The Behavioral Statistician

I’m a change management and strategy analyst at my job, but our company is small so I wear many hats. 

My first project at my job was doing social media monitoring for SQL Azure, a cloud database product that’s part of Windows Azure. It was a whirlwind of chaos and feeling like an inadequate moron. In fact, most nights I went to bed feeling like I had nailed my tongue to the wall and set the room on fire. 

But. Never waste a developmental situation as my professor Dr. Paul Yost would say. 

So in the spirit of learning and development I decided to reflect on what I’d learned. And lo and behold I did manage to learn a few things….

1. You Can Get Lost—social media analytics requires an ability to do a deep dive into data but also requires that you don’t get lost in the data. This is easier said than done. Example: you are looking for influencers on your brand, so you start to look by channel (a channel being a social medium like twitter, blogs, forums etc.), but you realize that most bloggers talking about your brand are part of a forum community, this takes you to the forum community, then top forum posters, then forum poster’s twitter handles then….. It’s the proverbial case of playing in the woods and getting lost, because you didn’t mark your way or remember what you were doing in the woods to begin with! 
2. It’s a moving target—the social media conversation about your brand is always changing. This requires a strategic understanding and extreme tactical precision. Like a good sniper (I know a war analogy…go figure) you need to know where your target is going, how the target is moving, how the wind, elevation, dew point, distance etc. Will affect your shot. Because every shot you miss you have to recalibrate everything…oh and you don’t have a spotter. War analogies not your thing? Let me explain it this way: 
   •  You have to understand, really understand, the BUSINESS PROBLEM you are trying to solve. As as a social media maven (internal or external) this is really just good customer service: what is the real need??? Remember no one wants social media analytics because they want pretty pie charts…they want to know who is talking about their brand, where they are doing this talking and whether or not they love, hate, or are in between their brand, how they can promote their brand, acquire  new customer, and identify brand evangelists. 
   • Once you know the problem or question you are trying to answer, dive into the data to see what will give you that answer. But don’t dive in blind, that’s a time drain. Create a hypothesis of kind of data that might provide this answer and THEN dive into the data. For example: where the conversation is taking place can be found using a topic analysis by channel search. 
3. Forget What You Learned In Statistics— Period. Statistics is about isolating variables, controlling variance, designing studies to rule out plausible alternative hypothesis etc. Social media analytics is iterative. You might do 5 different “experiments” before lunch. With social media analysis it’s not as much about proving a theory it’s about testing narratives and story arcs. Think of it as research on crack, instead of research being 3-5 years behind, it’s done in real time. You start with an assumed story, grab the data you think might fit the story, if the data fit the story great, that’s it. If not, re-write the story and look at the data again. OR grab all the data you can and then sift through it to see what emerges. Data is data. It’s always trying to speak to you and social media analysts are better at listening than most statisticians. If that was abstract let’s me say it this way: Social media analytics is just real time consumer behavior research. It’s iterative, fast and has little time for traditional statistical and research procedures and methods. 

There you have it. Three things I learned about social media. 

Questions, comments, rants or praise? Let me know. 

Guilelessly, 

-The Behavioral Statistician 

I’m back and re-branded (there’s a song reference in there somewhere). I still want to be the Lady GaGa of I-O Psychology but, I realized maybe everyone isn’t as in love with Mother Monster as I am. Moreover, people probably don’t know what Industrial-Organizational (I-O) Psychology IS. 

For those that don’t know, which, I’m assuming is everyone (klout points to you if you do know what I-O Psychology is). As an Industrial/Organizational psychology I—wait, I’m going to tell you what I don’t do first.

I don’t: 

• Psychoanalyze you (that’s called a shrink)
• Organize your furniture (that’s called feng shui, honey)
• Organize your calendar (that’s a personal assistant, girl)
• Read your mind (that’s a telepath) 

Here is what I really do: 

• I get people to work hardand like it!  

Oh if you couldn’t tell, I’ve re-branded my field too, more on that in a coming blog post…

Anyhoo, welcome to my new and improved blog!

I’m finishing my MA in I-O Psych in 2 weeks and am completing my portfolio. The title is “Fierce: Born For This”.

I’m also creating a training module called “Unlocking Wonderland: An Intrapreneur Development Program”

I take titles too seriously for them to be serious. If you all are anything like me you look at the title and then maybe the lead sentence (or abstract) in an article. If the title doesn’t grab me at hello then I’m done and on to the next.

The point is that titles should be catchy and utilitarian. Why read something titled: ” Capstone Project: John Smiths Reflection On My Masters Program at SPU”.

Even “John Smith: A Memoir” would be a more catchy title.

Secondly, titles are your brand, another way to articulate what you do and how you do it.

My titles are always unique and I spend triple on the design of my reports than anyone else in my program. Why, because titles and design brand you and your work.

In an increasingly virtual world how you show up on paper matters more and more.

So, what does the title and design of your report, your blog tell others about your brand? What should it tell people?

Love and Glitter

I-O GaGa

Purpose Drives Passion and Passion Looks Like Your Brand

No nonsense, tactical was to build a personal brand. They even reference lady gaga.

Emotional labor or acting happy when you are sad and being nice when your cranky. 

Look for an upcoming post on my take on Emotional Labor. 

I’m not lying…butcha can’t read my poker face!

Transformational Leadership can be summed in 4 key behaviors: 

Idealized influence: leaders exhibit behavior that makes them role models for their followers. They determination, confidence and pursuing high performance. 

Inspirational motivation: leaders cast a vision of a desirable future and exhibit behaviors that inspire and motivate those around them to fulfill this vision. 

Intellectual stimulation: helping followers become more creative and innovative by questioning assumptions, approaching familiar situations with out of the box thinking and examining problems in a different light. 

Individual consideration: being attentive to the individual developmental needs of followers to coach, mentor, and counsel them. 

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 “Born This Way”, the new single by Lady GaGa is absolutely fabulous. It is also the perfect song to blog about (of course, most anything Lady GaGa is blog worthy). Albeit from a I/O Psychology perspective without the dry journal article touch. (at least I hope).

The “Born This Way” lyrics argue in a GaGa-tastic fashion that people are born with certain traits. In the case of leadership, I agree. Leaders are born. Now before you getting all hot an bothered by this, consider this. In the, real world, business’s care about the bottom line, even if it’s a bottom line that is socially and environmentally conscious. There is a bottom line and responsibilities to stakeholders. If you’re hiring a new CEO you want to find the best one for the job and you can’t afford to “test  drive your CEOs” you need other factors to select on. Genetic traits and dispositions are the best ones to choose.

Besides you’re not upset about my statement, “Leaders are born” you’re really upset that I’m not saying, “You can’t be anything you set your mind to”. Because, baby you were born this way. This is a matter of philosophy, a discussion of are we determined or are we free. But “Born This Way” and this blog aren’t about choice v. fate. So save your philosophizing for your philosophy tweet up.

Leaders are born.

Intelligent Leaders are Better and Something You Are Born With

 Research demonstrates that intelligence one of the best, if not THE best predictor of job success. This has been confirmed with thousands of data point, different studies, across multiple decades. Even with refinements in fancy statistical techniques called meta-analysis and conservative estimates of how good intelligence really predicts success. Think about it…if you’re an executive or manager, you need to be able to consider multiple variables and outcomes in a given situation. If you can only think about 1 or 2 things at a time, you’re not going to be very effective.  If your leading a company, you need to have complex thinking. Consider multiple options, outcomes, inputs, look strategically, act tactically and all that other good MBA competency verbage. This can’t happen unless you have a “intellectual horsepower”. Some people are born with the intellectual horsepower of geo metros and some with the horsepower of an Audi R8.

Who do you want leading your company? The geo metro leader or the R8 leader? R8 hands down.

The Right Personality (factors): Either Ya Got’em or You Don’t…Sorry Girl.

But wait…there’s more. Conscientiousness, a personality trait from the Big 5 (Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism) measures what can be thought of as work ethic. Folks, high in conscientiousness are reliable, well-organized, self-disciplined, careful. While those with low conscientiousness are disorganized and unreliable.  Conscientiousness, is also an extremely good predictor of job success and effectiveness. Being a personality trait means that it is hardwired. It’s not something you learn. Personality traits are stable dispositions that solidify by the time we are teenagers and don’t change significantly for the rest of our lives. Either ya go it or you don’t girl….that’s what the research says!

Sure you can manage around not being highly organized but you can’t just eliminate it. Like the research on intelligence, conscientiousness has been proven across cultures, times and with all sorts of fancy statistics. Combined with other measures of the Big 5…most of leadership success and emergence is intelligence and personality. For example, extraversion predicts leadership emergence meaning that if you are high in extraversion you are more likely to be identified as a leader by people you are around and people outside your group. Also the less agreeable you are the better leader you are. That doesn’t mean that rude leaders get ahead, it just means that overly sympathetic leaders don’t usually get ahead. They are too worried about what others think. Not surprisingly, being neurotic is no good either. Leadership is stress, someone who is already high strung is going to snap if put into a leadership role.

You Were Born This Way….So Just Dance

Sure, some styles of leadership are expressed very differently, but the underlying causes of someone’s success as a leader lays in the proverbial genetic cards they were dealt. And yes, you need to know how to play your cards right…but pocket Aces are going to beat pocket Queens every time…not matter how good you play.

And really…do you want a leader who isn’t organized, lacks self discipline and who isn’t outgoing and energetic? And to top it all off, can’t think about more than 1 concept at a time? I certainly don’t.

So let’s celebrate leaders because: Baby you were born this way!

1. Set unclear expectations 

2. Don’t give employees autonomy 

3. Don’t treat employees like individuals 

4. Solicit employee feedback and fail act on employee feedback