🎤 Lorraine K. Lee: Speaker, Trainer and Founder
Join us tonight for the finale of The Switchboard's Newsletter Club
☎️ Hello. It’s Julia. Thank you for dialing into The Switchboard where I explore the ways we communicate and connect at work and beyond.
Later today, the third and final (for now) newsletter club is tonight, March 13th. The focus of our time — how to transform work culture. I hope you’ll join us for this live experience.
Today’s edition focuses on an interview with Lorraine K. Lee. Learn more about our conversation below:What sparked your career path?
I studied journalism but I knew I wanted to work in a non-traditional journalism role. As I explored opportunities after college, a manager from a past internship told me about how great startup life was and I decided to join the company where she was working. I worked in tech communications at companies like LinkedIn and Prezi Ultimately, when I was at Prezi, I was hit by the mass tech layoffs.
At that point, I was at a crossroads. I needed to decide: did I want to apply for another job or did I want to turn the side hustle I had been building into a full-time business? I decided that I should try to start my own business. Ever since, I’ve been focused on helping organizations and teams RISE to become more respected, influential, successful, and empowered.
In your work, you focus significant attention on professional presence. Can you define that for our readers?
There are many touch points we have in a given day to showcase ourselves so it’s making sure that your presence is making sure others perceive you how you want to be seen and that they’re seeing you in the right places so that ultimately you're representing your career brand in the best light possible. Your presence can be everything from how you show up sending an email to how confident you appear when giving a presentation.
I recommend talking to 10 different people from various points in your life — colleagues, your manager or friends to understand the “how” part of your presence. Think about what you want to be known for and ensure that it’s coming across.
Let’s take this one step further — how do employees build an executive presence?
I like to bucket it into the three C's so it's made up of communication, career brand and credibility. Those are the important areas to think about when you are building your executive presence. Generally, there’s been a shift away from the traditional definition of executive presence — suit and ties, being loud in the boardroom, etc. I’m really happy to see that people look to things like authenticity, video presence, and more.
One of the quickest ways to fix your executive presence is to throw out minimizing language! Instead of saying: “I feel like maybe we should,” say, “I highly recommend doing this.” I give several other tips here. Doing this shows that you’re confident and can communicate clearly.
It’s also important to build experience by learning to communicate with an executive. I recently produced this LinkedIn Nano Tips video to help people discover the importance of communicating with executives. It teaches professionals how to think through executive priorities so you can start navigating executive meetings and presentations, building credibility and trust, handling tough questions, using data and numbers effectively, and more.
When we did a poll in advance of our interview, this was the most requested question — what guidance do you have for introverts to thrive at work?
When it comes to introverts excelling in the workplace, I like to say: remember your strengths. Introverts have so many strengths — we are really strong writers and very solutions. There are so many positive traits that come with being an introvert.
It’s very important to let your manager and peers know that you are introverted because that enables you to have a support system around you. When I was a manager at Prezi, I made my meetings very inclusive for introverted personalities. I would send agendas ahead of time and work ahead of time with a solution. This offers working styles that cater to different people’s personalities and can help your team thrive. (Check out Lorraine’s nano tips course, How to Stand Out As An Introvert)
As an instructor and coach, how do you continue learning and growing professionally?
I really enjoy LinkedIn Nano Courses. They have been very valuable and a huge time-saver. The courses are 10 minutes or less, and not overwhelming to take like a 5-hour long course. Microlearning is a powerful way to learn that fits more naturally into our busy schedules.
I also think it’s very important to network and meet new people. I’ve gotten so many ideas and inspiration by talking to other solopreneurs and small business owners, as well as those who work at larger companies. Don’t forget the importance of building and maintaining connections beyond your immediate inner circle.
About Lorraine
Lorraine helps organizations and teams supercharge their professional presence — in both senses of the word — i.e. *how* and *where* others see you.
I bring 10+ years of experience leading editorial teams at tech companies like LinkedIn and Prezi. Now, I’m the founder of RISE Learning Solutions where I speak, consult, and teach hundreds of thousands of professionals to become more recognized, influential, successful, and empowered.
Thank you for being part of The Switchboard community. I’m grateful to you for reading, reacting and commenting. If you enjoyed what you read, please consider sharing it with a colleague or friend. Signing off for this edition. — Julia