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Social media is no longer an optional marketing channel — it’s a necessary one.

But that doesn’t mean results are a given. When it comes to social media, you’ll either have a lot of success interacting with your customers, or you’ll see little results — and that depends on the level of effort you put into it.

For every business that has found success in social media marketing, there are at least two more spinning their social wheels with no tangible results. It’s time to change that trend.

For many, social media is simply a place to post links to content they’ve created in hopes that thousands will see it, click through, and share with their followers. So they have profiles on every network, and every network looks exactly the same; line after line of self-promotion.

This is not going to bring results. In fact, Facebook‘s algorithm now penalizes link-based content, and Instagram has made it all-but-impossible to share a link.

Half-heartedly sharing your content on social media is not social media marketing. It’s spamming.

Social marketing is a lot of work, and it takes time listening and responding. After all, it’s social, and anything social takes an investment of effort and skill.

To hone these skills, check out these resources that will help you develop the skills needed to be effective on social media. (You may want to bookmark this post so you can easily refer to it again later.)

How to Learn Social Media Marketing: 31 Free Resources

Social Media Marketing Blogs

Social marketing is a science involving special communication skills. And the landscape changes constantly.

One of the best ways to develop your social media prowess and to stay up-to-date is to follow experts in the field. These blogs are always fresh with actionable information you can use to improve your marketing:

1. Social Media Explorer

SME is both a strategic services agency and a blog with a bevy of social media and marketing experts. The SME blog is consistently considered one of the most insightful in the industry, and several of its authors have written popular books on several aspects of digital and social marketing.

2. Scott Monty

Monty is a marketing guru who covers a ton of subjects. However, his social media articles are always eye-opening. If you haven’t heard of him yet, check out his “this week in digital” posts — these will keep you up-to-date with all the news on social, and every other aspect of digital marketing as well.

3. Social Media Examiner

Not to be confused with Social Media Explorer, the Examiner is one of the top blogs in the world for social media. Its social media reports are filled with all the important data social marketers want, and the blog posts are filled with valuable tips, as well. If I had to pick just one social media blog to follow, this is the one I would choose.

4. HubSpot Marketing Blog

Right here on the HubSpot Marketing Blog, you can find breaking news and actionable how-to guides on every social network there is.

Ebooks About Social Media

These ebooks will provide deeper information on specific networks and topics.

6. How to Use Instagram for Business

This step-by-step guide explains the reasons to create a business Instagram account and how to execute on Instagram to drive results.

7. A Visual Guide to Creating the Perfect LinkedIn Company Page

If you’re building a company page for the first time, or trying to upgrade your page, this guide will show you exactly how to do everything from crafting an engaging company description to creating an eye-catching banner image.

8. How to Attract Customers with Facebook

This multi-page ebook will show you how to use Facebook to drive real business results for your organization.

9. How to Get More Twitter Followers

HubSpot partnered with the experts at Twitter to provide actionable tips for social media managers starting new accounts to build a following, and fast.

10. The Beginner’s Guide to Social Media

Last, but definitely not least, is this amazing guide from Moz. The 12 chapters in this book are filled with valuable information that every marketer absolutely needs to know. Bookmark this guide, you’ll refer to it more than once.

Videos About Social Media

Videos are my second favorite medium to learn, behind books. Being able to glean from the brightest minds on any subject as if you’re face-to-face is powerful. These videos will give you valuable insights, just how to do social media, but you’ll get insights into the why and what as well.

11. The #AskGaryVee Show

You can’t talk about social media without talking about the speaker, author, and social expert Gary Vaynerchuk. On the Gary Vee Show, he takes questions from his audience and answers them as only he can. If you have a burning question on social media marketing, send it to him.

12. TED Talks: Social Media Marketing

If you aren’t in love with TED, you might want to check your pulse. This is a playlist of videos from TED Talks on social media. There may not be that much actionable advice in these videos, but if you want to become an expert on social media, these videos will give you insight into the deeper subject like “the hidden influence of social networks.”

13. Learn Social Media Marketing

If you’re really new to social media, and you want to learn through a structured lesson experience, consider Lynda’s massive library on social marketing courses.

14. Free Social Media Certification

HubSpot Academy has a breadth of video courses across inbound and digital marketing. Their free social media course is an eight-step video curriculum that teaches you the fundamentals of managing a social media campaign for your business. It also earns you a fresh Social Media Certification.

Podcasts on Social Media

If you like to learn while you chill, work out, or commute to and from work, podcasts are one of the best ways to do it. And these podcasts will help you develop your social media expertise.

15. Social Media Marketing Podcast

Michael Stelzner, from Social Media Examiner, brings you success stories and expert interviews from leading social media marketing pros.

16. The Social Media Examiner Show

Rather than deep dives, the SME Show gives you small, bite-sized content for social media every day. This is a great podcast to get actionable quick-tips on a daily basis. It’ll keep you motivated while you develop your skills.

17. The Social Toolkit

If you like to stay up-to-date on digital tools, apps, and software for social media marketing, this is the podcast for you.

18. The Social Pros Podcast

Every episode of the Social Pros Podcast shines the light on real pros doing real work for real companies. You’ll get insights from Jay Baer of Convince and Convert when you tune in.

Slideshows and Infographics About Social Media

If you’re a visual learner, these slide decks and infographics provide great ways to learn social media.

19. The B2B Social Media Palette

This SlideShare walks you through the channels and tools you’ll need to be most effective at B2B social media marketing. Sometimes, success can be found by using the right tools and channels for the right audience.

20. The Complete Guide to the Best Times to Post on Social Media

Timing is very important when it comes to social media. Post it the wrong time, and your update can go completely unnoticed because of the flood of updates in your audience’s feeds. Being able to master the timing of social media is critical to effective marketing.

21. 58 Social Media Tips for Content Marketers

This slideshow is from the folks at Content Marketing Institute. This deck shows the proper methods for promoting your content over social media. This is a must-read for any social marketer who wants to use those channels to promote content.

22. The Best and Worst Times to Post on Social Media

Again, timing is everything. This infographic lays out the best and worst times to post on each major network. You should save this infographic for referencing when you schedule your social media posts.

Best Social Media Books

Books are my favorite way to learn. Many experts agree that if you read a book a week, on your area of expertise, for 5 years, you will have the equivalent of a Ph.D. on the subject. That may or may not be true, but reading books from the experts definitely doesn’t make you a worse marketer. Here are some books to get you started.

23. The B2B Social Media Book

This book covers the specific application of social marketing to B2B companies, to leverage social media to drive leads and revenue.

24. The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users

You’ve got to read this book by the legendary former Chief Evangelist of Apple, Guy Kawasaki. He’s one of the pioneers of social and content marketing, and this book is filled with expert advice from one of the best.

25. The Tao of Twitter

This book is supposed to be for busy marketers who need to get the basics of Twitter down quickly. It shows you how to connect and start creating meaningful connections in less than two hours.

26. The Ultimate Guide to Facebook Advertising

Facebook is one of the most effective advertising and PPC platforms available. You can target a plethora of metrics, allowing you to drill down and advertise to a very specific audience. This book will show you how to optimize your Facebook ads.

27. Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World

Gary Vaynerchuk gives insight into how he uses a conversational, reactionary approach to engaging his audience. He gives concrete, visual examples of great social marketing, as well as not-so-great ones.

28. The New Rules of Marketing and PR

David Meerman Scott’s book on digital marketing is an international bestseller, and worth every penny. Some argue that it should be required reading for any marketer — and in this marketer’s opinion, “Just read it.”

29. Likeable Social Media

Dave Kerpen claims the secret to viral social marketing is to be likable. When someone likes you, they’ll recommend you. But being likable on social networks is easier said than done. This book will help you crack that code.

30. Social Media Marketing for Dummies

One of my mentors taught me to read children’s books on a subject if I just couldn’t grasp a concept. That principle gave way to movements like “Explain It Like I’m 5.” And, sometimes you just need it broken down like you’re, well, less than an expert on the topic, to put it gently. If that’s you, this book is valuable. Go ahead and buy it — we won’t call you dummy.

31. Contagious: Why Things Catch On

This book by Jonah Berger provides a strong foundation to understand how content goes viral — and how to create ideas on social media that are so catchy, your audience won’t be able to help but click them.

The Secret to Social Media Success

No matter how many social networks you set out to master, or how long you work in the social marketing field, there is one secret that will ensure you’re successful: Never stop learning.

This list is massive, I know, and there’s no way to consume all these resources in the next week. But if you set yourself to learning every day, every week, every month, every year, you’ll eventually be the one writing the books that help others learn social marketing.

It all begins with learning.

10 Things I’ve Learned About Social Media:

1. Social marketing requires listening.
2. Conversations should be the goal of social marketing.
3. Team #Followback is a waste of time.
4. Social marketing isn’t broadcasting, it’s communicating.
5. Never auto-post your content to your social profiles.
6. Never copy/paste the same message into every social profile.
7. Social marketing requires time. It’s relationship-building on a massive scale.
8. Be helpful. Period.
9. Social support is faster than live chat, email, or phone calls. Embrace it.
10. You don’t have to be on every network. Go where your customers are.

Marketing teams tend to pick up a new tool for every problem.

An email marketing tool here, an ads tool there, a CRM somewhere else. Before you know it, accomplishing your daily tasks requires you to navigate a tangled, borderline incomprehensible web of point solutions, free trials, and complex, custom integrations that stall out when you need them the most.

Building a marketing strategy around an à la carte selection of tools seems sustainable at first, but it can get messy fast — especially for growing companies with shifting needs.

Consider this: over 50% of marketers say they use five or more tools a day, and over a quarter use more than ten.

Wrangling this veritable hodgepodge of tools takes a lot of effort, and it’s stealing valuable time out of your day (not to mention, energy and patience from your employees).

Over 50% of marketers reported spending over 30 minutes a day integrating marketing tools, maintaining existing integrations, and managing their marketing technology. 28% said they’re spending an hour or more each day managing tools.

It shouldn’t be this challenging to keep the technology your team depends on functioning properly. All those tools don’t just create a major hassle for your marketing team — they also lead to a crummy experience for your customers.

When your tools aren’t talking to each other, your customers get a subpar experience with your brand.

So what does tool overload look like from your customers’ perspective?

When your marketing tools are disjointed, you aren’t able to personalize content or offers to prospects when they take an action on your website, like filling out a form.

For example, I filled out a form on a popular clothing retailer’s website and reported my gender as ‘male’. If this company’s marketing tools were all on the same page, they would be able to serve me emails and other relevant materials about their new men’s fashion offers. Unfortunately, the information they collected about me on a form doesn’t seem to be connected to their email marketing tool. As a result, I’m consistently receiving unpersonalized emails about women’s fashion.

With too many disconnected tools in rotation, you also risk sending your existing customers offers or promotions for products they already have. For instance, I frequently receive emails from my credit card company asking me to sign up for the card I’ve already been using for months. That’s not just an annoying disconnect between their customer database and their marketing database — it’s a missed opportunity to introduce me to something new.

So how do you beat tool overload?

Instead of adopting an entirely new tool for each marketing problem you encounter, find a tool that can grow with you — adapting to your changing needs and connecting each part of your marketing strategy without a steep learning curve.

Your marketing tools work better when they work together. Form submissions should populate immediately in your CRM. Your CRM should inform your email segmentation. Emails should be personalized based on CRM data. Sales and marketing should work in the same system. All the context for all your contacts should exist in one simple place.

That all sounds great, but are people actually thinking that way? As it turns out, yes.

34% of marketers are interested in switching to an all-in-one software provider for marketing.

So what’s stopping them?

Well, getting a lot of different features to work seamlessly together tends to be really expensive. And making that first significant investment can be scary.

But what if you didn’t have to make a big, upfront investment to get your tools to talk to each other? What if there was a way to start with a system that had everything you need right now in one place, and would be able to grow and scale as you do?

Marketing Hub Starter offers a complete suite of tools that work together and grow with you.

With so many tools available, it’s easier than ever to start building out your marketing strategy. But it’s harder than ever to get started right.

It’s been less than a year since HQ Trivia launched — and since then (around here, at least), it’s hard to go a day without hearing its name.

Don’t get me wrong. As a major proponent of pub trivia nights (not that I excel at them), I can see the appeal of a trivia app. But one, I thought, that is consumed passively — perhaps while waiting in line, or in the waiting room of a doctor’s office.

But no. HQ Trivia — the live, game-show-esque, social trivia app — does things differently.

You can only play at certain times of day: 3:00 and 9:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. You can win cash, no matter how nominal the amount. And you play with a community — of about two million players per game — that you can engage with during the game, in real-time.

We’ve heard your feedback and we are bringing back the 3p ET games during the week 🎉

— HQ Trivia (@hqtrivia)
July 16, 2018

But it’s not just two million of your closest friends who have taken notice. Investors have, too, and as of March, the company was valued at $100 million.

What’s more, certain tech giants look to be borrowing some ideas from HQ — though they’re not exactly admitting it. Facebook, for example, is adding game shows to its Watch roster, along with interactive elements that allow viewers to watch and “play along at home.” 

YouTube, for its part, introduced similar tools for creators — like audience polling — last November.

So what’s the big deal? Why are so many people taking notice of, investing in, and trying to copy HQ — and what can the rest of us learn from it? 

The Genius Marketing of HQ Trivia

The Appeal

Play to Win

Prior to writing this story, I had never played HQ, though I had heard of it — which seems to be common.

According to our survey of 478 internet users, we found that most respondents hadn’t heard of HQ — and that of those who were familiar with it, most had never played it before.

Data collected with Lucid

Before the games began, I asked my more HQ-savvy colleagues to share their insights. Is it worth the hype? Is it as addicting as it seems?

“Yes,” says Leslie Ye, a senior content marketing manager at HubSpot. “People lose their minds over winning three cents.”

So maybe that has something to do with HQ’s success — the potential to win something, especially if that “thing” is as tangible as real money (instead of, say, cryptocurrency).

For each game, HQ sets a certain amount of total cash available to win, like $5,000, for instance. But that amount rarely goes to just one or two players, says HubSpot Marketing Blog Intern Swetha Amaresan — whose friend once won $6 playing — and is more often divided among thousands of winners.

“It’s so rare that you’ll win more than once — or that you’ll even win as much as $6,” she explains. “It’s the app’s way of keeping you playing even after you win.”

Social Edition

But the appeal doesn’t end there, and unsurprisingly, the social aspects might lend itself to the app’s success, too.

“It’s very, very social,” Amaresan tells me. “People all over the world are commenting while they’re playing, and you can engage with them or see how they’re doing.”

And maybe, says Ye, that also adds a competitive factor to its appeal — what she calls a potentially “weird pride thing.”

So that seemingly powerful nexus — where a social, interactive experience meets the potential to win — isn’t just anecdotal, nor is it limited to this one trivia app. 

Keri Lindenmuth, Marketing Manager of technology consulting firm KDG, says that her company has seen similar success with projects that added an element of gamification.

“We’ve found that crowdfunding campaigns do much better when there is a game in place, because an entire community is working toward a common goal,” she says. “Social sharing always helps. People like to share how well they did in a game … which only encourages more users to get involved.”

“HQ Trivia works the same way.”

– Keri Lindenmuth, Marketing Manager, KDG

That’s exactly how HQ Trivia works, Lindenmuth explains. “Players feel as if they’re part of a community, and everyone loves to brag a little on Facebook or Twitter about how many questions they got right.”

The Experience

There was one element of the game for which I wasn’t forewarned: its tendency to glitch, making many users unable to select any answer at all.

That’s what happened when I set forth, with Amaresan’s help, to play my very first 3:00 PM game of HQ Trivia. The app experienced a glitch, and unable to answer the most fundamental question of the game, I was eliminated from the first round.

“That was stressful,” I later told her. “I feel like one of the women eliminated from ‘The Bachelorette’ on the first night.”

“That’s very sad,” she responded.

But here’s the thing — neither the glitch, nor my obscenely early elimination from the game, are likely to discourage me from playing again.

That’s partially because I kept watching, even after I was eliminated, and saw how many of the subsequent questions I would have gotten correct. 

Aha! So it’s that possibility of winning, as I mentioned earlier — the “I would’ve gotten those answers right” effect — that, for now, will keep me coming back, even if my total winnings would have amounted to $0.88.

That’s core to the marketing brilliance of HQ: let people participate, and give them a reason to come back — with an incentive.

“It’s engaging, and possibly addictive, for a variety of reasons,” says Nate Lehoux, co-founder of competitive cash trivia app PROVEIT, “but we think that its primary appeal is actually the fact that it’s almost impossible to win.” 

“What used to be a spectator sport is now a virtual community event. That’s a huge disruption of the status quo.”

– Nate Lehoux, Co-founder, PROVEIT

So it’s not winning, Lehoux says, that keeps people coming back — which is exactly what seemed to happen with my own inaugural HQ experience. 

“Losing a round of HQ creates an ‘I’ll show you!’ mindset,” he explains, “that makes players come back next time to try and beat their own previous records.”

So, will I allow myself to become a glutton for punishment and tune in for the 9:00 PM game?

Well, of course. After all — that’s just one part of what makes the HQ strategy so effective.

Featured image: Apple/Intermedia Labs

When you think of the French mining industry in the 1890’s, what pops in your mind? Terrible working conditions? A catastrophic collapse? The black lung?

What about the birth of modern work culture?

A coal mine might seem like an unlikely place for the emergence of work culture and organizational management theory, but you’d be surprised.

More than a century ago, Henri Fayol, the managing director of a French mining company, made groundbreaking advances in organizational management theory by constantly iterating his miners’ working conditions to uncover the optimal environment for efficiency, productivity, and happiness.

Advancing the field of operational management was Fayol life’s work. For 28 years, he kept refining his own management techniques to improve his miners’ working conditions. And since there weren’t many management resources in the early 1900’s, he decided to write a book called General and Industrial Management about his own theory of management, Fayolism, to teach other managers how to lead a team.

Fayol’s book covers the 14 principles of management that he leveraged to improve his mine’s efficiency and culture, and his ideas still ring true today. He’s considered the father of modern operational management theory, helping countless managers boost their team’s productivity and morale.

Honing the fundamentals of modern management isn’t easy. But, fortunately, we wrote this blog post to help you learn some of the most timeless principles of management that have guided teams toward success for the last 100 years.

1. Division of Labor

Modern Translation: Figure out what you’re employees are good at, and assign them tasks that play to their strengths.

All employees have their own set of strengths and weaknesses. And if you know your employees’ skill set and let them specialize in their strengths and expertise, they’ll sharpen their skills and boost your team’s efficiency, productivity, and accuracy.

Allowing your employees to specialize in one or two related skills everyday gives them more repetitions and time to master their craft. They’ll improve a lot faster compared to learning a broad range of skills. And the better they are at their jobs, the better your team will perform.

At HubSpot and most modern companies, all of our teams specialize in one area. For instance, on the blogging team, our job is to craft clear, concise, and compelling stories that build an audience. But we can’t do this to our fullest potential if we have to spend time finding the optimal keywords to target or the highest converting lead generators to attach to our posts. We leave that to the SEO and Lead Generation team — improving our Google ranking and generating more leads are their strengths, and they can do those things better and faster than we can.

Specializing prevents us from wasting any time on tasks not related to our core goals. We would attract less organic traffic and generate less leads than the SEO and Lead Generation team would anyway. With specialization, we can spend more time honing the skills that actually help us reach our team’s goals, which is the best way we can help our business grow.

2. Party of Authority and Responsibility

Modern Translation: You should take on more responsibility for your team’s output as you gain more power.

In nearly all organizations, management makes the calls. As a manager, your job is devise your team’s overarching strategy and collaborate with your employees to find the most effective and realistic way to implement your vision.

But with this amount of power comes a lot of responsibility. Since you’re the one calling the shots, the consequences of your actions fall directly on your shoulders. If your strategy fails, it’s your fault. Not your employees.

Blaming and punishing your employees for the failure of your own vision and strategy is immature and spineless. Your employees will think you’re ungrateful for their efforts and won’t want to work for you anymore.

Holding yourself accountable for the consequences of your actions, especially when they’re bad, proves to your employees that you have strong integrity: you work to serve and protect your people, and you won’t throw people under the bus for your own personal gain.

3. Discipline

Modern Translation: You should demand as much discipline in your team as you do with yourself.

Every successful leader knows discipline goes both ways. You need to earn your employees’ respect, so they feel compelled and genuinely interested in following you. This way, you can streamline your team’s processes and help your employees produce quicker and better results.

But you also need to discipline yourself by making sure that you’re overseeing your team as ethically as possible. If you exploit your employees or cut corners just to improve productivity, then your employees will feel disrespected and unfulfilled, leading to low morale. Respecting your employees and offering them a good work-life balance is the right thing to do, even if the opposite conduct could produce more results.

4. Unit of Command

Modern Translation: Each of your employees should only have one manager.

Your employees are the most successful when they only have one direct manager overseeing their work. This creates a direct, genuine relationship between the two, and clarifies your employee’s sense of direction at work.

Having two managers isn’t ideal for anyone. It can spread employees thin, lead to conflicting directives, and even divide loyalty. Unless it’s absolutely necessary, each of your employees should only have one manager.

5. Unity of Direction

Modern Translation: Each of your teams should only have one plan of action.

Each group of employees who have similar responsibilities and goals should pursue one plan to achieve those goals. For example, your blog team should focus on building an audience to increase website traffic. And your lead generation team should focus on turning that traffic into qualified leads. These teams obviously have different responsibilities and goals, so they should follow their own plan of action.

Merging both these teams into one would cause chaos. The merge wouldn’t change their incentives, prompting each sub-team to steer the combined team towards their desired direction. This power struggle would prevent both of them from meeting their own set of goals.

As a manager, you should set clear goals for your team, document your plan of action, and monitor progress. You also need to effectively communicate the purpose and benefits of your vision, so your team will buy in and do whatever they can to achieve your goals.

6. Subordination of Individual Interest

Modern Translation: Your employees should prioritize the company’s interest over their own personal interests.

Everyone has their own unique interests that they should pursue. But in terms of work, your employees should prioritize the company’s interest over their own’ personal interests. If you don’t clarify the importance of putting the company’s goals ahead of individual goals, workers who constantly pursue their personal interests before their company’s could veer your business off the path that’s best for them.

At HubSpot, we want to help our employees understand our company’s goals and communicate the importance of prioritizing them over their personal goals. But we don’t want to be overbearing and regulate their every move, so instead of using pages of policies and procedures to police our employees, we have a three-word guideline for just about everything. It’s called Use Good Judgement. And to help our employees use good judgement, we ask them, to first, do what’s best for our customers, then the organization, then their team, and, finally, themselves.

7. Remuneration

Modern Translation: You should reward your employees.

One of the best ways to motivate your employees is to regularly recognize their accomplishments and milestones and ensure their compensation reflects their performance. Ample recognition and fair compensation helps your employees meet the majority of needs in the most influential model of motivation: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Photo Credit: Simple Psychology

Abraham Maslow, an American psychologist in the 20th century, suggested that humans have to meet some needs before others to truly be happy, like meeting physiological and safety needs before esteem and self-actualization needs. But once we successfully meet one need, we’re motivated to meet the next one.

In theory, the purpose of life is to meet every need in the hierarchy. So if someone can meet their physiological and safety needs, but can’t fulfill their need for love and belonging, they can’t truly be happy.

Fairly compensating your employees helps them meet their physiological and safety needs. Recognizing employees helps them meet their esteem and self-actualization needs, since awards and praise make them feel valued, boosts their confidence, and motivates them to meet their true potential.

8. Degree of Centralization

Modern Translation: There should be a balance of authority between upper, middle, and lower management in your organization.

When a company is centralized, it means that upper level management has all the decision-making power. On the other side of the spectrum, when a company is decentralized, middle and lower level managers wield more power in the company’s decision making process, just like a democracy.

The best organizations strike a balance between the two. Absolute centralization and decentralization isn’t sustainable — no one wants to follow the order of a small, powerful group. But you also need a central power to instill order and guidance in employees so they can’t just do whatever they want.

Fayol suggested that companies should choose their degree of centralization based on the size of their business, experience of their superiors, and the ability of their employees.

9. Scalar Chain

Modern Translation: There should be an clear chain of communication in your organization.

Hierarchies exist in every business. From the executive board to your own team, they’re everywhere. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Fayol states that the most successful organizations have a clear understanding of each team and employees’ level of authority, and everyone should respect the hierarchy — especially when an employee wants to communicate with upper management.

Messages and requests should go through a chain of communication. If you want to communicate to the highest part of a hierarchy, you need the help of the employees who are just above you to get your message across.

For example, low-level managers who want to pass a message along to upper management should contact the mid-level managers about it first, who can then convey their message to upper management.

But Fayol also realized that by the time a low-level manager’s message reaches the top of the communication chain, it could be irrelevant. If it takes too long to communicate a message, what’s the point of sending it? To combat this problem, especially when the message is urgent, you should let your employees skip parts or all the steps of the communication process and take shortcuts to anyone whose higher up than them, even if they’re the CEO.

The amount of time your employees can shave off the communication process and the type of shortcuts they can take all depend on the situation. If it’s an emergency, they should be able to take a big shortcut and quickly convey their message to an executive. If the matter is less pressing, they should take smaller shortcuts and more time to convey their message. The executive team will gladly listen to your request for mitigating a PR emergency. But no one wants a midnight Slack message about a marketing email that was sent twice in one day.

10. Material and Social Order.

Modern Translation: You need to make sure your employees can succeed

To help your employees do their jobs well, you need to make sure your teams have enough resources and know what resources they have at their disposal. You should also ensure their work environment is safe and clean — a place where they look forward to going to work everyday.

As a manager, you also need to confirm that your employees are a good fit for their roles. Can they handle the stress? Can they manage their time and workload? Can they perform? These are things that every successful manager should know about all of her employees.

11. Equity

Modern Translation: You should treat your employees fairly.

In exchange for your employees hard work and dedication, you need to treat them fairly in return. This is crucial for healthy employee-manager relations because if one of your employees feels like other team members are getting preferential treatment over her, she’ll feel discriminated against, making her less happy and motivated at work.

You should always be hyper-aware of how fairly you treat each member of your team as well as your own unconscious biases towards your employees’ age, sex, religion, and personality type.

12. Stability of Tenure

Modern Translation: You should strive for a low turnover rate on your team.

Your new employees need time to get used to their work, improve, and, ultimately, succeed. Of course, you should expect your employees to master their jobs eventually, but if you don’t give them enough time to get acclimated, you’ll have to let them go — they won’t be able to hit their lofty goals immediately. Constantly recruiting new hires, training them, and then recruiting their replacements is a waste of your time and resources.

On the other side of the coin, when your employees know their job is stable, they’ll feel safe at work and enjoy their role more. This can lower your team’s employee turnover even more because employees will be less likely to move on from your team. You can also retain your employees longer by investing in their growth and wellbeing. Try offering them new learning opportunities, healthy snacks, and an inclusive environment.

13. Initiative

Modern Translation: You should let every employee make an impact on your team.

Your employees shouldn’t be scared to express their ideas. Instead, you should encourage them to take initiative and always be striving to improve your team’s efforts.

When you start implementing your employees’ ideas, your team will usually experience rapid growth — your employees’ trust and affinity for you will skyrocket, and they’ll also have more energy at work since their creations are coming to life. This gets your employees invested in the company, which helps your team come up with more break through ideas.

There are also more employees than managers at a company, so diversifying your ideation process with your employees’ different perspectives can generate more creative and effective ideas than the same, few minds can.

14. Espirt de Corps

Modern Translation: You should know how to boost your team’s morale.

Managers are leaders. You need to know how to get your team to passionately support a mission, even during the rockiest of times. And there’s three things you need to consistently do to make sure this happens.

First, you need to convince your employees to buy into the “why” behind your mission. This gives your employees a purpose and drives them to work as hard as possible.

Second, you should foster a team bond and a sense of unity. By encouraging the development of personal relationships with each other through team outings or daily chit-chat, you can create an atmosphere of trust, understanding, and inclusivity. You team will have harmony when each of your members feels like they belong, and this inspires them to work harder because they’re not just working together — they’re working for each other.

Lastly, you need to make your employees feel significant by rewarding high-performers and giving underachievers a chance to improve. If your employees know how important their work is to your team, they’ll feel valued, trusted, and motivated to help you succeed.