Our little weekend thought tries to inspire you to think differently about your life, your career, your business and this week I want you to....relax!

Too often we take life too seriously, we look at meanings behind everything.....we look for hidden meaning in the gestures of others, the words of others, why we are here etc etc

But remember...the only meaning you need to consider is this

What do you want YOUR life to have meant? When you are out in the garden, at the gym this weekend think less about the meaning of life...and focus on the meaning of YOUR LIFE.

Business value is something that I am researching as part of my social business PhD. The valuation of a business has always been linked to adding value  - value through service or value through the combination of raw materials.

Business strategy for creating value used to be "easy" but with the advent of the Internet the consumers have so much more power - they can make, they can access services through social networking, they can even challenge what value you are creating.....

My initial PhD research is showing though that although value creation may be changing...as always the foundation of growing a business has not changed. (Note I will be sharing the PhD research in future newletters - so if you want to know more subscribe to The Engaging Times!)

• Value creation is based on living your values 
• When customers buy into those values, recognising the value of their purchasing, their recommendations, their brand loyalty etc

I often work with entrepreneurs on how to grow their business - in this social age, it is now imperative that you understand this value creation equation

How to grow a business = Living your values in your product/services + Recognising the value of your customers + Undertanding the Values

We can so easily slip into producing, servicing without reflecting on the above....and in a social age, you may ignore...but the customer won't! 

This week on The Engagigng Brand we discussed Innovation with Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg  and as the book gives a great insight into business innovation we have created a little Bob-o-graphic for you to use.

1. Focus beats freedom. You need to focus on ideas that matter to the business.
2. Insights come from the outside. Connect to the outside world to find original ideas.
3. Be ready - in fact want to - tweak as first ideas are usually flawed.
4. Select -  Remember your role is to select ideas, as not all ideas are created equal and you must discard the rest so you can focus on the best.
5. Stealthstorm past the internal politics so they work for you not against. Internal politics of innovation will always exist....your role is to pave the way for the innovation to succeed.

And then add that vital leadership behavior.....Persist - Not for ONE day but EVERY day to move from one successful product launch to a business culture that lives and breath innovation - helping your people bring great ideas to life.

This is based on the HBR book Innovation as Usual - website here

Look at your dairy - full of meetings? I bet there are quite a few in your working day...

I am a read believer in getting rid of meetings that are about compromise, covering your back or delaying a decision! But I love meetings that inspire, are focused and blend deep thinking with action orientated outcomes.

For all the meetings that you have.....when do you meet with yourself? When do you review your progress, brainstorm your business interests, inspire your own self-improvement...create actions that will deliver your personal goals?......

Thought so....

We have one precious resource - time and yet we fail to use our own time to think about our own personal branding plan.

To inspire, engage others...we need to inspire and engage ourselves

So set some time aside one a month and have your own board meeting, invite all sides of your personality - the risk taker, the dreamer, the pragmatist and the action man/woman.

Make an agenda and then set to work on reviewing, exploring, deciding and then actioning your own 'me, inc' business strategy.

Action, action, action - we all know that action is required and we focus our teams on action. However I do believe action needs to stem from a platform of thinking. Thought leadership is often a term that people use without really understanding on what area they truly have thought leadership. 

Thought leadership comes from deep thinking and related business insights. These skills of leadership are often ignored - why? Well it is uncomfortable, hard work and so much easier to hide behind group think or compromise.

Social media is a wonderful tool to develop these skills in leadership. Social media expresses an array of different views, it allows you to read and think. By surfing the social media channel you can develop your thinking skills and create business insights from taking strands of ideas, of data analysis to then allow your thought leadership to evolve.

I use the word surf because ideas come in waves and it is about not riding a wave but understanding what creates waves, the underlying mechanics of waves etc I also think surfing is difficult to master...it needs technique, a desire to learn, a desire to fail in order to succeed. Sometimes your thinking will feel shaky but the more you surf the thinking wave, the more your technique strengthens and the more your ideas make it all the way to the market shore.

When businesses struggle with social media marketing, it is often as simple as how they view social media tools. Successful social marketing is often more about the mindset then the social media tools themselves...

...because the emphasis too often on the media and not the social and the social is an approach to business, an approach to leadership and management, an approach to marketing.

Social is not something that we can be bought through pay per click or marketing campaigns....social is a style, a culture, an ability to find, share and connect with people.

Yes, you can buy media space however you can possibly gain brand awareness, but you cannot buy brand engagement. You can buy likes, followers but you cannot buy brand engagement.

Social media tools are delivery mechanisms for your brand's personality not a replacement!

Therefore is social media seems to be a waste of resource, a waste of time....ask yourself - do we have a social culture mindset or just a set of social media tools being deployed?

The Engaging Brand podcast covering social marketing, business ideas and brand marketing tips has a new episode but before we start...The listener winning an Engaging Brand goodie bag - picked from all the people who share, like, tweet about the show to say a BIG thank you from me! - is Vivien Boirdron.

Life has a way of overtaking you and often weekends can be a great time to take stock of your personal brand - both inside and outside of work....

Bab's Booster this week is a little reminder that personal growth is a choice, your success is not about what you can expect to be given...but a result of what you give to life.

It may seem a subtle play on words but the effect can be dramatic. If your career has stalled or you feel in a rut...change your mindset from one of passive living to one of active design. We can wait a long time to finally get what we wanted or we can start today designing the life we want and how we can create a legacy to be proud of...

So grab a pen, write a blog post, get on social media....whichever way works best for you transform your thinking from what you expect from life, to what life - and all those people around you - can expect from you.

The constant flow of business ideas is critical for business growth and too often do I see leadership and management neglecting a creative business culture

Ideas, if you like, are not just for Christmas they are for life!

Yet business ideas are treated like a to-do list - we need ideas so let's have a meeting, we need ideas so today we are going to brainstorm etc etc 

However business ideas rarely just happen, rarely are prompted through a meeting culture but through a dynamic mindset that nurtures and grows them from seeds of ideas to business growth generators....

I like to think of ideas as almost childlike

Why? Well...

• Having a constant flow is a business lifestyle choice...just like you choose to become a parent, you choose to create an idea culture...ok accidents happen but in the main you need to make a choice to want to be creative and be a business parent of ideas.
• When an idea is small it needs nurturing, it needs looking after - it needs feeding and developing into a grown up commercial product or service.
• When the idea starts to develop it can become troublesome - it may not fit the present business process, it may challenge previously held mindsets....that is an idea just finding its way to market.
• There are times when you just have to say NO.....yes, ideas need a chance to grow but at some stage you need to focus on ideas that will work commercially.
• When an idea is set free through a product launch, then the 'brand parenting' doesn't stop there....it needs your support, it needs guidance, it needs to learn to adapt and get even better.

Are you a good parent to business ideas? Or are your ideas latch door kids left to fend commercially for themselves!