Skills & Strategies to Illuminate Your Leadership – and Build Your Brand!

By Michael J. Jordan

BEIJING – Sure, it seems shamelessly self-promotional. But one thing that excites me about my MJ Method is how applicable it is to every Communication challenge before me. That's one thing that drives me to share it with as many people as possible.

Just in the past few months, I’ve applied my collection of skills and strategies – drawn from my 25 years as an international journalist-turned-global communication consultant – to a wide range of activities. From training Chinese journalism students and coaching my son through his personal essays for US university applications; to leading a panel discussion of drone experts; showing professional women in Beijing how to build their brand; and how to apply it to cross-cultural dialogue with foreigners.

On Nov. 5th, I modified my method once more, for China’s most prestigious university: Peking University. Dubbed by some the “Harvard of China,” PKU also hosts a unique international program, the Yenching Academy. While the Academy imparts leadership skills to its 124 first-year students from around the world, it also aims to “shape new generations of global citizens with a nuanced understanding of China.”

For Yenching’s students, I took the Build Your Own Brand workshop that I developed and delivered in July to the Beijing Women’s Network, and broadened the focus a bit: Illuminate Your Leadership, Build Your Brand! Skills & Strategies to Prove You’re as Good as You Say You Are – and Climb the Career Ladder.

Wordy? Certainly. But I wanted to be as clear as possible, too. I presented this two-hour event as one part skills-centric lecture, and one part brainstorming session. From big-picture concepts, I eventually applied my skills to a range of content: from their CVs and cover-letters, to the Spring Semester project that many students will have to produce.

In case you’re curious, I’ll describe here some of my philosophy. As each Yenching Scholar was between 22 to 27 years old, I specifically shared how to: think through your own brand-building Communication Strategy; identify your most persuasive messaging; illuminate your impact with convincing evidence; then “bring it to life” with impactful writing and humanized storytelling. To make it truly relevant, though, we match your passion and experience with the professional path you plan to pursue.

First, let’s briefly take a step back: Why does this “Build Your Brand” topic matter? As I told the students, we ourselves are a “brand” – and are offering our own products or services to a marketplace of consumers. So, as we embark upon our professional life, or continue to climb the career ladder – regardless of whether it’s in our home-country, or abroad – whenever we blaze a new trail, we face the same challenge as everyone else: How can I stand out from all that competition?

How to smartly “build” our brand? How to confidently “sell” our brand? Can we actually prove the positive impact that our work, and/or our leadership, has had on a team? Or on a “community”?

We all have a self-interest to tout how good we are. But beyond lofty words, can we truly prove our “comparative-advantage” and “value-added,” to persuade our smart-but-skeptical audience – including employers, investors, donors, and other potential partners – to choose us? (By comparative advantage, I mean: What distinguishes “us” from “them”? By value-added, I mean: How we benefit others?)

Don’t underestimate this challenge. I’ve learned that it’s one of the highest forms of Communication: how to influence someone else’s behavior, to achieve our own objective? That’s much more than informing someone, or raising awareness, or even changing someone’s mind. How do you spur them toward a desirable action? Like, to hire you? Or, to admit you to their university? Or, to invest in you? Or, to pull their precious, hard-earned cash from their pocket, to buy your product? (I explain this entire hierarchy of communication-challenges when describing my own Ladder of Communication.)

Moreover, whenever I coach foreigners who are studying or working in China – the world’s second-largest economy – or train Chinese who are studying or working in an international environment, I inform them that because they typically aim to influence foreign audiences, that hoists our challenge to an even higher level: International Communication. Or, Cross-Cultural Communication.

A unique challenge, then, requires a unique solution. The MJ Method – drawn from 25 years of experience, across four continents, and mostly addressing foreign audiences – is one such solution. At the heart of it is my conviction that the most effective, most persuasive way to achieve impact with our words is by delivering “message-driven, evidence-based” content. Including, “humanized” storytelling.

Some consider these soft skills, but to me they’re survival skills – which we’ll need the rest of our professional lives. After all, tomorrow we could lose our job. Then what? We’re on our own. Imagine all the competition we’re up against: some are more talented; some, less talented; others, just as talented. How do we Show, Not Tell that we’re truly good at what we do?

We need more than recommendations, references or testimonials, which can distort reality. (After all, we’d only ask someone to write a recommendation if they have something good to say about us, right? And we’d ignore those who might say something unflattering.) Plus, such testimonial are usually too superficial. They only tell the audience how “wonderful” we are; they rarely show it, with real proof.

That’s why I advocate more persuasive forms of evidence: a mini case-study about you, to bring to life your on-the-ground experience, even the impact you achieved. Specifically, then: a core message, supported by credible evidence, wrapped in a humanizing story. One such story may be unique, an aberration, or one of a kind. Two could be a coincidence. But if you can generate at least three of these, a trend emerges: you’ve now produced a body of evidence, conveying a pattern of positive action.

Then, post that on your online platform. Ideally, your own personal-professional website. But any serious platform, like LinkedIn, will suffice, as a showcase of what you can do. The best part is, when you present links of this evidence to your target-audience, there’s psychological value to its mere existence. Even if they don’t read the content, but just see it, it may trigger the Psychology of Impressiveness. On the other hand, it will likely also build your credibility – and the audience’s trust in you.

To watch a few videos from my Peking University lecture, click here.

If you’d like to learn more about my MJ Method, feel free to contact me!