This contribution marks the start of an exclusive HOTELS quarterly feature contributed from Aethos Consulting Group about ‘executive presence.’ The purpose: draw attention to self-awareness and consider the competency sets to help everyone stand out from the crowd, as well as attitudes and personal habits to elevate professional profiles.
To kick-off this series Aethos investigates what it takes to be visible in the professional market place and suggests that ‘visibility’ is only worth something if it is tied to ‘relatability.’
If people cannot connect with you, or have difficulty in ‘reading you,’ you will not be able to leverage any professional visibility that you might have.
Gaining professional ‘visibility’ is about more than simply being noticed by the right people. Equally important, if not more so, is the ‘vibe’ one projects when interacting with others. In this context, there are critical differences among being accessible, approachable or relatable.
Accessible is nice, but this often boils down merely to being tactically available to a team, i.e., a willingness to be responsive or reactive to the needs voiced by others.
Approachable is a bit better, because it advances the previous idea by implying a leader who exhibits a ‘welcoming’ attitude to others. Teams may not automatically feel comfortable going to an accessible leader, but they are comfortable engaging with an approachable one.
But as wonderful as it sounds being approachable, this characteristic does not guarantee a leader’s sense of empathy or true understanding of others. And, so enters the concept of being relatable. Unlike the other two attitudes, this particular quality reflects a striving to proactively connect with and support others. Guess which of these three attitudes power-brokers most value when assessing candidates for mission-critical roles?
Given the way that power-brokers talk candidly in private advisory sessions, a good degree of visibility apparently stems from a personal brand that is anchored in relatability. Marketing research helps to explain why that is. Brand personality is a concept in consumer marketing theory and practice that authorities define as, “the set of human characteristics associated with a brand.” Indeed, many peer-reviewed studies support the notions that:
- brands have personalities or human-like characteristics that distinguish them from each other, and these personalities are important to consumers;
- consumers become “engaged” with brands, meaning that they feel emotional and symbolic connections with certain brands. Now, substitute “team members” or “stakeholders” for “consumers” in the above statements, and you’ll understand why people who are relatable win trust, loyalty and influence up and down the organizational chart.
Thus, in order to best convert professional visibility into a ‘currency,’ which can help you strengthen your career and advance further, you should never lose sight of the people around yourself. And, more importantly, you should never forget that just because they know (of) you that they ‘get you.’ People like doing business with people that they like, or at the very least with people where they can find some sort of common denominator – for that to happen, they need to be able to build a connection with you and be able to relate to you.
Contributed by Thomas Mielke and Andrew Hazelton, managing directors, Aethos Consulting Group, London and Philadelphia, respectively