Hi There!
Just because you engage in personal branding does not mean you will have an effective or successful personal brand.
While there isn't one right way, there are a number of ways things can go wrong as well.
Here's a visual I recently shared which tries to convey this idea:
Now on to 5 Ideas To Unleash Your Leadership and Career This Week
How To Think Better On Your Feet
"Don't obsess on your inability to think on your feet. Better preparation can give you the edge you seek. "
Thinking on Your Feet is overhyped. There is value in being able to handle a googly from a key stakeholder - but 9 times out of 10, it is about anticipating such questions.
In this short post, I show you how to think better on your feet by preparing ahead. You can prepare by looking closely at who is attending, rehearsing your presentation, and meeting key stakeholders ahead of time.
Don't Use Financial Targets to Motivate Your Team
"When a leader spends the majority of their airtime on a “make the numbers” narrative, it creates a transactional relationship with their employees, making them more likely to create transactional relationships with their teammates and customers."
Managers spend far too much time talking about financial results and exhorting people to meet their targets. This can be counterproductive.
In this article, Lisa Earle McLeod and Elizabeth Lotardo suggest that you don't use financial targets to motivate your team. Instead, you should shift your airtime to customer outcomes, focus on individual customers, and help your team understand how their work matters.
How to Really Listen
"You won’t find a course on listening at many business schools, but it’s an essential skill for leaders if they hope to counteract the multiple forces that can lull them into believing they know everything they need to know about what’s happening in their organizations."
Senior leaders are swamped in more information than they can handle. Making sense of all this information requires them to listen effectively, and separate the signal from the noise.
In this article Adam Bryant and Kevin Sharer share tips on how to really listen. Their suggestions include - de-emphasising hierarchy, giving people permission to share bad news, and create a listening ecosystem for yourself.
How To Persuade Stubborn Leaders
"The bad news is that plenty of leaders are so sure of themselves that they reject worthy opinions and ideas from others and refuse to abandon their own bad ones. The good news is that it is possible to get even the most overconfident, stubborn, narcissistic, and disagreeable people to open their minds."
Some leaders are stubborn and there seems to be no way to get them to listen to you. However, it is possible - if you know how to use their predictable response patterns to get through to them
In this article, Adam Grant shows us how to persuade stubborn leaders. His ideas include letting them recognise gaps in their own understanding, asking questions to spark their curiosity, and praise them the right way.
How to Respond to Employee Activism
"Employee activism is on the rise and we expect it to become a defining feature of the workplace in the coming years. Employees are increasingly aware of social inequality and climate change and how their companies contribute to these ills, with millennials in particular seeming to be unwilling to turn a blind eye to their employers’ complicity...But... leaders tend to be ill-equipped to handle their outspoken employees."
Employees are becoming increasingly outspoken about causes they believe in. Leaders and organizations should learn how to respond to this type of activism, which is here to stay.
In this article, Megan Reitz and coauthors share tips on how to respond to employee activism. Their suggestions include: avoiding the optimism bubble, not falling for the apolitical trap, and avoiding quick fixes.
The best way to start any habit is to start small, start easy, and start with something fun.
In other words, start in a way that NOT doing the habit should seem unreasonable
If you're keen to build a daily reading habit, start by reading something you love- even if it's pulp fiction with no learning to offer. Reading a book you enjoy for 30 minutes every day is easy
When you are doing that consistently (10 - 15 days), introduce some challenge. Read a paragraph or half a page from the kind of book you eventually wish to read, before continuing with the books you enjoy
Gradually increase the pages/time you spend on the books you wish to read
Don't be in a hurry - let the habit grow on you
The best way to start any habit is to start small and start easy
If you start with something fun, you will learn to enjoy the habit you are building
Until next time!
Narayan
PS : When you are ready, here are some ways in which I can help you work on your skills so that you can create greater impact for your organisation, for your team, and on your own career.
1. Join the Unleash Your Leadership Community to be part of a community of like-minded professionals to learn new skills, get support from peers on your challenges, and learn by helping others address their challenges.
2. Sign up to Unleash Your Leadership Masterclasses be notified of workshops I conduct regularly. Topics include Career Success Strategies, Personal Branding, Strategic Communication, Delivering Through Others, and many more...
3. Work with me privately. If you’d like to explore how we can work together 1-on-1 to Unleash Your Leadership or Career for faster growth and greater fulfilment at work — Click Here
