Are You Investing Enough in Yourself?

This post originally appeared on the American Management Association’s website.

When work gets busy, it’s easy to skimp on the “expendable” parts of your day. After all, it won’t kill you to miss a gym visit or put off reading that new business book. But over time, a lack of investment in yourself begins to show.

Look at it this way: in Massachusetts, where I live, the state now faces nearly $19 billion in overdue infrastructure repairs—roads, bridges, and transit systems that are woefully out of date and possibly dangerous. The backlog has grown so enormous—nearly the size of the state’s entire annual budget—that it’s hard to make any progress. Those cut corners didn’t happen overnight; they’re the result of a million small decisions over the years.

Investing in yourself, like investing in a state’s infrastructure, isn’t glamorous, but as your career progresses, you’ll reap the benefits as you outpace competitors who have neglected to make the effort.

Here are seven investments in yourself you should commit to right now:

1. Build a network inside your company. You need help from the IT department—fast. Will they put you in the front of the queue? It all depends on whether you have a good relationship with them. The great networking expert Harvey Mackay famously exhorted us to “Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty”, and he’s right: you can’t manufacture loyalty when you’re in a moment of need. You have to take the time to build connections across your company before you need them—because when people know and like you, they’ll be willing to go the extra mile to help. One friend of mine who worked in quality improvement decided to invite someone from a different department to lunch each week in order to build connections and to gain a better understanding of how her company worked. Before long, when she needed something, she knew exactly how to get it and who could help her.

2. Develop your outside network. When one executive I know decided to change jobs, he was aghast to discover that almost all his connections were inside his company, where he’d worked for 10 years, and that seriously limited his job opportunities. Though he eventually found work with a great company, he vowed he’d never put himself in that position again. He has begun an aggressive schedule of networking breakfasts with his counterparts at other firms, executive recruiters, and people in related fields. Though he doesn’t plan to leave his new job anytime soon, he now has options, along with the side benefit of being regarded as an “information hub” at his company, able to sniff out small firms or talent worth acquiring.

3. Read the newspaper. Productivity guru Brian Tracy warns against it, and Tim Ferriss of 4-Hour Workweek fame suggests you should just wait for friends to tell you what’s new. But I’ll take a stand that every educated professional should absolutely read the newspaper at least a few times a week (daily is best). While it’s true that if World War III erupts, you’ll surely hear about it from somebody, if you’re looking to ascend the management ladder, you’ll need to be able to carry on a decent conversation and be reasonably well informed. Yes, it’ll take 15–30 minutes a day. But not looking mystified when someone mentions Tahrir Square, the debt ceiling, or Damien Hirst is priceless.

4. Attend conferences. When work piles up—and because many bosses still insist on a minimum amount of face time at the office—it can be hard to escape for several days to hit participate in a conference. In fact, some people deride conferences as boring, pointless, or an excuse to write off a vacation (indeed, my childhood trips to the Bahamas and Acapulco were courtesy of professional association gatherings my dad attended). Those knocks may be justified—sometimes. But conferences can be remarkable opportunities to showcase your skills (it’s always a good idea to present or speak on a panel), pick up industry best practices, make connections, and get new ideas. (My favorite conference is the always-inspiring Renaissance Weekend, which deliberately strives to connect people across disciplines and foster interesting conversations.) If your company has professional development dollars set aside for you, use them. It’s a waste—like lost vacation time—if you don’t, because no one else is going to care about your professional development as much as you do. And even if you foot the bill yourself, an investment in your career and professional growth is likely to pay off.

5. Sharpen Your Skills. My girlfriend is a very successful artist who shows at a prominent New York City gallery, but that didn’t stop her from signing up for a drawing class at an adult education center earlier this year. “Sharpening the Saw,” as Stephen Covey calls it, is critically important at every step of your career. No matter how successful an artist you are, it’s never a bad idea to practice drawing. Even small improvements can make a big impact if you’re at the top of your game. Similarly, many executives may think they’ve “figured out” how to run a good meeting or supervise their employees, or speak to the media. However, just because you’ve done something many times before doesn’t mean you’re doing it in the most effective way. Periodically reviewing your habits and holding them up against best practices can provide meaningful new perspectives. Check out books like David Allen’s Getting Things Done  Patrick Lencioni’s Death By Meeting . Or take a class to hone your skills. (I’ve spent a day apiece learning Power Point techniques and “Finance for Non-Financial Managers”). New ideas are the lifeblood of successful leaders.

6. Cultivate an international perspective. Most of us didn’t take a junior year abroad or become fluent in Spanish or Mandarin. But that doesn’t mean you can’t prepare for the global economy. If possible, try to vacation internationally to expand your horizons (even a trip to Quebec can be a remarkably “foreign” experience for English speakers). Take a language class to brush up on your high school French. Read a few key works about areas of the world that interest you. Some of my recent favorites include In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India , Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle , and the perfectly-titled Carry a Chicken In Your Lap: Or Whatever It Takes to Globalize Your Business.

7. Get enough exercise and rest. Author Tony Schwartz is particularly eloquent on this point. Not getting enough sleep is basically the equivalent of going to work drunk. Caffeine isn’t going to fix your problems if you’re only getting five or six hours of sleep per night. I wish I were one of the lucky few who are genetically blessed to function on that, but I’m not, and odds are, you aren’t either. Sleeping eight hours a night and working out several times a week can look like a huge time sink when those activities compete against pressing work projects and an ongoing torrent of email (though Laura Vanderkam argues in her book 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think that most of us can pull it off with a modicum of planning). But the cost of not exercising and resting is much higher than you imagine. Think back to the last time you didn’t sleep well. I don’t know about you, but I frequently get headaches and stomachaches if I am not rested, which ends up limiting my productivity. And Columbia University researchers have shown that not getting enough sleep actually leads to overeating. So, perhaps using Vanderkam’s spreadsheet, sit down and make the time for healthy choices.

If you take even one step toward these investments in yourself, you’re going to be a more interesting, healthier person and a better executive. So what are you going to do today? What techniques will you use to invest in yourself?

 

Dorie Clark is principal at Clark Strategic Communications. She is the author of forthcoming What’s Next?: The Art of Reinventing Your Personal Brand (Harvard Business Review Press, 2012).

Only Your Brand Will Save You

This post originally appeared on the Harvard Business Review blog.

News hit this past summer that Boston’s Kiss 108 (a youth-driven radio station partial to Katy Perry and Lady Gaga) re-upped its contract with longtime morning host Matt Siegel through 2016. That may sound unremarkable — until you realize that Siegel, a balding Baby Boomer, has already held the perch for over three decades. How, exactly, has this 61-year-old avoided the dire fate of so many of his disc jockey peers in a crumbling industry that’s been decimated by the advent of satellite radio and online powerhouses like Pandora and Spotify ?

Consistently ranked #1 in Boston , downsizing and macroeconomic trends are facts of life Siegel simply doesn’t have to worry about: he’s protected by the power of his brand.

With the international economic recovery uncertain at best and the stock market convulsing wildly with every Beltway standoff or whisper of bad news from Southern Europe, it’s obvious we can no longer rely on job security or investment returns to protect us from hard times. Amidst these harsh realities, there is only one investment that’s certain to outperform the others: your personal brand.

Most workers are buffeted by forces outside their control — industry changes, technological innovations, globalization, and the like. When more people listen to streaming radio online, DJs get laid off and salaries plummet (the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the average on-air personality earns less than $20 an hour http://www.bls.gov/k12/music04.htm). But because Matt Siegel has a dedicated following — one that might well choose to follow him if he defected to another station — he can write his own ticket. (Malcolm Gladwell has written about the disproportionate benefits that accrue to the very best in an industry.)

Radio DJs may be an extreme example of personal branding — it’s a lot easier to attract attention when you’re musing about sex or interviewing Oprah, compared to regular executives who do things like market database systems or oversee international supply chains. But the same principles apply: to insulate yourself from the vagaries of the market, you must build a powerful personal brand or risk losing your position. Specifically, that means:

• Cultivating a reputation as one of the best in your company or industry
• Developing a passionate, loyal following of people who value your perspective
• Becoming widely known and discussed

Marketing guru Seth Godin is a notable example in the business world. He started his writing career working with major publishing houses, which took a big cut of the profits in exchange for their respectability and imprimatur. But, armed with his popular blog and increasingly powerful brand, he made headlines late last year by launching his own imprint (in partnership with Amazon). Self-publishing used to be the hallmark of amateurs who couldn’t convince anyone reputable to vouch for their work. Today, in the case of Godin, it’s the sign of someone whose brand is so big, he’s able to reach customers directly and cut out the middleman.

From public speaking to writing to developing high-profile affiliations, there are a variety of ways to build a powerful brand (see my previous HBR blogs on “How to Become a Thought Leader” and “How to Reinvent Your Personal Brand”).

But the most important element is your focus. Starting today, think about how you can own your niche and build your audience. If you care about insuring yourself against hard times, the only true safety is in developing a personal brand that’s better known — and therefore more powerful — than that of your competitors, or even your employer.

How do you cultivate your personal brand? Do you see it as a form of professional insurance?

How I Got My Book Deal, and the Lessons I Learned

This post originally appeared as a guest column on Alan Weiss’ Contrarian Consulting blog.

In June, I signed a book deal with Harvard Business Review Press. Because the process of landing a book contract can be so opaque and discouraging, I wanted to share the story of how I did it.

In 2009, I got serious: early in the year, I drafted two book proposals (I figured more was better, though I’ve later come to learn that publishers get freaked out if your focus appears to be scattered, so stick with one). My kind mystery writer friend hooked me up with her agent, who plunged into pitching the book/s.

Though friends assured me that the hard part was landing an agent, and I’d surely get a deal soon, none was forthcoming. The pundits­ (aka acquisitions editors) claimed to love my writing style but deemed one proposal  “too narrow” and the other one “not differentiated enough.” Oh, and I wasn’t famous. One editor said he regrettably had to decline, because Ivanka Trump was publishing a book on a similar topic.

By the following summer, we’d exhausted most of the usual publishing suspects. But I had a brainstorm: a friend of mine used to share office space with a small international publishing house that might be a fit. Sure enough, my agent sent it over and they quickly responded, calling me in for a meeting with their full staff. I was on the cusp of a contract, I felt sure, when they asked me to revise my proposal to add more international examples (I spent a week furiously researching). But mysteriously, the process dragged on and on. We eventually surmised that the American editor liked it, but the boss in England didn’t–and he ruled the day. After two months of foot-dragging, they finally called off the courtship. No contract.

Discouraged (and agentless, after we mutually agreed she’d exhausted her contacts), I realized the only way to break through the clutter was to work on the “famous” thing. So I made it my mission to reach out to prominent business publications and see if I could blog for them. This wasn’t too much of a stretch, I thought, because in my pre-consulting life I’d been a professional journalist and had won awards for my reporting. You might think online business editors would like good content for free–but you’d be wrong.

I thought I’d have an inside edge with one publication, where I was friends with a regular monthly columnist. With her permission, I emailed the blog editor and declared in the subject line, “[Columnist] suggested I contact you.” No word. I waited a few weeks and tried again, but still nothing. Finally, it was my good luck to meet the editor-at-large for this publication, and I explained my predicament. He told me I could use his name, so I emailed my target again: “[Editor at large] and [Columnist] suggested I contact you.” That seemed to work quite well, and within minutes, he emailed me back and asked to hear my blog ideas. I researched them feverishly and the next day, responded with well-thought-out pitches. To no avail. Once again, he went dark, and I never heard from him again.

I knew plenty of people who blogged for another major business magazine. It turned out (amazingly!) that until last year, literally anyone could sign up to blog for them. It was my bad luck, then, that I literally missed the cutoff by days; they had just decided to start vetting bloggers. No problem, I thought–except that their online editor (who did OK my pitch and invited me to submit several articles) would let months go by before responding, leaving me pathetically to send “follow-up” inquiries. Eventually I stopped hearing from him, too.

That might have been the end of it if I hadn’t wanted to sell my bike, a gorgeous Cannondale I no longer needed. Enter the woman who ended up buying it on Craig’s List (and who, quite pragmatically, researched me online beforehand to ensure I was legit).

“I see you’re a business consultant,” she said. Then the magic words: “You know, I work at the Harvard Business Review.”

It took time, and a few follow-ups, but she agreed to show my proposed blog post to an editor there–and he liked it. Several posts later, one caught the eye of a bigwig, and they hunted me down in Costa Rica over Christmas and asked me to expand it into a piece for the magazine. Once the magazine piece hit (on “Reinventing Your Personal Brand”), everything changed. Three agents contacted me out of the blue seeking to represent me, and one of them actually used to run Harvard Business Publishing. I figured that was a good sign, so I turned the article into a proposal and in less than a month, we received an offer.

These days, I’m blogging for the Harvard Business Review (thank you, my bicycle-buying friend!) and the Huffington Post, and guest-blogging for many other outlets. My book What’s Next: The Art of Reinventing Your Personal Brand is coming out next year from Harvard Business Review Press. And I learned the following lessons in my quest to land a book deal:

• Work with an agent who specializes in business books. As with the rest of life, it’s about personal connections (specifically, which editors they have a track record of selling to).
• Blogging is a terrific way to build your platform. Seek out places to feature your work, and don’t let jerky online editors get you down. If you persist, you will find a place that seeks out and values your work (at a minimum, you can create your own blog to get started).
• Look (and prepare) for opportunities. It was sheer luck I sold my bike to an HBR staffer, but I was already prepared with blog ideas and pitches thanks to my initial work reaching out to other publications.
• Brand matters. By now, I’ve written for lots of media outlets, but the response you get from a piece in the Harvard Business Review outshines them all.

What are your best strategies for building your profile and/or winning a book deal?

Dorie Clark is CEO of Clark Strategic Communications and the author of the forthcoming What’s Next?: The Art of Reinventing Your Personal Brand (Harvard Business Review Press, 2012). Listen to her podcasts or follow her on Twitter.

© Dorie Clark 2011. All rights reserved.

Why Your Personal Brand Shouldn’t Be Your Corporate Brand

This post originally appeared on the Huffington Post.

I recently read John Warrillow’s excellent “Built to Sell,” a short, business parable (in the vein of “The Go-Giver“) about how to create a company that other people will actually want to buy. The main problem small business owners have, Warrillow posits (like Michael Gerber before him), is that they’re too involved in the day-to-day operations of the company. That means acquirers will only be interested in ponying up if the owner agrees to stay on for several years post-purchase — and there’s a lot that can go wrong between now and payday.

What to do instead? Warrillow suggests removing yourself from the equation as much as possible by having your company specialize in doing one thing well (the book’s hero decides that his ad agency will focus exclusively on logo design), developing a clear and repeatable process (“our five-step logo design process”) and building a sales team ASAP (no one wants to buy a business where you’re the sole rainmaker). That’s great advice for entrepreneurs building toward a “liquidity event” — but, as Warrillow points out in a great interview with Tim Ferriss, it’s exactly the wrong move for professionals whose business and personal brands are more tightly entwined. That’s why the most important branding decision you’ll ever make is what type of personal brand to cultivate.

Leaving aside your investment portfolio (or stock options), there are two fundamental ways to make money in business. The first, which I’ll call the “Business-Builder Model,” is to construct a company that thrives on scale and makes a profit on others’ work. Your law firm has 500 employees, you make a profit of X percent on your associates’ hourly rate, and you’ve got a successful business model. Same with ad agencies (as in Warrillow’s example), large consulting firms or the like. If you’re the owner, your personal brand must be different from — and usually less prominent than — your corporate brand, or you’ll never be able to sell it. (To its detriment, even a company as large as Apple — so identified with CEO Steve Jobs — suffers major stock dips on rumors about his health.)

In the second model — the “Expert Model,” more appropriate for solo practitioners and some executives — your personal and business brands are essentially synonymous. That’s because your business model depends on you getting famous and people paying a premium to work with you specifically. Instead of selling a process or a commodity, you’re selling access to your unique insights, applied to the client’s situation.

Warrillow is right to counsel the business-builders to hire staff who are “good at selling products, not services” because they will “be better able to figure out how your product can meet a client’s needs rather than agreeing to customize your offering to fit what the client wants.” You really, really don’t want every widget buyer demanding a different color. But when you’re the brand, it’s fine to personalize your advice. In fact, that’s how you make money. (I can read “Getting Things Done” like everyone else, but I really want David Allen to come to my office and set up the system for me. And I can hire plenty of executives to be my SVP, but I really want the one who got famous for leading a business unit turnaround at her previous company.)

The two models — Business-Builder and Expert — are exact opposites, and if you try to blend them, you’re not going to get far. You can succeed with either one, but you have to decide early on which you’re going to pursue.

Which path have you chosen? Why?

Dorie Clark is CEO of Clark Strategic Communications and the author of the forthcoming “What’s Next?: The Art of Reinventing Your Personal Brand” (Harvard Business Review Press, 2012). She is a strategy consultant who has worked with clients including Google, the National Park Service and Yale University. Listen to her podcasts, or follow her on Twitter.

 

How to Become Ubiquitous

This blog post originally appeared on the Harvard Business Review website.

It was 8 a.m. on a Tuesday, and I stumbled into my local coffee shop. Laptop in tow and shaking off jetlag, I steeled myself for the onslaught: replying to the hundreds of emails that had built up while I’d been on a luxurious 12-day vacation to Spain. Like many professionals, I have a complicated relationship with holiday — coveting the idea of relaxation, while dreading the idea of being out of touch. (Even with absurd data roaming rates, it’s hard to resist the siren call of email.)

The trip had been incredible — the best of Barcelona, Madrid, and Marbella — but I returned feeling guilty and slightly panicked. What had I missed? What moves were competitors making in my absence? And that’s when I spotted Mimi, one of the most connected players in town. She smiled and walked over to my table. “How’s it going?” she said. “You’re everywhere.”

In that moment, I realized you don’t have to be present in order to be ubiquitous.

Ubiquity, of course, is a major marketing goal. You want to be top of mind for your customers, so they’re calling you (not your competitors) when they need a lawyer, a website redesign, or more widgets. But how do you pull it off without sleeping in your office and surgically implanting your Blackberry? Here are four strategies to consider:

1. Schedule your social media presence. It’s true: the blogosphere never sleeps, and you do (unfortunately) lose face if you haven’t updated your blog in three months or you’ve let your Twitter feed languish. If you’re intent on building a strong personal (or corporate) brand, you need to be consistent. But that doesn’t mean you can never escape. Every few months, I’ll lock myself away for an afternoon and come up with a few hundred nuggets to post on Twitter. You can schedule them weeks or months in advance via services like Hootsuite or Tweet Deck. Sure, you’re not replying in real time — but at least you’re putting something out there when you’re lolling in your cabana. Similarly, you can use WordPress or other services to schedule upcoming blog posts.
2. Respond quickly when it matters. When you’re away from the office, practice triage. If you have a corporate assistant, ask him or her to monitor your email and call you if anything urgent arises. If you’re a solo practitioner, shell out for a virtual assistant through a service like Elance. Tim Ferriss provides tips on selecting the right person and scripts to use with them in The 4-Hour Workweek. Most of what passes over the transom can be safely ignored — but you don’t want to miss a new client inquiry from that account you’ve been hoping to land.
3. Enlist messengers. Perhaps the best way to seem like you’re everywhere is to get other people talking about you. Whether it’s people reading about you in the newspaper, suggesting you to speak at events, citing your advice, or mentioning they saw you at such-and-such fundraiser, you can quickly create an “echo chamber” if you’re vigilant (during your non-vacation time) about building your brand strategically. Specifically ask for referrals (which “forces” people to talk about you), cultivate reporters, attend networking events, and create a robust portfolio of content, from blog posts to white papers. Just as politicians buy radio ads in addition to TV placement and lawn signs and bumperstickers, you want to use a variety of methods to appear “everywhere.”
4. Go somewhere cool. Sometimes, inevitably, you’ll miss something important because you’re away. Your suitors may even be disappointed or miffed that you can’t attend the meeting or turn around a new request. You may never make them happy — but you can at least intrigue them. “I’m on vacation” is a fairly boring, lazy-sounding excuse. But — “I apologize for the delay in getting back to you; I just got back from Puerto Rico” — which was literally an email I received today from a colleague — is a fascinating conversation starter. So consider this your permission to go somewhere fabulous and make the best of it.

What are your strategies for becoming ubiquitous? And how do you ensure the people who matter are talking about you?

Ask for Referrals Without Seeming Pushy

When was the last time you asked one of your satisfied clients for a referral? Buyers trust what their friends say – and that’s why referrals are the absolute best wayto grow your business. But many people don’t ever ask clients to recommend them to their friends or colleagues. They worry that it’s too pushy–or seems desperate. Asking for a referral doesn’t have to be a shakedown, however.

Here are five good ways to ask:

1.    Ask upfront. One of the best ways to avoid any surprise or discomfort is to let your client know early on – even in your initial proposal – that if he feels good about the work you’ve done together, you’d like to ask if there are other friends or colleagues he thinks you should meet. Almost no one will say no, because it’s a hypothetical at that point (and one that presumably incentivizes you to do good work). Once you’ve delivered, he’ll be more likely to respond favorably when you come back to follow up – after all, he made a commitment.

2.    Frame it as a favor. Social psychology researchers like Robert Cialdini have shown that one of the best ways to get people on your side – unexpectedly – is to ask them to do you a favor. Your request makes them feel powerful – and once they’ve agreed, they’re invested in you and your success. So next time, you could say, “Frank, let me ask you a favor. The way I grow my business is through referrals, and I’d really appreciate it if you’d be willing to suggest other companies you think could benefit from my services. What do you think?” You’re likely to get a yes.

3.    Use a soft touch. You don’t have to go high-pressure. You can simply plant the seed with low-key phrasing. (”If there’s anyone you know with a similar situation, I’d really appreciate it if you’d mention our company.”) Sometimes a gentle reminder is all people need – and you don’t have to wait for your next in-person meeting. The important thing is making the ask, so feel free to get started by sending an email or bringing it up during a phone chat.

For the complete article, visit BNET

Looking for Ideas? 5 Tips for Non-Writers

You want to establish yourself as an expert? In a previous post, I discussed how to develop a relationship with reporters. But, with all the new tools available, you don’t have to–and shouldn’t–wait for someone else to create your content for you.

Creating content – whether it’s blog posts, articles, podcasts, or lectures – is essential to developing your personal brand. It showcases your expertise and lets the world know what you have to offer.

But what, exactly, should you write or speak about? The thought of developing content on a regular basis can be overwhelming to many people.

Here are five tricks you can use to develop and pump out engaging content.

1.    News events. Pick one of the leading stories of the day and play a game: what does this have to do with your profession? This can actually spark some unexpected creativity, as you ponder the insurance implications of natural disasters, the branding challenges when celebrities go awry (will the companies they endorse also take a hit?), or how enhanced consumer confidence will impact travel and tourism.

2.    Interviews. Not sure what to say? Make someone else do the work for you! Identify a leader in your field or someone who’s doing something interesting, and reach out. Asking someone for an interview is a great way to make connections, because people are usually flattered and you’re positioned as an expert/peer from the start.

3.    FAQs. If you’re been in your field long enough, you’ll hear the same questions time and again. (How do I find clients? What should I charge?) Think back to a speech you gave. What questions did people ask from the audience? What do people always want to know when you meet them at parties? What comments pop up when you blog? Find the patterns (”Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Tax Law” or “10 Misconceptions about Buying Life Insurance”) and dive in.

For the complete article, visit BNET

How to Promote Yourself Without Seeming Like a Jerk

The first rule of a good personal brand is that it should capture people’s attention and make them want to get to know you better. That’s what help leads to job offers, promotions and consulting contracts. So how can you become more intriguing to the people you meet without seeming like a relentless self-promoter?

1.  Cultivate passions outside of your work.

People want to do business with people who are fun and interesting. You can (and should) differentiate yourself by being excellent at your job. But you can really stand out through your avocations. Become an expert at something – whether it’s chess or pole-vaulting. Travel widely – especially to places off the beaten path (you’re more likely to engage people’s interest if you talk about your trip to the Baltics instead of Paris).

2. Get ready for the Question.

The minute you enter a cocktail party, you’re going to be asked The Question: What have you been up to lately? Some people fumble and demur – “Oh, nothing much.” Or, even worse, they talk about something boring  – “Well, we went grocery shopping last weekend.” Frankly, there’s just no excuse to not have a ready answer that will lead to an interesting conversation. Try “We’ve been taking fencing lessons” or “I’m working my way through the collected works of Nabokov.” Almost anything is fine, as long as it’s personal, true, and not the lame answer you get from most people.

3. Find your wingman.

Many people worry about seeming like a self-promoter. They might have just completed an Iron Man Competition or published an op-ed in the New York Times, but they fear it’ll seem like bragging if they raise the discussion. Having a wingman, a friend who will talk you up, solves that problem. (Leil Lowndes discusses this to great effect in How to Talk to Anyone About Anything.) Of course, in exchange, you should talk up his or her accomplishments too.

For the complete article, visit BNET

The Right Way to Break a Promise

No one likes to break a promise, but sometimes it’s inevitable. You suddenly have a work emergency that takes priority over another project, or you encounter some unexpected roadblocks to completing an assignment. Or perhaps there is a family matter that takes precedence.

The question is: how do you do break the news preserving your reputation and the relationships?

I thought of this recently because a friend told me how she had to tell a co-worker she couldn’t help out with a project, as promised. She was running behind on her own deadlines and realized she just couldn’t make good on the favor without sacrificing her own work.  The colleague–let’s call her, Melissa- was steamed and wouldn’t return phone calls. My thoughts? It didn’t have to work out this way.

Here’s what you should do if you need to break a promise:

1.     Give advance notice. My friend broke the news at the last minute because she dreaded making the call. That’s understandable, but a realistic look at her obligations and commitments might have helped prevent her from getting into this time bind. And certainly, the minute it becomes obvious that you might have difficulty meeting your commitment you should give that person a heads up. No one likes receiving that news, but being told in advance means the other party can make contingency plans. It’s another matter entirely when you back out last minute.

2.     Apologize personally. My friend was so nervous to tell Melissa, she had her boss make the call. She figured having an authoritative voice convey the information would make it more palatable, but the reverse was true. Melissa felt slighted, as though my friend couldn’t be bothered to deal with her personally.

Read the rest at BNET.

Position Yourself as an Expert

How do you get to be considered an expert? Most people tend to think of experts as bestselling authors who promote their books and brand on national television, or university professors who have studied their subject for decades.

But there is another kind of expert, someone who hasn’t spent years getting a doctorate or writing a treatise. This person may not be a household name, yet they are well-known and respected within their industry, frequently delivering key notes at conferences and winning plum consulting gigs. Becoming this kind of expert is not only doable–but it is much easier than people think.

Having spent much of my career working in media, either as a journalist or as a communications consultant, I’ve concluded that anyone can brand themselves as an expert by following these five steps.

1.   Develop a relationship with reporters who cover your subject area. The key here is to get to know the people who write about your field. Read your industry trade journals, local business weekly, and the business section of your metro newspaper regularly, and you’ll quickly figure out who those reporters are. Their email addresses often are listed at the end of their stories. Reach out, explain your expertise, briefly, and let them know that if they ever need a source in your industry, you’d be glad to help. Don’t forget to give them your cell number; you want to be easily reachable, especially to reporters on deadline.

Read the full post on BNET.