Nance Rosen Blog

What’s the best job you could land as your first foray into the working world once you’re out of college? The answer isn’t the coveted paid internship at Google.  It isn’t investment banking on Wall Street, although you may be tempted when the sequel returns Gordon Gecko to the big screen. And, avoid “consulting” since consultants don’t actually do anything. This advice is brought to you by Guy Kawasaki, courtesy of last Sunday’s New York Times.

Since the current CEO of IBM started as an intern there, I’m not sure the Google spot would be a bad choice. However, Guy’s point is this. You want the chance to witness leadership and decision-making up close. Whether it’s your family’s business or a start up with a guy who graduated two years before you and has $100,000 to build a better social networking site, it’s the up close and personal that will serve you the rest of your days.

Because I know so many people “starting over,” in their careers, I can see how valuable Guy’s advice is – no matter when you collected your last college degree.

Another way to put it is: get close to VITO, the Very Important Top Officer, as my mentor Tony Parinello calls the person at the top of the company totem pole.  That could be the owner of a company, president, general manager, or whatever the title at the top of the organizational chart (which may not exist in a small company, but you know what I mean).

In a small environment, you are more likely to get the opportunity to pitch in and help out, even if the task is above your pay grade. Sharing Subway sandwiches with everyone in the company at 11 PM while mastering the last video clip and tidying up the office for a prospect’s visit, and watching your VITO practice his or her presentation – that is invaluable.

You are also more likely to get a combat promotion, that is, get a better job than you might deserve because you aren’t battling layers of management above you.

This advice comes with a warning!

The potential of sharing air at the top of the company totem pole only manifests itself if you have the one magical ingredient that makes anything possible in business: hard work.

If your personal brand includes a stellar work ethic, evidenced by your volunteering to put your dinner plans on hold and the ability to cancel a vacation without steam coming out of your ears, you can do this.

If you’re still in the planning stage of your career, you probably think great success is made up of great ideas. That’s ridiculous. When you are successful, you know that it’s just hard work. Anyone can have a great idea. Only a few have what it takes to “grind it out,” as Guy puts it.

In my organization, the head of our social media practice has a degree in equine business. That is the business of bossing horses around – just kidding. It’s an MBA-style program using the business of horseracing as the subject of a multi-faceted business curriculum. But it’s not her degree that matters as she ascends to partner status with us.

It’s her personal commitment to work hours on end to get just the right clip, shot, tweet, broadcast guest, quota of followers or friends (a quota she sets herself) that makes her the person I most want to have with me when big deals are coming down. There is simply nothing I wouldn’t trust her to do, and nothing she would put before the interests of our clients. The exception to that rule would be her dog, but he comes to work.

To land the job that sets (or resets) your career trajectory: there has never been a better time for you to benefit — if your personal brand promise includes hard work, initiative, resourcefulness and collaboration.

Guy is right – in terms of industry or department silo, it doesn’t matter where you start or find yourself right now.

The good news is: if you’ve got the right stuff there’s very little competition. The bad news is if you don’t. Personal brands are you tough enough?

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It’s coming on the end of Q1 2010. Have you made the most of the first quarter of the year? What was your intention? Need to be reminded of starting with your end in mind? If you need a bit of a pep talk, just listen:

Lance Armstrong plans his race strategy before he puts his feet on the pedals. Michael Phelps knows how fast he needs to swim in order to touch the wall first. And, all that planning starts BEFORE the race gun goes off.

When you are outcome-minded, it doesn’t matter where you start. It doesn’t matter who is doing what – like throwing an elbow or an obstacle in your path. What matters is getting to the finish line in time to enjoy the success you’ve earned.

Where you wind up isn’t dependent on where you start. Horseracing’s greatest moments are when the horse lagging in the back digs down and has a kick that propels him to the finish line faster than any competitor. True, it’s the horse and the jockey working together as a team, so maybe wherever you are in this year so far isn’t all about you. It may be all about the team you rely on, yourself included.

This has been an extraordinarily shocking year for me so far.

I thought most of the changes I was setting into motion would take a long time to manifest results. I was wrong.

I thought it would take more time to assemble a stronger, better team. Surprise! The right people joyfully found me. The wrong people left quietly.  The changes in the team completely changed the game. Now, I am more joyful, which is a nice complement to the other attributes of my personal brand: communication being the most central element. Now it’s joyful communication.

I also underestimated the power of dissatisfaction. I forgot how wearing it is to suffer the imbalance of some people working and other people shirking.

The CEO of the Container Store, one of the most fabulous places on earth, says he hires fewer people at higher salaries than lots of people at average salaries. Why? Because he found that one hardworking person does the work of three average people. So even when he pays double the “going wages,” he nets triple the productivity. He also finally allowed himself to work only with people he really likes, and encourages all his managers to hire with that chemistry in mind.

So now that we are closing in on the last couple of weeks of Q1 2010, don’t worry about where you are now. Get busy with where you want to go. Don’t be concerned if you’re lagging toward the back of the pack.

There’s plenty of space for the race to continue, and for you – with your eyes firmly fixed on the finish line – to win no matter where you started.

Personal brands, give yourself a fresh start for Q2.

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The foundation of your personal branding is identifying and developing your authentic, compelling presence. And, you need to plan how to easily and crisply communicate your values and potential to the people I call your “audience.” That would be your customers, prospects, investors, colleagues, peers, staff and relationship with corporate partners.

Why? Because you are the star of your own life, business and career – so everyone you meet is your audience. That puts you in the leagues of Oprah, Larry King and everyone else whose career depends on engaging and retaining an audience.

Once you know you’re the star, and you have responsibility for engaging your audience, the next step is to create an outcome mind. What is it you plan to accomplish in every setting during all parts of your day? How will you do it or say it in a signature way that other people appreciate – so your plans, proposals, advice and preferences prevail?

That’s the point of developing an outcome mind.

Set your own goals – including the long term ones – but remember that every interaction and task is an opportunity for you to set an outcome and drive toward it.

Every successful person is outcome-minded. Your priorities and self-management falls right into place, when you join the very successful people who start at the finish line!

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Would you drop out (or drop in) to think for a living? How about for $90,000 over 6 months? That would cover your stint as an “entrepreneur in residence” aka EIR. This job does exist. In fact a legion of companies with EIR positions compete for people who think of great ideas. Silicon Valley’s most prestigious venture capital companies and some large corporations as well sponsor this warm and nurturing – and highly connected – life.

Are you an idea maker?

What exactly does the job description specify? Apparently, just the commitment to think, meet and mingle with other thinkers and doers, and prior experience thinking and materializing great ideas. Not the lemonade stand type of idea – even if you sold peppermint and guava flavored choices, made from secret recipes you and your fellow third-grade classmates devised in your school’s young entrepreneur club.

Via Sunday’s New York Times, we discover that relatively mature great idea makers are courted and rewarded, including Michael Bauer at Foundation Capital. Mr. Bauer has previous experience thinking. In fact, prior to taking an EIR slot, he successfully envisioned and launched ventures in broadband technology and green businesses. For this he gets a villa, an assistant, fantastic lunches and even more fantastic lunch partners. Clearly his personal brand includes thinking, and he’s leveraging that.

What’s the lesson for your personal brand?

Answer this:

• How much time do you spend thinking?
• How often do you record your great ideas – and review them?
• How much time do you spend connecting with people who can help you transform your ideas into a great ventures?

Are you too busy working or job-hunting to be thinking?

Really?

No matter how mature you are – and how much successful experience you have, really great ideas happen to people even before they finish college or have a day of real work experience. Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Steve Jobs…. you know the biggest names read Malcolm Gladwell’s work to discover much less vaulted stars in their respective industries, making a great deal of money.

Gladwell says all the greats pretty much have 10,000 hours at the one thing they eventually leveraged for fortune.

So, personal brands: if you have been you for about one and one-half years, you’ve had all the time you need if YOU are a great idea.

If you haven’t yet been the fantastic, elastic, bombastic personal brand you need be, in order to leverage yourself for a fortune (and fame): there’s time.

Personal brands: Make yourself your own EIR.

Pay for yourself with whatever work you are doing and more work you could bring in. Present a crisp, clear, compelling reason to be hired, and be relentless about leveraging your personal brand promise. As money rains in for what you may or may not want to spend your life doing, spend part of every day being an idea maker.

The lunch you provide yourself won’t rival what the Silicon Valley EIRs are eating. But, you should be making calls to people who would go Dutch with you to Subway, in order to engage in the kind of connectivity that doesn’t come from a router.

Personal Brands: Eat. Think. Connect.

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According to Sunday’s New York Times, the new CEO at Xerox does her own grocery shopping and most of her own household chores. Ursula Burns flies on the corporate jet, but she parks her car in the parking lot and carries her own bags.

This is an extraordinary person. Reared by a single mother, along with her brother and sister, CEO Burns reports there was a lot of life learning to be had in their home.

Her mom took in laundry to pay the rent and cleaned doctors’ offices to barter for their medical care. Ms Burns recalls that her mother had many sayings; mostly blunt ones that she repeated over and over to ingrain their refrain in her children’s brains.

“Where you are is not who you are. Don’t act like you’re from the gutter, because you live in a place that’s really close to the gutter.” Wow.

Personal brands, answer these questions:

• So what baggage are you carrying around?
• Where does your behavior say you’re from?
• Have you gracefully risen above the shortcomings and scarcity, or indulgence and extravagance, of your childhood?
• When is the expiration date on the claim you’re a victim of whatever bad, even really bad happened, that you survived?

Among the best qualities CEO Burns appears to have is a brutal truth filter in her brain. On her climb up the ladder, she has listened to top management declare one new initiative after another (or again and again) while not holding anyone accountable. She calls the lack of productive conflict “terminal niceness.” Loosely translated that means people being so conflict averse that the culture kills the organization.  Her personal brand is characterized by honestly, ambition (for her company and herself) and cooperation.

Personal brands: how about you?

• Do you tell yourself the brutal truth?
• Are you holding yourself accountable for stating goals but straying from them?
• Is your behavior killing your chances for success?

Of course, CEO Burns didn’t leapfrog to her position. She studied mechanical engineering as both an undergrad and graduate student. She joined Xerox as a summer intern, three decades ago. Take heart: she proves that internships are a great way to the CEO sphere.

Oh, and one last thing. Contrary to what the other CEOs have been saying lately: CEO Burns doesn’t like failure. In fact, she doesn’t even allow for it, because if you do: it happens.

Personal brands: ask yourself the hard questions. Do the hard work. And, don’t pack more than you can carry.

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In case no one else had time to tell you on Sunday: I love you.

That’s it. That’s the whole message.

Can you imagine if you felt loved everyday when you go to work? Think of what it would be like to know that pretty much EVERYONE loved you? That your clients loved you? That your vendors loved you? That your boss or investors loved you?

Can you imagine if you didn’t have to be paranoid about the double talk, the stalls, the lies, the back-stabbing, the infighting, the turf wars and the rest of life’s ridiculous, draining and energy-robbing moments?

I am pretty much lucky at work. People who are excited, passionate, good at what they do and strive to do more seem to gravitate my way. I outright love some of my clients. I had an author fly in to Palm Desert, California from icy cold Massachusetts last week. I drove two hours to have dinner with him and his wife. I don’t think we solved world conflict or did more than talk about our families.  Every moment was a joy. A hug fest.

I had another author fly in from Ohio to the TED conference last week. I drove more than an hour in rush hour traffic to meet him in Long Beach for dinner. He was filled with interesting news about the conference and excited about his upcoming speeches.  It was joyful noise at our table. Another hug and kiss exchanged with real affection and respect.

And, I had a great Valentine’s evening with five close friends at a very delicious and perhaps the most expensive restaurant I’d ever been in. One gal offered to pay half of the whole bill just to make it easier on the rest of us. But no one accepted, and everyone chipped in.

I wish these were all the moments of my day and night. I wish they were for you, too, They aren’t. We’re lucky if half the time we feel what we do is respected, much less cherished. A lot of the time, and I don’t know why, there’s a crushing amount of insult and injury being slung, almost incomprehensively harsh ill will in business.

Here’s what I do understand. I have settled on part of my personal brand being “encouraging of others,” despite the madding crowds. I let my feelings border on love some of the time. I know it’s a risk to have faith in others if you’re in business or just in life. Mother Teresa says to realize the worst can happen but love, befriend, and extend yourself anyway.

Ask yourself if your personal brand could stand some humanizing. Is it appropriate for you to add kindness and generosity to your ambition?

Who should you say: “I heart you,” to today?

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In Sunday’s New York Times, the least likely person in American business is interviewed in the Corner Office column.

She’s Susan Docherty, who “leads” General Motor’s US sales, service and marketing team. In case you don’t get the joke, GM is one of the more famous bankrupt companies in the US, based on its resistance to building cars that Americans want to drive. If it weren’t for their pesky rebuke of its target market, GM’s sales, service and marketing team would be doing just fine.

You might expect Ms. Docherty to be keeping a low profile, since GM has reported record sales in China, Europe, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Russia. That would be everywhere except the US and Antarctica.

In terms of a personal brand stance, Ms Doherty personifies the concept of “failing upward.” In fact, like so many business leaders, she loves to hire people who have failed because she wants to see how they recovered, grew and changed.

She also wants candidates who have a great answer to this question:

“If you could be in my shoes today, what would be the top three things you’d do?”

For whatever other value this interview might bring, it was worth the read just for that question. You must be able to answer that question –for anyone you meet in a leadership position, your boss, clients, prospects, investors – heck, the head of the CIA, President Obama and the owner of your favorite football team.

If you were asked that question by the people who play a role in your success or failure, what would you say? Think about the people you aspire to meet, those you certainly will meet, and those who are on your “must meet” list. Get to know their lives well enough, their past decisions and their future leanings, so you are prepared to help them.

It’s really preparation for your brand to be known as an informed, interested and trusted advisor.

TO DO: Make a list of the people you want to influence. Then go about researching the topics that matter to them. Be ready for your opinion to be asked – or the opportunity to weigh in on the issues that matter.

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There’s something magical about these numbers: 2, 3, 5, 7 and 10. They are magically memorable when you’re speaking – and your audience is listening.

Employ these numbers as a way organize your services, map out your presentations and help others’ retain in their brains what it is you offer.

You might say: “I offer two services for small companies. One is writing narratives for slide shows and videos. Two is producing multi-media presentations from start to finish.” Notice that you are leading with a small bite of the elephant of services you offer. It keeps your audience’s resistance down.

You might say: “Our clients consistently report we improve their performance in these three ways. One: peace of mind – they know they have a back up of their data offsite. Two: cost-sharing – they get the benefit of gang-run, because we batch them with others and give them the discount. Three: communication – a trained, live, employee is always just a phone call away.”

You might say: ‘We have five success stories in your industry.  They range from one-person consulting firms to a multi-national with 12,000 employees. Where do you think you fit on that spectrum?”

You might say: “As a communications consultant I can tell you the seven reasons why people buy. If you like, I’ll use your company’s products to illuminate those.”

You might say: “We have a ten point plan to optimize your presence on the web. Would you to like look at that map and see where you might be missing out on some key success factors?”

It’s almost as easy as 1-2-3 to keep your message organized in your mind – and retained in your audience’s brains.

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