Todays Women in Business

Leading Edge Resources

With a host of new projects and assignments to help you build your corporate brand, your employer brand, your internal brand and your personal brand through traditional and new media, I would like to direct you from here to where you will find the most current resources. Please note that with immediate effect this site will be put on ice so to speak.

In other words I am no longer publishing new articles to this site.

• For a quick reference to my best ever branding, leadership and social media articles go here
• For my best ever podcasts on branding, leadership, women in business and social media go here

Access current thinking here - see also the widgets in the right hand side bar with the most current resources:

• Biz Growth News - for access to leading edge thinking and research in the areas of corporate branding, employer branding, internal branding and personal branding and social media
• Talking Coaching - for access to resources and tips to support you in your professional development as a professional coach or as a leader who is develoing and embedding coaching skills into your organisation
• The Podcast Sisters - for podcasts and tips on technology to help you develop your business and your career in the world of Web 2.0
• PodCamp Ireland - for articles, resources and podcasts about the adoption of social media in Ireland

If you have questions about how to nurture your corporate brand, employer brand, internal brand or personal brand or how to make the most effective use of social media to enhance your communication and engagement processes do get in touch.

Free blogging course from Mark Joyner

Well if your New Year Resolution is to become a better blogger, here is a belated Christmas present I have come across that you might be interested in.

Mark Joyner and his team at Simpleology has just created a multi-media course about blogging.

You might think this is odd given that Mark is no where to be found in the blogosphere. However he maintains that he has a great blog course and he is offering it for a free evaluation if you blog about it.

You can find all the details here. The course is meant to cover:

• The best blogging techniques

• How to get traffic to your blog

• How to monetise your blog.

I've not received my copy of the course as yet but I'll let you know my evaluation of it as soon as I receive it. In the meantime, why not request your free copy today?

Association for Coaching In Ireland Masterclass: Coaching The Team At Work

If you are an HR professional, business leader or professional coach who is interested in how to ensure you create high performing teams, then you will be interested in the next Masterclass I am organising for the Association for Coaching in Ireland.

Our next events will be taking place on the 29 January 2008 in Dublin and 30 January 2008 in Belfast and the subject will be "Coaching the Team at Work".

Very little real research has been undertaken into team coaching outside sport; sports analogies, while often being used in the context of coaching teams at work, have only limited application to the world of work.

Team coaching at work is frequently confused with team facilitation or team building. Professor David Clutterbuck’s will share insights from his latest book “Coaching the Team at Work”, which is the first in-depth study of team coaching outside the world of sport.

The workshop will cover:

• An understanding of the fundamentals of effective team coaching

• Tools, techniques and processes for assessing team dynamics

• Insights into some of the most common issues teams face and how the coach can assist the team to address them

• Awareness of the ethical and practical issues involved in managing the complexities of multiple simultaneous clients and customers

• An understanding of how to “wean off” the team from the coach so that it coaches itself.

Make sure that you book your place soon for "Coaching the Team at Work" to avoid disappointment.

Join Me At The Worlds First Global Personal Branding Telesummit

If you have wondered why I've been absent from posting here over the last few weeks, it's because I have been really busy organising some huge events and also participating in many events as a speaker.

One event that is a must for your diary is a global personal branding telesummit taking place on 8 November 2007.

I have had the priviledge of being the chair of the organising team who have all gifted their time to bring this event to life. We have attracted some amazing speakers who are authors on subjects related to personal branding.

All of these speakers are gifting their time to support us in our goals of reaching 100,000 people across the globe with this FREE event to educate people about personal branding.

Yes the event will cost you nothing to attend - just the cost of your phone call so make sure that you register. And if you are not able to attend the event due to your schedule, we will be making the recordings available after the event for you to access.

I will be attending 12 hours of programming from 3pm on Thursday to 3am on Friday morning as a moderator for the programme, during which time I will have the opportunity to participate live on four sessions:

• In conversation with David Meerman Scott, author of the great book "The New Rules of Marketing and PR" about how to build your personal brand online
• In conversation with Stewart Emery, co-author of "Success Built To Last" about the strategies of world leaders of the most successful companies
• In conversation with Tim Demello, John Jantsch, Guy Kawasaki, and Andy Sernovitz about how to create brand evangalists to build your business and your brand
• In conversation with Leigh Branham, Orla Graham and Tim Zastudil about how to build your employer brand to win the war for talent.

This event is FREE to attend. If you would like to join me, you can register at the personal branding summit website - and if you can not attend then we will be recording all the seminars.

I do hope you will join me - there is a truly world class faculty - and remember you can access 24 seminars all for the price of your phone call.

Association for Coaching Masterclasses: Dublin and Belfast, November 2007

As a business leader, one of the core skills I personally believe it critical to support the performance of your business is that of being a great coach and mentor.

I am therefore delighted to announce that Sir John will be our next speaker at the Association for Coaching Ireland November 2007 events which is taking place on the 27 November in Dublin and the 28 November in Belfast. His masterclass is entitled “Coaching: A Mandatory Skill for 21st Century Leaders”.

You can find out the details of the event and how to book here.

Trust: the heart of your personal brand

As I continue to reference here and over at Biz Growth News, building your personal brand as a leader takes many forms and we can build or destroy our reputation in just one action or comment.

Today I received an urgent call from a client who was distressed by a conversation she had had with a potential designer. She had been connected to this person in good faith by her local printer as she wanted to work on developing a new visual identity for her business.

What threw her was the downright rudeness of the designer. During the course of the conversation they completely savaged the website and reputation of one of her colleagues, quoting what can only be construed as gross fabrications and lies - yet they had never met my clients colleague or knew anything about thei business.

They then went on to be dismissive of her business without knowing much about it.

When you are in the early stages of developing a business, it is easy to be put off course by people who are "nay sayers" and this conversation today was of little help to my client.

I was only too pleased to have been on hand to talk to her.

Bottom line, this designer has done nothing to further their reputation or credibility. As my client stated:

If they are like that about people they do not even know and they are talking about someone I respect hugely, there is no way I could put my trust in them.

In that short conversation on the phone, that designer has put into question one of the most important things we must develop for healthy relationships in business and our personal life - trust.

It takes time to develop, a moment to destroy and an eternity to rebuild.

While we may have beliefs about our own expertise against that of others, don't forget that to be dismissive and rude about others says more about us than it does of the other person.

Safe to say, my client now has the contact details of four designers I have recommended to her!

Women over 50 build their personal brand online

Just because we get older doesn't mean that we can not and should not keep up to date with technology.

Increasingly a growing number of social-networking websites are being developed for people over the age of 50. The Internet monitoring company Hitwise claims that 14 percent of adult Internet users are older than 55 and it predicts that seniors in Britain will overtake 35 to 44 year olds as the age group with the largest representation online.

Let's take a look at a few great examples of women well over fifty years of age who are building their personal brand online.

If you have not heard of GrannyMar, she's a podcaster in Ireland. In fact she is possibly the oldest female podcaster I know. I had the honour of meeting her at the recent PodCamp Ireland - I managed to persuade her to talk about getting started podcasting which was of great interest to many at the conference. You can hear her reflections on the conference at her most recent podcast.

Then there is Jacqueline Wales, herself over 50 and a previous client of mine, who has now become an author, speaker and coach with her great programme Fearless Fifties. Her business is just over a year old and she has been building her personal brand online through her personal portal, her website and her blog.

And how can I forget the terrrifc Cara Lumen who I have had the honour to work with on a number of events over the last couple of years. She won't mind me telling youthat she is now in her middle seventies and in the last couple of years has built her business on the internet through her information products - of course she is a blogger too.

So if you think your are too old to start to build your personal brand online, think again and take inspiration from Cara, GrannyMar and Jacqueline.

Women's Online Magazine - call for articles

Are you someone who writes on the subject of womens issues?

Then Women's Online Magazine (WOM) wants to hear from you. My podcast pal Rima McDonald just wrote to me to say she is actively searching for contributors for a digital magazine which will be freely distributed across the Internet through the major business and social networking sites (she is planning to reach an audience of more than 50,000).

Rima is looking for contribors who can provide new content that appeals to women.
Topics can focus on any of the following categories:

A Carnival of Personal Branding Tips, August 2007

You might recall some time ago I mentioned that we would host a blog carnival of Personal Branding Tips.

Well there seemed to be a problem with the submission form for the first carnival and this months carnival has unfortunately only a few posts that have been submitted.

So all of you who write on personal branding do make sure that you submit your articles for future editions.

The purpose of this carnival is to provide readers with high quality articles providing practical tips to develop their personal brand, so not all posts that are submitted will be acceted if they not meet the requirements of the submission guidelines for "A Carnival of Personal Branding Tips".

In the meantime, thank you to Pushpa, Bhupendra and Ian for their articles which you can find below:

Pushpa Sathish presents The Business Blogging Toolset: 100 Resources for Entrepreneur-Writers posted at Bootstrapper.

Bhupendra Khanal presents Top 10 Mantra for Professional Success posted at Analytics Bhupe, saying, "Work for yourself and for noone else."

Ianternet presents Ask the Number 1 Question in Branding posted at Ian Fernando.

If you have an article that you would like to submit for consideration for the next edition of “A Carnival Of Personal Branding Tips” you can do so at our carnival submission form.

The New Rules Of career Management: 3 steps To Jump Start Your Career Search In The Next 30 Days

Are you one of the 54 percent?

Did you realise that more than half of the people in any organisation at any one time are either actively looking for another job or would seriously considering leaving if the right opportunity presented itself?

Perhaps you didn’t realise that your competition for finding that next great role would be so great?

If the time has come for you to explore new career opportunities, here are four actions you can take in the next thirty days to jump start your job search.

1. Research the current job market – If it has been some time since you were looking for a role either inside your business or in the external job market, it is important to get re-acquainted with the market as it currently stands.

If you are looking for a move within your business, you can do this by talking to key people in the department or function you are interested in moving to or with your line manger or business mentor. This has the added benefit that they will also get to know you are interested in a career move so making a great impression with them as you undertake research about your future career is imperative.

If you are looking for a move outside your business, you can research the market through reading specific trade publications, through on-line research, talking to people in your chosen field or through discussions with recruiters.

2. Create and implement your professional development plan – When was the last time that you invested in learning about your area of expertise that you want to build your career in other than through on-the-job learning? Do not get me wrong, learning skills in your current role and then applying them is not to be undervalued.

However if you really want to position yourself as an expert in your field, it is important to continuously build on your current knowledge and capabilities. This might be through reading current books, articles and attending seminars or conferences.

Capture your professional development plan onto a one page document where you can track the investment you make in your development and also how you put the new skills and knowledge into action.

3. Update your resume or CV – If you have not looked at your CV or resume in the last six months, I can guarantee that it is out of date. Make sure that you take the time to review and update it. This is not a job to be rushed but is worth every minute that you spend on it. Consider it your personal marketing brochure.

Most times in a job search, your CV or resume will be the only thing that is evaluated or considered before a decision is made by a corporate recruiter to meet you or not. You need to ensure that it stands out from the crowd and your personal brand statement demonstrates your unique point of difference.

As a rough estimate, drafting, reviewing and finalising a professional CV or resume will take on average 8 hours of your time. You might consider this excessive, but isn’t it worth investing the equivalent of just one day to ensure that your years of experience and expertise are represented in the most effective way possible?
YOUR PERSONAL BRAND ACTION PLAN

If you are looking for your next career move make sure that you implement these three steps before you commence an active job search.

Before you explore the external market, don’t forget to share your career aspirations with your current line manager. Remember if you do not tell them what you want to achieve in your career and how you can at the same time help them grow the business you are working on now, the chances are that they will never get to learn this. The grass is not always greener in another business, and the opportunity to expand your career could be just a conversation away.

If you do decide that the time has come to move on to a new role outside of your current organisation, taking the time to undertake the three steps mentioned in this article will ensure that you are in a strong position to jump start your job search through on-line job boards, recruitment agencies and executive recruiters.

If you have a question about how to build your personal brand for career success, do drop me an email and I will answer your questions in a future article.

© Krishna De, 2007. All rights reserved. This article is extracted from Krishna’s publication “The New Rules of Career Management”.

Seven signs that your career has stalled

Have you recently found your mind turning to that question we often ask ourselves – just where is my career taking me?

Is it time for you to get your career back on track?

Here are seven signs that you can identify your career has stalled and actions you can take to over come them:

1. You are undertaking similar accountabilities as you were 3 years ago

2. You have not invested in developing your skills in the last 12 months

3. You are unclear about your career goals and where you would like to be 3 years from now

4. Your CV or resume was last updated more than 18 months ago

5. You find it challenging to come into work on a Monday morning – in fact you almost dread it

6. You can not recall when a recruitment agency or executive recruiter contacted you

7. The most attractive assignments and projects at work always seem to go to someone else.

If you don’t see yourself in these statements – great – your career is on track.

If you say a resounding yes to between 1-3 of the statements then your career is in neutral but that is fine – you can take action using the tips below.

If you say a resounding yes to 5 or more of these statements then your career has stalled.

Take action today to get your career back on track perhaps by reading a career management book from your local library or working with a personal branding coach who can guide you to greater professional and personal success.

© Krishna De, 2007. All rights reserved. This article is extracted from Krishna’s publication “The New Rules of Career Management”.