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]]>After my attendance in the Global Peter Drucker Forum 2014 event in Vienna, I reflected on what I can do to keep the spirit and the outcomes of the conference alive in my business moving forward. Many professionals struggle in doing so as it requires self-discipline and commitment to turn the event into something more than just a great event in itself.
One thing that has proven really helpful is to think of conference attendance as a game. In the game, I am learning new things, challenging myself and making bold decisions.
The moves in the conference attendance game could be introducing yourself to people you normally would not approach, sharing insights with strangers and following up with attendees and non-attendees via social media. There are many things to follow-up with, including sharing ideas, book recommendations and new contacts.
As a livestream attendee, you can still play the game, although the possibilities for engagement and new opportunities will appear more distant. Attending a conference live will always provide a more intimate experience with plenty of opportunities to challenge yourself. If the livestream event is supported by a live forum you may use that to enhance your learning, challenge yourself and make bold decisions to keep the momentum from the event.
The point is that the game does not end after the conference. Social media and forums allow it to continue. It can even help you define the new board for your next conference game.
By following others, you can continue to be inspired by people from the event. When posting your thoughts and learning points, you will also be in a position to inspire others who are attracted to the same areas of interest as you. By doing this, and leveraging the contacts and opportunities from the conference, you can build your own following as an advancing leader. This occurs as an obvious, yet often overlooked and under-utilized opportunity to nurture long term relationships that support your ambitions as a leader.
As an advancing leader, you have the opportunity to use the conference game approach to make an impact on matters of importance to you:
In order to embrace the notion of a game for any conference attendance in the future, you should ask yourself some key questions to make the most out of your game:
On a personal note, I am levelling up my game for my next conference and have already joined communities to prepare for a great outcome. After attending the recent Global Peter Drucker Forum, I have decided to nurture my new contacts in both the event forum as well as social media in general. As soon as the conference admission board sends out the invitation, I will submit my contribution to an article expanding on the learning points from the conference and including my ideas for next year’s conference. I expect nothing less than the unexpected from the contributors and attendees.
Let me know which reflections and comments you have on the conference attendance game approach below. Game on!
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]]>When looking back at the conferences you attended over the last few years, how many of them resulted in long lasting business relationships, led to exciting business opportunities or initiated a totally new direction in your business? While some of us have the intention of obtaining these results prior to an event, I find that many fail to turn the initial excitement and ambition into something that could last. We struggle to leverage the investment made in time and money.
There is nothing wrong in attending a conference for inspiration and entertainment in the moment only. However, I believe there is a way to set yourself up for longer lasting results through your preparations as an attendee.
Imagine if you could initiate new connections before you enter the conference. It would allow you to better prioritize the sessions and meetings and increase the possibility of spontaneous meet-ups within your area of interest.
Here is how I prepare and build connections before attending an event:
Get Connected
Stay Connected
Engage, Learn & Target
The future is here, and this is a new and changing aspect of how conferences can be so much more than just an inspiring couple of days and a few cold business cards.
Modern conference organizers are making it easy for us as the attendees by providing all the information we need to prepare ourselves for long lasting relationships. But many people are not engaging fully or are using the available tools in an immature way. It’s not enough to simply connect, you need to reach out via social media and invite people to engage in the conversation you want.
Previously, we could prepare ourselves for a conference by finding out key information about the conference topics and the speakers. Now we have the opportunity to participate in a two-way engagement: We can become part of the conversation even before the event starts by listening via social media and engaging more fully in selected parts. In other words, we can set ourselves up for successful long-term business relationships.
One great example of an organizer who has made it easy for me and the other participants is The Global Peter Drucker Forum 2014 in Vienna, November 13-14 (#GPDF14). I have followed my normal event preparations, and I find myself connected to some of the contributing speakers already. I can’t wait to see what the event will bring longer term.
If you are interested in topics around the #GPDF14 event “The Great Transformation”, make sure to follow the buzz before, during and after the event via the links below!
The conference organizer:
https://twitter.com/druckereurope
Twitter list of speakers:
https://twitter.com/GDruckerForum/lists/gpdf14
Link to sign up for livestream:
http://www.druckerforum.org/2014/special-pages/registration-live-stream/
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]]>The post Learning Is A Game Advancing Leaders Cannot Lose appeared first on Katy Caroan.
]]>But it was not until 2010 that I understood that my most inspirational leaders were playing games. Instead of pushing through in order to learn more, they were able to motivate themselves and others to learn in a fun and contagious waythat resembledgames, something we played joyfully and mastered naturally during our childhood.They were in fact,consciously or unconsciously, using gamification to advance in their leadership.
What is gamification? Gamification is defined as the use of game elements and game design techniques in non-game contexts. It is used, among other things, to engage participants in solving problems, enhancing learning experiences, getting entertained, measuring success and establishing loyalty.
When it comes to enhancing learning experiences, it allows you to create meaningful goals, fine tune your skills, receive feedback, inspire others and share with communities of your choice. It is all about playing to win, and here is how you can implement gamification in your own advancement:
1. Set a stretch goal
You do not have to know exactly how you are going to accomplish this goal. It could be getting a new client, conducting your first webinar or getting a new speaking engagement. Be aware of the risk that your initial goal could soon get more ambitious!
2. Mobilize your environments
Who do you have to involve? Who can help you? Where can you engage with the people who can help? You will be positively surprised to see that most people want to help if they understand what you need and why.
3. Share the progress you are making in public
Engaging with others is key to making your goal a reality. This is when things start to happen in your game. You inspire others while at the same time getting inspired by other players yourself. The other players offer invaluable support and keep you accountable during the game.
As a student to the CoachVille Coaching Curriculum, Master Certified Coach Dave Buck introduced me to the world of gamification. His education was set up as games, and as a student, I assumed the role of a Player. Over time, I mastered new skills and got better results in a fun way! Since then, I have learned more about the various motivational factors that help us get results from gamification via Professor Kevin Werbach and his fabulous Coursera Gamification Course online.
When looking back at my own experience of playing games to enhance my learning, there are 3 key insights that have been instrumental in helping me understand the CONCEPT OF PLAY better:
In fact, gamification is gradually becoming business as usual, and I recently decided to convert the upcoming, free of charge Virtual Leader Conference into a GAME, hosted by gamification expert and business partner, Carina Kindkvist. So, if you are curious about enhancing your learning and stretching yourself as an Advancing Leader, this is your chance to come join us September 15-21 and check it out for yourself…. Game on!
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If you like this topic, you will love our #vlc14 Virtual Leader Conference game coming up September 15-21, 2014 where other speakers and attending Advancing Leaders are playing to inspire, learn and implement success strategies in pursuit of their next big thing as a leader. You are welcome to join us in the game on demand and free of charge via http://vlc14.katycaroan.com
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]]>These leaders communicate their professional calling and challenge you, leaving you with important thoughts and ideas.
How do they make the less advancing professionals feel? Do they get inspired and intrigued, or do they get provoked by thecuriosity, ambition and willingness to move beyond the comfort zone? Are other professionals in fact projecting their own shortcomings and fears when trying to talk the never-settling leaders out of their unrealistic pursuit of their BIG WHY?
When I meet people who are stuck professionally wanting to explore their options, we often discover a number of limiting beliefs that are causing them to “settle.”
One common belief is that it is too late to pursue what you have not yet accomplished professionally:
Never-settling leaders confidently share that they are going to pursue their own mission, and step into the bigger shoes of their future selves.
Another common belief is that we have to fit the expectations of others:
Never-settling leaders act confidently and are grounded in their conviction to pursue what they need and want to accomplish for themselves.
Let me introduce you to some of the advancing leaders in my network who moved beyond these limiting beliefs:
Per Frykman is a passionate pioneer and author within the area of individual reputation management, influencing trends and developing tools to unleash the true potential of professionals. After decades of continuous development, he is transparent about his expectations for himself despite the fact that most other leaders his age have considered retirement for some time:
“I want to challenge you to take your professional reputation to a new dimension and stand out as unique. My ambition for you as an entrepreneur or consultant is to help you promote the things that are crucial today to attract new, exciting and profitable customers. For you as a leader I want to bring out your unique qualities, the things that already work for you – to be inspirational when attracting customers, investors and new talents. I want to bring everyone to the next level by making them understand the exceptional power of their professional reputation.What really keeps me going is the possibility to be on the edge with interesting people and exciting ideas to find ways for everyone to utilize their full potential.” – Per Frykman
Sarah Schwab is a passionate content creation coach, helping entrepreneurs to build content using creativity and self-expression to transform their business and life:
“My husband makes good money and we have a family. I feel pressure to be the typical ‘doctor’s wife’ or ‘stay-at-home mom,’ or maybe just to get a ‘normal job.’ But I can’t do it. It would be easier if I could, but I can’t. Starting a business has been an ambition of mine as far back as I can remember, and I feel most like myself when I am working in alignment with my passion. I also love my family, and it is important to me to keep both things in my life and try to balance them. I don’t know if such balance is possible, but I have to try.” – Sarah Schwab
Alyssa Jade McDonald-Bärtl left an advancing corporate career to embrace the role as a passionate chocolate maker and social entrepreneur, and she became the change she wanted to see in the world:
“It’s about mission, and realizing that the standards only exist if you accept them. Therefore, if you see a change that you want to happen, then it becomes your mission to achieve it, and you don’t settle until that occurs. It’s not about perfection, because that’s not attainable. It’s about showing up and doing your best, and from that, change will occur and changes will show up. But you have to show up.” Lyss from Blyss
The common denominators for these three Advancing Leaders are a clear calling and a passionate drive for what they have not done yet in their professional lives. Are you slightly provoked because you are wired differently? Or do their stories resonate with you and inspire you to envision yourself as an Advancing Leader, pursuing a purpose and experiencing even more meaning in what you do for a living?
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If you like this topic, you will love the Virtual Leader Conference coming up September 15-21, 2014 where Per, Sarah, Alyssa and 20 other Advancing Leaders and experts are sharing their passion and success strategies in pursuit of their next big thing to empower other Advancing Leaders. You are welcome to join us on demand and free of charge via http://vlc14.katycaroan.com
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]]>The post Lead By Aligning With Your BIG WHY appeared first on Katy Caroan.
]]>Many professionals I talk to externalize the opportunity and do not assume the role as an Advancing Leader worth following. Very few are ready to define their own BIG WHY and share it with the world. I recognize the struggle as it took me years to define my own BIG WHY and make it visible to others.
I sometimes refer to my own breakthrough by using the analogy of salmon swimming upstream to spawn. The salmon battle their way upstream through difficulties convinced that this is the right thing to do to secure their offspring. It makes total sense if you are a salmon.
I always believed that I was a salmon and did my best to contribute by going upstream to optimize the spawning experience.
After returning from a year’s sabbatical from corporate I gradually realized that I in fact was a cod fish and that my BIG WHY was grounded outside of corporate, playing by my own rules. By changing directions and going down stream, I have given myself permission to align better with my BIG WHY.
Let me introduce you to another cod who has inspired me and continues to inspire an increasing number of followers. My client was a full time regular employee as an in-house graphic designer for many years. Her responsibility was to generate ideas and develop graphic design elements online as well as offline. By nature, she was always looking to become masterful and build new skills to expand her contribution to her employer.
While there, she took numerous initiatives and invested significant amounts of her time and energy in building skills within strategic brand management and interactive design. She realized how things were related to each other and that the true effect was found in a holistic approach. She felt a huge responsibility to transfer knowledge to management and made many attempts to influence the direction and decisions. The response was low at best and her frustration grew as she knew she could add tremendous value if permitted.
Her “cod moment” was when she realized that she was in fact assuming a passionate but ignored “Brand Manager” position, with no mandate to act according to her strong beliefs. She recognized the huge potential for others in combining the strategic, tactical and operational elements in her area of expertise.
Today she is on a mission in her own business to help corporations and entrepreneurs embrace branding challenges successfully.
She provides her services in 3 different languages, her customers are located in an increasing number of countries, and she is soon to launch her own packages online, making her content available to professionals anywhere. Her BIG WHY is contagious as she plays by her own rules and always educates her stakeholders and customers in branding matters.
Professionals who share their BIG WHY with the world often make leaps in their professional lives and attract more of their ideal customers. When educating their surroundings, their BIG WHY in business becomes contagious. By playing small and ignoring your cod moment, you are doing your ideal customers a disservice.
Have you already had your own “cod moment” to help define yourself as an Advancing Leader? Or do you feel like you are swimming against the current? Feel free to share below!
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If you like this topic, you will love the Virtual Leader Conference coming up September 15-21, 2014 where more than 20 Advancing Leaders and experts are sharing their BIG WHYs and success strategies to empower other Advancing Leaders. You are welcome to join us on demand and free of charge via http://vlc14.katycaroan.com
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One of the things that never fails to intrigue me as an advisor to various types of leaders is their courage to step outside of their comfort zone and stretch themselves little by little on a daily basis.
What triggers and small actions make them confident enough to stay on mission, despite setbacks and deviation to plans? There are 4 main characteristics that helped me become braver professionally and that are predominant with the professionals I love working with the most:
It might seem banal, but this is one of the biggest mindset issues to overcome for professionals, and any strategy applied before this is addressed will only be partly effective at best. I should know since it took me almost 2 years to nail my own niche as a business owner.
Like many others, I used to analyze my position on favorite offerings and compare myself to the best on each one of them. I always came out short. When I understood that the sweet spot between my experience, talents and ambition made me unique, it became so much easier to show vulnerability and share my messages with confidence on a frequent basis.
I meet professionals all the time who never reflect about their professional sweet spot. But the best leaders frequently revisit the topics forming their unique brilliance to nail their leader position further.
Using the element of surprise seems to be another common denominator for leaders who are perceived as courageous. I recently observed this powerful effect in a situation where the Executive untraditionally assumed a masterminding mentor role during a management meeting. He awarded all participants exactly the same amount of time to present ideas and reflect upon their key priorities. The result was that everyone knew they would not be overridden by others claiming more time and that they all had the same opportunity to influence the decisions.
Another example is the leader demonstrating vulnerability when sharing a new insight in a group setting. Both actions build trust and resonance with peers and followers. What do we remember most from an introduction, a presentation or a reflection session: The person following the norm, or the peer breaking the pattern? Brave leaders break patterns all the time and stay top of mind.
When I ask people: “Who are your professional role models?” I often get very vague answers. I notice that those who are actively looking for and shadowing their role models are often stretching themselves professionally more than others. The courageous ones are approaching their role models and building relationships, online as well as offline. Asking for help and mobilizing mentors takes courage as it demonstrates vulnerability. Therefore, many people refrain.
When I change perspective and ask the same people: “How would you react if someone wanted your feedback on a crazy idea or asked for help on a delicate matter?” most of them respond that they would love to help. There seems to be a substantial potential for raising the bar as a leader in mobilizing the mentoring environment.
After the mindset shift towards understanding and trusting their own unique brilliance, this is probably the most important visible behavior for leaders who want to make great results on a daily basis: Brave leaders do not need all the answers nor any guarantees for success before kicking off their journey.
On a personal note, I experienced something during my first year as a business owner that helps me stick to imperfect action on a frequent basis: I was planning to run my first webinar as part of a program launch in January 2011. The program was a game called “Boost Your Personal Brand By Linking In.” It enabled players to learn how to use LinkedIn effectively over a period of 4 weeks via gamification techniques such as leader boards, feedback and community sharing. I needed at least 8 players to make the program work.
One week before the program start date, I had only 2 people signed up for the launch webinar and none for the program itself. Only one person showed up for the webinar and I was devastated. I was minutes away from cancelling the launch itself. Despite my stomach pain, I decided to go ahead, not showing the list of attendees so I could keep up appearances and use the recording of the webinar to promote during the final 6 days. What happened? 8 people signed up for the program and we re-launched 3 more programs during 2011. Since then, using webinars is business as usual.
Taking imperfect action is a method of reducing risk when making progress. The ruling mindset is all about playing to win, not avoiding failure. Failure is substituted by learning, exploring and reflecting.
What have you been putting on hold lately because you do not have the perfect circumstances? Taking imperfect action on this is probably the perfect challenge to build your courage as an Advancing Leader.
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Characteristics of Advancing Leaders
Many of us have been asked about the characteristics of a great manager. What did he or she do to make you feel motivated, recognized and valued as a team member? Transferring the question to address the qualities of a great leader in every area of life might be helpful if you are lacking motivation in your current job or assignment.
What comes to mind when reflecting on people around you who you consider to be characterized as Advancing Leaders, inspiring you to follow and take action?
When I look back at my own career in corporate, I was influenced by a number of great leaders. One of them I never met in person, I just interacted with him via telephone conferences and email. Reflecting back on what made him such a great leader to me, made me realize that there were certain qualities that inspired me to challenge myself beyond expectations and advance in my own leadership.
The characteristics below might help you as well when recalling the qualities of formal and informal Advancing Leaders in your own various environments:
You will recognize them constantly pursuing new skills and perspectives, striving for new insights and continuous development. They are inspiring their followers by teaching what they learn. The teaching is often spontaneous and comprehensive, adding tremendous value to their followers.
The most inspiring leaders share other professionals’ content with credit as well as their own content in a personal way. They are frequent sharers, aiming at attracting new opportunities for others and themselves through abundance. They are successful in combining online and offline forums when sharing their content, and their followers see them as consistent across the forums.
Their confidence in managing the circumstances whilst focused on their mission goals, means they do not need all the answers nor any guarantees for success before kicking off their journey. Taking imperfect action is their method of reducing risk when making progress. The followers are inspired even if the leader is just a few steps ahead of them.
Their BIG WHY in business is more visible to themselves and others than for most, and this is contagious to their surroundings. The best of them are successful at relating their short-term priorities with their long-term vision in a trustworthy way. Their followers perceive them as highly inspirational when sharing the overall purpose.
They seem to miss the limiting belief of “I was not meant to stand out in a bigger way than what I was taught or told when younger.” There is no age limit to these leaders when making a bold, new move in their career or personal lives, as they are actively looking for what is still undone. Their followers see them as unorthodox and challenging, leaving important thoughts and ideas behind to explore.
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As a coach, mentor and consultant, I always look for answers to why I am passionate about working with some professionals and organizations more than others. This has nothing to do with traditional segmentation in terms of industry, geography or demographic. It has everything to do with their behavior. It has to do with their attitudes, response and ambition to make a difference as Advancing Leaders.
In which areas are you perceived as an Advancing Leader yourself? And more importantly, what is your potential when unleashing even more of the Advancing Leader in you? Pay attention to what drives your motivation to continuously learn more, improve and share content with others. When people around you see you as a professional on a certain mission, you know you are on the Advancing Leader path.
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If you like this topic, you will love the Virtual Leader Conference coming up September 15-21, 2014 where more than 20 Advancing Leaders and experts are sharing their success strategies to empower other Advancing Leaders. You are welcome to join us on demand and free of charge via http://vlc14.katycaroan.com
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One of my frequently asked questions as a coach is “By whom are you inspired?” Mostly the responses I get are “What do you mean?” or “Do you mean like a historical person or a management guru?” Others are really clear and name their favorite authors. My next question is “Who is inspired by you?”
Silence. Shyness. Stuttering.
I would love this to be the exception and not the rule. Wouldn’t it be great if we consciously shared our passion, contribution and key messages to the people we know listen to us? And to stretch it a bit further…Wouldn’t it be fabulous if we now and then learnt that we inspired someone to do something new that we didn’t even know about, just because we were able to get our message across in a way that appealed to these people?
Most of us do not wake up in the morning, asking ourselves, “Whom do I want to inspire today?” Perhaps we should. Learn more from our great inspirational contributors during the Virtual Leadership Conference.
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Lately in social media, there has been a notable increase in interest when businesses and employers make use of images. Many times these images will take off and be shared across various social media sites such as Facebook and Pinterest. If you are looking for ways to use visuals in your social media efforts, below are a few of the more popular types of visuals.
Image Quotes – One very popular, and highly shareable, type of image to use for social media is that of an image quote. These types of images can be as simple as text on a colored background or they can be paired with an inspirational image. Making your own image quotes is easy using an image editing program or using online options such as Quozio.
Infographics – This is another type of image that has seen much popularity across social media sites. Simply put an infographic is a visual representation of data and information that is presented quickly and clearly. These can also be easily made through free online sources such as Piktochart and easel.ly.
Graphs – Graphs can be great for social media sites to help drive home facts or information to your audience. When paired with a small informational sentence, graphs can help give viewers a clear picture of the information stated. Additionally, they see great popularity for sharing on social media sites.
The tools are easily available to all of us, we are only limited by our courage, creativity and skills in graphical design. The downside to this increased access is bad design, inconsistent branding and overuse of nice to have functionality. Stay tuned for an upcoming interview with a graphical designer who sees many professionals turn unprofessional when doing graphic designs all by themselves.
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Sometimes, assumed trivial things may have a huge impact on how we perceive joy and ease in our daily lives. A common theme among many of my clients is the lack of own time beyond the activities conditioned by expectations on us by others.
The modern life is full of hectic schedules and busy days. We often find ourselves playing more than one role as the day goes by; that of parent, spouse, child, friend, and worker. With so many roles it is easy to find our days and weeks filled with endless amounts of tasks; leaving us with no or little time to do the things we enjoy.
When was the last time you read something just because you enjoyed doing so? When was the last time you did anything just because you wanted to? Are you having trouble remembering a time when you did something just for you?
Perhaps one of the most important facts about having time for yourself is that it can help to keep your head on an even keel. Lack of quality ‘you’ time can lead to feelings of frustration, tiredness, disappointment and general life dissatisfaction. Why should you put yourself through those feelings when just a couple of hours each week, or even a few minutes each day, can be so beneficial?
One of the biggest problems many people have with making time for them is because they are always giving to others and feel that it is selfish to do something just for them. Rest assured that it is not a selfish act. By giving time to cultivate yourself and your mental wellbeing you are giving yourself the ability to give more to others with no fears of disappointment, resentment, and frustration.
What do you do for your ‘me’ time? Share in the comments below!
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