It was 9:20 p.m. and the package had to get out that night. No ifs, ands or buts. But there was a big problem: The last FedEx pickup was at 9:30 p.m. and the package wasn’t ready to go. It hadn’t been boxed up and there wasn’t a standard-size box that would fit what had to be sent. To top it all off, the slip hadn’t even been filled out yet. Panic ensued.
Show respect at all times
It was under these exact conditions that I learned the leadership lesson of respect for all at all times.
I was the “low man on the totem pole” at the time and I was in the mailroom that evening, in the basement of the company, rushing to get my own package out on time when two junior account executives came in with the same predicament. Both had packages that needed to get out that night and neither had their packages packed up and ready to go.
No one is below you
Dave, a guy who believed the people who worked in the mailroom were beneath him, walked in and demanded someone help him. He was polite, or at least he forced himself to be polite, but it was obvious how we felt about mailroom workers and he didn’t really show respect. He pointed to one of the guys and asked him with one of those passive-aggressive questions that’s really a demand to help him get the package ready to go. “It’s very important and it’s for one of the partners,” he added.
Sam, the other executive, was different. Sam was nice to everyone and knew how to show respect, because he did so at all times. He walked into the mailroom and asked the guys for a box so he could get the package ready to go in a hurry. “Don’t worry, Sam, we’ll take care of it for you,” one of the mailroom guys said. “We got your back.”
Really?” Sam responded.
“Yeah,” said the mailroom guy, “It’s late. Get outta here, we'll get this done.”
And with that, Sam thanked all the guys in the mailroom and left for the night.
Dave, who stood there watching the scene play out with me, demanded that they do the same for him. One of the senior mailroom guys looked up and said: “If your package is not ready for the FedEx pick up in 10 minutes, it won’t make it. Better hurry.”
great leaders show respect
I don’t need to tell you the rest. Sam’s career has been pretty great and Dave, well, I don’t even know what happened to him.
If you want to be a great leader, remember to treat all people with respect at all times. For one, because you never know when you’ll need their help. And two, because it’s a sign you respect people, which all great leaders do.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Mafia Myth
Every profession is plagued by stereotypes and myths. Not every doctor is saving lives like some House finale, not every detective is busting balls and cracking heads, and not every blue-collar man's crack is showing. But as much as a reputation can precede other professionals, it’s nothing compared to Mafia myths.
With every Scorsese flick and Mafia video game pumping through pop culture, the paisans of my industry have to answer all the questions. Is it really like that? How many guys have you killed? Do you know Robert De Niro? Just because you paid your $10 at the multiplex, and you sat through the latest crime drama, doesn’t make you an expert. Because it helps to know the true history, structure and working of The Family, I’ve decided to clean up a couple Mafia myths. Enjoy.
NYC was the birthplace of the American Mafia
For most of the general public, and even the paisans who grew up in the tenements of New York’s LES, to imagine the birth of the American Mafia happening anywhere outside NYC is impossible. But all men of honor know that credit should be paid where credit is due. Although La Cosa Nostra came to life in the Big Apple (that’s not a Mafia myth, some things just aren’t), some of the first Mafioso activity actually happened in New Orleans. I’m not saying we cornered the whole crawfish industry, but when the police superintendent suddenly went missing from the force, everyone knew it was the birth of a whole new world.
The Mafia never deals with the Feds
I’m not saying I invite these guys over for Sunday gravy once a week (God knows half these cafones aren’t fit to raid a house, let alone dine in one). But the age-old Mafia myth that it’s always the Feds versus the Mafia fails to highlight some pretty important collaborations. During WWII, the gov didn’t use its own soldiers to protect its ports from raiding foreign enemies, it used Lucky Luciano’s. And when Castro was running the show, threatening to turn our country red, who did the government turn to? The very paisans that used to run the show in Cuba -- the Mafia. And though not all these collaborations went as planned, the two sides worked quite well in the boardroom together.
Snitches are part of the game
From the movies, the books and the video games, the public believes the Mafia myth that it’s only a matter of time before everybody flips. And even though guys in the game these days check everyone for a wire, the whole concept of “snitching” is a fairly new phenomenon. We’re an old business, dating back to the 1800s, protecting the streets in the warm Sicilian air. No one would ever dream of turning state’s evidence -- we took a freaking oath. For many of the old-timers, it was never an option. But when Joe Valachi sang like a canary in ’63, a new trend started, and witness protection had a whole list of new residents to relocate. Valachi turned the whole industry upside down. Before him, you couldn’t get a wise guy to tell you what he had for breakfast. If the bosses from the old country could see these guys on the stand now, marone.
It’s an age-old structure
Most guys got it right -- there is a pyramid and hierarchy in place that stems back from those early days in Palermo. But the original families who implemented that structure would see some serious changes if they came back today. As much as the mob likes to pride itself on titles and history, the organization was forced to adapt over the years. With new technology, surveillance and guys trying to run their families from afar, job positions had to be created. Street bosses are one. When the Feds come to your house and put you in a holding area with no cell phone, no pay phone and no smoke signals, all decisions have to be made by your street guy. Family messenger, whose title says it all, is another; he’s some stunad who runs information to the rest of the family. It beats making outgoing calls on a wire-tapped phone. Long live the Patriot Act, marone.
tearing down the rumor mill
There are countless Mafia myths surrounding us, and though I can’t spend the time dispelling all of them, it’s worth noting you shouldn’t believe everything you hear. When a guy gets wind of what it is I do for a living, he’ll try to start with the lingo and the stories. “I know Johnny Wings.” “I shot dice with Tommy Grant.” And when these guys start talking about the game, they tend to get it all wrong. There are more untruths surrounding La Cosa Nostra than any other profession in the world. I just hope I got to clear some of them up for you.
With every Scorsese flick and Mafia video game pumping through pop culture, the paisans of my industry have to answer all the questions. Is it really like that? How many guys have you killed? Do you know Robert De Niro? Just because you paid your $10 at the multiplex, and you sat through the latest crime drama, doesn’t make you an expert. Because it helps to know the true history, structure and working of The Family, I’ve decided to clean up a couple Mafia myths. Enjoy.
NYC was the birthplace of the American Mafia
For most of the general public, and even the paisans who grew up in the tenements of New York’s LES, to imagine the birth of the American Mafia happening anywhere outside NYC is impossible. But all men of honor know that credit should be paid where credit is due. Although La Cosa Nostra came to life in the Big Apple (that’s not a Mafia myth, some things just aren’t), some of the first Mafioso activity actually happened in New Orleans. I’m not saying we cornered the whole crawfish industry, but when the police superintendent suddenly went missing from the force, everyone knew it was the birth of a whole new world.
The Mafia never deals with the Feds
I’m not saying I invite these guys over for Sunday gravy once a week (God knows half these cafones aren’t fit to raid a house, let alone dine in one). But the age-old Mafia myth that it’s always the Feds versus the Mafia fails to highlight some pretty important collaborations. During WWII, the gov didn’t use its own soldiers to protect its ports from raiding foreign enemies, it used Lucky Luciano’s. And when Castro was running the show, threatening to turn our country red, who did the government turn to? The very paisans that used to run the show in Cuba -- the Mafia. And though not all these collaborations went as planned, the two sides worked quite well in the boardroom together.
Snitches are part of the game
From the movies, the books and the video games, the public believes the Mafia myth that it’s only a matter of time before everybody flips. And even though guys in the game these days check everyone for a wire, the whole concept of “snitching” is a fairly new phenomenon. We’re an old business, dating back to the 1800s, protecting the streets in the warm Sicilian air. No one would ever dream of turning state’s evidence -- we took a freaking oath. For many of the old-timers, it was never an option. But when Joe Valachi sang like a canary in ’63, a new trend started, and witness protection had a whole list of new residents to relocate. Valachi turned the whole industry upside down. Before him, you couldn’t get a wise guy to tell you what he had for breakfast. If the bosses from the old country could see these guys on the stand now, marone.
It’s an age-old structure
Most guys got it right -- there is a pyramid and hierarchy in place that stems back from those early days in Palermo. But the original families who implemented that structure would see some serious changes if they came back today. As much as the mob likes to pride itself on titles and history, the organization was forced to adapt over the years. With new technology, surveillance and guys trying to run their families from afar, job positions had to be created. Street bosses are one. When the Feds come to your house and put you in a holding area with no cell phone, no pay phone and no smoke signals, all decisions have to be made by your street guy. Family messenger, whose title says it all, is another; he’s some stunad who runs information to the rest of the family. It beats making outgoing calls on a wire-tapped phone. Long live the Patriot Act, marone.
tearing down the rumor mill
There are countless Mafia myths surrounding us, and though I can’t spend the time dispelling all of them, it’s worth noting you shouldn’t believe everything you hear. When a guy gets wind of what it is I do for a living, he’ll try to start with the lingo and the stories. “I know Johnny Wings.” “I shot dice with Tommy Grant.” And when these guys start talking about the game, they tend to get it all wrong. There are more untruths surrounding La Cosa Nostra than any other profession in the world. I just hope I got to clear some of them up for you.
Monday, June 7, 2010
You Need A PLAN
By the age of 20, Benjamin Franklin had already established a plan by which he intended to live the rest of his life. If that strikes you as an unrealistic expectation, well, Franklin did exactly that, and he became one of the most accomplished and dynamic figures in American history along the way. It evidently worked out pretty well for him.
By the time he died in 1790, Franklin had been carrying that plan -- his 13 Virtues -- with him, in some form, for 64 years, using it to track his own progress decades after he had it committed to memory. That sense of personal accountability is certainly part of why he was so successful at it. Even if you have a pretty solid idea of where you're headed in life, adhering to a plan like Franklin's requires you to be responsible about your future -- otherwise you'll find it far too easy to explain away your failures and put off your goals.
You don't necessarily need to abide by this exact plan, or even to write one out like this at all, but you do need a framework for your self-improvement. If you're looking for someplace to start, Franklin's design is as good an example as any.
1- Self-improvement needs direction
Everyone, everywhere, has had the experience of settling on some haphazard goal for improving his life only to forget about it two weeks later (except, apparently, Ben Franklin). New Year's resolutions are representative of these enthusiastic but ill-conceived promises ("I'm going to get in shape -- and with no particular idea what I mean by that! Yeah!").
You can't just make a vague decision about becoming a Better Man and expect that impulsive, undefined concept to actually change your behavior for any real stretch of time. That is, after all, what you're almost certainly trying to do, and altering whatever routine you've become accustomed to means you need a definitive framework on hand. The value of actually writing this stuff down is that definite goals, goals you actually track, are harder to ignore than some indeterminate, conceptual self-improvement that doesn't really call for you to do much of anything.
2- A plan forces accountability
The puritan origins of Franklin's virtues are pretty obvious in this regard: His plan calls for temperance ("Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation") and moderation ("Avoid extreames"), as well as frugality, cleanliness and chastity. Although permitting yourself to become an overweight, wasteful drunk will probably present you with no difficulty in staying chaste, the point here is that you're sabotaging your life if you don't hold yourself accountable for the mistakes you make.
Again, Franklin's Puritanism was his, not yours, and you don't need to go become a monk, but you should be aware of all the stuff you do that isn't helping your life one bit. Modern examples of life plans tend to acknowledge the importance of accountability. Bill Phillips' Body for Life tracks both diet and weight-training progress, and financial frameworks (budget or investment planning, for example) are even more dependent on showing progress with concrete figures.
3- Knowing your direction keeps you from wasting your life
Franklin was raised with the belief that hard work has inherent worth, which is a good way to look at life if you want to excel at your career -- or really any extensive personal accomplishment. Three of his virtues were industry ("Lose no time"), order ("Let each part of your business have its time") and resolution ("Perform without fail what you resolve"). Holding yourself accountable for your mistakes is only the first half of accountability, because just being aware of what you’re doing wrong isn't much of a self-improvement.
If, on the other hand, you're forcing yourself to maintain progress based on a set of intelligently chosen goals, you're actually trying to accomplish something genuine. Apathy is your worst enemy, and the best intentions in the world are far less effective at getting you where you want to be than a set of intelligently chosen goals.
13 virtues to a good life
Just because Franklin's plan is oriented toward self-denial doesn't mean that yours has to be. Some of his virtues are easily covered by the simple decision just to be good to people: These include silence, sincerity, tranquility, and, the most representative of them, justice ("Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.") That last bit about duty is sort of what this entire process is about, and it calls for you to supplement the part of the plan where you avoid detrimental things with a resolution to be actively good as well. Self-improvement too often focuses cosmetic or self-serving goals, but it's just as important to start being a Better Man by being a better human being.
By the time he died in 1790, Franklin had been carrying that plan -- his 13 Virtues -- with him, in some form, for 64 years, using it to track his own progress decades after he had it committed to memory. That sense of personal accountability is certainly part of why he was so successful at it. Even if you have a pretty solid idea of where you're headed in life, adhering to a plan like Franklin's requires you to be responsible about your future -- otherwise you'll find it far too easy to explain away your failures and put off your goals.
You don't necessarily need to abide by this exact plan, or even to write one out like this at all, but you do need a framework for your self-improvement. If you're looking for someplace to start, Franklin's design is as good an example as any.
1- Self-improvement needs direction
Everyone, everywhere, has had the experience of settling on some haphazard goal for improving his life only to forget about it two weeks later (except, apparently, Ben Franklin). New Year's resolutions are representative of these enthusiastic but ill-conceived promises ("I'm going to get in shape -- and with no particular idea what I mean by that! Yeah!").
You can't just make a vague decision about becoming a Better Man and expect that impulsive, undefined concept to actually change your behavior for any real stretch of time. That is, after all, what you're almost certainly trying to do, and altering whatever routine you've become accustomed to means you need a definitive framework on hand. The value of actually writing this stuff down is that definite goals, goals you actually track, are harder to ignore than some indeterminate, conceptual self-improvement that doesn't really call for you to do much of anything.
2- A plan forces accountability
The puritan origins of Franklin's virtues are pretty obvious in this regard: His plan calls for temperance ("Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation") and moderation ("Avoid extreames"), as well as frugality, cleanliness and chastity. Although permitting yourself to become an overweight, wasteful drunk will probably present you with no difficulty in staying chaste, the point here is that you're sabotaging your life if you don't hold yourself accountable for the mistakes you make.
Again, Franklin's Puritanism was his, not yours, and you don't need to go become a monk, but you should be aware of all the stuff you do that isn't helping your life one bit. Modern examples of life plans tend to acknowledge the importance of accountability. Bill Phillips' Body for Life tracks both diet and weight-training progress, and financial frameworks (budget or investment planning, for example) are even more dependent on showing progress with concrete figures.
3- Knowing your direction keeps you from wasting your life
Franklin was raised with the belief that hard work has inherent worth, which is a good way to look at life if you want to excel at your career -- or really any extensive personal accomplishment. Three of his virtues were industry ("Lose no time"), order ("Let each part of your business have its time") and resolution ("Perform without fail what you resolve"). Holding yourself accountable for your mistakes is only the first half of accountability, because just being aware of what you’re doing wrong isn't much of a self-improvement.
If, on the other hand, you're forcing yourself to maintain progress based on a set of intelligently chosen goals, you're actually trying to accomplish something genuine. Apathy is your worst enemy, and the best intentions in the world are far less effective at getting you where you want to be than a set of intelligently chosen goals.
13 virtues to a good life
Just because Franklin's plan is oriented toward self-denial doesn't mean that yours has to be. Some of his virtues are easily covered by the simple decision just to be good to people: These include silence, sincerity, tranquility, and, the most representative of them, justice ("Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.") That last bit about duty is sort of what this entire process is about, and it calls for you to supplement the part of the plan where you avoid detrimental things with a resolution to be actively good as well. Self-improvement too often focuses cosmetic or self-serving goals, but it's just as important to start being a Better Man by being a better human being.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Define Your Personal Leadership Brand in Five Steps
You probably already have a personal leadership brand. But do you have the right one?
The question is not trivial. A leadership brand conveys your identity and distinctiveness as a leader. It communicates the value you offer. If you have the wrong leadership brand for the position you have, or the position you want, then your work is not having the impact it could. A strong personal leadership brand allows all that's powerful and effective about your leadership to become known to your colleagues, enabling you to generate maximum value.
What's more, choosing a leadership brand can help give you focus. When you clearly identify what you want to be known for, it is easier to let go of the tasks and projects that do not let you deliver on that brand. Instead, you can concentrate on the activities that do.
So how do you build a leadership brand? My co-author Dave Ulrich and I came up with these five steps.
1. What results do you want to achieve in the next year?
The first thing you should do is ask yourself, "In the next 12 months, what are the major results I want to deliver at work?" Take into account the interests of these four groups:
•Customers
•Investors
•Employees
•The organization
Dave and I once worked with a very talented and hardworking executive we'll call Tricia. Her successful performance in several varied roles at her organization — she'd been an auditor, a process engineer and a customer-service manager — earned her a promotion into a general manager position, charging her with running one of the company's largest businesses. To succeed at her first large-scale leadership position and meet the complex set of expectations she would encounter in it, she knew she needed to become more deliberate about the way she led others. In short, she knew she needed a new leadership brand, and asked us for help in forging it.
We advised Tricia to begin by focusing on the expectations of those she was working to serve, rather than on what she identified as her personal strengths. Leadership brand is outward focused; it is about delivering results. While identifying innate strengths is an important part of defining your leadership brand, the starting point is clarifying what is expected of you.
2. What do you wish to be known for?
Tricia knew she was seen as technically proficient and hardworking, but somewhat aloof. These traits, she realized, added up to a leadership brand that would not take her very far in her new role.
With that in mind, Tricia picked six descriptors that balanced the qualities that came naturally to her with those that would be critical in her new position. She then tested her choices by sharing them with her boss, her peers, and some of her most trusted subordinates. She simply asked them, "Are these the traits that someone in this general manager role should exhibit?" Their responses helped her refine her list to ultimately include the following traits:
•Collaborative
•Deliberate
•Independent
•Innovative
•Results-oriented
•Strategic
3. Define your identity
The next step is to combine these six words into three two-word phrases that reflect your desired identity. This exercise allows you to build a deeper, more complex description: not only what you want to be known for, but how you will probably have to act to get there. For example, calmly driven differs from tirelessly driven. Experimenting with the many combinations that you can make from your six chosen words helps you crystallize your personal leadership brand.
Tricia combined the six descriptors into the following three phrases:
•Independently innovative
•Deliberately collaborative
•Strategically results-oriented
She tested this with several colleagues, neatly pulled together what came easily to Tricia ("independently innovative" and "strategically results-oriented") with what she could accomplish through disciplined effort ("deliberately collaborative"). Tricia was satisfied that it aptly described both the kind of leader she was and the kind of leader she was becoming.
4. Construct your leadership brand statement, then test it.
In this step, you pull everything together in a leadership brand statement that makes a "so that" connection between what you want to be known for (Steps 2 and 3) and your desired results (Step 1). Fill in the blanks:
"I want to be known for being ______________ so that I can deliver __________."
Tricia's leadership brand statement read: "I want to be known for being independently innovative, deliberately collaborative and strategically results-oriented so that I can deliver superior financial outcomes for my business."
With your leadership brand statement drafted, ask the following three questions to see if it needs to be refined:
•Is this the brand identity that best represents who I am and what I can do?
•Is this brand identity something that creates value in the eyes of my organization and key stakeholders?
•What risks am I taking by exhibiting this brand? Can I live this brand?
After going through this exercise, Tricia was satisfied that she had crafted a personal leadership brand that was appropriate for her new role and within her power to live and make real.
5. Make your brand identity real
Espoused-but-unlived brands create cynicism because they promise what they do not deliver. To ensure that the leadership brand you advertise is embodied in your day-to-day work, check in with those around you. Do they see you as you wish to be seen? If you say you are flexible and approachable, do others find you so?
After Tricia defined her personal leadership brand, she shared it with others. She let people know that she was evolving as a leader and invited their feedback, especially on her efforts at working collaboratively.
The exercise of forging a leadership brand and the day-to-day discipline of making it real, Tricia said, helped her stay focused on the most important challenges of her new role.
To be sure, your leadership brand isn't static; it should evolve in response to the different expectations you face at different times in your career. In our work, we have seen that leaders with the self-awareness and drive to evolve their leadership brands are more likely to be successful over the long term — and to enjoy the journey more.
Norm Smallwood is co-founder of The RBL Group, a strategic HR and leadership systems advisory firm. He is author, with Dave Ulrich and Kate Sweetman, of the 2009 Harvard Business Press title, The Leadership Code: Five Rules to Lead By and with Dave Ulrich on the 2007 title, Leadership Brand: Developing Customer-Focused Leaders to Drive Performance and Build Lasting Value (Harvard Business School Press, 2007).
The question is not trivial. A leadership brand conveys your identity and distinctiveness as a leader. It communicates the value you offer. If you have the wrong leadership brand for the position you have, or the position you want, then your work is not having the impact it could. A strong personal leadership brand allows all that's powerful and effective about your leadership to become known to your colleagues, enabling you to generate maximum value.
What's more, choosing a leadership brand can help give you focus. When you clearly identify what you want to be known for, it is easier to let go of the tasks and projects that do not let you deliver on that brand. Instead, you can concentrate on the activities that do.
So how do you build a leadership brand? My co-author Dave Ulrich and I came up with these five steps.
1. What results do you want to achieve in the next year?
The first thing you should do is ask yourself, "In the next 12 months, what are the major results I want to deliver at work?" Take into account the interests of these four groups:
•Customers
•Investors
•Employees
•The organization
Dave and I once worked with a very talented and hardworking executive we'll call Tricia. Her successful performance in several varied roles at her organization — she'd been an auditor, a process engineer and a customer-service manager — earned her a promotion into a general manager position, charging her with running one of the company's largest businesses. To succeed at her first large-scale leadership position and meet the complex set of expectations she would encounter in it, she knew she needed to become more deliberate about the way she led others. In short, she knew she needed a new leadership brand, and asked us for help in forging it.
We advised Tricia to begin by focusing on the expectations of those she was working to serve, rather than on what she identified as her personal strengths. Leadership brand is outward focused; it is about delivering results. While identifying innate strengths is an important part of defining your leadership brand, the starting point is clarifying what is expected of you.
2. What do you wish to be known for?
Tricia knew she was seen as technically proficient and hardworking, but somewhat aloof. These traits, she realized, added up to a leadership brand that would not take her very far in her new role.
With that in mind, Tricia picked six descriptors that balanced the qualities that came naturally to her with those that would be critical in her new position. She then tested her choices by sharing them with her boss, her peers, and some of her most trusted subordinates. She simply asked them, "Are these the traits that someone in this general manager role should exhibit?" Their responses helped her refine her list to ultimately include the following traits:
•Collaborative
•Deliberate
•Independent
•Innovative
•Results-oriented
•Strategic
3. Define your identity
The next step is to combine these six words into three two-word phrases that reflect your desired identity. This exercise allows you to build a deeper, more complex description: not only what you want to be known for, but how you will probably have to act to get there. For example, calmly driven differs from tirelessly driven. Experimenting with the many combinations that you can make from your six chosen words helps you crystallize your personal leadership brand.
Tricia combined the six descriptors into the following three phrases:
•Independently innovative
•Deliberately collaborative
•Strategically results-oriented
She tested this with several colleagues, neatly pulled together what came easily to Tricia ("independently innovative" and "strategically results-oriented") with what she could accomplish through disciplined effort ("deliberately collaborative"). Tricia was satisfied that it aptly described both the kind of leader she was and the kind of leader she was becoming.
4. Construct your leadership brand statement, then test it.
In this step, you pull everything together in a leadership brand statement that makes a "so that" connection between what you want to be known for (Steps 2 and 3) and your desired results (Step 1). Fill in the blanks:
"I want to be known for being ______________ so that I can deliver __________."
Tricia's leadership brand statement read: "I want to be known for being independently innovative, deliberately collaborative and strategically results-oriented so that I can deliver superior financial outcomes for my business."
With your leadership brand statement drafted, ask the following three questions to see if it needs to be refined:
•Is this the brand identity that best represents who I am and what I can do?
•Is this brand identity something that creates value in the eyes of my organization and key stakeholders?
•What risks am I taking by exhibiting this brand? Can I live this brand?
After going through this exercise, Tricia was satisfied that she had crafted a personal leadership brand that was appropriate for her new role and within her power to live and make real.
5. Make your brand identity real
Espoused-but-unlived brands create cynicism because they promise what they do not deliver. To ensure that the leadership brand you advertise is embodied in your day-to-day work, check in with those around you. Do they see you as you wish to be seen? If you say you are flexible and approachable, do others find you so?
After Tricia defined her personal leadership brand, she shared it with others. She let people know that she was evolving as a leader and invited their feedback, especially on her efforts at working collaboratively.
The exercise of forging a leadership brand and the day-to-day discipline of making it real, Tricia said, helped her stay focused on the most important challenges of her new role.
To be sure, your leadership brand isn't static; it should evolve in response to the different expectations you face at different times in your career. In our work, we have seen that leaders with the self-awareness and drive to evolve their leadership brands are more likely to be successful over the long term — and to enjoy the journey more.
Norm Smallwood is co-founder of The RBL Group, a strategic HR and leadership systems advisory firm. He is author, with Dave Ulrich and Kate Sweetman, of the 2009 Harvard Business Press title, The Leadership Code: Five Rules to Lead By and with Dave Ulrich on the 2007 title, Leadership Brand: Developing Customer-Focused Leaders to Drive Performance and Build Lasting Value (Harvard Business School Press, 2007).
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