The Engaging Brand

How to understand the US in bUSiness

There has always been an irony for me - that the term 'a business' sounds impersonal, separate and almost intangible!

Yet business is all about people, it is emotive, personal and brought to life through connections and collaboration. When coaching I try and concentrate on the word 'US' in business because if we understand their true value then we grow our business.

Us is wide in definition and covers...

US= How well you collaborate with your colleagues

US= How well you connect the vision to the team and the team to the business vision.

US= How well you connect to the outside world - suppliers, stakeholders

US= How well you understand and communicate with customers

US= How well you see the pivotal role of business within society

US= How well we connect personal values to business value creation

Another US that we often ignore is both sides of our personality! Let me explain....

We have many human behaviors or aspects of business life that need reconciling

Risk vs Secruity

Routine vs Different

Self critical vs self confident

Work vs Home

Decisions vs Consensus

And many more....to ensure that our career's achieve our full potential...our relationship with ourselves gives us the strong base to connect with others.

What is the meaning of your life?

Our little weekend thought tries to inspire you to think differently about your life, your career, your business and this week I want you to....relax!

Too often we take life too seriously, we look at meanings behind everything.....we look for hidden meaning in the gestures of others, the words of others, why we are here etc etc

But remember...the only meaning you need to consider is this

What do you want YOUR life to have meant? When you are out in the garden, at the gym this weekend think less about the meaning of life...and focus on the meaning of YOUR LIFE.

Why you need to hold a Board Meeting with....YOURSELF!

Look at your dairy - full of meetings? I bet there are quite a few in your working day...

I am a read believer in getting rid of meetings that are about compromise, covering your back or delaying a decision! But I love meetings that inspire, are focused and blend deep thinking with action orientated outcomes.

For all the meetings that you have.....when do you meet with yourself? When do you review your progress, brainstorm your business interests, inspire your own self-improvement...create actions that will deliver your personal goals?......

Thought so....

We have one precious resource - time and yet we fail to use our own time to think about our own personal branding plan.

To inspire, engage others...we need to inspire and engage ourselves

So set some time aside one a month and have your own board meeting, invite all sides of your personality - the risk taker, the dreamer, the pragmatist and the action man/woman.

Make an agenda and then set to work on reviewing, exploring, deciding and then actioning your own 'me, inc' business strategy.

Tip on Creating Thought Leadership - through Surfing!

Action, action, action - we all know that action is required and we focus our teams on action. However I do believe action needs to stem from a platform of thinking. Thought leadership is often a term that people use without really understanding on what area they truly have thought leadership. 

Thought leadership comes from deep thinking and related business insights. These skills of leadership are often ignored - why? Well it is uncomfortable, hard work and so much easier to hide behind group think or compromise.

Social media is a wonderful tool to develop these skills in leadership. Social media expresses an array of different views, it allows you to read and think. By surfing the social media channel you can develop your thinking skills and create business insights from taking strands of ideas, of data analysis to then allow your thought leadership to evolve.

I use the word surf because ideas come in waves and it is about not riding a wave but understanding what creates waves, the underlying mechanics of waves etc I also think surfing is difficult to master...it needs technique, a desire to learn, a desire to fail in order to succeed. Sometimes your thinking will feel shaky but the more you surf the thinking wave, the more your technique strengthens and the more your ideas make it all the way to the market shore.

How to Change your Thinking About Life

Life has a way of overtaking you and often weekends can be a great time to take stock of your personal brand - both inside and outside of work....

Bab's Booster this week is a little reminder that personal growth is a choice, your success is not about what you can expect to be given...but a result of what you give to life.

It may seem a subtle play on words but the effect can be dramatic. If your career has stalled or you feel in a rut...change your mindset from one of passive living to one of active design. We can wait a long time to finally get what we wanted or we can start today designing the life we want and how we can create a legacy to be proud of...

So grab a pen, write a blog post, get on social media....whichever way works best for you transform your thinking from what you expect from life, to what life - and all those people around you - can expect from you.

Personal Growth Bob-o-graphic to Kick Bad Work Habits

In last week's Engaging Brand podcast I talked to Jake Breeden about those work habits that creep into our daily business lives that prevent us from business growth. As with Reinventing Yourself and Playing to Win, I have put together a little Bob-o-graphic to help your personal growth.

In leadership and management you can read widely and then try to incorporate all this learning and development into your day to day work resulting in a desire to please people rather than achieving profitable growth. Employee engagement and profitable growth should be complimentary and hopefully this little Bob-o-graphic will help you to balance your management approach to achieve...'profitable engagement' !

Talent is like a box of chocolates

Talent management is a vital part of the knowledge economy and yet talent is so often ignored or left to whither....and that is sad because talent is one of the most exciting parts of business, of leadership. For me bringing through talent, nurturing their potential and seeing them succeed is one of the best parts of leadership.

Talent is like a selection box of chocolates, it is about finding the right mix of 'flavours' to make the whole even better than the individual pieces.

Just like chocolate

1. Talent is addictive....when you surround yourself with the gifted and talented, you get a taste of success and attract even more talent. Having talented people doesn't weaken your position it strengthens it..
2. Talent fattens your wallet by adding pounds to the bottom line.
3. Talent is made up of various ingredients....ranging from their values to their skills, from self motivation to inspiring others, from being focused on internal targets and constantly looking outwards...and everything in between. When looking for new talent look to see if the ingredients are there, it doesn't have to be full formed...just potential for you to nurture.
4. Overheat talent and it melts away in front of your eyes.
5. Talent is best shared with each other and the world.

In a world of technological breakthroughs, in a world when your computer is your best friend, remember talent and talent development is the oil in the wheels of business

How to Make a Mistake ...and Still Win

When coaching I am often faced with people who want to start over - in their career, job, start up business. Starting over is not an option usually and what I work on is Bob's tip for personal growth!

Personal growth often comes down to taking responsibility for our own learning and development and not taking the easy way out and blaming your boss, your luck, your education etc It is in taking responsibility for making sure that mistake won't happen again, that our personal growth becomes more attainable.

We all make mistakes - we are all human after all! - mistakes are just like footprints on the sand, at first they seem so obvious and then disappear once the tide turns....

So how do you make the career tide turn?

• Be honest about what actually happened.
• Understand how it happened.
• Think about how you could have handled it differently.
• Think about the skills or knowledge you need to handle it differently in the future.
• Then turn the mistake into an opportunity, an opportunity to grow and develop. 

In all forms of life a great start helps....but it doesn't guarantee success.....remember the victor is the one who crosses the finish line, not first out of the blocks...and the occasional stumble just makes the ultimate career success..even more special.

Is life controlling you or are you controlling life?

Saturday and time for a Bab's Booster to think about this weekend. The weekend is a great time to relax with family and also think about our own self improvement.

We need to fight that apathy that can creep in - when I am coaching half of the battle is finding the self confidence to think about you self development. That self confidence is in there...remember all your career dreams as a child?

When we are young we have dreams - we dream of being everything from being an adventurer to becoming a pop star and as life goes by and the reality of paying the bill sets in, those dreams can start to dilute and eventually disappear.

I remember having a conversation with Dad and he said

"Life can easily become your parent, you allow life to dictate to you what you should be doing but remember life is given to you personally - it is for you to own. Never lose the courage to learn from 'life' but at the same time design the life that you were born to have..."

It has always stuck with me because our careers, our businesses, our daily routines can so easily become comfortable...boring but comfortable!. That is 'life - the parent' dictating to you and if you don't take control of your personal growth and find the courage to be who you were meant to be then you will end up with what life decides for you.

OK - so we can't all give up our jobs and become a rock guitarist this week BUT we can start taking steps to become who we really are..

1. What do you dream about?
2. How can you build that into your life - banker by day, artist by night creating your portfolio?
3. How do you create the social networks that will create the business opportunity?
4. Have you a career path that will lead you to who you were meant to be?
5. How do you build the courage to start on that career path? 

Start today by finding that courage to leave life's safety net and turn your dreams into reality.

Your Career Needs 360 Degrees not Just One

When coaching I am struck by how many people lack real self confidence because they don't have the right qualifications, yet they are gifted and talented people who are achieving success in their business careers. 

Here is this weeks Bab's Booster to show you that leadership, management, entrepreneurship is not just about formal qualifications.....in fact when it comes to social media marketing Bab's is right!

We live in an age of a networked economy, when social business is on the rise....One degree in your back pocket won't make you more social or more human. As a person with two degrees I am not downgrading degrees!...I am saying that for talent development, your social ability is just as important.

Social networking, social media is about showing all sides of your personality not just your business skills.

Social business is about having core skills but enhancing them with an ability to share...and ability to be the person in the role, not just the role.

Social business is about seeing problems, opportunities, ideas, skills as 360 degree topics and looking for unusual ways to combine them.

Social business is about showing all sides of your personal brand, or your corporate brand, to show how you are different. Many people have a skill.....but

Do you show the social element to your skills?