I have been down to San Francisco a few times and mixed with some Silicon Valley tech heads. The energy there, in the tech industry, is literally tangible. A tech room is heavy and sweaty with potential. It is simultaneously heady … Continue reading I Have An $8 Million Idea. FOR SURE! Silicon Valley Told Me
Your personal brand begins with reflection. You sense ideas of your brilliance. Now, you need to make them come alive. If you are an “analytical” accountant, well, so is every other accountant. So exactly what was your process or insight that allowed you to do that great work? Dig around for words, dig around for stories, especially. Share those stories. Others may not remember your direct strengths, but they will relay a good story about you. These stories are data points. They weave together to build your narrative, and as John Hagel so eloquently explains, your personal narrative is never finished, … Continue reading Personal Branding: Solidify Through Stories
I have learned many things from writing the TMWK blog for a year, with more than 260 posts. Here are 10 revelations, so far. I want to separate out a key piece. Because the blog is me working out loud, sharing my knowledge, perspective, beliefs and opinions, it is the CLEAREST, most precise way you can know me (well, unless you KNOW me IRL). I say This Much We Know. I mean, this is who I am, how I move out into the world. If you read this blog, you know me, you know my motivations, my focus, my gift and … Continue reading This Much We Know? You Will Know Me From This Blog
Dr. Google is disguising more and more the search terms people use to get to content, so as to usurp the SEO work arounds played out on web spiders. Consequently, the search drivers that bring people to the site are more opaque. For some reason, though, Google shares with me that a common search term that arrives people here is “Teach me something I don’t know.” Indeed, this blog post is the number one link on Google for people searching that term. Most excellent. People are curious. They want to learn. They are moving out into the world under their own … Continue reading TMWK Best Of 2013 0: Teach Me Something I Don’t Know
This is the most viewed post of 2013: I Have Changed My Job Title To…Corporate Disorganizer.. It is an intriguing idea, one that has been woven through many posts on change management, organizational development, personal branding, career planning, and discussion on the future of work. I assume its popularity is due to its reference in many of these posts. Here’s to disorganizing some more in 2014! ←This Much We Know.→ Continue reading TMWK Best Of 2013 1: Corporate Disorganizer
Comparing X with Y is a neat neurological trick to remember a new idea / meme. I wrote a whole series of short posts around how language matters in how we relate to work, and each other. It started with a riff on some blog posts by Luis Suarez and others on the challenges we have working in “Social” business, and how easy it is that the word “Social” take us down a business buy-in cul-de-sac. I suggested instead, “Open” Is The New “Social.” People also liked the post called “Share” Is The New “Save.”. I have used this idea throughout the blog … Continue reading TMWK Best Of 2013 2: X Is The New Y
This is an area of the blog I thought would be an afterthought, but has, in fact, become the central plank of the content here. I guess this showcases the practice of working out loud – as I learn, consider, question, I share. The top posts in this area include: 10 #WorkHacks To Prepare For ‘The Future Of Work’ What Does A Friend Look Like In The Age Of Social? The Future Of Work: Sponsor Disruption I wrote 117 posts under this topic in 2013. Find them here. ←This Much We Know.→ Continue reading TMWK Best Of 2013 4: #FutureOfWork
I started this blogging idea watching my kids learning about the world for the first time with “the child’s clear eye…”; and comparing it to my own curiosity I have in unlearning / relearning so many of the social and work rules I have come to question and challenge. It is also to capture those effortless moments of childhood and not to forget them. Acknowledging my kids’ genius is vital work. These posts seem to be popular with mummy bloggers, especially on WordPress. The most popular post: Curious Kids: The Child’s Clear Eye Discover more by searching for Curious Kids. ←This … Continue reading TMWK Best Of 2013 5: Curious Kids
I closed out 2013 with a series of posts on personal branding and the BrandBoard process we excel at here at TMWK. To welcome the new year, here is a quick review of the content. It’s Me > You Every Time It starts with you. How you define yourself is the most important thing – more important than how other people define you. You own your brand. More >> Do You Have A Head-Heart-Hand Brand? We cannot be all things to all people. Don’t try it. Focus on where you make the difference. We find that most people have a … Continue reading Want To Know About Personal Branding? Step Right This Way…
I have received a 360 degree peer review – a very interesting process of understand the good, bad and ugly about myself. Illuminating. Personal branding is not 360 feedback. It is 180 degree feedback – it looks forward into the marketplace; it does not (generally) look behind the curtains at the malignancy and maleficence within us all. Save that for the psychologist’s couch, please. No, we want input from your cohort about how great you are, to drive your brand to new heights and to either agree or challenge your own thinking about how you show up. Seeing Eye To Eye. Generally, I … Continue reading Dissecting Your Personal Brand: 180 Degree Peer Review
At TMWK, we do not pretend to be psychologists. We are marketeers! We want to develop a brand with you in the most powerful and meaningful way. We do not want to tell you who you are – that’s your job. We provide some inputs, and the stimulation. So, if you have “personality tests” from other sources, we can add those in – we like data, the more the merrier, because in much data we see patterns, themes emerge, and from that – your brand essence. So, I have nothing particular to add about these tests other than – it’s … Continue reading Dissecting Your Personal Brand: Personality Tests
The number one area of reading everyone should be doing to better understand the(ir) human condition is modern advances in neurology – we have come to understand more about the workings of brain in the last 20 years than in the previous 10000 years. I remember as a Economics undergrad participating in game theory studies with my professors as they pulled apart long standing arguments about rational decision-making. It is fascinating stuff. So, when we look at your personal brand, part of the process is to reflect on how we make decisions, because it definitely informs how we show up. … Continue reading Dissecting Your Personal Brand: How Does Your Brain Work?
This Much We Know 