know you’re thinking you know what I’m going to say . . . that I’m going to say, “Just. Don’t.” but that would make for a very short post, and isn’t, in fact, what I’m thinking at all. (You don’t know me!)
For many brands, the election and its aftermath are totally irrelevant and they should, in fact, not try to leverage the news cycle and trending topics. BAD IDEA; don’t do this.
Robyn Jackson, Civility Expert
Guest post by Robyn Jackson, the owner of The Civility School, providing training and education for professionals interested in polishing their interactions as a critical part of attaining business goals.
The 2016 presidential election and its brutal build-up have brought about a surge in the business of Civility. Leaders of organizations are calling with SOS cries for help in “civilizing” their employees, their students, and themselves. They want to know if I offer a magic pill (no), a good fairy wand (no), or a lifetime guarantee (no). What I do offer, however, is something pretty darn magical, good, and guaranteed to work IF you practice it.
Your business is probably doing just fine. Your employees probably get along just fine. And your clients and customers might just say that your service is just fine as well. But if you’ve heard me speak, you’d know that “just fine” is not just fine at all. I digress, but will return to that in a moment.
Your business and its representatives deserve to be compelling, not just fine, and believe it or not, focusing on civil engagement and its practices have the power to do just that. The changes can be subtle, but they pack a punch. Back to the word fine, for example. I would immediately take that one little word out of your company’s word bank. No one would answer a howdy-do with fine,
And fine would not be the answer when rating the quality of an experience or product. Modern society, in which I would include generations of thirteen-year-old girls, has taken this word and twisted it around to sound un-fine, adolescent, and NOT compelling.
Words and their magic (for good or bad) are only a part of what professional civility entails. Learning, practicing, and being mindful of the evolving nature of facial expression, body language, gestures, cultural expectations, gender issues, and other areas of human regard will make you and your company go way beyond JUST FINE. You will be exceptional, compelling, and yes, civil.
I’ve had one non-compete agreement in my career — at the first PR firm I joined in the mid-1990s. I made less than $24,000 a year. It was a hard-core agreement but even as I signed it, our HR person said that it “didn’t really mean anything.”
The interesting thing about the agreement was that it didn’t say I couldn’t go work for a client — it said I couldn’t go work for another PR firm. Within two years I broke the agreement when another firm lured me away with the promise of a bigger paycheck. The first firm threatened to go after me. Their lawyers contacted and threatened the lawyers of the PR firm I joined. I was assured by my lawyer (father) that the agreement wouldn’t hold up — that you simply can’t deny people the right to make a living in their field. The matter was ultimately settled behind the scenes and I had to agree to work on certain clients and not others, details of which I barely remember.
But it was stressful, for sure.
News today that President Obama is urging a ban on non-compete agreements thrills me. It’s how it should be, and employers should simply offer fair wages and a great workplace if they want their people to stay. The next firm I worked for didn’t have a non-compete of any kind. (Good; I would not have signed one.) They sometimes lost employees to clients but you know — that turned out so well for them. The firm continued to have the client with a friend and former colleague now on the inside. It was an incredibly, accidentally ingenious move, founded by a firm that had enough confidence in the quality of the service they offered, and in the loyalty of the people they employed. It often was the case that corporate or nonprofit life was a better fit than agency life for the employees who left, and the firm was better for it, ultimately.
My advice? Don’t sign a stinking non-compete. And if you’re in one now and thinking of breaking it, I believe you have a good shot of getting through it unscathed.
Gratuitous wedding photo
I got married in July of 2016 and because I feel strongly about such things, I changed my last name to be the same as my husband’s: Oldham.
When I named my business in 2010, I had a different last name, one I’d carried since 1989 and didn’t expect to change. Jaggers Communications is the name of my firm. I like it, I like the logo and the brand I’ve developed.
Because of all the work I’ve done leading up to the launch of the business at the beginning of 2011 and until the present day, there is a lot of good search engine optimization tied up in the Jaggers Communications brand and in my own, former name, Marijean Jaggers.
I thought a lot about re-naming the business. I even settled on a potential new name and embarked on the design of a logo. But I just couldn’t pull the trigger.
I’m going to stick with Jaggers Communications.
My challenge is to publish content with my new last name and earn the Google juice needed for Marijean Oldham, but that’s a challenge I welcome, and it will be fun to be able to track these fresh results.
A week ago, we attended Rooting Out Injustice, the signature fall event put on by Legal Aid Justice Center and Central Virginia Legal Aid Society. Full disclosure, I’ve been involved with Legal Aid for more than seven years and am on their advisory council. The event featured co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, Alicia Garza, who was a fantastic, inspirational speaker. The speaker panel, emceed by local attorney and author John Grisham (you may have heard of him) explored the intersection of race, injustice, disparities within the system, and ways the nonprofit organizations are tackling civil injustice.
In the midst of the event, a local business owner, Douglas Muir, saw fit to post a comment on Facebook stating, “Black lives matter is the biggest rasist (sic) organization since the clan. Are you kidding me. Disgusting!!”
Mr. Muir is the owner of Bella’s, an Italian restaurant in Charlottesville. He’s also listed as a guest lecturer at the University of Virginia.
What Mr. Muir obviously didn’t know is that the wrath of the offended via social media is swift and ruthless. There’s a hashtag #boycottbellas and there has been a peaceful demonstration. But that’s not the end of this. Doug Muir deleted his comment and is, no doubt, keeping a low profile while his employees suffer a lack of income (restaurant workers make their money mostly in tips. No customers = no income.)
I think this is an opportunity for all people — not just the people who attended the event, or who have heard and seen Mr. Muir’s comment and are aware of the boycott of Bella’s to go look at the http://blacklivesmatter.com/ page. Think about civil rights and a movement that didn’t just start last year, but has been going on since before Abraham Lincoln was president. This isn’t new. Racism isn’t new. Social media is, though, and how we use it can change minds and change our society.
UPDATE 10/12/2016:
The Cavalier Daily ran an apology from Douglas Muir about the comment. It’s a good apology.