Ultimate Multi-tasking

Here’s a link to my post to Positive Psychology News Daily this month, on the subjects of happiness, busyness and holiday letters.

Please feel free to add your comments and thoughts here or on the PPND site.

Image: sha in LA

Yesterday I went to a fascinating presentation by Microsoft at a Womenintechnology event on Raising your Profile, at which the results of the recent Microsoft / Womenintechnology survey about women’s careers in the technology industry were revealed.

Some women who completed the survey felt that a glass ceiling exists in their company; perhaps it’s more common in some industries and cultures, however the message from the presenters was very clear – this is not a reason not to follow a career that you love and be very successful in it.

Eileen Brown, IT Pro Evangelist Team Manager,and fellow blogger (see here spent 10 years working as a navigating officer on Shell supertankers before joining Microsoft, so she clearly knows what it takes to succeed in a male environment. Both she, and Kate Isler,Chief of Staff for the Microsoft Online Services Group, emphasised the role of choice and responsibility in career decisions. It’s easy to forget these when you’re immersed in an organisation and especially if you seldom take the time to network externally.

I was also intrigued to hear limiting beliefs mentioned several times; many people allow themselves to be defined by their beliefs, even when they’re unhelpful and can be changed. Uncovering what your beliefs are is a good first step to transforming them into something more useful.

At the panel debate and Q&A session afterwards, Salma Shah, Director of SN Training, talked about the importance of creating a consistent personal brand, not in the sense of something manufactured, but by building on your strengths and letting people know what you’re about.

And Terry Thorpe, CTO of the Centre for Integral Transformation , and also a blogger (and whose blog looks spookily like ours… see here, mentioned the importance of networking as a way of doing the job you currently do, not as an add-on, or something that gets done after hours. I think this is a really critical part of business success – in the sense that it’s the only way to let other people know who you are as a person, and what you stand for.

Finally, I liked what Paul Norris, Microsoft EMEA Director had to say about being yourself, being genuine and being human. Often in the cut and thrust of business we can forget that success is due to people. You can have a great product or service, but without great people you’ll get nowhere. Getting the best out of your people, and allowing them to play to their strengths, is what will make your team and your business succeed.

What initially struck me about the CWM was the sheer energy in the room, even before the main debate got underway. About a quarter of the delegates were new to the network, the atmosphere warm and welcoming, in sharp contrast to the rather solemn surroundings.

The panel, made up of

• Aliza Blachman O’Keeffe (Executive Coach with Eden McCallum)
• Jane Atkinson (PR and image consultant, former spokesperson for the late Diana, Princess of Wales),
• Stuart Higgins (ex-editor of the Sun and now MD of Stuart Higgins Communications), and
• Neville Hobson (VP New Marketing for Crayon and blogger-extraordinaire),

contrasted traditional and new media contexts in a lively and engaging way, drawing on their personal experience and including many anecdotes to illustrate their points of view.

And what also intrigued me was the contrast between the way ‘old’ and new media works, with the latter having an unforeseen level of impact on every aspect of PR and personal branding, as well as on society more generally.

* In traditional media (newspapers and mainstream TV) it may take several months or even years to carefully craft the ‘right’ public image. With new media (basically anything delivered using the internet), this might be achieved within days or even hours.

Business people might dismiss this as only relevant to the world of celebrity, but the point is that personal and corporate reputations can be improved or tarnished in just the same amount of time.

In addition, your (or your company’s) public image can even be created or affected without your agreement or knowledge. We were advised by Neville Hobson to google our own names when we got home – whilst we may not be able to change what is out there in the public arena, at least we can be aware of it. Forewarned is forearmed.

It seems that the rewards for getting it right can be enormous, but the risks are equally large.

* The way new media works dictates that authenticity is crucial. When you’re in the public eye (voluntarily or not), if you’re not authentic you’ll be found out and exposed, and probably sooner rather than later. So why is authenticity so important?

* Well, authenticity is linked to trust, and new technology has contributed to a huge change in the nature of trust in society. According to Neville Hobson, we are more likely to trust ‘a person like me’ than our politicians or the media. It seems that we are now prepared to trust people we’ve never met and probably never will, simply because we got talking to them in an internet chat-room, or liked what they had to say on a blog. Therefore, if you want to create a professional image which is trusted and respected, be authentic.

There were several questions to the panel along the lines of “given what we’ve heard about the dangers, should I try to establish a personal brand at all?” Stuart Higgins quoted an example of a very high profile woman whose reputation has been enhanced by the fact that she has resolutely kept quiet at public engagements. It works both ways. The key is to know what you’re going into and to adhere to the simple rules.

And what of the business world? Well, the Edelman Annual Trust Barometer states that

Trust has important bottom-line consequences. In most markets, more than 80% [of respondents] say they would refuse to buy goods or services from a company they do not trust, and more than 70% will criticize them to people they know, with one-third sharing their opinions and experiences of a distrusted company on the Web.

So companies are not immune from the issues surrounding authenticity and trust.

According to Edelman, “To build trust, companies need to localize communications, be transparent, and engage multiple stakeholders continuously as advocates across a broad array of communications channels’

For another perspective on this CWN event, see writer Yang-May Ooi’s blog.

Other reports and surveys about the nature of trust :

Reuters survey

Public trust and confidence in charities – Nov 05

Public Affairs News – Democratisation of Trust

IEEE Communications Society – Survey of Trust in Internet Applications – 2000

Trust Us – Survey of Corporate Sustainability Reporting