Secrets Of Executive Rockstars

It’s not often that I’m speechless, but a few months ago I was, when I got a call out of the blue: could I come and meet a group-level Vodafone executive on Friday, in 2 days time, to talk about doing a workshop and coaching starting the following Wednesday. Well, OK - although I was a little bit confused about where this had come from - I hadn’t been selling anything to Vodafone, and I had no idea how this had happened!

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I rearranged some meetings so I could go and see them, and ended up pulling together a workshop for 15 European VP’s in just 4 days!

Now getting projects signed off can take months, and here I am walking into a great project that came to find me!  I asked my senior Vodafoner contact why he called me specifically. He told me that another consultant that he trusted had told him I was ‘a great development coach who got results and hit the ground running’.

Wow! It was just one sentence that leapfrogged me over an army of consultants who probably had better CV’s than mine, and would all have fought me for this project!

Well I’m glad they felt that way about me, but that’s not the point here - the point is something that I found out a long time ago, but didn’t really put into practice until recently (and boy, does it make a difference) - it’s a secret that the Executive Rockstars taught me:

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Everyone has a ‘descriptor’
Rockstars define and communicate their own, commodities get theirs accidentally. 
But, one way or another everybody has one, whether they know about it or not.

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What is a descriptor?

In Information Science a descriptor is a term that captures the essence of a topic or document. It’s an index for finding things, a unique identifier… In the world of the executive rockstar we use it to describe the 1 sentence that people add to the end of your name to tell others about your ‘essense’: who you are, and how you create value in a different way from the guy next to you. It’s how people describe you when you aren’t there, and they need to explain who you are. You know the kind of thing :-

• Steve… the spreadsheet guy
• Gabi… the safe pair of hands for IT projects
• Mike… the hardass from accounting
• Sarah… oh yeah, the smooth talker in HR, who got that initiative through last month

and even :-

• David… you know, the guy who embarrassed himself at last year’s christmas party

Now if you’ve read our Executive Rockstar career strategy (If you haven’t CLICK HERE!) you already know that part of the path to real executive stardom is in growing and developing a reputation of your own design - something that’s relevant to you, your strengths, your organization, and the market at large;  something that makes you stand out from the ‘commodity employee’.

Unfortunately I’ve met too many clients with ‘accidental careers’, great people who’ve grown a random reputation built on work they’ve been assigned. They don’t know what they are known for, they don’t understand the positioning that they occupy in the minds of their bosses, colleagues, and customers, and they can’t understand why they keep getting a certain type of work, and being passed over for the type of work that they would work twice as hard on, and do four times as well at - if they were only given the chance!

The fact is that  ‘accidental careers’ are often associated with ‘accidental descriptors’. So we end up with Steve… ‘the spreadsheet guy’ who did create a big spreadsheet once for some analysis he was doing last year, and consequently became the person you go-to in the department if you want to know about Excel.

If Steve had taken control of his reputation a little better, he could have become known as ‘a top FMCG (CPG) market analyst’ – but he didn’t and now he’s on a fast track to irrelevance, He didn’t know what he wanted to be known for, he doesn’t know what he’s actually known for (excel) and he doesn’t know how to make a change, even if he knew that he needed to! (Let that ‘boil your noodle’ for a while!)

The real executive rockstars find out how people think of them, and take control of their descriptor and their career… some do it unconsciously, some do it consciously, but all do it one way or another.

So for instance if you want to meet..

• Jonathan… the ‘combat consultant’ who specializes in getting projects to work in the toughest business environments
• Carolyn… the media / internet convergence specialist. Who knows everything about both worlds, and can bring them together for you.
• Sebastian… the holistic financial planner who plans your finances around your lifestyle rather than the other way around
• Steve… the acclaimed business speaker who’ll make a real difference to the creativity of your employee
• Tony… who can find you an ex-big-5 consultant for hire with just the skill set you need for your project

I can introduce you…I’ve worked with each of them, and they have all grown very specific brands that work for the organizations they work in, and externally in the ‘real world’… They have powerful descriptors, they occupy space in my head, and now they occupy space in your head too!

If you don’t have a descriptor, or if you don’t like the one you suspect that you have, don’t worry, you can change it with some simple steps. My descriptor has definitely changed through the years and I started out in the worst way: I made the classic mistake early on of labelling myself a ‘management consultant’. I’m sure that there is a equally broad term that you’ve used to introduce yourself to people. It’s a common mistake, but it does lead to two problems, as I found out only too well.

The problems with descriptors that are too broad (the most common mistake)

1) With a broad descriptor that you share with 10,000 other people… the people you meet are either going to have to come up some other ways to remember you, or alternatively….  just forget you. And when that big promotion comes up, or they are thinking about how to restructure the organization, you’ll fit into their structure, rather than having something built around you, because – well to put it bluntly, you’re a commodity.

2) If you’re not known for something specific, you are never going to pop into someone’s head as the perfect answer to a problem they have. You’ll have to personally search for every promotion, and great project that you want to be involved with, rather than having them come to you! A great descriptor brings people to you. It’s like putting a bill board up inside their head! A poor one makes you instantly, blandly, forgettable.

You can go too far the other way…

There are equally dangerous paths to take with taking on a descriptor who’s niche is too small. If Steve wanted to become a world-class cornflake market analyst. That might be a little too specific to give him a lot of scope for development…  Finding the right sized market place to dominate that aligns with your strengths, passions, marketplace, company, and possibilities for the future has always been the game that small businesses have played…. and it’s now time for you to play the same game if you’re going to safeguard your job, and dominate your ‘marketplace’

But get it right, and you become memorable, viral even!

So, I’m the guy that ‘makes high-flyers‘,  or is ‘one of the Executive Rockstar guys‘. I’ll guarantee that you’ve met a lot less of us than you’ve met ‘management consultants’!

I don’t force you to create your own descriptor about me, I’ve given you one that should be memorable enough, and if one day you’re talking to someone about how people really become high-flyers, or someone asks you for some advice about what they can to do safeguard their career as we enter the recession, I’m going to pop into your head, and maybe you’ll be that executive who gives me a call out of the blue!

** Now,  you’re probably thinking… hold on a minute Jason, this is branding! You’re talking about my ‘personal brand’ aren’t you?

Well yes, I am. The problem is that the word ‘brand’ has been so muddied through years of abuse by marketers and ad-guys, that in the end it’s easier to talk to clients about the ‘1 sentence they are known for’ rather than go through whole discussions on the ‘true’ meaning of brand **

Find out more about the Executive Rockstar Initiative for Career and Business Success

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Tags: brand, descriptor, niche

This entry was posted on Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 9:53 pm and is filed under Executive Rockstar, Tactics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.