Lead Through Strengths - Build a Training and Coaching Practice, Based on Strengths - Standing Out By Using Your Strengths At Work - With Dorie Clark

Standing Out By Using Your Strengths At Work - With Dorie Clark

05/18/15 • 25 min

Lead Through Strengths - Build a Training and Coaching Practice, Based on Strengths

This Episode's Focus On Strengths Dorie Clark joined me to chat about using your uniqueness to Stand Out at work. If you want to improve your personal brand or reinvent yourself at work, this is a must-listen episode of Lead Through Strengths. We talked about applying your greatest strengths at work to help you stand out and boost your leadership cache.

What You'll LearnHow to use a personal 360 to understand the starting point of your personal brand. She gives a rich version for those who really want to invest in their development. We also recount my experiment with her "Three Words Exercise" (great experience, by the way). That's the super-fast version of the experience. And if you want an in-between commitment level when you apply it, here's a resource she published in Forbes. It's about asking for input via email.

Why I got called "Lady With Chainsaw" in my personal brand exercise.
How to stop sanding down your uniqueness and instead make it part of your brand.
Given that we're moving more and more to a world where what’s different about you is what matters, she shows you how to own your unique gifts and articulate them as part of your professional reputation.
The story of a poet turned management consultant. You heard that right. It's not a corporate exile who left to follow her art. It's an artist who used that to her advantage in the boardroom.
Ideas for developing yourself as a thought leader, even when you’re internal to a company and feel like it might be an awkward place to build a platform.
Tips for breaking through the noise if you're in a job transition and want to be the candidate that stands out.

Resource of the Episode It's a three-fer. Check out her books Stand Out and Reinventing You. She also offered up a free workbook where you can download 139 questions to reflect on your personal brand and career reinvention. Dorie really packed this show with great ideas and resources today. You're gonna love it. Remember, using your strengths at work makes you a stronger performer. If you’re focused on fixing your weaknesses, you’re choosing the path of most resistance. So claim your talents. And share them with the world. Listen Links Give the full episode a listen on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, SoundCloud, or Stream The Audio Right Here.

Why I got called "Lady With Chainsaw" in my personal brand exercise.
How to stop sanding down your uniqueness and instead make it part of your brand.
Given that we're moving more and more to a world where what’s different about you is what matters, she shows you how to own your unique gifts and articulate them as part of your professional reputation.
The story of a poet turned management consultant. You heard that right. It's not a corporate exile who left to follow her art. It's an artist who used that to her advantage in the boardroom.
Ideas for developing yourself as a thought leader, even when you’re internal to a company and feel like it might be an awkward place to build a platform.
Tips for breaking through the noise if you're in a job transition and want to be the candidate that stands out.

Previous Episode

Career Q&A: How do you ask someone to mentor you? And find a good fit?

This Episode's QuestionI have a question about finding a mentor. I hear consistently that it's an exceptional tool for professional development. I'm not sure where to find one...and if I do find one, how can I make sure they're a good fit?

What You'll Learn - How to ask a mentor for their time without offending them.

A way of thinking about mentor "fit" that feels the same way you decide whether a friend fits your style.

4 non-mentor relationships that can have mentor-like outcomes for you.

The secret sauce of a BBF.

Why offering to buy coffee could cost your mentor $3,000.

How asking to "pick your brain" could annoy a potential mentor.

Simple exchanges, requests, and relationship building "asks" that let you build a mentorship without asking them to move into your house during your first conversation.

Tweetable of the Episode Remember to be a giver with your mentors, not just a taker. You have value they need.

Resource of the Episode Book: 52 Strategies for Life, Love & Work: Transforming Your Life One Week at a Time by Anne Grady, my BBF.

Next Episode

Tie Your Personal Brand To Your Natural Talents with Ryan Rhoten

This Episode’s Focus On Strengths

Ryan Rhoten joined me to chat about using your natural talents to understand and design your Personal Brand. If you want to have a rockin’ career, you need to know what your brand is (you have one whether you tried to or not). And then you can do branding efforts to leverage your personal strengths.

What You’ll LearnYou’ll hear a personal story–how Ryan discovered the importance of knowing how others perceive you at work (and on Google). You’ll see how taking the StrengthsFinder assessment was his starting point for understanding the talents he needed to lean into at work. And:

How you can take strengths like “Whiteboard Weirdo” and turn them into you biggest brand asset.
Using your natural talents so that you can consciously select your next job–you can use it as a way to vet job descriptions and work cultures.
If you’re feeling dread and misery at work...this episode might just reveal why.
What to do when you’re working with leaders who have an opposite style to yours.
Find out the difference between Personal Brand and Personal Branding. There IS a difference, and Ryan makes a cool distinction so you can align who you are with what you do and then market your strengths to the world.
What to do when you realize that your current job forces you into your weakness zone.

Resource of the Episode You get four of them this time! Check out Ryan’s Personal Brand Assessment to see where you are today. Now that you’re excited to dig in further, check out Ryan’s Brand New You show. And he offers a full course calledThe Personal Branding Blueprint. We also talked a lot about the StrengthsFinder assessment. If you grab the book StrengthsFinder2.0 you’ll get a code to take the assessment and learn your Top 5 Talent Themes. Remember, using your strengths at work makes you a stronger performer. If you’re focused on fixing your weaknesses, you’re choosing the path of most resistance. So claim your talents. And share them with the world.

To subscribe and review, here are your links for listening in iTunes and Stitcher radio. Subscribing is a great way to never miss an episode – let the app notify you each week when the latest question gets published. You can also stream any episode live on the website. Just click through the title you like and there will be a player waiting for you on each page. See you there!