Every now and then there will be a trigger moment that makes an individual decide to pursue a non-executive director (NED) role. For instance, there is a history of former politicians and senior council leaders taking up NED positions and the results of the recent European elections may turn out to be a catalyst for some to take their professional lives in a different direction. And indeed, who knows what long-term career decisions may be made after the Conservative party leadership contest is over.
It used to be the case that becoming a NED was seen as a role taken up towards the end of a career but times have changed and it can be an excellent strategic career move to make.
Last year, a Financial Times article revealed that the average age of a NED “broke through” the 60-year threshold for the first time, according to the Spencer Stuart Board Index 2018. We are also seeing the rise of the digital-NED or D-NED who can help organisations implement their digital transformation strategies, which will likely herald a further fall in the average age.
The importance of the role of the NED continues to grow particularly in areas like ensuring corporate governance. NEDs are also bringing much needed diversity of experience, skills, age and gender to boards (more than one third are now women).
As well as bringing fresh and rewarding challenges for an individual, becoming a NED can help to broaden skillsets, widen experience and networks and feed back into functional roles. It can also create opportunities in new sectors. Such appointments are also popular for anyone seeking the diversity and challenge that a portfolio career brings.
As an interim step towards becoming a NED or as part of expanding their portfolio, some individuals will volunteer to become a school governor or trustee of a charity, where similar core principles of governance, law requirements and financial probity apply and the experience will lend far more weight and credibility as a candidate.
When choosing to become a NED, it is crucial that an individual thinks through the implications of any role and understands the new demands it will place on them
Nonetheless, securing that initial non-executive position can be tricky so those actively looking for a NED role need to understand what it is they bring to the table in terms of skills and experience. Also be mindful that there are always more candidates than roles with some 32,000 candidates chasing 600 NED roles at any time.
To put yourself in the frame for a position, therefore, it may help to consult with an executive career transition expert or executive coach. Enlisting their services will help to determine what it is you can bring to the board as well as identify suitable roles and organisations that will aid your wider career context.
Whatever the motivation or circumstance for choosing to become a NED, it is crucial that an individual thinks through the implications of any role and understands the new demands it will place on them. It is also important to go into the assignment fully knowing what is expected of you and what your responsibilities will be.
At a recent NED event held at the Rialto Consultancy office, it was underlined that the risks can be high and that you must undertake your own due diligence before committing to a role. The reality is a NED’s liabilities are no less than those of executive directors, but they have much lower visibility about what is going on.
It is also important to ensure that, as an individual, you are financially secure and not reliant on the NED role for income. NEDs are expected to challenge as well as support the board so the event also highlighted the value of being able to walk away if you clash culturally with other board members or disagree with how an organisation is operating.
Whether in pursuit of your first NED role or if you already have several under your belt, fit and relevance is all important. Rialto Consultancy executive career transition experts have many years’ experience of helping individuals prepare for and find the right NED opportunity for them so we can significantly boost your chances of both finding and being successful in your next NED role.
Any leaders who have yet to recognise that employee experience is critical to business success should check out some of the new roles that are appearing in job advertisements. Among them are the following: chief employee experience officer; director of digital workplace; and director of global workplace experience.
Employee experience is increasingly being viewed as the new battleground in the war for talent. Moreover, there is growing acceptance that great employee experience (EX) and great customer experience go hand-in hand. Make certain your employees enjoy their jobs and love coming to work and these positive feelings will translate through to exceptional customer experience and greater profitability.
Market intelligence firm, IDC, predicts that by 2021, at least three-fifths of global 2000 companies will actively monitor and manage employee experience. They will also utilise ‘EX’ as a key differentiator to build and maintain B2B and B2C relationships.
Employers must consider a range of factors to create great employee experiences and building the right culture and sense of community is key. But it must go beyond this and touch every aspect of work across the entire employee lifecycle. This includes attraction, hiring, onboarding and areas such as reward and development.
An emerging trend in HR is the concept of the “workplace as an experience” where what happens in the workplace is re-evaluated and carefully designed, arranged and controlled so that employees feel energised and inspired to perform at their highest level. The end goal is to develop a deep, experiential connection between individuals and their places of work.
Rialto Consultancy reckons that, to achieve this, organisations must view and treat their employees in the same way as their customers. In fairness, this trend began some years ago and was perhaps best demonstrated by the shift in how employee benefits and rewards were marketed to the workforce. HR encouraged managers to communicate and promote the benefits of such offerings.
In a period of low unemployment and high turnover, and where the demarcation between work and home is blurring, organisations must deliver extraordinary employee experience to inspire loyalty and retention
This time round the approach must be far more deep-rooted and personal though and organisations need to apply marketing and sales-oriented strategies to attract and motivate. Data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning must be deployed to discover more about individual preferences and behaviours to create tailored and authentic employee experiences.
Employees also expect to see the same technology in the workplace as used at home and online in their personal lives such as chatbots and virtual personal assistants (VPAs) to help support and augment their tasks and aid productivity.
Expectations have also risen sharply when it comes to the environment in which people work. The Dutch office of professional services firm Deloitte (the ‘Edge’) is widely considered to be one of the smartest buildings in the world. At individual workspace level, employees can personalise the ambient lighting and temperature for their optimum comfort via a smartphone app.
Located in Amsterdam’s business district, the Edge is described as fun and inspirational. It’s no coincidence that would-be employees want to work there with nearly two-thirds of applicants (62 per cent) citing the prospect of being based there as a major incentive for choosing Deloitte.
Meanwhile, Amazon reckons making a direct link to nature will inspire creativity and even improve brain function and has filled its ‘Spheres’ headquarter building in Seattle with 40,000 plants from around the world. For its new ‘biophilic’ design, it has eschewed the traditional approach of enclosed offices with the purpose of creating a unique gathering place where employees collaborate and innovate together.
In a period of low unemployment and high turnover, and where the demarcation between work and home is blurring, organisations must deliver extraordinary employee experience to inspire loyalty and retention. Above all, leaders need to recognise that this is no longer a nice-to-have or even a nice-to-offer but a business imperative.
Ensuring individuals are fit for the future as leaders is as much about challenging notions of leadership in the past as it is acquiring new skills. Obviously, there are skills and behaviours that are increasingly important for modern leaders in the fast-paced world of business such as agility, adaptability, resilience, risk-taking and vision. But gearing up for future leadership roles also relies on individuals redefining leadership for themselves.
This demands some imagination and creative thought on the part of today’s leaders as well as analysis of the factors affecting organisations, such as digital transformation and the shift towards automated workforces.
According to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Future of Jobs Report 2018, the human/machine division of labour as a share of hours was 71 per cent human/29 per cent machine in 2018 but this ratio will switch to 58:42 in 2022 and 48:52 in 2025. WEF also points out that 30 per cent of tasks in two-thirds (65 per cent) of jobs will be automated and by 2030, 15 per cent of the worldwide working population may be displaced.
Meanwhile, PWC’s 22nd Annual Global Survey, finds 63 per cent of business leaders ‘agree’ or “strongly agree” that artificial intelligence (AI) will have a larger impact on the world than the internet revolution and half (49 per cent) reckon that AI will displace more jobs than it creates in the long run.
The latter remains something of an unknown because AI will also create jobs but there can be no doubt that leading in a period of such automation will bring huge changes.
How will these changes, for example, impact on a leader’s capacity to manage the interfaces between themselves and the world of automation, as well as that between human and robotic workers?
Taking a philosophical approach to leadership could be one of the techniques that help leaders better adapt to today’s demands
To stimulate thought and debate and ultimately help equip leaders to face these future challenges, Rialto is conducting a 10-year research project in which we invite participants to discuss the skills and capabilities they think will be important based on current and future trends. The events are aligned with the Rialto Accelerated Leadership Index (RALI) tool, which enables leaders to benchmark their capabilities.
Common threads that transpire across the different groups are that leaders need to be more collaborative, flexible and agile as well as more emotionally intelligent. In one group, leaders emerge almost as superheroes, who will need a range of capabilities that can be switched on and off, enabling them to react to what is happening around them.
Elsewhere, there is a call for greater diversity at senior level and that multiple voices must be given airtime at the top table. One group suggested leaders must also have a more spiritual leaning in terms of being able to connect to people and the environment around them.
One of the most pleasing things to happen so far is that the sessions are spawning considerable creativity around the subject of leadership. And as well as considering it as a set of capabilities, attendees are also viewing leadership as a philosophy, which is a real positive in the fast-changing current climate since a philosophy is fluid and able to be moulded to match a set of conditions.
Indeed, taking a philosophical approach to leadership could be one of the techniques that help leaders better adapt to today’s demands. It is relatively early days in the project though, and we’re not suggesting that we have all of the answers yet. But Rialto looks forward to reporting back with further findings in future newsletters.
When the actor Peter Capaldi revealed that he was quitting Dr Who, he declared that three years was the maximum length of time anyone should remain in a role.
In an interview with Radio 2, he explained why he was stepping down from the part that he’d played for four years: “I’ve never done one job for three years,” he said. “This is the first time I’ve done this, and I feel it’s time for me to move on to different challenges.”
Even when you can transcend time zones as a Time Lord, it seems, a role can run out of challenge and there is a lesson in this episode for all business leaders.
Too many leaders remain in a role for too long, preferring to stay in their comfort zone rather than proactively seek new challenges. To be fair, for Baby Boomers and Generation X, this is down to conditioning and what has gone before to some extent.
In the days of a job for life, more than a handful of positions on a CV would have earned a person the label “job hopper” and raised some concerns in a future employer’s mind about commitment as well as questions as to precisely why they had moved around so much.
But job tenures are becoming shorter and having half a dozen positions under your belt by the time you reach your 30s will soon be the norm. According to a recent study from Deloitte, 43 per cent of Millennials think they will leave their current organisation within two years while for Generation Z this figure soars to 61 per cent.
Seeking the help of an experienced career transition expert can help career nomads to take a step back and ensure they are equipping themselves with the right skills and experience to lead today
Indeed, business is witnessing the rise of “career nomads”, individuals who want to move into new roles to quickly acquire skills and experience that will assist them in their next move. Their attitude and agility align with the fast-paced and ever-changing environment in which businesses find themselves operating.
Career nomads relish new challenges and opportunities, are curious and have a permanent desire to learn and a willingness to develop themselves. Typically, they are also self-motivated, self-aware and highly driven.
For those in leadership positions, this approach to careers also means a smaller window to build relationships, trust and an understanding of the workforce and other stakeholders. This means they must ensure they find time and opportunities to develop and hone core leadership and interpersonal skills so they can unite and align people behind their vision and deliver on their goals and objectives.
Seeking the help of an experienced executive career transition expert or executive coach can help career nomads to take a step back and ensure they are equipping themselves with the right skills and experience to lead today as well as informed about their next best move.
Specifically, an executive career transition coach can also help to build and expand networks, provide insight and intelligence into new markets, advise on personal brand and benchmark skills and experience against competitors.
Any leader is only ever as good as their last set of achievements in a position. And the critical point to bear in mind with shorter job stints is that there is far less time to deliver on objectives and goals. Enlisting the support of someone who has overseen countless career transitions, therefore, can mean the difference between success and failure for career nomads.
Cycling Team Ineos got off to a great start last weekend by winning the Tour de Yorkshire overall. There were also no shortage of headlines about the newly formed team’s billionaire backer, Jim Ratcliffe. If Team Ineos is to replicate the success of its previous embodiment as Team Sky, Ratcliffe’s financial backing will undoubtedly have a part to play. However, something less tangible but equally important to performance will also need to be in place: the right culture.
Much was made of Team Sky’s winning behaviours culture, which saw it secure six Tour de France wins in seven years. The team even went as far to appoint a “head of winning behaviours” in the shape of Fran Millar and developed it into an app. Key to this approach was aligning everyone behind the mission with the right behaviours and attitudes.
In the world of business, culture has moved up the agenda, assisted by work of the Financial Reporting Council and its 2018 UK Corporate Governance Code. The code calls on companies to establish “a corporate culture that is aligned with the company purpose, business strategy, promotes integrity and values diversity”.
Inside many organisations, there is still a long way to go though. But aligning an entire workforce behind a common purpose is becoming widely recognised as one of the best ways to deliver on goals and objectives and improve performance. Conversely, a poor company culture is one of the quickest ways to disengage employees, demotivate the workforce and have a detrimental effect on productivity and performance.
Our unique advanced consulting methodology (AI-C) provides the opportunity for optimising alignment across whole organisations which significantly increases the probability of coordinated action
In the experience of Rialto Consultancy, get the culture right and so many other things will fall into place. Individuals who feel more aligned with an organisation and its mission are more likely to release discretionary effort and this, in turn, will lead to improved performance and increased productivity.
Rialto has a track record of helping organisations across a range of sectors effect culture change/development programmes. Its approach is to delve into the psyche of an organisation and undertake a root and branch analysis of how it works at all levels. Additionally, using our unique advanced consulting methodology (AI-C) provides the opportunity for optimising alignment across whole organisations which significantly increases the probability of coordinated action.
Culture development programmes require time and high-levels of commitment and buy-in from the top tier. Leaders must model the right behaviours and ensure that managers build them into their performance management programmes so their importance is recognised across the organisation.
Rialto believes a healthy corporate culture is a fundamental requirement for a modern-thinking business that wants to succeed in an increasingly competitive environment. And it is increasingly a source of long-term value. Get the culture right and so many other positives will follow: employees will be engaged and aligned with the corporate mission; it will be easier to implement strategies; and the external brand will be enhanced.
Put simply, to improve company culture is to directly treat the cause of many workplace problems rather than the symptoms and we all know from other walks of life that the benefits of this are far greater and more long-lasting.
Every organisation needs game-changers: they identify business opportunities others don’t and come up with innovative ideas others overlook. They think differently and have the power to disrupt and transform the landscape in their world. They permanently live outside of the comfort zone, break the rules and take hoary old clichés like “blue sky thinking” and “pushing the envelope” to whole new levels.
In the fast-paced world of digital transformation, they are even more vital to have in an organisation. Indeed, game-changers not only alter the landscape of a company but entire industries and sectors, too. Consider how, for example, the game-changing founders of Airbnb and Uber turned their respective industries on their head.
Not all leaders have the inherent characteristics to be a game-changer though. And while being one is not a prerequisite of being a great leader, all leaders must be able to spot a game-changer and harness their potential to make a difference.
What is it then that makes someone a game-changer and what do they do differently? Personality-wise, there is no one-size-fits-all. It might be expected they are extroverts and larger-than-life individuals but introverts and deep-thinkers can equally change the game. Typically, though, they are risk-taking, obsessively driven, future-focused and visionary thinkers.
84 per cent of leaders believe that the game can be changed by people who aren’t in a senior management position
Game-changers also excel at joining the dots and connecting the unconnected where others struggle to come up with solutions. Undoubtedly, they are creative, passionate about their ideas but also mavericks who tear up the rulebook. They sense potential where something needs or can change – whether it is a product, service, process or business model – and what the outcome should be, but they won’t necessarily always be able to articulate it.
As a result, they need to have supportive relationships in the business or their teams with individuals who understand where the game-changer is coming from.
The DNA of a Game-Changer report by the GC Index, a Rialto Consultancy partner company, reveals that game changers exist at every level of the organisation and 84 per cent of leaders believe that the game can be changed by people who aren’t in senior management positions.
Many organisations might perceive they want a game-changer but, in reality, the individual’s actions can prove unsettling for the board who then become resistant to the change. It is therefore important that the board and senior colleagues understand the role of the game-changer, that the culture is supportive and there is an understanding of what they have been brought in to achieve.
If everyone was a game-changer, organisations wouldn’t function efficiently. But with the right blend of skills and characteristics to support them, their full potential can be harnessed without any downsides for the organisation or those around them.
At a time when a premium is being placed on innovation and organisations must be able to react quickly to changing markets and customer demands, game-changers at all levels of the organisation must be quickly identified and nurtured.
So ask yourself, do you know who your gamechangers are? How well do you understand them? And are you fully supporting them?
To find out more about Rialto’s game changing leadership programme, contact us today.
Have you ever experienced the need to radically change your career? A career pivot is an increasingly popular way to describe a career move that marks a significant change whether in the shape of what you do, how you do it or where you do it. It could involve changing sectors, industries or profession or performing roughly the same role but in an entirely different environment.
Whatever the move, there must be clear purpose and intent behind it and often requires people to proactively acquire new skills or developmental experience, take a risk or make a sideways or interim move before their goal is attained.
Famous career pivots
High-profile pivots could be seen as Glenda Jackson transforming herself from an actress to member of parliament (MP), former international cricketer Imran Khan’s transition to politician and then prime minister of Pakistan, Jeff Bezos’ switch from investment banker to creator of Amazon, the biggest online retailer in the world, and Michael Bloomberg’s move from head of his own financial services, software and media company to become mayor of New York City.
There can be a myriad of reasons for wishing to career pivot: loss of drive or reaching a performance plateau; a role no longer makes you feel fulfilled; or even a struggle with work-life balance that is dictating the change is necessary.
Whatever the motivation, individuals need to prepare to pivot and assess what they need to do to successfully make the move. For some people, this next move is clear, for others less so which is why it is a good idea to seek the advice of a career transition or outplacement specialist who has helped others with similar moves.
Preparation involves an assessment to identify any skills or experience gaps that will impede pivoting and then deciding on the best intervention to address them whether it be professional development, coaching or mentoring.
Careers could span 70 years in the future so there is even greater scope for individuals to pivot multiple times during their career lifecycle
Working out how to pivot can involve thinking laterally. For instance, making a sideways move or looking for a secondment may be more beneficial and productive than more formal development. In some cases, the springboard for the pivot could be something outside of work like a hobby or voluntary work, which could be transformed into a new career or business opportunity.
A career transition expert will help plot a roadmap of where you are now, where you would like to be and what needs to happen to reach there. At Rialto Consultancy, consultants also have the benefit of tapping into tools like the Rialto Accelerated Leadership Index (RALI), which allows individuals to benchmark themselves against others in similar or different sectors.
It is also essential to go into pivot mode with eyes wide open and to research the role, company, sector or industry to which you aspire. A pivot in which the role or individual falls short of expectation will feel like a major career setback and a severe blow to anyone’s confidence.
But the positive effect of a career pivot can be immeasurable: it can re-invigorate a person; build new skills and capabilities; and provide exposure to entirely new experiences. It can also mean that they enjoy going to work again.
Why pivoting is likely to increase
With the end of a job for life, work tenures becoming shorter and the shift towards a more portfolio style of working, career pivots are likely to become an even more regular aspect of the business landscape.
Surveys point to average tenure in a role as four- to five years and this figure can approximately halve for millennials. And, indeed, it has been suggested that careers could span 70 years in the future so there is even greater scope for individuals to pivot multiple times during their career lifecycle.
It is important to remember though that while some will fall into a new position in a non-linear way which then provides the opportunity to pivot into a great new role, in general, such a move needs to be extremely well thought through and considered.
For advice on executive transition, career coaching and personal branding, contact one of our team today.
For the vast majority of organisations, it is ‘when’ not ‘if’ artificial intelligence (AI) and related technologies will impact the workplace. Incorporating it successfully will require reinvention of business processes and ways of working as well as culture change.
A new book describes three stages of the journey that companies can take towards achieving “full utilisation” of AI and becoming what the professional services firm Deloitte terms an “AI-fuelled” organisation.
In The AI Advantage: How to Put the Artificial Intelligence Revolution to Work, Deloitte analytics senior adviser Thomas Davenport, calls stage one “assisted intelligence”. This is when companies harness large-scale data programs, the power of the cloud and science-based approaches to make data-driven business decisions.
Next follows “augmented intelligence” which sees machine learning capabilities ‘layered’ on top of existing management systems to ‘augment’ human analytical competencies, explains Davenport.
The final stage is “autonomous intelligence” whereby processes are digitised and automated to such a degree that machines and bots and systems can directly act upon intelligence derived from them.
We believe AI-C could become an important tool to help embed AI-based and automated technologies more deeply into decision-making processes
Many organisations would describe themselves as being at the first stage and some are well on the way to stage two. Indeed, Rialto Consultancy is currently rolling out its Augmented Intelligence Consulting (AI-C) platform to its clients, which aims to help them solve future business and people challenges utilising modern business decision-making models developed with Harvard Business School.
The aim of AI-C is to help leaders automate the process of developing a strategy to secure high impact, outcome-based goals more quickly. It uses a three-stage process to identify and navigate roadblocks getting in the way of agreeing a strategy and this includes making use of a digital assistant with AI-based skills to supply a set of conclusions from the range of opinions gathered.
“We believe AI-C could become an important tool to help embed AI-based and automated technologies more deeply into decision-making processes,” says Richard Chiumento, director of Rialto Consultancy.
“As the book points out, intelligent technologies are already helping organisations make more informed decisions. We believe that AI-C will move them to the next stage and help them to exploit the power of augmented intelligence to align thinking and evolve strategies.”
To find out more about how AI-C could help you, go to Augmented Intelligence Consulting
Whatever happens between now and the end of the football season, the leadership success story of the past 12 months is without doubt the arrival of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Manchester United. Press reports previously described the atmosphere created by his predecessor as ‘toxic’ as the club embarked on a search for its fourth manager in five years after its worst start to a season since 1990.
Solskjaer arrived and immediately succeeded in transforming both the culture and performance of the club. Indeed, a BBC journalist opined that ‘resetting’ the club’s culture and bringing back discipline were key to his appointment as permanent manager.
The Norwegian is reportedly a fan of one-to-one meetings and, in an interview with news agency, Agence France-Presse, described every player as needing “an eye-to-eye connection”. “They want to know what is expected of them, but it’s not just me telling them what to do,” said Solskjaer. “It’s about asking: ‘What are your strengths? What do you feel? What can you give to the team?”
Leadership capabilities
Solskjaer, who formerly played for the club, has steered it through a highly significant transformation period and while there may still be work to be done, he has positioned it well for the future. He is regarded as authentic, has excellent communication skills, can take people with him, and The Guardian newspaper has described him as “tactically flexible”. In the relatively short time back in full public eye, he has also built an extremely positive personal brand.
There is no doubt that Solskjaer ticks a lot of boxes when it comes to leadership capabilities and provides a pretty good benchmark for modern business leaders.
Today’s leaders need a mix of core leadership traits like top-notch communication, able to lead by example, and be trusted and transparent, combined with an agile and adaptable mindset. As with the football pitch, the business world is fast-paced and unpredictable with conditions changing all the time. Leaders must be able to spot opportunity and seize it. Crucially, they must be able to lead through complex change.
Unless they have these skillsets, leaders will struggle to succeed and ensure their organisations are fit for the future. Worryingly, research conducted by Rialto Consultancy points to a lack of confidence when it comes to the skills required for such transformational leadership. One quarter of the executives who responded don’t feel sufficiently confident in their skills as future leaders.
Feelings stem from a range of factors including insufficient support, lack of relevant experience and a lack of opportunity to develop these capabilities. Two-fifths of respondents didn’t consider the culture within their organisation to be supportive of transformational leadership.
Are you a Solskjaer with the skills and capabilities that are highly in demand today or are you lagging behind your counterparts?
It is evident there is a credibility gap between existing leadership capabilities and those that are required to lead today and in the future. And too many leaders are allowing the gap to widen rather than rectify it.
The power of RALI
To address the challenge that many leaders face, Rialto Consultancy developed the Rialto Accelerated Leadership Index (RALI). The tool is based on insights and trends gleaned from five years’ extensive global research and is backed by interviews with executives in leading organisations across different functions and validated across multiple sectors. Leaders at different stages of their careers can benchmark themselves against peers and competitors.
Rialto considers that an important part of leadership development should be to help leaders compare themselves against the very best in their functional area. What will make a great finance director or HR director in the future? It is impossible to forecast without access to real-time information and insight and this is what RALI sets out to provide.
When developing RALI, it became apparent that to keep up with the pace of change and always-on transformation, leaders need a method of benchmarking their skills almost on a continual basis.
Leaders like Solskjaer, and his own hero and mentor former Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, are undoubtedly among the great role models from the world of football from whom business leaders can learn. But how do you stack up as a fit for the future leader? Are you a Solskjaer with the skills and capabilities that are highly in demand today or are you lagging behind your counterparts? RALI provides an essential tool to help you determine.
To find out more and get your leadership profile score, visit ralionline.com
As controversial a figure as she was during her political life, we can all think of a good few politicians today who would love to have a personal brand as powerful as that of Margaret Thatcher.
Everyone knew what she stood for and the unwavering set of values by which the “grocer’s daughter” lived her life. Indeed, it is often said that the former Conservative prime minister’s CV only contained two words and they were simply, ‘Margaret Thatcher’. Even six years after her passing in 2013, she still has one of the strongest personal brands that has ever existed.
While the next leadership contest or general election will undoubtedly see some polishing of the potential candidates’ personal brands, it will be far more difficult for some of the electorate to shed the opinions forged over the past six months. A brand can be built over years but, much like a reputation, it can be irrevocably tarnished extremely quickly.
The naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough is another instance of someone with an enduring and authentic personal brand who has been able to use his popularity and influence to bring about change for the better. He reportedly helped convince government to levy a tax on single-use plastic as well as be an effective catalyst for a 53 per cent reduction in consumer use of single-use plastic, which has been dubbed the “Attenborough effect”.
When did you last consider what you stood for and what perception people might have of you? Here’s an interesting exercise: insert your surname in front of the word ‘effect’ and what image would form in their mind’s eye? Someone who has been able to perfectly prepare and position the organisation to compete in the digital economy or someone who has allowed the company to stagnate and fall behind? Whichever one it is, it is part of your personal brand.
If no-one has ever heard of you in your sector or industry, that is your personal brand
Even if we don’t live our lives in the public glare, we all have a personal brand. It is an immensely powerful tool when it comes to career progression as a good one can undertake a great deal of the hard work for individuals. While the concept is far from new, social media and the always-on, 24-7 world has meant that our brands are there for everyone and anyone to see, warts and all, online and offline.
Those looking for their next career move should never under-estimate the importance of personal brand. Bear in mind if no-one has ever heard of you in your sector or industry, that is your personal brand and it certainly isn’t going to help catch the eye of headhunters and prospective employers.
While a brand can be nurtured and polished, no-one is entirely in control of how they are perceived as everything we do can be open to misinterpretation. But the more authentic the brand – and the more aligned your actions and behaviours are with what you claim to stand for – the more difficult it will be for anyone to get the wrong idea.
Hence, being true to yourself at all times is one of the most powerful ways to build your brand.
For practical advice on elevating your personal brand, visit: https://tinyurl.com/
