Can Our Strengths Also Be Our Weaknesses?
One of the exercises in my GPS Your Career workshop is to identify characteristics that differentiate you and contribute to your success. Last week when I delivered this workshop at MIT, someone asked the question, “What if your strengths are perceived by some people as a weakness?”
Here was the example given: I am a results driven aggressive business woman and this has contributed to my successful career, yet some of my colleagues view my aggressiveness as overbearing and pushy.
First of all, let me say that other people’s perception should not take away from the fact that you are successful because of these characteristics. The real question is do they recognize that these qualities contribute to your business success? Do they respect your track record of achievement? They may not “like” you because of their own feelings about successful women in business, aggressive women, perhaps their own insecurities. You should not discount your value proposition because of their feelings.
Secondly, when you are communicating your value proposition, it’s important to tailor your message to the recipient. Find out what motivates them, drives them, pushes their buttons. If you discover that someone may be uncomfortable with the way you are describing yourself, modify it but keep the core of the message the same. Think of other ways to describe yourself. Maybe you don’t use the adjectives “aggressive” and “results driven”. Instead stress your competence, your track record of meeting and exceeding expectations.
Always put a positive spin on what you bring to the table and keep in mind what you want the other person to think about you. Then think about what will resonate with them for the maximum impact based on what you know about them.
To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others. ~ Tony Robbins
The Big Juicy Payoff
Our decision to buy a new car is often more about the status and sex appeal than transportation and functionality.
We can purchase a great looking pair of jeans any where, but we are more likely to choose a popular brand that has some status and recognition. The advertisements tell us we will be more attractive and appealing in these jeans and we believe it. We pay more money even if we can’t afford it, for the opportunity to wear these status symbols.
So what’s this all about?
It’s all about the emotional connection. The advertisers create an emotional benefit for you when you purchase and use their products; a big juicy payoff. You will be more attractive, sexy, respected, admired, etc. That’s the big payoff; not the specific features of the products themselves.
As entrepreneurs, we often make the mistake of focusing on the features and details of our products and services instead of the big emotional payoff. We don’t make the emotional connection between what we offer and what our customers need.
Think about your target audience. What is their need or their pain, and how does your product or service fulfill their need?
Making this emotional connection is the most powerful way to promote your business. Identify the big juicy payoff or emotional benefit and clearly communicate that to your prospects. You will grab their attention and win their business.
There can be a big payoff for you in more clients, more referrals and more money!
I’ve designed a 90-Day Intensive Program for Entrepreneurs that starts January 20th for entrepreneurs who are challenged promoting themselves and their business.
Is this you? Do you have a pitch that falls flat and doesn’t get you new clients? Do you freeze when asked to promote yourself at a networking event?
Start 2011 off with a big bang and learn how to overcome your barriers to self promotion, create a powerful message to attract more clients and business than you thought possible AND if you register before January 1st, you receive a special $700 discount.
Also, a very special bonus gift for the first 3 women to sign up: a FREE 60-minute consultation with PR expert, Lisa Elia, who will help you plan how to increase your visibility in 2011. This consultation is worth $500!!!
Check out the program now and invest in yourself and your business. Imagine feeling confident and comfortable selling your services! Register now and take advantage of the special discount and gifts.
Be Thankful for YOU!
This is the time of year when we reflect on everything we are grateful for. We give thanks for all the wonderful people in our lives; family, friends, business colleagues. They all contribute to our personal and professional well being and it’s important to take the time to appreciate their presence and contributions to our lives.
I think we should also look inward and be thankful for our own talent and the wonderful and unique qualities we have. We tend to take ourselves for granted. We put ourselves down. Often we don’t take ownership of our accomplishments and successes.
This Thanksgiving give yourself the gift of YOU. Take the time to write out what is special about you, personally and professionally.
What have you accomplished this year?
What qualities do you bring to your personal and professional relationships?
Write it all down and review the list.
Celebrate and be thankful for everything you are!
5 Common Mistakes We Make at Networking Events
Whether you are a solo entrepreneur or small business owner or career professional, you probably spend a fair amount of your time at networking events to build your business.
Here are some common mistakes we make at networking events:
1. We schmooze, but don’t make the necessary connection with people to get business. It’s great to meet new people, but effective networking is not just about how many new people you can meet. It’s about making more meaningful connections; building and leveraging relationships that will over time get you new clients. It’s about quality not quantity.
2. We mingle with no strategy. Who is attending the event? Who do you want to connect with that you have determined might be a potential client or referral source or even someone to collaborate with? Make it your business to meet the people who will have the most impact on your business. Focus and be intentional.
3. We assume that people automatically understand the value of our products and services when we introduce ourselves and hand out our business card. It’s important to use benefit language to clearly communicate the value of your service so people you meet can immediately determine if you will meet their needs or if they know of someone else who could benefit from your product or service.
4. We give away too much. This includes too much information, too many things for free, and too many business cards. When we first meet someone at a networking event, we should not talk about ourselves endlessly. Craft your message so you just give enough information to stimulate curiosity and more conversation. Engage in a dialogue, not a monologue. You will learn more about the person.
Don’t offer to give away too many free products or services. Be strategic about give-aways. What product or service positions you best? What will provide a good intro so that people will want to purchase more?
Finally, don’t go to networking events with the goal of giving out as many business cards as you can. Collecting cards from the people you have good conversations with is much more important. Write notes on the back of those cards so you remember who they are and what they said. Once you have their card, you control the follow up.
5. We don’t follow up. What’s the point of going to events to meet new people and then not following up? Following up is how you begin to build relationships that will bring you business. If you tell someone you will make an introduction for them or send them information, do it and do it as soon as possible after the event. Determine who the key people were that you met and send a personal note and set up a time to talk or meet them again. This is the beginning of developing a network that will bring you business.
The Language of Power
In her book, No Ceilings, No Walls, author Susan Colantuono says:
As essential as it is to understand the business of business, it is necessary but insufficient. You not only have to have business strategic and financial acumen, you must also be able to demonstrate it by using the language of power.
Susan talks about the language of power being the language of outcomes and the importance of stating clear business objectives and outcomes to demonstrate the power of your solutions, ideas, goals.
I think that there is, however, a universal language of power that women need to embrace to advance their careers and be successful in any business. We, as women, tend to “skirt” around powerful language.
Case in point, I was at a training class a couple of weeks ago and the presenter, who was exceedingly qualified, stood up to start her presentation with what I think is close to an apology. She said…”well, I just have some handouts here”. OK. Most people probably didn’t even tune into this, but since this is my area of expertise, I could not help but notice. “Just have some handouts”? Why did she feel the need to apologize for her work? It’s almost as if she thought she was putting us out in some way by giving us handouts.
But we all do this all the time. We apologize more than necessary. We use words that diminish or weaken our statements or points of view.
In her book, Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office, Lois Frankel dedicates a chapter, “How You Sound”, to this topic. Lois writes specifically about using minimizing words such as “just”.
She says,
Minimizing Words are those that diminish the importance or size of an achievement.
Lois emphasizes the point that if we want to be taken seriously, we need to drop these minimizers.
Here’s my point: You can do your homework and create an impactful message and an action plan on how best to increase your credibility and visibility in your workplace, but if you continue to use language that weakens your position, you won’t get the results you desire.
Be conscious of the words you choose. Listen carefully to other women at work and be mindful if they are guilty of the same self-sabotaging behavior. Tactfully let them know the affect it has on their overall message and professional image.
Once you increase your own sensitivity to this, you will be able to change your behavior, delete the minimizers, and use more powerful language to strengthen your message instead of weaken it.
Tune into Head over Heels Radio on Tuesday, August 3rd to hear Susan Colantuono discuss how to use the language of power and other skills that women need to know in order to advance their careers.
Also, you can hear Lois Frankel discuss this as well on Head over Heels archived show, November 10, 2009.
The Invisible Promotion
Harvard Business Review published an interesting article recently, “Are You The Victim of An Invisible Promotion?” by Ron Ashkenas.
The post poses some direct questions to the reader about whether or not your role has changed significantly in the past six months and whether you have been given new responsibilities with no formal promotion or pay raise. Ashkenas reminds us that the practice of assigning more responsibility without changes in job title or description has become more common lately due to the reorganization and downsizing of companies.
I suppose that any of us who have survived downsizing feel very fortunate to still have a job. In this situation, we are more likely to take on more responsibility without a promotion because we not only feel lucky to have a job, but also somewhat vulnerable and sensitive to the instability of the company and the economy. We want to keep our jobs.
That being said, we also need to realize the value that we bring to our company and not let the fact that we have taken on more responsibility go unnoticed.
Ashkenas has some great advice:
…don’t wait for your boss or someone else to recognize that you’ve been invisibly promoted. Revise your job description or create some bullet points about what the job now entails. Have an honest discussion with your immediate supervisor about what it will take to achieve these expanded responsibilities, how you will develop the skills needed, what you may need to do differently, and what he or she can do to help.
I think that Ashkenas’s article has a special message for professional women. In my opinion and from my own business and coaching experience, I have witnessed that many women have difficulty standing up for what they want and need. Women are more likely to take on extra work without requesting a visible promotion or salary increase. In fact, I would go so far as to say that women are more likely to take on the responsibilities and wait to be noticed and recognized without taking the credit or taking the initiative to have a conversation and negotiate a better title and compensation.
One of the most significant mistakes that professional women make is believing that if they work hard and do a good job, someone will recognize and reward them.
Talent and experience are not enough. Hard work is not enough. We must learn to speak up for ourselves and communicate to others our value and accomplishments in order to advance our careers.
Ashkenas states:
..make your invisible promotion visible both to you and to your boss. It will give you the recognition you deserve and the support you need to make sure that you don’t unintentionally become a victim of the Peter Principle.
I might add to this: Don’t be the victim of the assumption that if you remain invisible others will recognize and reward you.
Ditch the Pitch: A Presentation for Professional Coaches
Here is my presentation for BusinessforCoaches, a UK organization that supports professional coaches worldwide with professional development activities.
Ditch the Pitch Presentation for Coaches
If You Don’t Raise Your Hand, You Won’t Be Called On
If you don’t raise your hand, you won’t be called on and maybe that’s a good thing; a good thing, that is, if you want to remain invisible and safe. After all, when you raise your hand, you are risking public failure. When you raise your hand, you are sending a signal to everyone that you have the confidence to publicly state your opinion, volunteer for something, or ask a question (even at the risk of sounding clueless).
In an article written by Clay Shirky, a professor at NYU, titled “A Rant About Women”, he says
“To put yourself forward as someone good enough to do interesting things is, by definition, to expose yourself to all kinds of negative judgments, and as far as I can tell, the fact that other people get to decide what they think of your behavior leaves only two strategies for not suffering from those judgments: not doing anything, or not caring about the reaction”.
He points out in the article that women are more apt to do nothing and less apt than men to take risks and take advantage of important opportunities that may present themselves because they fear failure. He feels women are more concerned with what other people may think of them than what they want to achieve.
This type of behavior definitely has a negative impact for women when it comes to advancing their careers. If we are fearful of taking risks and taking advantage of new opportunities, we will not progress.
Why don’t we raise our hands more? It boils down to fear of failure, fear of what other people will think of us, lack of self-confidence, and most importantly, our belief that self-promoting behavior is not appropriate or acceptable.
Further in the article Clay writes:
“Another of my great students, now a peer and friend, saw a request from a magazine reporter doing a tech story and looking for examples. My friend, who’d previously been too quiet about her work, decided to write the reporter and say “My work is awesome. You should write about it.”
The reporter looked at her work and wrote back saying, “Your work is indeed awesome, and I will write about it. I also have to tell you you are the only woman who suggested her own work. Men do that all the time, but women wait for someone else to recommend them.”
When I look back at my own career, I can see that every major turning point involved me stepping up and raising my hand in some way. Yes, I will take the job to run a cardiac rehab center even though I have no business experience. Yes, I will move to Chicago from the east coast to run a company when I have never been a CEO before. Yes, I will leave corporate America to start my own business because I believe in my ability to be successful. And most recently, I said “yes” to VoiceAmerica when they called to ask me to become a radio host. I had no experience, but my belief in myself and my willingness to fail (in a very public way I might add) were major factors.
This is why I now focus my efforts on helping women promote themselves; because quite simple, we don’t raise our hands enough. Yes, there are many possible reasons why we are not better at self-advancement, but the consequences of not doing this well have a huge impact on the progress of women in business.
Do You Have What It Takes To Be An Entrepreneur?
The Harvard Business Review posted a test this week, “Should You Be an Entrepreneur?”
The test of 20 questions was created by the author of the article, Daniel Isenberg, who is a professor of management practice at Babson College.
I thought it would be fun to pose these questions to those of you who are entrepreneurs, like myself, or to those of you who are considering taking the leap to starting your own business.
Here they are:
- I don’t like being told what to do by people who are less capable than I am.
- I like challenging myself.
- I like to win.
- I like being my own boss.
- I always look for new and better ways to do things.
- I like to question conventional wisdom.
- I like to get people together in order to get things done.
- People get excited by my ideas.
- I am rarely satisfied or complacent.
- I can’t sit still.
- I can usually work my way out of a difficult situation.
- I would rather fail at my own thing than succeed at someone else’s.
- Whenever there is a problem, I am ready to jump right in.
- I think old dogs can learn — even invent — new tricks.
- Members of my family run their own businesses.
- I have friends who run their own businesses.
- I worked after school and during vacations when I was growing up.
- I get an adrenaline rush from selling things.
- I am exhilarated by achieving results.
- I could have written a better test than Isenberg (and here is what I would change ….)
According to Isenberg, if you answered “yes” to 17 or more of these questions, you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur. I can tell you this. I passed this test with flying colors!
I’m interested in getting your feedback on the questions. Do you think they are a good test of entrepreneurship?
How did you do on the test and what does that say about you?
I couldn’t help but notice #18, “I get an adrenaline rush from selling things”. This is definitely true for me, but what I believe is important for an entrepreneur is not necessarily getting a rush from selling things, but having the confidence and passion to sell YOURSELF . When you own your own business, you are not selling someone else’s products or services. You are selling YOU.
Your thoughts?
Create a Great Elevator Pitch
Have you ever been to a networking event where everyone needs to stand up and introduce themselves? I don’t know about you, but after about 3-4 people stand up and recite their elevator pitches, I can’t remember who does what. Very few of them capture my attention. Even less of them are memorable. They all sound alike because everyone is using the same approach, the same boring approach.
How then can you distinguish yourself? How can you stand out in the crowd?
We all want to sound professional, but in our quest to be professional, our pitches often fall flat. The goal of a good pitch is to attract clients and be memorable. So how do you create a great message; one that is effective and “sticky”?
I find that most of the pitches I hear do not have the “sticky” factor. And many of the pitches are very difficult to deliver. They are too technical or too wordy and, therefore, lose the audience. Some of the pitches are too vague. Sometimes we use jargon that no one understands in an effort to sound professional. The end result is that people may think we’re smart, but they have no idea what are business is.
Here are some tips on how to create a great elevator pitch:
- Your message should be authentic. Don’t use a lot of jargon or professional language that is off putting. You won’t connect with people this way.
- Your message should be personal. Tell your story. People love stories and they remember them.
- Put energy and passion into your message. Let people know that you love what you do. Don’t you want to work with people who love what they do?
- Make an emotional connection with you message. Identify the need and pain of your target audience so that people can easily identify with what you provide and they will remember you.
- Make your message easy to deliver, conversational. Don’t write a speech that you need to memorize and recite. It doesn’t sound authentic. It’s boring.
- Stimulate curiosity. Give a teaser or enough information so that they want to learn more about you.
- It might be appropriate to make it light and fun. Try using cliches, song titles or quotes to begin your pitch and get people’s attention.
Promotional messages take time to create. Start big, not small. Brainstorm and write down all your ideas about how to present yourself and THEN review your notes and pull out sound bytes to craft a great message.
For more tips on how to create a great elevator pitch, listen to my Women Mean Business show, Tune Up Your Pitch. On the show, I coach 3 women entrepreneurs through a process to tune up their pitch!
www.voiceamerica.com/voiceamerica/vepisode.aspx?aid=43836
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