Quick ways to improve your professional brand
Hi working moms and dads –
What do you get when you take a demanding career – and then add kids into the mix? Busy – really, really busy.
If you feel a little overcommitted, tired, or frazzled, that’s completely normal. Like every other working parent, you’ve got a lot on your plate.
But to be seen as, and to actually be, an effective leader—whatever your line of work—means coming across as if you have control over your time. Appearing anxious, frantic, hounded, exhausted, and curt won’t play well with a promotions committee, with your boss’s boss, or during an interview. On the other hand, being seen as active, calm, deliberate, focused, efficient, and energized redounds to your credit, and can draw your colleagues toward you.
To send the right professional signals, without overthinking how best to do so, or feeling like you’re an actor playing a role, consider:
Using an impossible-to-ignore visual. Keep a whiteboard up in your workspace, with a list of key projects by deadline and status. If you’re working remotely, hang this up in the back- ground wherever you do your videoconferencing. Add detail and updates, and never let the information become obviously outdated or too spare. Your message: I’ve got a lot on my plate, and I’m in demand, but I’m on it.
Having a “time investment” elevator speech. If you can answer the question “How’s it going?” with a crisp, upbeat “We’re almost finished reconfiguring the curriculum for the September launch— it’s busy, but great to see it all coming together,” it will speak much better of you than a rapidly recited task list or commenting about how “there’s so much to do in the next three weeks!”
Minding your adjectives. When a colleague asks how your day has been, be wary of responding with words like overwhelming, endless, too much, or crazy. Of course it feels that way, and it is, but those aren’t the messages you want to send about yourself, or your relationship with whoever’s asking the question. Think about using balanced terms like active, engaged, productive, or busy instead.
Setting “priority percentages”—and sharing them with your boss. Figure out how you’re spending your total work time, and ask your boss if he agrees that 50 percent devoted to product development, 30 percent to regulatory reporting, and 20 percent to recruitment sounds right (fill in the blanks with your own specifics). Not only will these time-priority conversations let you sound thoughtful, judicious, and aligned with your boss’s interests, they will also allow you to recalibrate as needed—and avoid surprises at your performance review later on.
For more ideas on how to tame the time challenge, listen to my interview with NPR’s Diana Opong, or check out my HBR article on how to reduce that sense of working-parent overwhelm and feel more in-control.
Find this newsletter helpful? Post this link on social media to share it with other working parents: https://www.workparent.com/articlesandadvice - and for more advice and inspiration, follow me on Instagram.