People buy into the brand you are
One of the most important needs perceived by the young people today is to build a personal brand. This is seen as a prerequisite for career enhancement. Each of us is a brand, some of us know it, and most of us don’t. A brand is the perception people have of you and this perception matters. Irrespective of who you are and where you work, there is a core fact – you create ripples through your words- actions – decisions and these ripples silently builds your brand daily. It is common sense then that we should be consciously creating positive ripples.
While most personal branding articles enlighten us on the why – how – what of doing this on the digital platforms, I am going to focus on the deeper internal aspects: People first buy into you before they buy from you
To save a beautiful dying tree you cannot paint its leaves green, you have to work on the roots. In the same way your roots need to be very strong to sustain a strong brand called ME. I believe our roots are our Attitudes- Values – Beliefs i.e. our TATVA (core)
A strong brand helps us to influence and great leaders have influenced through:
-
Insane work ethics
-
Going beyond, using your discretionary effort to deliver the best you can
-
Alignment of thoughts, actions & promises
-
Passion
-
Authenticity & genuineness
Now ask yourself 3 questions:
- Are you known in your professional community
- Do you come in the minds of decision makers, when there is an opportunity
- Do you have Referent Power
If the answers are yes, continue doing what you are doing at the inner & outer levels, if you feel there is room for action – nurture, revisit, tend the roots and be prepared to be surprised.
As a leader it is important that your managers are able to table & resolve issues openly & honestly. However, in reality this is an exception and not the norm. Typically, issues are swept under the carpet, as we are not confident of handling them without the relationship being impacted
The long term solution is creating a trusting- safe- inclusive environment, which in turn will facilitate a culture of straight talking. In addition, it is important to learn the magical techniques of:
Reframing: helps to recreate a safer conversation space. If a problem gets stuck in its current “avtaar” reframe the issue, this will help to relook at it from a different lens.
“I am not sure we are going to be able to move ahead on this … both the teams are making so many mistakes”
TO
Yes I agree we are making a lot of mistakes and you are concerned about it. However, there is a possibility that with this experimentation that the teams are doing, we may find a break through solution”
Normally reframing makes people feel less threatened and safer. Reframe by highlighting the commonalties and the positive elements. This will re-open the window for communication
Refocusing- enables us to move from the granular minors to a larger purpose. Defocussing from the negative to a more positive space is empowering
“Our team is very concerned because we feel that you are not prioritising, as per business needs and spend so much time on smaller issues at the cost of bigger things “
TO
“While we can see that your team is very clued on to details & perfection, it would be great if you all could bring your expertise to some of the other challenging areas too “
Your awareness of changing your communication to redirect – rephrase or refocus will become a natural way of life, once you take the plunge to table issues with a confidence to move ahead
In order to nurture women employees to take up leadership roles, Atlas Copco has initiated a wonderful program called “SAKSHI – Women Employee Development Program”. I was privileged to attend this 3 days training program from July 25th till 27th, 2016.
This was one of the best training programs I have attended.
Why was it so special? This training happened almost 7 months after my re-joining from maternity leave. I was completely perplexed and anxious on how to take my career forward. Having a travelling job profile, I was unable to travel because of my small baby. Several questions used to pop up in mind whether to change my role, change company, how to grow, how to manage home and travel….etc. This programme helped me in answering most of my queries and I came back with a clear action plan.
Training program was conducted by Tatva Leadership and Mr Himanshu Shekhar was our trainer. Three days were planned in a systematic manner.
First Day started with an interesting analysis that only 2% out of 40% women graduates manage to become CEO’s. This was an eye opener for all attendees. We also discussed about “what is holding women back”, strength & challenges, confidence and self-esteem, understanding difference in job, career and leadership roles….
Second day was more focussed on individual development. We discussed about working through my fears and apprehension, Assertive communication, Stereotyping, Networking and visibility.
Third day started with image consultant Ms Vasundhara who guided us on professionalism and power dressing. This was followed by a session on influencing skills, work life balance and personal action plan by Ms Kajal Mullapudi
My key take aways were:
1. Charting my career path – biggest realisation was “Nobody is going to carve a career path for you”.
2. Guilt Management – being mother of two kids, guilt management was the biggest challenge. Now I always remember “ Guilt Management can be just as important as time management”
3. Johari Window – Networking with right people was the area for improvement identified through this exercise. In order to improve networking, I applied to be a part women networking team of Atlas Copco “Pleiades” and now working as an active member of Pleiades India Board.
4. Innovative ideas/ initiatives – Designation is not a hindrance to implement innovative ideas. My initiative on online sales (selling Chicago Pneumatic Tools on Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal and Industry Buying) was well appreciated and other business areas also copied this concept.
Two years down the line, I feel more confident as an employee who can contribute to Atlas Copco mission and goals. Though I have a long way to go in Atlas Copco, I moved to new position of Product Marketing Manager in Nov 2017. Last but not least I started travelling again and developed a support system to manage home.
BY TATVÃ