Career

Fast Company’s Polly LaBarre’s Advice

Are you capable of change as fast as the world is changing?

What case do you make for the difference you make in your role?

Are you regularly able to reinvent yourself?

Polly LaBarre encourages developing a sense of energy. (Photo by Cynthia Price)

Polly LaBarre encourages developing a sense of energy. (Photo by Cynthia Price)

Those were daunting questions asked by Polly LaBarre, a founding member of Fast Company and the editorial director of MIX.

Her advice is not to be afraid, but rather to develop a sense of energy.

She quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson: “There are always two parties, the part of the Past and the party of the Future; the Establishment and the Movement.”

She offered the following advice during the October PRSA International Conference:

Stand for something. The values you stand for will imbue your organization. Your job is to be alive and awake to the shifts, but you also need to know what shouldn’t change. Articulate and advocate for a better future.

“You have to make a case for why what you do really matters,” she said. “Have you developed a story so powerful that people will stand in line for it? That they will tell it for you?”

If they are telling it for you, they most likely are on social media.

Cultivate your innovation DNA. LaBarre posed the question: “How do you do art as a team sport?” She discussed Pixar Animation Studios, which she said “turned the workplace into a canvas.” For example, the visitor badge reads, “A stranger from the outside.” Emergency exit signs at Pixar read, “Exit the building before tweeting about it.”

Lead without authority. The ruling idealogy for so long was “control” but that doesn’t unleash passion and inspiration.

Have you developed your sense of energy?

Are You Sitting at the Table?

In Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In she talks about the importance of sitting at the table.

I had been meaning to read the book for some time, and I’m glad I finally made the time, if only for this point. She encourages individuals, women in particular, to not wait to be invited to sit at the table.

She cited an example of an important business meeting where a few women sat off to the side. That also meant they were not included in the conversation and the decision making.

As an introvert, it’s more natural for me to want to sit off to the side and absorb. However, I learned early on that I not only need to sit at the table, but that I must “raise my hand and keep it up.”

If an agenda is available ahead of time, I review it to determine the areas where I might best contribute.

Another way to think about being seated at the table, is to not wait to be told what to do. To succeed, Sandberg says, it’s important to seize opportunities and make them fit for you.

In my last position, I seized an opportunity to develop the organization’s social media strategy and jump start it. It was a great learning opportunity, and has proven invaluable as I now have more communications platforms available to share content.

Through NFPW and other organizations I have seized opportunities by volunteering for positions that not only helped me gain new skills, but also provided me with leadership roles.

Are you ready for a seat at the table?

Your Career and the Holidays

In the bustle of the holiday season, try carving out some time to focus on you and your career.  Here are a few simple ways to do that:

Reflect: Think back on the past year about your accomplishments and then update your resume. Did you learn a new skill? Receive recognition? Complete a big project? Add it to your resume. Once you have done that, do the same on LinkedIn.

Connect: This is a great time of year to send a short note to someone and update them on what you have been doing. Even better, provide that person with information that would be useful to them. I recently shared with a former colleague who is interested in improving her Twitter skills about a great online class I took in just that area. If you are job searching, be sure to have business cards with your contact details and areas of interest to share when you meet someone.

Shop: Yes, I just wrote that. If you have not updated your wardrobe in a while, take advantage of the sales and give your professional wardrobe and upgrade. If you wear glasses and haven’t purchased a pair in a few years, it’s time for new frames.

Learn: Download a book or visit your library to find a book on a topic that could help your career. In an upcoming post, I will share what’s on my list. My goal is to finish one during the holidays.

Relax: Sometimes the best way to help yourself professionally is by taking care of yourself. Schedule time to sit quietly and be mindful of all that you do have.

What Are Your Credentials?

Fred Cook was honored at the 2014 PRSA International Conference with the Gold Anvil Award, the Society’s highest individual award. It is considered to be PRSA’s lifetime achievement award and is presented to a public relations practitioner who is a PRSA member and whose accomplishments have made a major contribution to the profession.

Cook describes himself on his LinkedIn profile as the “unlikely CEO of the world’s most unorthodox PR agency.”

He didn’t follow a traditional career path, and he told the audience he barely graduated college. But he did gain experience in many areas, whether working on an ocean tanker, as a limo driver or as a doorman.

“My experience became my credentials,” he said.

He wasn’t afraid to take risks and to do things differently. “We need to be more brave, we need to have bigger ideas, and we need to act more boldly,” he added.

In a recent post, he wrote, “Improvisation, like evolution, is a critical survival tool.”

He talks about all of that in his book Improvise – Unconventional Career Advice from an Unlikely CEO.

Cooks suggests treating one’s career as if it was a pool table and the balls are experiences. “The more balls on the table, the more options you have.”

How many balls do you have in play?

Choose to Live a Life That Matters

Melanie Liddle Healey came to the United States from Brazil to attend university. It was a bold move for an 18-year-old, she told a group of students and alum. It also was a move that scared her.

In reflecting on her life, she asked herself, “How am I different today than I was 35 years ago?” She realized her values, talents and passions are pretty much the same. What shaped her, she said, are the choices she made along the way, and “therefore, the experiences I have had.”  She recently announced her retirement from Procter and Gamble.

The intentional choices that Melanie made included:

Choose to be you and believe in yourself. “Believe that you can do anything,” she shared.

The right choice is often the most difficult. “When we do the right thing, we can look everybody in the face without fear,” she said. “We gain the respect of our people and of our families and children, by making them feel proud of what we stand for and what we do. Ultimately, you will be respected for standing up for what you believe in.

Choose to find the courage to step out of your comfort zone. “When you have the courage to step out of your comfort zone, magic happens,” she said.

Choose to make a difference, to give back. She said leaders have a moral obligation and a responsibility to give back and to use their “influence and power proactively to help our communities prosper and be better, stronger.”

You cannot choose to have it all. She said that the choice to not have it all is liberating. “If I cannot have it all, what can I have? What do I really want and what is really important to me?” she asked. “Once you shed the shackles of the illusion that you can choose to have it all, you can focus on the essentials of life.”

She summed it up succinctly:

“Choose to live a life that matters.”