by Caroline Leach | Nov 20, 2016 | Careers, Change, Learning, Social Media
Social media got a bad rap during this year’s election process.
Fake news, Twitter trolls and cyber bullying came under fire.
Among American social media users, the Pew Research Center reported that 65% expressed “resignation and frustration about online political conversations.”
It’s enough to make anyone want to quit social media for good.
But don’t do that.
Why?
Because of your 100-year life.
What’s that about, you ask?
Well, more than half of babies born in developed nations in the 2000s can expect live to 100 or beyond, according to the medical journal The Lancet. And if you were born before then, your life will likely be a lot longer than you think.
A new book called The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity got me thinking about this.
Authors Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott are from the London Business School. They look at how anyone at any age can and should plan for their greater life expectancy, turning the extra time into “a gift and not a curse.”
When lives were shorter, people lived a three-stage life – education, work and retirement. These stages were compartments that didn’t overlap.
As early as 1978, Richard Bolles wrote about them in The Three Boxes of Life and How to Get Out of Them: An Introduction to Work/Life Planning. He advanced the idea that you needed to incorporate all three stages across your entire life.
He also wrote What Color is Your Parachute? It was chosen as one of the 100 All-TIME best and most influential non-fiction books published since 1923.
With how quickly the world is changing, Bolles’ advice was and is spot on.
- We need to embrace lifelong learning, actively developing new skills as technology and globalization accelerate.
- We need productive work to provide purpose, meaning and economic sustenance throughout our lives.
- And we need leisure time to enjoy our lives and the people in them, and to refresh and renew ourselves.
Gratton and Scott explore this concept in writing about the interplay between tangible and intangible assets. They define an asset as “something that can provide a flow of benefits over several periods of time.”
Tangible assets “have a physical existence” and include things like housing, cash and investments. Intangible assets are things like “a supportive family, great friends, strong skills and knowledge, and good physical and mental health.”
The authors say that intangible assets are “key to a long and productive life – both as an end in themselves and also as in input into tangible assets.” They divide them into three categories of assets – productive, vitality and transformational.
One of these intangibles – a productive asset along with skills, knowledge and peers – is your reputation. “When a company has a positive brand, or a person has a good reputation, it is much easier for others to interact with them,” the authors say.
“A good reputation can be enormously important as it enables your valuable stocks of skills and knowledge to be really utilized in a productive way,” they continue. “It can also have a profound impact on your professional social capital.”
Why? “A good reputation will be one of the assets that enable you to expand your horizons,” the authors say. “It is the combination of portable skills and knowledge and a good reputation that will help bridge into new fields.”
They go on to write that “over the coming decades, it is likely that reputation will be based on a broader range of inputs. As future careers embrace more stages and more transitions, then inevitably this will create a broader range of information.”
Enter social media.
“Social media will increasingly broadcast your image and values to others and allow others to track and monitor performance,” they say. “So it is inevitable that you will need to curate a brand and reputation that covers far more than just your professional behavior.”
Everyone will need to signal their skills, their capabilities and their values during a longer life that potentially has multiple transitions. And transitions can take many forms – from one functional area to another, from one company to another and from one type of work to another.
Social media makes it easy to do this.
Over time, you can share your skills and abilities through many platforms – a Twitter feed, a YouTube channel, an Instagram stream, a LinkedIn portfolio, a Snapchat story or a personal blog. And these platforms will continue to change and evolve, with new ones emerging over time.
If you want to make your life’s transitions easier and more fulfilling, then social media is a must. And this doesn’t mean being on a few platforms to share photos with family and friends. A deliberate strategy and a plan for your personal brand in social media is imperative.
But where do you begin? Which social media platforms should you use? How do you curate and create content without it taking over your whole life?
Those will be the subjects of several upcoming posts.
by Caroline Leach | Oct 30, 2016 | Corporate Communications, Leadership
Start with your key sentence. Your point. Your theory. Your ask.
Whether it’s a talk, a text or an email, lead with what’s most important.
Three things got me thinking about this.
First, how do we grab people’s attention from the start? I heard two days of incredible talks at TEDWomen 2016 this month. The speakers did not start with, “Hi, I’m glad to be here and I’m excited about what I’m going to share with you and I’d like to thank a few people before I get started.”
No, they grabbed us with their opening words. With a bold statement or a question or a story. Here are examples from some of my favorite TED talks.
“So I want to start by offering you a free no-tech life hack, and all it requires of you is this: that you change your posture for two minutes.” So begins Amy Cuddy‘s talk, Your body language shapes who you are.
“What makes a great leader today?” There’s no mistaking what Roselinde Torres will address in her talk, What it takes to be a great leader.
“It’s the fifth time I stand on this shore, the Cuban shore, looking out at that distant horizon, believing, again, that I’m going to make it all the way across that vast, dangerous wilderness of an ocean.” Diana Nyad grabs the audience right at the beginning of her story in Never, ever give up.
Second, how do we help busy people easily respond us? Quite simply, by putting the key information in the opening words of our emails and texts.
Beyond putting your main message in the subject line, use your first 10 to 12 words to make your point.
Many people have email preview screens that show these words. Make the most of that space by getting to the point. Because your recipient may not read anything else.
Third, how do we spot the key idea in any interaction? When a meeting ends, can you summarize the most important point in a single sentence? What’s the headline? The tweet? The snap?
Take a few minutes at the end of a conversation or meeting to identify the one key takeaway. Share it with your colleagues.
Given the complexity of many projects and the extensive collaboration that’s required to meet goals, this helps others see the forest for the trees.
This keeps a team focused on what’s most important. It guides their actions. And it increases the likelihood of success.
How do you keep your lead front and center?
by Caroline Leach | Oct 28, 2016 | Leadership, Learning, Social Media, Work/Life
Have you ever spent a day trying not to cry?
For me, there are always moments that prompt tears. Our national anthem at a school event. The doxology at church (with the gender-neutral, more inclusive lyrics for me). Pomp and Circumstance at a graduation ceremony.
Thank goodness for sunglasses. Because one of the last things I want to do is reveal my emotions in public.
After this week’s experience, though, I wonder if that’s because I go to extremes to avoid being labeled as an emotional woman.
But it may be pointless to try, because as a woman I’m going to be labeled anyway. And I can’t control that.
I can only control my own thoughts and my own actions. And there’s power in that.
What made me want to cry for an entire day this week? None other than the TEDWomen 2016 conference. Phenomenal speakers with ideas worth sharing took the stage, with the theme of “it’s about time.”
I was drawn to TED for many reasons. As a communicator. As a lover of ideas. As someone profoundly saddened by our national conversations – on race, on religion, on gender, on guns, on others.
As in, people who don’t share the same worldview. People who can’t or won’t listen to each because they’re so busy screaming about how the other group is wrong. And not even wrong, but deluded, dumb and not deserving. Of a voice. Of dignity. Of empathy.
What if our conversations in the world could be more like what I saw, heard and felt on the TED stage?
- A famous singer talked about channeling her pain from the abusive household where she grew up into her music.
- An actress shared how she fought back against cyberbullying and violence.
- A couple who work to improve a Nairobi slum spoke of the randomness of how privilege or poverty are bestowed.
- A journalist and author talked about the death threats she received when she came out as a lesbian.
- A rape survivor and the perpetrator shared the stage and their agonizing experiences.
Throughout each electrifying talk, a common question emerged: what can I do?
What if I made it a point to seek out different points of view? To listen to a different newscast or podcast. To get out of my social media stream and hear different voices. To seek out people with more diverse backgrounds and life experiences.
What if I spoke up more forcefully to inappropriate comments? The next time someone says something offensive about another group of people, I will ask why they think that and why they would say that.
What if I was more curious about people and their stories? What has their journey through life been like? What experiences shaped them? What do they struggle with? What brings them joy?
What if I used every means of power available to me for good? How can I encourage people to reach higher? How can I help people expand their networks? How can I empower people to open doors to more opportunity?
What if I took action? While I don’t know exactly what that is yet, I do know it starts with better educating myself on multiple perspectives about what’s going on in the world. Kimberle Crenshaw‘s eye-opening #SayHerName is where I’ll start.
Hearing from so many inspiring people reminded me that each of us can make a difference in the lives of others, every day.
As Kennedy Odede said during his talk with Jessica Posner Odede, “We can’t walk in each other’s shoes, but we can walk together.”
Who are you walking with?
by Caroline Leach | Oct 22, 2016 | Corporate Communications, Work/Life
Stories bring people together in powerful ways.
I was reminded of this at a recent leadership offsite.
Following a day of focusing on the future and identifying imperatives for the coming year, we gathered around the dinner table.
The talk turned to people’s stories, their families and the paths to where they are today.
We heard about teachers, farmers and ranchers. We heard about people who were the first in their family to attend college. We heard about struggles and triumphs. We heard about hard work and dedication.
It was an inspiring slice of largely American history. One especially sage colleague remarked about how far each of our families had come in just a few generations.
It’s easy to lose sight of that in our fast-paced, always-on 21st-century world.
I wonder what life was like for my great-grandfather, Neils Peter Larsen. Born in Denmark in the late 1800s, he was the youngest of 9 children.
With little economic opportunity on the Danish isle of Laeso, he left his country as a young teen. As a cabin boy, he sailed around Cape Horn to San Francisco.
Some years later, he became the captain of his own ship, the St. Katherine. My grandmother and sister share her name and adventurous spirit.
That’s the ship pictured above, temporarily stuck in the ice in the Bering Sea in the early 1900s. How cold must it have been that day? How likely was it the ship would break apart as the ice moved? How scary was it to walk across the waves?
Or maybe it was just business as usual in that line of work.
According to the San Francisco-based Pacific Telephone Magazine where my mom was featured as an employee in the 1960s, “Captain Larsen made history with voyages to Alaska during the Yukon gold rush and later with the Alaskan fisheries.”
I can only imagine what those experiences were like today, as I gaze at my family’s framed sea charts from California, Hawaii and Japan that line my walls.
It’s absolutely incredible to think how far sea navigation has come in little over 100 years – from large paper charts to electronic navigation systems. What amazing advancements will the next century hold?
My great-grandparents honeymooned by sailing around the coast of China. That chart hangs in my parents’ house in Connecticut, complete with pencil markings of an uncharted island my ancestors discovered on their journey.
These stories and the ones I heard from my colleagues remind me of the hard work and determination that are the hallmarks of our country.
They remind me that when things get tough, there’s always a way through – or around or over.
They remind me that the future is exciting and that we’re each creating it, one day at a time.
We have what it takes. We got this.
As I contemplate a visit to Denmark, I’m inspired by the serendipitous family reunion that the multi-talented photographer Denice Duff experienced on a magical trip to Italy.
While looking for her great-grandmother’s house in Sicily, she had the unexpected good fortune to meet family members she never knew she had.
This heartwarming story may be one of the reasons I recently picked up a book called The Storyteller’s Secret.
In this captivating read, Carmine Gallo says that, “since the next decade will see the most change our civilization has ever known, your story will radically transform your business, your life and the lives of those you touch.”
Why is this important? Because “ideas that catch on are wrapped in a story,” he says.
Stories connect us, inform us and inspire us.
That’s undoubtedly one of the reasons behind the golden age of television, with so many compelling shows. This is why it’s so exciting to work in an industry at the intersection of entertainment and technology.
This is where great stories are told that entertain us, help us make sense of the world and prompt us to think about our own stories and the difference we’re making.
(And this is where I remind readers that opinions are my own.)
Speaking of stories, I can’t wait to hear from the speakers at next week’s TEDWomen 2016 conference. Fittingly for me, it’s in San Francisco, close to where I was born and where my daughter is attending college.
What’s your story? How are you writing it every day?
by Caroline Leach | Oct 16, 2016 | Careers, Leadership, Learning, Social Media, Work/Life
Yes, everyone is making it up as they go along.
And that means you can, too, as you work toward your biggest goals.
I’ll tell you why in my post on the USC Annenberg Alumni website.
I’m a proud Annenberg Alumni Ambassador this year, sharing all the best of this distinguished school for communication and journalism.
Some of my fellow ambassadors, pictured below, were featured alums at the Annenberg NETworks event this fall with students and recent grads.
What a fun evening it was, full of interesting people and fascinating conversations.
#FightOn!
by Caroline Leach | Oct 9, 2016 | Corporate Communications, Social Media
Our incoming messages are exploding.
LinkedIn messages. Facebook and Twitter notifications. Emails. Texts. Snaps.
Just reading and responding to everything could be more than a full-time job.
You need a strategy for when you do and don’t respond.
And I don’t subscribe to the philosophy that no response is the right way to say no.
In our hyperconnected world, our humanity and good manners can too easily go by the wayside.
Sometimes it’s because we can’t help the person and we need to say no. In those cases, have a standard professional response you can copy, paste, edit and send to say you’re not interested at this time, but you’ll keep the info for future reference.
Some messages are easy not to respond to:
- Automated sales pitches, usually via LinkedIn and Twitter
- Connection requests immediately followed by a sales pitch, again, usually via LinkedIn and Twitter
- Connection requests in LinkedIn from people you don’t know and that aren’t personalized to explain why they’d like to connect with you
- Tweets that mention you as a way to draw you into an issue for which you can offer no meaningful response
Some messages deserve a response. And while it would be easy enough to ignore them, giving a response can set you apart and enhance your company’s reputation:
- Customers of your company who need help getting an issue resolved. Respond to that customer right away. Be a friendly, helpful, human face and voice. Connect them with your company’s customer care team for a rapid response.
Interesting stat: 78% of people who complain to a brand in Twitter expect a response within an hour. Another one: 77% of people feel more positive about a brand when their tweet has been replied to.
(This is where I remind readers that opinions expressed are my own.)
- People from your alma maters, past and present employers and other professional groups who ask for your advice or an introduction to a colleague for networking purposes.
- Connections, colleagues and friends who post valuable content. Read their link, give them a “like” if the content is something you want to be associated with, and leave a short and upbeat comment that adds a constructive observation to the dialogue. Social media is all about reciprocity.
And some messages fall in between.
An example? A request to connect to one of your connections, without a clearly stated reason.
Recently a LinkedIn connection asked to connect to a colleague, to invite her to an event. I suspected it was a sales pitch and didn’t want to spam my colleague. I asked the requester for more info. Never heard back. End of story.
Suppose you do decide to respond to a message to decline a request and you get a response asking for something else.
What then?
Here I take my cue from a wise colleague, Tina Morefield. She’ll send a response. One response. And after that, no more.
Unless, of course, it’s from a customer who needs your help. In that case, keep responding until the issue is resolved to the customer’s satisfaction. Because our customers are the lifeblood of our organizations.
When do you respond? When do you not respond?
by Caroline Leach | Oct 6, 2016 | Social Media
What do all of your “likes” in social media say about you?
More importantly, what do you want them to say about you?
Do you think before you “like” in Facebook . . . or “heart” in Instagram and Twitter?
Do you consider how that piece of data will be aggregated with thousands of other data points about you?
Do you decide if it will reflect well on you or not?
Just as you should look before you link, you should look before you “like.”
Why? Because of something called The Reputation Economy.
Say what?
In this 2015 book, Reputation.com founder Michael Fertik tells you “how to optimize your digital footprint in a world where your reputation is your most valuable asset.”
Ultimately, Fertik sets forth a compelling case that your digital reputation may shape how you experience the world – for better or for worse.
Over the last year, for example, you may think you’ve been circumspect about your political views. But your political leanings may have been identified, based on your social media activity.
Even more interesting is seeing how your digital footprint may reveal your personality.
By analyzing just a few of your Facebook likes, the University of Cambridge’s psychometric centre will predict several dimensions of your personality. (Updated: actually, DON’T do this. Instead, watch the 2019 Netflix original documentary The Great Hack. It’s about how a data company called Cambridge Analytica came to symbolize the dark side of social media.)
“You are what you like,” the site says.
You may think twice about what you “like” in the future.
Here are my non-algorithmic rules for liking content in social media:
- Always consider how liking something will reflect on you. Will it contribute to – or detract from – what you want to be known for?
- If you’re not sure what certain content could imply, don’t like it. And if you have “friends” who repeatedly post strange content, it might time to unfriend them.
What do you like?
by Caroline Leach | Oct 3, 2016 | Social Media
Nearly 60% of links shared in social media haven’t been read first, the Washington Post and others reported this year.
Don’t do that, if you care about your professional reputation. Take the time to read the content of every link you share in social media.
Sharing content implies your endorsement of it and agreement with it. It’s a similar principle to recommending someone for a job – your reputation is on the line.
What if there’s something lurking in that content link that doesn’t represent your views? How will you know if you don’t read it first?
Josh Ochs, a “digital citizenship speaker who teaches students how to shine online,” says it well for people of all ages. He advises to keep your social media content, “light, bright and polite.”
Here are some guidelines to assess whether or not to share a particular link:
DO share links that:
- Aptly illustrate the topics you and your social media communities are interested in
- Provide relevant and appropriate data and metrics to support key points
- Position your company and its leaders in a positive and accurate light.
DON’T share links that:
- Have disparaging information about your company or its products. For example, because my employer provides video content, I don’t share links that bash TV (this is where I remind readers that opinions are my own).
- Overly focus on your employer’s competitors. Unless you’re an official company spokesperson, it’s better to be silent on competitors.
- Cover topics you don’t want your good name associated with – whether it’s negativity, bar-hopping, gambling or other questionable topics.
- Have any content that could be perceived as offensive or disparaging to any group or groups of people. If you’re not sure, don’t share it.
Always ask yourself if what you’re sharing reflects positively on you, your employer, your family, your community, and so on, before you post. If not, don’t post it.
Here’s a good tip from Bill Duane as covered in The New York Times – ask yourself before you share if the content is true, kind and necessary. It it doesn’t meet all 3 criteria, don’t share it.
When you do have content to share that passes all of these tests, add your perspective. Briefly say what’s important about it. Include a key takeaway or a memorable quote.
And be sure you look before you link!
by Caroline Leach | Sep 30, 2016 | Social Media
Nearly half of college admissions officers look at applicants’ social media profiles.
Ninety-four percent of recruiters use LinkedIn to vet candidates.
Seventy percent of senior professionals say leaders who are active in social media make the company a more attractive place to work.
If you’re not already active in social media in a strategic way, it’s hard to ignore stats like these.
There are so many reasons to ignore social media all together or let your participation wane. Not enough time. Nothing interesting to share. Too much downside.
Yet there are real risks to staying out of the game all together, or staying on the sidelines.
Missed opportunities is the biggest one – in the form of valuable professional and personal relationships, exciting career opportunities, accelerated learning and development, and even fun and entertainment, just to name a few.
With so much attention on avoiding the downside of social media, not enough focus has been put on how social media can make your life better.
But the time conundrum is real. How do you begin? Where do you focus your time and energy? What social platforms should you use? How do you feed the content monster?
That was something Reese Witherspoon got me thinking about. She was the surprise speaker this month at a women’s leadership conference at Fullscreen, the global youth media company.
She was asked about how she’s been super successful in social media. And she talked about social media content creation for people as being a big white space that’s not fully being filled right now.
It was almost like a Legally Blonde moment of its own. A gasp and an a-ha moment on the order of, “I think I’ll go to law school!”
In a moment of clarity, I connected some dots. I love helping people tell their stories. I’m endlessly fascinated and intrigued by social media. And I’ve been advising people, professionally and personally, on their social strategies over the last few years.
How could this all fit together in new and different ways?
by Caroline Leach | Sep 27, 2016 | Corporate Communications, Social Media
Everyone needs a great headshot.
Why? Social media profiles. Executive biographies. Email signatures. Conference badge photos.
Having a great headshot helps build your personal brand.
But sometimes being photographed is the last thing we want to do. Here are 12 ways to get a great shot and have fun in the process.
Just do it. Get a new photo taken every few years. I waited 5 years since my last headshot, which was way too long.
My colleague Roger Hyde‘s team had created such a perfect environment years ago, complete with a wind machine, that I was hesitant to do it again.
But thanks to the gentle coaxing of photographer Jessica Sterling, my husband Kevin and I finally took new headshots.
Decide what message you want to convey. What do you want your headshot to say about you? It should amplify your personal brand – what you want to be known for.
I wanted a new photo I could use in a corporate environment. It also needed to work in other contexts in my professional and personal lives.
Pick a great photographer. Ask your colleagues and friends for recommendations. Or use social media to find someone local.
On a tight budget? Find someone who’s starting out or team up with friends who need headshots.
If you’re planning a professional event, bring in a photographer for attendees to get their pics done.
The global youth media company Fullscreen did this at a recent women’s leadership event – brilliant idea!
In my case, I had the good fortune of knowing Jessica Sterling from work, and I was familiar with her visual capability with people and organizations. I personally retained her services, and so it began.
Check out other headshots for inspiration. Look at headshots of people you admire. Check out leaders and standouts in your field. Find images that express what you want to convey. Think about how you’ll express what makes you unique. Share samples and discuss ideas with your photographer.
Personalities shine through in the speaker headshots for the upcoming TEDWomen 2016 conference. I can’t wait to attend this in October and hear from these fascinating women and men.
Have your makeup and hair done. Bring in the professionals!
Whether it’s your own go-to hair and makeup glam squad, or a stop at the Dry Bar for a blowout and Sephora for a makeover, have your hair and makeup done.
Thank you, Emma Willis and Countour Fosse!
Wear solid colors. Solids photograph well and are bolder. Bright colors pop and attract more attention. Too much white can wash you out.
Bring several wardrobe options to your shoot and play around with the pieces. Have different jewelry options.
Blue is my employer’s brand color, so I chose a jewel-toned blue jacket (this is where I mention that opinions are my own). But I also love red, so I brought my favorite Nina McLemore jacket.
Try to smize. While searching for tips on taking a great headshot, supermodel and entrepreneur Tyra Banks rose to the top. Here I learned how to smize. This is all about smiling with your eyes to take a great shot.
Relax and have fun. Cue up your favorite music. Bring a friend who makes you laugh and brings out the best in you. Let your playful side emerge and enjoy all the attention. After all, how often do you get to be center stage for the better part of a day in real life?
Take “behind the scenes” pics. Among the four of us in the studio, we each got some pictures as the shoot was unfolding. These were fun to post on Instagram that day.
Choose the best image to be your personal brand. Look through all the shots on a few different occasions. Mark your favorites. Ask friends for feedback. Think about the brand you want to express. Does your selection capture that essence?
Use your headshot consistently in EVERYTHING. I used to use one photo in “professional” social media platforms (LinkedIn and Twitter) and a more casual one in more “personal” social media platforms (Facebook and Instagram). I tried to keep the two worlds separate, but the lines continue to blur.
So this time I took Guy Kawasaki‘s advice in The Art of Social Media. I picked one picture to use in everything.
Just as a business brand uses the same logo consistently, your headshot is YOUR brand. You should use the same photo consistently in your social world.
When I made a list of where I’d use my new headshot, it kept growing. Executive bio. Social media profiles. My gmail signature (another nod to Guy Kawasaki for recommending Wise Stamp). College alumni profiles. Google. Yelp. AirBNB. On so on.
My headshot is on my camera roll so I can upload it into event apps and anywhere I might need it.
Take advantage of events that offer headshots. Be camera ready to take a new pic at a variety of events that offer photography.
And don’t forget to smize!
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