Category: Authority

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How To Become A Recognized Expert In Your Niche

People tend to listen to those who know best. When asking for advice, where do they usually go? The experts of their respective industries. One has to be creative, persuasive and well-informed to become a figure of authority, expertise, and influence.

While the traditional pathway demands degrees and certifications that cost valuable time and money, there are a few alternatives worth trying:

1. Specialize and niche down.

Rather than trying to be a jack of all trades, zero in on a specific skill you excel in. You cannot please everybody. It takes twice the work, money and time if you choose to serve everyone. As you narrow down your prospects, you can better understand and focus on your chosen field. As a result, you gain more knowledge and expertise in dealing with every nook and cranny of your industry.

When your sink is broken or a pipe is leaking, who do you call for help? It’s likely the plumber, not the electrician, who comes to the rescue. It is the same for every business. You must stand out with your skill set by specializing and micro-niching. The clients who sought my services knew that I could deliver what they needed for their business. They wanted someone reliable to do the job, and I knew I could provide solutions to their problems. Clients will not hesitate to consult and take advantage of your service once they learn you are an expert.

2. Be a source of valuable content.

How do you stick out in a sea of competition? You have to position yourself as a professional who can provide essential information. This is because people flock to where they can benefit best. You establish your authority and expand your coverage as people begin to rely upon what you say. You can offer free courses or webinars relevant to your field to entice more curious minds. In this way, people will start discussing the value you provide. And as a result, your reputation as an expert will increase.

Before creating groundbreaking content, you have to ensure the validity of your sources. Doing extensive research first is crucial to keeping your material valid. Remember that, as an expert, the thoughts and opinions you state should be authentic. To make sure I obtained trustworthy information, I conducted interviews and explored various sources before publishing. I could then use this data to inform and pique the interests of my followers.

3. Stay relevant and move alongside the trends.

Press conferences, conventions, and expos used to be excellent platforms for aspiring experts. But when the pandemic struck, they became a thing of the past. Everyone shifted to digitizing their efforts by taking advantage of social media. Why stay stuck in the old days when you can do the same thing? If you cannot adapt to the changing times, you risk becoming an outdated expert.

People find it difficult to trust a specialist who thinks backward. Nowadays, strict health measures prevent social gatherings and large-scale events. It is more challenging to reach your target audience. In my case, I took down notes and looked at what the pioneers and renowned brands of my niche are doing. Now that most people depend on social media, I changed my business model to adjust to the situation. I seized opportunities and presented myself as an expert by riding the tide.

4. Join virtual events or create your own.

How do you share your knowledge with a bigger audience? Podcasts are great avenues for introducing yourself to the public. You can pass down your wisdom to those who thirst for it. Being a public speaker adds credibility and secures trust from your audience. Connect with notable podcasters, influencers, and thought leaders — they already have a large number of followers who help boost your publicity. Aligning with forerunners enables you to gain valuable information and expand your network.

Partaking in virtual conferences and seminars can be another useful approach. Giving speeches at large events cements your credentials as a reputable expert. Or you can create your virtual events on social media to maintain your online presence. When I started my podcast years ago, I encountered different challenges. The most important aspect is to keep exploring other options and trying new ideas. For me, it was about finding the right people for my team. They help me create concepts that pave more opportunities for me to get recognized as an expert.

5. Get featured in prominent publications.

A tried-and-true way of gaining the public’s trust is having your name featured in a reputable magazine or newspaper. These brands have years of backing and integrity, which is hard to contest. Thus, readers expect nothing but quality content from these publications. Build connections with editors, reporters and journalists, which can lead to securing a foothold in publishing companies. Your value as an expert in your industry increases as soon as you get published.

Writing professional articles requires meticulous research and study. It is also another method of showing off your expertise and knowledge of your niche. Choose relevant topics that stimulate interest and contain valuable information. Maximize this opportunity to engage and connect with your audience. In creating my content, I make sure to provide tips and pointers that readers can easily apply. By doing so, you position yourself as a thought leader and a figure of authority.

These steps are only the tip of the iceberg. There are other techniques to amplify your identity as an expert. The bottom line is to remain consistent and steadfast in honing your craft. When people see how authentic and genuine you are, they will always keep coming back for more. That is what an “expert” should be.

Source: forbes.com ~ By: Liana Zavo ~ Image: Canva Pro

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6 Guaranteed Ways To Position Yourself As An Authority

There are so many choices and options today when people are looking to solve a challenge or problem. So just how do they make that choice?

They go to the trusted expert or authority who has established a relationship with them and has proven their expertise on their topic.

So when your community needs someone that offers the products or services that you do, will you be the authority that they turn to?

Perhaps you are unsure about how to establish yourself as an authority on your topic.

Fear not.

I’m going to share six guaranteed ways you can position yourself as a trusted authority with your community, industry, and/or topic.

6 Key Strategies To Become an Authority On Your Topic

1. Focus on a Niche

Don’t be a Jack-of-all-trades and master of none.

If you want people to see you as an authority, specialize in something. Pick a niche that narrowly focuses on your ideal clients and what they need or want.

For example, while I provide a variety of social media marketing and content marketing services, my specialty and what I’m best known for is LinkedIn. This is where 80% of my focus and energy is spent and what many people recognize me for. When I went to lunch with someone recently they told me “when I think of LinkedIn, I think of Melonie Dodaro.”

The benefit of being so specialized is that you can hone in on solving your ideal client’s specific challenges and needs.

With this specialization, you’re also better able to personalize your message to speak directly to your ideal clients and connect with them emotionally, which is vital to your success in becoming an authority.

Remember, people want and expect personalization today. They want a message that speaks directly to them and their needs.

So how do you choose your niche?

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but here are some questions you can ask yourself to help you:

          • If you look at your industry, is there a gap that needs filling?
          • What unique skill or value can you offer your customers?
          • What’s your ideal client’s biggest need or challenge?
          • What problems or needs have your existing customers shared with you?

Don’t be afraid to experiment until you find the right niche for your business and community.

2. Choose the Right Channels

Once you’ve chosen your niche, you also need to select the right channels to share your knowledge and expertise – you don’t want to waste your time sharing your knowledge in places where your community isn’t spending time.

While you’ll always want to have a website full of helpful content and to build an email list (two things that you own and control), you’ll also need to determine which other online channels are being used by your community including which social media channels.

Do they spend their time on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Snapchat, or somewhere else?

You also need to consider how your community prefers to consume content. Do they prefer articles, graphics, podcasts, videos, live streaming, eBooks or another form of content?

Knowing this will not only increase the engagement around your content but it’ll also help you choose the right social media platforms to attract the right audience.

3. Provide Real Value

What do I mean by “real”?

By real, I mean it needs to be seen as (and experienced by) your ideal clients, existing customers, and community at large as being of value to them.

What you think has value is meaningless – it’s all about what your community values.

Always ask yourself, “What’s in it for them”.

At the end of the day, people all think WIIFM (what’s in it for me) when they’re looking at what you or anyone else is providing.

Consider it from their perspective – if there’s no clear benefit for them, then they’ll most likely not waste their time as there are so many other options competing for their time and attention.

Depending on your goal, industry and community, some great ways to provide value is to create content such as:

        • blog posts
        • infographics
        • podcasts
        • checklists
        • reports
        • whitepapers
        • eBooks
        • videos
        • webinars

It also means not holding back. Share your best knowledge with your community.

You need to give them your best insider tips and tricks.

Now you may worry that by giving all your knowledge away that they won’t need you or that you might lose potential sales.

The opposite is true.

Those who will take and use your information to help themselves, often would not have been able or interested in paying for your services. But by establishing yourself as an authority to them, they’ll happily recommend you to others – others who will happily pay you.

By providing those with the desire to pay for your products or services with the information they need to make an educated decision, you’re not only working to establish yourself as an authority, but you’re also building up the kind of trust that makes you a natural choice when they’re ready to buy.

4. Be Consistent

Consistency is a key component to establishing your reputation as an authority and building the trust that comes with that reputation.

Being consistent proves that you’re not a fly-by-night operation here to lure them in and take their money.

Reliability shows your community that you’re a professional as well as an expert on your subject matter.

You must show your commitment to consistency in several ways.

Start with having a consistent brand and a voice that you use in all of your content and marketing materials.

This helps people to get to know you and easily identify anything created by you.

It also requires you to be regular in creating and posting content that helps them to be more successful. Additionally, your community needs to know that they can count on you to reply to their messages and comments in a reasonable amount of time.

5. Engage Your Community

You can help cement your position as an authority within your community by being open and engaging with your community.

This doesn’t just mean responding to comments and answering questions, you also need to ask your community what’s important to them and what they need, and then follow through based on that conversation.

Make an effort to celebrate the wins of individuals with your community, as well as share the content that they create when relevant and appropriate.

Being the authority on your topic doesn’t mean that it’s all about you or that you know everything.

Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know the answer to that but I’ll look into it for you.”

6. Build Relationships With Experts & Influencers

Finally, make a regular effort to reach out to other experts and influencers both in your niche and in related niches that target the same audience.

There are numerous benefits to this.

As well as aiding and providing additional value to your community by introducing them to someone who can help them (in an area that you don’t), there’s also the chance to be introduced to the community of the expert you are collaborating with. This is a fantastic way to expand your reach and gain even greater authority in the form of social proof and third-party credibility.

A great place to begin is by visiting their blog. Check out their content and if you think there’s value in it, leave a comment and/or share it with your community. This introduces your community to them and is a nice gesture to send traffic their way.

You may then want to reach out on social media, particularly on a platform like Twitter, where you can start or join a conversation with them naturally.

Remember to approach this process slowly. It can take time to get on their radar and build a relationship with them, but the investment of this time and effort can pay off in the increased authority and community size you gain.

Wrapping Up

While it takes time and works to position yourself as an authority on your topic, the benefits you’ll receive will be worth the investment.

As the trusted expert, you’ll be the first choice in the minds of your community when it comes time to invest in the services you offer. This is because you’ve not only helped them to know, like, and trust you, but you’ve also clearly demonstrated the expertise that proves you can help them solve their challenge or problem.

Source: socialmediatoday.com ~ By: ~ Image: Canva Pro

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10 Simple Ways to Improve Your People Skills

Much of your success in life hinges on your ability to understand and interact with people. Use these tips to up your people-skills game.

No matter what new technologies and systems you put in place to grow your business, how to work with people will always matter most. Developing natural charm and innate people skills requires effort along with trial and error. Here are ten simple ways to help improve your natural charm and create real connections to build more powerful people skills:

1. Talk to others about what they want to hear

People often hear only what they want or need. The things potential customers want to hear most are how you can serve their goals, interests, ideas, experiences, and aspirations. Talk about that, and you’ll get and hold their attention without difficulty.

Finding a smart way to streamline purchasing helped this business save time, reduce costs, and relieve a lot of stress.

2. Take a training course

Invest in learning how to communicate more effectively. This will pay off in every aspect of your business and your personal life. The highest-paid and most powerful people on the planet are all master communicators who have learned how to take control of even the most challenging situations, understand the art of persuasion, and know-how to recognize and use persuasive strategies. Good communication leads to success!

3. Show appreciation

Make it a habit to thank others for everything they do to support you. A simple “thank you” makes others feel appreciated. You benefit in return by having good feelings about making others feel good. And you also benefit by making others think better of you, making them want to do more good things for you in return. The more you genuinely show others you care, the easier it will be to make a good impression on them.

4. Give genuine, sincere compliments

When you compliment someone about a trait, skill, accomplishment, or possession, it gives them feelings of recognition and value. The more you pay close attention to customers, the more important they feel. When you pay compliments often, even on small things, it helps build rapport.

5. Act honorably and treat others with respect

Always do the right thing, even when no one’s watching. That’s how you build a positive business reputation. Reputation isn’t purchased; it’s earned. We’ve all heard this: “Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” This is the Golden Rule in business that should govern your attitudes, thoughts, words, and actions.

6. Identify personal core values

Clarifying your core values highlights what you stand for. Your core values also represent your uniqueness and personal style. They guide your behavior and provide you with a personal code of conduct. When you honor your core values consistently, you experience fulfillment in every part of life. And when you don’t, you become incongruent in your business practices.

For example, if one of your core values is to offer high-quality customer service, yet your employees don’t show customers the respect they deserve, that’s a problem because you’re working outside your core business values. To turn it around, you must empower your team to match every area of your core values, including valuing customers.

7. Commit to good business ethics

Practicing good business ethics should go without saying. So why are there still so many unethical business people out there? Ethics are your moral judgment about what’s right and what’s wrong. Good ethics simply make good business sense!

Success comes easy when you act with honesty and integrity at all times. Good ethics require dealing honestly in your business, backing up your products and services, and treating everyone fairly. A lack of business ethics endangers your future success and jeopardizes your reputation. If you believe that, like karma, what goes around comes around, always practice good ethics.

8. Remain true to your authentic self

Remaining true to your beliefs helps you sincerely connect to others. Pretending to be something you’re not, makes doing business hard. You can’t manipulate your personality to seek approval or avoid disapproval.

Authenticity isn’t defined by your title, position, or role. It’s all about being true to your heart and your destiny. This requires you to trust yourself, embrace your uniqueness, share your gifts, and learn to be present in the moment.

For example, one of the greatest compliments I get from audience members after giving a speech is, “You’re so real and authentic. I felt like you were speaking directly to me.” Hearing this always warms my heart. It’s my goal to always be in the moment, make a personal connection (no matter how large the audience is), and share my knowledge with the audience. It’s about connecting your head and heart to make an impact.

9. Build confidence to make stronger connections

Being confident earns you the respect of others. Confidence shows in many ways, including your mannerisms, appearance, and the way you talk, walk, and listen to people. To become more confident, you must respect and accept yourself as you are right now. You are unique in your own way. Accepting yourself and your flaws without any inner conflict helps build confidence.

Take responsibility for your success by having confidence, which is independent of all external factors, especially the things beyond your control. Confident people talk assertively, strike an assured pose, and use a certain tone of voice. Confidence allows you to be tough in business, but tough doesn’t mean you can’t still be friendly and approachable. Having true confidence is about being daringly honest and truthful at all times.

10. Tackle problems with a positive mental attitude

Positive thinking allows you to try to solve problems through constructive action. A positive mental attitude lets you build strengths and overcome weaknesses. It helps you realize you’re born for greatness because within you is the power to make any dream a reality.

Source: entrepreneur.com ~ By ~ Image:  Canva Pro
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How Good Are Your People Skills?

In almost all jobs, your people skills – also known as “soft skills” – have as much of an impact on your success as your technical skills.

That’s especially true when you’re in a management or leadership role.

The importance of having solid people skills transcends industry and profession; so, whether you lead people, aspire to lead people, or work within a team of professionals, you need to apply people skills to achieve your objectives.

So, how good are your people skills? Take this short quiz to assess your current skill levels.

Once you’ve answered these questions, we can then point you toward specific tools and resources that you can use to develop and improve this important area of competency.

Test Your People Skills

Source: mindtools.com

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10 Essential People Skills You Need to Succeed

How do you really connect with people and show them your authentic self? Master these essential tips to level up your people skills.

People skills are an essential part of work, life, and social success. When you have strong people skills, you are better able to:

Pitch yourself

    • Overcome social anxiety
    • Communicate your ideas
    • Influence others positively

What are people skills? People skills are the tools you use to communicate and interact effectively with others. Individuals with strong people skills are able to predict behavior, relate to others, and socialize easily. People skills also are known as soft skills, interpersonal skills, social skills, emotional intelligence, and interpersonal intelligence.

Research has even found that those  who have strong people skills make an average of $29,000 more per year!

People skills are one of the most underappreciated areas of career development. In career development, we are lucky if we have the occasional soft skills training or communication course. I believe interpersonal intelligence, or PQ, needs to be honed. Just like we develop our IQ, we need to work on our PQ. People smarts are just as important as book smarts.

People Skill Science
Researchers define people skills as three sets of abilities. First, someone’s personal effectiveness. As a people skill, personal effectiveness is all about how you come across to others. Are you able to pitch yourself? Can you communicate clearly? Can you get what you need from others? Someone with strong personal effectiveness typically also makes a memorable first impression and has a confident presence with the people they meet.

Second, is your interaction ability. This is how well you predict and decode behavior. In an interaction, can you empathize with someone? Are you highly perceptive?

Finally, someone with strong people skills is able to intercede easily. This means they are able to lead, influence, and build bridges between people. Are you a connector? A mediator? Oftentimes this can be calming down difficult or toxic people.

The 10 People Skills Everyone Should Know:
This is the ultimate soft skills list. Read through the following people skills and examine your own interpersonal strengths and weaknesses. Here at the Science of People lab, we have found 10 skills that come up over and over again with highly effective individuals.

Social Assertiveness
Do you stand up for yourself in social situations? Do you feel confident interacting with others? Are you assertive with your social needs? Social assertiveness is essential for conserving social energy.

We only have so much social energy to spare. If you are socially assertive, you are able to save and spend your social energy in the right ways. If you lack social assertiveness, your energy is wasted on the wrong people, in awkward situations, or is not aligned with your social goals.

People with high social assertiveness have more focused social energy and have more clarity in their interactions.

People with low social assertiveness:

    • feel out of control in social situations
    • are addicted to people pleasing
    • have more toxic people in their lives

People with high social assertiveness are able to:

    • establish boundaries
    • stand up for their needs
    • tell people, “No!”

Action Step: Extroverts, ambiverts, and introverts all have different levels of social energy. Figure out if you are an extrovert, introvert, or ambivert, so you can spend your social energy efficiently.

Crafting a Memorable Presence
Are you memorable? Do you make a strong first impression? Do people remember your name after meeting you? People with a great presence have an easy time making lasting connections and are extremely good at rapport-building. Your presence has a direct relationship to your ability to create lasting personal relationships and build a network. If you have a strong presence, people gravitate towards you, remember you better, and are more likely to work with you.

People with a weak presence:

    • struggle to get clients or make friends
    • frequently deal with people forgetting their name
    • feel awkward in many social interactions

People with a memorable presence:

    • leave a lasting first impression
    • have a robust network
    • quickly build rapport

Action Step: Learn how to be interesting. I think everyone has the potential to be fascinating — we just don’t always know how. I have 5 easy steps to be more interesting.

Master Communication
Do you enjoy public speaking and presenting? Specifically, are you comfortable communicating your ideas to large groups? Master communicators know how to present themselves, and effectively get their message across.

Poor communicators tend to:

    • think they are unworthy of attention
    • avoid sharing their ideas
    • cannot get buy-in on their opinions
    • are under appreciated for their hard work

Master communicators excel at:

    • public speaking
    • presenting
    • communicating big ideas to big groups

Action Step: I would love to show you how to master public speaking. Most people think this is a skill you cannot learn—not true! Anyone can learn to be a master communicator. Start with our video on How to Work a Stage Like a Pro:

Sustain Lasting Confidence
Do you ever feel socially anxious? Everyone feels a little bit of nervousness in some social situations, but the question is: Can you overcome your social anxiety? People who can sustain lasting confidence are able to conquer their shyness and avoid awkwardness. They might have internal strategies or mantras to get them through their anxiety, or they have socialized enough to overcome any nervous tendencies.

People with high social anxiety:

    • avoid social situations … even if they would be beneficial to career goals
    • feel awkward and trapped
    • get stuck in their own head during interactions and conversations

People who can sustain social confidence:

    • are able to excel in most social situations
    • feel awkward and are able to overcome it
    • feel more excited than anxious when socializing

Action Step: Do you have social anxiety? Make sure you know the signs and symptoms, and use our tips to conquer it.

Master Conversation
How do you get past small talk? In my book Captivate, I talk about the idea of BIG talk. This is when you level up boring, predictable small talk into deep, memorable conversation. I believe that most interactions happen in three levels:

The First Five Minutes: This is your first impression, when you decide if someone is worth getting to know. It can happen professionally, romantically, or socially. This level is the front door — can you get invited inside someone’s inner circle?

The First Five Hours: Once you have made it past the first level, you get to have a first meeting, first phone call, or first date. This is when you move past first impressions into rapport building.

The First Five Days: This is the final level. You want people in this level with whom you would be happy to do a weekend road trip. It’s the ultimate level of trust and connection. This could be romantic — with a partner—but it could also be with a long-term business partner or best friend.

Conversation is the key to moving up these three levels.

People who struggle with conversation:

    • run out of things to say
    • do not know how to open a conversation with someone
    • have a lot of awkward silences

Master conversationalists:

    • know how to engage in memorable conversation…and keep it going
    • can easily get past small talk into BIG talk
    • use conversation as a tool for everything from rapport building, to socializing, to flirting, to sales

Be Highly Likable
Would people describe you as likable? Is it easy for you to get people on your teams or influence others to your point of view? Likability is an important facet of trust. We often hear about being “authentic” or “genuine.” These are all aspects of likability. In order to like someone we, want them to be congruent with their words and actions. We like people who we feel are showing us their true selves.

Psychologist Carl Rogers described a concept called Self-Actualization, which speaks to how closely people show their real self compared to their ideal self.

People who are not likable:

    • have trouble getting people listen to their ideas
    • feel they have lots of potential, but rarely act as their ideal self
    • frequently feel left out, or like the odd-man out

Highly-likable people:

    • are highly respected and often asked to join in on teams, social engagements, and groups
    • feel their ideal self and real self are closely aligned
    • are asked their opinions by others

Action Step:  Making friends as an adult is a skill. It used to be so easy when we were younger! We had school, camp and sports to bring new people together. As adults, we have to work at it.

Exceptional at Decoding Emotions
Would you consider yourself highly perceptive? People who are good at reading people are exceptionally strong at knowing how others think and feel. Decoding people, having a strong sense of intuition, and being very empathetic are the emotional intelligence aspects of interpersonal intelligence.

When we look at interpersonal intelligence (or people skills), there are three main branches.

    • Emotional Intelligence is how intuitive or empathetic you are.
    • Social Intelligence is how you translate your emotions when around others, as well as how responsive you are to their emotions.
    • Intrapersonal Intelligence is how well you know yourself, your social needs, and boundaries.
    • Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses in different aspects of interpersonal intelligence.

People who struggle with decoding:

    • struggle with empathy
    • have trouble reading and interpreting body language and facial expressions
    • often miss social cues

People with exceptional decoding abilities:

    • can speed-read people and their intentions
    • are very good at interpreting body language and facial expressions
    • are very intuitive

Action Step: One of the best ways to improve your decoding ability is to learn how to read the 7 microexpressions. We have a definitive guide to reading the face you can use to get started.

Pitch Your Ideas
When people ask, “What do you do?” do you know exactly how to pitch yourself well? When you have to pitch yourself or your ideas, can you do so confidently? Pitching is a very important people skills for professionals because it happens all the time — not just at networking events with your elevator pitch, but also during every meeting when you are asked your opinion, in emails when you introduce yourself, and on conference calls. Now, I know it is never easy to brag about yourself, but you should be able to generate excitement around your ideas.

Here’s the big question: When you talk about yourself, can you get people excited to work with you?

People who struggle with pitching themselves and their ideas:

    • feel anxious when talking about themselves
    • undersell or minimize their successes
    • miss opportunities because they feel undeserving, or they are afraid to speak up (they may even have impostor syndrome.)

People who are great at pitching themselves:

    • can get people to adopt their ideas
    • feel confident pitching themselves without bragging

Action Step: Do you have imposter syndrome? This is the biggest blocker for people struggling with pitching themselves. Make sure you conquer yours. You are worthy. You deserve success. I’ll show you how to beat impostor syndrome.

Be Charismatic
What is charisma? Most people think that you have to be born charismatic. I couldn’t disagree more! While I was doing research for our flagship course  – People School, I found that charisma is the perfect blend of two essential people skills traits: warmth and competence. We talk about this more in the course, but here are the basics:

People who are not charismatic are seen as cold or intimidating — people have trouble opening up, trusting and getting to know them,  are seen as flaky or shallow — people do not depend on them easily, are only warm or only competent — without both, you are not considered charismatic

People who are highly charismatic are seen as highly warm–they are approachable, trustworthy, and likable are seen as highly competent–they are seen as dependable, capable, and knowledgeable.

Action Step: My team and I developed a charisma quiz based on the charisma research. See where you fall on our charisma spectrum.

Be an Influential Leader
You do not have to be leading a company or be the president of an organization to be considered a leader. Leaders in both work life and social life are able to get buy-in, rally teams, and generate camaraderie. I do not believe the opposite of a leader is a follower. In fact, sometimes it’s great to be a follower — when you are learning something new or want to be taken on an adventure. It’s almost impossible to be a leader if you struggle with the 3 A’s:

Apathy: Do you love your life? Do you wake up to the day excited? Apathy is when we have a lack of enthusiasm or interest in our lives or the things we do. Leaders fight apathy by choosing to be around people or do activities that truly excite them.

Ambivalence kills relationships. If you are ambivalent about the people in your life or the activities in your life, you will never be able to be a leader. I believe that ambivalence is the root cause of frenemies.

Aimlessness: Leaders have direction. They have goals, plans, and strategic paths. This guides their actions — making them more purposeful, AND it helps others follow.

Leaders fight the 3 A’s.

* Leaders harness and build on excitement. They save their energy for people and tasks that matter to them.
* Leaders know who is on their team and who isn’t. They pick people to have in their lives.
* Leaders make plans. Leaders are driven in their thought and action, and encourage others to follow.

Action Step: Begin to fight the 3 A’s in your life. Start with the one that most resonates with you. Do you need to get rid of some ambivalent relationships? Do you need to set a plan for yourself? Do you need to find activities that truly excite you? This is how you can become a leader.

Bonus: Be Productive
I have one bonus people skill for you. I simply had to include this skill because it has come up for our students over and over again. When our students join People School, we ask them a simple question:

What skills are you currently missing that is preventing you from achieving your goals?

Over and over again, our students give us specific interpersonal skills like the ones above — charisma, communication, confidence. But our third most popular answer is –  Productivity.

Specifically, our students say:

    • finding determination
    • championing follow-through
    • battling distraction
    • harnessing motivation
    • balancing time management

I realize this is a bonus people skill because interpersonal intelligence takes determination, motivation, and follow-through to hone. Developing your PQ, or people skills, is just as important as your IQ. We need a systematic way to practice our people skills to be more successful and achieve our goals.

Source: scienceofpeople.com ~ By Vanessa Van Edwards  ~ Image: Canva Pro

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