Your Portable Power
This past week, I interviewed five time CEO and author Margaret Heffernan on Head over Heels Radio. Our discussion covered many interesting topics relative to women and business, but one that really got my attention was what Margaret refers to as “portable power”.
Portable power according to Heffernan is unique to each person. It is the sum total of your skills and experience, your professional and personal networks, and your financial independence. You own this power and take it with you wherever you go.
I have given this topic more thought and a couple of questions come to mind. How many women are actually aware of their portable power? If they were more connected to their portable power, would they behave differently?
Let’s try to do our own assessment. How would you rate your own portable power as defined by Margaret Heffernan?
1. Skills and Experience
- List all your business and personal skills.
Business: i.e. computer skills, analytical skills, business acumen, selling skills, creativity, problem solving, team player, visionary
Personal: i.e. organized, tenacious, passionate, loving and nurturing, soulful, healthy, focused, outgoing
- List your business and personal experiences
What has your experience in business taught you?
what companies have you worked for?
what industries?
what different types of positions?
what have you learned about running a department? your own business?
What life lessons have you learned?
childhood experiences
relationships, children
community activity
living in different parts of the country, the world
travel
education, reading
2. Rate your personal and professional network strength
- Personal:
Who is in your personal network? Look at your email address book, Facebook and other social media friends, your cell phone contact list.
Estimate the number. I bet it’s a lot, right?
- Professional:
Your professional network consists of business colleagues from past as well as current positions, people you have met through networking events and online.
Count your social media connections as well.
Which is larger, your personal or professional network? Where is your strength?
3. Rate your financial independence
How much money is in your checking account? Your savings account?
What about your 401K? stock portfolio?
Do you own your own home?
Are you worried about paying the rent each month?
How long can you live comfortably without a pay check?
How do you rate your financial independence?
If “portable power” is the sum total of all of this: your skills and experience, professional and personal networks, and financial independence, how powerful are you? Where do you need to devote more time and effort?
AND, will the knowledge of your “portable power” affect your decisions about whether or not to leave your job, start your own business, or leave a bad relationship?
Knowing how much power you have builds the self confidence to choose and make sound decisions. You take this power with you wherever you go. It’s who you are.
Good Listening is the Secret to Building Relationships
This week marks the first anniversary of my radio show, Head over Heels. Now, fifty two weeks later, more than fifty interviews later, and more work than I ever anticipated, the radio show has taken on a life of it’s own.
One year ago, I was open to trying something new and learning new skills; how to conduct good interviews; how to find interesting topics and guests; how to present valuable information to my listeners. I have had many terrific guests on the show who have taught me a great deal about a variety of subjects such as diversity issues and leadership, negotiation skills, accessing capital, how to use social media to build your business, how to communicate more effectively, how to create and maintain work/life balance, and many more. I am grateful to the generosity of all the women who have been on my show and graciously donated their time and expertise.
Thinking back on the experience of the last year, I believe that one of the most important skills I developed doing live radio has been to listen and listen intently. When you do live radio, you don’t have the opportunity to see the other person. You cannot always anticipate their rhythm, if they are pausing for a breath or completing their thought. Everyone has unique speech patterns and communication skills. Some of my guests are very animated and have many examples and stories to share. Others are direct and give clear concise statements. The point is that I almost never know before we go live how they will respond. Most of the time, I have never spoken to my guests ahead of time. Scary, huh?
But that’s where good listening comes in. I have learned to tune in to each person’s rhythm and personality by listening and focusing on the present. I have learned to listen carefully to their response and see if there is a logical follow up question. I have learned not to focus on what my next question is, but what they are saying right now that has significance.
As host of the radio show, I have learned to intentionally put my agenda aside, and focus 100% on my guests and the information they have to share. In the end, that’s the “secret sauce” to conducting successful interviews. But isn’t good listening also the “secret sauce” for building and sustaining relationships?
Next time you are meeting with a client or prospect, or engaged in a conversation with a friend, try to listen more intently to what they are saying, stay present, and put your own agenda aside for a moment and see how that affects the conversation. The more you practice this, the better you’ll be at building relationships to improve your professional and business life.
Has Our Communication Style Become More “Tweet”like?
We have so many different technologies available these days that make communication easier: telephones, mobile phones, email, voice mail, and texting. Social media sites such as Twitter help everyone stay continually informed of our every move and activity. It seems that we are always engaged in some form of communication. Often we are over loaded with messages, tweets, and emails from friends, family and even strangers. But what is the result of all this communication? Do we now communicate better than we did before all these options were available?
Social media requires a great deal of time and effort. We are always connected to social media and we also feel the need to consistently update our status. Yet haven’t we also become more lazy about our communication style? Has our overall communication style become more “tweet” like as a result?
How many times have you dashed off a quick email to a friend or colleague or even a client, only to find that the message was misinterpreted and you had to do some damage control afterward?
I’m not advocating abandoning all the new technology by any means. It think it’s wonderful. But I do believe that we have become lazy about our communication style. If you look back to the time when all this technology was not available (when was that anyway?), I think you would see that people took more care in the way they communicated with each other. Certainly, there were more face to face business meetings. Now you could say that technology saves us time and can help us to be more productive. No argument there although I think I spend more time now communicating to more people I don’t know instead of focusing my communication where it would have the most impact.
I think that’s part of the lesson here. It is important not to communicate the same way to everyone. Businesses grow based on building relationships with people. If you ignore the personal aspect of communication, how do you develop these relationships in a meaningful way? Sure it takes time. But if you focus your efforts on personally communicating to key people, I think it will have a positive effect on your business.
Think about the way you currently communicate with your colleagues and clients. Would it behoove you to pick up the phone occasionally or meet in person if possible to solidify the relationship?
When you send out emails, take the time to review your content before you hit the send button. Make sure that your message is clearly stated so there is no misinterpretation. Perhaps follow up an email with a phone call or meeting.
The content is certainly an important part of the communication, but not all of it. We need to be aware of the fact that there is also a softer message in the manner in which we deliver our communication which can dramatically affect the content.
You are reaching out to another person and building a relationship.
It’s difficult to do this with a “tweet”.
Do Our Jobs Define Who We Are?
When we lose our job, it can be devastating. Very often it means a dramatic change in income. Our daily routine suddenly changes, and we are left with a tremendous void. After all, most of our waking hours are spent at work. How do we fill the time?
All this is true, but I think the loss of a job means more to us on a much deeper level.
In my recent interview with Dianna Shandy and Karine Moe, we discussed how much of our identity is based on our job or profession. When we leave the workforce, voluntarily or not, we lose that identity.
I love the example they brought up in the interview of their conversation with a women from the UK who said the first question everyone asks in the UK is “Where are you from?” Here in the United States, the first question asked is always, “What do you do?”
What you do defines who you are for better or for worse. A friend of mine who does not work once confided in me that she was embarrassed and struggled with how best to answer that question when asked. She didn’t know how to properly answer it.
Shandy and Moe commented that when women leave the workforce, they often continue to define themselves by their previous occupation. “I’m a former teacher, former attorney etc.” as if, being a stay at home mother is not an acceptable response.
Take some time to think about who you really are outside of your profession. What adequately defines your unique qualities and personality? After all, we are much more than what we do for a living even if we are passionate about our vocation and successful.
The passion and energy you might have for your work says a lot about who you are, your values.
This is the foundation of YOU, not your job.
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