As a leader, you’ve guided your organizations to the peak, transforming audacious visions into reality, overcoming the odds, and setting standards of success that reverberate across your industry. Today, let’s shift gears a little. Let’s focus not on your business, but on YOU, on building your executive brand.
Much like a corporate brand, your personal brand is the unique amalgamation of your skills, experiences, values, and vision. It’s a multi-faceted diamond that, when polished correctly, radiates an irresistible allure. But why, you may ask, should you invest in building your executive brand?
Firstly, a strong personal brand enhances your credibility within and outside your organization. It attracts talent, fosters trust, and opens doors to new partnerships and opportunities. It’s a differentiating factor in an ever-competitive marketplace. Secondly, in an age driven by digital and social media, your voice can reach further and more directly than ever. Leveraging this can position you as a thought leader in your industry, inspiring change, and innovation.
Your brand should reflect what you believe in and where you’re heading. Be clear about your values and long-term vision. Your values may include authenticity, sustainability, or relentless innovation. Your vision could be to revolutionize your industry, champion corporate social responsibility, or democratize access to essential services.
What sets you apart from other executives in your field? This is your Unique Selling Proposition. It could be your innovative mindset, your ability to foster harmony within diverse teams, or your knack for turning challenges into opportunities. Whatever it may be, identify it, own it, and communicate it consistently.
Consistency in your messaging and interactions fortifies your brand’s credibility. Leverage Social Media: Platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and industry-specific networks are powerful tools to amplify your voice. Be regular in your social media posts, the events you attend, the content you produce. Show your thought leadership: Write articles, blogs, and give speeches or interviews. Share personal experiences, and provide your unique insights. This showcases your expertise and positions you as a source of inspiration and knowledge. Share insightful articles, industry trends, and your perspectives on them. Engage with your followers, comment on relevant posts, and participate in meaningful discussions. You can use your social channels to connect with other industry leaders, influencers, and talent. Remember, your network is an extension of your brand. The more diverse it is, the richer your learning and influence will be.
These steps may seem challenging, but Rome wasn’t built in a day. Your brand is a living entity, growing and evolving with you.
Embrace the journey of self-discovery and the expression it offers. Begin with small steps – update your LinkedIn profile, write your first blog post, or schedule a networking event. Stay relevant by keeping abreast of new trends, technologies, and strategies.
Remember, your personal brand isn’t just about you – it’s about the influence you wield, the inspiration you offer, and the legacy you leave. So, let’s embark on this exciting journey of building your executive brand. The world is waiting to be inspired by your vision – in your unique voice – and engage with the extraordinary brand YOU.
Building your personal brand is important, but it’s not always easy. If you are wondering where to begin or how to find the time, we can help. Join our complimentary executive brand training. We’ll address these challenges and provide you with a roadmap to build your personal brand effectively.
Have you ever felt that somebody isn’t listening to you? Then you know how it can be incredibly frustrating.
Here are 5 key active listening skills to keep you from being that person. ? ? ?
Remember to keep your tone supportive and your own body language receptive.
Life is about relationships and great relationships come from clear communication.
What are your tips for better communication?
If you have an idea that you hope to try out someday, don’t wait. It goes without saying that you’ve got to take chances and work hard if you want your business to succeed. Jack Ma’s story inspires you to seize your vision, take the leap and make it work!
As Jack Ma was growing up in China, the Internet was more of a folk tale from the western world. Probably due to the reclusive ways of the communist regime, the Internet took it’s time finding its way to China.
Today Jack Ma runs a $25 billion ecommerce giant known as Alibaba. Both the company and founder come from humble beginnings in mainland China. Their rise took 16 years and started with a meeting in his flat which raised a measly $60000 to the biggest IPO in tech history to date.
How did he do it?
Don’t reinvent the wheel
Alibaba may have been new to their Chinese Internet landscape but to the rest of the world ecommerce was already an up and coming force to reckon with. Fortunately China was still an unexplored frontier at the time. Having been to Australia Jack Ma had seen the potential of the Internet and was eager to set up his own ecommerce business in China when the circumstances were right.
Maximize your strengths
From Apple to Facebook, today, almost all tech companies have strategies to set up and grow in China, primarily for 2 reasons: the Chinese population and their affinity for technology. This was not the case back in 1999 when Jack Ma was starting out. Western companies weren’t welcome back then so setting up shop in China was not an easy feat. This presented a great opportunity for aspiring visionary business people like Jack Ma. By investing and building in China he had local knowledge access to the largest technologically adept population with little competition from foreign companies. Moral of the story – identify the unique strengths you bring to the market.
Invest in and own your industry’s eco system
Alibaba is not just one company. It has other companies within it. Apart from Alibaba.com, there is taobao.com which is a consumer to consumer ecommerce website that works the same way as eBay. There is also Tmall.com, a business to consumer website with thousands of brands selling their goods to end users. And then there’s Alibaba.com which is a B2B website catering to the thousands of importers that seek goods from China. In a nutshell, almost everything ecommerce goes through the hands of Jack Ma and the Alibaba group.
Hire bright people
Jack Ma had no technology background whatsoever. He was a trained English teacher who had the knowledge to bring together people who were skilled in technology and other areas necessary for Alibaba to succeed. Like a jigsaw puzzle, he brought the pieces necessary together and made sure they fit as was necessary for success. To this day, Jack Ma can barely write code, but he probably has the best team in the world.
This incredible poem by William Ernest Henley inspired Nelson Mandela during his grueling incarceration on Robben Island. He recited the poem to other prisoners during desolate moments.
Truly an empowering message of self-mastery:
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
In my ideal work world we’d live and die by 4 mantras:
1. Innovation
We work to make a difference — to influence and inspire. I’m surrounded by people who support diverse perspectives. We encourage each other to think big, take risks, and make an impact.
2. Quality
I work in synergy with an incredible team. We deliver PHENOMENAL products over and over and over. By embracing diverse perspectives, we are able to develop better solutions, and approach decisions or challenges in innovative ways. Global diversity and inclusion are essential elements of our culture, inspiring collaboration, and driving growth. Unencumbered by egotistic trivialities, we are focused, disciplined, and continuously strive for exceptional results. We respect each other and work together. We are unstoppable.
3. Agility
We embrace change. We are decisive and move quickly to keep pace with our customers. We outpace the competition.
4. Integrity
We hold ourselves accountable to do what is right and to deliver on our commitments. We are authentic and trustworthy.
“There are 3 kinds of people: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened.” ~Author unknown.
Vince Lombardi famously said leaders aren’t born, they are made.
Leaders are often associated with natural charisma, confidence, dazzling social intelligence, insight, intuition, courage, compelling communication, a zest for change, and vision that allows them to set their sights on “things” then make them merit attention.
While these traits may seem natural most can be learned.
1. Charisma: In her book, The Charisma Myth, Olivia Fox Cabane, shares anecdotes and research illustrating how elements of charisma are learned. She reveals how specific behaviors such as the ability to be fully present in a moment can help individuals develop their personal charisma.
2. Confidence: One critical key to confidence is preparation. It’s hard to be confident if you feel like you are walking in the dark. In Zenhabits, Leo Babauta states that you can beat that feeling by preparing yourself as much as possible. Then groom yourself, stand tall, think positive and focus on solutions.
3. Social intelligence: Daniel Goleman, author of Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence (Harvard Business School, 2002) says the most effective leaders are alike in one crucial way: They all have a high degree of emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence has 5 key components—self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill – the ability to find common ground, build rapport and manage relationships proficiently. While some people are naturally better at this than others, many people don’t understand how to go about it so they make attempts that fall flat, seem fake, or make them annoying and arrogant.
4. Insight: Leaders need technical expertise to win the trust of followers, manage operations, and set strategy but today, being informed is often confused with being smart. Leaders must know how to gather, sort, and structure information, and then connect it in new ways to create insight.
5. Intuition: The right way to lead is not in the data. It is with informed intuitiveness. Empathy for the led is essential and so is listening to that feeling in your gut.
6. Courage: Credibility comes from being first through the door to the unknown. Standing in one place, or stepping back while others take risks to make the frontier safe for others, simply doesn’t cut it. Moving forward is not a leap or a sprint but a plodding process.
7. Communication: The watershed capacity in leadership is unquestionably communication. The powers to inform and persuade win the battles for hearts and minds. The process of compelling communication can be learned and honed to establish credibility, inform, inspire, unite, direct and rouse followers’ passion.
8. Zest: Leadership requires zest. It is a heavy load and long journey that drains resources so to keep your energy up, you require fitness in all areas — physical, mental, and moral.
9. Vision: Leadership requires vision. Vision requires listening. All can hear but few really listen. And too many people only listen to themselves. Listening to colleagues and collaborators, markets and constituencies, and yourself — all through the endless din of the present, the ominous voices of the past, and the deafening silence boding the future — is vital.
Becoming a good leader is not easy, but by seeking the right knowledge, learning relevant skills and seeking support as you put them into practice then adapting them to different situations, you will have an invaluable asset to offer the world.
That’s where ELEO comes in. ELEO is focused on inspiring and equipping entrepreneurs to lead. On Saturday, July 26th ELEO is hosting a one-day conference in San Jose, California.
It will be a gathering of great minds with the goal of providing practical advice on how to lead a company or organization with lessons from experienced leaders including top venture capitalists, Fortune 500 CEOs, serial entrepreneurs and everyone in-between.
Space is limited so register today. http://eleoconference.com
The truth is, most of us discover where we are headed when we arrive. Often we follow the path of life, not knowing where it will lead. Some people make plans, set goals and stick to them. Others go off the beaten path in search of “crazy” pursuits. In both cases, some succeed. Others don’t. And others still find that what they thought they wanted, was not what they needed at all.
Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes, in a commencement speech at Kenyon College, said this on pursuing what matters:
“Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not a subversive. Ambition is only understood if it’s to rise to the top of some imaginary ladder of success. Someone who takes an undemanding job because it affords him the time to pursue other interests and activities is considered feeble. A person who abandons a career in order to stay home and raise children is considered not to be living up to his potential — as if a job title and salary are the sole measure of human worth.
There are a million ways to sell yourself out, and I guarantee you’ll hear about them. You’ll be told in a hundred ways, some subtle and some not, to keep climbing, and never be satisfied with where you are, who you are, and what you’re doing.
Selling out is usually more a matter of buying in. Sell out, and you’re really buying into someone else’s system of values, rules and rewards.
…If we don’t discover what we want from ourselves and what we stand for, we will live passively and unfulfilled. Sooner or later, we are all asked to compromise ourselves and the things we care about. We define ourselves by our actions. With each decision, we tell ourselves and the world who we are. Think about what you want out of this life, and recognize that there are many kinds of success.
You can read his entire speech here.
To survive, thrive and achieve our bold professional ambitions in today’s competitive world, we need to continuously transform and adapt to the future.
Creative disruption is shaking every industry. Global competition is fierce. The employer-employee pact is over and traditional job security is a thing of the past. Everyone is mandated to think like a business entity.
According to a recent USA Today survey, more than 50% of today’s college students want to be entrepreneurs. Over 68% of people between the age of 28 and 35 want to start a business and entrepreneurs over the age of 50 are one of the fastest growing groups of business owners. Venture-capital firms are investing record amounts of money in these new businesses, but their billions of dollars are being eclipsed by a new source of capital: crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is expected to top $30 billion this year (up from just $880 million in 2010), according to a report by Massolution. Even even the traditional IPO market is being disrupted by equity crowdfunding, which was recently enabled under Title II of the JOBS Act. This newest form of fundraising, while limited to just accredited investors, is expected to top $2.5 billion this year.
With so much competition, startup founders and existing corporations can no longer survive by just adding new features or marketing product extensions. In today’s business climate, incremental innovation is like walking on quicksand – it will keep you busy, but you won’t get very far.
To thrive, all businesses must focus on the art of self-disruption. Rather than wait for the competition to steal your business, every founder and employee needs to be willing to cannibalize their existing revenue streams in order to create new ones.
All disruption starts with introspection. Instead of focusing the traditional planning cycles where companies benchmark their businesses against existing competition, teams need to be developed to foster internal change and disruption. Self-disruption is akin to undergoing major surgery, but you are the one holding the scalpel. Even Google and Apple continue to expand and dominate new industries because they strive to create a culture of risk taking, self-disruption and experimentation. Would anyone have predicted ten years ago that either of these companies would be going into the auto industry? Does anyone today doubt that they will be successful?
In order to protect against being disrupted, startups also need to recruit employees that are committed to life-long learning. The skills that made your team members valuable may not be the skills needed to take your company to the next level or to compete in emerging markets. The Internet of Things, 3D printing and the sharing economy are going to impact virtually every business sector during the next five years. In order to change your company culture and seize opportunity, you need to hire people that are willing to change themselves.
“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing themselves,” Leo Tolstoy wrote a century ago. Never has that statement been truer or the opportunities for startups greater. The greatest obstacles continue to be the greatest opportunities for entrepreneurs. By mastering the skills needed to disrupt you and your company, you can bolster your competitive advantage and continue to change the world.
LinkedIn cofounder and chairman Reid Hoffman has this advice for treating yourself as a business entity to accelerate your career in today’s competitive world:
Develop a competitive advantage to win the best opportunities.
Find the unique breakout opportunities that massively accelerate career growth.
Maintain a diverse mix of relationships and develop a practice of life long learning.
Strengthen your professional network by building powerful alliances.
Take proactive risks to become more resilient to industry tsunamis.
Tap your network for information and intelligence that help you make smarter decisions.
Adapt your career plans as you change, the people around you change, and industries change.
Top two tips from Elon Musk:
–Actively seek out and listen to negative feedback
–Reason with first Principles rather than by analogy. Boil things down to the most fundamental truths then reason up from there
In Silicon Valley it’s often common to pitch by comparing our products, services or ideas to what we already know, “It’s like Twitter for cat pics, or “Uber for deliveries.”
In this fascinating interview with Kevin Rose, Elon Musk says there’s a better way to innovate – first principles.
The benefit of “first principles” thinking is that it allows you to innovate in clear leaps, rather than building small improvements onto something that already exists. Musk gives an example of the first automobile. While everyone else was trying to improve horse-drawn carriages, someone looked at the fundamentals of transportation and the combustion engine in order to create a car.
First principles thinking for innovation, however, takes alot more mental energy.
See the full interview below:
John worked at a meat distribution factory. One day, after he had finished with his work schedule, he went into the meat cold room (freezer) to inspect something. In a moment of bad luck, the door closed and he was locked inside with no help in sight. Although he screamed and knocked with all his might, no one could hear him. Most of the workers had already gone and outside the cold room, it was impossible to hear what was going on inside.
Five hours later, whilst John was on the verge of death, the security guard of the factory eventually opened the door and saved him.
John asked the security guard why he had come there as it wasn’t part of his work routine.
His reply: “I’ve been working in this factory for 35 years. Hundreds of workers come in and out every day but you’re one of the few who greets me in the morning and says goodbye every night as you leave. Many treat me as if I am invisible.
So today like every other day, you greeted me in your simple manner “Hello” as you came in, but curiously, I observed I had not heard your “Good bye, See you tomorrow.”
Hence I decided to check around the factory.
You see me. I look forward to your greetings every day because, to you, I am someone. When I did not hear your farewell, I knew something had happened. So I sought and found you!
Moral Lesson:
Be humble, love and respect those around you because you never know who you impact with your smile. Reach out and touch someone. Show them they matter. Make it personal.
Happy World Smile Day!