Essential Advice From My New York Marathon

I would never run a marathon but apparently I can walk one in 48hours. The trick it seems is being in a city with my eldest daughter! Last year we gave our three daughters the Christmas gift of a weekend away on their own with each parent. My eldest chose New York during the holidays. At first I thought it was so she could skip school and come with me because I was speaking at a conference in New York in December, but once I told her I would come back and pick her up so we could spend the weekend together - she was still interested so off we went!

Here are some fascinating observations of my time in the city that never sleeps....

1. The suits are back -People in suits are walking NY streets - more businesses are back in the office, restaurants are filled with those dressed for work and on business lunches and dinners.

2. The pavement battle takes practice! - I realized quickly that I needed to teach my 14 year old how to walk in a busy city. Determination, speed, and not getting pushed around takes practice when crossing streets and trying to get into the door of your favorite store! By the end of the weekend she was barging ahead, head down like a true New Yorker! My parenting work here is done.

3. Kindness wins every day - I don’t think the lady who slipped and fell by the JetBlue Mint desk at JFK airport knew that the kind person who full on picked her right up was Cristo Fernandez aka Danny Rojas from Ted Lasso. (He followed us all the way through the slow security line but on strict instructions of my daughter I was NOT allowed to talk to him or ask for a picture! - though I did sneak one to prove it really was him!)

4. When you are occupied you don’t notice how much effort you are putting in - even now we both can't quite believe we walked a marathon, but we were so distracted by the colors of Central Park, the joys of vintage shopping in Greenwich Village, the installations in MOMA, the spectacular buildings of St Patricks Cathedral, NY Public Library, and Hudson Yards time and miles just flew by!

5. Vintage is valuable! - we used to hide the fact that we bought our clothes second hand when growing up out of embarrassment we couldn't afford them new - now thrifting is a proud past time of many teenagers! My daughters have taught me that thrifting is a pleasure not a necessary evil. - I even bought two Missoni dresses for a bargain price!

6. Ask others how well you are doing -I have to remind myself to do what I advise my clients - don't listen to your own view of your performance and impact - ask others! I got to meet my US Publishing team at Kogan Page while I was in New York and was delighted when I asked them how well they thought my two books were doing. - Given I launched Rapid Growth Done Right on May 2020 I knew it was a tough time to launch a book, and launching my third in January this year made me wonder how exactly they were doing in my publishers eyes - Turns out I need to press the mute button on the voices in my head a little more and listen to others!

7. “Make the goals unrealistic and the timeline realistic" Deshawna Barber - If you ever get the chance to hear DeShawna speak go and listen - a veteran and former Miss USA has many wise words to share. I love the idea of detaching the goal from the timeline - I'm curious to hear what unrealistic goal you have quietly in your head that if you shared with one person it might not be as unrealistic as you think.

I want to take a minute to highlight the work of a brilliant organization in England. Andy’s Man Club has a motto of “it’s ok to talk” and holds free support groups across the UK. Their goal is to end the stigma around mental health and help men’s suicide prevention. I invite you to follow them on their social media channels and share their messages they apply beyond the men they are targeting. 

...and finally if you are struggling what to get the kids in your life I highly recommend the idea of a weekend away with one at a time. Ever since we brought our twins home from the hospital when our first daughter was only 23 months old, the power of "divide and conquer" runs strong in our house!

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

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How To Meet People You Really Want To At Your Next Event

I’m heading to New York to speak to 1,250 attendees at a conference and as I was sharing some preparation tips for attendees I realized it might be helpful to share them here:

I rarely meet an executive who says they love to network so here are four ways to make it more enjoyable:

NETworking is annoying because it is too general. 

It’s hard to believe, but it really is possible, you can love networking once you stop the NET of networking. 

Networking is hated by many because the NET in Networking assumes a large number - that you are casting a wide net - when you need to do the opposite, take a precision approach to who you want to meet and find out who can connect you. Wouldn’t you prefer three quality conversations rather than 20 superficial ones?

Preparation is crucial

When I’m at an event with other executives I know, I ask them ahead of time who they want to meet and I facilitate the introductions. You can ask the event organizer, or someone else you know in attendance to introduce you to the right people.

Become a super node

At an event in Silicon Valley last month I overheard someone call me a “Super Node” to another executive. Board member Amit Shah explained that I’m always at the centre of connecting others and that I open up my connections to others to provide mutual benefit. I appreciated how he explained this. It’s easy for you to do this too if you think about who you know and where there maybe useful introductions. —word of warning I only introduce executives with a double-yes. Which means that both people want to meet each other before an introduction is made. 

Great to meet you!

A simple text, DM, email to whoever you met saying it was great to meet and following up on any topics you discussed is a great way to stay connected. - I like to personalize a note on LinkedIn DMs because it stays there as a record for where and when you met someone. This really helps my ADHD brain which doesn't remember names and faces without a prompt.

Cheers to making new useful connections at your next event!

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

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How To Discover Who Loves You More: Your Current Or Future Boss?

Is love too strong of a word? Have you met people who tell you how much they LOVE their job? Love at work between a company and its employees can be expressed in many ways, but reading this you will have a gut reaction in your stomach when considering the question: who loves you more your existing boss or the future one you have yet to meet?

Often executives need an impartial ear to tell them if they are thinking about this right. Your mentors, your peers in other companies, prior bosses and external experts can help with being a soundboard for you as you think about your current role and when or if you should move next.  

Should you be nervous or more confident than ever? Especially when tech giants are laying off employees including Amazon, Google, Meta and Cisco? - I don’t believe you should be more nervous, but I do advise you dedicating time to reflect and plan by evaluating your network, your personal valuation, and not letting your own network become dehydrated, so they are there for you when you need them. 

Start with this important question:

Do you feel in demand and satisfied with the rewards and recognition you receive in your current role and company?

Your valuation is like a stock valuation or share price of a company and this will go up and down throughout your career. 

In fact, you have two valuations, an internal valuation and an external valuation. Depending what your valuations are depends what action you need to take. 

Consider your internal valuation right now. This is determined by your compensation, your promotion history, your exposure and access to senior executives, your involvement in strategic projects, the feedback you receive from those who can influence your career. Rate it now, is it high? Is it correct? Could it be a lot better? 

Now think about your external valuation. This is determined by your external reputation in your industry, how often the head hunters call, how frequently you are asked to speak at events, in the media on your area of expertise. Rate it now, is it high? Are you a best kept secret? (I know not all companies like and encourage external involvement but your personal valuation is still impacted by this) Is your reputation outside the company stronger than it is inside the company? 

Depending on where you are in your career and depending on where you have focused your time and energy, those two valuations may be quite different. 

The question for you to answer is where do you want to spend your time and energy to increase your valuation? Internally or externally or maybe a little of both?

A divisional president that I was working with called me, exasperated. He said, ‘Val, I cannot believe he got that job. He should never have got that job. I worked with him three years ago, and he was mediocre at best!’

As we discussed it, we realized that while the promoted executive’s achievements weren’t that great, he did excel at showcasing his achievements with his CEO, his board and externally. Talking more with my client, we discovered that his own specific focus had been solely concentrated internally to the detriment of his external reputation. That was where he decided to spend is time improving those relationships. 

How well you promote your achievements externally can affect your company valuation, who wants to invest in you, which strategic partners will want to do business with you and how rapidly you can grow. 

Your external reputation can also drive up your internal valuation. This happened with an executive I worked with who was able to secure prominent media interviews and she was asked to speak at external events that were then shared internally. As a result, she became more well known internally and with the board of directors which ultimately led to her getting promoted across multiple divisions driving up both her Internal and External Personal Valuation.

I’d love to hear how high your Internal and External Valuations are and which you will be spending time to increase.

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

P.S. I hope you enjoyed this week's VAL-uable Insights, sign up here to get them in your inbox each Monday morning: http://valwrightconsulting.com/newsletter-sign-up/