Differentiating Yourself: 3 Tests, 5 Tactics

Years back, I was chatting with a small group of communication graduate students near the end of the program’s final semester when a classmate approached, a bounce in her step and a confident smile on her face. She was eager to show us her resume, which she had just picked up at a commercial printer.

Oddly, the resume was anything but traditional: formatted like a brochure, Alice in Wonderland-type characters strewn across the pages, and minimal copy.

The group responded awkwardly but politely with “interesting” and “creative.” However, I was intrigued by her cleverness and boldness, and asked her why she had taken such a gutsy approach to her job search.

She replied that the piece reflected her personality, interests, and priorities. A prospective employer who reacted favorably to her approach, she said, was the type of organization for which she wanted to work. She knew there weren’t many such employers out there.

Within a few weeks, five organizations showed interest, three scheduled interviews, and two made offers.

My classmate demonstrated exceptional clarity about her individuality and an enviable courage to brand that difference.

Do those two words – clarity and courage — describe you, as well?

I had to face that question early and periodically in my career. Getting internal clarity was not easy. I knew I was wired, gifted, and educated as a communicator, but was that a job category — public relations, speechwriter, etc. – or a competency that applied to many situations?

Mustering courage was even more difficult. If I didn’t lock myself into a category, could I still convince someone to hire me, and later would I always be pushing out the boundaries of the job description in ways that would unsettle my bosses?

In the end I decided that I had no choice. I could not box up my capabilities and interests. I would live with the discomfort of being different.

The discomfort of the economic downturn has unraveled the confidence of many people. Yet I suspect that it has also scared many others, maybe you, into re-examining priorities, redefining skills and styles, and committing to never again letting one’s uniqueness be homogenized into the mediocrity of so many workplaces. Now comes the tough part: the courage to act on that difference.

3 challenges that will require courage to avoid compromising yourself.

1 FEAR OF NOT GETTING A JOB.
Your instinct will tell you to do everything that conforms to what you perceive the prospective employer expects in your resume and interview. Unfortunately, that’s also what the scores of other equally skilled applicants for the same position will be doing.

How do you differentiate yourself when competitors for the job can match you accomplishment for accomplishment?

5 pieces of advice:

1. Convert your uniqueness into a yours-only, core message that has teeth but not overbite. (For help, read “The 140-Character Resume.”)
2. Avoid the vanilla resume. Edit out buzzwords, generalities, and fuzzy claims, and balance the “I’s” of your accomplishments with the “We’s” of teamwork. (Read ““The I-Resume, We-Job.”)
3. Emphasize differentiators such as ingenuity, risk-taking, accountability, clever thinking, and unusual problem-solving. None of those describe you? Sure they do. Think harder.
4. After answering a “what would you do in this situation?” question, ask the interviewer what she would do. Only one or two people I’ve interviewed over the years have ever done that, and was I impressed by their confidence.
5. Present your individuality in such a way that convinces the interviewer you are definitely the person the organization needs regardless of whether or not your credentials perfectly match the job description.

2 FEAR OF LOSING YOUR JOB.
Your sensible self – you know, the cautious side — won’t want to do anything that could jeopardize the security of the job you landed after debilitating months of unemployment or the job you thankfully kept after most of your colleagues were let go. How do you overcome anxiety, imprint your individuality, and contribute without being unnecessarily disruptive?

5 pieces of advice:

1. During meetings, lean on your elbow and put one hand over your mouth. This will help you avoid impulsively and enthusiastically venting interesting ideas that unnerve your colleagues unnecessarily.
2. Listen without interruption, process content afterwards, formulate responses over time, and then recommend action when others are ready to listen to you.
3. Realize that the post-recession climate will be a “new normal” that looks for more results with fewer resources. Speed, high-efficiency, and hard-data results will be differentiators. Do they characterize you? Of course they do … or should … or will.
4. Spend considerable time building trusting relationships broadly throughout the organization. The better your colleagues know you, the more accepting they will be of your off-center ideas.
5. Invest in your future impact on the organization by accelerating your learning — online courses, webinars, in-house seminars. Smart organizations and leaders take advantage of down-times by preparing for the future good times.

3 FEAR OF MOVING OUT.
When the economy hums again and comfort levels increase, you may get the urge to make a move to do something that better fits who you are. That could mean changing jobs, taking up a new career, or starting your own business.

Such a decision is always nerve-wracking because the possibility of making a mistake is high. Memories of being unemployed or underemployed will make the decision even more intimidating. How do you gather the courage to move?

5 pieces of advice:

1. Project yourself at the end of your career. What is more painful: the risk of making a major change and possibly failing or the irreversible regret of not following your heart?
2. The more you talk about what you are going to do, the less likely you will actually follow through. Step back and reexamine your fear.
3. Courage has more to do with motion and perspiration than emotion and inspiration.
4. If the change is a reaction to a frustrating job or holds some false expectation of a better life elsewhere, don’t move. Your decision to change must be proactive not reactive, internally driven not externally triggered.
5. Don’t wait for someone to give you permission to be courageous. You’re on your own. That’s why it’s called courage.

Richard Skaare 06.08.09

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