Corporate Conductor

Positioning Yourself as an Expert

ritayoungallen — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 17:48:10 +0000

On day 3 we talked about the “dig deep/focus” aspect of being recognized as the expert in your field. Today I want to share the 7 keys to positioning yourself as the expert in your field. There are many more than 7, but these are the 7 that I feel are the most important. If you are the leader of a very large corporation, in years past, you may have successfully hidden behind aids and assistants who have been the front people for you. Perhaps you don’t particularly enjoy public speaking or being the one “center stage.” In today’s world, that position will no longer hold. If you are a leader today, you are expected to show leadership dimensions, both privately and publicly. We know the President of the United States is supposed to be the most powerful leader of the free world, but when he opens his mouth, does his knowledge, wisdom, expertise, experience, boldness, compassion, etc. support that role? I have seen many presidents in my years; some I would answer this question with yes, without hesitation. Others, I am not so sure. Employees want to have hope, feel secure, and be proud of with whom they spend at least 40 hours of their week. When you stand up to speak before your organization, association, membership, are you confident that those listening to you are confident of you and the direction you are taking them. Even if you have a board of directors that determine policy and direction, YOU are still the face and voice of that direction.

7 Keys to positioning yourself as the expert:

1. Your Name! Get your name in as many places as possible. “John Smith, CEO of Great Innovations” With the advent of social media, this is a very simple task to accomplish. In one month you can have your name all over the web in an extremely positive light. Of course, you will need to monitor, or have someone monitor for you, you presence on the web, but this is not a choice for successful leaders today. You either have a demonstrative presence on the web today or you are behind the times. I will repeat, social media is not going away; it is a fundamental shift in the way we do business. The power is no longer in the hands of the seller; it is now in the hands of the buyer.

2. The (limited) public storying of your own personal journey. In the age of industrialization, leaders were these phantom folks that no one knew anything about. In the age of technology, the masses demand “real” people. They want to hear pieces of your story. They want to know how you built your business. They want to know your struggles. They want to know how you deal with each day. This is more than evident in reality TV. People crave it. If you sculpt what you wan the public to know, then the public won’t sculpt it for you, which can be very traumatic. This is all intricate footwork, but the bottom line is you can just sit still.

3. Media Performances. Be available for media performances. The masses eat it up! Let them know you have time for them, you care, you are daily seeking their best interest, you are one of them. You see, what the whole world wants is to believe they can achieve status too. When you, as a leader, present yourself as “one of them” with the confirmation that you have made a great success in life, that gives them the belief that they can do it too. Truly, when you cut away all the fluff, this is what people really want…hope. When you learn to infuse hope into the hopeless, you have discovered one of the greatest powers of mankind.

4. Philosophy. Have you ever read someone’s mission statement and it sounded like something from an operator’s manual for a car…no life? If your mission statement sounds like this, revise it, today! Your philosophy MUST present you as a vibrant, live, forward thinker…with a different way of viewing the world which makes you the expert. This is not something that just rolls off your tongue; this takes time to put to pen and paper. Then, more time to commit to your mental make-up, then more time to be able to roll off your tongue in a unique, breathtaking way!

5. Praise/Testimonials. Being a business person, you already know the undeniable power of testimonials. If you are not using these to their fullest potential, you are cheating yourself. Your testimonials should be EVERYWHERE…on your large envelopes you send out, on the bottom of every email that leaves your company, on ALL your web presence (websites, blogs, ads, fan pages, etc.), on every piece of advertisement, and much more. You can have a huge printed ad and people will scan the ad and go on; if you have a testimonial on it, they will read every word.

6. Partnerships. This is truly the wave of future business, more than ever before. I am not talking Inc. partnerships; I am talking more JV partnerships…special projects, special endeavors, even special volunteer partnerships. These garner tremendous positive advertisement. Take thought who you partner with to be sure that they share somewhat the same vision as you and your direction.

7. LinkedIn. My seventh key is one aspect of social media. The reason I choose this piece of social media as a key to positioning yourself as an expert is because of the power that is generated through LinkedIn. LinkedIn IS the #1 most important piece of social media to the business professional. If you know nothing else about social media, you need to know how to develop and update your LinkedIn profile. Let me give you an example. Today I have 1,328 contacts in my profile. I have the capability to reach, to the third generation, more than 7,381,300 people! Is this power or what? About three months after building my profile, I received an email from Standard and Poors in New York asking me if I would be a consultant for their then Vista Research, Inc. (It has since changed names.) The ONLY thing they knew me by was my LinkedIn profile and the associated links on it. Someone should be able to go to your LinkedIn Profile and know almost everything they need to know about you in order to make a preliminary decision if they want to work with you or not. It’s not hard; it just takes a little time and some instruction on the fundamentals.

~Rita

Dig Deep and Focus

ritayoungallen — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 17:44:24 +0000

Do you truly want to be recognized as the expert in your field? If so, that would mean that your expertise would “appear” to outweigh that of your competitors. There is one significant principle for the success of this that seems to be extremely difficult to do…dig deep and focus your audience. We, as leaders, are so afraid that we will miss a potential prospect if we highly focus. It’s easier to say I am a “Speaker, Consultant, Trainer, Instructor, Coach.” It’s much more demonstrative to say I am “LifeStyle Conductor/Excavator of Corporate Culture and Organizational Behavior.” Which one jumps off the page? Which one says, “I’m the best?” Dig deep into your signature topic and OWN your topic!

I realize I am speaking to Leaders of all ranks. Some of you are simply the assigned leaders of your two children, while some of you lead corporations of many thousands. Some of you speak only to your family, while some of speak to groups of thousands. The principles are the same; it’s all in perception. If your child believes you are the smartest person in the world, you can say anything you want and he/she will believe it. If your audience of 10,000 believes you are the most innovative individual in the market today, offering new perspective will be a piece of cake. How do you accomplish this position?

Here’s how. We have spent years trying to understand how to promote ourselves, our businesses, our products, our wares. The world is shifting. The Gen X and Y’rs could really care less about who you are; they want to know what you have to offer. Because of that, you must spend much that previously assigned time of promoting yourself to offering perspective. I am hearing it from numerous sources…Content is KING! We have seen era’s where status was king and money was king, but, as I said, the world is changing. This is why social media has literally taken over the world wide web. In case you haven’t seen this video, check it out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVXKI506w-E Anyone, anyplace, anytime can have valid input in social media. Matters not who they are, where they are from, what their economic status, what their educational status, because content is king.

This is the “take away” for today. If you have not already, start now building a powerful presence on the web. Write articles, post frequently, join groups, blog regularly, upload Slideshare presentations, upload YouTube videos, create your own group pages. Today, THIS is how you become the expert in the field. You offer new perspective that is fresh and innovative to a world that can make you a star overnight!

~Rita

What’s your purpose?

ritayoungallen — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 17:40:22 +0000

Leader, what do you think your purpose is for your business? To make money…to supply the market with much needed product…to build a name for yourself…to carry on a family tradition? All of these are well and good, but if your purpose is not to “live your purpose” you are missing your boat! Are you living someone’s dream? Are you making someone else a fortune with your innovation and ideas? That’s fine if that is your niche and your purpose, but if that small voice nags at you every single day of your life telling you how exciting for you if you could be doing _____, building_____, founding_____, helping____ (you fill in the blanks), then you will NEVER be a great leader until you are leading your purpose in life! You may make millions; you may donate millions; you may live in the largest home in your city; but if you are not living your purpose, you are not happy or fulfilled. Sounds cliche, doesn’t it? What’s happy got to do with it?…everything. Because if you are not living your purpose, one day you will have all you can take and at that point a change WILL come. It could be a very damaging change. My word to you today is, don’t wait for the explosion to come…start moving in your direction now. If all you can do is think about it and envision what will be some day, do it! If all you can do is collect materials about your dream, do it! If all you can do is visit and talk with others who are living their dream, do it! It matters not how much money you have or how much money you owe; they can both be a trap. The pursuit of money can only be fulfilling when it is in keeping with your purpose for life! Money, otherwise, can be a vice that gets tighter and tighter as each day passes.

First thing you must do today is decide if you are living your purpose. If you are, kudos to you! We can only soar from here. If you are not, there is some thinking you must do along this journey are have undertaken. One of my favorite people is Viktor Frankl who wrote, Man’s Search for Meaning. He said that, “The striving to find a meaning in one’s life is the primary motivation force in man.” They don’t teach you that in graduate school. Tom Peters and Robert Waterman also said in their book, In Search for Excellence, “The dominating need of human beings is to find meaning,…to control one’s destiny…to be an expert in the promotion and protection of values.” Do you live these two quotes? Think about it. The rest of our journey is determined by how quickly you are able to “live your purpose.”

See you tomorrow… Rita

Change of Leadership

ritayoungallen — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 18:28:17 +0000

There is a growing understanding that people don’t leave organizations; they leave leaders. The success of organizations is directly dependent upon the quality of leaders in place. The number one reason someone stays with an organization, even one that is failing, is because of good leaders. The number one reason someone leaves and organization, even a very successful one, is because of bad leaders. I know this is true; I have been there. Here is a very strong statement, “Leaders who aren’t getting the desired results, aren’t truly leading.” They may be great people, they may be kind and caring, they may be stalwarts in the industry, they may be very knowledgeable, but if they are not getting the desired results, they are not truly leading. Let me tell you why this is so tricky in today’s world. Leaders that were great leaders five years ago may be completely immobilized today. Why? Because our world is vastly different today than it was just five years ago. One small example is that leaders today who won’t recognize that social media IS the new business model of today will suffer. All their years of education, experience and savvy could be worth little IF they are not willing to go with the flow. Then again, business leaders who maybe were not extremely successful in years gone by, but who have made social media the crux of their business, will soar.

There are many folks out there who think this is all a fad and will go away soon. Hate to disappoint you, but social media is not a fad; it is a fundamental shift in the way business works. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVXKI506w-E When one man can create one viral video and forever affect a multi-million dollar business in one day, that’s power. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo As a leader of an organization, you must accept this as fact and adjust accordingly. Many organizations now have full-time employees doing nothing all day but monitoring their presence on the web. As soon as someone posts a negative comment, they are on it either to rectify it or defend it. This is wise.

The power has shifted from the seller to the buyer!! What a rude awakening for some leaders! So, leader, if you are not getting the desired results, especially if your turnover is unusually high, you have only one option…roll up your monogramed, cuff-linked, pressed shirt sleeves, go to where your employees are, become a collaborative leader, build trust and new vision in your employees, seek out their insight, form master mind groups, form teams, move out the old and move in the new, and watch your organziation come to life so quickly that you better be prepared! EVERYONE wants to know that they matter, that they make a difference. When you, as a leader, genuinely gives someone that place (and they will know if you are fake) you fulfill them; they, in turn, will fulfill their place in the business.

“The real question isn’t how well you’re doing today against your own history, but how you’re doing against your competitors.” ~Donald Dress

Positive Organizational Behavior

ritayoungallen — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 07:04:32 +0000

Fred Luthans’ article on positive organizational behavior is very timely. It is so encouraging to see that someone else has realized that those people with confidence, hope, optimism, subjective well-being, and emotional intelligence (CHOSE) actually make better employees as well as better leaders. In the past, organizational behavior has had a concentration on fixing what is wrong; in essence, working from the negative side. POM has a concentration on accentuating what is positive, thereby alleviating much of the wrong before it even happens. In my opinion, this certainly satisfies the old saying, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” It is certainly true that in the field of psychology, far more emphasis has been placed on fixing what is wrong rather than giving attention to the client’s strengths. All five of Luthans’ attributes are important, but he has more to say about confidence, or self-efficacy. I feel that this is certainly the most powerful of the five in the work force for if a person has confidence that he/she can do whatever is assigned, success is far more likely to come. Self-efficacy can be a state or trait, but it also can be developed and managed. Being a state, it can be enhanced for leaders. Guided mastery, cognitive mastery modeling, and self-regulatory competencies can be learned skills used quite effectively. Hope allows an individual to see goals through to the end whereas those without hope might easily give up before accomplishing. Hope can also be developed and managed. Optimism is a powerful POB attribute because it promotes high morale, high levels of aspiration, motivation to work harder, perseverance under setbacks, and more. Those with optimism view failures and setbacks as temporary which is powerful in the workplace. They pick up and keep going, looking for the solutions that they know are there; they just have to find them. Optimism training could help individuals identify self-defeating beliefs and replace them with more accurate beliefs. On the attribute of subjective well being (happiness), I was surprised to find that more people rate happiness more important than money. If we will listen, this says volumes. With the state of our world today, people are wanting someone to show them how to be happy. There are troubles all around and it is a proven fact that more money will only make you more of what you already are. People want to be happy, regardless of what they have. A key factor in this is not necessarily what someone’s reality is; it’s what they perceive their reality to be. This process is most definitely trainable and very advantageous to every aspect of life. People who are satisfied with their life are more satisfied with their work. It’s those who have troubles on every hand in life and can’t seem to find relief, that are more anxious and troubled at work. Finally, emotional intelligence, in my opinion, will be the most difficult to teach and/or learn. The other four attributes rely primarily on changing the individual. EI includes the component of relationship changing as well: poor working relations, too authoritarian, conflict with management, etc.

LifeStyle Leadership

ritayoungallen — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 08:23:24 +0000

Management leadership has been a subject of great controversy for over a century. Some have spent their lives in search of the most productive method to lead the masses. We have run the gambit of the very tightest controls, such as timing bathroom breaks, to no control at all, allowing the employees to run the show. Neither extreme has stood the test of time. Because leadership will affect another person’s life forever, either negatively or positively, it should never be taken lightly. There are many great researchers who feel the same way: Kurt Lewin, Douglas McGregor, Fred Emery, just to name a few. A leader with the ability to help each employee mature into confident, contributing adults is a premium. Leaders who are able to maintain their authority while instructing, training, encouraging and empowering are priceless. Theory X/Theory Y, Immaturity/Maturity, Autocratic/Participative/Laissez-Faire, Authoritarian/Democratic are examples of important theories, models and principles.

In the world of daily change, not much remains the same, and yet, stability is the hope of almost every employee. Businesses are faced with leadership decisions continuously, many times because they are not able to efficiently evaluate and hire leaders that can lead people to maturity. With the turnover in the healthcare industry, today more than ever, we need leaders who not only know what they are doing, but who are willing to be lifelong students constantly learning new and effective ways to lead.

LifeStyle Leadership…is a precarious thing! Leadership that “drives the bus” will eventually wreck! Leadership that keeps the gas tank full, the wheels greased and the map available, BUT, guides the associates to drive the bus will soar! Do you know the difference between Theory X and Theory Y Leadership? I can tell you and show you. One major component is making every one of your employees feel important and valued, but the process is not so simple! It’s been talked about for years, but how many leaders do you know that are very successful at making their associates feel important and valued?…not many?….neither do I. I can show you how.