Millenium Marketer

The more I look at Facebook recently, the more I see baby pictures. And when I say baby pictures, I mean newborn sons and daughters of friends who are newly parents. I browse these pictures with great interest and can see myself as a doting aunt, showering presents, organic cotton blankets, BPA free sippy cups, baby carriers or other baby things that are en vogue.

Even so, to see myself as parent is an anxious vision, a possible threat to my career and personal growth. Am I alone in this worry, I wondered. Right now, simply balancing work, writing, friends, family is difficult, more seems impossible.

I wanted to find out how others have approached work life balance with children so I took this scenario to a jury of skilled careerists: What would negatively impact your personal brand, if anything, should you choose to have children?

There was a gentle scolding for thinking about prioritizing career over children, and was reminded that children can be negatively branded too if exposed to workaholic parents: “Worrying about your personal brand while raising children causes me to question your sense of priorities.” Miri, a mother of two boys, said that it doesn’t negatively impact career, but it does change things a whole lot, “depending on the decisions you make.”

I also liked this idea from Ashley Feader, who says, “Your personal brand should reflect your values and your life as a whole – not just work.” I agree with this wholeheartedly because it is important that perception from others does not dictate how a person lives his/her life.

Even so, Raquel Elle Bell, CEO of 23 Degrees Branding, reflected my fears the best: “If I walk into a board room pregnant with a bunch of executives, usually all men, will they take me seriously?…I also wonder if people will take me seriously in being driven in my business if my focus is not 100% on building my company.”

Even now in 2011, there is a looming worry about males in the office, while politically speaking, they’d have to be understanding, you just can’t know how it impacts you in terms of missed opportunities or their perceptions. Because work and home life are still somewhat considered separate, talks at the watercooler are mostly about work or the weather, a pregnant woman in the office can do the unthinkable just by standing there, remind others that there exists a gray line between work in the office and caring for family at home.

Clearly Raquel and I, we’re not alone in this fear, according to a blog post in the Wall Street Journal. A study by McKinsey & Co. says women are less likely to believe they have opportunity to advance the more children that they have.

Disclaimer: this chart was an attempt to give you a visual, but without knowing the details of the McKinsey study, we don’t want to jump to too many conclusions

One of the reasons women could feel this way is somewhat tied to the gender gap in salary pay, because employers are more likely to perceive women as holding two shifts (work and children) and thus deserve less pay. At the same time, there were past trends during the recession indicating that there were more stay at home dads, because women could be paid slightly less than their male counterparts, and save companies money. Certainly there must be other factors at play? Would you agree/disagree that the study holds any weight at all?

As always, if you have an opinion on this topic, feel free to comment about the subject, better visuals, or more. If you have children, how has your career been impacted? And if you don’t have children, what are your hopes or fears about that coveted work-life balance?

My sister, a musician on a much more unconventional career path, often says this: “You are your own path.” And more recently, she asked me, “Are you doing what you wanted to do when you were a child?”

It’s a poignant question, and I realize that this year, I have not yet sat down to do a personal branding audit. It is crucial, every individual “careerist” should do it, every business should do it, and the number reason to do it at all is to find your center, your mission and who you are all about. Whether it is to affirm the current path you are on, to remind others of what you are about, re-assess the path you are on, or to move in a totally different direction, your story is the one way you can build your own path.  With all the demands of every day life, responsibilities that we enjoy, it’s important to come back and remember who YOU are and what that means.

That “path” is not always defined by technical skills. It is also your character and how it is a unique character from others that will allow you to stand out against someone with equal talent. So, I took the Strengths Finder 2.0 (by Gallup) recently and out came some cursory answers or pointers to who I might be.

My top 5 strengths are:

• Connectedness: This works for me on two levels. On an intellectual level, I make quick connections to ideas, events or people, even if they do not seem related to the present subject matter.  It comes in handy when someone is looking for a reference, or when patterns in data come out of the woodwork. On an emotional level, I care greatly about how actions and words affect relationships between friends and family. (Although sometimes I miss the mark on this, and am myopic at times with my own friends)
• Empathy: People with this trait can quickly develop intuition about how others are feeling at a given moment, or anticipate an occurrence before it actually happens.
• Intellection: People with Intellection are avid readers and have a strong memory. I find myself sometimes remembering inane events or statistics that aren’t necessarily useful. In other cases, I can remember minute details that I need to access quickly, mostly because it is something I have read and understood many times over. Intellection also suggests that I prefer a world of ideas and theory than practicalities.
• Adaptability: “By nature, you realize that each day offers its own surprises. You trust you can handle whatever occurs. Even when you do not know exactly what to do, you probably know someone who does.” I would atribute this potential trait to my many travels and early trips volunteering in Asia.
• Responsibility: As for this one, I can sum up the one thing that stood out most for me on this one. When people ask me to do something, I want to do it, and it is very hard not to get overwhelmed by over-committing. I have had to learn to push back and pick the things that I want to do, but on the flip side, I get so easily interested in so many things it is not easy to say no. :)

Now, by no means do these Gallup traits really “form” my personality, but it’s an interesting jumping off point to keep developing my story, or my unique value proposition. Because, there is one truth that stands out in my mind: no single person is like another, not even siblings or twins, and to be reminded by a simple quiz that each individual has the potential to stand out is a small comfort.

What are your top five strengths? I’d love to hear about your “aha!” moments and what got you closer to understanding yourself better so you could share that message with other people on your same career path.

Thanks to blogger friends for the kernel of this post: John Saddington, who says “I am not defined by any “Personality Profile” nor is my identity found in them”, although he and I would share the idea that it is important to be connected and self aware, and Rebecca Thorman, who also likes to be connected.

I decided to start numbering these.
There is a lot of talk about self-branding, but I have to say that anyone who makes a career out of being a self-marketer should get an ego check.
That includes Guy Kawasaki for making this very typically cryptic, eccentric comment recorded at the Wall Street Journal in regards to promotions on Twitter: “If I do it, it’s clever marketing. If it’s done to me, it’s spam”

But, it is also true that part of Guy Kawasaki’s persona is that of an author and an artist. Also, what he says about Twitter is very true. We like to hear ourselves talk.

In any case, anyone who chooses a career as first a “self-marketer” and second of some other profession should consider taking lessons in modesty. I think.

I’m working on yet another post on networking and job-hunting, so stay tuned.

The height of fear and panic during this current economic recession is overwhelming and morale at corporate companies is dropping drastically as fast as the unemployment rate is rising. People are fearful of losing their jobs and some studies show that people are playing it safe.

Whether you are recently unemployed, still employed or faced with the difficult choice of whether it’s about time to lay off your own employees, we are in no condition to make quick, irrational decisions.

It’s a time for creativity, or as I like to call it, “the beginner’s mind” where you are ready to learn and find ways to make this recession an opportunity to shine above the rest.

And, that seems to be the problem with most people. I hear it a lot: I need money, I have to survive, but it’s that panic and fear that puts us in the wrong mindset. We are unable to focus on what is important.

So, take a deep breath, count down from 10 to 1 and acknowledge that even though we are in a deep recession, it is simply a fact to contend with. Then, take a moment to assess your competencies without bias or self-criticism and find opportunities within your company to shine.

Call me an idealist, but it’s those who are staying enthusiastic and doing the best work possible that are going to stand out in this doom and gloom world right now.