Recently, it’s been proven that mentoring programs boost representation and diversity within companies.

Do you remember looking up to someone at your very first job? Was it the way they carried themselves, the work they did, or their leadership style that drew you to them? Most importantly, did you wish you could gain advice from them in some way? Now think about if you had the chance to be mentored by that person. Do you think it would change anything about your career track so far?

Mentoring programs help ensure everyone can advance in their careers. They also help foster employee relationships. A company that establishes an inclusive mentorship program helps foster diversity within its workplace.

As Reese Witherspoon recently said during the launch of her mentor program, “mentorship is a key part of empowering the next generation.” And according to the Harvard Business Review, more diverse companies experience an increase in innovation—and revenue. Here are some reasons mentors are crucial for a diverse workplace.

Mentoring programs can provide extra support and guidance

Navigating the workplace can be tough, especially for an employee who is new to an industry. Mentors provide a plethora of resources to their mentees who, at the end of the day, may just need someone to talk to. Thus, this extra layer of emotional support can be helpful to a wider net of diverse employees who may need it.

Mentoring programs can open doors to a wider network

Depending on how a company goes about pairing mentors with mentees, mentors can typically open doors to a wider network of people that a mentee wouldn’t normally have easy access to. For example, maybe a mentor is established at a company and has connections with varying departments within that company, unlike a mentee who may have just started out in their career.

A good mentorship program’s goal is to help people build relationships and gain access, transcending the company’s hierarchy. This makes it easier for all employees to move up with fewer barriers.

Mentors can be role models

Mentors not only open doors to a wider network, but also can open doors to a mentee’s future possibilities. Having direct access to a coworker—one whom a mentee may want to follow in their footsteps—is a crucial part of the mentorship process. And while a lot of job experience happens over time, the insight a mentee can gain from this specific process is invaluable to their lifelong career goals.

Mentors can hold their mentees accountable

Some mentorship programs require the mentor and mentee to work together on goal setting, so a mentor can be more than a role model; they can also hold one accountable. Being held accountable can lead to positive results for the mentee such as improving productivity, performance, and one’s commitment to their career goals.

There’s no such thing as bad publicity? Try telling that to US Airways after their corporate Twitter account accidentally tweeted a very NSFW photo, which spread like wildfire across social and mainstream media. Or tell that to the New York Police Department, after their #mynypd hashtag campaign backfired, prompting a barrage of posts featuring photos of police officers engaged in violent interactions.

Whether caused by a technical blunder, hijacked hashtag, disgruntled employee or inappropriate attempt at humor, a social media mistake can escalate into a full-blown communications crisis in a matter of minutes.

Companies large and small are discovering how important it is to have a strategy in place to deal with social media crisis situations. According to a recent survey of Fortune 1000 in-house lawyers by Weber Shandwick, 85% of respondents agreed that social media has greatly increased the potential for a minor problem to turn into a major crisis. Yet only one in five report actively preparing for a social crisis.

Here’s how you can stay ahead.

Know when to worry

The first step is drawing the distinction between issues and crises on social media. Issues are something that brands’ social media managers deal with on a daily basis. This might take the form of a customer complaint or public criticism of a product posted to one of your social channels. More often than not, a quick response or action from the social media manager will be enough to put an issue to rest within 24 hours.

A crisis, on the other hand, will emerge if an issue goes unaddressed and causes a ripple effect across a broader public audience – or if the issue simply snowballs out of control before it’s even discovered. A genuine crisis might also result from internal mismanagement of social media communications, for example disgruntled employees posting inflammatory comments about the brand or improperly sharing confidential information. These crisis situations go beyond what a sole community manager can handle and may well call for involvement from your corporate legal team.

Know the rules of engagement

To prevent a social media issue from turning into a crisis:

1. Don’t ignore negative posts

Equally important: Do not delete complaints or criticisms addressed to the corporate social account. On social media, there’s no such thing as “If we ignore it, it will go away.”

2. Apologize quickly and sincerely

Publish the official response to the same social channel on which the situation arose.

3. Offer a remedy

Even if the problem can’t be fully solved right away, explain what steps are being taken to resolve the conflict.

4. Offer a sidebar where necessary

While it’s important to keep the public apprised of developments, sometimes taking the conversation with any offended parties offline is the best way to address the issue directly.

5. Monitor channels vigilantly

This should really be happening on an ongoing basis so you can tell both when a social media crisis is emerging—and when it’s finally resolved.

These are just some basic guidelines to get started on creating a strategy for social media crisis management. To build on these principles, there are a handful of executive-education courses on social media and corporate communications management available.

Laura Montgomery is a higher-education expert who blogs for The Economist Careers Network.

The Executive Education Navigator is a first-of-its-kind search and discovery tool launched by The Economist Careers Network to aid executives’ search for their ideal executive education programs. Its blog includes posts on career hacks and industry trends.

For a quick course on social media strategies, consider a Mediabistro online course on social media.

You want your employees to like you, but also respect you. You want to stand with them, but also have them know where you stand. Yet, the line between boss and buddy can sometimes be hard to detect.

“It’s not uncommon for many new supervisors to cross the line in either direction—they can become too friendly and then can’t discipline, or they can become too strong of an authority figure and turn staff off,” explains executive coach and management consultant Kathi Elster, co-author of Working With You Is Killing Me.

So, how do you foster an honest, trusting relationship with your staff when you’re the one handling their performance evaluations?

Below, workplace experts offer tips that can put you in the best position to both supervise and support your crew.

1. Remember Who’s The Boss

Keep in mind that, in the workplace, it’s more important to be a boss than to be a friend. Being too friendly can jeopardize your authority.

“Attempting to be friends with your employees makes providing feedback and performance appraisals difficult and puts you at risk for claims of favoritism,” says Devora Zack, CEO of Only Connect Consulting, Inc. and author of Managing for People Who Hate Managing.

“Your team needs a leader, not a buddy,” she says. “In the end, they’ll like you more when you focus less on being liked and more on offering guidance and support.”

Suppressing that natural need to be liked is key, says corporate consultant Carlann Fergusson, founder of Propel Forward LLC.

“The trap of wanting to be liked is an easy one for all new supervisors to fall into—and I fell into it myself,” she says.

“But remember that caring is different from wanting to be liked. Caring is non-conditional and applies to every employee.

This will enable the leader to course-correct employees for the good of the team and the company, without letting personal concerns get in the way.”

2. Know Your People

Not needing to be liked doesn’t mean you need to be unlikeable. You can keep your boss hat on and still take your employees to lunch once in a while, or ask how their weekend was.

In fact, getting to know your employees on a personal level—while not getting too personal—has advantages.

Deb Hornell, president of the Chicago-based workplace consultancy Hornell Partners, says a manager needs to “spend time with staff—get to know them and uncover their talents and motivations.”

Author and business consultant Bob Papes says you should put effort into relating with your employees. “Taking an interest is more than just saying good morning.

It’s knowing important things like their birthday, when their child is graduating, sending a sympathy card for a death in the family or, better yet, going to the wake or funeral,” he says.

“This says to the employees you generally care about them as people and not just as employees.”

Still, Papes cautions, know what lines not to cross. “You shouldn’t go out with them and party unless it’s a company event. If you become a personal friend to some of them, it may seriously erode your status as a fair manager or supervisor.”

3. Don’t “Friend” Your Employees

Elster advises managers to “Think ‘friendly,’ not ‘friends.'” But does that include Facebook friends? Though it may seem safe, forming social network attachments with your employees is probably a bad idea.

“Although the requests continue to come in, I try not to accept friend requests from my employees,” says Ayo Hart, founder and managing partner of Dolphin Organics.

“I don’t feel it’s appropriate to see everything going on with my employees, and definitely don’t want the window to my personal world opened to them. I’ve been on both sides of the fence, and I know what’s at risk.”

4. Stay Professional, Not Personal

Anything you wouldn’t reveal online should be off limits in person, as well. “Don’t use your staff to discuss your problems—personal or professional,” says Elster. “And never lose your cool in front of them—they’ll only fear you.”

Donna Flagg, a workplace communications expert and the author of Surviving Dreaded Conversations, agrees with the need to keep things professional.

“Don’t spend office time kibitzing about social life; know what’s appropriate for the environment you’re in,” she says. “‘How was your weekend’ is fine, but locking yourself in a conference room to debrief on a break-up, date or whatever is not. This goes for both parties.”

That discretion applies even more when it comes to sensitive corporate information. “Don’t discuss confidential company information under any circumstances. It doesn’t matter how close you are,” says Flagg. “This is where a clear line must remain intact.”

5. Make Clear and Consistent Decisions

Asserting your role as manager means you need to make clear decisions on a consistent basis and communicate them effectively.

“Be open to ideas but be clear that you will make the final decision. When you do, explain why you made that choice.” says Michelle Tillis Lederman, president of Executive Essentials and author of The 11 Laws of Likeability.

“Keeping the employee in the loop goes a long way to job satisfaction and also shows that you listened and had reasons for making the decision.”

“Over-communicate what you want and need from them,” says Elster. “Always consider their point of view when it comes time to give tough feedback and be prepared to hear what they have to say.”

6. Manage Your Friends as You Do Everyone Else

You already know it’s wrong to play favorites with your friends but, Flagg says, “you don’t have to make apologies for your friendships” either.

“As long as you’re professional and fair, people will come to understand that the friendship is irrelevant in the context of work,” she says.

Just remember that when you’re with these friends amongst other employees—whether at the office or outside—you should give them the same time and attention you give anyone else who reports to you.

Laurie Leiker, freelance corporate trainer and author of Motivating Feedback: Getting the Best from Employees without Tears says that it’s okay to acknowledge friendships, but know where the lines are drawn.

“Your friend will have to understand your responsibility is to the company first, and friends second, if a conflict arises between the two,” she says.

“If you want to drive performance, engage employees and drive results, non-cash rewards are the most effective tools in your toolbox,” argues Kimberly Abel-Lanier, vp & general manager of employee engagement solutions at Maritz Motivation Solutions.

Private career strategist and former HR consultant Mark R. Gerlach agrees. “Most studies show that employees don’t actually perform better for more pay, once they have enough to live fairly comfortably,” he says. “So rewarding them in more meaningful ways can lead to higher satisfaction.”

So, what are these “other more meaningful ways?” Below, management specialists share “gift” suggestions for workers who’ve gone out of their way on the job.

1. Recognition

Sometimes, simple recognition is a reward unto itself. “Something all bosses can do that doesn’t cost anything but means the world to people is recognition for their contributions to the organization,” says David Ciccarelli, co-founder of Voices.com. “Our team meets every day to discuss good news and challenges, but also to shine the spotlight on an employee’s accomplishments.”

Jeff Gordon, a former corporate recruiter and current director of marketing at FreedomPop agrees. “Calling out the employee in a good way in a company meeting is always a positive,” he says.

Psychologist Elizabeth R. Lombardo, author of A Happy You: Your Ultimate Prescription for Happiness, recommends “personally acknowledging not only when employees achieve success, but also when they put in extra effort. For example, ‘Brett, I want to thank you for coming into work this weekend to get this project out on time. I know that took time away from your family, and the entire team really appreciates it.'”

These communications can take the form of emails, personal letters or public praise but, in terms of reward value, one-on-one conversations are best.

2. Time

The phrase “time is money” can be taken literally when devising employee rewards. Executive coach and management consultant Kathi Elster, co-author of Mean Girls At Work, recommends “allowing a more flexible schedule” when a staffer deserves a reward. She encourages offering employees a chance to work from home two days a week or going down to a four-day week for a set period of time.

“If your company doesn’t currently offer flextime, consider making it a part of your reward structure,” says Gerlach. “On a monthly or quarterly basis, look back on employee performance; if employees have excelled, allow them a flextime schedule for the following month or quarter.”

3. Gifts

Of course, gifts can make good rewards, so long as you choose and dole them out wisely. Smithson-Abel says employees are motivated most when they’re “empowered to choose their own rewards.” For that reason, she recommends opting for gift cards from crowd-pleasing brands like Starbucks, Target and iTunes.

Anja Schuetz, a people management coach and author of Poker Cards for Managers, cautions that “rewards really only make a difference when they are something that the person really desires.” She points out that an expensive bottle of wine may not mean much to staffers who don’t drink wine.

“The more we know about the people we want to reward, the more meaningfully we can reward them,” she says. “The most meaningful rewards are not expensive; they show that you care. Plus, you’ve just deepened your relationship with that person and invested in their engagement with your team.”

4. Food

Free food is a big deal in an office, especially when it’s earned. Smithson-Abel recommends taking your group out to nearby lunches or dinners after jobs well done. It’s also a good environment to explain in detail why they earned the honor.

Jim Angleton, president of business consultancy Aegis, recommends scheduling a regular catered lunch for senior staff to recognize outstanding efforts. The “senior staff” part is important to put the team’s good deeds on the corporate record.

5. Escape

Sometimes it’s a pleasure just to leave the office.

“Taking your staff outside of your physical workspace for the express purpose of doing something fun will always be well-received—a refreshing escape from the day-to-day,” says David Jacobson, founder of TrivWorks, a corporate team-building consultancy specializing in group trivia games. “So long as the activity is appropriate for your specific group, if you can afford to bring them somewhere and show them an amazing time, your staff will feel rewarded.”

At the end of the day, the best judge of employee rewards is you. You know your staff better than anyone, and you can probably remember a time in your own professional history when you felt deserving of a few corporate yum-yums. The goal is to let good employees know they’re doing good work and motivate them to keep at it.

Looking for a great way to reward you employees? Enroll your team in Mediabistro’s Corporate Training Program. With fully-tailored training in key topics across the media industry like Digital Analytics and Public Speaking, you’ll build out your organization’s skills to successfully compete in today’s market. 

And though you swear you’ll never be like them, how sure are you that their toxic ways aren’t tarnishing your own management skills? Sometimes we fall back on bad habits. What’s important is to put a stop to them immediately.

So are your management moves the right ones or do they need a makeover? We talked to three senior management experts in the industry: J.T. Hroncich, managing director of Capitol Media Solutions, a media buying and strategy company in Atlanta and Washington, D.C.; Amy Muntz, executive vice president of strategy at advertising agency Allen & Gerritsen; and Christine Stack, a partner at Liberty Blue, a communications industry placement agency.

Read on for ten employee-alienating actions and tips on how to turn your work style around.

1. You’re all business, all the time.

From 9 to 5 or 10 to 6 or 24/7, you are on the clock, and that means you’re the boss—not a friend, not a coworker, not a sympathetic ear. You’ve got things to do, projects to complete, websites to launch, books to publish. But when you do this, you risk your employees feeling isolated or under-appreciated.

“This is harder with 100-plus employee companies, but I have a small business and I think particularly in smaller companies, it’s important to take an interest in the people and their lives,” says Hroncich.

Muntz agrees. “Sometimes it’s hard to manage all the day to day and make time to connect with the human beings we work with,” she says. “The biggest disconnects happen when people feel like their managers aren’t connected to them and the things that matter to them inside and outside of work.”

It doesn’t take a lot of effort to ask how someone’s day is going, what plans they have for the weekend or how their family is doing. But this small gesture can make a huge difference in the eyes of your employees.

2. You’ve become buddies with your team.

The line between friend and manager is a narrow one.

While you’re busy focusing on the tightrope beneath your feet—and all the projects you’re juggling in the meantime—you might not notice that you’re a little too buddy-buddy with certain employees, or friendlier with some more than others.

“Hanging out outside the office or having a drink after work occasionally is fine,” Hroncich says. “But the casual relationship has to change into a professional once you get inside the office doors.”

It can create an environment where management isn’t respected inside the office or can create the perception—or reality—of favoritism.

If you were promoted from part of the team to the head of it, this becomes an even greater problem, as Stack can attest to. “I wish I wouldn’t have worried so much about getting everybody to like me, to be everyone’s friend,” she says.

“In the end, people may not like you or agree with you, but it’s important that they respect what you do.” Her solution: “A team meeting to set the tone is imperative.”

3. You keep company news to yourself.

While there are some secrets worth keeping, others tend to breed distrust.

Muntz says that much of the time, what seems like a lack of transparency can actually be due diligence when it comes to the decision-making process.

However, if you’re keeping mum on company happenings (that are public knowledge or soon will be), personnel changes that affect your daily responsibilities or client updates, your team may resent you for not looping them in.

Chances are, the info will leak out anyway, so give your employees the courtesy of hearing the news from you first.

“The challenge for managers is to be open and transparent even if you don’t have all the answers,” Muntz says. Even so, open up about what you do know. “Don’t let things linger or keep your employees waiting and guessing,” adds Muntz.

4. You blow off annual reviews.

From self-evaluations to biopic-length formal writeups, annual reviews are part of most company policies. For managers, review season may always seem to coincide with a particularly busy time of the year.

But just because your plate’s overflowing doesn’t mean you should drop this must-do to the bottom of your list.

“If you can’t get to a formal review in a timely manner, at least shoot for clear and consistent feedback in a general sense about [your employees’] performance or any issue,” Hroncich says. “Doing that eliminates or at least reduces surprises when the formal review does happen.”

Muntz stands firm on this point. “People that come to work for you every day deserve to have these conversations and they shouldn’t just happen once a year,” she says. “We should be doing formal check-ins quarterly and informal check-ins at least monthly.”

5. You ignore conflicts between your staff members.

Even if you love watching Bravo’s nightly smackdowns, chances are you’re not huge on inciting your own disturbances, domestic or otherwise.

Still, when employees are at each other’s throats—or, worse, passive aggressively throwing each other under the proverbial bus—it’s up to you to step in.

“I recall addressing a situation similar to this as a manager and I will admit it was the most difficult and nauseating day of my career,” Stack confesses. “Put simply, ask for help: Engage your HR director, outline the situation as well as what the ultimate outcome is desired and collectively shape a plan of action.”

Mediation is essential and most effective when the conflict is just beginning. Letting it fester will tank your team’s morale and productivity, Stack says.

6. You resist change and, in the process, stifle creativity.

You’ve gotten to the point that your work flow is fluid. You know how to work even the most finicky of databases. You’ve cracked the analytics software wide open. Your project management rhythm is down. You are, in a word, comfortable—and you like it that way. But that’s not necessarily a reason to push the status quo.

“With this perspective,” Stack warns, “you will make yourself obsolete—and smart, driven achievers won’t want to work with you.”

And if you are resistant to change, how can you possibly help promote the innovation of your employees and, thus, your company?

“I wish more managers would truly start fostering creativity,” Muntz says. “As an industry, we talk a good game when it comes to creativity, but I don’t think we put enough energy into rewarding our teams for developing solutions that are novel, innovative and unexpected.”

Stack encourages managers to give their team members frequent opportunities to present new ideas or offer solutions to a current challenge. And if those ideas don’t work, explain why. Just be sure to keep the creative juices flowing.

7. You have a no-mistakes policy.

You’re not one to bet twice on a losing horse, so when a team member flubs a project, you refuse to let her touch it again—ever. You won’t let her forget about that one mistake… or allow her to learn from it.

Instead of steamrolling the employee, guide her through the process, Stack urges. First, identify the mistake, so there’s no question in her mind what she did wrong. Then give her the opportunity to make up for the error.

Hroncich emphasizes the need to establish—and earn back—trust. Let the employee’s track record speak for itself.

“If it is a one-time thing and it’s still big deal, I probably wouldn’t take [my trust] away from them if they didn’t have a track record for screwing things up,” he says.

However, if the employee is a repeat offender, despite your frequent admonitions, says Stack, “then sadly she’s simply not getting it, and action needs to be taken.” That action might be transferring her to another, more appropriate, role—or, worst case, asking her to leave.

8. You don’t address problems when they happen.

Perhaps you’re too lax with your employees. Instead of working to solve problems with stumbling employees, you go ahead and fix them yourself—hey, you reason, it’s faster this way.

And then after the offenses have built up and you finally unleash a firestorm, it comes across as out of the blue from your employee’s perspective.

“The issue here is simple: lack of honest communication,” Stack says. “You haven’t been fair nor have you given this person the opportunity to improve.”

Trotting out a list of problems, major and minor, all at once “has powder keg potential,” she adds.

It’s a better strategy to outline a list of things that have worked this year (start with the positives), and then get into the things that have not worked.

The goal is for the employee to come away from the discussion with ways to improve his performance and have an action plan in place to reach his or her full potential.

Follow-up is essential here. Be sure to set up monthly conversation reminders so you can see how he’s faring, particularly against your expectations and concerns.

9. You don’t delegate.

When you spend the time to learn how to do something really well, it can be difficult to let someone else take a stab at it.

But when you become a manager, your job is to guide others as they do much of the work you did before. Your task is to oversee the project, not DIY.

“Delegation was probably the most difficult skill for me to develop; in some ways, it still is,” Stack says. “Getting beyond the concept of ‘Get it done now!’ to instead taking the time to educate others and oversee their execution was a difficult ask for a control-freak like myself.”

Nonetheless, it’s essential to give your employees the chance to expand their responsibilities and develop new skills. In the end, it will benefit you both to move a few things off your epic to-do list.

10. You’re a serial micromanager.

Ah, the catch-22 of delegating a task to a team member only to minutely oversee his every mouse click. The three senior managers we talked to each cited it as the No. 1 gripe employees have about their bosses.

And Muntz totally gets it. “I was a complete micromanager when I first started out,” she says. “Like many new managers, I tried to stay on top of every little thing my team did, which was unproductive and exhausting. It eventually led to me having to let go.”

The fact is being a great manager means you are comfortable setting the vision and empowering the talented folks you have on your team, adds Muntz.

“The best managers don’t tell others how to do their work; they help create and nurture an environment where their team can do their best work.”

Yet here we are, increasingly asking them to do one another’s jobs.

As marketers depend more and more on technology to connect with consumers in an always-on world, and as IT is increasingly responsible for creative executions, the boundaries between CMO and CIO are rapidly blurring. Consider the now-famous prediction from Gartner analysts Laura McLellan and Michael Smith that “by 2017, the CMO will spend more on IT than the CIO.” As we approach that date, their forecast seems less and less far-fetched.

This is not a bad thing. Consumers today want seamless brand experiences. They want to move fluidly among a company’s advertising, its shopping platform, its social media and its customer service. This means that marketing and IT must learn to work more closely together. Leading organizations are centralizing accountability for investments in marketing technology by establishing a newly created executive position: the chief marketing technology officer.

They are introducing this person either as a fully decorated member of the executive team or, more commonly, as accountable directly to the CMO, with close to the full mandate of a CIO or CTO. Ten years ago, the CMTO position didn’t exist, but lately it’s become something of a hot topic.

As important as departmental alignment is, the CMTO charter is not to bring technology to marketing. There are plenty of application vendors who are happy to do that on their own, selling to the CMO.

What, then, should the CMTO charter be? This person’s most important work focus is to change marketing, customer experience and IT—including what those functions do and how they work together—in service of creating competitive advantage.

Three meta-trends fuel this charter. First, empowered consumers demand seamless brand experiences. Second, connected martech systems, built in thoughtfully organized layers, are replacing stand-alone products as enablers of competitive advantage. Third, organizations must consider how they go about transforming their entire businesses for a digital world, rather than digitizing a piece of them or adding limited digital revenues as an adjunct.

Despite excitement around the CMTO role, the ambiguity as to who these individuals are, the skills they possess and where they sit organizationally has led to considerable confusion. To help us understand the state of martech talent, SapientNitro conducted a first-of-its-kind study of marketing technologists’ skills, career paths, attitudes and behaviors.

The results are striking. For example, we discovered six distinct professional archetypes, differing in background and competencies and which, consequently, are not equivalent or interchangeable. Organizations in search of the best person to steward marketing technology through a period of profound disruption need to define the role more specifically than simply as “marketing technologist.”

But regardless of how each organization defines the CMTO, there is, without question, an enormous industry skill gap to fill these roles. In 2013, SapientNitro decided to do something about it and created CMTO University. Each year, up to 20 of our best technologists—talented people who are already in the business of creating beautiful experience platforms and e-commerce systems—spend an entire year learning to become full-fledged marketing technologists.

We’ve leveraged the best thinkers from across our agency and from every discipline, including business strategy and branding, research and analytics, creative and interaction design, experience and enterprise technology, and data management and data science.

This program takes a three-pronged approach to creating these hybrid individuals. First, CMTOs should be immersed in the business and culture of marketing and advertising, understanding concepts like segmentation and positioning, ROI and NPV, branding, media and mix modeling. Second, they should be exposed to the vast and ever-expanding marketing technology landscape, its categories and evolving vendor landscape, and advanced practices in software and product life-cycle management.

Lastly, they must possess the influence and management skills to foster cross-departmental collaboration. If they’re going to break down silos, they must be able to speak to and influence people coming from different backgrounds.

To move beyond ads, we need people who can see around corners, paint the big picture and allow customers to experience brand stories through integrated story systems. We need to move beyond thinking in terms of channels and platforms.

The truth is, employees rarely come equipped with that breadth of perspective, or the charisma to evangelize it.

It’s up to us to grow our talent.

Sheldon Monteiro (@sheldon_tm) is CTO of SapientNitro and founder of SapientNitro CMTO University.

This story first appeared in Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.

In this Q&A, Murray, who recently was named among Adweek’s 100 most influential leaders in marketing, media and technology, explains how mentors and mentees can benefit from one another’s experience.

Q: Is mentoring different today than five or 10 years ago?

A: The fundamentals of mentorship remain the same. You’ve got to listen, you’ve got to be honest and build on people’s strengths and candidly point out weaknesses. It’s a two-way street where those coming into the business have a ton to teach to those who are already pretty high up on the corporate ladder.

Q: Is it harder now or easier than in the pre-Internet age?

A: The only real difference between mentorship before the digital age and now is that mentorship is no longer limited by geography or industry. The opportunities are endless. I love when I get a text from one of my all-time favorite interns who is now a senior at American University and I hope joins FCB when he graduates. In the past, changing jobs or industries or moving to a new location might have resulted in mentors and mentees losing touch. Now, more than ever, it’s easier for us to text our mentor with quick questions or arrange a FaceTime meeting when a situation needs a little more attention. It’s really quite amazing.

Q: Did you have a mentor?

A: Harry MacAuslan from Leo Burnett was a great mentor. He taught me two things that have stayed with me always: Sometimes, you’ve just got to shut up and listen; you’ve got to understand before you are understood. And, always be yourself.

Q: What’s your view on reverse mentoring, younger staffers showing older ones the digital ropes?

A: It’s paramount, and I’m grateful. Young staffers feel needed and empowered, and they teach more senior staffers who are not always as comfortable with technology how to navigate without fear. It’s a win-win. Everyone has different skills and gifts that should be shared with others. I want the people of FCB of all generations to be eager and open to learning new things every day. I can honestly say that I learn something new every day, and, sometimes those learnings come from the new ways of thinking millennials bring to the table.

This article was originally published on Adweek.com.

When managing someone who is 10 to 20 or more years older than you, just remember: “You’re on the same team, and there are things each of you is going to learn from the other,” says Shani Hilton, executive editor of news at BuzzFeed. At 30, Hilton knows a thing or two about managing older employees, and after several years at the company, she’s as buoyant as ever about her gig and everything that comes with it. “I think the only real challenge is to create a dynamic where we’re truly in a give-and-take relationship.” Difficult? Maybe. Doable? Definitely. Use these tips to help you avoid potential missteps and get the most out of your older employees.

1. Be authoritative but not authoritarian.

You aren’t helming a dictatorship. Researchers find that workers with autonomy report higher rates of job satisfaction. Seasoned workers have been in the workforce for decades. They’ve earned the right to have a say in how they do their job.

2. Ask questions.

You’re the boss, but that doesn’t mean you know more than your employees. They’ve been at this (a lot) longer than you, and they have years of industry- or company-specific knowledge. Use that.

3. Involve employees in the decision-making process.

Treat seasoned workers like the priceless assets they are. Show them their perspective and experience are valued.

4. Be open to feedback.

This isn’t older employees’ first rodeo, so they have insight you may not. They were building digital brands while you were finishing Integrated Marketing 101. Take advantage of their expertise.

5. Get to know your employees.

Older workers often feel overlooked amidst a sea of millennials. You don’t have to be best buds, but talk to your workers. Are they married? Do they have kids? Do they skydive?

6. Encourage continued professional growth.

Find out your employees’ goals and offer support in achieving them. Maybe the print magazine’s managing editor would rather work on Web content. Recommend a digital journalism course—and get the company to pay for it!

7. Keep an open mind.

“What I’ve learned,” says Hilton, “is age has very little to do with whether someone does well in this environment: 22-year-olds can be overly cautious sticks in the mud, and 52-year-olds can be wonderfully experimental.”

What are some of the things you can do to protect yourself against an attack on your brand? How do you take the steps to build and restore your brand’s bad reputation? What defense do you have against personal attacks, customer complaints and blatant falsehoods? How can people get away with saying whatever they want on the Internet with little to no consequences for their actions?

We’re here to shed some light on these types of questions, so read on.

Unfair attacks on reputation are nothing new.

Slander against companies and individuals is not a new subject. In the late 19th century, the expression “yellow journalism,” coined by New York Press editor Erwin Wardman, described how newspaper moguls, specifically Joseph Pulitzer II and William Randolph Hearst, would use misleading sensationalized stories to improve circulation.

Hearst is the subject material that inspired Orson Welles to make the film Citizen Kane, based on the influence and corruption he acquired in the 1920s and 1930s.

Why can I say anything on the Internet?

Yellow journalism is still in the media today but, due to libel and slander laws, media outlets have to be careful about how they report the news. Unfortunately, the Internet does not have the same guidelines as print and television outlets.

In 1996 Congress passed the Communications Decency Act (CDA). The law was passed to try to regulate pornography and obscenity in cyberspace. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, the law protects operators of Internet services by removing accountability. Websites hosting other people’s comments are not liable for the words of writers who post articles, reviews, feedback, complaints, libel statements, accusations, false claims, rip-off reports and insults.

The law keeps the spirit of free speech alive for the Internet but may enable immoral users to abuse the Web. Possibly due to so many anonymous attacks on companies, Google now gives preference to verified and identified user content and pushes the unknown authors back in the search results. Google also will remove defamatory statements from their search results.

Prevent damage by monitoring your brand.

The top two ways of gauging your online reputation is by looking at the search engine results pages (SERP) and using Google Autocomplete. By staying ahead of any negative stories, you can take a proactive approach of protecting your reputation.

If you are seeing an issue emerge, you can go into Google Analytics and look for spikes in your site traffic that will point out key events and possible red flags.

Have a plan before fixing your reputation.

Managing your reputation is a manner of organization and foresight. Make sure to set up Google alerts for all titles in question using brand names, product tags, popular misspellings (use analytics to find these), competitors, senior team leaders and key industry terms and popular search phrases. By discovering the problem, you can develop a solution.

Always have a well-thought-out plan for how to handle a reputation crisis. Sometimes the best fix to a problem is not to respond to the problem at all. Look to see if the offending website that hosts the negative comments about you will gain popularity by the rebuttals from the company or person trying to defend himself—if the site performs on other people’s comments it may be a good idea not to respond at all.

Do not feed the fire.

Some say the only three laws for reputation management are authority, authority, authority. The more authority you have, the easier it is to make a big difference in where the stories will rank on the search page results. One way to establish authority is by building a social media reputation with a strong following.

This is not done by purchasing likes but by engaging with people as a thought leader or by being very transparent about your brand.

Also keep in mind that your authority can be built outside the Internet by participating in events, speaking engagements, becoming a sponsor and by joining charitable organizations. Depending on what type of outcome you are trying to achieve, authority can push your search results to page one moving negative comments into oblivion.

There are other simple steps you can take to build or fix your reputation as it appears within search results:

1. Own Your Past. Address the elephant in the room. Acknowledge what the company has perceived to have done wrong. Apologize and have an action plan to make it right.
2. Control the conversation about your brand. And create an online crisis-listening program to catch increases in negative conversation before they reach bloggers and online media.
3. Understand complaints your brand already receives. Use social media to clarify customer misunderstandings, reducing overall complaints and building brand fans at the same time.
4. Adjust your social media response plan based on research, not emotion. Have analytics in place to help make an informed decision. Surges in traffic from websites like Reddit, where users can deliver anonymous content, can indicate a potential crisis developing.
5. Monitor employee complaint platforms. Glassdoor is one such resource.
6. Be proactive to prevent issues from turning into a crisis. Use decision trees that include the steps to take when an issue surfaces online or within the media for faster handling of potential issues.
7. Limit potential surprises. Own variations of your website URL, including negative versions (Yourbrandsucks.com).
8. Take complaints offline when possible. This ensures both a faster response for the customer, and less visibility about the issue at hand.
9. Be quick to apologize to customer complaints. Remember that a happy customer tells five fans, an unhappy customer tells 10, a fan who had an issue resolved tells 20. This is a great way to build super fans.
10. Be transparent when handling client issues. Transparency here means telling the customer what happened so they understand the issue; don’t make up excuses.
11. Fix what you can! Understand which elements of the complaint you are able to fix and do so. Use this feedback to build a better mousetrap.
12. Use testimonials. Positive feedback from influencers can help boost any image problems.
13. Create quality subpages from your website. This will help push negative results down.
14. Reward loyal customers. Make your clients and supporters feel appreciated by giving them exclusive content, products or experiences.
15. Be patient. Building a good reputation doesn’t happen overnight. And rebuilding a damaged one is an even longer process.

The Internet has changed the way reputation is handled and perceived. While it takes millions of dollars and years to build a reputable brand, it only takes 45 seconds to create a Twitter account and potentially ruin an organization’s reputation online. In today’s world, nothing is more important to a company’s health than managing your brand’s reputation.