Health managers and leaders - 3 ways you are *killing* your career and networking progress.

Recently I was the keynote speaker at a rural health conference along with my colleague @MichelleCrawford. I met so many awesome leaders doing great work to improve health outcomes in the community and I also noticed that only 10% of the people I met really stood out and made an impact on the room. 

Here are 3 ways I saw the other 90% were killing their presence and therefore career progress:

1. You look and sound the same as all your peers.

If I took your name and put it on a colleague's name badge, and vice versa - would anyone know the difference? 

STOP using vague, fuzzy words and meaningless government buzzword lingo. It's not as clever as it sounds - it just makes you sound same same! STOP wearing black or grey suits and dresses, it makes you blend in with the crowd.

Instead?

SHOW your passion when you share about what you do. Talk about the specific problems you solve for a specific type of client and what you are excited about… your enthusiasm and passion for your work and the impact you make is contagious and memorable. 

SHOW your personality in the clothes you wear. Could it be the colour you wear, the jewellery, the hat, the earrings that are a talking piece? Your glasses, haircut? Think about @DrEmmaBeckett or @LucyBloom who was also at the conference - their brand style is so stand out no one would mistake them for someone else!

Be like Emma and Lucy – speak and dress DIFFERENTLY from anybody else.

2. You’re sharing the details of process over the gain.

Most of us are more motivated to get rid of a problem, than we are to achieve a goal. 

USE THAT to your advantage!

Focus on the problem, the pain and how that shows up in people’s daily work and life…

Then position your program or service as the solution, the gain, the advantage. 

I heard lots of great program stories and also lots and lots of how we did this, how we rolled out that. So much detail without enough reality checking. Lots and lots of information about your step by step processes, so much so, people glazed over. Include more sharing of the pain in the now, tell the story, help people feel and experience the issue, then go straight to the big picture gain. Quantify it, get people to nod and see how it relates to their experience and then you’ll suddenly get a lot more attention with a lot less effort. 

3. Your focus is on YOU and YOUR work.

Nobody really cares how long you’ve been in your career.

Nobody cares what qualifications you have. 

Nobody cares what awards you have. 

Nobody cares about your product.

They care about THEMSELVES. 

That’s it!

Lose sight of this simple fact and your networking will always fall flat.

At the conference last week, as I networked and chatted I heard 90% of people share their stuff, how they work hard, how much they are doing, what work they focused on. Blah blah blah.

And then there were those 10% who asked questions, showed a curiosity, asked for the connection, offered to help, offered a resource, asked for other people’s challenges. 

Your role at a networking event and here online is to be of service, to add value, to be a gift not a bore. 

What about you? Have you struggled with any of these 3 career and networking “killers”...? I’d love to hear from you.

I know I have 😂 (numerous times yawn).