When you excavate and affirm your executive personal brand, you can better navigate your next step.
Some leaders think putting a career break on their resume or LinkedIn profile will damage their career prospects. I’d like to change the conversation/stigma around this notion through executive personal branding, including helping leaders identify their superpower.
When leaders know who they are, what they stand for and what they’re best at in the world, they can stand tall and better deliver on their full potential in any situation–whether they’re learning something new in a career break, achieving their next career milestone or turning their big hairy audacious goal for the world into reality.
Let’s start this article with an example of a person who owns her career breaks and pivots, then move into how to excavate your superpower to help you move forward through all parts of your life and finally, talk about how to affirm your superpower as part of your executive personal brand until you believe in it with conviction. “Excavate” and “affirm” are two of the three steps in the time-proven Excavate–Tell–Affirm™ process from Revealing Genius.
Two Career Breaks, Seven Pivots
Marine Hamou’s superpower lies in connecting the dots between exceptional people, ambitious ideas and business growth to help subject matter experts and startups win in the long run. She’ll be our guest in an upcoming edition of The Great Work of Your Life™ interview series. Notably, Hamou lists not one but two career breaks on her LinkedIn profile. And she has pivoted seven times during her career.
During one of the breaks, Hamou immersed herself in learning Mandarin, attending classes at TCA Taipei School for three months. She also volunteered to teach English and computer skills for nine months in Southeast Asia.
Hamou may see breaks as being full of possibilities in part because she is a “third culture kid,” a child who grew up in a different culture from her parents.
“Being in transition is not a disadvantage, it’s of great value,” she told me in a recent conversation. “It’s an opportunity to ask ourselves the hard questions.”
A hard question Hamou has asked herself is “How much (income) is enough?” To be without a steady paycheck or a salary as she has at some points in her career can be scary, she noted. However, she thinks that if a leader honestly answers big questions like the one about income, the transition will always yield growth.
According to Hamou, it’s also important to shift transition conversations from failure to growth: “Instead of asking, ‘What if I fail?’ (or) ‘What if it doesn’t work?’, … ask, ‘What can I learn?’
“Transition is a time to reconnect with our true selves to move forward,” she added. “Blank pages are terrifying but also full of possibilities.”
At Revealing Genius, we often ask our clients the hard question, “How do you want to live?” and encourage them to build their executive personal brand with their answer in mind.
Excavate Your Superpower
So how can you get to know your superpower so it can support your efforts to move forward in the world, whether that’s into your dream job, onto a board and through a time of transition?
One way Revealing Genius helps leaders excavate their superpower is by using the time-proven Excavate–Tell–Affirm™ process and asking them, “Who is your hero?” A leader’s hero can be someone they know, a famous person or a fictional character.
You can do this exercise right now. Who is your hero?
The important and possibly harder follow-up we at Revealing Genius ask is, “What is it about this person that makes them your hero?” The answer to these two questions speaks volumes about your brand—and likely points to your superpower.
A writer I know would name “Grandma Margaret” as her hero. She’d say the reason her grandmother is her hero is that during good times as well as during times of transition, Grandma Margaret would apply calmness and wisdom to every situation she encountered.
Interestingly, that writer’s superpower is being able to kindly and calmly bring up for discussion the elephant in any room. This ability helped her to discern when it was time to leave her longtime job and establish her own consulting business—and to approach the transition with strategies that included writing a learning plan!
Affirm Your Superpower
Superpowers, like executive personal brands, are made more potent by the use of affirmations. That’s why Revealing Genius builds affirmations into our executive personal branding program.
Think about the famous children’s story, “The Little Engine That Could.” In it, a long train must be pulled over a high mountain after the locomotive breaks down. A small engine agrees to give this big job a try.
As the little engine works to pull the train over the mountain, it repeats the motto, “I-think-I-can, I-think-I-can.” Children and adults alike applaud when the little engine reaches its goal. And we can all see that the engine’s superpowers—its positive attitude and perseverance—and the spoken affirmations of those superpowers help it get to the other side.
We also hear a lot about affirmations being used in sports. When coaches consistently tell good athletes they can row faster, lift heavier or jump further, they do. When football players, gymnasts or discus throwers use affirmations to instill in themselves the belief that their training will pay off, new world records get set.
Executive Personal Branding and Superpowers in Transition Times
I know from experience that times of transition can be times of significant learning and growth. That’s why I help my clients own their career shifts and breaks. I support them in being unapologetic during these times, deliberate about learning and even strategic about how to leverage their superpower. When they know what they’re best at in the world, they may even plan their next transition!
Want to learn more about the Excavate–Tell–Affirm™ process and the many ways it can benefit you? Get instant access to the free Revealing Genius 10-minute webinar, sign up for our Brand Leadership Summit or take our online course. We are honored to work with leaders 1:1 or to help build a brand manifesto.
