How the World Sees You

1. Discover Your Unique Fascination Advantage to Stand Out

The greatest value you can add is to become more of yourself.

Unlearn boring. In today's distracted world, standing out is crucial for success. Each person has a unique combination of traits that make them fascinating. By identifying and leveraging these traits, you can differentiate yourself from others and become more valuable in your personal and professional life.

Your .1% difference. While 99.9% of our DNA is the same as everyone else's, it's the 0.1% that makes us unique. This small difference is your distinct value, your "little zone of genius." Instead of trying to fix your weaknesses, focus on amplifying your natural strengths and unique qualities.

• Key steps to discover your fascination advantage:
  • Take the Fascination Advantage assessment
  • Identify your primary and secondary advantages
  • Understand your dormant advantage (your least effective mode of communication)
  • Recognize your Archetype (combination of primary and secondary advantages)

2. Overcome the Three Threats: Distraction, Competition, and Commoditization

If you are not creating a negative response from somebody, you're probably not very fascinating to anybody.

Battle for attention. In today's world, three major threats hinder effective communication: distraction, competition, and commoditization. To overcome these, you must fascinate your audience by adding distinct value.

Fascination is key. When you fascinate someone, their brain enters a state of intense focus, similar to falling in love. This state of fascination helps overcome distractions and makes your message more memorable and impactful.

• Strategies to overcome the three threats:
  • Distraction: Front-load your value and cut to the chase
  • Competition: Focus on how you're different, not just better
  • Commoditization: Develop a unique personality brand
• Remember: It's better to be polarizing than boring. Don't try to appeal to everyone; focus on being loved by your core audience.

3. Leverage Your Primary and Secondary Advantages for Maximum Impact

You will never rise to your greatest potential by being all things to all people.

Wellsprings vs. quicksand. Your primary and secondary advantages are your wellsprings – areas where you naturally excel and feel energized. Your dormant advantage is your quicksand – tasks that drain your energy and feel unnatural.

Maximize strengths. To be most effective, focus on tasks and roles that allow you to use your primary and secondary advantages. Minimize time spent in your dormant advantage area.

• Tips for leveraging your advantages:
  • Identify situations where you naturally shine
  • Seek out roles that align with your primary and secondary advantages
  • Delegate or minimize tasks that fall into your dormant advantage
  • Partner with others whose strengths complement your weaknesses

4. Understand the Seven Fascination Advantages and Their Languages

Each Advantage follows a distinct pattern. Each has pros and cons. Each has potential blind spots.

Seven ways to communicate. The Fascination Advantage system identifies seven distinct ways people communicate and add value: Power, Passion, Mystique, Prestige, Alert, Innovation, and Trust. Each advantage speaks a different "language" and is most effective in specific situations.

Recognize patterns. By understanding these advantages, you can better communicate with others and recognize how they're most likely to add value. This knowledge is crucial for building effective teams and improving interpersonal relationships.

• The Seven Fascination Advantages:
  1. Power: The language of confidence
  2. Passion: The language of relationship
  3. Mystique: The language of listening
  4. Prestige: The language of excellence
  5. Alert: The language of details
  6. Innovation: The language of creativity
  7. Trust: The language of stability

5. Create Your Anthem: The Tagline for Your Personality

Your Anthem helps others understand what you do best, so that you can do more of what you do best.

Distill your value. Your Anthem is a short phrase, typically two to three words, that encapsulates your highest distinct value. It combines an adjective (how you are different) with a noun (what you do best) to create a powerful personal tagline.

Guide your communication. Your Anthem serves as a compass for all your interactions, helping you focus on your strengths and communicate your value clearly and consistently.

• Steps to create your Anthem:
  1. Choose an adjective from your Archetype's top traits
  2. Select a noun that describes what you do best
  3. Combine the adjective and noun to form your Anthem
  4. Refine and personalize as needed

6. Apply Your Anthem to Maximize Your Value in Every Interaction

If you don't know your own value, don't expect anyone else to know it, either.

Live your tagline. Once you've created your Anthem, apply it consistently across all aspects of your professional and personal life. Use it to guide your decision-making, communication style, and personal brand.

Communicate value. Your Anthem helps others quickly understand your unique contribution, making it easier for them to recognize and appreciate your value. It becomes your personal rallying cry and the essence of your communication.

• Ways to apply your Anthem:
  • Use it in your elevator pitch and introductions
  • Incorporate it into your resume and LinkedIn profile
  • Guide your social media presence and personal branding
  • Shape your office environment and work style
  • Inform your presentation and communication techniques

7. Build Stronger Teams by Recognizing and Leveraging Diverse Advantages

The more accurately you've assessed how a team is seen by the outside world, the more precisely you can guide that team's interaction with customers and clients.

Diversity of advantages. A strong team benefits from a mix of different Fascination Advantages. Understanding and leveraging these differences can lead to better collaboration, reduced conflict, and improved overall performance.

Optimize roles. By recognizing each team member's unique advantages, you can assign roles and tasks that allow individuals to work in their areas of strength. This leads to higher engagement, productivity, and job satisfaction.

• Strategies for building stronger teams:
  • Have team members take the Fascination Advantage assessment
  • Create and share individual Anthems within the team
  • Assign tasks and roles based on individual strengths
  • Use diverse advantages to balance team weaknesses
  • Develop a team Anthem to articulate collective strengths

Last updated: October 1, 2024