Jackie’s blog

Read a fascinating article the other day about Malcolm Gladwell’s new book ‘Outliers: The Story of Success’ in which he talks about hugely talented and successful people not being born as geniuses but rather developing their talents through some very serious practice. He says:

This idea - that excellence at a complex task requires a critical, minimum level of practice - surfaces again and again in studies of expertise. In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is a magic number for true expertise: 10,000 hours.

“In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice-skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals,” writes the neurologist Daniel Levitin, “this number comes up again and again. Ten thousand hours is equivalent to roughly three hours a day, or 20 hours a week, of practice over 10 years… No one has yet found a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time. It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery.”

I found this hugely reassurring. How often have I heard people say things like ‘It’s okay for them, they were born clever, everything comes easy to them’ and ‘I have never been any good at anything’. Well maybe the reason for that is that you just haven’t devoted enough time to trying to master it. I really do believe that if we want something we have to be prepared to throw some time and effort at getting it. Clearly there are times when we might be barking up the wrong tree (and this is where feedback from others is really helpful) but if we get serious and commit to putting in the hours there is no reason why we cannot become ‘great’ at the things we choose to do!

Just been reading the latest update from www.trendwatching.com  If you are thinking of starting a business this is a great site to sign up to as it keeps you abreast of what is happening in the world - especially in the areas of consumer buying trends. The latest free e-bulletin focuses on status stories as being the next big thing. Consumers don’t just want things anymore they want experiences - and not necessarily run of the mill experiences that anyone can have when they buy a particular product or service. People now want to customise everything to themselves and have a story of their own to tell about their purchases. A couple of things that caught my eye in the bulletin - a company called Hubwear in the states produces T shirts that display a wearer’s favourite travel routes in airport codes (so when people ask them what their T shirt means they have a story to tell!) and another company called Yosimiya in Japan is selling bags of rice with a photo of your newborn baby on it, the name and date of birth and then, guess what, the bag contains the baby’s exact weight in rice. Think of the stories that will pop up when passing that around. How long will rice stay okay in a bag anyway - imagine ‘You weighed this much when you were born 20 years ago!’ Amazing. There are loads more examples in the bulletin so if you are thinking of starting your own business it is definately worth signing up with this site. 

I am about to do some more branding sessions with graduate entrepreneurs - or should I say solopreneurs or minipreneurs (there are so many lovely variations on the ‘preneur’ word nowadays according to the latest trendwatching briefing) - and I decided to do some research around freelance photographers and their online brand image. Talk about first impressions. Some are really poor, not only are they not that great to look at but also not that helpful in terms of information and examples of work. It is sad really. If you go to all the trouble of making a shop window on the web for you and your offerings then surely it makes sense to put real time and effort in that to make sure it is ‘on brand’.

Some do get it right though. Two I really like are Matt Stuart’s (some of his quirky street shots made me laugh out loud and his simple, easy to use and delightful website echos his work which relies on a small camera, patience and optimism to capture those funny moments we all experience from time to time when we smile to ourselves and wish we had a camera to hand - lovely). The other is Michael William’s (his black background, minimal, stripped down looking site echos his urban, understated and frequently black and white images and you can see why his style appeals to young, urban, streetwise looking bands). So if you are going to have a website, try and get it ‘on brand’.

Incidentally, at the Reading workshop, when looking at goals I asked the students - If you knew you couldn’t fail, what would you do with your life? They all said this question really opened up their thinking. That’s what a bit of NLP reframing does for you. The other one I like was dreamed up by my friend Les Jones, who says ‘Imagine I have here a careers blank cheque and 3 years from now you can cash it in for any job you want - what job do you want me to write on it?’ What a great question to get you started.

Last week I spent a great afternoon introducing some Reading University students to the Personal Branding process and afterwards, doing my usual self-reflective analysis of the session, I decided that the section on Values needed working on. Values are so important to the way we live our lives. They are buried deep inside our subconscious and have a lot to do with the way we feel about almost anything we do. So I wanted to tackle this part in a more thorough but challenging way. I got out my Anthony Robbins Unlimited Power book because he has a whole chapter on values, and value hierarchies, and I wanted to remind myself of what he said - he is such a powerful communicator that he makes you think again about loads of things. I have now come up with a couple of new ways to tackle this which I will try when I do my next session.

Anyway, all this digging into values again got me thinking about my own and I realised that ‘being fit’ is one of my values but it is very low down on my values hierarchy. This struck me as not really being right as I am getting older. I need to lift this value up a bit and give it more house room. So I have convinced my daughter to sign up with me for a couple of 10k races and, lo and behold, I have started jogging again. Why? Because I clearly hold the value of sticking to a goal once set or taking on a challenge and proving I can do it, much more highly than just keeping fit. I feel much more motivated to run now that I have a couple of races coming up. I have also started rallying round other people to come along and cheer us on or join us. Again, I have a very powerful value of not letting people down, so by roping other people in I will find it impossible to drop out of the challenge. Finally, I have paid out good money to enter and another of my strong values is to not waste money. Clearly, to get and stay fit I am going to have to find ways of using my other, more powerful values to drive me along. Interesting eh?

Just heard that I was successful in my application to become a Learning Fellow of the University (see previous posts). Yippee! Am really chuffed because you can only have a Fellowship if you can prove you are an excellent teacher. So now it’s official - I am an excellent teacher. Cripes, sounds really big headed, me thinks I need to get over myself! Anyway, now I have to make a positive contribution to professional development within the University by delivering my project before April 2010. I am going to be producing e-learning materials using the Articulate Pro Presenter software. It is not a huge project but as I only work here one day a week it can’t afford to be. It is really exciting and I have to admit to feeling really chuffed about it. So, will keep you posted …

Well, I did my best at my interview but I had forgotten how quickly the time flies by. I felt like I had said almost nothing. I also made a bit of a boo-boo in the first few minutes by being a bit too relaxed (though I had been told the interview was informal). So not sure how it went. It was really good though to go through this process again because it really does remind me what the whole experience is like. So keeping my fingers crossed - I can honestly say I have no idea whether I got one or not. We’ll see.

I have an interview tomorrow for a Learning Fellowship at the university where I work. It’s funny really but you would think that someone who does the sort of work I do would sail through interviews without a single twitch or moment of blankness. Not so. As I prepare for it today I can feel my nerves jangling already. It’s a nice feeling though. Why? Well because I happen to think it is really important to ‘walk the walk’ when you ‘talk the talk’. What do I mean? Well how many people are out their giving talks on how to ace interviews when they haven’t had one in ages. It’s only by doing these things yourself that you get reminded of exactly how it feels to have to sell yourself to a panel of strangers.

One of the things I am going to be asked about (they sent an outline of what is being covered) is what in particular is special about my approach to teaching. One thing I am planning on saying is that as a teacher I have a real empathy for my students and what they are up against when trying to sort out their careers. That is no hollow claim actually. I have spent the last year refocusing my own career and making changes to downsize, learn new stuff and expand into new roles. I have always been very hands on about my own career path. It is all very challenging and, do you know what - I love it. The feeling of being in control of your own career no matter how stormy the employment seas, is quite wonderful. It isn’t easy, I know, but I want my students to have that feeling - in fact I am passionate about my students having that feeling and I bring that to my teaching too. So back to the interview … have I done my preparation? Yes? Am I ready? As I’ll ever be. Will I get it? Yes!

Will keep you posted.

This is quite clever. The elements of Personal Branding based on the Periodic table. Click on the image to go to original.

Built by Kolbrener, a corporate branding agency

This week I am going to be talking to a bunch of media students at the university about the importance of their final year project for their future careers. Sound strange? Well, when applying for jobs in the graduate labour market you have to be able to make yourself stand out in some way. You need to differentiate yourself from your competitors. Many graduate recruiters are also keen to see that you have some relevant experience - relevant in that it is in some way connected with the work they do. Choosing a final year project that takes you into areas that overlap with or are of interest to potential future employers is one way to make your CV stand out from the crowd.

When checking student’s CVs nowadays I find myself looking for what I call the ‘nuggets of gold’ and the ‘differentiators’. These are the things that the employer will be interested in and also the things that make you different/a stronger candidate than the competition. For example, one girl I worked with had been working as voluntary adjudicator in a forum for computer games enthusiasts. She introduced activities to stimulate interest in the forum such as quizzes and league tables. When she went after a job with one of the big games developers they were really interested in this aspect of her CV. The chinese students I see often don’t think to use their language skills to go after jobs with companies developing IT with Chinese businesses. Speaking fluent Mandarin is, I would suggest, a huge differentiator.

Having a final year project or dissertation which explores an area of work that you would like to go into after your degree makes real sense. So many students fail to see the connection and so miss a chance to stand out. This is what I will be telling them this week, alongside showing them the Phil Cooke video. Let’s hope they get it!