of resentment and distrust in employees. Managers should instead aim to be team leaders who empower their employees to work independently and reach goals within a reasonable time frame.

Dangers of Micromanagement

Micromanagement can occur when leaders are insistent upon things getting done their way. Such behavior is often a result of managers not trusting their employees to perform tasks correctly. This approach to management hinders business growth and is harmful to both employees and managers.

Pluralsight blog contributor Jack Wallen discusses some consequences of micromanagement that leaders should avoid at all costs. The first is a loss of control; when leaders drastically limit their management styles to only controlling, they lose the ability to effectively communicate and manage altogether. Micromanagement also kills trust. Employees will not trust a leader who burdens them with a never-ending scrutiny of their performance. This lack of trust leads to lower productivity and high turnover rates. Employees who are micromanaged will lose confidence in their own abilities to perform well on the job. They will not do anything that isn’t explicitly dictated to them, such as going the extra mile to solve a problem on their own. Employees will start to become dependent on their manager, and will constantly turn to him or her for guidance they’ve been conditioned to think they need. Habits like this will cause managers to get burnt out quickly, as it’s exhausting to always be peering over everyone’s shoulder. What’s more, employees are likely to feel the effects of their manager’s burnout, causing the entire team to suffer. Overall, micromanagement damages the manager-employee relationship and prevents teams from finding innovative solutions to problems or ways to finish projects.

What does effective team leadership look like?

A great leader is one who supports his or her team and who is willing to give up some control by letting employees take matters into their own hands. Remember that employees were hired in the first place because of their skillsets and ability to execute. Managers should heed the traits listed below, which are cornerstones of effective leadership.

• Strong Communicator
  

Communication is what forges bonds between managers and employees, and between members of a team. In her article “The Top Complaints from Employees About Their Leaders,” author Lou Solomon writes that effective leaders “know productivity is tied to communication. They are intentional about building a sense of connectedness with their teams…” Having an efficient means of communication is vital for remote teams who do not have the same opportunities to connect with one another as their office counterparts. It’s up to managers to implement a system that lets them contact employees as frequently as needed and vice versa. Such a system should also enable employees to collaborate with each other. In fact, the four traits discussed below can be more easily attained with a good communication platform in place. Luckily, there are affordable technologies available that include real-time instant messaging and announcement functions, making communication amongst remote teams effortless.

• Active Goal Setter
  

It is impossible to expect teams to excel if they have nothing tangible to work towards. Without a cohesive vision, teams are sure to fall apart. Team leaders are responsible for relaying organizational goals to their employees. There should be no ambiguity about individual expectations or how each employee’s role is essential to the success of the entire organization. Goals should be expressed using a common language throughout the organization. Such uniformity in team leadership prevents confusion and helps keep remote teams in the loop. Employees can also motivate each other when they are working to meet the same objectives.

• Provides Feedback
  

In her article, Solomon references a poll conducted by Interact/Harris of roughly 1,000 U.S. workers where respondents were asked to identify the communication issues that prevent effective leadership. 63% of participants did not feel adequately recognized for their achievements and 39% reported a lack of constructive criticism. These findings highlight employees’ need for feedback. Team members will feel more valued and are likely to go above and beyond if their efforts are acknowledged. Managers also shouldn’t hesitate to administer negative feedback, as it’s vital for improvement. Feedback should be delivered on a regular basis, not just during performance reviews. Solomon advises that providing continual feedback keeps an organization healthy and nimble.

• Believer in Transparency
  

When rumors of change are spreading through an organization, employees can become anxious about how their futures will be affected. This anxiety is a distraction that prevents employees from working productively. Moreover, remote employees who are already disconnected from office culture will feel ignored if they are informed of change at the last minute. For this reason, team leaders need to be transparent with employees new happenings as early as possible. Managers will gain more respect from their teams if they are forthcoming with inside information, according to Solomon. Consequently, employees will want to work to their fullest potential if they respect the person they’re working under.

To read the full article please click here. 

This article was originally sourced from Business 2 Community here and was written by Victoria Vessella. 

When was the last time your employees got excited about training? Those responsible for training must continually find new, creative ways to “sneak in” learning opportunities whenever possible to make it accessible and engaging.

Technology has drastically changed the way we learn, and employers are incorporating it frequently to reduce the time and costs of training. In fact, technology-based training is up to 90 percent less expensive than traditional classroom based training. It cuts down on the time employees spend traveling as well as travel expenses (airfare, gas, mileage, hotel rooms, food).

In the coming year, we’ll continue to see companies adopting new, innovative forms of learning. Here are three leadership training and development trends to keep on your radar for 2016 and beyond.

1. Blended Learning

Blended learning—using e-learning or the virtual classroom as well as in-person sessions to give employees the best of both teaching styles—is on the rise as technology becomes the norm for training. More than 29 percent of training hours were delivered through blended-learning programs in 2014, which was a 0.8 percent increase over the previous year.

2. Using Gamification as a Training Technique

Companies are moving toward using games and simulations to foster greater employee engagement by tapping into the innate human preference for fun. By applying games to work related scenarios, employees can use their problem-solving skills to develop business solutions.

For example, Deloitte built a leadership development training program for its senior executives, but had difficulties getting them to complete it. The company revamped the program to include gaming components like badges, leaderboards and status symbols to track the executives’ progress. This change resulted in a 50 percent shorter completion time and a 46.6 percent increase in the number of users returning to the site daily.

3. M-learning as a Training Technique

Said to be the future of learning, mobile learning—or m-learning—is expected to coincide with the rising use of mobile for everything. The key benefit mobile provides is access to information anytime, anywhere. For learning purposes, m-learning condenses lessons into shorter, bite-sized micro lessons that can be easily absorbed on the go. Microcontent such as graphs, charts or 2- to 3-minute videos can be consumed while commuting on the train or during a lunch break.

Less formal than structured learning environments, m-learning is mostly done in between other tasks and is self-initiated. Some mobile learning platforms even include social elements that encourage learners to share their experiences and learn from one another on social media. The global market for m-learning is expected to reach $12.2 billion by 2017.

The Bottom Line

Research has shown that when companies spend more time and money on training they have lower turnover rates, more top-performing employees, higher promotion rates and overall higher engagement and satisfaction. When employees feel like their company invests in them by providing training and advancement opportunities, they are more likely to perform better. This means employees are more satisfied in their positions and with the company as a whole. The ROI of leadership development efforts is clear for high-potential employees who aspire to leadership roles.

As workplaces continue to update their training processes, it’s important to choose approaches that will keep employees engaged and design programs that play to their preferred methods of learning. Using newer training techniques like games, m-learning and blended learning can set your employees up for success and have a positive impact on your organization.

This article was originally sourced from Business 2 Community here and was written by Darleen DeRosa. 

Most social marketers I know have been hard at work trying to build a robust presence on various social channels, be it Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram. But when they go to their executive team to tell them about all the success they have been having, they get a resounding, “So what?” Any marketer that cannot show the economic value of their activities will fail to earn the attention of their executives. Period. Further, they will fail to get those same executives to focus on the right social strategy because they are not demonstrating the impact of their efforts. The good news is that proving the value of your social media marketing strategy is not as hard as it seems.

Here are 4 simple metrics you can use to prove the economic value of your social media marketing strategy to your executive team:

1. Engagement Rate

The engagement rate is the total number of audience comments, likes, and shares (basically any action a fan or follower takes) per social post. The primary function of social media is to have engaging conversations with your audience. If you analyze your engagement rate you will understand what is interesting to your audience as a result of how many user comments you get. This is very important to understand because if no one is replying to your posts then why are you posting? Tracking the engagement rate forces you to go back and understand which posts resonate with your audience and which do not—and then, allows you to hypothesize which specific elements of these posts are winning your audience over. Once you know that, you will be able to test the elements you incorporate into your posts going forward, such as humor, images, surveys, or questions. To tie this back to demonstrating value to your executives, by tracking your engagement rate, and identifying the elements that are and aren’t successful, you can show your executives how your efforts drive deeper engagement over time.

2. Amplification Rate

The amplification rate is the number of forwards per social contribution. Social shares are very important because, according to Nielsen, 92% of consumers trust the recommendations of their friends. (92%!!). If my direct audience shares my messages with their networks, they are magnifying my messages and my brand (and do my work for me!). The core purpose of the amplification rate is to understand if the people who are following you are amplifying your message beyond your immediate reach. This is brilliant marketing. Now you can go to your executive team and not only show how your followers have grown over time but also how your messages are being amplified by orders of magnitude! Now that will get their attention!

3. Affinity Rate

Affinity rate is defined as the number of “positive clicks” per social contribution. One of the key things about social media is that it is really hard to understand the quality or relevance of our contributions to our audience. Normally, brands go on to social media and start shouting at people—here are some promos, here is our content, here is our website. Well, the truth is that this is not always very useful to the audience in general. So, then, how do you measure the quality of your contributions? That is where affinity becomes a great metric. What affinity rate measures is that for any given contribution, how many people have you delighted enough to like or favorite your post? If I see that a post has a zero or very low affinity rate, I can understand that it is not relevant, high quality, or of value to my audience. Remember we are trying to initiate engagement on social, so this becomes very important. By tracking your affinity rate, you can show your executives that you are driving brand affinity over time.

To read the full article please click here. 

This article was originally sourced from Business2Community here and was written by Jamie Lewis. 

Lots of conference organisers want a magic formula for pricing sponsorships.

Sadly, there isn’t one.

To grow this critical revenue line, sponsorship seekers must do the following:

• Earn a high concentration of participants who have influence on deal making or purchases.
  
• Involve leadership in the relationship building of primary investors or targets.
  
• Place attendees’ needs and desires above those of the organization or sponsor.
  

Four Common Sponsorship Pricing Models

Most conference organisers use one or more of these pricing methods:

1. Expense Recovery

These are in-kind or cash investments that you would otherwise be paying out of pocket for.

2. Cost Plus

(Cost to deliver benefits + Cost of Sales + Cost of Servicing) times three. These should never be discounted by more than 30%. To calculate labor, multiply the adjusted net hourly wage by two to cover benefits, taxes, etc.

3. Market-Based

This pricing strategy is based on intelligence gained from competitive research…what the market will bear.

4. Value-Based

This is the holy grail of sponsorship pricing. Sponsor seekers usually can only achieve this with a combination of exclusivity and strong alignment with the sponsors target market. Attendee mattering must also be high.

Beyond these four, sponsor seekers get creative with bundling of various properties and assets. Some apply discounts for first year sponsors to get them in the door.

Pricing Intangibles

Conference sponsorship programs are not created equal. After analyzing dozens of them, there are seven key attributes that must be present for a thriving program:

1. Fewer investors, but bigger investments. Get rid of the micro-sponsorships! They usually have very low attendee value/appreciation. It’s always the highest area of churn and negatively impacts cost of sales.
   
2. Benefits beyond eyeballs and logos. If the sponsorship doesn’t have high attendee mattering (i.e. bag inserts, banners, etc.), replace it with something that does.
   
3. Activation plans that span 90 days plus. The conference dates are the pinnacle. Pre and post conference amplification adds great value and touches more people.
   
4. If the attendee doesn’t win, nobody wins. Never sell your attendees out!
   
5. Good concentration of an elite or elusive attendee segment(s). Show me an underperforming sponsorship program and I guarantee it has an audience problem.
   
6. Leadership participation in sponsorship strategy discussions. Executives need to open doors and match power with power. Big investors expect a seat at the table.
   
7. An account management strategy where you don’t have multiple team members or vendors trying to sell different visibility options. A single relationship owner is strongly preferred by your major investors.
   

This article was originally sourced from Velvet Chainsaw here and was written by Dave Lutz. 

Twitter is perhaps one of the fastest-moving social platforms. With hundreds of thousands of tweets being shared every day, maintaining visibility and driving engagement become key challenges for most Twitter marketers. Here are a few tips for your non-profit to make sure that its tweets don’t go unnoticed.

1. Share fresh, trending content consistently

The quality of content you share and the frequency of your posting activities are two important factors that determine the amount of engagement you’re able to drive on Twitter, or any other social channel for that matter. Take a look at UNICEF’s Twitter page and you’ll see that they’re rather disciplined with their posting – they share one tweet almost every two hours.

However, maintaining consistency and quality can be quite challenging, especially if you’re curating your posts and sharing them manually. Using content curation and scheduling tools like DrumUp and Feedly is a smart solution to this problem. These tools simplify the process of content discovery and save you significant time and effort in the process.

2. Use custom hashtags for dedicated campaigns

Custom hashtags are a great way to make your content more discoverable, while also creating a strong call to action around a campaign. When you use custom hastags, it also becomes easier to track conversations around them. As a result, you’ll be able to better monitor your campaigns and identify followers who are engaging actively with you. This also gives you an opportunity to interact directly with such followers by thanking them for their support or encouraging them to spread the word further.

3. Get your team involved in your Twitter campaigns

Additionally, custom hashtags also serve the purpose of SEO. Since search engines now index hashtags, using a custom hashtag consistently across multiple social accounts will help enhance organic search results. Tools like Keyhole and Hashtagify are extremely useful in tracking and monitoring hashtags.

Pushing content through employees’ or volunteers’ personal accounts can help you pull some weight on Twitter, particularly if you’re just starting off, or don’t yet enjoy a massive following. However, this can be a tricky terrain since not all of them may be willing to pitch in. You have to be careful not to coerce your team into retweeting or sharing your posts. Instead, just make sure that they’re genuinely interested in your campaign, and everything else will follow.

But it’s not always easy leveraging a large group of employees, volunteers and campaign partners to talk about your cause or campaign on social media. You need to make sure that there’s a unified message coming out of all these conversations. One way to do it is to issue broad guidelines that all your employees or volunteers should keep in mind when sharing any branded content. Design an employee/volunteer engagement program that focuses on how social sharing will benefit them. Keeping them in the spotlight will also help you retain their interest in the long run.

To read the full article please click here. 

This article was originally sourced from Social Fish here. 

Internet Australia, the peak body representing Internet users, welcomed the release of the NBN three year plan, which gives greater certainty to the market and to Internet consumers.

CEO Laurie Patton commented:

“Our members have genuine concerns about the viability of the ageing copper network which should not be ignored, but whatever technology is used, we need to make sure the rollout is undertaken as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Earlier in the year Internet Australia called on the Government and the Opposition to hold a bipartisan Digital Future Forum to create an agreed national strategy so that we become a leading player in the digitally enabled world economy. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten supported this but the Abbott Government didn't respond either way. So today we have renewed our call in the hope that Prime Minister Turnbull will agree to our proposal.

The Internet is not just about our economic future however, it provides a powerful platform for social good. This includes improved delivery of health services, especially in regional and remote

areas, and opportunities for innovation in the field of education”. 

2016 is the National Year of Digital Inclusion. We owe it to all Australians to build a fast, ubiquitous national broadband network that is open and accessible to everyone. 

Internet Australia chair, George Fong runs an ISP in regional Australia. He comments: 

“This three year plan will promote certainty, especially in regional and rural areas and allow local

councils to better develop economic and social strategies around broadband infrastructure. It’s as

much about reach as speed. Both are critical to the sustainability of regional and rural communities. Digital natives, as opposed to us (older) digital immigrants, make decisions about where they want to live and work based on accessibility to the Internet”.

This media release was directly sourced from the Internet Australia website here. 

Media contact:

Laurie Patton | 0418 777700 | ceo@internet.org.au

The Perth Convention Bureau’s (PCB) 2016 Aspire Awards are now open to individuals involved with not-for-profit associations who can apply for the City of Perth, the City of Mandurah and Giving West Scholarships funded by PCB under its Aspire Program. PCB is also pleased to announce the launch of the Telethon Kids Institute Award, open to staff at the Telethon Kids Institute. The aim of the Aspire Program is to assist the individual’s personal and professional development through attendance at a relevant international conference. The funding covers travel, accommodation and registration expenses to the maximum value of the award.

Application information and guidelines are now available at http://www.pcb.com.au/aspire; the deadline for applications is the 31st March 2016. 

A wide range of assistance and advice is available to help you apply, for more information contact PCB’s Director Stakeholder Relations, Tracey Cinavas-Prosser on +61 (0)8 9218 2925 or email aspire@pcb.com.au. A free workshop lunch will be hosted on 12th February 2016 at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre. All interested parties are welcome to attend, for more information on how to register please visit http://www.pcb.com.au/aspire/aspire-events

The Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA), the body that administers the self-regulation of advertising in Australia, has announced a revised definition of ‘advertising and marketing communication’ to include relevant direct-to-consumer public relations materials.

Material such as social media promotion, blogging and tweeting on behalf of a brand will now be captured by the AANA Codes, so that consumers can make complaints about this type of material to the Advertising Standards Bureau as part of the current system of advertising self-regulation.

Put simply, if it’s content distributed directly to the consumer that the brand can control – eg. it doesn’t go through a journalist working for a news organisation – it is advertising.

Brand owners will not be responsible for editorial content in traditional or social media which they did not produce or that they cannot control.

It’s a fairly common-sense definition, but until now the industry lacked a clear definition.

“Responsible advertisers are already taking the initiative and reviewing their consumer public relations communications against the AANA Codes, as it forms part of their advertising mix. This evolution aligns the AANA Codes with international standards and current practice among brand owners,” says Sunita Gloster, CEO of the AANA.

The AANA’s announcement was welcomed by the Public Relations Institute of Australia, with national president Mike Watson saying that it reflects and respected transformations in contemporary professional communication operating environments. “In addition to specialist communication with traditional publics, such as media, regulators, employees, investors, and so on, this evolution of AANA Codes reflects reality in that PR practitioners are now communicating directly with consumers more than ever before,” he says.

Mel Cullen, chair of the Public Relations Council, also approves of the approach, saying it provides members of the public with a clearer complaints procedure. “The AANA Codes ensure that when a member of the public has a complaint about marketing communication that is targeted at them, they can make a complaint to the Advertising Standards Bureau, irrespective of whether the material was produced by a public relations, marketing or advertising executive.”

The revised definition in the Codes will come into effect in 2016 and will apply to all AANA Codes and future codes.

This article was originally sourced from Marketing Mag here and was written by Peter Roper. 

Alzheimer’s Australia welcomes the announcement of $43 million in new funding to be shared among seventy-six new researchers for dementia research.

The Minister for Health, The Hon Sussan Ley said this commitment will support bold and innovative research ideas to tackle the huge impact of dementia and find ways of preventing and curing the disease that is currently the second leading cause of death in Australia.

Alzheimer’s Australia National President, Professor Graeme Samuel said “we are delighted to see such a significant investment into dementia research. With cost of dementia set to outstrip that of any other health condition by 2060, it is evident the pressing issue is to build capacity in dementia research, to ultimately reduce the burden of disease on the health system.”

This $43 million is part of the Australian Government’s $200 million commitment to boost dementia research. The NHMRC National Institute for Dementia Research will support the research fellows to ensure Australian dementia research remains at the forefront of international efforts to tackle this chronic disease and better support people living with dementia and their carers and families.

Professor Samuel continued, “this news offers over 342,000 Australians, whose lives are affected by dementia, new hope. We look forward to seeing this crucial contribution into dementia research translated into results to create a healthier Australia.”

This media release was directly sourced from the Alzheimer's Australia website here. 

For further information please contact: Bianca Armytage, 0407 019 430, bianca.armytage@alzheirmers.org.au