How Would You Like To Be Perceived?
Executive presence is important for anyone who is seeking to move to a leadership position. Why? because people need to see you as a potential leader; as someone who has the potential to take on more responsibility and grow professionally.
What you may not know is that you have control over the way you are perceived. You don’t need to leave it to chance. Once you decide how you want others to think of you, you can create that professional image.
Here’s how to start:
- Write out at least 10 descriptors of how you want to be perceived.
2. Look for a female role model within your company who has achieved leadership success. How does she communicate, behave, manage and lead others, motivate others. What does her body language say about her? Does she come across as confident? How does she demonstrate that confidence? Write down your observations.
3. Ask trusted colleagues at work to give you honest feedback about how they currently see you. Then share your intentions for how you want to be perceived and ask permission to check in with them to see if they see any changes.
4. Make sure you are dressing the part. Take extra care to look professional and polished.
5. Pay special attention to your verbal communication so that you are not sabotaging your efforts by using minimizing language.
Keep the list of 10 descriptors posted where they are accessible and visible. Look over the list before you go into important meetings or even before you start your day as a reminder.
Over time you can change your professional image and support your advancement efforts.
An Important Lesson From My Mother About Positive Attitide
My mom is in her nineties and she is constantly telling her friends to focus on what they can do; not to dwell on what they used to be able to do when they were younger. “That will get you depressed. Having a positive attitude is everything.”
It’s not easy getting old in our society. (That could be the subject of a whole other blog and is not the focus of this one.) What I really want to stress here today is the great lesson I have learned from my mom about having a positive attitude.
Mindset is everything when it comes to living a purposeful and fulfilling life. Mindset is everything when it comes to building a successful career. You can always look at the half empty glass and bemoan your lack of progress. You can always see a glass ceiling as a formidable barrier to your success. But none of those perceptions help you to move forward. Not only will they keep you stuck and frustrated, but can contribute to your unhappiness.
So it’s Mother’s Day and as I write this blog to honor my own mother and the best lesson she taught me, I want to use this opportunity as well to remind you that your mindset about your life and career shape your life and career. What you believe is what will happen!
Happy Mother’s Day!
Lessons from Lady Gaga: Turning Followers Into Fanatics
Businesses both large and small look to build, maintain, and expand their core customer base, and see this as central to their success. Without customers, we have no business. Customer loyalty and cultivation is critical.
What business wouldn’t love to have raving fans? This week we’re going to explore how Lady Gaga, one of the most well-known pop artists in the world, has turned her followers into fanatics. With stunning business acumen, Lady Gaga has built a fanatical group of consumers who will follow her for decades.
In a recently published book, Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics, author Jackie Huba, has uncovered seven loyalty lessons from Lady Gaga; lessons that we all can benefit from to build loyalty in our organizations.
Featured Guest
Jackie Huba is the co-author of two books on customer loyalty: Citizen Marketers: When People are the Message, which documents the emerging world of social media and how brands should begin to embrace a participatory culture, and Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force, which explains how companies convert customers into evangelists who spread the word about products, benefits or value propositions. Creating Customer Evangelists has been translated into six languages and has become a strategic focus for companies around the world. Her new book, Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics, was just released May 2, 2013.
Named as one of the 10 most influential online marketers, Jackie co-authors the award-winning Church of the Customer blog. With more than 105,000 daily readers, it’s ranked as one of the most popular business blogs in the world. Her work has frequently been featured in the media, such as the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Businessweek, and Advertising Age. Jackie was a founding Board Member of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association.
Listen to the Wednesday, May 15th show at 12 noon ET or download the podcast.
Office Romance: Love, Power, And Sex In The Workplace
This week’s topic is office romance. We spend most of our time at work so it’s natural to assume that we will meet someone that we want to date and have a relationship with. We will discuss the challenges of having an office romance and how best to navigate around this issue in the workplace.
Featured Guest
Joining me is Dr. Lisa Mainiero. Lisa received her doctorate in organizational behavior from Yale University She is a sought-after lecturer and consultant, with appearances on Good Morning America, The Oprah Winfrey Show, CNN’s Newsnight with Aaron Brown, and numerous other radio, television, and talk-show programs. Dr. Mainiero’s latest book, co-authored with Sherry E. Sullivan, The Opt-Out Revolt: Why People Are Leaving Companies to Create Kaleidoscope Careers describes contemporary trends in the career landscape for women and for men. Dr. Mainiero has published several articles on executive women’s careers, issues of power and politics, office romance, and crisis management, and is the author of Office Romance: Love, Power and Sex in the Workplace. She is a Full Professor of Management at the Charles F. Dolan School of Business at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut.
Listen to the Wednesday, May 8th show at 12 noon ET or download the podcast.
The Secret Sauce for Success
I have spoken with thousands of women since I started my coaching practice in 2006; women of all ages, with very different backgrounds and experiences; all interested in being successful in business. Most recently, I asked myself why some of them succeed and why others never do. I came to a conclusion based on my years of coaching that may surprise you.
Experience and educational background don’t seem to contribute to career success as much as mindset and attitude. The secret sauce to success is owning your ambition and taking action.
When I look back at my own career, I see how my ambition and drive contributed to my success. I wasn’t looking for excuses why I couldn’t succeed, but focused on what I needed to do to get where I wanted to go…and I did it. No excuses! I started with no business experience. I was divorced with two young children and needed a job. I knew I didn’t know much about business but I was willing to learn and I surrounded myself with people who could teach me what I needed to know to be successful. I took action and embraced my ambition wholeheartedly.
Many women pay lip service to their ambition. They say they want to get ahead but they back off. They opt out. They look for excuses why they can’t make it instead of finding ways to make it. These are the women, who no matter how talented and well-educated, don’t make it to leadership roles.
So the secret sauce to success is to embrace your ambition and take action. Ask yourself how serious you are about your professional growth. If you truly are serious and intentional, then take action. Put a plan in place to reach your goals. Invest in your professional growth.
What I’ve learned also is that women who do this are my ideal clients. If you are ambitious and are willing to take action and want a clear plan to reach your career goals, give me a call.
Integrated Leadership: The Benefits of Men and Women Leading Together
This week’s topic is integrated leadership and we’re going to discuss the importance of having both men and women working together in leadership. Recently, scientists have discovered that men and women process information and think differently. It has also been demonstrated that these different approaches and points of view complement each other and strengthen the leadership team.
Featured Guest
Joining me today is Rebecca Shambaugh. A nationally known leadership strategist, Becky has over 20 years of experience helping organizations and executives respond to critical leadership challenges and opportunities in today’s business environment. She is CEO of Shambaugh Leadership. Becky founded Women In Leadership and Learning (WILL), the first executive leadership development program in the country, dedicated to the research, advancement, and retention of women leaders and executives.
Becky is a known thought leader in the industry and is the author of two best seller books titled, “Leadership Secrets of Hillary Clinton” and “It’s Not A Glass Ceiling, It’s A Sticky Floor,” and her new book, “Make Room For Her: Why Companies Need an Integrated Leadership Model To Achieve Extraordinary Results.”
She has been showcased on Fox News (New York), Washington Business, ABC, and numerous syndicated radio talk shows. She has been featured in publications such as: Leader to Leader, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Huffington Post, Time Magazine, USA Today, Fortune Magazine, U.S. News & World Report, Pink Magazine, and Entrepreneur Magazine.
Listen to the Wednesday, May 1st show at 12 noon ET or download the podcast.
How To Balance A Challenging Career With Your Personal Life
This week’s discussion is about how to balance the competing interests of a challenging career and personal life. Our feelings of happiness come from being successful in both, yet the stress from trying to manage the expectations and responsibilities can often be overwhelming.
Featured Guest
My guest this week is Susan Smith Blakely. Susan knows what it takes to succeed in the practice of law. During her 25 years of experience she has viewed the legal profession from many perspectives—as a law firm associate, counsel and partner, and as a chief of staff to an elected official in the public sector. As the wife of a fellow litigator and the parent of two children, Ms. Blakely has first- hand knowledge of the difficult decisions women lawyers must make in terms of work and family life.
Ms. Blakely’s first book Best Friends at the Bar: What Women Need to Know about a Career in the Law, is the first true guide book for young women contemplating law school, young women law students and young women in their first years of law practice.
Her second book, Best Friends at the Bar: The New Balance for Today’s Woman Lawyer, digs deeper into the issues of work-life struggle and balance and proposes a new balance of work/self/home and family to attain the happiness and satisfaction that will keep young women in the law profession
More information about her book and her speaking appearances can be found on her web site at www.bestfriendsatthebar.com and her You Tube channel “Susan Smith Blakely” at www.youtube.com
Listen to the April 24th show at 12 noon ET or download the podcast.
5 Danger Signs That Complacency Will Derail Your Career
It’s wonderful to feel fulfilled at work, comfortable with your colleagues, your boss, and the company. If you truly enjoy your work why would you even consider pushing yourself out of your comfort zone?
The danger is that being too complacent can derail your career.
Dictionary.com’s definition of complacency is “a feeling of quiet pleasure or security, often while unaware of some potential danger, defect, or the like; self-satisfaction or smug satisfaction with an existing situation, condition, etc.”
If you assume that the status quo will remain in place, you are setting yourself up to be blindsided. If you stay in the safety of your complacency without a notion as to what’s happening in the company or in your industry, your safety zone can become a danger zone overnight. Changes are occurring all around you that can make your skills and competencies obsolete. Potential mergers and downsizing can be potential landmines unless you are tapped into the politics of the company and listening carefully to the warning signs that change is about to happen.
Here are five signs that your complacency can derail you.
1. You are no longer striving to do your best.
In this highly competitive job market, there are many people who would love your job. If you have been doing just enough to get by, beware. You must continue to add value and meet and exceed expectations to keep your job.
2. You are not staying up to date in your field and industry.
When was the last time you took a course or attended an industry conference? Do you regularly read trade magazines, ezines, and journals? It is easy to lose your credibility overnight. The next new hire on your team can show up with excellent credentials and want your job. In my recent interview with Anne Weisberg, Chief Strategy Office of the FutureWork Institute, she cites nurturing your ambition as critical for women’s leadership advancement and this means learning to master your expertise.
3. You are not seeking or taking advantage of new opportunities.
If you don’t seek or take advantage of opportunities your skills become stale. Doing the same thing over and over gets boring. You remain invisible. Key stakeholders and decision makers don’t know the value that you contribute. How will you be able to position yourself if the company reorganizes or changes in any way?
Look for opportunities to work on new projects and maintain your credibility, expand your skill set, and increase your exposure across the company.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/bonniemarcus/2013/04/12/5-danger-signs-that-complacency-will-derail-your-career/
10 Assumptions That Sabotage Your Career
I’m sure most of us are unaware of how often we make assumptions. We make assumptions every day about how other people think and feel, and these assumptions then lead us to behave in ways that sabotage our relationships, our careers, and erode our self-confidence. We make assumptions based on gender and race. We make assumptions and judge people based on their background, education, religion and age.
Have you ever thought about how dangerous it is to make assumptions?
We certainly don’t want others to make unsubstantiated judgments about us, right? We don’t want the decision makers in our company to assume that because we are women or that we are mothers, that we are less competent or less committed to doing the job or taking the promotion. Yet, how many times do we sabotage ourselves because we ourselves make false assumptions?
Here are the top 10 assumptions that can prevent you from getting ahead.
- You assume that people understand how valuable you are to the organization even if you don’t tell them.
- You assume that people will recognize and reward you even if you don’t let them know what you’ve accomplished on a regular basis.
- You assume that you will get promoted just because you are talented and work hard.
- You assume that if you are assertive people won’t like you.
- You assume that it’s important that everyone like you in order to get ahead.
- You assume that embracing the workplace politics is just for men.
- You assume that networking means connecting with people you like and know.
- You assume that the salary or raise you are offered is the best final offer.
- You assume that if you negotiate for a raise it will be viewed negatively.
- You assume that opportunities will surface solely because of your excellent track record.
Are you guilty of making any of these assumptions? Which ones?
These assumptions are sabotaging your efforts to accelerate your career!
Take control of your own career destiny and make it your intention to let go of these assumptions and do the work to move yourself forward.
The Importance of Emotional Intelligence for Career Success
Leadership Emotional Intelligence is not new- however it has been shown that leaders in today’s market need it more now than ever before. Emotional Intelligence is the understanding of how we interact with other and build relationships. It is not how much you know that is important – it is how we interact with others.
My discussion today will help us to better understand why emotional intelligence is so important for successful leadership and how we can use EI to advance our careers.
Featured Guest
Joining me is Lauran Star. Lauran Star is a sought after author, consultant and speaker who inspires vision and strategic change in any economic environment. She is the leading thought leader in Emotional Intelligence and Women’s Empowerment.
With more than fifteen years of leadership experience with several Fortune 500 companies, as well as an active consulting career in the Dental / Healthcare and Financial arena –Lauran has an understanding of what today’s audiences are facing. Lauran became a proud member of the United States Armed Forces in 1989 and served for ten years.
Lauran Star also is a national syndicated radio host on Contact Talk Radio – where she engages her audiences weekly on topics ranging from Emotional Intelligence, Client Retention to Organizational Development.
Lauran holds a Master’s Degree is in Organizational Psychology and a Bachelors in Psychology. Her certifications include;Executive Coaching, Emotional Intelligence, NLP, Firo and TKI Conflict Management. She is an active member of both the National Speakers Association and Global Speakers Federation. Her website is www.LauranStar.com
Listen to the April 10th show live at 12 noon ET or download the podcast.
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