10 Ways to Stamp Authority in your Career

Today we take personal branding to your career doorstep. One of the most powerful ways of propelling your career to the stratosphere is through positioning yourself as an authority. You can eliminate doubts about your abilities, marshal people around your ideas through smart professional and personal branding. Here is how…

Freedom from Fear

To stamp your authority in your career you need to eliminate all forms of fear and live courageously. Get rid of the fear of failure, fear of punishment, fear of making mistakes and even the fear of being told “you are fired”.

Fear paralyzes and causes inaction. It modifies behavior and keeps people in their comfort zones. You need to break free from your comfort zone if you are to become an authority in your chosen career. Eliminate the fear of the unknown through constant learning, asking questions and throwing yourself in new and challenging situations.

I like this quote on fear by Marianne Williamson, from her 1992 book, “Return to Love”.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.

Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Specialized Knowledge

Enhance your personal brand by becoming highly skilled in your chosen career. You can gain expert status in you field through extensive reading, attending seminars or even apprenticeship. Dig deeper into your field than your peers. Stay in the bleeding edge of innovation in your area of work.

Power of Persuasion

In my favorite movie of all time, The Godfather, Don Corleone made Jack Woltz an offer he could not refuse. I will not get into the details of the offer but sometimes it is necessary to sweeten your offer for you to get ahead in life. People act out of the desire to eliminate pain and desire to gain pleasure. Learn how to use a balance of those two motivations to create an offer that people cannot refuse.

Know who to make the offer to, when and how. You need to practice to become more persuasive if it does not come naturally to you. Listening skills are vital in becoming more persuasive. Learn to listen to both what people say and what they do not say. Learn to read people’s body language and hidden message (like in this section of this blog post).

Unparalleled Value

Don’t just turn up to work. Ask yourself what you can do for your employer, more than you ask yourself what your employer can do for you. Understand and articulate the needs of your customers better than anyone else.

Learn to anticipate their needs and obsess about providing value. Be generous and give until it hurts. Seek feedback from your employer or customers on how your value has impacted them and seek to provide more value based on that feedback.

Remember that money is only a medium of exchange and has no intrinsic value.  The paradox of money is that the sooner you ask for it the less of it you will receive in the long run. Worry about giving value and money will take care of itself. Worry about value creation and delivery more than you worry about pay rises and getting paid.

Power Networking

Meet the key people in your industry. Do not be proud of just accumulating business cards in your rolodex. Make sure your personal brand and first impressions are working to your advantage.

Seek to be friends with your contacts. People love to do business with their friends. It is not corruption, it is human nature. Rarely do people enjoy playing golf with people who have a one track mind – business, more business and yet more business.

Do not pressure people in your networking efforts. Be desirable. Package yourself nicely. Let others seek you for your appeal instead of you pushing yourself to them.

Leadership Skills

Learn, internalize and practice leadership skills. Be good in goal setting, project management and be good with people. Develop your people skills by seeing the good in them, and seeking to bring out the best in others.

Develop your leadership skills through attending leadership seminars, talking with other leaders, reading books, blogs and watching DVDs on leadership skills development. Go out there and learn to lead by doing. Leading even the smallest of teams will develop more of your leadership skills than a seminar would.

Mentoring

Chart your own career path. Decide what is important for you. You do not want to wait for a mentor to tell you what is good for you. They will guide you based on their world view, past experiences and warped ideas of who you are.

Do not have just one mentor. Find many people who you admire and find little things about each that you can implement in your life. Do not become a clone of someone else.

To become an authority in your field and to prosper your personal brand, consider mentoring others. Share your lessons that you have learned over time. Give whoever you are mentoring genuine value. Be genuinely interested in helping the people you mentor.

Outlast Competition

Authority status is not acquired overnight. Be persistent in your aspiration for authority status in your chosen field. Continuously develop your career. Learn the ropes. Learn the people. Ingrain yourself in the culture. Be an insider. Speak the lingo.

Outlasting your competition does not mean staying with the same company or line of business all your life. But it does mean immersing yourself in one general area of business for years on end. Remember that rolling stones gather no moss. You need to stick around for the harvest. Authorities do not plant then leave immediately.

Believe in Yourself

Others may doubt you, do not join them. Conduct a SWOT analysis of yourself. Learn your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. You cannot be everything. Find an angle and stick with it. Become really good at what you do using your own unique angle.

There will always be people who are better than you in something just as there will always be people you are better than. Do not let the success of others make you jealous or diminish your belief in yourself.

Be happy in your own achievements, however humble. Count your blessings everyday. Build your confidence by achieving and celebrating your milestones on your career journey.

Befriend the Rule Book

Each profession operates within confines of the law and standards. Know the limits in your careers. Stretch the limits but do not break them. Ignorance is not a defense. Find advisors to guide you when you get to ETC (end of thinking capacity).

Summary

To become an authority in your chosen career, you must first believe in yourself. Know the rules and network expertly. Gain specialized knowledge and use it to give unparalleled value. Be free from fear and develop your leadership. Authority status does not happen overnight so be prepared to work for it.

I would love to hear your comments on how to achieve authority status and other ways of enhancing your personal brand in a career setting.

_{»crosslinked«}

Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.