#044 Harnessing Your Unique Impact
Trying to fit in and be like the crowd can sometimes feel like the easiest way forward, but in order to have the impact we’re here to make in life and work, we need to tap into what is unique to us. We need to embrace and harness it. That is when we truly make our mark.
In this episode I dive into how you can tap into your own uniqueness and bring it out to help you make the impact only you can make. We’ll explore the importance of clarity, confidence, communication and taking aligned action. As well as the value in unearthing your purpose, values, strengths, beliefs, experience, story, preferences and personality so you can ‘do you’ and make a difference in the process.
Transcript
Kate McCready:
Hey folks, hope you're doing super well today. I'm really excited to chat to you about today's topic, which is all about really harnessing your uniqueness, particularly so that you can have the greatest impact that you're here to make. It's a really key part of my work at Leading Beings is to help people tap into what is uniquely them, because it's my belief that we are at our best and really living our greatest potential when we're tapping into what is core to who we are. And not trying to be something that we're not.
Whether you're a business owner or a leader. It can be really hard when you're looking out into the world and seeing what others are doing. And this idea of staying in our own lane and just being who we are. It's not easy because.
It's very much human nature to look at what others are doing and think that we should do the same. As part of that deep caveman instinct that we have in not wanting to separate or segregate ourselves from the tribe, because belonging is so important , to belong is to be safe. So anything where we put ourselves outside of what everyone else is doing, it can cause us this feeling that we're no longer safe.
But when we try to be like other people or other businesses or other leaders or whatever it might be, and we ignore what makes us who we are. We're really doing a disservice to ourselves, as well as those that we're here to serve. Whether that be our customers, our people, clients, users, whoever you are serving family, even.
Because when we try to be like others, we stop innovating. We stop finding a difference in interest in new ways of doing things. And so rather than creating and evolving things, we end up lagging behind. Behind others, behind the curve. And doing a lesser job of what other people have done before us.
I've got a really good business example in my eyes of this at the moment. Which you probably are quite familiar with if you're on either Instagram or Tik TOK. And that's the fact that Instagram came along and they started reels. And I think in terms of who they were and who their audience was they were trying to come along and be like Tik TOK and take what Tik TOK had done and repurpose it for their own platform, except it was never as good.
Tik TOK had really captured a moment with how they did things and it appealed to a specific audience in a specific way. And if you've been on Tik TOK I don't actually spend much time on there, but a lot of what I know about Tik TOK is that the videos are really creative and they can be quite fresh. And then when Instagram tried to kind of borrow that format for reels. It brought it across and it just kind of, in my opinion, at least hasn't really landed. There's lots of people trying to do great stuff out there and, and some people are, but for the most part, we're getting these things where people point and people singing along to songs and it just hasn't had the same impact. And this is what I mean about not trying to kind of follow your own unique path. Instagram has tried to do something that someone else has done, Tik TOK. And rather than innovating or coming up with something really interesting, they've just come up with kind of a second rate version of what someone else has tried to do.
So that's not a personal human example. That's a, an organizational example, but you can see how it kind of applies when we try to be like someone else. When we try to move away from what makes us uniquely us. We, in my opinion, just don't do the best work that we can do out in the world. And we don't show up as the best humans that we can show up as in the world.
So, what can you do to tap into your unique impact? Well, There are a few things that I think the kind of the key elements of really harnessing that impact or that uniqueness.
And the first one is clarity. The first thing is you have to be clear on what actually makes you unique. The next one is confidence. You need to build the confidence around that uniqueness in order to be able to take it out to others. And it's the clarity and forming that clarity that then gives you the confidence.
The next thing is communication. Once you're clear once you're confident, you need to communicate your uniqueness out into the world, whether that be through your speech through your action through your thoughts. However you show up day to day. And then it's also taking aligned action. So, once you a clear once you're confident and you're communicating, you have to take the action and do things that align with your uniqueness in your work and your life.
And there are a few different categories that I think we can begin to do this under. So keeping in mind for a moment, the idea of clarity. The things that I think we need to really begin to get clear on is our purpose, our values, our strengths, our experience, our story, our beliefs, our preferences, and our personality. And there's probably more, but they're just a few that I think are some of the ones that are important. So let's go through each of those.
So your purpose. If you are going to really bring your uniqueness to the world, you have to know why you're here and why you're doing what you do. That might be in a business sense. That might be in a personal sense. I've talked in previous episodes about not getting too hung up on your purpose, but it does really help to know your why and what is driving you. That could be something as simple as being a great parent to your kids, or it could be showing up as a kind human or it could be something far more thought out with relating to your, your business or your work. Like my purpose is to Enlive and the positive force in people. So you've got to know that purpose. So you can become confident in it. Communicate it and take aligned action in regards to it. And when you're doing those things, you can really show up in your uniqueness.
The next one is your values. I talk a lot about values on the podcast, and these are the things that are core to who you are and showing up in a particular way in life and work. So again, being clear on them, being confident in them, communicating them and taking aligned action helps you step into that uniqueness.
Then we have strengths. Again, I talk a lot about strengths on the podcast and you've probably heard me talk about the Gallup strengths test. A number of times, if you have listened to different episodes. Knowing what we're good at knowing what we're not so good at in terms of our strengths is really key again, to that uniqueness.
And particularly being able to work with those strengths and tap into and accentuate the things that we're good at, rather than trying to fix our weaknesses. There's a lot of research that shows particularly once we get into kind of positions of leadership, that it's more effective for leaders to work on their strengths than it is to work on their weaknesses.
So I really recommend doing some kind of strengths, work. At a really basic level it could be sitting down and joining out what you think your strengths are. Maybe asking friends and family colleagues, business partners, what they think your strengths are. Or you could go and do some kind of evaluation, like the Gallup strengths test. There's also a number of others out there that you can do to flesh out your strengths. And once you know these strengths, it's so much easier to work with them as well.
Next we have your experience. Nobody has lived the life that you have lived. Nobody has done the things that you have done. And that forms a really important part about what makes you unique. And really closely aligned, I'm going to talk about these two in tandem, is your story. So what is the story of the life that you've lived with? The work that you've done? And how does that relate into your experience?
I think being able to tell our own story and to be clear on our own story. Is a really great way to bring people along with us on a journey and help them understand how our uniqueness is relevant to them. So it begins to form this picture of who you are for people and help them understand how they can interact with you and, and tap into your uniqueness. For their own benefit.
There's a really wonderful exercise that I was introduced to by. Dr. Jason Fox, who I have spoken to on this podcast before he's a wonderful leadership consultant and speaker, and the exercise was mapping out your life calendar. So it's looking at your life and what's happened in your life across the years. And marking in the different phases of your life and the different events that have shaped and made you who you are on an entire kind of a calendar that maps out kind of the hundred years of your life or however many you're up to right now. And for me, this was a really beautiful exercise in teasing out your story.
Sometimes it's not until we kind of dive into those experiences that have made us who we are that we can really begin to see our story from that outside perspective that gives us a sense of awareness of how that story is shaping or has shaped who we are, but is also shaping who we're becoming in the work that we're doing.
We also then have our beliefs. So the things that you're passionate about, the things that you care about that you would stand up for. The things that you would fight for. These are the kinds of things that also make up part of your uniqueness.
So for example, you might have really strong beliefs around feminism or a equality or environmentalist or parenting or whatever it might be that really central to who you are, and they've often come those beliefs from your story and your experience and your strengths and your values. But those beliefs can form part of how we show up in our work in our life and make us uniquely who we are.
Then we have our preferences. What do you like? What do you not like? What are your interests? What are the things that get you excited? If you're somebody, for example, who really loves positive psychology, that's going to form a unique part of who you are and how you show up in the world. If you're someone who really loves physical activity and getting out into nature, that's going to form part of your uniqueness.
And then finally we have your personality. What comes naturally to you in terms of how you move through the world? Are you an extrovert? Are you an introvert? Are you an ambivert? Are you serious? Are you a bit of a goof? That's me. Are you intellectual? Are you warm? Are you carrying? All of these things again, they contribute to what makes you uniquely you.
And I can go through all of these things and you might say, yeah, but Kate, other people have those qualities too, and yes they do. But it's when you take this unique combination of all of these things, that you are: your purpose, your values, your strengths, your experience, your story, your beliefs, your preferences, your personality. It's that combination that makes you who you are and makes what you do in the world. Special.
You have to work with these things rather than against them. And when you're bringing that special brand of you into the world, no one can compete. I've spoken to many clients who they might be looking to start a new business, or they've got a new idea that they're trying to get out into the world and they come with that thing of, but someone else out there is doing it or they're doing it better than me. And it doesn't matter because there's always someone out there that wants your brand of that thing.
You just have to look out into. The, the world of products to see that there are however many different colas. There's however many different ice creams there's however many different clothing brands. And it's because there's something out there for everyone and everybody wants something that reflects who they are. And so it's no different with your business, your leadership and how you show up in your career or your work or your life. People want you over somebody else, because precisely it's you. And you have this unique thing that nobody else has.
But as I said, you have to be clear on what that is. You have to be confident with it. You have to communicate it, and then you have to take aligned action in regards to that.
So to give you a little example of this. I was working with a client over the last year or so, who really wanted to move up in their organization, but they were struggling to kind of make the headway that they wanted to have. And part of the reason was that they were being really challenged by "the way that things were done around here" at their company.
They really, didn't kind of feel comfortable with the politics and the game playing that seemed to be required to quote unquote, "make it" in the organization. And so in working together rather than falling into that trap of, of trying to work with this client to be like these other people and to fit into this norm that had been created within the organization. We went the complete opposite direction. So working on how my clients unique differences could actually be the thing that set them apart.
How could those differences actually be a benefit to the company? And how could my client begin to tell that story better? So the process that we went through was working through some of the things that I've spoken about today, working out what really did make this client unique in their own way. And then really starting to look at each of those unique benefits really. And asking, okay, how can this really help the company? And how can I tell a story around each one of these things? That is not about saying, "Hey, I'm trying to be like everybody else" saying, "Hey, I'm not like everybody else" and this is a good thing because of these reasons.
It's been a really great strategy for that client. And they've achieved a lot of success over the last year from kind of taking this different approach.
So I really encourage you to do the same. Whether it's in your business, your leadership, your career, your life. Start really trying to tap into who you are. What's uniquely, you. All of those things that I've talked about. Get really clear on them. Get confident, start communicating and starting start taking that aligned action.
And that is what is going to help you make your unique impact. You're not going to make as big impact if you try to do the same thing that everybody else is doing.
We need difference in the world. We need variety. We need people being who they are. Because someone out there is going to need. What it is that you're dishing out.
So I hope that's been helpful today. I hope it's given you some inspiration. To really uncover what makes you uniquely you so you can get that clarity and confidence that's going to help you communicate it and take aligned action. And if you do spend some time doing this, I'd love to hear how you go.
Please come and connect with me. On Instagram or LinkedIn. Or send me an email I'd love to hear from you. So until next time, you keep doing you and I look forward to sharing the next episode with you.