Wherever You Go, There You Are: How YOU Can Stand Out at Work

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Gina DeRosa, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

“No one ever made a difference by being like everyone else.”
– P.T. Barnum

This is Part 2 of “Show Up, Stand Out, Save the World, Repeat,” a four-part series on leadership.

You are a leader, no matter where you are or what people call you when you’re there. In each moment, you have a responsibility to Show Up, Stand Out, and Save the World.

Remember Martha from my post on apologies at work? She is a good “bad example” of a leader who stands out in a negative way: she never apologizes when she is wrong or disrespectful, which is nearly every time she interacts with others. Is that how YOU want to stand out at work?

By now, you know that you are a formal, informal, and/or authentic leader at work (check out Part 1 for a refresher on the definitions). Now, here is a quick exercise to stir up your thinking about how you can up your game and stand out at work:

In 20 seconds, write down one way in which you currently show your value as a leader.

Looking at what you wrote down, what does it tell you about how others may see you as a leader – or, perhaps, how you perceive yourself as a leader?

Spend some more time unpacking this so that you can find ways to extend or modify what you bring to your interactions with others when you need or want to be a solid leader. Here are a few questions to help guide your self-reflection:

- What behaviors do you exhibit?
- What kinds of words do you tend to use?
- What unsolicited feedback (direct or indirect) do you receive from others about your leadership style?

It is relatively easy to stand out as a positive leader at work, yet depending on the circumstances of your team or department, the quality of your superiors’ leadership, or things happening in your life outside of work, you may face more challenges with this. Thus, it’s even more important for you to frequently check in with yourself, your colleagues, your staff, and others to get a pulse on how you are standing out and to modify how you are showing up to ensure that you are bringing your best self to work as much as possible.

For the first two years I served as a manager in a department of 40+ staff, I reported to four different people, one at a time as the leaders moved on either voluntarily or involuntarily. Needless to say, this caused a significant amount of disruption for not only me but also the entire department, especially since each leader had her own leadership style, agenda, and philosophies. There were other things happening in the larger organization that challenged each of us, and given the absence of strong and consistent leadership, I wanted to do my best to be a rock for everyone in the department.

Given the type and frequency of changes, I focused on my communication with staff, and to this day, people from that department still tell me how important it was to them that even if I didn’t have specific answers to their questions, that I still heard them out, honestly told them of my lack of access to the information they wanted, and followed through on promises to try to obtain the information and update them accordingly. To me, this was such a basic thing to do as a manager, but these same staff say that I stood out from the other managers and leaders in the department who lacked consistent ability or willingness to communicate in ways that the staff wanted or needed during such difficult times.

However, on the flip side of this propensity for transparent and consistent communication, my skills with such most definitely have room for improvement. The key for me here is to pick up on what is said in the “indirect feedback” I receive from my current staff, who may not be comfortable managing up and giving me the feedback directly (not because I’m a Martha, but because sometimes it can be hard to tell your boss what s/he needs to work on!). They may convey themes when describing their own challenges that I may be inadvertently contributing to in some way, such as when one of them needed me to advocate more strongly for them in a meeting with a Martha. This self-awareness is key for each of us as we hone our formal, informal, and authentic leadership skills in the workplace. In other words, share your wisdom and expertise, but be a humble student when necessary and immediately implement what you’re learning.

I applaud your commitment to consistently improve yourself – this work is not easy, especially the deeper you get with your self-reflection, because you’ll likely unpack some weird or yucky stuff that slows down your desire or ability to continue on your professional development journey. As a coach, my purpose is to supportively challenge you to keep pushing through these roadblocks because you’ll reach deeper insights and motivation on the other side of them. The following framework, “The 5W2H of Standing Out,” is a great tool that includes questions to help you broaden the personal inventory that you started to assemble in Part 1:

- WHO will you be when you stand out?
- WHAT will you have when you stand out?
- WHEN will you stand out?
- WHERE will you stand out?
- WHY do you want to stand out?
- HOW will you stand out?
- HOW MUCH will you stand out?

The more you stand out at work, the deeper the impact you have on others and the more you receive in return. It’s up to you to consistently identify current AND new opportunities to bring value to people, places, things, and situations in the workplace. Plus, you can have a lot of fun with this and collaborate with others who are genuinely invested in your success. When you experience the results of your investment, you’ll quickly and naturally be inspired to demonstrate your leadership abilities and show your value in the workplace and beyond.

#standout #leadership #seeGseeYou

Gina DeRosa is owner and founder of Sixth Gear Series LLC, a professional coaching firm based out of Massachusetts.