Act Your Dream

Many years ago during my short stint at a PR firm, we flew to a client to make a presentation. Minutes after we arrived, a senior executive walked up to us and told us that our key contact at the company passed away last night. To that, my boss impulsively snapped, “Well, didn’t you do your succession planning? We flew up here and expect to present to someone.” Trying not to look at the utterly stupefied face of the poor guy, I could only hear ear-numbing silence following that short retort from my boss. I vaguely remember a bird or two chirping at a distance too. Well, I do admire all facets of verbal communication skills and am highly respectful of everyone who takes eloquence and articulation to the next level. But more often than not, it is the failure to appreciate  when to keep quiet  that lands most people in trouble. For discerning employers, a finely honed sense of when not to talk is a highly sought-after communication skill that is hard to come by. As someone s...

Photo credit:  Robert S. Donovan  (original image has been modified) Let’s get one thing out of the way first. There are millions of great articles on and off the Internet on how to promote your personal brand. This is not intended to add another one to the stockpile. The first intention is simply to help you answer the fundamental question that comes up long before you even start thinking of how to promote your personal brand – what  is  your brand? Once you have that figured out, promoting your brand becomes a piece of cake. The second intention is to keep it simple and action-oriented. Lastly, it is not intended for personal branding gurus but for the inquisitive young minds that want to take charge of their brands for future career success. The Genuine Brand While personal branding is now evolving into a structured approach to creating a personal identity and promise of value, the core concept has been there long before Tom Peters coined t...

Photo Credit: Randy Heinitz I was 15 years old. Hiding behind my desk in the classroom, trying hard to ignore my trembling legs and sweaty palms, I was dreading that imminent moment when the teacher would call out my name and I would have to come out of my snug invisibility cloak and be seen for all my limitations. This would be my first impromptu speech to an audience of more than one. Don’t even ask me how it went. As my impulse reaction to the experience I had been through, I decided to remain unknown. Comfortable in my anonymity, I had convinced myself that I had no interest in achieving success in life. I was in denial mode. But there I was years later; reflecting on the experience that had shaken the very core of my self-esteem as a school boy. I looked inwardly to search for what my reason had been. What I discovered was appalling. I was too afraid to let go of something I thought I had. I didn’t want to take the risk of doing the things necessary for making i...

Photo Credit: Reji "Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right." ~ Henry Ford Let me admit. I have been meaning to write on the subject for over two months now. And each time I would put pen to paper; I would say to myself, "wait a minute, I do not feel enough about the subject yet to come across as self-assured." It was as if something needed to happen to sweep me away in a whirlwind of undeniable conviction before I could say what I wanted to say since a long time. I wanted to speak as a practitioner rather than as an academic. J. Sterling Livingston's article Pygmalion in Management, originally published in Harvard Business Review in 1969 had struck me as undeniable truth, not for all the evidence provided but simply for the empirical nature of the assertion. It made perfect sense and helped me explain the mechanics of how expectations influence human behavior - a phenomenon I had observed intriguingly as a ...

Photo Credit: citymart When fisherman Jack finally landed a boot, he knew it was the last straw. His spectacular skills, with the perfect fishing gear, which he'd gone to great lengths to polish each day for the past 20 years, were no longer working. Jack was exasperated. He suffered from cold feet, itchy fingers and a hunger for success which drove him to pursue each boot with a vengeance. Jack was out of his element, and as much as he had always admired boots, he realized something that day, which changed his life forever. Now consider this - new in the country, six months flushed down in hope of finding suitable work and hard earned savings disappearing like quicksilver in the cracks. Add this to throw in a bit of twist - no contacts. Like Jack, I felt like I had hit rock bottom. So between my episodes of frantic quibbling and blaming anybody I could get hold of, I did the obvious thing anyone would do - I surfed the net. I spent the greater part of each day ...