Although no one seems to be hanging out with clients or suppliers on the weekends (they are getting direct mail), a lot seem to have shared their profile on Facebook or joined communities with people they are dealing with on a professional level. They say it is because they are trying to develop a relationship, but does this mean you should have become “friends” online?
Someone who is very sociable can easily meet people in their professional and personal lives, but are they the same person in both? Whatever I get up to on the weekend should have no effect on how I am viewed professionally or scupper a deal when I get back to work on Monday. Social media has changed this; Policemen who post their profiles on facebook are eliminating themselves from ever doing undercover work, HR departments check profiles of perspective employees and students are kicked out of Cambridge for posting the wrong pictures.
Should the word ‘Social’ cover our personal as well as professional lives?
I know that we are all slaves to our trade and love our work, but is it really where we should be spending our social life? Is attending an awards ceremony or an industry summer drinks, a social event? I have been convincing my wife to be, that it definitely is not and so does not count as a night out - no matter how drunk I am when I get home.
Don’t get me wrong I think we should all be blogging, commenting, writing articles and opinion pieces - but is this us acting in a social or professional environment? If you are compelled to publish your feelings for “primates in peril” on BBC.com or when rating the Florence holiday on trip advisor – do you post your comment as Ed Weatherall from London or Edward Weatherall, MD Concep Ltd?
When we are contributing with our business cards in hand, are we giving our personal opinions or talking on behalf of the company? If I left Concep, and joined the B2C world, would I continue with this blog? Would Joel and James meet me for Lunch?
I feel we will always have two hats, the business man and the family man. There is room for both, but they should not be expected to behave the same.
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Hi Ed! I think you're right, the dynamic between relationships does change, but don't forget....people like people. I've recently gone out on my own, having left the relative safety of a big corporate after a decade of hard work. I'm actually finding a lot of what would have been considered 'professional peers', are actually turning out to be good friends who enjoy working with me and are now very happy to enjoy our 'dynamic' in a professional sense. So my take on this is, I am who I am. I am passionate about marketing, I am passionate about industrial brands, and I'm passionate about Kylie. I might act a little differently in different situations, but I'm still PAM, and my new clients are buying my intellect alongside my silly jokes and perhaps, just perhaps, my habit of being as honest with them in business as I am in the pub on a Friday night. Be true to what makes you happy and who you are......people like people.
It's a great question - although I was a little freaked out at your mention of posting a Florence holiday rating on Trip Advisor. I did exactly that a week ago! How did you know?! Anyway, back to the question in hand. I've always maintained a very varied approach to the work / social divide over the last 15 years. Sometimes I've felt comfortable letting my professional front slip, and sometimes I haven't. It all depends on the personality of the client, and more than often, the situation I've been in. I totally agree with Ed that awards ceremonies etc are most definitely NOT a social event. However, when the free wine starts flowing, it's expected that people will start to open up a little. It's occasions like these that allow us to blur the boundary between professional and social, and to reveal more of our 'real' selves than we would tend to do ordinarily. I've had long, drunken conversations with clients when we suddenly discover a shared interest in existential literature or guitars or the paintings of Marc Chagall. And it's great to cross that divide sometimes (within reason, and without waking up with them the next morning...!). In some cases, this has resulted in genuine friendships, and at worst, a warmer working relationship. I think being part of an Agency helps, as we're expected to have multi-dimensional personalities and not just a dull, corporate facade. It's still a juggling act though, and it was quite a while before I revealed to my agency colleagues that I play guitar and sing in pubs. Eventually I performed for them, and maybe it's made them look at me differently since then. Good or bad, I don’t know. And I agree with Pamela that 'people like people', which means that being a corporate automaton isn’t going to win friends and influence people. I think we should all give a little more of ourselves than that, but ONLY when the time is right...
I agree we will always have two hats, the business man and the family man. And that there is room for both.
However...even if they should not be expected to behave the same, the principles of one are the principles of other. The way you treat a waiter, if you kick a dog on the street after a few drinks, all that is you, and there is no negotiating that "that was the personal me, dont worry about it when you are dealing with the corporate me."
I believe people are indivisible. You cant do right in one part of life and wrong in the other, like they were isolated compartments. It will spill off.