I was in my local hairdressers the other day when I noticed an exchange between the salon owner and a customer who came in to book an appointment. I noticed the customer was clutching a photo of a celebrity whose hair style she obviously admired. I also noticed that the celebrity had a totally different type, length and texture of hair to the customer. As the salon owner took the customer aside for a consultation I thought 'oh dear unrealistic aspirations!'. When the salon owner returned to me I commented that this must have been a difficult conversation and she surprised me with her answer. 'Not at all' she said enthusiastically, I love customers who come to me with a very clear idea of what they want, no matter how unrealistic it is, this gives us a great starting point for their vision. We may not be able to achieve an exact replica, but I will have a very clear idea of where they want to be, and then we can then look at what is achievable. It's the customers who come to me with no clue what they want that are a problem. This gives me nothing to work on, and without any other vision they will most likely end up with a slightly updated version of what they have today, and that's probably not what they really want.
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Is that stranger you sit next to on the bus or train your next best friend or a death eater? We all know the positive impact the right people have on our mental health, but we certainly can't tell from appearances if we are about to have the best, or the worst, journey of our lives.
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- 'With confidence you have won before you’ve started' Marcus Garvey, political leader, journalist, publisher, entrepreneur
Confidence is life’s natural enabler. It enables us to believe in our abilities, to brave new situations, to flourish in the moment. It’s the magic that helps us to speak up, the oil that greases our performance, and the belief in our value that enables us to negotiate what’s important to us.
Confidence is not a veneer of bravado, it's not an outfit you can put on for a performance. It’s the catalyst that turns the combination of opportunity and competence into long term, meaningful success. Confidence is as essential in today’s corporate workplace as basic communication skills, and yet it remains for many of us, elusive and something we still need to learn to cultivate.
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There's a lot written about the importance of mapping the journey and creating the right vision as a critical part of any successful change program. In fact, the ability to 'articulate a clear, compelling vision' is ranked number 1 in the recent research carried out by Sirius Decisions on critical leadership skills.
It's clear this is necessary as a communications tool, to get customers, employees, shareholders and other stakeholders on board and for them to buy into the vision and understand the strategy behind why the planned change is necessary. But the need for a clear and compelling vision isn't enough for the team that are going to be doing the hard work of change. They need something more than a compelling vision from the person in the driving seat.
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According to Business Insider Intelligence, TechCrunch & Fortune, LinkedIn (LI) crossed the half-billion user mark in 2017. Founded in 2002, LI has grown their active user base to 260 million (March 2017 Apptopia) with 40% (Omnicoreagency) logging in every day. LI claim to be the most used social platform for Fortune 500 companies, evidence of the journey they've been on since the early days when they could have been dismissed as another job site.
As LinkedIn has grown in importance, so have the number of people who really understand how it works and how we can use it. I have listed some of the best experts I have found at the end of this article so you can tap directly into their wisdom.
It's likely that your public LI profile will be the first thing everyone finds when they Google your name. Whilst you have less control over what appears first in Google you can make sure your LI profile tells the right story about you.
How does your profile look? Is it doing a great job promoting your skills and experience? Does it show you as approachable and relevant? Does it attract your tribe and encourage other like-minded people to connect with you?
If like many of us, you have been meaning to refresh your LI profile, read on for some practical, actionable tips.
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