What is your Career Brand as a Connected Leader?

In one of my recent coaching sessions, I had the opportunity to facilitate one of those “breakthrough” moments where my client pulled together a cohesive Career Brand Statement:  a specific milestone I establish for my coaching clients for career navigation work.  The shift in thinking is this – moving from identifying yourself from resume bullets to crafting a compelling position statement that allows you to anchor your story about your delivery brand.   This subtle shift means you:

• Accept the “free agent” reality of the our work life in exponential times and that you are taking charge of your story in a truly meaningful way
• That you can articulate the whole you into your unique story that can translate toward any working venue from a small start-up company to a large corporation
•  Sets the stage for what I consider the thinking and behavior that comes from a Connected Leader

I hinted at this idea of the Connected Leader in my last blog.  And first off – leadership –  I see everyone as a leader regardless of your position or occupation.   Leadership is an accumulation of wise principles in action.   Anyone is a leader at anytime.   The more we embrace the leader inside us, the more momentum will be created in our wake.  It’s that simple.   So the Connected Leader is someone who:

•  Knows who they are – there’s not need to “prove” or over-compensate in lack of confidence.  The Connected Leader is confident in their own skin and is a grounded person.  You sense that when you meet them.
• Understands positioning – in terms of maintaining a balanced position in efforts to build trust, do the right thing,  demonstrate consideration to others, and drive results & relationships forward for a greater good
• Brings their entire self into the situation to be a strong problem owner and solutionist without losing their identity to the work or the role

Draw the curtain back on the Connected Leader and you will find someone innately curious about life, experiences, learning, and the story other’s can tell.  This curiosity drives them each day and in creative ways.    They also cherish their key learning experiences that happened in their life’s path and not necessarily in the work environment.

The Connected Leader draws in all learning experiences of life from each corner and applies those learnings to any role, problem, and idea the situation calls for – with that set up here are some questions for you:

• What is your Career Brand Statement?
• If you are in transition – have you crafted this time as a learning sabbatical that will allow tie into your unique story?
• Have you captured life lessons in a way that tie back to the Connected Leader inside of you?

More next time…