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How many hours are people working from home, and how should or does that affect their pay and their working days? The issue of what constitutes paid working time is not entirely clear. Some countries are enacting right-to-disconnect laws to help people who feel exploited by always-on technology now that they work from home. A new paper proposes a way to track employees’ time on the job while respecting their time off and their privacy.
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Archives for 2020
How Experience Is the Best Teacher
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The founder of a cattle-tracking platform talks about how her business mistakes helped her get to where she is.
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CyberSignal Technologies Brings New Tech to Historic Market
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Tech services like VoIP phone connections are essential for businesses around the country. But not all markets have access to them.
CyberSignal Technologies aims to bring some of those new tech services to a historic town. And there are a few interesting qualities that make this company stand out. Read all about them in this week’s Small Business Spotlight.
What the Business Does
Offers telecommunication services for businesses.
Services include VoIP phone services, computer/information technology services, and government contracting.
Business Niche
Personal service in an underserved market.
The company is a Service-Disabled Veteran owned business in Selma, Alabama.
Co-founder John Kinnerson Jr told Small Business Trends, “My company provides excellent service and was one of the first companies to offer VoIP phone solutions in the area.”
How the Business Got Started
To serve clients in their area.
Kinnerson says, “My business partner, Roger Blackmon and I started CyberSignal Technologies in 2019. I had an idea of offering VoIP phone services since no one in the area was at the moment.”
Biggest Win
Serving a major need during the pandemic.
Kinnerson explains, “My company offers phone services that are able to connect anywhere, especially from home. Before the Covid pandemic, many business owners did not really fathom this thought until the shutdown. Since, business has been very good.”
Biggest Risk
Choosing a business structure.
Kinnerson says, “Our biggest risk was deciding to go into a “partnership” with a single company instead of multiple affiliations.”
How They’d Spend an Extra $100,000
Finding an office.
Kinnerson adds, “I would purchase an office for my company so we can expand.”
Business Mission
Supporting veterans.
Kinnerson says, “I’m a Service Disabled Veteran owned business. We have events for homeless Veterans and Disadvantaged people in the community.”
* * * * *
Find out more about the Small Biz Spotlight program
Image: CyberSignal Technologies; John Kinnerson Jr and Roger Blackmon
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Let Employees Design the New Workspace After Relocation – Productivity
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Statistics show that among businesses that recently relocated, only businesses that allowed their employees to be an active part of the moving process were successful afterward. So if you’re planning on a company relocation, be sure to allow employees to have a hand in designing their new workspace.
Don’t Sacrifice Employee Flexibility to Relocation
Do you pay attention to employee retention? Are job satisfaction, performance, and productivity important to you? If you answered yes to these questions, then let employees have a say in how, when, and where they would like to work.
For example, businesses that offer workers a choice of schedules enable employees to have a better work-life balance. Employees at those companies are more productive than workers at companies that don’t offer such choices.
Additionally, workers are more likely to stay for the long term with employers who offer flexibility. In other words, employees like being able to choose whether they will work part time, full time, or flexible hours. Also, many employees appreciate the opportunity to work from home. What’s more, flexible working arrangements make your business more attractive to potential employees.
If you already offer flexible working arrangements to your employees, don’t sacrifice that flexibility just because the company is relocating. And if you don’t already offer flexible arrangements to employees, now is the perfect time to begin.
RELATED ARTICLE: RETURN TO THE OFFICE SAFELY DURING COVID-19
Do What Works in Company Relocations
The record of recent business relocations with iMoving local moving companies shows that not every business that moved was able to survive afterward.
In fact, only businesses that allowed their employees to be an active part of the moving process were successful. On the other hand, businesses that let their employees have a hand in what their workspace looked and felt like enjoyed a significant boost in performance and productivity.
Use your company’s relocation as an opportunity to let employees make decisions about their future workspace. You might be surprised at their creative and innovative suggestions that can help them perform their best.
Here Are Some Tips That Can Help
If you are moving to a new office, here are some of the ways you can involve employees in the planning process:
Get an Early Start with Your Relocation Plan
As soon as you are sure about the relocation or redesigning plan of the business, convey this information to your employees. This will help them mentally get prepared for the big change. Plus, it will also allow them enough time to think of changes they want to make in their workspace to provide for greater personal and professional growth.
Delegate the Project Management Responsibility
You will need a project manager to take care of the company relocation project. You can choose this individual from your current team after ensuring that he or she has an interest in the process.
The project manager serves as a the point of contact for everyone involved in the process. Besides answering to the queries of the employees about the project, the project manager will also be responsible for other duties as well. For example, this person will coordinate with vendors, suppliers, employees, and the company’s management team, ensuring timeliness as well as transparency.
Photo by Fox from Pexels
Form a Relocation Planning Committee
Whether you are relocating the company or just redesigning the office, a dedicated committee for the big process can come in handy.
There will be a lot of tasks that need attention. For example, you’ll need an inventory. Someone will need to pack all the valuables and ensure transparent communication with the company’s various stakeholders. The company’s relocation planning committee will be responsible for the entire process.
So instead of hiring external sources to do all the planning for your relocation, engage your current employees. When employees are a part of the planning process they will have a stake in the outcome. They will be more interested in the process as it unfolds and more trust in the company for the long term.
Get Lots of Feedback Before, During, and After
You might not be able to ask all employees to be active participants in the relocation process. However, you need to communicate with them regularly about the progress of the relocation. What’s more, you must be open to their feedback.
To keep employees informed, post pictures of the new workspace on social media as the project progresses. Make sure the posts are open to comments as well.
If you are uneasy about posting sensitive company information on social media, put up a notice board in the common areas at the old location. Additionally, organize follow-up meetings where employees can come together, discuss the progress, and provide feedback.
RELATED ARTICLE: EDUCATING EMPLOYEES: FOUR WAYS TO ENSURE WORKPLACE GROWTH
Incorporate Employees’ Ideas
As important as it is to ask for feedback, it is even more important that you incorporate that advice wherever possible.
Naturally, you won’t be able to use every employee’s ideas, so be sure to have a good explanation for the ideas you have to reject. If possible, take votes for employees’ ideas. However, this plan will only work if you’re committed to following the will of the group, no matter what.
Relocating Can Be Safe and Quick Without Disrupting Company Performance
Business downtime is the most distressing aspect of a remodeling, redesigning, or relocation project. However, it is possible to make your office relocation safe and quick without disrupting company performance.
For best results, cater to the needs of your employees as much as you can. This will ensure high morale when they are introduced to their new work settings.
RELATED ARTICLE: WHY YOUR COMPANY MISSION DRIVES YOUR CULTURE
Finally, be sure to chalk out the costs associated with the process, especially in the case of a relocation. But keep in mind that there could be hidden costs that catch you by surprise.
When you decide to relocate your company, ensure a successful process and limit downtime by making your current workforce your relocation team. Rely on these tips to help you make your employees a core part of your project. When you do, you will achieve greater success with your company move, as well as more employee satisfaction overall.
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Working Remotely? Fireflies.ai Takes Notes For You During Your Calls
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6 min read
After working 20-hour days for years, living on the cheap while bootstrapping a company in San Francisco, Sam Udotong discovered something about his body. “I had trained myself to stop really enjoying food,” he says. That meant he could subsist entirely on Domino’s pizza and the meal replacement drink Soylent, and maintain focus. “It let me work more hours every day.”
That was 2016. By now, years later, he expected life to be different — or, at least, to come with better food. He and his cofounder, Krish Ramineni, have raised nearly $5 million in venture funding for that once bootstrapped company, Fireflies.ai, which is rapidly expanding across the globe. But Udotong is still drinking Soylent regularly, because Covid-19 put the founders back into 20-hour-a-day crunch mode. Fireflies.ai takes and organizes notes for people during meetings, which is highly appealing to remote workers. “When the lockdowns began, I remember thinking, Holy crap, our market just jumped ahead a few years,” Udotong says.
He and Ramineni, it turns out, were the right amount of early. But this is how the two of them have always operated — taking bets on the future and doing things a little differently.
Related: How Remote Work Will Transform the Innovation Landscape and Establish a New Kind of Entrepreneur
Udotong and Ramineni’s origin story begins unusually. The two met in college…but Udotong was at MIT (studying aerospace engineering and computer science), Ramineni was at the University of Pennsylvania (studying engineering systems), and they were introduced virtually by a mutual friend. The two clicked, started video chatting daily, and spent 11 months collaborating extensively on projects — a cryptocurrency, a drone delivery system — before ever meeting. Ramineni graduated early, took a job at Microsoft, and then planned to do a master’s program at University of Cambridge in the U.K. The summer before school began, Ramineni went to Boston to spend time with his collaborator — and that’s when they conceived of Fireflies.ai. They felt they were onto something big, so Ramineni dropped out of his master’s program and moved with Udotong to San Francisco to focus on the startup. (Ramineni’s parents had one question: “Are you committed to it?”)
Their vision for Fireflies.ai was big. They wanted to build an artificial intelligence assistant for work. Many startups offer some version of this — with systems that schedule calls, or bots to install on Slack. Ramineni and Udotong wanted to find an untapped market to enter with, and they realized there was a massive opportunity in meetings. When people are talking all day — say, a manager checking in on multiple projects, or someone in HR interviewing job applicants — it’s hard to take and organize notes. What if AI could do it instead?
Image Credit: Cody Pickens
This required some future-gazing, because back in 2016, when the startup began, voice recognition technology wasn’t very good. This was beneficial, in a way. “If everyone believed in it, then you’d see hundreds of companies,” Ramineni says. The question was: How far away was the technology from being mature? They dove into research papers and studied the market, and came away feeling “maybe 70 percent sure” it was worth betting on. “If you want to build for a brand-new market, you have to take those sorts of bets,” Ramineni says.
Related: How to Work from Home Successfully
As they saw it, their bot would act like a secretary — sitting in on meetings, understanding conversations, and taking and organizing useful notes that were searchable at any time. This would require major improvements in voice recognition technology, as well as an infrastructure to handle hundreds or thousands of meetings at once. To achieve it, they stayed in beta for roughly all of 2018.
For as forward-thinking as they were, they missed one thing: “Quite candidly,” says Ramineni, “during our first two years of existence, we never used the words remote work.” It’s almost hard to remember now, but remote working was still seen as experimental then. Instead, the founders envisioned users sitting in rooms and accessing Fireflies.ai through a speakerphone. Ramineni and Udotong weren’t even working remotely themselves; they occupied a coworking space.
But they wouldn’t be far behind the shifting trends. They discovered they were more efficient at home and built an entirely remote team spread across five countries. And when they released their product to the public in 2019, they resolved to refine it in a totally bottom-up way — first working with small startups, obsessively serving their needs, and expecting that word would spread. “It has to be adopted at the grassroots by people,” Ramineni says. “It has to be something that people learn, recognize, and utilize without a massively expensive sales force.” Even now, they employ no salespeople.
Related: 4 Ways Businesses Are Capitalizing on the Shift to Online
By pure coincidence, they rolled out their first major update this past February, just before Covid-19. hit. As the world went remote, user growth soared on Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams — all of which Fireflies.ai integrates with, leading to a big bump in users. Ramineni and Udotong braced for an operational challenge. Prior to this, their users were mostly in the U.S. — meaning that there was natural downtime overnight when they could push out updates. Now people around the world are using it, and there’s never downtime — so the cofounders are often in the weeds with their engineers fixing problems on the fly at 3 a.m. “It is definitely an interesting transition period,” Ramineni says, “where we have to not only manage a team but also operationally be good at what we do as a startup.”
A few years ago, Ramineni and Udotong bet on the future — and now, it seems, the world has caught up with them. Voice technology is vastly improved, and teams are in increasing need of a product like theirs. Investors have noticed and are calling with interest. Ramineni imagines a time when the team is big enough for the founders to step back from day-to-day coding, and maybe even hire a sales crew.
But some things won’t change, the founders say. It’s the stuff built into the beginning of their relationship, when they were two college kids who hadn’t met in real life. “We built trust over time with frequent communication and consistent productivity,” Udotong says. “We always challenged each other to deliver better work. Our strategy now informs how we build trust in our fully distributed team. Those pillars are important for every company, remote or not.”
Read more from our Young Millionaires cover story here.
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RingByName Offers Free Video Conferencing and Collaboration Tools
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Are you searching for a good video conferencing tool to connect with your remote team efficiently? If yes, then there is good news.
RingByName, a leading provider of UCaaS and collaboration solutions, recently launched R! Meet. It is a free video collaboration web application. And it doesn’t require you to download any software program to start organizing virtual meetings. So, you can start using it right away without setting anything up.
More and more businesses are voluntarily or mandatorily allowing their employees to work from home amid the coronavirus pandemic. This has increased the demand for video conferencing and collaboration tools.
The recent launch of R!Meet is aimed at catering to the growing need for video conferencing tools.
Key Features of R! Meet
R!Meet uses WebRTC technology, which simply means it works on any compatible web browsers.
To start using R!Meet, you just have to visit https://meet.ringbyname.com/ and create a virtual meeting room.
Once you’re in, copy the meeting link and share it with your remote employees. By clicking on the meeting link, your employees can join the virtual meeting.
You can now access this standalone service from RingByName for free. The company hasn’t launched an Enterprise version yet.
However, it has a plan to integrate the R! Meet software into its R! Web and R! Mobile applications. Doing so will help users do efficient scheduling, ad-hoc video meeting creation, and many other activities to enhance collaboration.
Following is a list of current and planned features:
- Scheduling
- Recording of any session
- Collecting session data & analytics (including the duration and quality of every session and every stream)
- Supporting for all your video use cases(1:1 consultations, group video chat, screen sharing, and large scale broadcasts to thousands)
- Offering advanced security, firewall-control, regional isolation, and compliance certification options
- End-to-end assistance (for Enterprise plan)
Kooi Lim, CEO for RingByName, said, “RingByName builds cutting-edge UCaaS software and services from ideation to operation,”
“R! Meet allows users with a desktop computer or a smartphone to participate in virtual meetings and is designed to bring co-workers, customers, and friends and family together although they are apart,” he concluded.
Tips to Ace Your Video Conferencing
Remote working is a win-win working arrangement for both employers and employees. So there is no doubt that remote working is going to stay even after the pandemic is over.
As a small business owner, you should try to adopt this new normal. Acing your video conferring meeting is one way to do that.
Here are some tips to bring your A-game while participating in video conferencing:
- Plan your agenda and share it with your team in advance
- Have a small talk to break the ice
- Make sure everyone recognizes each other
- Set some ground rules for remote meetings
Last but not the least, have everyone checked their system (mobile, laptop, tablet) before the meeting to avoid any last-minute glitch.
About RingByName
RingByName offers integrated telecom and software solutions to businesses to simplify and accelerate communication and collaboration. The company’s solutions are designed to help businesses build better relationships with their customers.
Image: ringbyname.com
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How To Make Zoom Meetings Actually Enjoyable
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I think it’s fair to say that we are all sick and tired of zoom meetings.
Meetings, in general, are mostly a waste of time but at least you get to interact with other humans in person.
Covid-19 has turned meetings on their head and they have become a drudgery of time.
Tips for Enjoyable Zoom Calls
Here is how to make zoom meetings actually enjoyable.
Email It Over Zoom It
We’ve all been in those zoom meetings where you sit there thinking “this all could have been sent in an email.” This is the fastest way to lose attention and turn it into drudgery. The key to success is to email ahead of an agenda and keep the meeting succinct.
As Andrew Roderick states
“Make the focus around teamwork, and give each person a section to present a project/issue/anything they are working on for 5 minutes, and allow a 5-minute discussion afterward where everyone can help, offer support, feedback on what’s being done. Hosting your team meetings in this way allows you to ensure each team member is actively engaged and involved, while also making sure priorities from each team member are discussed.”
As an additional note make sure to set a hard out. A time that the meeting ends and you don’t go over. Respecting peoples time is a great way to keep people engaged.
Practice Your On-Camera Speaking Skills
Nothing is worse than having a boring presenter be it in person or on camera. Just like public speaking, presenting on camera is a learned skill anyone can achieve if they have the right guidance. Here are 10 tips to speaking on camera
Dress to Impress
Even though no one can see what you are wearing below the computer desk, you want to suit up.
Know what makes you look good too. As Dagmar Spichale says “Patterned tops make me look more awake and refreshed, and patterned button-downs are especially flattering because they create an elongated neckline that doubles to showcase subtle jewelry to its best advantage. My secret hack is wearing perfume and/or my favorite heels — no-one notices but I KNOW!”
Use Interactive Whiteboard Tools
As Mollie Suggests “To make things interesting in our collaboration sessions, we use Mural in Zoom for whiteboarding. It’s an interactive software where everyone could help in mapping out and bouncing off ideas about a project. We use photos, sticky notes, and doodling tools in brainstorming and getting things together.
Kevin builds on this idea “Sometimes, you just have to draw something out on a whiteboard to help everyone else understand what you mean. Using a tablet for your Zoom calls makes it much easier to sketch out diagrams and flowcharts to engage the other meeting participants.“
Start With A Common Interest
With the plethora of various TV shows, Netflix movies, and online entertainment. Its good to engage people in a common interest. As Jason VanDevere states “I discuss with my team a TV show we all agree on that’s worth watching. After a new episode, we spend the first five minutes of the meeting openly discussing the show. Did the episode ending surprise you? Were you shocked a particular character got killed off? How would you rate the episode?
This can be any television show, sports game, Netflix series, or YouTube show. With all the content out there, surely there’s has to be something out there your team can agree on. Participation is also optional. Employees that prefer not to participate may simply log in five minutes later.
I find that everyone appears to be more engaged in the meeting after coming off a discussion of a common interest.”
Use the 8% Rule
As Michael, the CEO of Teambuilding explains “Any Zoom meeting should have at least 8% of its time dedicated to non-meetings activities. This time could include icebreakers, trivia questions, dance breaks or any other light activity. This “off-time” can quickly reenergize attendees to participate in the more dense content of the meeting
Engage with Outside Interest
Willie Greer states “I always make time for stories. Zoom fatigue is real and can take a toll on a person’s mental and emotional aspect, so relaxing time is a must during meetings. Personally, I ask my employees how they are, is there anything they want to share, like their new hobbies during the lockdown, or online businesses they want to promote. It refreshes their minds after work and before leaving the meeting.”
A lot of people who are working from home are also starting side projects, and side businesses. You never know what interesting hobbies people have or side business they create. Some of the most used Google Tools have started as side projects of employees. What is your side project? For example, I’ve created an entire side project focused on Unicorns.
Rotate The Hot Seat
Getting everyone to talk can be a bit of a challenge, but an easy way to do that is to call on participants throughout the meeting. Call on the first person and let that person choose the next person to speak. It keeps everyone alert and focused because they could be next!
Use Visual Cue Cards
We’ve all experienced an interruption during a meeting. Your speaker is presenting when someone pipes in with their 2 cents. This can be fine when you are in person because we can naturally slip in with perfect timing but due to the delay of zoom, it throws everyone off.
That’s where visual cue cards can come in and keep the rhythm of the zoom meeting flowing. I use visual cue cards made by DigiCards.
They seamlessly integrate with my digital team and keep meetings running smoothly. I especially love the timing cards to let me know there are a few minutes left in the presentation.
These are just some of the best tips when it comes to making your zoom call more enjoyable. Let me know what I missed or if there are any other suggestions to make zoom meetings actually enjoyable.
Image: Depositphotos.com
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All Elite Wrestling’s Brandi Rhodes Flexes Her Entrepreneurial Muscle
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9 min read
Brandi Rhodes apologizes for being a bit behind schedule. “There’s just no such thing as an easy travel day,” she laments. But despite the pandemic, Rhodes has maintained a busy itinerary as Chief Branding Officer of All Elite Wrestling (AEW), the nearly two-year-old, Jacksonville, Florida-based pro-wrestling company. AEW was founded by a cohort including Rhodes and her husband Cody — who performs in the ring while serving as Executive Vice President (Brandi also competes on occasion) — and President/CEO Tony Khan, who also co-owns the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars franchise.
The popularity of AEW’s primetime TNT show Dynamite has helped Rhodes and company upend World Wrestling Entertainment’s virtual monopoly over the industry. Thanks to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s decree back in April that wrestling qualified as an “essential business,” Dynamite has continued rolling tape. And since then, Rhodes has also been nurturing an initiative under the company umbrella called AEW Heels. The self-described “female-focused wrestling community” is intended to provide a safe and engaging space for women fans and talent to celebrate their love of a historically paternal pasttime.
Throughout late spring and early summer, Rhodes introduced Heels by orchestrating events like live Zoom get-togethers with herself and other AEW roster standouts, including openly transgender former Women’s Champion Nyla Rose, while debuting merchandise like T-shirts and tote bags. But last month, Heels ramped up in earnest by partnering with digital marketing agency Wonderful Union to debut a $49-a-year, subscription-based membership platform that provides exclusive access to exclusive AEW talent Q&As, themed virtual (for now) parties and workshops and tutorisals focused on empowerment and inclusion.
A day before Dynamite‘s most recent taping (its first with a limited number of live fans in attendance since March), Rhodes connected with us by phone from Jacksonville. She offered insight into how she first pitched Heels to Khan, reconciling altruistic intent with financial imperatives and her enthusiasm for making Heels more than just an online experience once the current public health predicament passes.
Related: WWE Superstar Mandy Rose on Building Her Body, Business and Future
The initial rollout of Heels coincided with the wrestling industry’s own #MeToo reckoning, the #SpeakingOut movement. How much did that inspire the initiative to begin with?
That was purely coincidental. This is something we had talked about and were trying to figure out what it would look like, especially in this period, for quite some time. The #SpeakingOut movement happened and continues to happen, and that’s something I definitely look at as a separate thing, even though one of the greatest things about Heels is that it’s very topical. Whatever is going on in the world or that people want to discuss is something we’re open to doing.
When you’re an executive and get an idea for an initiative, how do you first go about presenting it to uppermost management?
Sometimes it’s trial-and-error. The number-one thing with something like this is being able to understand. And sometimes when we pitch things, we think because we understand it, everbody else is going to fully understand the scope of it. And sometimes we’re just not clear with our expectations. So I outlined everything I wanted to talk about with [Heels], and I asked for some time with Tony. We talked about it for 30 minutes on our own before presenting it to anyone else, and I think he was able to get a full grasp on it right away.
At what point in the conversation do you discuss how an idea like this can also generate revenue?
One thing we’re seeing, and this has been growing across the board, is that more women are watching AEW. So learning information like that only helps when you want to form a community for women. The other thing is, from a marketing standpoint, this is not something we looked at and said, “Hey, we’re gonna make a ton of money off of this.” It’s not unlike a lot of small business. This is not something we expect to be profitable for a long time, if ever. The only reason we ask for money for membership is because there’s a cost to run it. There’s this big website that’s multifaceted and allows these women to communicate all the time and to do live in-persons and parties and meetings via Zoom. We update with different news and photo galleries and posts. They’re getting access to a lot of people who are putting in a lot of work. We can’t start a website out of the clear blue sky. If we did, the product would not be good, and they would not enjoy it and stick around.
How do you decide to partner with an agency like Wonderful Union when you’re building this out? Is it more a matter of values alignment or expediency?
We’re lucky to have a lot of great partners, and one of them is Activist, who work with a lot of artists and musicians, and they’ve test-driven platforms like Wonderful Union before and are able to say, “The value is there, and the company is attentive,” and that’s really what we need to know. We have that luxury, and a lot of people don’t. A lot of times it’s just taking a shot in the dark when someone says they could do something for you. It ended up being a great fit with Wonderful Union.
Image Credit: AEW
You did host a free event or two early on. How important is it to give people that opportunity to sample a product before enticing them to sign up?
One of our free Zoom sessions was with a donation element towards the Black Lives Matter movement, so we did want to get something out of it for a good cause. Some people did choose to just check it out because it was free, and I think they really were impacted by that. At the first launch of the membership, I wasn’t sure how many members we would get off the bat, and we got exactly what we needed. So it just goes to show the marketing efforts and elements are there.
How do you feel confident that you’re identifying a void for something like this in the first place, and then that you’re the one to fill it?
Having been in the industry for so long, I’ve seen a lot of voids. And I’ve been on the receiving end of a lot of voids being a person of color, being a woman. So you recognize those hardships and have to stay grounded in them, because there aren’t that many of us in positions like mine. It’s a delicate balance, because you don’t want to be the person who’s always harping about issues that can be seen as personal to you. But at the same time, you do feel like you represent people like you. It’s something I pick my battles with, but it’s not an actual battle half the time. It’s just, when is this appropriate and how do we most effectively do this?
It can be tricky, knowing when to take a position on something. Given what’s going on as we speak in Kenosha following the shooting of Jacob Blake, do you have a gut feeling about when it’s that moment for you?
One thing that’s always important is don’t feel like you always have to respond to something or publicly say something. Sometimes you’re more effective donating or doing something that’s able to help the cause more than just saying something. It’s become so commonplace to say something, but that doesn’t guarantee there’s any feeling behind it, that it wasn’t written for you. People have come to rely too much on social media as an action, when really it’s just words. I’m also more of a quiet-action person. If I choose to donate something, I usually do it anonymously. I’m not going to immediately align myself with someone because of something they said on social media.
Related: How a Mid-Size Wrestling Company Made Major Adjustments in the Empty-Arena Era
And have you thought about the presentation of Heels once we’re all allowed to come out from behind our virtual selves?
That was actually what I was thinking about before all of this happened. Then it became, “OK, how do we do this in this current situation?” Because the plan has always been for Heels to be a community thing, and community to me means people get together. Because AEW is known for having pay-per-views where most of the audience travels to them, this is something I saw as an opportunity to get together quarterly and do these large-scale events and meet people. And that didn’t happen because of the state of the world, so that’s something we’re looking forward to. Things have gone so positive given the current affairs, I can only imagine how great it’s going to be when these women who are bonding at a distance do get together. A dream situation would be at [AEW PPV] Double or Nothing in Las Vegas, those girls being able to get together, have dinner, sit together at the show and have an event that’s members-only where we have these parties in person with the same information and bonding. But in the meantime, we’re having an awesome time doing things the way we are.
Whether from your point of view or the company’s, how does success get defined for an initiative like this?
Everything is a little bit different, but with Heels in particular, there’s been consistent growth every week, and growth beyond us having to market heavily, which goes to show there’s great word of mouth. It’s really a satisfied-customer thing. Heels ends up selling itself, which is great, and I think it will continue to do that as we put time and energy in, and it’s gonna continue to grow.
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The Road to Integrityis Paved With Good Intentions
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Content
Freshness
Usefulness
A treatise for leaders who are looking for ways to infuse their values and integrity into their organization.
If you buy something through our links, we may earn money from our affiliate partners. Learn more.
When the Penn State “Sandusky” scandal hit the news, I sat down and cried.
During my junior and senior years, I worked for the football office. Paterno was insane about integrity. If a player didn’t have a 3.0 on Friday night, he didn’t play on Saturday. If a player got in trouble, the team had to clean the stadium after the game. I can go on, but I won’t because Penn State leadership’s lapse in integrity decimated a century’s worth of hard-earned reputation.
“Most companies think they have integrity, until they get exposed by data, skewered by the press, boycotted by customers, dropped by investors, and protested by their own employees. They’ll punish and apologize for transgressions but throw up their hands about how to prevent them — even though they van cost a company everything.” — Robert Chestnut
You Can’t Outsource Integrity
Intentional Integrity: How Smart Companies Can Lead an Ethical Revolution by Robert Chestnut is a brand new book, released in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. And this is a perfect time because corporations and their communications strategies have been disrupted like never before.
According to Chestnut, corporate ethics have been tested sorely, as he notes in an updated chapter on leading with integrity during a crisis.
“Suddenly business leaders had to answer questions on the fly. How to handle layoffs, adapt to customer expectations and shifting government requirements, and to transition entire workforces online?”
This crisis pointed out how important it is to have a culture of integrity. For example, if one of your values is employee safety, then it’s a lot easier to make decisions about whether to prioritize profitability or employee health benefits.
Rob Chestnut’s Relationship With Integrity
The author started his career as an attorney with the U.S. Justice Department. He was an Assistant US Attorney in Northern Virginia. As a federal prosecutor he ran the Major Crimes Unit where he prosecuted a wide range of crimes including CIA employee Aldrich Ames who was prosecuted for espionage.
In 1999, Chestnut shifted his career and joined the private sector. First with eBay where he got involved in fraud detection and prevention. Then he joined LiveOps, Chegg and most recently, AIrbnb where he grew the legal team from 30 to over 150 and started the “Integrity Belongs Here” program to drive ethics throughout the culture of the company.
It’s Never Too Late for Integrity
In Intentional Integrity, Chestnut strives to show leaders that integrity isn’t a roadblock to getting things done, but a “potential superpower.” The book shows you how you can set the tone and set an example with your words and actions.
When leaders embrace that integrity and responsibility are important elements of your job.
Your employees are a reflection of who you are and what you do. And when you practice intentional integrity, there’s a ripple that goes throughout your company and into the community. Being integrity consistently over time, will ultimately build trust and give your organization a long-term advantage.
The 6Cs Process is a Roadmap Toward Intentional Integrity
To infuse integrity into your organization, Chestnut proposes the 6Cs process and this is what the entire book is devoted to. Each chapter is one step of the 6Cs process.
- Chief: If the CEO of the company doesn’t embrace integrity, you can stop there.
- Customized Code of Ethics: Assuming your CEO has a level of integrity, your next step is to publish a code of conduct.
- Communicating the Code: This means regular and varied types of communication of the code throughout the organization.
- Clear Reporting System: Make it easy for employees to report ethical lapses.
- Consequences: The integrity code must be enforced.
- Constant: The last “C” is about being constant, consistent, pervasive, ubiquitous — yes, everywhere and all the time throughout your organization.
Is There Hope for Integrity?
On the first day of “Business Law” in graduate school, the professor walked in. Plopped his briefcase on the desk and then sat on the desk, with his legs dangling over the edge and asked: “Do you know why we have lawyers?”
The entire class sat in silence.
He waited for a few seconds and then said “We have lawyers because people are no damned good.”
When he said “people are no damned good” he didn’t mean that people were “bad” or “evil”. What he meant was that people didn’t behave with integrity; they would say one thing and do something else. They would promise to do something and not do it. People would say they valued something and then act like they actually value something completely different.
Integrity vs Ethics
In Intentional Integrity, the author combines ethics and integrity into one package. I’m not sure that is entirely fair and accurate.
We understand integrity to mean “honesty”. But the true foundational meaning of integrity means to be whole and undivided. In other words, at its core, integrity means that your actions match your values.
I posit that CEOs (especially of large enterprises) have integrity (meaning that their behavior is consistent with their values). But not all leaders have ethics, which are moral principles that guide behavior.
And this book is written for those CEOs who are committed to having their ethics reflected in their values and those values be clearly communicated throughout their organization — thereby creating INTEGRITY (being whole and undivided).
What’s Odd About This Book
I would say Intentional Integrity is the motherhood and apple pie of leadership books.
But, to be honest, it’s preaching to the choir. The people who will most enjoy this book are the people who are already running their business with a high level of ethics and integrity, And these people will get a roadmap toward shifting your values and ethics out of your head and throughout your organization.
In some ways, it’s like Chestnut is writing to those people who may have strayed from the ethical straight and narrow. Maybe it’s people who have started their business with high-minded values, but who have been challenged by the complexities and impossible choices between people and profits.
Ultimately, the message underneath Intentional Integrity is that ethics and integrity count. And that one simple lapse in judgment can decimate the business you’ve worked so hard to build.
Image: amazon.com
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Zoho One Showcased at Upcoming Webinar
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As part of the final Educational Webinar series, Zoho is going to showcase Zoho One and show you how you can use it to optimize your digital presence.
Zoho One for Every Business Need is going to be held on September 23, 2020, from 1- 2 p.m. EDST.
The previous webinars tackled Setting Up Your Website, Establishing Your Brand Story and Elements of Website Design, and Converting Visitors to Leads: Web Forms, CTAs (Call to Actions)
Together these free webinars are intended to provide a basic understanding of getting online. Whether you are trying to create your first eCommerce site or blog, you will know how to get started.
With Zoho One, you can take this knowledge and use the more than 40 applications in the suite to run your online business. This includes applications to grow sales, market your business, do your accounting, communicate with teammates and customers, and much more.
Click the red button and register now to attend Zoho One for Every Business Need.
Register Now
Featured Events, Contests and Awards
Educational Webinar: Establishing Your Brand Story
September 2, 2020, Online
Learn how to find, incorporate, and use your brand’s voice throughout your website to increase website traffic, improve customer engagement, and drive brand loyalty.
Educational Webinar: Elements of Website Design
September 9, 2020, Online
Join us to learn about fonts, color schemes, and gain a basic understanding of visual hierarchy.
Educational Webinar: Converting Visitors to Leads
September 16, 2020, Online
Learn best practices for optimizing webforms and CTAs in order to maximize the number of visitor conversions on their site.
Getting Started with Zoho One
September 23, 2020, Online
In this presentation, we will walk through an overview of Zoho One using real case studies from Zoho customers to demonstrate different ways Zoho One can support your business.
Small Business Expo 2020 – PHILADELPHIA
October 28, 2020, Philadelphia, PA
Small Business Expo is a FREE one-day event to attend for small businesses to network, attend great business-growth workshops, build new business relationships, exchange ideas, shop from new vendors and learn from leading industry experts. If you are serious about starting or growing your business, Small Business Expo is a “must attend” event. Small Business Expo is the #1 Business to Business Networking Event for business owners, entrepreneurs, start-ups, decision-makers or anyone who works for a small business or is interested in starting a Small Business.
LinkUpConferenceShow
November 12, 2020, Online
LinkUpConferenceShow (LUCS) is a digital networking conference that merges the incredibly dynamic worlds of tech and comedy to provide informative and personalized networking opportunities designed to help executives, entrepreneurs, business leaders and tech professionals grow and scale their businesses. LUCS is the tech conference that combines Silicon Valley insights with New York’s nonstop energy to bring the technology community a totally new virtual experience designed to inspire, engage and entertain.
More Events
- Advancing Integrated Project Delivery 2020
September 14, 2020, Online - Small Business Expo 2020 – PHOENIX
October 1, 2020, Phoenix, AZ - World-Famous HR Technology Event, Oct. 2020
October 13, 2020, Las Vegas, NV - Creative Operations San Francisco 2020
October 14, 2020, San Francisco, CA - Miami’s Largest MBA Event! QS MBA Tour
October 20, 2020, Online - Small Business Expo 2020 – CHICAGO
October 20, 2020, Chicago, IL - Atlanta’s Largest MBA Event! QS MBA Tour
October 22, 2020, Atlanta, GA - Houston’s Largest MBA Event! QS MBA Tour
October 24, 2020, Houston, TX - Austin’s Largest MBA Event! QS MBA Tour
October 26, 2020, Austin, TX - Claims Innovation USA Virtual Event
October 26, 2020, Online - AI DevWorld 2020
October 27, 2020, Online - Salt Lake City’s Largest MBA Event! QS MBA Tour
October 31, 2020, Austin, TX - Denver’s Largest MBA Event! QS MBA Tour
November 2, 2020, Denver, CO - San Jose’s Largest MBA Event! QS MBA Tour
November 5, 2020, San Jose, CA - San Diego’s Largest MBA Event! QS MBA Tour
November 7, 2020, San Diego, CA - 17th International Conference on Machine Learning and Data Mining MLDM’2021
July 17, 2021, New York, NY
More Contests
This weekly listing of small business events, contests and awards is provided as a community service by Small Business Trends.
You can see a full list of events, contest and award listings or post your own events by visiting the Small Business Events Calendar.
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