Do you want to show up more creatively for your clients and your colleagues, your family, and your friends?
Do you want to default to thinking about opportunity versus focusing just on problems?
Discovering Hope is full of proactive steps you can take right now, to achieve a more positive mindset or to help maintain the positivity you already have
Getting Positive reveals that more optimism is close at hand
Career Self-Assessment
Paid employment consumes at least a third of our working hours and in many cases much more, yet most of us don’t give it the planning it deserves.
Satisfaction at work has an outsize impact on overall life a newsletter for creative strategy/brand planning professionals satisfaction as well as our mental health.
Optimizing workplace happiness is an obvious and perhaps ‘natural’ thing to do, yet too few of us invest the time to assess and plan for success.
Intermittent checks and on-going benchmarking against goals set are vital not only to achieve objectives but to bring clarity, help feel in control and provide a way to show progress in your career… and life.
Please find below a series of links addressing your career success in 2016 and beyond. While the quality of questions you ask yourself is key, so is asking the questions in a context that gives you the time and space to answer such questions honestly. This is the focus of my most recent articlepublished just last week
All the best,
Stuart
Articles and commentary that might be of interest…
- The 8 Self-Assessments You Need To Improve at Work This Year
- Schedule Your Career Health and Wellness Checkup
- 10 Tips For Making Self-Evaluations Meaningful
- Online Career Assessment Tools Review Rankings
- Top 5 Career Assessments To Direct Your Career Change
- Reflect Self-Assessment And development Tool
- What’s Next –Life Values Assessment Test
- Selecting Assessment Tools –Online Assessment Tools
- Entrepreneur Self-Assessment: 9 Professional Tools and Tests
- Career Assessment
Building Brands and Careers
Attributes needed to build brands are much the same as those needed to power a career. And two important similarities are critical for both.
First and foremost you must provide ‘a real difference that is valued’. Whether a brand or employee, this matters. The most valued employees show excellence in addressing critical business challenges, specifically helping your agency attract and retain profitable client relationships. In our field of advertising, this ultimately translates into developing better ways for clients to communicate to their customers. Which neatly brings me to the second point.
This value not only has to be present, it has ‘sold’ so it is recognized as well or in Bill Bernbach’s words, ‘A unique selling proposition is not enough. Without a unique sales talent it may die.’ Successful brands and careerists alike excel at communicating and selling themselves, perhaps loudly, perhaps quietly, but always persuasively.
See some of these links for some broader thinking.
Stuart
Articles and commentary that might be of interest…
- Good Companies Are Storytellers. Great Companies Are Storydoers
- How to Tell a Great Story
- It Was A Dark And Stormy Night… –11 Examples Of Storytelling In Marketing
- Brands Need To Stop Trying To Play Hero
- 5 Ways For Consumer Brands To Become Great Storytellers
- When Storytelling Goes Bad
- Airbnb Tells Emotional Berlin Wall Story Of Reunification
- 7 Examples Of Great Storytelling For Boring Brands
Planning Your Future
Two questions I’m frequently asked by planners: ‘What makes me most marketable?’ and, ‘What are my career options?’
The good news for planners is that the career options are extensive. We’ve seen planners (good ones) a newsletter for creative strategy/brand planning professionals go to branding agencies, PR shops, media players, digital homes, design spaces, innovation boutiques, research houses, client-side, start-ups, consultancies of all hues, many have freelanced and others have set up their own businesses in unrelated areas.
And what makes planners most marketable? Perhaps the best insights come from your peers that took the plunge.
- For me today the virtue most needed for folks wanting to change the fortunes of brands is fearlessness’ Michael Fanuele, Chief Creative Officer, General Mills
- A tendency to listen more than to speak’ –Katie Dreke, Global Brand Director/Advanced Concepts, Nike
- ‘What matters most is intellectual curiosity and an aptitude for change’–Ivan Wicksteed, CMO, Old Navy
In my experience strategic planners in most demand have a business mindset with a results focus; an ability to communicate and gain confidence through understanding client or colleague motivations; and an appreciation of the role that technology plays in building brands.
Looking forward to taking with you about your career progression.
Stuart
Articles and commentary that might be of interest…
- Do you think FAST or think SLOW? Here’s why Brand Leaders need do both
- The Thinkers50 Ranking 2013 (and bios)
- Forward Thinkers: What You Can Learn From Nintendo’s Weird and Wonderful 125 Years
- Getting Outside the Box: The 5 Behaviors of Successful Leaders
- Why Your Best Performers Usually Make the Worst Leaders
- Heads-Up Leadership … leading a customer revolution
- Great Entrepreneurs Are Creative Thinkers
- From Basement to $15M: One Woman’s Journey To The Top
Contact me for a list of resources –Best Visa, Passport and Work Permit Websites
Conferenced In
Which conferences or award shows are best for strategic planners? SxSW, Cannes, PSFK, Jay Chiat’s, Planning-Ness, TED Talks…? Are they even worth it?
Here’s my take on the marque events I attended: a newsletter for creative strategy/brand planning professionals My main (and obvious) thought is that having a specific goal gives you a better chance of getting a worthwhile experience. Take a moment to identify what you really want –strategic insights, exposure to current thinking, specific learning for the team, inspiration, networking opportunities –and act accordingly.
Each conference has its own style and focus. SxSWand Cannes offer a little for everybody (latest strategic thinking, methodologies, technology, music, video…etcetera) and can be overwhelming without a game plan. Planning-Ness is at the other end of the spectrum and its limited numbers gets attendees truly engaged. Jay ChiatAwards are great for networking with strategists of all levels and expertise and the EFFIE’s are fun too but are over in a few hours, so the event is less network friendly. And PSFK and TED Talks give fresh thinking from a range of non-media industry executives.
Having talked about goals, I find that some time without structure yields valuable interactions and the ‘fun’ element key for a positive experience.
Contact me for a first-hand perspective
Stuart
PS. Events of interest to lateral thinkers:Â Lucid NYC
Articles and commentary that might be of interest…
- How To Optimize Your ROI From Attending Conferences
- The Ultimate Guide To Getting Your Money’s Worth From Conferences
- The 5 Best Ways To Optimize The Business Value Of Attending Conferences
- The Good, The Bad & Ugly Of Marketing Conferences
- 10 Digital Marketing Conferences That Are Perfect For Newbies
- Are SEO Conferences Worth Attending?
- The Best Marketing Conferences In 2014
- 50 Best Conferences To Attend This Year
- Turn That Soul Crushing Conference In To A Win
Do you have a ‘great’ mind?
‘Great minds have purpose while others have wishes.’ (Washington Irving)
That said, the wish that has meaning to you is the one that brings greatness.
It’s a question of ‘powerful’ motivation; We can all have it. Do you? If you’re unsure
that’s one thing but if you are going to work zombie-like, that’s quite another..
http://www.sparkincoaching.com/self-help.html#bored
And, not being powerfully motivated for any time will actually damage your brand/
your opportunities with your current and prospective employers.
For more on this, see the June edition of ‘Narrate.’
http://createsend.com/t/i-17B02C6892895989
Now time for a walk to clear the mind..