Dec 17 Your S-Factor: Sociability Adds Executive Presence & Leadership Value
You may be brilliant in the core competencies your company wants and needs. But to make it to the summit of your profession you have to always look for the invisible challenges to your career – the obstacles hidden in your blind spots. Sociability is one the most important executive skills that adds leadership value.
People Power Wins Promotions
But sociability also happens to be one of the most frequently neglected. Most leaders are not fully aware of the trend, but today’s organizations are placing a huge emphasis on fostering stronger, more sustainable people-to-people relationships.
That applies to their teams, between their departments, and with their external vendors and clients. They also want to build those same social networks across the entire industry and into the communities they serve.
Leadership Value is Rooted in Synergy
The reason is simple. When two or more people creatively collaborate you wind up with an exponentially more powerful and resourceful workforce. Partnerships create synergy, without having to actually go out and hire a new employee.
As a result, many highly qualified candidates like yourself can separate yourself from your competition and benefit immensely by focusing on new and improved ways to enhance your sociability skills. I call this particular kind of leadership value the “S-Factor.”
The S-Factor Raises Your Leadership Value
How can you increase your sociability? Start by setting a goal that over the next month you will take the initiative to assert yourself more proactively in social situations. Introduce yourself to people you don’t know, and introduce those you do happen to know to others they don’t know.
Broaden your bandwidth on social media by joining or leading discussion groups. Be an active listener, too, asking people you meet “how, what, when, and where” questions about themselves and their interests.
Common Ground is Fertile Ground
The more you inquire the sooner you’ll find common ground, and commonality is what the leadership value of sociability is all about. I used to be a total introvert, so if you tend in that direction believe me, I get it. But sociability is a skill anyone can learn.
Don’t try to go from recluse to social butterfly overnight, just take it a week at a time. Seek out opportunities to interact with others and take advantage of those by engaging with people in a more focused and deeper way.
Trust me, by New Year’s you will have broadened your social circle tremendously and will have honed your sociability skills into a more marketable asset of leadership value.
So tell me, what social opportunities can you take advantage of during the upcoming holiday season to combine a little celebrating with the broadening of your S-Factor?
As a pioneering and visionary innovator, Sarah is a certified professional image consultant and brand strategist, speaker, trainer and author. Her company, Illustra Consulting, provides leading-edge image and brand management strategies for top leaders and high achievers who wish to take their career to the next level. She also delivers innovative and inspiring corporate workshops to assist large organizations in strengthening their corporate brand.
Illustra Consulting
Copyright © 2014, Sarah Hathorn, AICI CIP, CPBS 1-800-267-3245, [email protected]
This article may be reproduced only in it’s entirety, including the above bio.
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Sarah Hathorn, CEO of Hathorn Consulting Group, is the go-to-expert in working with leaders and companies to create successful corporate DNA. As an executive coach, consultant and speaker she collaborates globally with clients and brands such as Deloitte, McKesson, Kimberly-Clark, Sherwin-Williams, Home Depot and other leading organizations.
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