Be the Best Penguin

This past weekend, I had the wonderful privilege of speaking at the Lone Star College Women’s Conference in Houston. Great crowd. Great content. Great conference.

I had the honor of kicking off the day with my topic: GO! Promote Yourself!

My objective was to inspire people to pick themselves and not wait to be recognized. To start taking action to position their strengths and promote their results and capabilities—and part of that is to accept, embrace and leverage your personality DNA.

Your skills, tendencies and weaker points are usually life long traits, behaviors and characteristics that are truly a part of your DNA. And, you cannot change your DNA.

Many people spend a lifetime trying to outrun or deny their behavioral DNA, but can you flip that thinking—polish your traits, embrace them and use them to your advantage?

In this program, I tell my story about 8 year old Shawn who, in the 3rd grade, decided to fire the Girl Scouts because they were unorganized, inefficient, slow, and the troop leader called her “Bossy, controlling and too big for her britches” for trying to improve work flow production and mitigate risk whilst doing a craft project.

That wasn’t the first time I’d been called "too big for my britches" but instead of taking those labels as negatives, I’ve flipped that perspective.

Those traits that are anchors for me—the deep respect for processes and efficiencies and the spirit to challenge authority—they don’t weigh me down. They’re a fundamental thread woven through the fiber of my work and my relationships.

I look for ways those characteristics strengthen my business, my friends, my tribes—because I know they are rock solid qualities in me that move things forward, solve problems, make things work.

There is a great quote by Gary Vaynerchuk that made for a fun visual:

A penguin cannot become a giraffe, so just be the best penguin you can be.”

Your traits and characteristics—your personality—are what make you, you.

Are You Embracing Those Traits and Polishing Them to be the Best You?

Are your cCore values aligned with your personality DNA? Can you amplify or polish those traits—define them on your own terms—so that people depend on you to bring those to the table? Can those traits promote you and your objectives?

Our flaws or strengths can be a matter of perspective. Do the some self assessment and become self aware of how your deeply rooted personality DNA manifests in what you do and how you make people feel.

A penguin cannot become a giraffe, but she can choose to be the best darned penguin she can be.