The document discusses finding your authentic self through personal branding, emotional intelligence, and metrics. It recommends asking questions, seeking feedback, and authenticating your personal expression to develop your personal brand and emotional intelligence. It also encourages pushing outside your comfort zone and investing in yourself for career growth.
1. Find your authentic self.
Career Growth through Personal Brand, Emotional Intelligence and Metrics
Jessica McPeake
Senior Director of Technical Enablement
13. RESOURCES
Personal Brand:
Carla Harris: Pearls of Wisdom in Expect To Win
“Authentic Self Expression” TEDx Talk
Getting Started?
Recommend QuickSprout.com Chapter 1 and Chapter 8 to get started
Emotional Intelligence:
Harvard Business Review Must Reads
Brené Brown’s TED Talk “The Power of Vulnerability”
Assess your EQ via Emotional Intelligence 2.0 Book
Comes with access to online EQ test
Editor's Notes
Yesterday was amazing right?!?! We heard themes about using our x factor, leveraging our advantages, being authentic, being vulnerable. Today, I want to expand on what we learned by focusing on our personal brand and emotional intelligence to grow our careers which starts with understanding who we are. Finding our authentic selves.
Hello. I’m Jess. I am a gender fluid lesbian who thinks life is a special gift, something to maximize. I am a true believer in evolving ourselves through experiences and reflection - pushing our selves into new territories. To silence the noise and my critics. Over the years, I have boiled this down to a simple phrase - does it bring you joy? This is part of my personal brand and frankly branding, as I have a tattoo to remind me of this purpose and drive. And don’t worry - you don’t have to tattoo of who you are in order to have a strong personal brand.
When my spouse and I finally decided to add a kid to our family we felt the SF foster to adoption program was the right path for us. After we got assigned our social worker, My inner voice was telling me that I desired something else - the experience to be pregnant and have an infant. For me it’s been an evolution spanning 2 decades of my own awareness and identify but here I am – a gender fluid lesbian who feels more dapper than pretty - doing one of the most feminine womanly things I could do, be pregnant and automatically be lumped in with a large community of women I felt alien around that loved to talk about their mommy parts. Fortunately, I have a strong sense of self that I implicitly trust. I plunged into this unknown experience. And what a journey it was. People felt bold enough to all but tell me they didn’t think I even had those parts. That they were shocked that my spouse would not be the one to be pregnant. And let me tell you - maintaining myself during the pregnancy was a journey - me and maternity clothes - not so much. And don’t get me started on how one minute I was breastfeeding and then next being mistaken for a man while hormonal. But through it all it was an experience I wanted and had I not had my strong internal compass guiding me above how others define me I would have missed out on one of the best things in my life - my son. That compass is a critical component of my personal brand and emotional intelligence.
By finding and maximizing the strengths that differentiate us from others we are able to create a personal brand that allows us to consistently deliver to our full potential. In my trainings and conversations, people often immediately associate ‘personal brand’ with self-promotion or social media management. While these are tools to take your brand externally they don’t mean you have a strong authentic self. All of us already have a personal brand - we are have a reputation. But by not establishing it for ourselves, our reputation is being defined by others. Let’s take control and build our success based on how we want to be seen & shape our own reputation. What other impacts does a personal brand have? It elevates your accountability to the standards you set. Once I understood what I wanted, what motivated me, I focused on those things. When I focus on my strengths, the become more powerful and fuel my confidence. This has served me in my career just as it has in my personal life. My sense of self and confidence in my differentiating value allows me to take risks. Early on in my career I received great technical reviews but would be dinged on my “masculine” attire - I took a risk by leaving a top consulting firm to find a company that gave me the space to embrace my entire authentic self. And a few years ago I opted for a lateral move instead of a bigger promotion because I knew it aligned with what brought me joy. I have had more work fulfillment, executive visibility and I delivered more innovation in the last 2 years than I have in the previous 5. Another benefit to having a strong personal brand is increasing your Emotional Intelligence.
Having Emotional Intelligence or ‘EQ' is about Awareness of yourself and others emotions. Moving from reactions to thoughtful choice. EQ also is about empathy and relationships. You are able to constructively see other view points and relate to others. Individuals with high EQ have a track record of cross-collaboration which increases adoption and impact of their ideas. A recent publication from Harvard Business Review states that people who understand and manager their own and other’s emotions make better leaders and gives individuals and teams the ability to diffuse stress, overcome obstacles and inspire others to work toward collective goals. It allows them to manage conflict with less fallout, build stronger teams and generally happier at work. Sounds good right? Acting wholeheartedly with courage and compassion, embracing vulnerability – creates opportunities and connections. Brené Brown high-lights this with her infamous TED Talk “The Power of Vulnerability” and Yesterday’s speakers oozed of high emotional intelligence, vulnerability and strong sense of self.
We must ask our selves the uncomfortable questions so we can find our authentic selves. Not what we think our peers, bosses, spouses, friends, society wants us to be but what we are. – What’s your mission or vision for yourself? – What are your personal values? – What unique skills do you offer that make you unique? Consider these questions for yourself. Then, get feedback on these questions from a trusted mentor and from colleagues not in your safe circle. As Lisa Davis said yesterday, ask them what makes you fascinating, what differentiates you? Yes, be vulnerable - put yourself out there. Then create your strategy to support the reputation you WANT. If you determine you are and want to be known as an innovator for example, what activities, communities and interactions do you need to consider to strengthen your as an innovator. And finally we need to measure it. don’t we? After all this is a technology conference. We like to crunch numbers and have a sense of completion. While there is little point in setting a goal if you will never verify your achievement of that goal we also need to look at how we measure personal brand and emotional intelligence differently. They aren’t measured in % completes. It is an iterative experience that is measured by regular reviews, adjustments and reflections. Honest conversations with yourself and others - are you moving the needle, what new things have you learned about yourself, what new activities should you seek? Does your external brand match your internal desires?
So my ask to you today - Invest in yourself: Can you give 1 day a year to you spending time developing your strategy, doing activities to support your personal brand, tracking your progress? We have so much power in this room, so much to offer. Lets unleash it.
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Push out of your comfort zone: Make 1 goal a stretch goal - something that put you in new territory. Which is how I ended up here on this stage today.
