7 Star Wars Leadership Lessons

May the Fourth be with you!

Today may be a day dedicated to puns, fandom, and a galaxy far, far away, but it probably doesn’t mean you’ve suddenly learned a Jedi mind trick to keep your manager from asking for that project, presentation, or report. If you’re like me, you’re trapped at work, wishing you could be cosplaying The Force Awakens with your family or baking an R2-D2 cake.

Unfortunately, Star Wars Day has yet to be recognized as a national holiday. In better news, both the Dark Side and the Light Side have a lot to teach marketers about life, love, and the pursuit of the target demographic. Let’s see what the Jedi (and the Sith) have to say about marketing leadership.

Kylo Ren Is the Ultimate Counterexample of Disaster Response

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What do you do when the rebel scum hits the fan? Let’s use Kylo Ren as a counterexample for marketing leadership: he’s impulsive, hot-tempered, and incapable of inspiring his team.

So whether your social team makes an epic blunder, or a key executive spouts politically incorrect things in an interview, take a deep breath. Your next move will define who you are as a leader. Don’t repeat Kylo’s mistake by responding without thinking. You can make a disaster recovery plan, check for vulnerabilities, and apologize afterward, but the most important PR response will always be internal, so take care with how you handle crises with your team. Others will look to you as a leader for the appropriate mode and tone of response, so set that tone from the moment you hear about your organization’s blunder. Unlike Kylo, you can’t just slash the controls and shut everything down.

Balanced, Yoda Is

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Yoda may be an obvious choice when talking about any sort of leadership, since he has dispatched his fair share of sage leadership advice. But instead of focusing on “there is no try,” what if we looked at Yoda as a whole? Overall, this Jedi master emphasizes the psychological aspects of the Force, and marketers could stand to learn a few things. In our constant fight for eyes and ears, we sometimes forget what our target customer needs.

Does your customer really want another viral video, or are they trying to figure out how your product works? Do they need another tweet about National Pancake Day, or would they prefer a help article that answers their common questions? I believe Yoda would say, “Clear your mind, and ask them, you should.”

Admiral Ackbar Is Not a Trap(ped Leader)

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We all know this meme-worthy line, but do you know the context in which it’s said? Admiral Ackbar is managing multiple moving parts of one initiative, and he’s strapped for resources, manpower, and the skill to bring about the results his team needs (sound familiar?). Trying to balance brute force with agility and speed, he discovers that his chances of success have been slashed by factors outside his control. When he utters this now-famous line, he’s expressing the shock we all feel when things don’t pan out. But does he throw in the towel, even though he has few resources and he’s facing impossible goals? No! Ackbar pulls his team back to regroup, concentrating their energy on achievable KPIs. Once the shields are down and the time is right, they strike–ultimately winning the war.

With decreasing budgets and increasing expectations, digital marketing can sometimes feel like a losing battle. When leading a team into a difficult, resource-strapped situation, it may be time for us all to take a lesson from Ackbar. We need to identify the areas of potentially sky-high ROI, without wasting our team’s time and energy on losing battles in the interim. Although it may occasionally seem like a trap, with expert guidance and focus on the right metrics, our teams can (and will) win.

Emperor Palpatine Has No Vision

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Emperor Palpatine is ego personified for all the galaxy to see, and he’s also a great example of the overconfidence that has led to some pretty terrible marketing campaigns. Think of New Coke or the creepy Burger King mascot. You could also harken back to a number of poorly planned corporate social media blunders. When ideas like these fail so gloriously, occasionally I ask myself, “How could this have happened?” The answer: a Palpatine perspective on idea generation.

There’s a common phrase in journalism (and other highly edited writing) that you have to “kill your babies.” This infanticidal euphemism simply means that sometimes you have a great line of copy, idea, or wide shot that simply doesn’t fit in the larger piece and must be cut. Some marketers could stand to learn from this, lest our egos about having the best idea in the room become more important than the ideas themselves. It’s often prudent to take a step back; show someone else your killer campaign, press stunt, or even blog idea; and allow them to give brutal, honest feedback. After all, we don’t want our work compared to Empire.

Leia Has a High IQ–and a Great EQ

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Leia’s famously improvised line is key to the love story of Star Wars. But it also shows that she has a significant amount of emotional intelligence (EQ), since she recognizes love in a hard-to-read paramour. Although Leia clearly has a very high IQ, her EQ helps the character-driven story to progress, and it’s something we could all improve in our customers’ experiences. Knowing what your customers want is the first step to creating a great experience, but really empathizing with their pain points is the next step in that journey. Marketers are now tasked with the entire customer experience, so we should focus on understanding the emotions our customers feel when they have a negative interaction with our brand. Do your customers love you? Do you know?

Can You Correct These 16 Basic Grammar Mistakes?

Limericks: The Lowest Form of Poetry?

There is a well-known line, often attributed to Samuel Johnson, but preceded and followed by myriad others, that the pun is the lowest form of humor. If so, the limerick, a form of verse that depends on clever assonance and double entendre, is certainly the lowest form of poetry. In this post, we will shine a spotlight on the limerick, and see if the cockroaches scurry.

To the best of anyone’s knowledge, the limerick originated in England sometime before the fifteenth century. Early in the life of this form of poetry, limericks were created primarily for children.

Here’s an oldie, but goodie:

Hickory Dickory Dock A mouse ran up the clock The clock struck one And down he run Hickory Dickory Dock

Limericks began to gain widespread popularity in the mid-to-late eighteen-hundreds with the publication of Edward Lear’s Book of Nonsense in 1845 and 1872. Lear’s verses centered on nonsensical themes, and he violated every law in the “poetic rulebook” by using a word to “rhyme” with itself and occasionally destroying the anapestic foot.

For this reader, seven hundred years of poetic tradition has trained my ears to flinch when I hear someone waste words within a rigid form. With the vantage of history, we moderns can rise up in our highfalutin’ indignation at offenses like this one:

There was an old person whose habits

Induced him to feed upon rabits When he’d eaten eighteen he turned perfectly green Upon which he relinquished those habits

Here, Lear rhymed “habits” with “habits,” and actually dropped the doubled “b” in “rabits.” Ouch.

Dictionary.com gives the origin of the term “limerick” as a reference in a popular drinking song, in which the refrain, “Will you come up to Limerick?” follows an extemporized verse. You can imagine the verses of the poem growing increasingly ribald as the beer flowed freely. In fact, given its tame domestic origins, the limerick has gained a unique reputation for bawdy subject matter and salty language.

The science-fiction icon, Isaac Asimov, along with John Ciardi, penned one of the seminal works in the study of the limerick. He captured the essence of the limerick with nuggets like these:

39. Fit for a Marathon

To the ancient Greek writer Herodotus,

Said a pretty young thing, “My, how hard it is!”

Said he, “Do you fear

I will hurt you, my dear?”

And she said, “Are you crazy? Thank God it is!”

Asimov and Ciardi do not source each of the limericks included their book. It is safe to say that many of these little gems had been passed down orally for generations until someone inscribed them for safekeeping. A more contemporary limerick demonstrates how the form is used in a more modern context:

126. Comic Strip

A well-known reporter, Clark Kent

Had a simpering, mild-mannered bent.

But he grabbed Lois Lane,

And he made it quite plain

What his cognomen Superman meant.

Poetic forms closely connected with the limerick can be found as early as fourteenth century England — quite a bit before the town of Limerick staked its claim. And while our language has evolved over the centuries, the English language, with its plethora of conjunctions and articles, provides humorists with a host of tools to fit the rhythm of the form.

Anyone can write a limerick. All you have to do is read some of the examples here, which will refresh your ear to the meter, and then give yourself a character (first line) and a situation (second line). Find a surprise ending, and away you go!

e.g. There once was a (person) from (place),

Who (action) to (something) his face,

When (something) (occurred),

(Inserting a word),

To (person) comes certain disgrace.

In honor of Limerick Day today, surprise us! Are you game? What is your favorite limerick – we’re waiting to smirk, chuckle, or ROFL at your responses.

Grammar Skills Test: Starter

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Knowledge is Power: Using Idioms To Give Power To Your Writing

Some writers use idioms to “add color” to their writing, while others are adamant about keeping their text as simple as possible. While idioms can certainly clutter your work with unnecessary detail, they may also introduce powerful imagery into your text. Since “knowledge is power,” let’s take a look at the best way to accomplish this.

First, what is an idiom? An idiom is an expression with a figurative meaning that differs from the literal meaning. We hear idioms every day – both in conversation and in the media. Used correctly, idioms can amplify messages in a way that draws readers in and helps to awaken their senses. But, how?

Idioms help us “think outside the box”

Incorporating idioms into your writing is an effective way to make your work more creative. This is because an idiom can be used as an artistic expression. For example, if you’re working on an article related to financial planning you could say: “You should save your money.” Or, you could use an idiom such as “A penny saved is a penny earned.” The idiom livens up the text and prompts readers to think beyond the facts, and about saving money in a different way. By not spending money, you’re really saving money. (Go figure!)

Another example of a creative idiom that helps to expand our frame of reference is to “bite off more than you can chew.” When using this phrase in a sentence, you are essentially telling someone that perhaps they’ve taken on a bigger task than they can handle; however, the idiom gives the sentence more charm – while also providing a dynamic visual. It conveys your message well and makes it more interesting for your readers.

Idioms help us find our “sense of humor”

Idioms can also add humor to your writing in places where you may otherwise seem brash. For example, rather than writing about a character who is not smart – or at least not thinking straight – you could say “the lights are on, but nobody’s home” or he’s “not playing with a full deck.” These idioms tend to be softer and somewhat less insulting.

Similarly, “when pigs fly” is a more dynamic way to say that something is highly unlikely to occur. And rather than say that someone is not very good at something, you could say, “Don’t give up your day job.”

Idioms “dress [our writing] to impress”

There are quite a few idioms that can take dull writing and make it more impressive, which used in the right context will serve writers well. For example, using “add insult to injury” sounds just a bit more impressive than telling someone that they are making a situation worse by their mockery. Instead of telling someone that they have no manners, you can say they have “not a spark of decency.”Are you trying to convey that you agree with someone? Perhaps you could say that you “see eye to eye.” Does this happen very rarely? Maybe it happens “once in a blue moon?”

When you’re writing, keep a list of idioms handy so you can draw from that list and incorporate these sayings into your writing where appropriate. Be careful not to “go overboard”. Too many idioms can be a distraction. Also, be sure that you know the correct meaning of the idiom before you use it in your writing. Not using it in the right context can confuse readers and turn some of them off to your work.

Trust me, it is easier than you think to incorporate idioms into your writing. Once you get familiar with a list of common idioms, you’ll discover that you already know many of them – and getting them on paper will be “a piece of cake”.

You’ll Never Guess the Origins of These 3 Bizarrely Spelled English Words

English is linguistically categorized as a West Germanic language. Though it is now the most widely spoken language in the world, English actually got a pretty small start.

In the fifth century, many related Germanic dialects fused together, collectively becoming what is now known as Old English. These dialects were brought to the eastern coast of England by Germanic settlers and eventually gained a stronghold in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England in what is now southeast Scotland.

Old English eventually evolved into Middle English as a result of invasion and interaction. Beginning in the eleventh century, English was increasingly influenced by the Romance languages, so-named because they descended from Latin, the language of the Romans.

Specifically, the Norman Conquest of England in the eleventh century facilitated a heavy borrowing from Norman French. As a result, vocabulary and spelling conventions began to evolve to more closely resemble those of a Latin-derived Romance language, even though English itself is not technically considered a Romance language. Furthermore, Latin was the academic and religious lingua franca of the day, which further facilitated the integration of Latin vocabulary into English.

English has continued to be influenced by a number of different languages and is commonly known as a “borrowing language.” The bizarre spelling of these three common English words aptly illustrate this fascinating phenomena:

February

Have you ever wondered why February has that random, silent first r?

Well, February, like the names of most months, has Latin roots. It descended from Februarius, a month in the ancient Roman calendar. The name actually comes from the festival of februum, a purification ritual celebrated during the month.

The ancient Roman calendar was eventually reformed by Julius Cesar in 46 BC. This new Julian calendar, which divided the year into 365 days and twelve months, is the foundation of our current Gregorian calendar.

Wednesday 

Most Americans don’t pronounce the d in Wednesday. But just because you can’t hear it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. So where did this d come from? And why don’t we pronounce it?

As it turns out, Wednesday actually has Germanic linguistic origins. It is derived from the Old English word, Wōdnesdæg, which honors the Germanic god Wodan.

Wodan was one of the most important deities of Anglo-Saxon and Continental Germanic polytheism and was especially prominent in England during the fifth and sixth centuries, before Christianity fully took root. This explains the development of the word in Old English. Wodan corresponds to the ancient Roman deity of Mercury, for whom Wednesday is named in many Romance languages, including French (Mercredi), Italian (Mercoledì), and Spanish (Miércoles).

Interestingly, Wōdnesdæg evolved to Wednesdei in the transition from Old English to Middle English, possibly because of the increased linguistic influence from French. Anyway, considering that there has been a d in Wednesday for roughly the past two thousand years, it probably isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Furthermore, most Brits actually do pronounce the d in Wednesday. 

Pterodactyl

The name of an ancient flying reptile, this might just be the weirdest spelling in the entire English language. This word is actually of Greek origin, coming from pteron (wing) and daktylos (finger).

So why the references to wings and fingers? Well, the name actually refers to the unique way in which this reptile’s wings are supported by its fingers. Go figure!

What are your favorite bizarrely spelled words in the English language?