In Sunday’s New York Times, the least likely person in American business is interviewed in the Corner Office column.
She’s Susan Docherty, who “leads” General Motor’s US sales, service and marketing team. In case you don’t get the joke, GM is one of the more famous bankrupt companies in the US, based on its resistance to building cars that Americans want to drive. If it weren’t for their pesky rebuke of its target market, GM’s sales, service and marketing team would be doing just fine.
You might expect Ms. Docherty to be keeping a low profile, since GM has reported record sales in China, Europe, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Russia. That would be everywhere except the US and Antarctica.
In terms of a personal brand stance, Ms Doherty personifies the concept of “failing upward.” In fact, like so many business leaders, she loves to hire people who have failed because she wants to see how they recovered, grew and changed.
She also wants candidates who have a great answer to this question:
“If you could be in my shoes today, what would be the top three things you’d do?”
For whatever other value this interview might bring, it was worth the read just for that question. You must be able to answer that question –for anyone you meet in a leadership position, your boss, clients, prospects, investors – heck, the head of the CIA, President Obama and the owner of your favorite football team.
If you were asked that question by the people who play a role in your success or failure, what would you say? Think about the people you aspire to meet, those you certainly will meet, and those who are on your “must meet” list. Get to know their lives well enough, their past decisions and their future leanings, so you are prepared to help them.
It’s really preparation for your brand to be known as an informed, interested and trusted advisor.
TO DO: Make a list of the people you want to influence. Then go about researching the topics that matter to them. Be ready for your opinion to be asked – or the opportunity to weigh in on the issues that matter.
Author:
Nance Rosen is the author of Speak Up! & Succeed. She speaks to business audiences around the world and is a resource for press, including print, broadcast and online journalists and bloggers covering social media and careers. Read more at NanceRosenBlog. Twitter name: nancerosen.
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Great blog post and a tempting book offer. I’m really surprised at how powerful a good question can be. While coaching often feels contrived and suspicious as a result, a solid question like this one – is agreeably as you say, valuable.
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Interesting take:
Interesting take:
“…GM is one of the more famous bankrupt companies in the US, based on its resistance to building cars that Americans want to drive.”
I get this is a branding blog but would have attributed GM’s financial failure much more squarely to its history of being beholden to its unions than to its lack of desirable models in in its portfolio. Sales will ebb and flow, especially in when dealing with fickle consumer preferences, in order to survive a company must be able to control its fixed costs in order to react swiftly to demand. GM’s problem is its labor costs, which are traditionally variable, were mostly fixed due to stringent union contracts.
How about a different question: What do you do when you’re handcuffed–right or wrong–by labor agreements, pension plans, and top-heavy management such that you could only choose between an affordable product no one wants or a great product no one can afford?
Great Point Fred. It is much more plausible that the crushing financial obligations GM has been extorted to pay over the decades finally came home to roost. It is evident to a casual student of economics that the ever-consuming cost of organized labor had much more to do with GM’s demise. In fact Toyota missed much of the huge boom in Truck and SUV sales in the late 1980’s through the mid 1990’s. At the same time GM and Ford rode the wave with incredible sales. Facts like these show this article to founded on disreputable myth and erroneous untruths; which is not a good way to build an argument.
[...] Personal Brands: Be Ready to Answer This Published: February 9, 2010 Source: Personal Branding Blog – Dan Schawbel In Sunday’s New York Times, the least likely person in American business is interviewed in the Corner Office column. She’s Susan Docherty, who “leads” General Motor’s US sales, service and marketing t… [...]
Chris: thank you for your comment about powerful questions!
The question you answer and who you answer it for will determine the value you receive. Thanks nance, this is spot on.
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