Leading with Authenticity

Hello, everybody. Happy Monday. I'm Jean. I've got my trusted advisor major here with me today. Hope you're all having a great Monday. I apologize. I am a couple minutes late, but I appreciate the kind words from JC this morning. So as we all settle in here on professional development day on this beautiful Monday, we're going to kick right in. Hello, speak wonder. How are you? Do you have any new words for us? Any new poems that you've written? Happy Monday. Nice to have you here. So, my name is Jean Nichols, and again, I just want to thank JC for his kind words this morning.

Always a treat to hear him. And we get to hear him a little more frequently, which I personally love. So this morning, I am running a little late and I do apologize. It's Minneapolis, Minnesota time. We're having a heat index warning. It's gonna get over 100 today. Personally, I love it. Not everybody does. So I'll take it as long as I can. But today I wanted to talk about passion, purpose and your brand. So I'm going to ask, and if you're listening to this on replay or if you're listening to this live, oh, you're going to post a poem in the community chat.

Yes. Speak, wonder. Your personal brand, for me, is your magic with words. So when we're in our day jobs, we're in our lives, there are things that we become known for. Speak, wonder. As my example, you become known of as the human that has brilliant words and magic with words. There are times in our career, times in our days where we might wear many different hats. And it's really important for us to sometimes take a pause and take stock of what our brand is. Now we think about a brand. I'll ask you the question.

What are some famous or popular brands that you think of? When I say the word brand, what would you type or type in the chat? Some names that you might be super familiar with that you think have done a great job of branding their company. For me, I would type in Nike. They have their slogan, just do it. I would add in Lululemon from a place of community and movement and clothing. So we could go through a long list of brands that we might like or brands that maybe we think are missing the mark in how they communicate to the world.

Or maybe they haven't evolved. Maybe the landscape has changed around them, but they haven't done a good job of changing with the growing communities, the landscape, the businesses, the environment, the cultures that we're creating. And sometimes those brands fall off and new ones come up. And so when I think about our own individual selves and having a brand, it's really important that we take stock first. It's what is the brand that we want to have? What do we want to be known for? Now, we don't often think about ourselves as needing to have a brand, but in essence, we are living, walking, moving lies, personification of our strengths, our ideas, the impact that we make in the world, in the community.

And so it's important sometimes that we can. Oh, the bullseye target. Yes, it is important sometimes that we can take stock of what is the brand that we have, what is our purpose. So I, Jean, have had a purpose statement for a while. And my statement is to work with individuals, teams, communities, to create positive change and forward movement. And so when I think about that as a consultant, what kind of work am I taking? How do I show up with my clients if I think about that brand and that statement as a spin instructor, how am I showing up to my community?

If I think about that statement, that branding statement for myself as a Reiki master, as a sound bath therapist, a meditation guru, how am I showing up with that brand in that way? So when I look at the three hats I wear and the work that I do, I'm always asking myself and looking for ways or courses I can take, studies I can take words that I use to promote what I do or talk about what I do that align with my purpose, align with my passion about creating positive change and forward movement for all the people that I work with now, there might be additional layers behind that, but if somebody's asking me the question, I can always say that.

But I can also use that as my benchmark on what opportunities I might say yes to and what opportunities I might say no to. Because if it doesn't align with my brand or my purpose and I say yes to it, then I'm going to be maybe a little bit more drained or deenergized by the work. I might start to veer off course and then I have to take more time and effort to get back on course and help people to remember why they might want to work with me, what strength I can bring to the team. So taking stock or taking inventory of your own personal brand is really important, especially as you're looking to maybe do a career transition.

Maybe you're looking into getting promotions. Maybe you're trying to understand why you don't get certain promotions that you apply for in work. Sometimes it's because the perception people have of our brand and what we believe our brand is. Sometimes there's a delta. And by taking stock, asking mentors, asking managers, people that we work with, people in our lives, some simple questions, what do they see as our strengths? What do they think that I'm known for? Two simple, simple questions. And if what they say back to me doesn't equal or resonate within a certain delta measure to what I believe my strengths are and what my purpose is, that means I have some work to do.

It means that maybe I haven't taken the right opportunities to align with my brand. Maybe I haven't shared why certain activities are energizing or de energizing to me. When I first started taking stock of my personal brand, I was working as a senior financial analyst at a large Fortune 50 company. And it was really interesting for me to go through this exercise. It was very daunting because I worked with a coach at the time, and I had a specific set of questions that were, I probably had five questions instead of the two main ones that I just gave you, and I sent them out to a whole bunch of people.

But I had to be very vulnerable in what I might get back. And what goes through our head of, well, am I enough? Am I doing enough? What will they say? What if they critique me? What if I have a lot of work to do? We're always, you know, getting feedback is hard because it's personal and it can be extremely vulnerable, and it can be something we get a little heady about. It can take us in a downward spiral if it comes back too harsh. But if we look at it for what it is, which is simply data and someone's perspective and their perspective might be right or wrong, then I'll have the opportunity to say, okay, who do I want to become next?

And I say next because we're never the same iteration. We're never the same, same version of who we were. A year from now, even our body changes. Our body replaces skin and cells every single day. We lose hair, we grow hair. So physically, our bodies change and is a different, almost full exterior a year from now than what it was a year ago because of just the evolution and how our body replenishes ourselves. So if you think about us as humans and the evolution that we go through, the strengths that we have today might be stronger next year because we invest in them.

Our brand in a year from now might be different than what we're known for today, simply because we started with intention and purpose to move the dial and help to reframe how people think about our work and help people to understand how we can really be more effective if we did x, Y and z. So taking stock of that brand today, I look at it simply as a mile marker. A stick we put in the ground. A stake we put in the ground that says, here's where I'm at today. And does it align with what I believe my purpose is?

The only person that can tell you your strengths and your purpose is you just going to let that sit there? The only person that can tell me what you feel you are strong at doing, the only person that can tell me that you are energized by the work that you're doing, you're passionate about the work that you're doing is you. I can tell you what I observe and tell you what I see, and that is what we acquire, that's what we ask questions about is what is that perception of our work and our ability to lead.

And it's a data point. And that's why we ask multiple people, because multiple people are going to have perspectives. And then we take the compilation and we say, okay, this is where I'm going to lean into right now. This, I think, is off the mark. I need to start to reframe that. What might I do to help people reframe how they think about what I love in my work. Because they might see me doing something and they might see that I'm really good at it. But what they might not know is every time I have to do that one activity, I feel like I want to vomit.

And I use that characterization very dramatically, intentionally, because we can feel that visceral feeling of when we're drained by an activity, but we can still be great at it. And when we're really excited about something, we can even be better at that. So how might we take a more proactive approach to communicating what's energizing and de energizing, collecting information to see does the brand and the purpose that people experience with me each and every day, does that match the purpose and the brand that I want to evolve into?

And if there's a delta in there, great. Now I can start to figure out what I might do differently to track the work that I want, the correct promotion for me. And I say correct doesn't mean that there's one opportunity. It means that when I go for it, people are going to know that I am going to be the best at it, because they've now started to see my brand in a different way, because I've started communicating differently. I've started saying yes to different projects that are going to lean in. I've started taking courses through my, my company or on my own and then talking about what I learned because I'm excited about it.

So we want to invest our time and our money into the activities and the curiosities we are the most passionate about and share those and use what we learn because those are fundamental steps that can help us change our brand. But it starts with us getting really crisp and clear. What are my strengths? What are the things that I am really good at? It doesn't mean you're better than everybody, but it means that when you're doing them, you are excited to be doing them. You're curious about learning how to do it better.

And what is my purpose, what is my passion? Doesn't mean you're always going to get to your passion. And that's not the end objective. We might get closer, but that's better than the other direction, right? So take that inventory. Ask some people that you know, what did they see as your strengths? What did they see you being passionate about at work and do the exercise. Get vulnerable. And if you want to have more questions or you want to get more tools, type it in the comments and tag my name. I have tools galore and I love having this conversation because once we can do that inventory for ourselves and we can collect that information, we can start to make our own positive change.

Speak wonder you typed in there that this really helps you think of what I do. Is it in or out of align with my purpose? Yeah, and it always starts with us. The secondary factor is, are people's perception aligned with what we know to be true. So I hope you all have an amazing Monday. And if you're listening to this on replay, feel free to ask questions or comments. I always go back and look at them. And mostly I want you all to just have a good day, take a pause, take a breath, and remember that the gifts that you have to give to the world are more than enough.

Sometimes we just need to see them more. We'll talk to you soon.