Position yourself for Promotion

It's not enough to be the best at what you do; you must be perceived as the only one who does what you do.        Jerry Garcia

I work quite often with clients of various outplacement agencies.  I also help coach people who are actively looking for work.  The one thing that I consistently hear is that the 'competition is fierce out there'.  This is a lesson they are experiencing now and learning how to combat, learning how to position themselves more favourably in this competitive environment.  However, what about those of you that aren't looking, that currently have a job?

In today's marketplace you can't afford to be complacent.  You need to be actively and consciously managing your career.  Your boss is far too busy to do it for you.  You want that next project to manage?  You want the 'big' promotion?  Take a lesson from big corporations and begin to think strategically about how you are positioning yourself relative to your competition.

You're likely not alone in your desire and bid for 'more'.  The person standing next to you in the coffee line wants that new project or role too.  How then are you going to ensure that you are seen clearly as a contendor?  One strategy of self-marketing is to learn to differentiate yourself from the competition, to ensure that you stand out from the crowd.  Follow the exercise below to determine how you might best serve yourself and your career by taking a closer look at those you are competing against.

The Work:

1.  Determine who your competition is.  Before you can build any strategies you need to be clear on exactly who you are likely to be competing against for the next big opportunity.  Then... create a list of everything you know about them.  Their background, experience, skills, strengths and weaknesses.  Really take the time to get to know your competition.  Start with what you know and then access other resources to find out more.  Don't forget to 'google' them, and don't overlook checking out the various social media sites.

2.  Compare and Contrast.  Compare your skills and strengths against theirs.  The easiest way is to create a chart.  This allows you to view a number of competitors simultaneously.  In conducting your comparison, pay close attention to three things..

• What do they do well?
• What do they 'have' that you do not?
• Where do they fall short, relative to you? 

3.  Review.  Using your chart and your responses to the questions above as a guide.  Consider what your key differentiators are.  What do you bring to the table that they don't.  You now know enough about the competition to determine how you stand out - or could - in the perceptions of your market. 

4.  Take Action.  Develop actionable strategies for promoting and positioning yourself based on these differentiators.  How are you going to get this message across to others?  What behaviours do you need to engage in to highlight and demonstrate these differentiators?  What values support them? 

5.  Be Proactive.  Don't fail to overlook any distinctive gaps that may exist between you and the competition, what they have that you are missing.  The first step is certainly to focus on your differentiators, to ensure that you stand out from the crowd.  But... longer term...  work to fill in any gaps in your background and experience.  Doing so eliminates their potential differentiators, ensuring that you are the only person at the table representing 'more'.

Re-learning the value of Awesome!

Just a small little post today, in an effort for us to start off this year remembering to give thanks to many of the small, seemingly inconsequentially positive things that might happen to us over the course of our day.  It's all too easy to find the negative, or to have others point it out for you should you have missed it (god forbid!), but it's often difficult to recognise the small moments, those fleeting, tiny, positive moments that can make life so sweet and put us back in touch with ourselves and what really matters

This is the basis for Neil Pasricha's award-winning website http://www.1000awesomethings.com/ and the associated bestseller - The Book of Awesome.  In an effort to refocus himself during some difficult times in his life, Neil began his Awesome blog... simply to remind himself to be more mindful of the good things he had in his life, rather than only focusing on the bad.  His posts resonated with readers and went viral!  Why do we celebrate only the big positive moments in our lives, rather than celebrating all of the small, feel-good moments we experience?  Failing to do so means that they often slip by us without an impact, not awakening us to the myriad number of moments in our day that we could be experiencing some joy.

Awaken your inner 3-year old, the part of you that felt joy and wonder in experiencing things for the first time.  Let your heart lead you.

The Work:

Create an ongoing Awesome List of your own.  At the end of each day add to it at least one new moment you experienced that day that brought you some joy.   Remember... they needn't be huge, but they do need to be heartfelt.  You may find it difficult to start but will likely get better at recognising these moments each day and may be hard pressed not to jot down a number of them each day.

Some of my recent moments?

• the sigh of pleasure in taking my first sip of  Chai latte each morning.  Heaven!
• the first night sleeping in clean, crisp new sheets
• the purity of looking out at fresh, newly fallen snow - before anyone has walked on it - as it blankets the lawns and roads, coats the trees.  It makes even the drabbest of views look cleansed and magical
• the smell of a freshly sharpened pencil (yep, likely this is just a 'me' thing, but I love the smell and prefer regular old pencils to mechanical ones just for this moment!)
• the unmitigated pleasure of eating... Jello.  Sucking it off the spoon through your lips, squirting it through your teeth, rolling it on your tongue.  Instant childhood!
• the moment when someone stops their car to create a break in traffic for me to cross the road to the park with my dog in the morning, rather than leaving me to stand there forever waiting to get across.  I love this person!
• that very first moment when the seat warmer in my car kicks into gear, taking the chill out of my leather seats.  Blesses upon the person who first thought of installing this into cars.  Indebted forever to you!

What's your list?  Don't hesitate to put down anything that comes to mind, that makes you more appreciative of who you are, what you have, what you do... that makes your life special and... well... Awesome!