110 Career Shortcuts a must read guide for early career leaders and new grads with 110 career shortcuts to propel your career and make you more productive in your role

2. HITTING STRYDE
CONTENTS
Chapter 1: Me Inc. PERSONAL
How to Create a Distinctive Personal Brand 19 SUCCESS
Chapter 2: Inventing the 25th Hour
How to Find More Time in Your Day 29
Chapter 3: Fueling Your Day with Passion
How to Find Purpose in Each Day 39
Chapter 4: Listen Up: The Quintessential Business Skill WORK
How to Hear the Other Half of the Conversation 51 SUCCESS
Chapter 5: Managing Your Boss
How to Build a Great Relationship with Your Boss 61
Chapter 6: Conducting Courageous Conversations
How to Handle Tough Conversations at Work 71
Chapter 7: POP! Creating a Sticky Presentation
How to Deliver a Message that Moves People into Action 81
Chapter 8: Running Kick-Ass Meetings
How to Run Meetings that Keep Everyone Awake 93
Chapter 9: Staying Marketable No Matter CAREER
Where You are in Your Career SUCCESS
How to be Ready for the Next Opportunity, Always 105
Chapter 10: Life’s a Pitch
How to Open New Doors in 60 Seconds 117
Chapter 11: Stay or Go
How to Know When it’s Really Time to Leave Your Job 127
Stryde Faves
Chapter Resources That Make a Difference 136

3. HITTING STRYDE
personal
success
chapter 1: Me Inc.
How to Create a Distinctive Personal Brand
chapter 2: Inventing the 25th Hour
How to Find more Time in Your Day
chapter 3: Fueling Your Day with passion
How to Find Purpose in Each Day
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4. ME INC.
cHapTer 1
“regardless of age, regardless
of position, regardless of the
business we happen to be in,
all of us need to understand
the importance of branding. We
are CEOs of our own companies:
Me Inc. To be in business
today, our most important job
is to be head marketer for
the brand called You.”
– Tom Peters in Fast Company, 1997
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5. HITTING STRYDE
MaTT
Personal claim to Fame: overestimated abilities
Profile Meet Matt: an outgoing, organized, and well-spoken young leader
who’s recently joined one of the Big Four accounting firms, Matt is
actively networking, getting to know his clients, and enjoying a good
social life. The first 90 days of his job have been great, but Matt has
started to drink a little too much of his own Kool-aid. He has taken
on too much and is building a bit of an ego: two big brand killers.
Matt spends a good chunk of his workday on his Twitter and Facebook
accounts, talking about things he loves, but his manager doesn’t
understand, nor does she respect the use of his time. Matt is totally
oblivious to this. As he connects with people around the firm, he’s
more interested in telling them about his volleyball league and
his personal interests than getting to know them. Matt’s feeling
pretty good about where he is at, but hasn’t stopped to measure
what his personal brand stands for and how it’s perceived.
The worrying part is that Matt assumes he’s building a good name
for himself, but unfortunately no one of influence knows what
Matt is really all about on a personal or professional front.
Are you Matt? If so, this chapter is for you?
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6. ME INC.
Me Inc.
How to create a Distinctive personal Brand 1
Whether you like it or not, people are talking about you. You
don’t need to be a celebrity like Ashton Kutcher, politician
like Barack Obama, or entrepreneur like Gary Vaynerchuk to
start building your personal brand. What you do need is an
identity rooted in your passions and a desire to be great.
In Why Johnny Can’t Brand, Carl Nichols and Bill Schley talk
about a brand’s need for a dominant selling idea. This is, in
essence, what your brand is all about. It must be unique to you,
rooted in your passion and built from your values. It doesn’t
need to be earth-shatteringly nouveau; it simply has to tell
the story of who you are and who you want to become.
If you think that your personal brand doesn’t matter, you
are ultimately saying that you don’t matter. Your brand is
the perception others hold of you and, contrary to what your
mother and grade school teachers told you, the opinions of
others do matter. As the world gets smaller and flatter, your
brand can take you a long way in a relatively short time.
Investing effort in building, honing, and sharing your personal
brand will pay off in dividends. You’ll become more self aware,
you’ll meet new people, and you’ll be exposed to opportunities
that otherwise wouldn’t have existed. Your personal brand isn’t
about selling yourself; it’s about communicating your beliefs.
These are the elements to building a great personal brand:
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7. HITTING STRYDE
1 Know Your sTorY
Saving your life story for your memoirs? Well, think again. The core
of your personal brand is built on the things you are passionate
about. Take time to make three lists: 1) List your biggest successes
to date; 2) List your biggest failures to date; and 3) list the things
you are most passionate about. Take time to reflect on the peaks
and valleys of your life. Don’t try to invent your past, but rather invent
your future: a future full of the things you are passionate about. Your
brand is not descriptive; it’s a prescriptive story of what you stand for.
2 BuIlD on Your values, HaBITs, sTrengTHs anD weaKnesses
As you begin your career there are many things you have yet to
accomplish, so rooting your brand in your personal values, habits,
strengths and weaknesses is a great place to start. You don’t need to
be an expert or a tried-true solider of a specific value, but you do need
a willingness to grow into that value or build upon that weakness.
Take some time to brainstorm your values and success habits.
WRITE
To help take inventory of some of your strengths, check out Tom
Success list. Failure Rath’s Strengthsfinder.com or pick up Marcus Buckingham’s Now
list. Passion List. Discover Your Strengths and Go Put Your Strengths to Work.
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8. ME INC.
3 Be genuIne, Be BolD, Be MeMoraBle
Great brands become iconic because they are memorable and
remarkable. Your brand is the same. It needs to be worthy of
a remark. The easiest way to do this is to be genuine and live
your passion. Gary Vaynerchuk’s book, Crush It, is a great field
guide to building a brand based on passion. Gary Vee’s personal
approach is oozing with his genuine passion and it isn’t always
polished and classically professional. Check out some of our
favourite branded people: Sacha Chua, Callum Ng, Tim Ferris,
Gary Vaynerchuk, Bill Jenson, Isadore Sharp and Richard Branson.
4 connecT wITH THe worlD
DO
Now that you have your brand story pulled together, it’s time
to connect to the world. Check in with your Facebook, LinkedIn, Check in on your
and other social media sites to ensure they are communicating digital footprint.
your brand’s values. Take some time to clean up the images,
posts, and content that detract from the brand you are building.
Some people prefer to keep things completely private online,
but chances are if it’s on the Web someone will find it. You
shouldn’t be ashamed of your past. Is there really shame in
your attendance of a 1980s aerobic workout themed keg party
in college? Use sites like unhub.com to link all of your sites
together. It’s important that you can be found when googled and
that the information dug up is something you want to share.
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9. HITTING STRYDE
5 sHare Your Message
Don’t limit yourself to just your social media profiles. Branch out
into other mediums to share your story. Blogs, Twitter, bookmarking
sites like Digg or Delicious, and book accounts (shelfari.com) are
all good places to start. Instead of focusing on what to hide on
the Web, think about what you can share. You want to start over-
communicating your opinions, thoughts, ideas and goals. The Web
is a space where you need to give a lot to get a little. Your spelling,
grammar and tone make a difference, so be sure to have someone
proofread your posts. Get feedback from friends (or strangers) to
see how you are coming across. Check out tweetbeep.com or google.
com/alerts to keep track of when you are mentioned. And remember,
the key to all of this is to communicate your beliefs genuinely.
6 Develop soMe swag
We want you to think of yourself as a rock star, albeit without the
band, fame, adoring fans and T-shirts with your face on them (if you
CLICK happen to have those, then all the power to you!). Take some time
to create unique, personal and catchy business cards. Sites like
Check out Moo.com are our favourite because of the customization
Moo.com for your options, unique size, quality of the paper, and price. Next,
next business cards. invest in some “thank you” and follow-up cards. As you meet
people there is nothing that says “You matter to me” more
than receiving a handwritten note via snail-mail. Here’s a tip:
for $50 you can get a custom embosser made at your local big
box office supply shop that can turn any piece of nice paper
(available at art stores) into your own personalized stationary.
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10. ME INC.
7 THe career porTFolIo Is THe ‘new’ résuMé
For most jobs a one or two-page résumé is the norm. Definitely make
sure this document communicates your values, accomplishments and
goals, as its purpose is to sell you. While your résumé is important,
it’s not all you can do. Take some time to create a career portfolio.
This document will tell a more robust story of your accomplishments,
your values, where you’ve travelled, what inspires you, what you
are reading, and why you want to work in a given industry or for
a specific company. As you apply for jobs and network to get
interviews (informational or the real deal), imagine the amount of
information you can share before or after the interview with a well-
designed 10-to-20-page pitch portfolio that paints a picture of you.
This will absolutely set you apart from the competition and help to
increase your brand value. Don’t limit yourself to hardcopy; send
a PDF or upload it to Slideshare.com to share it with the world.
In the fall of 2008 I was busy recruiting I hand delivered it to a top consultancy in
from Vancouver to get a job in Toronto’s a big box addressed to the president. A
strategy consulting industry. I was maxing hand-written note accompanied it: “To say
out the traditional routes and seeing I’m impressed with your company would
some progress, but it wasn’t enough. be an understatement. I’m in town from
One weekend I built a 20-page career Vancouver for the day and would very much
portfolio that looked like a swanky like to meet with you. Kind regards, David
magazine. I passed it along to my friends Singh.” Not only did I get a call back; I
and former employers for review, then was able to sit down with the president for
I tweaked it and had it bound. When 30 minutes at the end of the day. It was
I was in Toronto for a week of meetings, a game-changing conversation for me.
David
says
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11. HITTING STRYDE
8 lIve Your BranD
This is very important: you are your brand. It’s not words on a
page or text on a screen. Your brand lives inside of you. As you
practice your elevator pitch (see Chapter 10) and get ready to start
communicating your brand values at work, at networking functions,
and in everyday life, be sure to reflect and get feedback on how you
are coming across. Your body language, mannerisms and presence
make a difference, so don’t ignore this in-person element.
9 experIMenT
Developing your brand requires work, thought, and creativity.
You are not going to get it right the first time and that’s okay.
It’s better to fail at trying than to fail to try. Your values might
change. Your perspectives might change. Your brand needs to be
able to adapt. If the constant is your passion and genuine intent,
then don’t worry about implications brought on by change.
10 Measure, Measure, Measure
What gets measured gets done. Building your brand is only half the
battle. Finding a routine for measuring your progress is the second
CLICK half. Using metrics from Google analytics, sites like unhub.com, and
Check out rypple.com
stats from your social media sites, you are able to record changes in
to create a
who is viewing you. Don’t be afraid to get feedback from your friends,
quick personal
family, colleagues, mentors, and lifelines (we’ll talk more about
brand survey.
mentors and lifelines in Chapter 3). Using sites like Rypple.com, you
can send short surveys for feedback. Asking an acquaintance to join
you for coffee can create a safe and candid space, allowing some
feedback to come your way. Remember, your brand lives through you,
Get the Full but it is measured through the opinions of others. As a starting point
to determine the strength of your brand, check out reachcc.com/
Version at brandquiz or onlineidcalculator.com and determine your baseline.
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12. ME INC.
Be auTHenTIc
When you meet Shlomo Bibas, he zones in on you, making each conversation
Leader’s
a quest to know who he is dealing with. His brand power is in how he makes Moment
his clients, peers and friends feel. Like a great brand promise, he delivers
this consistently in each relationship. This has been a key ingredient behind
his advancement, in less than 13 years, to Partner at Accenture.
“I’ve been a consultant for most of my career. In the early years,
I struggled to fit in. Most of the leaders in my organization seemed
to fit the same mold; but as I looked around, I did not see too
many people like me. It took me many years to get comfortable
with who I am, leverage my uniqueness, and promote my values.
Early in my career, a supervisor told me that my uniqueness is
what will make me successful in my career and not my efforts
to try to fit the mold. He encouraged me to get to know myself
and be authentic in my style. I was promoted to Partner a few
years ago. During the promotion celebration, my old supervisor,
who is now our Country Managing Partner, approached me and
reminded me of the conversation we had 10 years prior. He
praised me for successfully building Me Inc. He said that my
voice, footprint, presence, and legacy have defined my authentic
style. Throughout the years, in every moment of my life, I have
remained authentic and genuine. I don’t only bring my mind
to work; but also my heart. This has helped me build trusted
relationships and effectively perform in leadership roles.
Remember: there is only one of me and there is only
one of you. Be who you are. Be authentic!”
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