Business owners we talk with are often mixed in their opinion about social media. Some see it as a way to “level the playing field” with their larger competitors as they build their brand. Others, frankly, are simply in unfamiliar turf and have concerns about playing there, and still others see no value and believe it is a waste of time. Well, it’s neither a panacea nor a waste of time. It is a tool, a communication vehicle, another approach to getting the word out about your business and for building relationships.

And there is now a new arrival in the social media space currently occupied by the big four: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and You Tube. And that new arrival is Google+.

In a recent article in the July 25 – July 31, 2011 edition of Bloomberg’s Business News, it looks like Google+ is off to a great start. Bloomberg reports “since the company started distributing invitations to Google+ on June 28, 10 millions users have signed up and visited at least once.”

So what’s the big deal? Google+ has added some interesting features that we feel will appeal to the business user. You can set up what are called circles. And as you invite people to join, you place them in separate circles. You can have circles for: families, friends, people who share the same interests/hobbies, business colleagues, customers/clients. What’s nice about this is that you can communicate differently to different circles. On Facebook a posting is a posting and everyone gets to see it. There are times when you would rather not share your hobby interests with your business connections.

Another interesting feature is what Google calls Hangouts. Hangouts allow multiple people to get together and chat, discuss business, build strategy – and you can have group text chats or you can use live video chats.

Google+ has created an interesting and compelling product. We believe it’s worth looking into.

Copyright 2011 Kubica LaForest Consulting

In our Blog on Monday we raised the issue that being right can be wrong.

The media focuses on business people (and politicians) who appear to have that insatiable need to be right. So much so that when they “debate” they refuse to let anyone else complete a full sentence. We see this on CNBC, Fox and other news focused shows. And unless you have the ability to decipher the message within the noise, these shows are hardly informative. We also see people with this driven need to be right in our workplace, community and even in some families. And what they do literally, is drive right over or drive right off others in the conversation in order to be right.

Interestingly, it appears that many of these people are successful. The impression is: you of course must be successful to be on CNBC. Or, your boss or even the political superstar in your organization may possess this hubristic need, and they also seem to be successful. So wouldn’t adopting the drive to be right all the time just be nothing more than emulating successful people? No.

Defining success as someone who always needs to be right automatically eliminates the other people; outstanding managers and emerging leaders– some you’ve heard of, some you haven’t – and who, every day, run their organization or deal with their colleagues in a supportive, collaborative and cooperative style.

It’s like a bell curve that in our experience is skewed to the right. If you draw a bell curve and call it a “success distribution curve” and label the left side of the curve “bad behavior” and the right side of the curve “saintly behavior” you will find a small number of people on each side of the curve. What you will find, however, is more people in the middle.

So sure there are people who always need and will go to great efforts to insure they are right. But to generalize that this behavior is the key to success ignores one important point: employees, clients, vendors don’t like people with these behaviors. And unless you can live with not being liked and respected, and you are able to pull off the bad behavior successfully (that is, to be tolerated by those around you – usually due to status or authority), there is a very good chance that you will not succeed.

As you build your career, your department, your company, gaining and using positive influence and repute will result in a much higher probability of being “happily successful” for you and those around you.

Remember, status, position and authority can change. Influence is personal power.

Copyright 2011 Kubica LaForest Consulting

For some inexplicable reason, some people believe they have to be right – all the time.

Now we’re not talking about dialoguing enthusiastically, trading ideas and thoughts ardently, looking at different angles and approaches to a problem. We’re not talking about healthy conflict where opinions are argued vigorously, but when the argument is over, when agreement is reached, everyone moves forward – in the same direction.

What we are talking about is the person (boss, peer, business owner) who has to be right. As if somehow not being right is a defeat greater than Napoleon suffered at Trafalgar.

We all know someone like this. Sometimes they try to be right based on what they believe is superior knowledge, a grasp of statistics, an historical perspective. Sometimes, when they do not have “facts” at their disposal, they turn to: hubris, condescension, verbal intimidation, impatience, and dismissiveness. Anything to win, and win they do, more often than may seem right.

Now here’s the issue: needing to be right all the time is boring. It’s boring for everyone listening – if, in fact, they are still listening.

Bosses, peers, business owners achieve success and growth from gaining and growing their influence. Because at the end of the day, influence is all you really have. And people with an insatiable need to be right come up very short on the influenceometer.

Now you may argue that you know many people who have to be right and who are successful. In this week’s Quick Tips we will discuss the bell curve of behavior and demonstrate why influence is a strong indicator of success.

Copyright 2011 Kubica LaForest Consulting