Friday, July 10, 2015

5 Easy Ways To Stand Out And Get People To Notice You At Work


Do you have trouble standing out from the crowd at work?
The best solution is to reinvent those tiresome “chores” that your co-workers dread.

By finding ways to make these tasks more palatable (or even fun!) you can get noticed at work while building your brand.

Here are five of the easiest ways to make it happen. Choose the one(s) that helps you bolster your personal brand.

Make Your Presentations Pop
Most presentations at most companies are a combination at bullets and words. Bo-ring!  I was delivering a keynote at a major financial services firm in New York last week, and the A/V director said to me, “I see dozens of presentations a day, and there is only one person inside the firm who has interesting ones – everyone in the firm knows him because his presentations are really wow.” Try to reduce the number of words on your slides by 90%. Use images to convey your message instead. Add animations to make it playful, and change the standard transitions to something that adds excitement and energy. Just don’t overdo it; you don’t want your message to get lost in the glitz.

Lead fun meetings. 
When you think about what you do each week, attending meetings probably comes to mind, evoking a sigh of dread. When you lead meetings, use this as an opportunity to stand out by making every element of the meeting engaging and interesting . Start with the invitation. Be original! Begin your meeting with an interesting activity, short but thought-provoking video or a powerful question that each participant has to answer. Create materials that are fun and compelling. Hold your meetings in unusual places – like outside. The ultimate goal is for your meetings to become so differentiated, interesting and productive that people throughout the organization actually hope to be invited

Change your voicemail greeting. 
I created my voicemail greeting at an airport, and you can hear the flight announcements in the background. When people leave a voicemail for me, they often comment on my outgoing message, telling me it’s on-brand because I am always traveling. So I have not changed that message in years. Another approach is to change it every day! This takes commitment and requires getting into the habit, but has an impact. It makes an impression when someone hears “Today is Tuesday, December 30th. I will be in workshops all morning, but I will get back to you this afternoon….” People are sick of the standard “I’m not available right now but if you leave your name and number and a brief message….” Instead of saying, “not available,” tell them what you’re doing. This helps callers learn more about you and the value you provide. Think about how you can make your voicemail greeting stand out from the pack, and if you’re up to it, change it daily.

Redecorate.
Most offices in most companies are beige and boring. One client in the UK painted her office pink. Another client brought in her Nespresso coffee machine – making her office a meeting spot for the espresso crowd. A client in Seattle brought in her own furniture – a glass and chrome desk and leather and chrome Barcelona chairs because she was working in marketing for the luxury segment and wanted her office to reflect that. When I was rising through the ranks at Lotus (a division of IBM) I changed my office to suit my brand attributes of being health-conscious and collaborative. I replaced one of the two desks in my office with a round table, and I brought in a glass bowl from home, which I filled each week with Granny Smith apples. It wasn’t such a giant deviation from the standard office, but it was enough to get noticed; in fact, it became known as “the Pottery Barn showroom.” Company rules may limit what you’re able to do, or your manager may not want you to make major changes, but you can still work within those constraints. Even in companies with strict rules about office space, there are things you can do to make yours stand out and reinforce your brand attributes – like bringing in fresh flowers weekly or changing your screen-saver and the pictures you post to your wall.

Replace text with images and video. 
Are you sick of reading emails and instant messages? We see a lot of text each day. If you want your communications to stand out, use images and video. Create an infographic to share the latest company statistics. Integrate images into your email signature. Send video proposals to clients or your boss, and use video to thank and congratulate team members and colleagues. Hold video meetings instead of phone conferences, and send video updates to your remotely based team members. Here’s a piece I wrote with video resources.

Remember, branding is about differentiation. Think about these opportunities and choose the ones that feel authentic to you, leading to everyday habits that bolster your brand.


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