Remoteness

Many people have asked me recently how to build your personal brand and get positive visibility when you work remotely and no one can see you!

Change

Organizations are changing so much and so frequently that many people have never met their boss or their peers. Many companies right now have zero-travel policy for internal travel.

So many people find themselves trying to build their credibility and their career without every getting face time with their stakeholders.

If you are a remote employee trying to exert your influence on the business, you can feel invisible, isolated, and powerless. And no one can see how truly impressive you are in your slippers.

The big issue for you Presence

Any leader needs to make their presence felt –  in the room or from afar.

If you want to build credibility and influence you need to build up your personal presence.  It’s harder as a remote employee, but not impossible. And it’s even more important.

Face time first

OK, so there is no substitute for face time.

Every time I have had a remote assignment or managed a remote employee I required a 2-4 week break-in period where the person begins the assignment in the office with the team.

If you “live” with people for awhile first, you’ll do MUCH better later.

You will build up some social comfort with each other, and then remote is not nearly as distant.  I would not accept a remote assignment if this was not how it began.

With travel budgets frozen it’s not always possible to spend time with the people you work with.

Consider footing the bill for your air travel yourself.

Find someone to stay with. Tell your manager that you are going to be in town for personal reasons (at no expense to the company) and that you’d like to work at the main office for a couple of weeks while you are there.

This is a very worthwhile investment you can make in your career. After you get the face time, you will be more effective and respected forever after.

If you can’t establish the face time, the additional ideas below are even more important.

Don’t Hide on Conference Calls

Don’t dial in 5 minutes late, do your email and not speak.  Instead dial in 5 minutes early.  Greet everyone who joins.

I knew a guy who worked remotely who took a picture of himself every day, and when ever he was on a conference call with the group at headquarters, he would email the picture of himself with a note that said something like, “thought you would want to see what shirt I was wearing today”.

It may sound silly, but he was exerting his presence. He was well known and respected.

Exert your presence in words too. Tell them about the weather where you are at and what you have been working on.  Learn about their life. Then don’t check out during the call.

Participate, interrupt, contribute. Make your presence felt.

Make people feel like you are “in it”.

Use Video

I have to say that I am blown away by Skype video.  I have clients around the world who I have never met, but after a few hours of conversation with and skype video I feel like they are colleagues and new friends that I know personally.

Unfortunately many corporate firewalls do not allow Skype. 

If I were a remote employee, I would encourage all of my key colleagues and stakeholders to take a Skype call with me from home once in awhile (convenient in their time zone), so we could connect “in person”.  It makes a huge difference.

Video Mail

If you can’t arrange skype, try sending a video mail once in awhile. It’s easy and it’s free. Google “free video email” to find options. Eyejot.com is one that I have used and works well. A 30-second video can exert way more presence than a bunch of email.

Lead things

Step forward when things need to get done.  Take the lead.  Put yourself in the center of a project even though you are not there.

Of course it needs to be something you can succeed at remotely, but don’t fail to ever take the lead just because you are remote.

If you want to be relevant — be relevant!

Network More

As a remote employee you miss the company lunches and the discussions around the coffee machine.  But you don’t need to miss connecting with people.  Identify people in the company you need to have a relationship with, and build a relationship with them.

You should spend at least an 2 hours a week (if not a bit more) just connecting and talking with people at your company.  Live connections = presence.

Get Personal

Reach out to people. Get to know them as people beyond the work discussions. Learn what they care about and enjoy. Contribute things of interest. Where you have key relationships with people, invite them to connect with you on Facebook.  Keep yourself current and present in their thinking. 

When you become a full person, you are far more visible than when you are just a work conversation.

Share your ideas and knowledge

Become a thought leader in your area of expertise.  Consider writing an internal blog.  Share interesting news that people at corporate don’t see. Seek out external information relevant to your business and be the one to share it.  Have a point of view.

Just because you are remote, doesn’t mean you need to be invisible.

Don’t wait for people to find you

Be the one to exert your presence, build relationships, share information, and engage. You can build a strong personal brand, even if you are not there.

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About Patty
Patty Azzarello is an executive, best-selling author, speaker and CEO/Business Advisor. She became the youngest general manager at HP at the age of 33, ran a billion dollar software business at 35 and became a CEO for the first time at 38 (all without turning into a self-centered, miserable jerk)

You can find Patty at www.AzzarelloGroup.com, follow her on twitter or facebook, or read her book RISE…How to Be Really Successful at Work AND Like Your Life.

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Why a Personal Brand is useful

1. It gives you more confidence and energy in your work.

2. You consistently position and sell yourself better

3. You get a professional advantage

BUILD YOUR PERSONAL BRAND VALUE

In this month’s business leadership webinar we covered how to translate your personal brand into value that other recognize.

Listen or download the webinar to learn more.

Here are some of the things we covered in the webinar:

What’s the advantage?

More Confidence and Energy. Having a strong personal brand makes you feel more confident because you’ll use it to always put your best foot forward. You will feel less defensive, and more decisive in difficult situations.

Sell Yourself Better. We talked about how your Brand gives you the speaking points to be very clear about why people should value what you offer, and get that across quickly, clearly and consistently.

Professional Advantage. The most successful people have a knack for being able to talk their way into good situations. Because your brand gives you certainty about how to position yourself, you will be more persuasive and influential more of the time. That’s good for advancing, selling, and negotiating.

Your Current Brand

You Have Brand Today. You have a Personal Brand right now whether you know it or not. Do you know what it is? Do you know what are you known for? Is it want you want it to be?

Behaviors and Consistency. Aristotle once said: Excellence is a habit, not an act.
Your brand is granted to you by others based on the behaviors they experience from you most consistently. We talked about how to build your brand through behaviors.

Building Your Brand

Build on Your Strengths. The best way to build your brand is to start with your natural strengths. As humans we tend to undervalue our strengths. We discussed why that is, how to overcome this, and how to zero in on your natural strengths and build them in to your brand.

Be YOU. Your Personal Brand should be based on who you actually are, not a marketing-version of some other person you think you should be. It needs to be something you can live up to consistently. So if you define your brand with a big gap to reality, it will never actually be your brand because you won’t do it.

Find the Intersection. To translate your brand into what others will value, you need to get to know what is important to your audience, and tune how you speak about and behave your brand values to align with what they care about.

Define Your Playbook. A big part of putting your brand into action is to focus on your playbook. We all have one. Think about what you did the same in every job you ever had. We talked about examples of personal brand playbooks and how to create and use them.

Using Your Brand

Work in your power alley. Part of the reason that having a strong brand gives you more confidence and energy is because when you combine it with your playbook, you end up working in your power alley. You are doing great at what you are good at and it feels great.

Your Brand and Interviewing. Think about the power this brings to an interview. You can quickly establish your credibility. You build confidence in yourself and your prospect when you can articulate why you are good at what you are good at, and give compelling examples from your playbook of being at your best. No stumbling!

Your Brand and Your Company’s Brand

Does your brand ever change? Your core Brand values don’t change much, but the story at the intersection changes depending on your company or customers’ culture and what they value.

What if you don’t fit. If you feel like your brand does not mesh with the culture of your company this can be painful. In the discussion I gave some examples of how to use your Brand to put you on the high ground and go counter-culture in a productive way.

Want more?

Listen or download the podcast – Build Your Personal Brand Value
Download the complete webinar – Build Your Personal Brand Value
(includes the presentation and the worksheets from the webinar)

Join Now and Get 3 Months Free

Why not become a member of Azzarello Group and get all the good stuff for free.

A personalized program for you

Membership provides a personalized leadership development resource for you or your team. You can learn and use the resources at your own pace, on your own schedule.

Members get access to everything in the Member Library, and personal, live coaching from me in a monthly member-only conference call.

At only $179/year, it is an exceptionally good value, and the quality and usefulness of the content is unmatched.

If you join by June 30, you get 3 months free. Your membership won’t expire until Sep 30, 2011.

Learn more or Join Now

Contact me for group discount rates and corporate licenses.

THINGS YOU CAN DO NOW

1. Subscribe.
If you found this useful, you can subscribe to this blog for free and get updates in your email or RSS reader.

2. Get Facebook Updates.
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3. Check out  my new book
RISE…How to Be Really Successful at Work AND Like Your Life.
Free eBook Download

So many of you have expressed interest in how the book launch went, and have helped me in the process, so I wanted to send a brief update and let you know what’s happening.

First of all, a big THANK YOU to everyone who has helped me spread the word, and make RISE a success! Your help made a big difference.

Since the launch some very cool things have happened:

We broke into the the top 30 Leadership Books on Amazon during launch week!

RISE was also recently listed one of  The 10 Business Books to Read this Summer on the American Express Open Forum website!

Also some other great stuff…

1. Book Clubs have formed
2. Amazing Success Stories Told
3. Great Reviews & Interviews
4. New Ways to Share

1. Book Clubs

One of the most gratifying experiences is that several organizations are using RISE as an employee leadership development framework.

They bought copies for the whole organization and created a discussion guide to talk about 1 or 2 chapters each month.

Each month someone has the job to apply the lessons in RISE to their unique environment, and recommend some specific leadership actions to improve. This is awesome!!

2. Success Stories

Thank you to all of you who have sent me notes about how you have used RISE to create a breakthrough in your career and life.

This is why I wrote the book!

I wanted to inspire peoples’ imaginations about what is possible, and then give them the specific tools and insights to give it a try.

So BIG Congratulations on the promotions, the raises, the successful job transitions, and the newfound confidence you have achieved.

And thanks so much for letting me know! Please keep these stories coming.

I know often times these breakthroughs and transitions are very personal, but if you are comfortable doing so, I would love it if you would share your stories, insights and experience on the Facebook page for RISE or write a short review on Amazon.

3. Great Reviews & Interviews

Rise has been reviewed in many places, and I’ve been on lots of radio shows talking about how to take more direct control of your business and career success. We are in the process of collecting all the media coverage to put in one place on the website.

For now, here are a few really good ones:

Reviews:

The San Francisco Book Review
RISE…Destined to Become a Classic

Radio Interviews:

The Cranky Middle Manager Show – Weasel-free Career Advice
The Engaging Brand – Don’t forget to succeed

4. New Ways to Share

Also since the launch I have created some new ways to get and share information about the book.

1. Free eBook

There is now a free downloadable eBook, in which you’ll be able to get the full Chapter on Ruthless Priorities, one of the key concepts in the book.

2. New web page
There is a new page dedicated to the book at www.risebookonline.com.

You can find everything you need to learn about RISE, share it, purchase it (or get the free download) on this page.

3. Facebook page
There is a new facebook page Rise by Patty Azzarello.  Click to “Like” the page and you’ll get updates on a wide array of business topics, and pointers to new leadership and career resources in your facebook stream. (Not too many, I promise!)

Could I ask another favor?

Now that the book has been out for a few months, and many of you have had a chance to read it, I would really appreciate it (again) if you could share these new resources with your network.

I know you are super-busy, but if you could do even one of these ideas, it would really help further spread the word. And let me know how I can help you in return!

Ideas:

Email:

1. Send the link to the new web page for RISE http://www.risebookonline.com to your network and encourage them to check it out.

Post On Twitter:

Get a free eBook chapter of @pattyazzarello’s RISE… http://ow.ly/4QH46 <-- Worth reading!

Or

This is a Business Leadership book worth reading: http://ow.ly/4QH46 from @pattyazzarello

Post On facebook:

Post a link to http://www.risebookonline.com and share a personal note about the book.

Thank you all so much for your wonderful support!

Please keep the success stories coming!

Patty

Today We are Rich, by Tim Sanders

I love this book.

It is rare to find a business book that inspires you to be a better person.

In Today We Are Rich, Tim Sanders outlines how we can improve our confidence, our life, the lives of others, and our business success by investing in specific positive behaviors.

He describes this new book as a pre-quel to his book, Love is the Killer App, where he first introduced us to the “Lovecat” — the type of business person who is generous, kind, and respectful — the business leader who gives his way to the top, and grows people along the way.

In his new book, Tim shares with us where he got these values in the first place, through the lessons he learned growing up, from his grandmother Billye.

Abundance

“Today we are rich” is a declaration of abundance – We can redefine what it means to be rich in moments of giving and helping. When Billye was able to take what little she had and change the world with it (even if it was just for one person), she would declare “We are rich”.

Moving forward

In the book, Tim shows us how to get our lives and our businesses moving forward by living in what he refers to as “The Good Loop” of learning, thanking, giving and finishing. It’s about investing in good habits, on purpose, and avoiding negative talk and behaviors. Living in the good loop requires that we act.

I had a chance to have an awesome conversation with Tim Sanders about The Power of Confidence and his new book Today We Are Rich.

You can download a recording of the conversation here.

Confidence

Confidence is easy when you are on top. But what about when things go bad? You need confidence when you don’t have the wind at your back and you are in a “personal recession” where you stop growing as as a human. Confidence is rocket-fuel for the abundance mentality.

Tim emphasized the importance of confidence, and how to get it!

Giving

When you give, you believe that there is enough to go around. When you share…in that moment …that’s when you are worth something to the world. Richness is within your control if you stop making it about things.

The fundamental secret: the law of reciprocity. Humans in western culture are engineered to give back. So the more you give, the more you set off a whole chain reaction of giving. Everyone wins. Your confidence grows.

The Horn of Plenty

In the book, Tim tells a story about the “horn of plenty”. If your granny or your mom has one of those wicker baskets, the horn-shaped one with the plastic fruit in it, ask them why…

Tim’s grandmother told him this. During the 30’s if you didn’t have poverty, you caught the fear of poverty from listening to other people. Around the dinner table, the conversation was about  - who’s going broke next? Billye’s mom, bought an “end-the-depression-horn-of-plenty”. It symbolized today we are rich. It changed our family’s culture forever.

Culture comes from conversation.

You need to always move the conversation forward

Tim’s grandmother proclaimed: I’m tired of talking about the economy. Let’s talk about what’s going right. We have everything we need here.

Culture, whether in your family or company is a conversation, and the conversation must move forward. We’ve got to change the conversation, because the negative one will drive us into the ground if we let it.

Practice Gratitude

Gratitude is a muscle, not a feeling. People get spiritually flabby, because they stop re-investing in their gratitude. They become a cynic whether at work or in their relationships.

Ask What do we HAVE?

What are we grateful for? Tim shared some great stories about people and organizations who got out of a slump, and started moving forward simply by being grateful.

Breakfast for your soul.

Give your gratitude a workout in the morning instead of doing email! Think about the people you are grateful for. Tell them.

Feed your mind good stuff

Processed food and sugar are bad for your body. Same goes for what you put into your mind. Anything that is easy to eat and digest is genrally not that good for you. TV, internet browsing, and bite size news and gossip online are not nourishing you.

Books are hard. (Think protein and fiber!) But that slow, deliberate intake of information lets us assimilate specialized knowledge. It makes you better. When you feed your mind good stuff, you are making an investment in everyone. Fill gaps in your day with confidence-building, learning.

If we’re not growing, we’re not keeping up. If you want an advantage in business, read books.

You can download Tim’s “Feed Your Mind Good Stuff” chapter for free.

Purpose vs. Passion.

It’s popular to tell our kids, just do what you love, just follow your passions. (Be selfish.)
When a person enters society, we need to change the compass.

True north needs to be a Purpose.

We need to think about something bigger than just ourself. Tim talked about how investing in your purpose and giving something to the world further builds your confidence.

No Short Cuts

Positive thinking is an outcome not a prescribed behavior.

Everybody wants to make short cuts out of self help. When things are really bad, to prescribe positive thinking to someone who is down and out is as useful as going to someone who is struggling with obesity and telling them to just think skinny.

Positive thinking is an outcome of investing in the right behaviors and habits on purpose.

If you want to invest in building your confidence and abundance mentality, it’s a serious workout. Tim’s book Today We Are Rich is loaded with insights and practical advice to get into  ”The Good Loop” of learning, thanking, giving and finishing.

Tim, thank you for writing it!

Tim Sanders

Tim Sanders is an internet business marketing visionary, former Yahoo Chief Solutions Officer, and international best selling author of Love is the Killer App.

You can download a free eBook chapter of his new book Today We Are Rich, and learn more about Tim’s work at www.twar.com.

Listen to the conversation

You can listen to my conversation with Tim Sanders here.

It’s 30 minutes that will inspire you.

This month’s webinar topic Professional Networking and Mentors is such an important one for people searching for relevance and opportunities.

We talked about how to strategically build the network you need to accomplish your professional goals.

You can download the podcast Professional Networking and Mentors to hear the discussion.

Here are some of the things we covered:

Standard Networking Rules Apply

Network when you don’t need anything.
Give more than you take – always.
Successful people get help.

(See more about general, Authentic Networking)

Be clear about your goals

Set your networking targets. What you are trying to accomplish? List the types of challenges you have, the decision makers you need to connect with, and what you need to achieve. Who can help you? The webinar worksheets help you create your strategy and plan.

You are more vulnerable if you are not connected. Who other than your boss cares what happens to you? How are you viewed by your boss’s peers? Who knows you? What happens to you and your boss in a re-org, or acquisition?

Is this just Politics? Call it what you wish but you will be at a disadvantage without a network of support. If you intentions are honorable and you are giving back, your networking efforts will be authentic and valuable to both sides. They will not be hollow, selfish or political in a negative way.

Get and Use Mentors

Why you need mentors. You need mentors to fuel your imagination, help you see what is possible and necessary in your work, keep you connected to reality, make connections for you, and help you learn how to do a bigger job.

Types of mentors you need. Don’t get hung up on the word “mentor”. You need lots of smart people (you can’t have too many), but you also specifically need career advocates and business advisors. We talked about how to approach this and why it matters so much. There is a checklist in the worksheets.

How to ask for a mentor. We discussed several approaches but the main idea is to ask in a way they can’t refuse. Be gracious, respectful, and don’t ask for a lot of time. Listen to the podcast for effective conversation starters, and how to build a friendly meeting into a strong mentorship.

Your Extra Teams

Build a Personal Advisory Board. Successful executives have a group of people they can go to assess and brainstorm their business and career issues. It is really valuable source of support if you can work it out. We talked through a couple of models.

Build your Extra Team. Successful people get lots of people working for them that don’t report to them. Don’t just network with people above you, reach to peers and people at levels below you in the organization too. Make personal connections. Give them opportunities to connect with your network, and give them exposure at your level. Then you’ll always have help when you need it.

Want to hear more of the discussion?

Download the podcast of the webinar Professional Networking & Mentors.
Download the complete webinar including the podcast, presentations and worksheets.

Downloads are free to members. Learn about membership.

If you found this useful, you can subscribe to this blog for free and get updates in your email or RSS reader.

THINGS YOU CAN DO NOW

1. Get Facebook Updates.
Click “Like” to get more great business leadership updates on Facebook

2. Check out a short video about my new book:
RISE…How to Be Really Successful at Work AND Like Your Life.

3. Get your copy of RISE… now on Amazon

4. Get RISE for your whole team at corporate, volume pricing.

People often ask me why I stared my own company. Why did I choose not to get another big job as a GM or CEO?

How did I choose this particular business?

Growing Business, Growing People

There is a lot to this answer, but a big part of it is that I chose to create a business that helps people. My corporate business helps teams execute better and helps leaders grow.

And my membership program is something that I do in addition to my corporate work to help individuals at any level, or any point in their career get their breakthrough.

Here are 3 of my favorite stories…

These are stories about people who have made big breakthroughs in their career, are making more money, and are enjoying their lives more.

They obviously did the hard work themselves, but the fact that they point to their membership in Azzarello Group as a factor in their success means the world to me.

1. Karen – Started a successful business

Karen is sole-income earner who was working in a large services organization when she got the news that her role and her team were being outsourced.

Oops! No job. She needed to figure out what she was going to do!

She was getting quite nervous about her income stopping.

Her company came through with a role she could interview for. Since no income was not an option, she was quite tempted by the “paycheck continuation” opportunity, but in her heart she was not excited about this job.

Karen had heard the webinar on Investing in Strengths. She told me she download it and listened to it a bunch of times! It helped her realize that the reason she was not excited, was because this role did not use her core strengths. Yes, she could do the work, but she wouldn’t be great at it, and she wouldn’t be thriving.

This insight gave her the motivation to focus on what she was really good at.  She thought about the kind of work that gave her the most energy. And this focus on her strengths gave her the nerve to turn down the guaranteed income of the “wrong” job.

She also downloaded the webinars on Authentic Networking, and Building your Personal Brand.

Karen then put her consulting offer together based on her strengths. She packaged herself and her new company to promote the work she was truly gifted at doing. Then she started networking, and getting clients!

She is now highly respected and sought after in her field.

She makes more money than she did before, and is thrilled that she is doing work she is great at.

Karen did an impressive job of transitioning her career. She told me that being a member of Azzarello Group gave her a new way of thinking about her career, and the guts to make a change.

2. Mari  – Got a big promotion

Mari just landed her first promotion in over 10 years.

Mari was a manager in a large technology organization, but had been stuck at the same level for a really long time. She was frustrated with her boss, and did not feel like her contribution was being appreciated.

No one was stopping by her desk to offer her a promotion.

Mari was capable of much more.

She is very talented. Mari called into the member Coaching Hours each month and had discussions with me and other members on Leadership.

First, the coaching helped her realize that in her current position, she had the opportunity to maximize her learning, tune her experience and build career capital instead of just being focused on the frustrations. This new habit of going after experience proactively, helped her get ready.

But the big “aha” for Mari was that she should not wait to be discovered.

The advice she got helped her to gain the confidence that she, indeed, had everything it took to do a bigger job — she just needed to package it up and promote it better to others. She realized that she, herself, could position herself for a promotion, (and that no one else was going to do it for her).

From the webinars on Relevance and Building Your Credibility she realized that being clear and up front about her goals with others helped her land a C-Level mentor who helped her prepare.

Mari downloaded the Packaging and Positioning Yourself webinar which helped her organize her best stories and make the interviewing process much easier.

Mari used the tools and support she got from her membership to make this promotion happen for herself.

3. Karl – Got a better job (without changing jobs)

Karl was a project director in a retail company.

As someone who fell into the “work horse” category Karl was struggling to keep his head above water.

He is very talented.

He always delivered, so the work just kept getting piled on. And his reward for working so hard and getting so much done was, you guessed it — even more work.

Karl was stuck being over-busy.

From the member Coaching Hours and using the Career Year of Action Guide, Karl took control of his career path.

The Guide helped him create space in his work to be less busy and to do specific things each month to make his work more strategic, more visible, and more relevant to his company. The guide helped him build his credibility and his network, and better manage conversations and expectations with his boss.

The webinars and worksheets on Be Less Busy, Delegate or Die, and Ruthless Priorities helped him redefine how he approaches his work.

He realized that he could create a path for actually advancing his career, where before he was buried in the never-ending sea of day to day activities.

Karl was finally able to rise above the work.

He hasn’t changed jobs, but he likes his job a whole lot more and is getting more recognition than ever for the value of his contributions – not just for delivering lots of work. And he got a raise.

What do you want?

Why not join Azzarello Group to get the insights, the support and the advantage you need.

This is exactly what I formed the membership program to do — to encourage and support people to go for their breakthroughs.
Members get insights, tools, and access to me.

I really want to help. I had help. Help works.

So I priced the membership at a level that lets me continue to run it, and is easy for you to get approval for, or doable to pay yourself.

I have to say at $179/year it’s a screaming good deal. How much is a real career breakthrough worth to you?

Get your advantage.

Learn more about membership.
Join now.

Get the Career Year of Action Guide for Free

Special Offer: If you become a member this week (by March 15), in addition to being able to attend the member-only coaching hour calls with me, and getting access to all the  the webinars and resources in the member library, you will get a free copy of the Career Year of Action Guide.

This guide stages out all the things you need to do (over and above your job) to ensure that you make progress in your career and aren’t just endlessly delivering work and not getting anywhere.

New members who joined this year:

If you joined after Jan 1, 2011 and you would like a free copy of the Career Year of Action Guide, just send an email to support@AzzarelloGroup.com and request one.

Well it’s finally available!

My new book

RISE: How to be really Successful at Work AND Like Your Life

It’s available on Amazon now.

We are doing a formal marketing launch to the general public in January, but for friends of Azzarello Group, I wanted to let you know early for two reasons.

1. Many of you wanted to get the book for your team for Christmas. (We just made it, whew!)

2.  I wanted to give you an early look, and an opportunity to join in the launch.  Here’s how…

A New Book Blog

I’ve created a new book blog (early stage, sneak-peek) where a community of thought leaders will contribute ideas and resources on Business Leadership and Personal Development.

There are already some really cool links and my top book recommendations on the RESOURCES page.

Among  the early posts will be some of my favorite classics like Bob Sutton’s Bullshit Bingo, and Margaret Heffernan’s, 10 Signs of Incompetent Managers.

There will be regular guest bloggers who are highly regarded experts in this space as well.

Please join the discussion!

I hope you will contribute as well.  There are many important ideas in the book like how to:

• Be more effective, more strategic, a better leader, a better communicator, and a better networker.
• Increase your value to your company and advance your career.
• Fit your work into your life, so your life gets better.

Contribute your content

Contribute a review of the book.  Or write an article on one of the topics in the book. You can also contribute links to great related resources, blogs and websites you have found.

You’ll be getting exposure for your ideas and connecting with a community of like-minded people.

Many of you talk about expanding your professional network.  Here’s a great place to do it!

How to participate

1. Get the book.

2. Write a review or article – Feel free to include links to your business or service so we can all find you.

3. Send your article to me at rise@azzarellogroup.com

4. We will post your article on the blog

5. You can also post your ideas and links directly in the comment section of the blog posts. (Right now there is only one post, but feel free to comment there and get us rolling.)

Thanks so much!

Patty

PS. Contact me directly for volume orders of the book.

Here are some of the early review comments you’ll find on Amazon

In “Rise,” Patty Azzarello has done what no other successful executive before her has: analyzed, codified and recorded the steps and techniques required to achieve success in, and more importantly, to gain more fulfillment from one’s career.

This is real-world stuff. The book talks about the whole chain of how you get your first management job and takes you all the way through to managing, in her case, a billion dollar global business. Like she says in the section ‘Executive Confessions – “It’s OK to be scared. It’s not OK to get paralyzed by it.”

I read a lot of business/career books and they typically have 3 or 4 insights that I can take from them and use in my day job. I stopped folding pages back and highlighting passages in RISE because just about every page had a mark or a bent page..

My first book signing at the Fanzilli/Bauer dinner in New York City, Dec 7, 2010

10 IDEAS FROM THE WEBINAR

PACKAGING & POSITIONING YOURSELF

• Download the Podcast
• Download the Podcast, Presentation & Worksheets

Have the Right Strategy

1. You, the Product. You will come across as much more powerful and compelling if you develop your approach to present yourself.

You need to think of yourself as a product to be marketed, and create a communication strategy for each audience you need to influence.

You have a lot of control over how you are perceived, and can stack the deck in your favor, if you do the right things on purpose.

Create the Right Materials

2. Your Marketing Materials. We talked about creating an inventory of marketing materials way beyond a resume.

3. The worksheets for this Webinar are loaded with checklists, examples, and templates for creating a compelling marketing package for your job search or stronger positioning within your company. (download)

Define Your Unique Offer

4. Your Offer: You need to talk about what you offer in a specific way that opens doors and gets people making introductions for you.

5. Thought Leadership. If you want a big job, people will Google you. Make sure they find something impressive! We covered how to create presence and thought leadership internal and external to your company.

6. The Right Stories. Having the right stories prepared ahead of time is critical to making the right impression.  How to package your key accomplishments and proudest moments, and use them to gain a real advantage in how others perceive you.

7. Story Telling: Don’t be boring! How to wrap the right, different titles and
punch lines around key stories for each specific audience, and your desired outcome with them.

Take the Right Actions

8. How to get on “the List”: There is always ” A List”.  Learn how to get on it.  Make connections and get the support of people who are in a position to help you.

9. Make the Connection: We talked about how to map what you offer to what companies are looking for, so they will recognize that you are what they are looking for.

10. How I did it: I walked through an example of how I used all of these techniques at a time in my career when I was going for a big job.

The feedback on this session was amazing, thank you!

Download the Webinar now.

(FREE Downloads for members of Azzarello Group)

• Packaging Yourself: Download Podcast Only
• Packaging Yourself: Download Podcast, Presentation and Worksheets

Why not Become a Member?

3 Months FREE Membership Offer

Based on the great response to the Membership program and this particular webinar,
I have decided to extend the 3 free months offer to June 9th.

If you become a member by June 9th, you’ll get this podcast and the worksheets,  as well access to all the other resources in the Member Library until September 2011.

Become a member now and get 3 months free.

Or you can:

• Purchase this single podcast.
• Purchase this one podcast with the presentation and worksheets.

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At some point the world will change and you will be in a re-organization.

Get support before you get buried

When I talk about my DO Better, LOOK Better, CONNECT Better model, I know people struggle with this (support) part.

They sigh and think, I really should do this, but I don’t have the time.

It gets put on the back burner, because it doesn’t feel like part of the day job.

Excellent work alone does not protect you

It’s happened to me.  I’ve been buried.  My results were outstanding, but they were not visible or relevant to the people making the decisions.  My work mattered to me and my team, but not to them.

The world changes and you get pushed down a level, or your job gets smaller, or you’re pushed out entirely.

My heart always goes out to people in this situation, and when they ask me for advice, and I give them some ideas about what they can do to make the best of it right now.  But then I reluctantly tip-toe into that, “Take this as learning, and don’t let this happen again”, place.

My annoying lecture goes something like this:

Air Cover

If you had been creating more air cover (people at high levels that know you and care about your career), and building your credibility and relevance over time, you might not be in this position…

Someone in a position of power might have said, Wait, we need to watch out for this person.

This person is really valuable, and if we just put them somewhere organizationally convenient for us, but bad for their career, we run the risk of losing them.  We need to create a spot for them in the new organization that does not feel like a step down.

That’s what you want to happen in a re-org.

If you want some additional help building this type of support, check out the free resources at the bottom of this article, but in short…

How to build support

Let’s face it, the urgent stuff typically falls into the DO Better category – get the work done, deal with the crisis, close the deal, respond to the customer.

Then the tasks to build support both in LOOK Better — necessary to build your credibility and relevance, and in CONNECT Better — to build a strong network of support,  get pushed aside.

A tempting trap – the “high ground”

It’s tempting to work this way because it feels like you are doing the right thing because you are working really hard and delivering results.

Or sometimes people feel like they don’t want to be one of those people protecting their job, instead of doing their job.  That is not what I am talking about.

Take care of the future now

OK, so since we can’t travel back in time, let’s work on taking care of the future.  Don’t wait until you are in a bad situation.

Act now:

• Do an Assessment.  How much air cover do you have?  Do you have a relationship with your boss’s boss or boss’s peers?  Do you have relationships with people running other organizations?
• What is the context for talent assessment in your company? Who is in the room when people at your level are talked about?  Do you have a good relationship with any of those people?  How many of them know who you are?
• Do you have a mentor?

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Start finding ways to meet and engage with these people, and get at least one of them to be a mentor — to officially care about what happens to you.

It’s not just politics

Before you start heading for high ground again and saying, that’s politics.  I don’t do politics.  Remember that high Credibility and Relevance are not just about protecting your job.  They as much, or even more about increasing your effectiveness.

They let you get more, higher value work done.  They are necessary to deliver the RIGHT results that decision makers care about.

Even though you are really busy with the work, it’s important to remember that this is a vital part of your job longevity and success.

Communicate with Stakeholders

In my Career Workshop, we cover the concept of a Stakeholder Communication Plan™

Know who your stakeholders and influencers are and communicate with them on purpose, consistently, in ways that they find valuable.  Be relevant, to them by visibly working on things that matter to them.

Build your credibility by having a strong Personal Brand, clear communications and executive presence.

You are better off

This is not a perfect system.  For example, when a company gets acquired it is often assumed either that 1. all the people in the acquired company are stupid, and all the good jobs go to managers in the parent company, or 2. that all the incumbents are stupid, so all the good jobs go to the people in the new company and all the “legacy” people get pushed out.

Or sometimes your mentors retire, or your Air Cover leaves the company and you need to start again.

You can’t always stay on top in an re-org, but you are always much better off if you have relationships and air cover than if you don’t.

With the right support there is a chance you will land on your feet.

Have a head start, at least

Even if you don’t land well in the new organization, you have a huge head start of connections, useful knowledge, relationships,  and good will in your network, with the people who can quickly help you find a different job.

I encourage you to spend a few hours a month on these things to put yourself in the strongest possible position, and to develop relationships with key people BEFORE you need their help.

Some FREE Resources to build Air Cover

I’ve collected some articles below that can help you focus on the LOOK Better and CONNECT Better aspects of building enough air-cover so that you will have more organizational clout and support when the world changes.

Communicating with Stakeholders
Do you stand out enough?
Don’t be boring
Fight the Bull
Don’t bury the lead

Being Relevant
Responsive or Reactive?
Be more Relevent

Bulding Credibility
Executive Presence
Tuning your Personal Brand

Building Support
Authentic Networking
5 Mentors Everyone Needs

Additional Help

If you want some help fitting this type of work into your schedule, check out:

Career Year of Action Guide

The Career Year of Action Guide will help you plan your time to optimize your DO Better tasks, to get more of the right, highest value work done, AND help you make time for the necessary LOOK Better and CONNECT better tasks, to build credibility, relevance and grow your network of support.

Membership

And if you want to get monthly reminders and direct support from me to keep your career on track, become a member.

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10 IDEAS FROM THE WEBINAR:

HAVE MORE INFLUENCE

Dowload the PODCAST to learn:

Get More of the Right Stuff Done

1. Influence is one of those career lessons that no one ever seems to tell you about directly. Know that this is part of your job no matter what your level. Without strong influence skills you get stuck.

2. Be more effective – Get more work done. You need to multiply your resources.  If you rely only on what you and your team can deliver directly, you will fall behind. We talked about how to get more people working for you!

3. Broaden Your Impact. You need to look at your work in the context the bigger business needs, and increase the breadth and value of the outcomes you drive.  We covered how to demonstrate an impact beyond your team.

4. Sell Your Ideas. Having good ideas is very different than successfully selling them and getting them acted upon. You need influence skills to get your ideas adopted by the organization.

Manage Your Career

5. Influence Perceptions – Managing how others perceive you is vital to your career growth. Use your influence skills to do this on purpose. See also Tuning Your Personal Brand.

6. Win the Promotions - Know that ability to influence is a key factor in deciding who is promotable.  If you are not seen as someone who has support across the organization with broad influence, you will get passed over.  See also Manage Your Career

How to Influence

7. Control vs. Motivation. The most important thing is to give people a reason to personally care, and WANT to help you, whether or not they report to you.   If people care, they will deliver for you.  We talked about tactics for how to motivate people to want to help you.

8. Be a Communicator. The more you share knowledge, reach out to people and communicate, the more you will be seen as giving back to the organization, doing important things, and being someone worth helping.

9. How to get others to do work for you – We talked about a number of tactics to get people  to help even when they are not motivated.  A big piece of this is being gracious in your request and grateful in your follow-up.

10. Time, Trust, Relationships – Influence does not happen over night.  We talked about the things you need to be doing over time to build up your ability to influence.  Understand the power structure across your organization and start communicating and building relationships now.

How YOU can increase your influence NOW.

• Download the PODCAST for details on what to do and how to do it.
• Download the  WORKSHEETS to plan your specific actions and communications.
• Download the Career Year of Action Guide to help you use your time better.
  Give yourself the time to do what is necessary beyond your job description to be successful.

Browse the Member Library

Browse the member library for more podcasts, worksheets and tools to:

* Be a Better Leader
* Be More Effective
* Build your Network
* Get a Better Job
* Grow your Business

All downloads are FREE to members.

• Learn about Membership
• Become a Member

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