Are You Image Focused?

Your personal brand is your unique competitive advantage which is a precious commodity in today’s highly competitive business world; and your brand is significantly affected by your perceived image out in the big wide world. It doesn’t matter where you are on the career ladder or what skills and experience you have – unless you have somehow saved enough money for your brand not too matter anymore, how you ‘promote’ yourself and how you let others promote you will have a significant short-term and long-term impact on your perceived image by others – and hence impact your dreams and aspirations on a business and personal level.

 

As HBS professor Laura Morgan Roberts sees it, if you aren't managing your own professional image, others are; "people are constantly observing your behavior and forming theories about your competence, character, and commitment, which are rapidly disseminated throughout your workplace," she says. "It is only wise to add your voice in framing others' theories about who you are and what you can accomplish."

 

The art of developing our own brand is something that is lacking in many educational and business environments. Yet considering how important your image is in optimizing your potential future – the art of personal image and brand building should be a part of a teenager’s basic education from 16 years old at the very latest.

 

Professor Roberts highlights how “in the increasingly diverse, twenty-first century workplace, people face a number of complex challenges to creating a positive professional image. They often experience a significant incongruence between their desired professional image and their perceived professional image. In short, they are not perceived in the manner they desire; instead, their undesired professional image may be more closely aligned with how their key constituents actually perceive them. Members of negatively stereotyped identity groups may experience an additional form of identity threat known as ‘devaluation.’ Identity devaluation occurs when negative attributions about your social identity group(s) undermine key constituents' perceptions of your competence, character, or commitment. For example, African American men are stereotyped as being less intelligent and more likely to engage in criminal behavior than Caucasian men. Asian Americans are stereotyped as technically competent, but lacking in the social skills required to lead effectively. Working mothers are stereotyped as being less committed to their profession and less loyal to their employing organizations. All of these stereotypes pose obstacles for creating a positive professional image.”

 

The world has become a very critical and hypocritical place as we try to learn to come to terms with living our lives in such a public arena. The beauty about the human race used to be our unique individuality and yet this can feel like a curse in this new social-media focused world with people making blind judgements based on their own, often ignorant, ‘beliefs’ without even pausing to understand the situation and the facts. It’s quite scary just how quickly people are prepared to make huge assumptions and judge complete strangers based on as little information as a simple photo or set of words.

 

Professor Roberts reminds us that “even positive stereotypes can pose a challenge for creating a positive professional image if someone is perceived as being unable to live up to favorable expectations of their social identity group(s). For example, clients may question the qualifications of a freshly minted MBA who is representing a prominent strategic consulting firm. Similarly, female medical students and residents are often mistaken for nurses or orderlies and challenged by patients who do not believe they are legitimate physicians.”

 

She goes on to add that “In order to create a positive professional image, impression management must effectively accomplish two tasks: build credibility and maintain authenticity. When you present yourself in a manner that is both true to self and valued and believed by others, impression management can yield a host of favorable outcomes for you, your team, and your organization. On the other hand, when you present yourself in an inauthentic and non-credible manner, you are likely to undermine your health, relationships, and performance.”

 

30 years ago unless you were some form of celebrity or very successful business person, you were pretty much anonymous outside of your personal and business circle of friends and colleagues. You just had to worry about your ‘local’ image, which was pretty much in your hands to control. Probably 30 years ago people actually wished they could ‘market’ themselves more easily on a global scale, though it seems that we have gone from one extreme to the other.

 

In today’s business world “people attempt to build credibility and maintain authenticity simultaneously, but they must negotiate the tension that can arise between the two. Your ‘true self,’ or authentic self-portrayal, will not always be consistent with your key constituents' expectations for professional competence and character. Building credibility can involve being who others want you to be, gaining social approval and professional benefits, and leveraging your strengths. If you suppress or contradict your personal values or identity characteristics for the sake of meeting societal expectations for professionalism, you might receive certain professional benefits, but you might compromise other psychological, relational, and organizational outcomes.”

 

The desire to be noticed and be part of the ‘social media community’ must be tempered by the need to manage your personal image, both in the short and long term, to the extent that you feel in control of your ‘projected message’ allowing you to market yourself more effectively – which should be one of the core benefits of social media.

 

Professor Roberts concludes by reminding us that “first, you must realize that if you aren't managing your own professional image, someone else is. People are constantly observing your behavior and forming theories about your competence, character, and commitment, which are rapidly disseminated throughout your workplace. It is only wise to add your voice in framing others' theories about who you are and what you can accomplish. Be the author of your own identity. Take a strategic, proactive approach to managing your image.”

 

 

References:

 

Roberts, L.M. (2005). Creating a Positive Professional Image. Harvard Business Review, June [http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/creating-a-positive-professional-image]

Does Your Organisation Encourage Learning From Failure?

Whether your organisation learns from failure will be very much dependent on your organisations leadership and the culture they have created. I’d suggest that the stronger and more confident the leadership, the more likely the organisation will have a culture that encourages ‘innovation’, is not risk averse and responds positively to failure – though not if the failure reoccurs.

 

It’s the organisations that have weak leadership – those people over promoted or promoted based on past performance – where risk aversion is the norm, and failure is a word that you only hear whispered in hallowed corridors and never openly discussed or debated as a ‘tool’ for organisational, team and individual learning and development.

 

In an article by Julian Birkinshaw and Martine Haas entitled ‘Increase Your Return on Failure’ (Harvard Business Review, May, 2016) they suggest that “though leaders know that they must tolerate and even embrace failure in the pursuit of innovation and growth, most will still do anything they can to avoid it” (p.91), yet when something doesn’t go as planned, it’s an opportunity to challenge your default beliefs and adjust accordingly. Birkenshaw and Haas recommend spelling out what the project has taught you about each of the following;

1. Your Organisations Strategy, Culture, and Process;

2. Your Organisations Leadership Style:

3. Yourself and Your Team;

4. Your Focus on Proactive/Reactive Planning and Re-Planning; and

5. Your Approach Future Projects and Trends – i.e. Key Learning Points.

 

Birkenshaw and Hass highlight how venture capital firms are very disciplined about examining their ‘failure review process’ by asking direct questions like, are we learning from every unsuccessful endeavour? Are we sharing these lessons across the organisation? And is this helping us improve our strategy and execution? (p.93).

 

Arrogance is a ‘common and historical’ block to both seeing and accepting failure. Edward J Smith the captain of the Titanic famously said when asked how he could best describe his nearly 40 years at sea just before that fateful voyage – “Uneventful. I have never been in an accident and I have never seen but one vessel in distress in all my years at sea. I have never seen a wreck and have never been wrecked, nor have I ever been in any predicament that threatened to end in any sort of disaster of any sort.” This arrogance was so strong that it perpetuated throughout the whole crew, to the extent that a steward on the Titanic when asked if it was true that the ship was unsinkable, replied “Madam, God himself could not sink this ship.”

 

Pamela Waymack stated in her 2006 article, “management’s overconfidence and failure to see its own vulnerability contributed to the sinking of the Titanic. Neither historic track record nor size and prowess are a match for a market in flux. We cannot assume that our organisations are invincible. A seaworthy captain with a spotless record for 40 years was no match for a field of icebergs,” (p.41).

 

One thing that is certain in today’s turbulent global economy is that markets are nearly constantly in flux – and to stay ahead, or even just to stay in business, organisations can’t be scared to fail occasionally and embrace must be mature enough to see failure as an integral part of their forward thinking strategy. Having a workforce that isn’t frightened to be innovative and think ‘for’ the organisation is worth its weight in gold.

 

We have to remember that as humans we are actually used to learning from failure – as innocent children we learn so much from failure, like touching that hot stove to falling off our bikes. We have a natural internal failure assessment process seemingly from when we are born – so it is already part of our DNA – and only poor organisational cultures or bad leaders inhibit and scare us into hiding from failure. If you’ve ever worked for an organisation that doesn’t accept failure – then you’ll remember the psychological impact this had on you as an employee and how your productivity, motivation and general engagement is negatively affected. In these situations it’s a lose-lose for all involved – though the leadership sadly never seem to recognises it.

 

As Birkenshaw and Haas conclude “failure is less painful when you extract the maximum value from it. If you learn from each mistake, large and small, share those lessons, and periodically check that these processes are helping your organisation move more efficiently in the right direction, your return on failure will skyrocket,” (p.93) 

 

Reference:

 

Birkenshaw, J. and Hass, M. (2016). Increase Your Return on Failure. Harvard Business Review, May, p.88 – 93.

 

Waymack, P. (2006). Managing the ice in the waters ahead: Lessons from the Titanic. HFM, Vol 60, Issue 7, p.38-41.

Are We Returning to Command and Control Leadership?

What’s happening to leadership these days? The number of articles and ‘posts’ on the topic have increased exponentially over the last decade advising current and wannabe leaders of the most effective behaviours to engage in with their staff and how to inspire and motivate them for success – a win-win for all involved. Yet this desired image of effective leadership seems to be sadly lacking on the ground, in the actual workplace, all over the world.

 

In fact I’d suggest that leadership as a focused ‘technique’ is being replaced more and more with command and control type approaches to getting things done – where people in positions of authority are reverting back to being managers; and in many cases failing to lead all together.

 

I seem to be meeting more and more managers who lack the very basic leadership qualities and who are quite happy managing for results, rather than leading for results.

 

There are probably many reasons for this current trend, including;

 

1. There is just too much conflicting literature on leadership for anyone starting their careers to be sure what actually is the most effective style or technique. This is mostly due to the over commercialisation of the topic and sadly this trend is unlikely to end in the short-term. Every week someone is coming up with a ‘new’ style definition of leadership claiming ‘their way is different’ and in the end, as with over selling anything, ‘we’ are devaluing the very basics of leadership.

 

2. We’ve always known that command and control styles that mirror results orientated management gets the job done. It may not optimise your long term growth or operating results; and definitely won’t lead to a motivated workforce that is self-driven towards continuous improvement and innovation – but then stakeholders and markets don’t seem to be that interested beyond ‘the moment’ any more – so the old fashioned command and control approach gets them what they want. With a labour market that has changed significantly in the last 15 years, managers are confident of being able to find people to fill jobs – and since they are just looking for people to do as they are told – they take the approach that they know their labour pool is healthy across most sectors, so why care about people.    

 

3. Where are the role models? And hence where do youngsters pick up the basic values that contribute to great leadership these days? The media, especially the news media, has also changed over the last 15 to 20 years where they will readily admit that they are in the entertainment industry first and the news industry only second – as it’s all about ratings. Where are the inspirational leaders like Nelson Mandela – a man who showed so many strong characteristics and behaviours of exceptional leadership? Instead, for example, our future leaders are exposed to a selection of potential US presidential candidates verbally abusing some sector of society, as this is considered more entertaining than anything else and considered news worthy these days – and the young viewer is expected to be mature enough to see past the ‘entertainment’ and not be swayed by the potential leader of the free world not actually behaving like a leader should.

 

4. Who actually cares? Poor leadership has been becoming the rule rather than the exception over a couple of decades now and it appears that no one really cares. It seems to be part of the new accepted business model that employees are not ‘committed’ to their organisation anymore, so managers don’t need to be too bothered with the concept of inspiring and motivating them – they are just there for a pay check, have little ambition and will pretty much do as they are told.

 

Really?  Maybe that’s what poor leaders are telling themselves – but in my experience most, if not all, employees dream of working for an organisation that cares about them; and will create an environment where they can reach their full potential. It’s the chicken and egg story – it’s because employees haven’t been led effectively that they have thrown in the towel and decided “if you can’t beat them join them”.

 

If organisations desire to be the best they can be then they need to start paying real attention to their leadership approach. This doesn’t mean going and asking employees what they think – as these employees already operate in an environment where they don’t feel safe and hence will not give an honest answer. Too many organisations are fooled by thinking their internal surveys tell them everything is working perfectly and can’t see what is really going on. It takes a very special CEO who will create the right environment to identify the ‘real’ problems in his or her organisation and then put in place the solutions to fix them.

 

If you’ve worked for a great, inspirational leader you’ll know the difference it made to your whole approach to life – not just business but everything. The energy that you felt working in this kind of environment and how you actually enjoyed your job. It’s not just a short term thing; and the inspirational leader creates the right environment that allows you to grow and develop, often allowing you to find latent skills you didn’t even know you had. This is a win-win for everyone.

 

And that’s the simple difference between good and poor leaders – good leaders create an environment where everyone wins; the employee, the organisation and the leader – where the poor leader creates a win-lose environment where the leader wins and the organisations wins in the short-term, but the employee loses and so does the organisation in the long-term (compared to what their full potential would have been offered them).

 

Let’s get back to basics – let’s simplify great leadership, so that it’s clear to everyone – and let’s put the commercialisation on hold and build the next generation of great leaders across the world. The more we confuse people about what great leadership is in the workplace, the longer poor leaders will flourish.      

How Will Future Generations View and Plan Their Careers?

The world is changing fast. It wasn’t that long ago that lifetime employment was a genuine reality for many; sons following in their father’s footsteps. This may not have been the most lucrative career, but you were pretty certain that you would have a job for life; and during this same period interest rates encouraged people to save for retirement, where you could actually get a reasonable return on a basic savings account. But in the early 21st century neither are on the short-term radar for the future – so what does this mean for future generations and what advice should parents be giving their children.

 

Just getting a solid education these days puts a youngster in debt right from the start – often with no guarantee of a job; and this is in first world countries like the US and the UK. Universities have become businesses looking to make short term profit, rather than institutions trying to match ‘local’ and ‘global’ manpower needs in different disciplines.

 

At the same time too many large organisations are abusing basic corporate governance requirements to make that extra buck for their shareholders. The recent scandal of VW cheating on the calculating and reporting of data on their vehicle emissions; quickly followed by Mitsubishi is another example of corporate greed; which seems to have become the rule rather than the exception. A further case in point being the banking sector; where we now see banks around the world cutting staff in the thousands after operating some shady deals prior to and during the financial crisis.  

 

So how and what should we teach the next generation to be street smart when it comes to their career planning?

 

There’s nothing wrong with a college or university education if (1) you know what you are getting yourself into from a financial perspective and (2) the subject and institution you choose will give you a ‘step-up’ onto the job and career ladder. Only kids from wealthy families can consider just doing a degree for the ‘fun of it’ in the future; and even in this case it’s pretty irresponsible of the wealthy parents to encourage it.

 

So what to do? There’s a strong agreement these days for becoming skilled in either a profession or a trade. But if you decide to go through the university route without a guarantee of employment afterwards, it’s worth having a solid ‘plan b’ in place that you can fall back on.

 

In fact with employment no longer being guaranteed it’s worth every young person having a ‘plan b’ career up their sleeves, where they know that they can always earn some form of a living regardless of what’s happening in the business world around them.

 

First, future generations should try to get as much ‘business’ exposure as possible during their school years – taking on holiday jobs, in both the profit and non-profit sector. It doesn’t matter if this is hard, manual labour or basic ‘station fill’ jobs – what it does is makes the kid aware of what work is like and all about. Where they learn as much from the job as they do from the peers they are working with.

 

Second, parents should encourage future generations to learn a trade that they can either focus on as a career; or as their ‘plan b’ to fall back on if and when they need too. This could be learning a trade in areas such as plumbing; electrical repairs/installation; construction; brick/stone masonry; carpentry; welding; etc. Having a fall back ‘skill’ will give you that confidence and assurance that you’ll always be able to earn some kind of living should you ever find yourself struggling to find employment and this is very smart thinking in today’s world.

 

Thirdly, become qualified in a hobby or sport that you love - this could be by becoming qualified as a personal trainer; or a coach in your favourite sport; a diving, skiing or surfing instructor – there are so many areas where you can combine a fall back qualification with something you love. You may not earn a fortune if you have to fall back on this as your main income stream – but at least you’ll be earning something while you hunt for that dream job. It also has a positive psychological effect on the individual, at a time when it’s easy for the job loss and subsequent job search to have a negative impact on ones wellbeing.

 

Finally if you have a love for languages then become fluent in one (or more) and you’ll always be able to act as a translator or a language teacher if your career suddenly suffers.

 

I’m not sure who’s teaching today’s younger generation how to plan to survive going forward in their lives. In some elements of communities around the world there seems to be an entitlement mentality – where some of today’s youth feel it’s their governments responsibility to give them a job – and not just any job, but a job they actually enjoy – and if the government can’t do that, then they should provide them with some form of social welfare so they can live without any really worry. This hypothesis is doomed to failure and sadly those that suffer are the youth. Is it all their fault – I’m not convinced it is. They see and read about ‘fat cat’ business men and politicians ripping off the very people they are supposed to be supporting – and probably feel that life is unfair and that they should be given a break too.

 

Sadly victim mentalities aren’t what the world needs to grow and prosper. ‘We’ have a lot of work to do going forward into the future – not just creating jobs, but ensuring there is access to enough water etc, as the population continue to grow across the world. So what the world is experiencing now is just the tip of the iceberg in respect of what the future holds.

 

In fact we knew 50 years ago that technology would make some jobs redundant or less human intensive – and yet there doesn’t seem to have been any real, clever forward manpower planning to strategize about how we create enough work for first world, let alone third world, populations – where citizens can at least earn a living wage.

 

Until we have politicians and top business leaders who can think beyond the moment – we need to encourage and teach our youth basic survival skills in the current global economy. As until there is real change it will not just be survival of the fittest but survival of the smartest – and with that in mind everyone should have a fall back ‘plan b’ career that they can fall back on and earn some money – should they find themselves without a job.