Personal brand: is yours clear or questionable?

Whatever you think about his approach or business, DC area entrepreneur Matt Lesko has one thing that's unquestionably clear and strong: his branding.

Lesko appears in metropolitan DC area TV infomercials wearing a question-mark-covered suit. But he also hangs out in those suits on his free time and drives bright-colored cars covered in question marks around town. Everyone notices him and everyone recognizes him. I've seen his car around town many times, and just noticed it in the parking lot of the theater I visited this past week for a concert. At the time of writing this post, I've just seen Lesko's picture on a friend's Facebook wall after he spotted Lesko at a local eatery on a Sunday evening.

Just a couple of days ago, yet another a potential client contacted me to request a speaking engagement to a group of young up-and-coming professionals around the topic of "Building Your Personal Brand," a topic that is in hot demand for the Generation Y professional crowd. It's something most people don't give enough thought, or don't think they need to worry about unless they're starting their own business. 

I'd say, ignore your personal brand at your own peril.

Here's the truth: you already HAVE a personal brand. The question is: Are you aware of it? Do you OWN it? Whether an entrepreneur or an employee, what consistent and clear message are you transmitting about yourself in how you...

• dress? 
• groom?
• carry yourself? 
• treat others?
• ask (or don't ask) questions? 
• perform your work? 

You leave an impression on others whether you like it or not. The question is, is the impression, or brand, you create about yourself one that is intentional (by design), or unintentional (by default)? Does it help or hinder your progress toward your personal and professional goals? What could you do differently to better manage your brand - in person and online?

Food for thought...

Image from Wikipedia

Becoming Your Best Self: Will you help me?

Thanks for reading my blog. I really appreciate it. In fact, I really want to know what you think about something.

You see, I'm doing some research for a new project I'm working on (Top Secret - for now). I'd LOVE to get your opinion. It won't take long, I promise. I value your ideas!

Will you take 5 minutes to complete three fill-in-the-blank statements for me?

Just complete these three statements in the comments below. 

1. ‎"What can help me be my 'best self' is ___________."
   (Think in terms of what supports, what help, what products and/or services, what advice do you seek/have you sought to improve yourself and reach your personal best?)
2. "What frustrates me about trying to become my 'best self' is __________."
   (What have you tried that was unsuccessful? What gets in your way of applying tools/advice you've received? What confuses you? What's missing in your knowledge/skill bank?)
    
3. "Successful experts/gurus in self-improvement, personal development, or 'life-hacking'  include __________."
   (Who is a good source for information, products, and/or services for self-development?) 

Again: Thank you for your time and input!

Photo by Flickr Creative Commons User Marco Bellucci

The "STS Formula" for giving positive feedback and appreciation

It was very nice to see TalentGrow's annual gift featured in this guest post on WordOfMouth.org by our friend and colleague Jeremy Epstein, VP of Marketing and Social Navigator at Sprinklr. It just shows that when you give thoughtful, meaningful, authentic gifts, it really resonates with the people who receive them.

The same is true with positive recognition and appreciation; in my opinion, it is the most influential tool in any leader's toolkit. When you say "thank you" or "job well-done" to a staff member, peer, supervisor, client, associate or friend, it has a lasting positive effect, often with a multiplier effect rippling off of it.

Let's face it: NO ONE has ever felt TOO appreciated. Period.

Halelly's "STS Formula" for positive feedback and appreciation

Here's the simple formula that is guaranteed to work to make people feel truly appreciated:

1. Be Specific. Describe in as much detail as possible WHAT you appreciated and WHY.While "Thank you" and "Good job" are way better than nothing, they don't really describe the behavior you appreciated and want to recognize. Here's a little secret: what gets appreciated, gets repeated. Don't you want to let the person know what behavior to repeat?
2. Be Timely. Articulate your appreciation (whether orally or in writing) as closely to the occurrence of the appreciated behavior as possible. Otherwise, not only will the person possibly forget what they did, but they may not feel your appreciation is as authentic or heart-felt as it should be. I mean, "thank you so much for helping me that time two months ago" just doesn't have as much of a positive impact as "thanks for your help yesterday" does.
3. Be sincere. People can read (and smell) 'fake' from a mile away. Humans are astute observers of nuanced body language signals that convey incongruence. And, when faced with a mismatch between the words and the way they were conveyed, we almost always trust the visual and vocal cues as the 'true message'. If you're giving appreciation as a 'management technique' or because you 'have to', not because you're truly appreciative, the receiver will pick this up and your positive feedback will have the OPPOSITE effect - it will create distrust and disgruntlement. The bottom line: if you can't find a way to sincerely feel thankful, it's best you don't give thanks. 

Take the "STS Challenge"

In the next week, look for opportunities to 'catch' people doing things right, and for things you can appreciate about them, and provide Specific, Timely, and Sincere appreciation. It can be as simple as a spoken appreciation face-to-face or by phone, a thank you card, or a symbolic gift. Then, come back and report about your experience and reactions in the comments below. I can't wait to hear about it!

Image: my modification of a photo by Flickr Creative Commons user Claudio.Ar

How to increase creativity, curiosity, and learning: An exercise

Listening to podcasts, audio books, interviews and other recorded spoken materials is a great way to learn while in the car, in airports, or while doing dull work tasks. 

I love learning. I love being creative. So I really enjoyed listening to recorded Creativity in Business Telesummit (CIBT) interviews with creative leaders, hosted by my friend Michelle James of the Center for Creative Emergence. I got new insights, learned new information, infused new energy into my creative thinking, and re-invigorated my passion from listening to the stories and practices shared by these various practitioners and creativity thought leaders.

All of the CIBT sessions featured some kind of an exercise or practice the expert wanted to share on how to bring more creativity to business (in addition to lots of juicy food for thought). I want to share one of these exercises with you:

One of my favorite sessions featured Annalie Killian, who has the coolest corporate job title -- Catalyst for Magic -- at AMP, one of Australia’s most eminent Financial Services corporations. In her interview, Killian described a practice she called 'Algorithmic Brainstorming': when contemplating a new goal, or a topic she wants to write about, or a question to which she wants to figure out the answer, she gets an algorithmic 'right brain' boost from doing a Google Image search on that word, phrase, or question and seeing what comes up. She says that looking at the images that are generated by Google's algorithmic search encourages your mind to use both hemispheres of your brain to think about the idea: both the linear, logical, linguistic left brain as well as the metaphoric, imagery-based right brain. It enhances your ability to think creatively about the subject at hand and generate fresh insights.

I really like this exercise and would like to offer my slight twist on it:

I find that doing this kind of search in Flickr's Creative Commons gallery brings even richer images than Google. This is especially true if you apply a trick I learned a while back from blogger/author Tim Ferriss: click the 'Interesting' button on your search results in Flickr. (This is how I search for images for my blog and also my graphic-rich PowerPoint presentations.) Then, feast your eyes on the diverse and fascinating images that load up, page after incredible page.

The image at the top of this blog post is what I selected from a search I conducted using the word "curiosity" - one of the keys to creativity and my number one character strength according to the VIA Strengths Survey (love of learning is my #3 -- I've written about strengths here, here, and here). I looked at so many other idea-provoking images before selecting this one!

So - why don't you give it a try? Go to Google, or Flickr, and type in a key word, phrase, or question that has your attention right now. What does your 'algorithmic brainstorming' search bring up? I'd love to read about it in the comments below!

Photo by Flickr user jvc

What do leadership and driving a car have in common? [vlog]

Have you ever learned new skills, and felt overwhelmed and intimidated? Did you feel unnatural and uncomfortable as you tried out your new skills? If you're like most, you might have even had doubts that you could really perform those new skills and a strong urge to revert back to your tried-and-true old habits.

In the vlog (video blog) below I share a useful analogy that likens the experience of learning any new skills to learning to drive a car for the first time. Please watch it here:

The Learning Cycle 

The Learning CycleThe learning cycle has us going from a state of Unconscious Incompetence (you don't know what you don't know) to the realization that there is something we need to learn - Conscious Incompetence. We feel uncomfortable with being incompetent and get motivated to learn the skill. So we become Consciously Competent as we begin learning and practicing the new skill. We experience that discomfort and awkwardness because performing this new skill requires a lot of concentration and effort, and we aren't yet masterful in applying it -- it doesn't come naturally. And, if we push through the discomfort and continue mindfully practicing, we finally complete the learning cycle and arrive at the state of Unconscious Competence. We can now perform the new skill with little conscious effort - like being on 'auto-pilot'.

So - if you experience that awkward discomfort with a new skill, remember: it's natural and normal to feel thi. Resist retracting. Push through, persevere, and practice mindfully, and you will eventually master it!

Would love to hear your reactions - have you experienced this? What do you think?

[Graphic corrected 12.18.12]