Threshold Consulting: It's Your Life, Own It!

Conversations Without A Net

Messaging is critical to personal branding and career success. Yet, in the early stages of developing and using clear and consistent messages, it’s all too easy to rely on scripted talking points the way a trapeze artist relies on a net. However, as life coach Gail Blanke points out in the August 2008 issue of Real Simple magazine, “we live in an unscripted world.” Drawing from the many rules of improv, in her article, “How to Think on Your Feet,” Gail cites three core principles with examples of how to apply them. They are:

The “yes…and” technique. Here partners in a dialogue take what they are given and add new information to advance the scene into new territory.  It can be a great way to move a conversation in an insightful direction. So, when a person you are speaking with mentions a problem or challenge that falls within your area of expertise, you can acknowledge (“yes…”) before adding (“…and…”) new, relevant, and useful information. 

Go with your gut. Just as improv actors trust their first intuitive thought, so should you. When engaging others authentically, you can’t go too far wrong in trusting your instincts as you interact. Besides, what you say is not immediately set in stone, so you can always ask for clarification to refine your response. The greater your brand clarity, the more likely your responses will be on target.

Make everyone else in your group look good. The fundamental idea here is that you’re nothing, and there is no conversation, without somebody else. So, it’s good practice to always acknowledge others in your group – which can be as small as you and the one other person you’re interacting with. Of course, putting principles of improv aside, a great way to acknowledge others is to strive to be interested (by listening and asking questions), not interesting (by dominating conversation).

Like great improv, great brands are stories that develop in conversations. Since the best stories happen beyond the edges of the script, consider ways  you can use improv to advance your brand conversations in creative ways in a variety of media – and without a net!

Cross-posted at The Personal Branding Blog

Increase Your Karmic Footprint

With the call for a green revolution, it seems more people are paying attention to reducing the size of their carbon footprint in order to create a better environment. While protecting the physical health of our planet is important, it occurs to me that we can make the world a better place by developing our personal brands to expand our karmic footprint in a positive direction.

Many of us recognize that a pay-it-forward approach to life can benefit others and spark a virtuous karmic cycle that brings more happiness. Yet, we can easily forget to do this when immersed in day-to-day pressures at work. While no job is perfect, we can translate our work lives into opportunities to create a better social environment by benefiting others. In fact, focusing on delivering our unique promise of value is what personal branding is all about! So, if you’ve not engaged in the process of uncovering your brand, I strongly recommend it.

Meanwhile, here are three areas where you can begin to make a difference for yourself and for the people around you:

Own your life. When you build your life mainly around the expectations of others, you risk suppressing your unique gifts and may feel frustrated as a result. On the other hand, taking responsibility for your own achievements and happiness, often leads to an engagement with work and life that inspires others even while it satisfies you.

Focus on delivering value through relationships. You may have a wide range of skills, yet you risk commoditization and irrelevance if you become immersed in rote activities that drive little value for your team and your customers. By contrast, taking the time to build productive relationships often produces results that make a significant difference for others.

Build community. While you interact with people at work, it’s all too easy to build walls that separate you from people inside and outside of your company; as a result, you miss opportunities to build relationships with a wide array of people. While meeting new people can be every bit as challenging as dating, the process provides plenty of opportunities to engage in positive exchanges and create mutual benefit as you become part of a broader community.

If there is a theme here, it’s this: being authentically you while finding ways to serve others is the way to expand good karma. Yet, all of this is really a detailed way of expressing a truth Paul McCartney put so eloquently, years ago in The End: “And in the end, the love we take will be equal to the love we make.”

Cross-posted at The Personal Branding Blog