Hi There!
Here's a Steve Jobs quote that I was thinking about:
"The journey is the reward" - Steve Jobs
And here's the visual:
That was my 47th Daily Visual, a journey that I started on February 1 this year, and is strangely challenging and rewarding at the same time.
The other journey I have been on is writing and publishing an atomic essay every day. I started on 25 Jan - so as of yesterday, I had published an essay 54 days in a row.
That's not a big deal - there are lots of people who have been publishing daily without a break for years...
But it's a big deal for me!
Because before this I haven't had such a long streak of publishing without a break.
I've been writing every day for quite a long time but have struggled with publishing consistently - because the perfectionist inside me would always stop me - after all how could I publish something that wasn't good enough?
While the perfectionist inside me is still alive and kicking, adopting a habit of publishing daily - where my only goal is that I publish a post of 1300 characters max (that's the LinkedIn Post limit) - helps me overcome the resistance to hit Publish.
Now on to 5 Ideas To Unleash Your Leadership and Career This Week
5 Mistakes That Are Limiting Your Personal Brand
"Clarity about your desired impact will make everything else about your personal branding simple. "
The personal branding process is simple, but the challenge is that unless you know what you want, there's no process that will help you get there.
Start your personal branding journey with desired impact - the impact you wish to create in this world.
This is your Why.
Knowing your desired impact then helps you figure out your dream job (or dream product) and your dream customer.
Once you are clear about your desired impact, dream job and dream customer these serve as a frame of reference, and a standard, for assessing and crafting your brand.
How To Help People Cope As They Return To Office
"As more and more people get vaccinated... leaders and employees are starting to look ahead to a potential return to offices...For employees who have felt isolated and siloed during the pandemic, the return to the workplace will be exciting. For those who have taken to remote work or have lingering health concerns, it will be anxiety-inducing. For many, it will be both. Simply put, the return to offices will be emotional."
There is no way you can predict how the pandemic will progress or what will happen in a few months. However, as a leader, it is your job to create certainty and make employees feel safe and supported.
In this article, Liz Fosslien and Mollie West-Duffy share simple strategies to help people cope as they return to office. Their suggestions include being transparent, surfacing concerns early, and involving people in reimagining what the workplace looks like.
How To Use Art To Motivate Your Team
"...remote teams are at risk of losing motivation. By drawing on techniques used by creatives, business leaders can revitalize teams and spark fresh momentum and innovation."
Helping your people find their motivation and stay engaged and contributing is one of your key responsibilities as a leader. Creative leaders are looking beyond management theories for ideas on keeping their teams motivated.
In this article, Kenny White shares ideas on how to use art to motivate your team drawing on techniques from several artistic disciplines including visual arts, improv and poetry
How To Prepare For Behavioural Interviews
"Behavioral interview questions require the candidate to explain how you resolved an issue, solved a problem or fixed something. Embedded within each answer are the human drivers or qualities that show why you took the actions you did. It’s like a small peek into what motivates you."
Behavioural interviews are an integral part of the hiring process. They are popular because they help hiring managers learn how you respond to situations and how you solve problems to achieve results.
In this detailed guide Hannah Morgan provides tips on how to prepare for behavioural interviews. The article provides a good background, a list of the most common questions, and suggestions on how to prepare including the STAR framework as well as example responses.
Contrast - The Fifth Essential Element of Your Personal Brand
"Contrast is what makes your brand stand out. It may arise from the other four essential elements of your brand- Character, Contribution, Customer, and Collaborators. More frequently, it arises form a unique combination of two or more of the essential elements."
Contrast is what makes your brand stand out - what differentiates you from the competition.
Clarity on your differentiators and constant renewal are key to a powerful personal brand.
As many of you already know, I'm working on my new online cohort based course Personal Branding for Career Success (you can sign up for updates here). This week I shared my key values for the course.
First off, why does a course need values?
Well, a course, especially a cohort-based course like Personal Branding for Career Success is essentially about community - and communities have values.
By sharing my values for the course, I am hoping to attract the right people into this community - people I would love to serve and hang out with.
My key values for the Personal Branding for Career Success Course are:
Impact. You seek to create a positive impact in the world. You may still be figuring it out - but you are driven by the need to positively touch the lives of people
Intention. You work intentionally rather than let things happen. You pursue career success deliberately. You proactively cultivate your brand - not let perceptions form by default
Interdependence. Personal Branding is a team sport. Learning to build your personal brand is also best done in a group - where you learn as much from each other as you do from the facilitator. You feel accountable to and for your peers
Of course, this is a partial list.
What do you think?
If you were a participant, what values would make this a compelling community to be part of?
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. I'm launching an online community-based course on Personal Branding for Career Success. This is a course I'm committed to building in public. Sign up to Personal Branding for Career Success to receive status updates about the course. I will also share much of the material I develop for this course with people who register for this notification list.
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
