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The Fourth Top Skill You Really Need...

...to achieve promotions to senior positions in IT. Based on personal chats with CEOs and head-hunters. The Top Seven Skills Countdown, over seven days...continuing with the Number
Four, possibly the most boring number of the seven we will be covering, unless you can tell me otherwise...

4 Your Personal Brand

I have no way of proving how good you are on paper, so your success comes down to what I and others think of you.

That's your reach (how many people know you) and your reputation (what those people think of you). You have a personal brand, you must decide whether to take control of it, or just let it happen. So...

* Network especially with PAs and opinion formers in your organisation

* Speak at conferences without p-o-w-e-r-p-o-i-n-t (press play on the video)

* Be consistent in what you say and do, and what you say and do

PS - 1 out of 3 people in the UK die alone - that's 1 out of 3 - I have spent time with many people, in their last few moments, and their last thoughts are consistent. Do they worry about what they have "failed" at? Or what they had a go at? Or got "wrong" - no, people's biggest regret by far is that thing, or those things, they wish they had started, and never did.

The saddest words in the English language are these - if only it might have been

Please don't let these words apply to you - stop reading this NOW and go DO that important thing, or at least make a start...

Tomorrow - on a lighter note - how to tell the seniority of anyone in any meeting...


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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on June 21, 2007 9:00 AM.

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