The Brand You 50 (Reinventing Work): Fifty Ways to Transform Yourself from an 'Employee' into a Brand That Shouts Distinction, Commitment, and Passion! (Reinventing Work Series)

by Tom Peters

2. What would “Cool Work” look like? Alone . . . or better yet (again) with a few pals . . . concoct a list of 25 (no fewer!) phrases that define for you/you all . . . Work that Matters. Can you somehow apply five of these phrases to your current project? In the next week?

Craft = Marketable Skill. Distinction = Memorable. Networking Skills = Word of Mouth Collegial Support.

It’s about being so damn good and meticulous and responsible about what you do (and making sure that what you do is work that needs to be done) that the world taps a T1-speed path to your PC.

The point of this book/series: (1) TAKE YOUR/MY LIFE BACK FROM “THEM.” (2) SCREW DILBERT: CYNICISM IS FOR WHINERS. (3) SELF-RELIANCE IS ALL-AMERICAN.

I think all of us have a fair hunk of spunk in us, spunk that has been systematically repressed by an educational system that basically teaches us what we can’t do and by hierarchical employers who don’t believe we’re capable of initiative and invention. Such initiative waits — anxiously! eagerly! — to be released.)

“Job”/“tasks” intimate limits and constraints. (E.g., “It’s not my job”; “I’ve got to get this task out of the way by Tuesday.”) They connote doing what you’re told rather than reinventing the assignment until it sings! Brand You is about breaking bonds and creating unmistakable value-added “products” (projects!) for identifiable “customers.” The products/projects become “braggables.” The customers become Clients/ Co-conspirators-for-Cool/Raving Fans/Word- of-Mouth-Cheerleading-References.

DO COOL SHIT. EVERY DAMN DAY. OR DIE TRYING.

(I have NEVER met a truly successful person who was a raging cynic. Maybe about some things . . . but NEVER . . . EVER . . . about his/her passion/projects!

2. Define . . . Mastery and The Project Life. What are the attributes thereof? (List 15.) Is “it” indeed worth the candle? Worth the sacrifice? (Ask that surgeon . . . again.) Is your “profession” a true Calling? If not, what, if anything, can you do about it? What are the options, other than changing careers? How could the Projects you undertake be transformed into Something Worth Pursuing? Specifically? Start with your current project. Talk with your teammates: How could we make this project into a Step Toward Mastery?

1. How about privately beginning to refer to yourself and a couple of coworkers as Margery Martinez, Inc., and her pals . . . Deborah (probably not “Debbie”) Atkins, Inc. and Dolph Serrino, Inc. How does it feel? What does it mean? What sort of stuff would Margery Martinez, Inc., not do today that “Margie-in-accounting” might let herself be distracted by?

3. Again (sorry): What you value is u-n-m-i-s-t-a-k-a-b-l-y reflected in (1) precisely how you spend your time, (2) the nature of each contribution at each meeting, (3) who exactly you hang with. So: How’s it look? Pick one item to alter in the next

24 hours.

Customer Service: P-l-e-a-s-e call it Client Service. (See our the

Professional Service Firm50 for the difference between “customers” and “Clients.” Hint: It’s enormous. Psychologically, at least.) And be clear that Client Service is a daily — hourly! — top, explicit priority.

1. Become — and start today, damn it! — Obsessive about Your Calendar/To Do List. Examine it microscopically each morning. Do a postmortem each night. Does it reflect — exactly! — your one or two or three (no more!) Brand You priorities?

3. Start a library of Power+Implementation books. Invite your division’s most effective Project Manager in to talk to you and your colleagues about her implementation tricks of the trade.

Seek independence. Make your own jurisdiction. Golden Rule: Any-Damn-Task-Can-Be-Turned-to-Gold . . . with Imagination. (Don’t let on, but this is key: You don’t need the “great”/“big” project.) (Trust me. Please: In Search of Excellence emerged from a project in which no one put any faith . . . or initial resources.) It’s the “little,” “unwanted” job — SHAPE UP OUR RELATIONSHIPS WITH A FEW MINOR VENDORS WHO ARE OUT OF SORTS — that can literally unlock Pandora’s WOW!/Profitable Box.

Motto. As of Now: “100 percent ‘Braggable’ Work!”

Make user-friendliness a mainstay of every project. (Consciously. EVERY DAY.)

Ours (Professional Services) is an Empathy/Helping/Listening Business. We do have unique skills. (Or we shouldn’t be practicing in the first place.) But we Make a Difference only to the extent that we Connect . . . as Empathetic/Helping Professionals-Humans.

Talk . . . immediately . . . about any real or perceived breach of trust. Consider trust-building exercises.

Consciously n-u-r-t-u-r-e your Rolodex Community. One of my tricks, inherited from my Stanford mentor Gene Webb, is my “Various Friends” correspondence. When I come across anything that turns me on, I consciously and immediately, while the spark still glows, distribute it to a select bunch of Members of My Community . . . with a brief cover note about why it tickled my fancy. Goal: Keep “them” . . . consciously . . . In The (My!) Loop. 9. Think Rolodex. Think Community. Constantly. Brand You = Your Rolodex Is You.

Long standing habit of mine! How can I transfer this practice?

Personal University.

Seriously? PLN!! Wow!

But to restate the obvious (which needs restating, all the time): Hanging with the same folks, reading the same magazines, going to the same conferences is . . . DEADLY. You simply cannot compete as Brand You if you’re the same old same old.

“You risk becoming a parody of yourself by not innovating,” says sportscaster Keith Olbermann, “by saying, ‘This works for me. Let me try to find a slight variation and make it look fresh.’”

“Did it make me gasp when I first saw it?” Gasp-worthiness doesn’t happen every day (and it may never happen) . . . but the quest in and of itself can lead to innovation/inspiration/aspiration.

truly. It is not up to you whether your performance will be brilliant — all that is under your control is your intention. It is not under your control whether your career will be brilliant — all that is under your control is your intention. If you intend to manipulate, to show, to impress, you may experience mild suffering and pleasant triumphs. If you intend to follow the truth you feel in yourself — to follow your common sense, and force your will to serve you in the quest for discipline and simplicity — you will subject yourself to profound despair, loneliness, and constant self-doubt. And if you persevere, the Theater, which you are learning to serve, will grace you, now and then, with the greatest exhilaration it is possible to know.

Or one of IDEO Design & Product Development chief David Kelley’s gang achieving perfect pitch while designing a medical instrument.

I've gotten to work with IDEO!

Thence, in the New Age of Self-Reliance, it becomes axiomatic: To operate effectively as Brand You we must be . . . absolutely . . . Trustworthy. And . . . Credible.

7. Don’t open your mouth (in public) unless you are Passionate about your Point of View. Passion-Credibility-Care is what you “sell” as a Speaker-Communicator. Regardless of subject.

23. Solve your audience members’ problems. Your proposal-plea should have something in it for them . . . personally. Great fund-raisers say that they are “helping donors make cool investments in the future that they’ll feel good about.”

Listen. L-I-S-T-E-N. Learn. L-E-a-r-N. Make contacts. Create no less than a Front Line University. And prosper accordingly. It truly is . . . that simple. (Cool benefit.: You meet neat people . . . who deeply appreciate your interest. And c-a-r-e. Who have been waiting for the likes of you — a Listener — for 25 years. Sometimes . . . literally.)

Create rituals: E.g., go through your Rolodex . . . every other week . . . and call a couple of folks you’re out of touch with. Religiously reserve every other Wednesday, say, to take someone in the Rolodex to lunch. (“Rolodex Wednesday”?) Develop an eye for Talent, for a job well done, for WOW incarnate. Seek out those responsible. Add them to your virtual (or real) team.

The will and power to change minds . . . is a Pretty Strong-Minded Thing. I.e.: YOU GOTTA BELIEVE . . . Pretty Insanely . . . in the Worth of Your Quest.

WORK THAT NEEDS DOING . . . UNMET NEEDS . . . OPPORTUNITY-MINDED VENDOR . . . VENDOR’S MINDSET . . . CAREER PLANNING = STRATEGIC BUSINESS PLANNING.