Marketing uses the concept of media impressions as a way for us to understand how far a particular ad campaign or message has reached its intended audience.
It dawned on me at my Company’s Spring National Meeting: Media impressions are to Marketing what Leadership impressions are to connecting with my team.
How far have my own campaigns or messages (i.e., my Leadership impressions) reached my intended audience, and am I using all of the potential tools available to me to be effective?
I know for sure that earlier in my career, my Leadership impressions were not as far reaching as they needed to be. I used strategies like 1:1 status meetings and spoke to groups of employees once in a while, but things needed to change as my teams got bigger and my job got more complicated. But, as was pointed out in the Spring meeting, I needed to have “an unwavering commitment to learn new ways to lead and work.” So basically day 1 in a new job, I just tried some new things—like blogging. Please understand I had never blogged before—ever. But people had always told me that I had a “different voice” when I write than what can come across in a first impression in person. I took that as code for perhaps in person I could be a little too intense for some people in person, but when I wrote people could really get an understanding of who I really was, allowing me to establish a connection with them—a Leadership impression with my real voice that they would not have experienced otherwise.
Finally, I got it. For me, blogging allowed me to generate more Leadership impressions with a broader group than I was reaching previously. Now I see that as part of my role as a leader, where I am supposed to share my thoughts and opinions on things to establish authentic connections with my broader team and not be as anonymous. Blogging now had value–value though creating more Leadership impressions. Needing new ways to lead and work, blogging became another vehicle for me.
Are you up for the challenge?
omarreece 
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