It’s becoming increasingly important for us to be able to stand out as individuals in the marketplace. Whether we work alone as a solopreneur or as an employee in an enormous organization, it’s crucial for us to find ways to differentiate and display our value.

The best way to do this is by building a personal leadership brand.

But how do we do this? There are many ways to perform the steps of creating a personal brand (building websites, designing a social media strategy, etc.) and you can find tons of resources for that online.

But there’s something we must do before those things, and it is the most important step of all.

Before we can tell the world who we are, we need to know who we are. While this seems obvious, it turns out to be much more difficult to do than it is to read. Fortunately, there are 3 easy-to-understand parts to making this happen, and following them will help you build your personal leadership brand. These three steps are:

1. Strengths (Know ‘Em)
2. Space (Carve It Out)
3. Sensei (Get One)

Now at this point, at the risk of being a big tease, I must confess I already wrote about this in great detail in another post. For the full article on this process, visit the LeadChange blog.

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P.S. Bonus reading — I provide a free download link to two phenomenal articles about building a great personal brand in this article.

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It may not be a typical thing to discuss superheroes in a business context. But today, we’re going to go for it.

Even if we’re not into “comic books,” most of us are probably familiar with a bit of their mythology. A pop culture fascination with superheroes has come screaming into popular media in the past two decades, pushing the once-relegated-to-the-bedroom-of-nerds fanfare squarely into the mainstream. By this point, you’ve almost certainly seen Spider-Man, Heroes, Smallville, one of the five Superman movies, one of the X-Men films, Thor, Captain America, or any number of the other “superhero” flicks released recently.

In addition to delivering a boatload of melodramatic fun and action, in any superhero story we inevitably find the protagonist struggling with how to use his or her superpower: the thing that makes them different from the “normal” folks.

Despite our lack of wall-crawling ability, x-ray vision, or amazing powers of flight, this isolation and confusion of purpose is a feeling we can relate to. No matter how connected we are, we all have moments of insecure loneliness.

We all feel “left out” or “not normal” from time to time.

The problem with this is that “normal” is an illusion. Human beings are ineffably unique, and we see the world through our own completely individualized lenses. We do our best to respect these differences, but they also create some tension — and isolation. We are naturally skewed to do some things really well, and other things… well, not so much. This is OK — and the way it should be — but it often makes us feel like we have these “superpowers” (things we’re really good at) and we’re not quite sure how to harness their power.

(Even if you don’t feel like you’ve got any superpowers, you do. Hang with me for a moment… it will make more sense in a few paragraphs.)

This is a central, and often missed, component of how to best lead from one’s strengths. In a nutshell, it is the areas of our biggest strengths which cast the largest shadows. It is our top talents that give us the most clues into some of our most fragile tendencies.

True, my natural abilities — the talent that lies within my proclivities, my paradigms, my lens, my worldview — are the areas which have the greatest potential for exponential growth. But they are my largest potential area for doing harm, as well.

Let me explain. For me, the most potential for damage does not come with me trying to do the things that are outside my natural talent circle. I am naturally terrible at those things, and in truth, I should try my best to avoid them because I will fail there more often than not. (Ideally, I should partner with someone strong in these areas.) The greatest harm I can do to the world doesn’t typically come from those “weak” things (remember, they don’t come naturally to me, and I am much less likely to even attempt them). No, the greatest damage I can do is by not learning how to control my strength.

Here’s a bit of info on me: I am relentless in my pursuit of excellence. I have an almost palpable need to be successful. In addition, I am obscenely idealistic. I believe SO intensely in the potential of humanity, I feel SO passionately about the good that people can accomplish, that I am simply unwilling to accept the status quo. It’s like my soul simply rejects that as an option (dramatic, I realize… but true).

These qualities I have can be good things — but only IF I can learn to leverage them properly. I have learned, through much pain, that if I do not control the rampant idealism within me, for example, it can overtake everything else I feel and make me hopelessly, incessantly discontent. I have also learned to take on projects very carefully, because if a feeling of success is not found there, my talent will almost “force” me to rationalize an abandonment of the situation.

Of course, these talents of mine can be amazing strengths. If my peers (and my organization) can put up with a fanatical drive to be the best in the world, I will help make everything around me successful. And that’s good for everyone!

This is where it comes back to the superheroes. In our work at Strengths Doctors, we often make the admittedly melodramatic comparison of talent/strength to “superpowers.” There is always an intrinsic paradoxical tension with “power,” be it an otherworldly gift from the yellow sun (that’s what gives Superman his power, btw) or your almost-as-unbelievable ability to make instantaneous connections with people, be a brainstorming genius, or be able to genuinely feel what others do.

Those things are amazing. But the things that give us the most power also deliver the ability to do incredible damage. Think about it this way: Superman’s strength certainly comes in handy when he’s fighting a foe, but it requires more control than anything else when he’s shaking hands, petting dogs, or making an omelet. (You were wondering when we’d get there.)

Our strengths can be our yellow sun, or they can be our kryptonite.

Our power can be overwhelming — sometimes almost unbearable — until we learn how to manage it.

Perhaps the most relevant quote from a comic-based film is also one of the most famous. In Spider-man, Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben says to him: “With great power comes great responsibility.”

I imagine you’ve known some leaders that haven’t been able to control their abilities. It’s almost like they are constantly running over themselves, right? These are the leaders that make decisions without any consideration or strategy, boss people around unnecessarily, take on far too many projects and get ulcers, and never take a firm stance on direction. Most times, this is not a lack of strength — it is the opposite. It is a strength in overdrive. It is unbridled talent at its worst, and it will destroy a person’s leadership and, eventually, the organization with it.

It is an astronomical misstep to miss this component of leading from our strengths: choosing to build a strengths-based environment means controlling our power as much as it does maximizing our strengths. Our greatest areas of weaknesses don’t come from the bottom of our talents; they come from the same top themes our strengths come from.

With great power does truly come great responsibility. And with practice, we can use the knowledge of our top talents for insights into how to leverage their power for the good of our leadership development and the health of our organization.

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Over a decade ago, two authors by the names of Marcus Buckingham and Don Clifton wrote an amazing book called Now, Discover Your Strengths.

At the very end of this book, hidden behind the database of strengths themes, there is a small section devoted to providing structural ideas for how to design a better organization. In this chapter, the authors mention something I’ve never forgotten—the idea of “building more ladders.”

Right now in our companies, we have essentially one ladder. One path up.

While we inherently understand that this doesn’t make any sense—not everyone wants to be a CEO—we persist in structuring our companies like everyone does.

Much better, I think, to design an organizational structure that provides many ladders.

In fact, what’s stopping us from having as many ladders as we need?

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When left alone business systems, like a river, will always gravitate to the path of least resistance. This isn’t necessarily a good thing, because creating an open company culture that is based on the strengths of employees and fosters engagement and creativity is essential—though it certainly goes in the “resistance” category.

It’s worth our energy, though, because building a work environment that does this may be the single most important thing a leader can do in the new economy.

Architecting a workplace that can celebrate individual talents will feel like forging a trail through thorns, at least at first, because it is intensely unconventional. There are a few reasons why this is so. One of these is the myth of “the American Dream.”

Many of us, especially in America, have been told for most of our lives that 1) we can be anything we want to be, and 2) if we try hard enough we will succeed.

But neither of these things are true.

For example: I could practice basketball twenty-five hours a day with the fortitude of Rudy and still never, ever be Michael Jordan. Also, I will never be an NFL linebacker. (If you’ve met, or seen a picture of, me you know this is true.)

These things are just a reality. I can’t do “anything” I might think I want to—at least not if I want to do them well.

But my mix of unique background and talents does mean there are things I can do better than anyone else in the world—I just have to discover what they are.

The same is true for every employee we have. Many of them are—right now, at this very moment… look around—being crammed into positions that don’t fit them.

They’re being told to compete in the NBA, but they are not a basketball player.

And if this is the case, their failure isn’t their fault—it’s ours.

In the emerging culture, this is the job of leaders and managers: to help unleash the immense potential of each employee and to coach each person in finding a position where they and their talents can flourish.

Remember: without followers we are not leaders; we are just lonely explorers.

Leadership is not for you—it’s always for the people who follow you.

Real leadership is, and always has been, about creating a legacy. The primary job responsibility of the leaders of tomorrow will be to care for the people who report to them. Plain and simple.

If we are not doing that, we are failing.

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P.S. I did a video and posted a bit more research on this idea awhile back. Check it out here.

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When labor gets commoditized, like it has over the past few centuries, it generally lifts people out of poverty.* This is good. Filling factories full of working people has a positive effect on local economies for a time. But, this process also has a dark side. Because these types of tasks are inherently mechanical and repetitive it’s far too easy to start treating the human beings that perform them like they are machines.

Humans are not machines and never, ever, will be — but this is the unsustainable, inevitable quotient of the commoditization of labor.

There’s another problem with the industrial phase of work, and this is a talent imbalance. When we use people and their hands to scale work, we end up with a small group of people at the “top” and a great majority at the “bottom.” If not deliberately stated, it is clearly implied that these two groups have different capabilities, and that one is more important than the other.

As a result of this mentality, which has been passed down throughout generation after generation, implicitly and tacitly and subconsciously, we end up with some natural human abilities being completely undervalued and others being overvalued.

The thinkers and influencers and strategists — a group we like to call “leaders” — get raised and elevated (and compensated) beyond their worth.

To begin correcting this problem, I suggest we instead call these folks “architects.”

The doers and creators and makers — a group we like to call “followers” — get demoted and minimized (and their paychecks reflect this, too, of course).

To continue the fix, I suggest we start calling these people “builders.”

We have a talent imbalance.

And it’s perpetuated by our organizational structures.

If we accept that talent theory is generally true,** we must also accept that a hierarchical model of organizational design is fundamentally flawed. Why? Because it only allows one path “up.” People with all sorts of different natural abilities are crammed into one model, which puts all the builders at the “bottom” and architects at the “top.”

I first noticed this conundrum when I got out of college. As many do, I left the university with all sorts of grand plans and desires to leave my mark on humanity and put a dent in the universe in my own unique way. What I quickly discovered was that there was no place for me to do it. My unique talents are in the “architect” category, and entry-level architect positions simply don’t exist. They’re on the “other side” of the builders, which meant that there was no real, practical way for me to do work that was both fulfilling to me and beneficial to the organization I worked for/with.***

Perhaps you’ve experienced a similar situation. (I would love to hear your story in the comments if you’d like to share.)

Besides being ridiculous, outdated, and wrong, this way of organizing is also terribly unproductive.

Architects and builders aren’t in a hierarchy — and this is a big reason why changing our terminology is helpful. No, these workers desperately need each other, otherwise nothing great gets built.

Isn’t it time we fixed the imbalance? Isn’t it time for a new kind of organization?

(If you’re in the LA area, I’ll be talking about how to design a new kind of organization in detail at ASTD on Thurs, July 21. Love to have you join the conversation.)

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* For more on this read a book called Sonic Boom: Globalization At Mach Speed.

**  Talent theory, by the way, has been rigorously researched and also is fairly self-evident: I am naturally good at some things and naturally bad at others… as are you.

*** I admit I stumbled my way into a few exceptions, which was to work for small companies where I could quickly “rise” into the senior leadership team, where my talents for strategy and big-picture thinking were (at least somewhat) valued. However, this created a whole other set of challenges, because most tribes don’t take incredibly well to the 23-year-old strategist. (If you want to know why most groups can’t do this — and I do mean “can’t,” not “won’t” — read about Stage Three tribes in the book Tribal Leadership.)

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For the past few months, I’ve been fortunate to be a part of a group called the MIX Hackathon Pilot, helping to brainstorm ways to reinvent management from the inside-out.

To do this, we followed a fascinating process that looked something like this:

1. List the most successful communities of passion that exist, as well as the communities of passion you belong to
2. Define “community of passion”
3. Identify the barriers to creating a community of passion
4. Rate and rank the barriers
5. Create mini-hack prototypes that address the barriers
6. Rate and rank the mini-hacks
7. Join a hacking team and produce the full hack

(Even being the consummate nerd that I am, all this talk of “hacking” had me a bit confused when I first began. If you are in the same boat as I was, just know that we’re borrowing this term from the tech world and re-appropriating it to the way we think about management. Essentially a hack is simply an idea that will hopefully “hack” into the way we currently do things and change them in a positive way.)

In Stage 5, I proposed a mini-hack called “Build A Strengths-Based Environment” and to my delight the community ranked it highly. I was asked to lead a small team to build it out into a full hack, and just this morning I posted it on the MIX site.

Here’s the basic overview:

At the core of a healthy organization is the idea that people are respected and valued for their different gifts/strengths/talents. This is where true diversity is found, as well, as it is these innate abilities which create our worldview and varied perspectives.

If a tribe can adopt a mindset which truly helps people see each other as unique, special, individuals that have gifts and strengths, and that these talents provide important variety and valuable differing perspectives to the team, an almost magical level of trust and collaboration forms.

While a strengths-affirming culture is not easy to achieve, it is an essential goal for companies who wish to remain competitive in the new hyperconnected, collaborative economy.

Check out the full, very detailed hack here.

There are few things better than finding/creating work that uses our strengths. We did our best to make this hack incredibly practical and straightforward – I hope you will find it helpful!

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Last week, I told you that Bob Lefsetz, an individual whose updates I read fairly regularly, recently wrote a post called “Credibility.” His list was very insightful, but as he is a music writer, it required a bit of translating for us to get the most out of it in our business world context.

In Part One, we talked about the first 6 ways to build credibility. Here are ideas 7-12:

7. TV is overrated. Bob’s thoughts: “[TV is] broadcasting in an era of narrowcasting. Anybody can be on TV, few can hold an audience captive live. Focus on the latter.” If we wish to be an entrepreneur, author, speaker, thought leader, or linchpin in any kind of business, we definitely need ways to get the word out about what we do. But TV just isn’t the holy grail it used to be. The narrow distribution channels the internet offers have infinitely more potential for building meaningful connections (see #2 & #3). And it’s cheap. TV, notsomuch.
8. Don’t sign with the major label. Like radio (#6), a “major label deal” in music is often seen as some kind of “golden ticket” that can magically make an artist instantly viable. (For awhile this actually worked, but no longer.) Instead, Bob says, “Don’t shoot for the stars, shoot for the street.” The hard-earned following is worth far more in the long run. Also, an independent never has to be worried about being labeled a “sellout.” This again illustrates the striking shift from the goal of “instant impact” to a slowly and intentionally built grassroots movement.
9. Don’t work with any artist without credibility. Good advice for business-types, too. We always need to be mindful of who we’re associating with. Even when it comes to the people we follow on Twitter or groups we belong to on LinkedIn — these associations connect us to certain things in the minds of others. We all know perception is reality, but it’s easy to forget that these tiny, minuscule actions are what create that perception for others.
10. Know that now, more than ever, rewards come to those who wait. A twist on #4 and #8. Bob talks about certain YouTube stars who rocket to popularity and then fizzle quickly. My thoughts? This is simply the internet’s Rule of Remarkability — when the tail is this long, for something to get passed around it must be unquestionably remarkable. If it’s remarkably BAD, it goes viral quickly and dies just as fast. If it’s remarkably GOOD, it usually builds slowly — but with meaning and credibility. Things take time to find their audience.
11. Have fun.This is a huge part of being able to succeed at any difficult endeavor. Why? Because it’s impossible to sustain the obscene amount of work it takes to be remarkable at something we aren’t passionate about. You’ve heard about 10,000 hours, right? Also, we’re typically better at the things that feel “fun” to us. It’s hard to have fun doing something we suck at! We’ve heard it a million times, but it may be worth a reminder: life really is too short to not enjoy the journey.
12. Take risks. I’m only beginning to understand the complexity of this relationship, but there is something symbiotic about success and failure. It doesn’t seem possible to get to success without going through failure, so perhaps the trick is to simply fail faster and smarter. Get your idea/product/group/book/blog/album/business out there and see what happens! It’s the only way to move forward. Go do it.

Thanks again to Bob Lefsetz for creating such a great list.

What do you think? Have we missed anything? Any other credibility builders you’d like to add to the list?

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One of the individuals whose updates I read fairly religiously is an incendiary music writer by the name of Bob Lefsetz. (I’ve mentioned him before; he’s basically a big-picture change-observant thinker disguised as a ballsy foul-mouthed music curmudgeon.)

A few weeks ago, Lefsetz wrote a post called “Credibility.” In my mind, credibility might be the number one “thing” many of us strive for. If we wish to be an entrepreneur, an author, a speaker, a thought leader, or a linchpin in any kind of business, we need to have it. And we need to have as much of it as possible.

In many ways, credibility is what defines our ability to have a career at all, and the amount of credibility we project will determine if we can get paid for what we do — and how big (or small) the check will be.

In his post, Lefsetz defines 12 things a musician needs to do to build credibility and have a career. I think the list is absolutely terrific, but to make it more meaningful for us “over here,” I’m going to translate this list into the business world.

I’ll post the first half today and the last 6 next week, so it’s not completely overwhelming.

The first 6 ways to build credibility are:

1. Focus on the product, the art. To build credibility we need a “thing.” Whether it’s a book, or a company, or some kind of group, people need someTHING to latch on to when they think about you. Think about how people get introduced — as “the author of _____” or “the CEO of _____” or “the founder of _____”. Credibility means we’ve created something tangible — and remarkable.
2. Gain fans. Before something like Twitter, it would’ve been hard to imagine how this idea works in a business context. No longer. We’re all famous now, if only to a couple hundred people. Make those relationships meaningful.
3. Continue to reward the core with product and access. Let people get to know you, and give those who get “it” (whatever you’re doing) more attention. Why? If you’ve achieved any amount of success, these people are a big part of the reason why. Treat them like they’re special — because they are.
4. Don’t try to blow it up too soon! I both love and hate this one. Bob says, “If you’re not willing to wait, you’re not willing to have a career,” and I know it’s true. (If you’ve read read Outliers, you know it too.) But, as a person who loves to make things happen, it sure is hard to be patient. Like a great relationship, or a good wine for that matter, credibility is built over time.
5. Leave money on the table. This is about being both willing and able to say NO to things. (A good chunk of The Dip is about this.) Desperation is in complete opposition to being able to live a strong life. If we aren’t yet in the position to be able to walk away from money, it’s important we find a way to do that before we get too far “in.” Saying no to bad offers now will mean better ones down the road.
6. Unless you play Top Forty music, forget about radio. In music, unknown artists look to radio as a “quick ticket” to the big time. In business this looks different, but we make these kinds of decisions all the time, don’t we? We take the promotion or job we know doesn’t “fit” us because the money’s good, or sign with a company that is shiny on the outside but empty where it counts. Don’t take the shortcuts — they don’t work.

I’ll post the last 6 next Monday!

Do any of these stand out to you? Have you used any? Disagree at all? Ideas to add?

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Last week a good friend of mine, Jim Seybert, emailed a few of us in his circle who teach a strengths-based philosophy at work. His question was:

I have a client who’s asking for a Top Ten Things A Manager Can Do list to help 30+ supervisors maximize the strengths concept with their 350 employees. I think ten items is too many so I’m going to give them a Top 3. What would be on your list of practical things a manager can do to encourage the strengths experience with his/her workers?

My answer:

As a manager/leader of other people, the most important FIRST thing you can do to begin buildng a strengths-based environment in your department or group is kill your performance reviews. And when I say “kill,” I mean completely. Right now. Cold turkey. Gone. Done. Over. Kaput.

Let’s speak honestly for a moment… everyone hates performance reviews anyway, right? You hate them. Your people hate them. They suck, and I mean this in the most literal way — they suck the life right out of the individuals on your team, all while creating extra work for everyone.

Why do them at all?

Don’t.

Instead, replace that destructive, inhuman process with an Individual Development Plan. This development plan should: 1) focus on the person’s strengths, 2) assist them in growing as a human being over time, and 3) help them contribute more value to the business.

This process is far healthier for everyone involved and will yield a much higher return for the company down the line. (If you don’t know how to do this or want more info, please send me a message and I’d be happy to help.)

P.S. If you still have doubts that performance reviews are deadly, please read this.

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It’s a delightful thing to get to watch someone’s dream come true.

I’ve been fortunate enough to encounter this process a few times in my life thus far — watching friends get married, seeing my sister become a mom, and even being along for the ride when my wife got to traverse Europe by train (which was a dream of mine, too). This fulfilling type of experience never gets old, and I suspect never will.

My friend Jenny Blake just accomplished a lifelong dream of hers and published her first book: Life After College: The Complete Guide To Getting What You Want. Filled with templates to kickstart personal development and plenty of wisdom culled from her own insatiable desire to create more fulfillment in everyday life, Jenny’s created a veritable handbook for the “real world.” (Also, if you happen to be a fan of great quotes from wise people, like I am, the collection scattered throughout is alone worth the price of admission.)

I vividly remember leaving college and the distinct feeling that I had no clue what I was doing. Maybe that sounds familiar to you, too. It’s easy to stumble on a path in our lives, only to look back a decade later and realize that… well, we didn’t quite mean to go that direction!

The great thing about life is that it’s never too late to make a turn.

To be sure, some of the information in this book is aimed squarely at young twentysomethings. But much of it is highly useful for anyone who wants to make sure they’re on the path they want to be on. These pages are filled with great tools — and spirited inspiration — to help us get exactly what we want out of life.

Life After College is officially out tomorrow (Tuesday, March 29). If you’d like to buy it online, you can get a great price at Amazon.

Congrats, Jenny!

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