Create Your Brand

These days, a professional presence or brand is critical to career advancement. A strong image and brand will open many doors.   A strong brand presents an impressive show-case of your credentials, adds depth to your candidacy and conveys a compelling business case to prospective employers.

 

A great brand will:

• Make you stand out from the crowd
• Identify your unique value in the marketplace
• Highlight your performance claims
• Pinpoint the solution that you provide to potential employers

 

Much like a corporate brand, your personal brand is 1-2 sentences answering what you are the best at (value), who you serve (audience) and how you do it better than others (unique value). It sums up your unique promise of value. Your personal brand statement belongs to you and you alone. It highlights the best of where you’ve been in your career and focuses on where you are going.

 

How about it?   Do you have a personal brand statement?   If not, let’s have a quick conversation to get you started.  We can explore the direction your career is going in—and the direction you’d like it to go in.  Here’s a link to my calendar: www.timetrade.com/book/YQTYC

 

Julie Kramer
Executive Transition Coach
510-526-6723
Julie@roadspring.com

Have you thought about using LinkedIn to build your network lately?
If all you are doing is building a list of contacts, you are letting a lot of power go to waste. The truth is that LinkedIn can be the ambassador for you, both personally and professionally. With active, consistent engagement, LinkedIn enhances your visibility to key decision-makers in your field as you:

• communicate your successes
• become better known in your industry
• position yourself in your market

You already know that much of the job market, especially at the executive level is hidden from the general public and never appears on traditional job boards. It’s essential to be connected to key players in your field. Your personal brand statement will help you to:

• stay on top of what is happening in your field
• connect to new people to call for advice or introductions
• get invitations to events, meetings, interviews.

Great communication with your LinkedIn contacts can help you to be seen as a trusted advisor and thought leader in your industry. It’s a great way to meet others who share your values – people who may share your mission and purpose. Engaging in active networking before you are looking for a job positions you to tap in successfully to that hidden job market.

Julie Kramer, Executive Coach with Roadspring, offers a complimentary coaching session to give you a chance to “test drive” the LinkedIn Coaching Process. To schedule a complimentary session, click here: https://www.timetrade.com/book/YQTYC

Tips on Values

How do you find a company that matches your values?

Coach Julie at www.roadspring.com would like to encourage you a to find a company where the culture matches your personal values.  This extra step in the transition process can make all the difference in the world for your career path, success and happiness.  When you work in a corporate culture that matches your values, you have a chance at a new beginning.   This is because an environment that harmonizes with you and your goals is an environment that will feel safe and supportive.  When you feel safe and supported, you are more open, more trusting and more trusted.  And more likely to be recognized for who you really are.

What is the importance of Values?

It’s easy to take the first job that comes along.  Who doesn’t want to get a job right away? But therein lies the rub: While it’s easy to hop onto the next job that comes along, what if the corporate culture, the management style and the values are not a match for you?   How will this impact your comfort level, your prospects for advancement and your tenure at this company?  The key thing to remember is that Value Mismatches lead to communication disconnects, misunderstandings, and a sense of being left out of the information flow.  On the other hand, when there is a match, you feel more secure, content, relaxed and friendly.  Your stress level goes down and you build rapport with peers, managers, and directors.

This makes it more likely you will stay at this company and even have a chance for advancement.  When people share the same values, they can relax with each other and be more authentic.  This builds long-term trust and commitment.

The secret to making a Value Match with your employer is to find out what their culture is really like.  For that you need to ask some specific in-depth questions.

How do you talk about Values?

Talking about Values is not a typical conversation; and therefore you need to take the initiative in framing and discussing the topic.  What you want to find out is:

What kind of Corporate Culture?  (Structured or flexible, stable or turnover, professional or seat of the pants….)

What is the general Management Style? (More authoritarian or more collaborative)

What is the Revenue Growth? (Are they going out of business or doing well)

How do they plan to achieve this growth? (Quick and dirty or best practices)

Ride your Values to your next Place of Work

Not only will a Values Assessment (of both your values and theirs) improve your mood, productivity and overall enthusiasm, but it will also create a stronger foundation for a career with your employer.  You won’t be going against the grain, but will be going with the flow of things.  This makes it easier to be heard, understood and (most important!) promoted.   To learn more about this or to sign up for a complete Values Assessment, or to receive information on career growth, professional branding, leadership strategies, and tips for rapid career or job change, you are invited to sign in for the Roadspring Values Assessment at this link:

https://roadspring.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Values-Handout.pdf

For more information or coaching on assessment of values, contact Coach Julie at (510) 526-6723 or Julie@roadspring.com.

Pitching to C-level executives

By Julie Kramer, Executive Coach

www.Roadspring.com

The key to communicating with C-level executives, is to have something sexy to give them, make it compelling and present yourself as a peer.   In this blog I will explore the first of these three tips and if you like this, go to click here for more premium Roadspring content and log in for the rest.  A sexy gift is hard to turn down, hard to walk away from, and hard to hang up on.  So no matter whether you call, visit or email them, with this kind of gift, you are bound to get some traction.

What is a sexy gift?  This is information that is of great interest to the C-level executive you are talking to.  It could be information about trends, products, systems, peers at other companies, laws and practices, or news about hot conferences, keynote speakers, or association meetings.  The main thing is that it has to be personally compelling and engaging.  What is personally compelling and engaging? This is something that affects them on a daily basis; some problem or issue that has not been solved yet. Old news is not good enough. It is important that what you are offering is new, current and compelling, because you want full engagement.

Let me give you an example. I was coaching a Director of Public Relations who wanted to contact Chief Marketing Officers and Vice Presidents of Public Relations. These were people she did not know and had not met.  These were “cold calls”.   The first thing we did together was find a “Hot sexy topic” to talk about.   In the process of researching issues, I learned that a still unsolved issue for many people in Public Relations today, is “who owns social media? (Is it Marketing, Sales or Public Relations?”) This issue is very interesting and impacts the C-Levels. Professionals at all levels were and are still struggling with this issue.  Most have not resolved it yet.  Many become emotionally invested in the outcome.  When my client learned that different companies have been dealing with this in vastly different ways, we organized this information to become a “sexy gift”.  By formulating and organizing this hot topic, with real information about what the competitors were doing, she was able to get attention quickly, hold it and inform executives about common practices in their industry.  This opened the door for her to pitch the benefits of her consulting services to their bottom line.

Another thing to keep in mind is the communication style you use with C-level executives needs to be friendly and get to the bottom line quickly. One approach is to use a style that brings in emotion that will leave a lasting impression.  Short stories are one way to bring emotional depth to the issue and help a busy executive remember your message. You can also weave in examples, anecdotes, and metaphors to make your point more engaging and memorable.

Although you may not be at the peer level with C-level executives, it is possible to establish a peer level rapport for a short conversation.  To establish yourself at the peer level you need to do several things. First, lead with something that interests them or a current business issue they are dealing with.  Second, talk about what the competition is doing.  Third, offer new ideas and solutions.

By addressing issues they are dealing with, you show that you are thinking from their perspective and also that you are someone who has critical insider information.   This perspective alone, can lead to inclusion in high-level meetings or securing a consulting contract.  When you start from the right perspective (their perspective, which is generally from the “big picture” point of view), keep it focused and concise, offer options and frame the issue in terms of how it impacts the business, then you are likely to be successful in reaching your objective.

C-level executives are known for their short attention span and have no problem interrupting.  Expect and welcome interruptions. 
When you are interrupted, you may have caught their attention to an idea and this is a good thing.    But this depends on if you have a business oriented value proposition, which impacts sales, profits, product direction and markets.   This is critical; otherwise you are addressing the wrong level in the organization.

In summary, communicating with C-level executives requires having something sexy to share that shows you are thinking about business from the “Big Picture Perspective.”  Expect interruptions, get to the bottom line quickly, and use a style that makes an impact.  And most important of all is to be sure to present yourself as a peer.

If you would like further information or coaching on this topic you are invited to click here for a PDF download on C-Level Communications.  For further details, teleconferences, or training contact Coach Julie Kramer directly at (510) 526-6723.