Jeffrey Pfeffer: prediction

Transcript context

…Let's see. So talk about this power of building a personal brand. There are by definition fewer positions at the top than at the bottom. The world, we might not like this, and I know people, the late Tony Hsieh, the Zappos tried to do holacracy or whatever, but the world is essentially hierarchical. The animal kingdom is hierarchical. It is better to be at the top than at the bottom for a number of reasons. Okay. If that is true, if there are fewer positions at the top and then at the bottom, then your job to advance your career is to figure out how to get promoted. There are many ways to get promoted, but I will guarantee you one thing, no one is going to promote Lenny if they don't know who the hell you are. So it is not sufficient for them to know who you are. They have to know that you're smart and personable and have whatever skills you've got, but they have to know you. If they don't know you, you cannot choose what is not in your head. You know that better than I do. So therefore you have to do something to differentiate yourself. You have to build a brand. So when I think of Lenny in your podcast, I think of something. Not just 25 billion podcasts. When I think of somebody in McKinsey or Bay or BCG, one of the consulting firms, a gazillion people start off as front-line consultants. What are you going to do so that somebody knows who you are? What are you going to do that creates value for the firm and for you? So my friend Keith Ferazzi, when he started at Deloitte Consulting, did not do the spreadsheet stuff that he was, by the way, not very good at and didn't like. He started the Lincoln Quality Award. He decided to try to take Deloitte's brand recognition from about one or 2% to 30%. He was appointed, though he left before he actually took the job, to the position of partner and the first chief marketing officer at Deloitte. I have another friend, Tristan Walker, who wanted to get hired at Foursquare. He sent emails to the founder. The founder ignored him. So Tristan Walker did something I think very bold. Tristan Walker began signing up partnerships. So one day the founder says, holy God, he signed up Starbucks. Maybe I ought to hire this guy. So you have to do something that causes people to know who you are, and that is what building a brand is about. It sounds very benign put that way. When people hear, I need to build a personal brand, it sounds like I need to post on LinkedIn, I need to post on Twitter, start a newsletter, start a podcast, which I know is kind of a part of it. But what are some examples you've seen of ways to build a personal brand that are effective?…

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