Tim Puts His Charisma Online
Tim is the sales manager at a national auto parts supplier. Among the many accounts his company serves are small auto supply stores, service stations, repair shops, supermarkets, and small retailers. Tim has a staff of fifteen external sales representatives, as well as five internal sales specialists who deal with online and telephone sales.
The auto parts supply business is highly competitive, with most of the competition providing equally good parts and service. The personal touch therefore becomes quite important in gaining sales. Providing good service – such as refilling orders on frequently purchased parts and delivering on time – is essential. Tim also believes that inspiring the sales staff is vital in gaining a competitive edge. He notes, “If I inspire my sales reps, they will do a better job of building relationships with their customers. If I inspire the reps to sell more and better, they might inspire their customers to buy more parts and supplies from us. “
Tim reasoned that his attempts to inspire and motivate the sales staff were working fairly well, but improvement was needed. When appropriate, he sees members of his staff in person, telephones them, and sends out frequent voice mails and texts messages. Yet Tim thought that he could do more: “I have been described as charismatic by my boss and several friends. Maybe I could get a bigger bang out of my charisma, if I made better use of the social media to inspire my staff. “
Tim decided that for the next month he would post inspiring messages on the Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn pages of all the members of his sales staff, including the internal staff. Tim would also post the same messages on his own pages. Six of Tim’s postings designed to project his charisma and inspire the staff were as follows: * The only limits we have are those we impose on ourselves. * If you are still breathing, maybe it’s not such a bad day after all. * I want to wake up the inner greatness in each and every one of you. * If not you, who? * Welcome every rejection. It means you are one step closer to a Yes. * The harder you try, the luckier you get.

Tim received fewer responses than he anticipated, but a few sales representatives thanked him for the positive ideas.

1. How effective do you think Tim’s posts are in terms of expressing his charisma?
I think that Tim’s posts are quite effective in terms of expressing his charisma. He is a very charismatic person so his posts have the power which will affect his staff. All his posts were designed to motivate his staff to work harder and don’t give up. I think that this really helped them stay motivated. Charisma is known as “the fire that ignites followers’ energy, producing results above their duty.” Tim’s words can inspire his staff to work harder and do not give up easily. Charismatic leaders will impact their followers emotionally and inspire them to do more, regardless of the obstacles. Tim is a charismatic leader and he can help his staff reduce their anxiety of doing badly in sales by talking to them, make them understand that hard work will eventually pay off. Charismatic leaders instil awe and submission in their followers. The followers have a high degree of trust in them. Tim’s staff knows that they can talk to him when they face any difficulties. I think that Tim’s posts are aimed at the daily life because his posts are talking about there is no limit to what we can do, every day is a new day and a good day, everyone can do great things, accept every rejection because it means a positive answer is coming soon and to try harder. I feel that they are more on motivating people that they can achieve more in a very general manner. His quotes can apply to anyone so it feels like he is motivating them to do something great and do not accept failure. A few of his staff thanked him for his positive ideas. They feel that he cares about their emotions as well.

2. How effective do you think Tim’s posts are for purposes of inspiring the sales representatives to sell more auto parts and supplies?
I think that Tim’s posts are less effective in terms of motivating his staff to do sales. This is because Tim’s posts are all very inspiring but quotes only work if people understand his intentions. His staff only feel that he is trying to keep them motivated but not in terms of doing sales. I think that Tim’s staff does not realise his posts are aimed to motivate them to do more sales, as they thanked him for the positive ideas instead of for the encouragement. Charisma can be used for good and bad, it depends on the person who is talking. Charisma, if applied wisely can lift the whole organization’s energy and performance. Tim should talk to his employees more to give them encouragement and boost their energy level. Charismatic leaders motivate employees to strive for the benefit of the whole team. Charisma comes from pursuing your own interests. Tim is very passionate about his job as a sales manager. He can inspire his staff to work harder by giving them some encouraging talk during the meetings. I think that Tim can occasionally go out on sales pitch with them to help them. Tim’s posts on the quotes are very vague and the staff might not understand his actual purpose. Instead of sharing the quotes to each of his staffs’ pages, Tim can make each quote unique by adding a short message especially for the staff and post it to their message inbox. For example, the quote “The harder you try, the luckier you get”, Tim can add this quote teaches you to try harder and work harder. The more people you approach, the higher your chances of getting a sales. Keep up your good work. This will make his quote more effective and personalised.

3. What else do you recommend that Tim do to express his charisma via social networking websites?
One of the ways for Tim to express his charisma via social networking websites is to share inspirational videos that will motivate his staff. Quotes only work to an extent, but videos will inspire the staff further. They get to hear how the person talks and really feel what the person is trying to explain.

Besides this, WallStreetJournal contributor stated that there are 6 more ways for leaders to use social media to improve their leadership. First, Tim has to create a leadership dashboard. He should monitor the web for more information about his brand and find ideas to help him develop his leadership skills. He can use Flipboard to subscribe to various blogs and news researches that will help him keep up to date into the new leadership models and profiles of leaders. Tim should spend around 15-30 minutes a day to read these articles that will benefit him.

Next, Tim has to stay focused and plan his goal for the team. He can use mind-mapping tools to help everyone be sure of their priorities for the year. The diagram should include the areas of responsibility for each team member. This will remind them of what they need to do to reach their goals. However, Tim should not be too focused on his goal and pressure his employees too much. He can create an online vision board on Pinterest to keep his employees inspired. Tim can post pictures of their target customers to inspire his staff. If their company has an incentive trip for high performers, Tim can post pictures of the location to motivate his staff to work harder to go for that trip. The vision board should be open to all staff to let them add pictures that inspire them.

Furthermore, Tim can switch to Twitter as his channel for communication with his staff. Twitter can be used for important communications that need to be replied urgently. He should also follow all his key clients and important colleagues on Twitter and let them know that they can always reach him via Twitter. He should also set for his Twitter Direct Messages to show up as soon as he receives it. Replying their questions will be simplified when he is limited to 140 characters. This will help him reply promptly to any questions that his staff needs to ask him.

Tim has to build his social network with his customers and other people in the auto parts industry. He can choose to build a smaller, closer network of 5-15 leaders and advisers that will have important insights that can help him learn more. He should follow them on all his social networks and create a separate list that contains all of these people. These networks are for Tim to strengthen his relationship with these people, personally, professionally and intellectually. Tim should always check this list whenever he opens his social networks to catch up on what those people are doing. When Tim faces a challenge, he will know who to ask and he will be able to start his conversation easily because he already knows what is happening in their lives.

Additionally, Tim should build a social media space that will help him relax. This will help him restore his energy during the short gap when he is free. It can be anything from his personal photographs, his own vision board or it can be a game with his friends. This social media escape will be something that he can do anywhere and anytime. The only important aspect is that it has to be downtime for Tim, where he can restore his energy.

Last but not least, Tim should amplify his voice. Tim is very charismatic so his leadership is very important for the company. He should project his charisma through more social networks, his blog, his Twitter feed or his Youtube channel. If Tim does not have any material on hand, he can always find useful material from other inspirational leaders. When Tim finds any articles that he feels he should share to his employees, instead of sending them through emails, he can tweet those links. However, those articles should really be useful or worth reading to his employees. Tim should also record the speeches he gives to his employees and post it to his YouTube channel. This way his charisma can help influence more people besides his own employees. Leaders will usually send an email to all employees to say that certain employees did a good job. Tim can post his acknowledgements of the employees’ hard work on his blog. The public appreciation of the employees’ hard work will be more meaningful.

These few ways will help Tim improve on his leadership skills and project his charisma. Tim is a charismatic leader so he should fully utilise this advantage and try to help as many people as possible. Charismatic leadership is very important in an organization because these people can inspire people to work harder and for the whole team. Tim can motivate his whole team and possibly the whole organization if he puts his heart into it.