Disrupted! A Podcast with the Creators: Why We Wrote It & What We Learned

Disruption happens a lot across the corporate world. Sometimes, from a company’s perspective through realigning functions. And sometimes by employees themselves as they make choices to try different things. But whether disruption is caused by a company or an individual, it’s occurring more frequently.

And from our vantage point, we see individuals who aren’t ready for it…and aren’t good at resetting around a challenge or an opportunity that disruption causes. The book sets out to help individuals understand why disruption occurs and how to plan for resets.

This episode of What's Your Story has guest host, Lia, who interviews Sally, Hurst, and LaKesha about book insights, highlights and maybe see if they'll share a few tips from our latest book, Disrupted! How to Reset your Brand and Your Career.

More about The Creators

Sally Williamson is the founder of SW&A and an expert in all things related to spoken communication. Sally brings more than three decades of experience, insights and a general love of connection to empower more than 15,000 leaders and managers to influence and impact any group. Disrupted! is her fourth book.

Hurst Williamson is the ultimate utility player who can uncover client needs, lead a workshop or weave an incredible tale. He owns every room and brings genuine engagement to communication. He is the heart of the career journey and a proud member of the generation most disrupted. But he sees it as an opportunity to tell your story and own your journey. And he’s helping many of our clients do just that. Hurst co-authored Disrupted! and it is his second book.

LaKesha Edwards is a life-long learner who loves research, insights and discovery. With a Ph.D. added to her own career journey, she questions what we’re learning and how we’re solving it. And with SW&A, she creates the steps to continue a development experience by thinking through what we learn, what we teach and how we coach. And quite frankly, she keeps us all on our toes. She led the research behind Disrupted!

Show Notes

• Disrupted! How to Reset Your Brand and Your Career

• Disruption happens all over the world and it’s occurring more frequently.
• This book sets out to help individuals understand why disruption occurs and how to plan for resets.

• Why Disrupted! How to Reset Your Brand and Your Career was written:

• It felt like the right time for the topic and they had the tools to sell it.
• As a communications firm they have a broad view of business change.
• SW&A wanted to support individuals and how they deal with disruption.
• This time, around wanted to include two new minds in the process to have fresh perspective about a topic that will directly affect their generation.
• The timing of COVID-19 offered the space, insight, and necessity for this book.
• This book has blended all their different talents together.

• What was Disrupted! How to Reset Your Brand and Your Career trying to uncover and discover?

• • Focus on developing the skills of current employees.
  • Noting talent strategies have shifted with business beliefs.
  • Talent acquisition is trying to bring in the needed talent to solve for gaps.
• Where does that create insight for a reader or an individual who’s thinking through their own career path and development?
• • Talent Leaders have encouraged employees to take ownership of their own career path.
  • Training for employees to directly support company goals is 82%.
  •  8% of their time is focused on development outside of company goals.
  • If your interest does not align with the company's goals, it will not be a priority.

• Talent development is in charge of supplying the people to let that growth happen. Goals get narrow fast - if an individual doesn’t fit in the scope, they will fall behind.

• Employees must take ownership to develop their skills to make sure they stand out.
• Employees must not rely on somebody watching out for them- they must own their career.
• There is not a master database of employee’s development, skills, and career goals.

• How to stay competitive?

• Feedback - is the best indication of what an employee’s file at a company is. Seek feedback to control personal brand. Seek feedback from individuals that make you nervous.
• Personal brand is how people think about you and talk about you when you’re not around.

• What are the critical skills needed today?

• Communication and influence.
• Problem solving and critical thinking.
• Agility during times of change and uncertainty.

• To be a better strategic thinker is to be a better strategic communicator.
• Talent recruiters will look for talent outside an organization if specific skills are needed quickly.
• How are disruption and reset related?
• Disruption is what everyone feels.

• It happens to everybody and at any time. Not always handled well.

• The rest are the people who take control of disruption. 

• How they pivot.
• The art of how you take disruption and turn it into insight.

• What does reset look like?

• Everybody will have to reset at some time in their career.
• An individual will change jobs 7-10 times in their career.
• Reset comes down to the interview.
• In the Talent Acquisition podcast they were asked how many people are good at interviewing? Less than 5 percent.

• Talent acquisition is competing for top talent. Many people don’t understand how to explain their skills through storytelling. Acquiring skills that fit a specific job is not always through traditional experiences.
• In the book they look at different career levels early, mid, and peak career. 
• People are successful in reset if they have a compelling brand and a compelling career narrative. 

• 1st half of Disrupted! How to Reset Your Brand and Your Career is about personal brand and coaching around feedback. It’s broken down between early, mid-career and peak career. 
• 2nd half pivots into a career narrative. How to think about organizing all your experience together. Mindset shifts on how you think and talk about yourself.