Browse published articles attributed to Sarah Hatho, with full-archive search.
One of the obstacles I face with my professional clients is their inability to recognize and overcome sabotaging self-talk. Through coaching them I realize how personal image can be, and how easy it is to be overly critical of ourselves –when we really need to be our own biggest fans.
As a professional image consultant one of the things that always amazes me is how many clothes professionals own that they never wear. Women tend to wear only 25 percent of their wardrobes, and men wear 85 percent of the clothes in their closets. That statistic indicates that women like to go shopping and buy items as an experience and an event, whereas men tend to only purchase what they need. But having all those extra clothes hanging in the closet only interferes with getting dressed in the morning.
The newest professional development trend is focused on cultivating women leaders to not only ascend into higher-level positions but also become game changers for their teams, organizations, and industries. I find that many large corporations have established new women’s affinity leadership networks for the sole purpose of providing a workplace community whereby women can help other women learn and grow. But although these groups are essential, they don’t begin to fully address the range of issues women face in the halls of corporate America.
The inspiring 2010 Oscar Best Film “The Kings Speech” was based on the true story of the Duke of Windsor struggling to overcome a speech impediment in order to fulfill responsibilities as a great leader. While preparing to assume the throne as King George VI he was faced with the challenge of making positive changes to his limited self-image, his internalized negative belief system, and an overall perception of his own potential greatness.
Imagine this scenario: An opening is becoming available next month for a higher-level position in your organization. You start daydreaming about how it would feel to be offered the job – which would definitely be a promotion for you and is comfortably within your area of expertise. But then that little voice in your head says, “Maybe I’m not as qualified for the position as some of the other people around here. Perhaps my professional image isn’t quite top-notch. Even though I work hard every day, I think my image is holding me back.”
Every professional needs to have several great headshot photos in their personal branding toolkit. Your mug shot does matter, especially in this era of new media marketing. The business competition is fierce and you need photographs that visually articulate your personal brand. This is true whether you are looking to get promoted within your firm, are hoping to be invited as a keynote speaker at your industry’s next conference, or are a small business owner and entrepreneur.
It's interesting to me that whenever I give a presentation to men in a corporate setting or work one-on-one with a male client I get a lot of questions about what kind of suit to wear for their body type and what the correct "button-rule" is for suits and jackets. As a professional image consultant I always advise my male clients to be sure to dress to accentuate their attributes and downplay any challenging areas. A lot of men have the impression that dressing for your body type only applies to women - but that's not true.
Steve Jobs helped to harness technologies that improve the quality of our lives and the lives of generations to come. He also provided a great role model for leadership success, and we can learn much from his remarkable mindset. Acquiring 21st Century Tools
Whenever I’m working in a corporate environment and attending a networking event or meeting with my potential “leadership tribe,” it amazes me that the business tools of executive leaders look worn, outdated or overly casual. These are strategic business meetings where everyone present hopes to make vital connections, build rapport, and be perceived as a consummate professional. That means that the brand and image essentials need to communicate strong, silent, convincing messages.
Senior decision makers and HR executives constantly confide in me that high potential candidates for promotions and leadership positions just do not exude the kind of image that will let them keep moving onward and upward. But they don’t know how to explain this to these employees without the risk of embarrassing them or stepping over the line into extremely sensitive personal territory. They will often ask me to come on board as a consultant to address these delicate issues and have these rather awkward conversations.
New times demand new solutions, and with most professionals fearful of corporate downsizing or restructuring measures, personal branding methodologies are more critical than ever. Organizations have to navigate to survive in today’s new business climate, and so do top leaders and high achievers. How to differentiate yourself from peers and competitors is the question, and personal branding is the answer. Here are five key insights into why individual executives need to discover and market their own personal brands – just as large organizations must market their corporate brands.
There is one problem we’ve all encountered that can be simultaneously frustrating and disappointing. As an innovative leader and team player you present a great idea to your boss. But the boss doesn’t accept the idea or promote it upward through the organizational chain of command. Instead he or she is just indifferent, believes it isn’t doable or realistic, and says “No.” To help you succeed at overcoming this kind of resistance here are five helpful tips and guidelines.
Today with all the personally revealing reality shows on TV and the sharing of way too much private and intimate information on social media sites the trend for Too Much Information (TMI) is naturally spreading into the workplace. More and more professionals are getting caught in the trap of revealing personal information in a way that is unprofessional, inappropriate for the office, and can even make others feel uncomfortable. Once the cat is out of the bag it can be impossible to remedy the situation and the damage is done.
Everyone fears change, but change is the one thing we can depend upon as inevitable and unavoidable. Professionals tend to be afraid of reinventing and repositioning themselves, but we have to remember that if we don’t evolve we risk become stagnant, outdated, and replaceable. Whether it’s a change in attitude, mindset, look, or skill set – or a shift into a new position of responsibility – reinventing ourselves is an essential component of professional development.
If you have ever come to Atlanta to work with me in one of my intensive sessions, you know that I devote the entire time to coaching, advising, and consulting on a variety of key strategies and techniques.
Fall 2011 is just around the corner, and now is a great time for women to consider adding some stylishly attractive wardrobe trends. You should not buy every trend that comes along, but you do want to take advantage of those that resonate with your image and brand to make you look and feel fantastic. Here are a few new trends to keep an eye out for in department stores this fall: 1) It’s a Wrapr
In these uncertain times many otherwise powerful professionals are becoming paralyzed by fears and insecurities. They want to overcome the challenges to their executive presence, their leadership brand, their professional image, and the advancement of their career. But to get to where they want to be requires a level of courage that they haven’t yet accessed. Once you discover that well of strength inside yourself, however, you can accomplish virtually anything, regardless of how daunting the obstacles may seem. Here are three tips to help you gain newfound courage:
Whether you are a corporate leader or a high achieving entrepreneur, everyone today is scrambling to upgrade their professional presence to stand above the competition. We all have good intentions in that regard, but many times we are not really focused on our presence but are instead fixated on the next bright, shiny object.
When I am coaching leaders and high achievers regarding their executive presence I hear of the same obstacle over and over again. In fact it always comes up in the very first conversation we have – although they do not realize it or recognize it. Because I have coached so many people I can immediately detect it in the way they explain their frustrations or lack of confidence in achieving personal or professional goals. As I quietly liste I can also hear what they aren’t saying – as they talk around the subject without directly addressing it.
Lately it seems that almost every day I hear from a human resource professional who is struggling to talk with someone in their organization about their image. Personal image can be a very private, personal, and difficult thing to talk about, after all. Who among us wants to find out that our interpretation of the dress code was wrong or that our image is not a positive reflection of the one the boss envisions?
For more than 30 years I’ve coached and mentored women who are top-caliber Fortune 500 executives and high-level entrepreneurs. Meanwhile during that whole time I was either a Fortune 100 senior executive or the founding CEO of my own successful consulting firm. Many things have changed for women in the workplace over the years, but as the saying goes “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” What I’m referring to here is the sad fact that, even in this advanced era of the 21st century, negative stereotypes about women in executive positions stubbornly persist.
The corporate arena is filled with master complainers constantly trumpeting their naysayer attitudes. People are worried about their job security or upset that they haven’t been promoted, so they have a tendency to be hypercritical or resentful and drag others down. Their ideas are reinforced by the media’s preoccupation with doom and gloom, giving them plenty of ammunition. On top of that it’s an election year, and the political campaign ads are all about mudslinging.
Whether they are emerging leaders in a large corporation or solo entrepreneurs, almost everyone has experienced a painful career failure or two. The end of the year is always a great time to really look back over the past months and years with a view toward learning how to leverage past failure into future success. Here are four tips to keep you on track toward realizing your ultimate career dreams regardless of what path you’ve followed and what setbacks you have overcome. Failures are Just Detours on the Way to Success
Owners of professional sports franchises invest tens of millions of dollars to draft the top players, and their talent scouts start following athletes as early as junior high school. They have to invest with a forward outlook, and that means they have to constantly be on lookout for talent no matter when it appears or where they find it. If you want to build your own corporate dream team you also have to become a fulltime talent scout. Keep your radar on all the time, because you never know where you might discover your next big value-adding player or diamond-in-the-rough potential asset.
Perhaps the biggest secret to career success – whether you are an entrepreneur or high potential leader working for a major corporation – is to learn how to neutralize or negate negativity. Negative energy comes in two forms, internal and exte al. To help insulate yourself from the exte al kind, surround yourself with positive people who are focused on performance and success, not failure. Avoid the naysayers and cynics in favor of those who interpret adversity as a challenging opportunity to prove their worth.
Oftentimes a great looking promotion comes along only because it satisfies a temporary need. Maybe they had to fire someone, for example, or the company is in the middle of reorganization. Once the position is filled and your company feels stable again they may start a more in-depth search for the candidate they want to fill that position over the long haul. The person who leaped into it prematurely may be downsized or even used as a scapegoat to rationalize the poor performance of the board of directors.
After they hear my personal story of how I rose to a senior executive position with a Fortune 100 company in record time, many of my clients ask how if it’s also possible for them to step up their game and make a lot more money fast.
In response to the growing number of recent corporate downsizings many large companies have adopted an organizational structure that involves fewer layers and levels of corporate hierarchy than we saw during earlier decades. In order to adapt to these new developments it is important for corporate leaders to know how to leverage their careers in ways that embrace the changes without sacrificing the tangible rewards of success.
Steve Jobs was one of those rare souls who will likely be as influential in death as he was in life, because he was a living legend who also left behind an enduring legacy. As Jobs’ successor at Apple, Tim Cook, explained “Steve built a company and culture that is unlike any other in the world and we are going to stay true to that – it is in our DNA.” Raised on Cultural and Technological Innovation
You can call it intuition, quantum physics, faith, or just a honed and polished ability to listen to your gut as you navigate the fiercely competitive world of business. But whatever name you give it or however you prefer to explain, the fact is that sometimes there are definite signs that we are either veering off track or heading in the right direction.
One way professionals convey a powerful presence is through proper business introduction etiquette. We make introductions before important business meetings, at networking events, and at social business affairs. But unfortunately few professionals use introduction opportunities to leverage their perception as a connector of people and a savvy business person who stays on top of etiquette and protocol. Learn the art of proper business introductions to stand out as an individual who knows how to navigate any social situation as a gracious professional.
Customizing and designing corporate programs to help organizations take their businesses to the next level is one of my great passions. Large, successful companies always understand that people are their most valuable asset. But not all of them train their personnel about how to positively represent their corporate brand through their professional presence and what I call the ABCs of Image (Appearance, Behavior/etiquette and Communications skills).
Are you feeling discouraged by your inability to stand out and command more lucrative fees or higher salaries during this economic downtu ? Whether you are a corporate leader or a high-achieving entrepreneur – everyone is looking for effective methods and fresh strategies to attract a more elite clientele, get the attention of HR departments and senior executive decision makers, and land those profitable business deals.
If you want to seize the day and capitalize on your window of opportunity to move up in your career you have to be fully prepared to jump at the chance. Opportunity doesn’t linger; it knocks and then moves along to the next person’s door. These are scary times. People all around you are being downsized, passed over, or saddled with more work but compensated with less pay.
With the current economic situation continuing to restrain spending, I don’t foresee that many companies will throw the kinds of extravagant holiday parties of years gone by. But you may receive invitations to holiday parties, and don’t RSVP that you won’t be attending just because it is going to be a dressy event and you feel that you have nothing to wear. You can still add a little holiday flair to your outfits while being cost and value conscious and not going over the top with shopping.
In times like these I often have to gently nudge my clients who become too fatalistic, reminding them that they still hold the cards in terms of their ability to change their internal perspective. To see your greater potential you have to first adopt a more panoramic and long-range view of the situation. If you want to take a gigantic career leap, don’t try to jump while standing still. You need to get a running start. That means that you have to plan your move to the next level one deliberate step at a time – intentionally building strategic internal and exte al momentum.
Emerging leaders can have all the technical skill, educational background, and hands-on job experience to qualify them on paper as the outstanding candidate for a promotion. But resumes don’t run companies, people who can handle pressure with grace and show an exemplary positive attitude do. Climbing the corporate ladder isn’t easy for those who hold on to the heavy baggage of a bad attitude. To be identified as a “high potential” employee on the succession planning short list you have to have the right attitude.
This month in the Wall Street journal there was an intriguing and somewhat unsettling article, “Coaching Urged for Women.” The piece revealed that according to a new McKinsey & Company report “inadequate career development holds back female executives.” The report examined the kinds of career advancement barriers that women executives who hold management positions in large organizations now face.
I recently had a conversation with a construction engineer about how knowledge of physics enables people to move massive, heavy objects while exerting very little effort. By using centrifugal force, gravity, and the science of simple fulcrums and natural leverage, for example, two people can move a block of granite that weighs hundreds of pounds.
This year many college graduates will continue to interview for their first executive position during a very unusual economic time. As a young professional, you are armed with a world of knowledge. However, now comes the art of gaining real-life experiences in your field of expertise. It will be much more challenging this year to find a job in your industry. Do a lot of research to understand a company’s culture, and what it takes to get hired and remain employed during these tumultuous times.
There is no better time than a new year to inspire professionals to shine the spotlight on their personal and professional goals. As we begin this year’s journey it’s a wonderful time to really delve into what’s working in your life – while also acknowledging what’s not. During this uncertain and treacherous time for the employment picture, I encourage you to see yourself in terms of a fresh perspective and consider exciting ways to reinvent yourself for 2010. Step up your visual image, celebrate your career accomplishments, and stake your claim in the professional spotlight.
I hear so many leaders express impatience about where they are right now in terms of their careers. Attitude and perspective have a direct effect on everything around you, though, so frustration with your present situation only serves to amplify the feelings of stagnation and dissatisfaction. But I believe that every life experience we encounter, no matter how hard, is there to teach us a powerful lesson. We can only learn those valuable lessons by being present and accepting the situation we find ourselves in at any given moment in time. Sharpen Your Situational Awarenessr
Networking is vital in today’s business world, but some of us (myself included, believe it or not!) are introverts at heart and working the room or stepping to the podium is just contrary to our nature. But despite the fact that I was born shy, I now spend a great deal of my time mingling at conferences, standing in the media spotlight, delivering keynote addresses, and coaching high-powered executives on how to network with bold, fearless confidence. Here are some helpful tips for those who are “networking challenged.”
Picture yourself at a New Year’s party, on the last day of 2012. You are preparing to head into 2013, and are raising a glass to toast the last hours of 2012. Because it was the best year you’ve ever experienced you have plenty to celebrate.
Here are six highly valuable steps to help you snag that next promotion, attain the next level of success, and be a more effective high performance leader. #1 Don’t just set goals; crystallize them with clarity
We all need performance feedback to guide our career development and ensure faster promotions. Whether you look forward to performance reviews and performance appraisals or dread the idea, they are inevitable for almost everyone. That’s why in 2012 I want you to be more proactive about taking the reins when it comes to performance evaluations.
We are surrounded by off-the-shelf brands and prepackaged professional images. But those who have learned to listen to their intuition and trust their instincts will always be one step ahead of the pack – and they’ll exude the kind of brand and leadership presence that others want to emulate. Experience is one of the best teachers, so own yours. Allow it to guide you forward. Your story is one-of-a-kind and nobody else has learned the same lessons life taught you. Leverage that uniqueness.r
No matter who you pulled for this season, you have to agree that the Super Bowl winning Giants reminded us that we have the ability to control our own destinies. With the right attitude, a little luck, and powerful perseverance propelled by great leadership anyone can be a champion. They scratched and clawed their way through the playoffs – managing a win against the Packers, who were having one of the greatest seasons in the history of football. Finally they outscored the Patriots in a tug-of-war world championship.
Even before the big ball dropped in Times Square to celebrate the advent of 2011, the media had been bombarding us for weeks with advice about our New Year’s resolutions. Lose a few pounds. Get back in shape. Kick a bad habit. Spend more quality time with your kids. Make better choices in your love life. Refinance your mortgage. Grow your IRA.
Many top organizations where I work as an outside consult or a speaker delivering professional development seminars are rushing right now to create new internal women’s leadership groups. That’s because these large companies understand that as the economy imposes changes in how they do business, it also triggers a change of leadership positions within their firms. To enhance their profit margins they are streamlining middle management and top positions – and it appears that more men are being impacted in adverse ways than are women.