Show Your Worth summary

Your attention is a valuable yet limited resource, so you need to make sure you’re allocating it effectively and investing it for maximum returns. The key word here? Priorities. Just ask Johanna Maska, the White House Director of Press Advance for President Barack Obama.

Maska came onto Obama’s team when he was still a senator from Illinois. In the space of a few short months, she found herself working on a Presidential campaign, then organizing a Presidential inauguration, until, finally, she was one of the most senior aides to the President of the United States of America. Working as part of his Scheduling and Advance department, Maska was in charge of allocating the President’s most valuable resource – his attention. Obama’s schedule was not only incredibly full – each day, new conflicts and concerns arose that also needed to be addressed. How did Maska decide which people, and problems, made the cut? She swears by trusting your judgment, even under pressure, and cultivating a deep understanding of the context you’re working within. But above all else? Navigating by your north star priorities. In Maska’s case, any time she had to make a quick call, she’d come back to her number one priority and ask: What would the American people want the President to pay attention to?

Oprah Winfrey once said that you can have it all, just not all at once. If even Oprah finds it challenging to balance the demands of professional and personal life, where does that leave the rest of us working women?

It turns out that effectively negotiating the professional and the personal is the key challenge many women face in the workplace. Let’s leave aside the admittedly infuriating question of why women, on the whole, are far more pressured to balance caregiving and domestic responsibilities alongside their careers than man, and talk solutions. 

Kathleen Hogan is Chief People Officer at Microsoft. She wants people to see her for the capable, experienced, highly successful professional woman she is. So, in 2007, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, Kathleen kept the devastating news to herself. In the workplace she wanted to stay “Kathleen the executive” and not transform into “Kathleen who has cancer”. She wore a wig throughout chemo and only confided her diagnosis in a few people. But she found the subterfuge exhausting. Kathleen recovered. But in 2018 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer again, she decided to do things differently. She didn’t want to overengineer her outward image. She wanted to be real. When she shared her diagnosis she was overwhelmed by her colleagues’ support. The lesson? There’s strength in bringing your whole self to work. Kathleen is now cancer free. 

In the workplace, the value you create is the cornerstone of your success, and the more unique your contribution, the more indispensable you become. Having the confidence to bring your full self and experiences to your work is the key to creating significant value.

How you are known, and who knows you, are two things that will define your professional success. Consider this your invitation to make yourself known as a leader, to the people who can place you in that position. 

Your personal brand is essentially what people think of when they hear your name. So, how can you elevate this into a personal leadership brand? Think of it this way: you want to integrate strong leadership qualities into what people already associate with you. Start by identifying the type of leader you aspire to become. Reflect on those leaders who've inspired you and those who haven't. Their examples can clarify what you aim to achieve in your own leadership style.