How do you maintain your value as a professional in the face of rapidly changing times?
I am going to give you a killer app for your career success from Tim Sanders, former Leadership Coach at Yahoo. I got to meet Tim at a conference that I have come to refer to as my one "must-attend" professional development activity every year, the Association Digital Now conference put on by my friends at Fusion Productions.
The new formula for success is to leverage your Knowledge, Networks, and Compassion, or as Tim Sanders says be a biz lovecat (from his best-selling book, Love is the Killer App - How to Win Business & Influence Friends). He says that succes today is not about adding-value but multiplying knowledge.
Where do you start? By constantly acquiring knowledge. He defines the "love business" as "the act of intelligently and sensibly sharing your intangibles (knowledge, networks, and compassion) with your bizpartners."
How do you do it? By reading books, taking notes, and sharing with your network (colleagues, customers, and partners). Tim's chapter on knowledge (and reading) fundamentally changed the way I read and process books and taught me how to share the knowledge gained. Did you know that the most successful CEOs and leaders read an average to 7.5 books per year? That is why you hear the old saying that leaders are readers.
What are the benefits to you for investing this time in yourself (according to Tim)?
- You build an outstanding brand as a person.
- You create an experience.
- You have access to people's attention.
- You harness the power of positive presumption.
- You receive exceptional feedback.
- You gain personal satisfaction.
A closing thought from one of Tim's quotes in the book, from Harry Beckwith in The Invisible Touch, "Instead of thinking about value-added, think about knowledge-added. What knowledge can you add to your service, or communicate about your service, that will make you more attractive to ... business partners and customers."
So grab Tim's book for your final summer read and get working on making yourself the next killer app!
Resources:
See a clip from Tim's speech at the Digital Now conference by clicking here.
Read Love is the Killer App article in FastCompany magazine.
Tim Sanders recommended book list Download tim_sanders.doc
My post on summer reading and my latest reading list - click here
Two examples of summarizing books (as recommended by Tim Sanders)
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