Your Signature Dish

According to extensive research into success and performance, each one of us approaches our work with a unique formula.  When we are at our best, we tap into some natural talents, abilities, or experiences that we have honed.  In his book, StrengthFinders, Tom Rath uses Gardner's research and outlines 34 themes or traits that show up in different combinations in these success recipes.

I recently took mine again and was amazed at the consistency from previous times I have taken the assessments under different circumstances, in different cities, and for different purposes.  It seems that each of us have a "go to" recipe that becomes our signature dish.

Mine are Strategic, Maximizer, Positivity, Activator, and WOO (winning others over).  This time Communication made it back onto the list as well.

So, what do these mean?

For me, they combine to create this recipe.

I see the big picture.  I know how to make it better.  I am positive it will work. 
How soon can we start?  Who's with me?

When I first articulated this, a long-time colleague joked that this was the pattern of most of the emails she received from me.  I suspect she was right.

Those familiar with the assessments know that one of my themes is in the Strategic Thinking category, one is in Relationship Building, and three are in Influencing.  Using my kitchen analogy, this represents my balance of salty and sweet.  The Strategic and Maximizer seek out data, insight, and analysis until actionable patterns begin to emerge.  Those patterns build confidence with Positivity and momentum with Activator.  Activator also indicates my comfort with (and, frankly, need for) experimentation.  We often can only start with a minimum viable offering or a test, but that then informs our strategy and our confidence for further investments.  And throughout, with communication and influence, I am "Winning Others Over" (WOO).  Creating the motivation to bring customers or colleagues in alignment with the new vision.

I can point to dozens and dozens of examples in my career where my recipe delivered great results.  It is the common theme up and down my resume.  Not everyone would have approached the problems or situations in the same way, and in fact, those perspectives are critical for strategic planning and action (and must be actively sought out, especially from those who are quiet in group settings or need more time for analysis).  But underlying the successes is a creativity, energy, and conviction that prompts people to action and helps the business achieve more than it thought it could.  It's my winning formula.  It's my signature dish.

What is yours?  I am curious to know what others have found in their StrengthsFinders assessments and how they are utilizing it to play more to their strengths every day. 

Next week, I am attending a workshop where this and other assessments will combine to create a clearer picture of purpose and vision.  For someone who likes to see the big picture and collaborate towards making things better, this is perfect.  It just can't come soon enough.

Who is Your Boss? The Answer Might Surprise You

This seems like a simple question. One that would be easy to answer. But for those of us in a customer-facing and customer-impacting role or with big ambitions for our career, it is the kind of multiple choice question that leads to new insights and creates different day-to-day priorities and strategies. 

WHO Do You Work for?

Option 1: You work for your employer. This is the most obvious one. You are employed by an organization from which you receive a paycheck. You have a boss (or several). Your boss might have a boss. Your goals are aligned to the financial or strategic goals of the business and the goals of those bosses. And your primary job is to advocate for the company with customers to create enterprise value for the investors of your company and the leadership who is advocating their interest. With this mindset, the importance of “managing up” is clear. Internal relationship building and being visible in the organization is critical. Whether your manager is collaborative, a micro-manager, or empowering, this view dominates the work landscape.

Option 2: You work for your customers. For marketing professionals and other customer-facing roles, this can be a very useful perspective for day-to-day prioritization. Customers ultimately pay the bills and drive growth and profit in the company. Often customer advocacy and resulting business results can lead to personal rewards. If your goals are aligned to the business goals of your customer, this can lead to great partnership and can optimize long-term customer value. Customer experience and customer service are paramount and are driving enterprise value (not the other way around). With this mindset, the importance of customer relationship building is clear. You need to spend time with your boss, after all.  And your primary job is to advocate or the customer within the company.

Option 3: You work for yourself. Perhaps you are self-employed, consult, or rocking the gig economy, but even if you are not, it is helpful to consider this perspective. Even if you are an employee, you own your own career. You own your own development. And for most of us, we own how we apply our time and energy to the various problems and opportunities we face daily. Ultimately, you choose to join companies, which customers or markets you focus on, and how you pursue your personal passions over time. And with this approach, your primary job is to advocate for yourself with customers and the company, to align their goals with the work you want to pursue. In my experience, this perspective comes to the forefront in times of transition or discontent, but otherwise is under-prioritized. 

As you consider your answer, know that it truly is a multiple choice question. Your answer will likely be a mix of all three and will vary over time as needs and priorities changes. 

In any case, I highly recommend you spending time, being mentored by, and really understanding the needs of all three of your bosses - your employer, your customers, and yourself – to ensure that you are performing up to your fullest potential.   We often don’t listen to ourselves or give ourselves the same compassionate and honest advice we would give to colleagues or our employees, even though we could benefit from the self-reflection. And most of us don’t ask or receive advice frequently enough from our employers or our customers and we should regularly seek out the gift of feedback. Armed with these insights, we can confidently answer the question and focus on the highest impact priorities.

This article was originally published on LinkedIn Pulse.

Be Yourself

On the advice of a friend, Angela Naphin, whose recent podcast on personal branding, encouraged it, I Googled myself.  Despite the popularity of my name, I was pleased to see that I was the 5th most popular image for Jennifer Davis and my blog ranked up there.  Behind the runner-up Miss America.  Behind a surgeon.  Behind an artist.  Behind an ambassador. I am in good company, it seems.

According to the US Census Bureau, and their very entertaining HowManyofMe.com website, there are 6,050 women named Jennifer Davis in the US alone.  And there over a million women named Jennifer in the US.  The name ipeaked in popularity around the time of my birth, which is why all of us Jennifers are about the same age (ie, think Jennifer Gardner, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jennifer Lopez, and all the Jennifers you know, are related to, and work with).

But back to my point, my name alone is not distinctive enough to be a brand.  Lucky for me it isn’t hard to spell or pronounce.  It is easy for people all over the world to say.  But it is not unique.  It isn’t some celebrity baby name that some might read as strange, but is memorable.  My name sounds like someone you have met before and perhaps you have.  When I lived in Portland, Oregon, I was told all the time that there was a ticket agent who works at the Portland airport and a high school administrator with the same name.  My only hope was that they were outstanding citizens who didn’t end up with our name splashed in a negative newspaper masthead.  I think we have generally avoided all of that and as a group we have worked for good.

In the final tally, I am not any of the following Jennifers, but we may share some characteristics.

• I am not Jennifer Davis the ambassador, although I am diplomatic and strategic
• I am not Jennifer Davis, the ballroom dance instructor, although I strive to mentor
• I am not Jennifer Davis, the artist, although I am creative
• I am not Jennifer Davis, the surgeon, although I do focus my expertise to help others
• I am not Jennifer Davis, the real estate agent, although I do live in Atlanta
• I am not Jennifer Davis, the beauty queen, although, I too, wish for world unity

And the 6,049 others who share my name...are not me. 

You, too, should Google yourself.  Think about what makes you unique among your name-sharing peers and what make you similar.  And then be you!

Key to Career Fulfillment

“Accurate self-assessment is essential to great career choices.” – Tom Monahan, Norton Street Capital

For more on self-assessment, read Know Thyself: The Toolbox.

Faced with Change

“Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.” – John Kenneth Galbraith

Economist John Kenneth Galbraith illustrated well the first step to change: the openness to change one’s mind.  Without that, it is all defensiveness and resistance.

Happy New Year

Merry Christmas

On Learning

“Continuous peer learning is the best strategy for long-term improvement.”- Chris Dede, Harvard

On Awesomeness

“We need to quit trying to be awesome and instead be wise.” - Jen Hatmaker

3 Way to be the Plot Twist We Have Been Waiting For

You may have seen the tweet that has been going around that reads “may the last few months of 2017 be the plot twist you have been waiting for.” When I first heard it, I laughed and thought it perfectly captured what many of us have been feeling. When we reflect on this year, many of us don’t like the plot line. We certainly could use less uncertainty and a bit more “happily ever after.”

Economists Scott Baker (from Northwestern University), Nick Bloom (Stanford), and Steven Davis (University of Chicago) have developed something they call the Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU) index to measure the uncertainty that affects how businesses invest. In the US, they measure things like news content showing uncertainty, tax code provisions nearing expiration in the coming period, and disagreements among economists and forecasters. If there is great diversity among what people are saying, what people are seeing, and what people are predicting, the index shows that there is more uncertainty and research shows that uncertainty keeps businesses from investing in new hires, facilities, or equipment. In short, uncertainty keeps people waiting and watching. 

But what about uncertainty on a personal level? Here are three ways that you can counter-act the effect of uncertainty to be the change we want to see.

1.     Don’t wait to act

If there is policy uncertainty, leadership ambiguity, or unknown results from effort, it is human nature to sit back and wait to see how things play out. It leads to risk aversion. Leaning into ambiguity is messy and can lead to change fatigue. But waiting has huge productivity implications. Waiting not only affects your work output, but how you feel about your work. Not the one should be reckless or act foolish, but we all know that one can lean too far back in these situations and not take actions we know that in any circumstance are beneficial. There is a phrase attributed to Goethe (or an ambitious and free-wheeling translator) which reads: “What you can do, or dream you can, begin it: boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.” This phrase sat above my desk for years and I think that is does have power. If you wait to do something you know to know, then that lack of forward action has long-standing ramifications. 

2.     Commit to investing

In times of uncertainty, a lot of energy is focused on self-protection and survival. But this is precisely the time that you need to look outside yourself and invest in others. Your teammates, colleagues, and friends are feeling the same, or possibly even more, uncertainty than you and some reassurance, encouragement, or direction from you could make all the difference in their productivity and feeling of accomplishment. Don’t neglect your role as a leader, no matter your position, in times of uncertainty. Continue to support the causes close to you. Continue to mentor others. It is precisely in times of uncertainty that others need you more than ever. Be generous with your time and expertise and all the ways you invest in your community.

3.     Over-communicate

Closely related to #1 and #2 above, the first casualty in times of uncertainty can be communication. You might simply not know what to say or have answers to the questions that you think people will be asking. But your lack of communication will not keep people from asking questions. They will, in fact, ask more. And human nature will fill in the answers with fear or doubt. No one ever speculates that good is going on behind closed doors. They will assume the worst. Don’t let the reality of uncertainty lead to people feeling with certainty that bad things are going on or about to play out. So, commit to communicate and then rinse and repeat until you feel you are over-communicating. It is at that point, that people might be finally hearing you.

We are in unprecedented times. The perception of political tension, both in our country and abroad, and the social divisions are running high. Our businesses face new and aggressive competition, our customers have more choices than ever, it is getting harder to find and retain key talent, and it is easy to let that uncertainty get the best of us. Stress can run rampant in these times. We are in the final months of a year which has been marked by natural disasters, human tragedies, and upheaval. There are lots of reasons for uncertainty, but also for hope. 

I sincerely hope that YOU are the plot twist that we have been waiting for and that we all stop WAITING and do what we know to do, or dream to do, now.

Originally published on LinkedIn Pulse.

On Happiness

“I don’t need a ‘reason’ to be happy.  I don’t have to consult the future to know how happy I feel now.” - Hugh Prather

On Truth

“Truth is the ultimate organizer.” - Mohan Nair

On Failure

“If you fail, have an interesting failure.  Something that informs or transforms.” - Chris Dede, Harvard

On Reality

“Thought creates the world and then says “I didn’t do it.” - David Bohm

On Discovery

“Wanderer, there is no path.  You lay a path in walking.” - A. Machado, Spanish Poet

On Arguments

“Our marriage used to suffer from arguments that were too short.  Now we argue long enough to find out what the argument is about.” - Hugh Prather

On Gratitude

“Gratitude is the first sign of a thinking, rational creature.” -Solanus Casey

3 Reasons for Optimism

Despite the adage that “if you aren’t outraged, you aren’t paying attention” that is true in so many areas of our world today and in the face of ever-increasingly devastation that are afflicting our communities, our national and international relationships, and our families, there are three rational reasons to be optimistic.

1. Character: optimism changes you

The natural world teaches us that living things need hardship to achieve their full potential. Flavorful and sweet grapes are produced only after vine pruning. Tomatoes and peppers need periods of drought to produce fruit. In my experience, we are the same. It is not the periods of prosperity and comfort that define us and shape us as individuals, but our character is refined in the fire of hardship. The idea that what “doesn’t kill us makes us stronger,” can be true if we commit to self-reflection. If you are paying the tuition, think about the education you are getting.

2. Community: optimism fosters helping

Fred Rogers, of Mr. Rogers’ fame, recounted his mother advising him to look for the “helpers” whenever he heard of tragedy or saw scenes on the news. First responders rushing in when others are rushing out. Neighbors helping neighbors. Human kindness on display without regard to the things that can artificially divide us like location, race, creed, or language. This is a reason for optimism. That all of us facing challenges and changes big and small, can assist each other. When we think about humankind, tragedy allows us to be both human and kind.

3. Creativity: optimism unleashes new ideas

A “the sky is falling”, or worst a “the world is out to get me” mentality, shuts down the creative problem solving process. Your creativity engine is closed for business if you blame others or get overwhelmed by circumstances. We are capable of amazing innovation and can create solutions that are simply unimaginable to those who weren’t open to possibility. Sitting amidst the rubble might be the next new building approach that would survive the next storm, unearthed with a fresh perspective and an open mind. 

Often in the throes of life’s challenges, it is extremely difficult to remember these benefits of optimism. This is one of the many ways that we can help each other. Not with vague platitudes, but by walking alongside each other in the storm and helping to develop character, community, and creativity.

Originally published on LinkedIn Pulse. The photo was taken at the Spruill Gallery in Dunwoody, GA.

On Vulnerability

“Vulnerability is absolutely transformative and creates more trust, not less.” - Jen Hatmaker

On Dreaming

“It’s not the size of your dream that determines whether or not it comes true, but the magnitude of the actions you take.” - Susan Clark, HeartSpark