06.07 雙語哈評|What You Need to Stand Out in a Noisy World?

雙語哈評|What You Need to Stand Out in a Noisy World?

【雙語哈評】大家翹首以待的雙語閱讀來了!這是我們全新推出的中英雙語閱讀欄目,每週三跟大家見面。每期我們會從哈佛商業評論英文網上精選一篇熱門文章,為大家提供原汁原味的閱讀體驗。熱愛哈評,熱愛英語學習的小夥伴千萬不能錯過~

For years, I’ve been grappling with the question of how professionals in an increasingly noisy and freneticworld can ensure their expertise is recognized.

In the course of researching my book Stand Out, I interviewed more than 50 top thought leaders across a variety of different fields to elicit best practices and commonalities. I found plenty of useful techniques, from cultivating a trusted wingman to help promote you to others, to identifying commonalities with the people you’re seeking to influence so they’ll be more receptive to your message.

在越來越嘈雜與狂熱的世界中,職場人士該如何確保自己的專業能力被認可,這是多年來我一直研究的問題。

在籌備《脫穎而出》(Stand Out)一書的過程中,我採訪了50多位不同領域頂尖的思想領袖,試圖發掘展示自我的最佳範例,並從中找到一些共性。我發現了許多有用的技巧,比如:培養一個值得信賴的夥伴,讓他向別人推薦你,會比自我推薦更有效;找出你想要影響的人的共性,這樣他們會更容易接受你的想法。

frenetic:瘋狂的,狂熱的;commonalities:共性,共同點;

As I came to realize, though, there are three foundational elements to getting your ideas understood and appreciated,elements that underlie everything else. These are social proof, which gives people a reason to listen to you; content creation, which allows them to evaluate the quality of your ideas; and your network, which allows your ideas to spread.

我最終意識到,有三種基本要素能促使你的想法被理解和欣賞,這些要素是其他一切的基石。它們分別是:社會認同,這讓人們有理由去傾聽你的想法;內容創作,人們可以藉此評估你想法質量的高低;社交網絡,這讓你的想法得以傳播。

Without at least two of these, though ideally you have all three, it’s structurally almost impossible for your message to break through. Understanding that dynamic can help talented professionals, who may be prone to focusing their energy on the techniques that come most easily to them, know where to apply their efforts in order to ensure their true value is recognized.

你必須擁有兩種以上要素,雖然理想情況下你擁有全部三種要素,否則想要脫穎而出幾乎是不可能的。對於那些可能傾向於將精力投入在技術領域的專業人才,瞭解這一點更加重要,可以為自己的真正價值獲得認可明確方向。

双语哈评|What You Need to Stand Out in a Noisy World?

Social Proof(社會認同)

Humans, especially busy ones, have a bias toward conserving mental energy. It’s cognitively taxing for them to independently evaluate every person they come into contact with to determine, “Is this person credible?” Indeed, performing that calculation is almost impossible if the person is outside their field of expertise, because they simply may not have enough information to know. That’s why social proof is so critical.Social proof is a heuristic that allows people to judge something — in this case, you — based on youraffiliations with brands they already trust. If you went to Harvard, the thinking goes, you must be intelligent; if your book was a New York Times bestseller, it must be good.

人,特別是大忙人,都更傾向於保存腦力。他們覺得獨立地評估每一個接觸的人,去判斷“這個人可靠嗎?”是很傷腦子的。沒錯,如果一個人是某個特定領域的外行人,要做這樣的評判幾乎也是不可能的,因為人們可能沒有足夠的信息去了解他。

這也是為什麼社會認同如此重要。社會認同是一種評判方法,人們會基於你與他們所信任的品牌的關係做出判斷。按照這種思路,如果你去哈佛讀書,那麼你一定很聰明;如果你的書是紐約時報上最暢銷的書,那麼它一定是本好書。

heuristic:啟發式教育法;affiliations:聯繫

Obviously, there are exceptions (sometimes glaring), but in general, social proof provides shortcutsthat are helpful for people most of the time. You can leverage the power of social proof to ensure your ideas are taken more seriously — immediately — by making an effort to align yourself with people and institutions that are known and respected within your industry.

當然,這些都是個例。但一般來說,社會認同提供的捷徑大多數時候都會對人們有幫助。通過與行業裡的著名人士和組織建立聯盟,藉助社會認同的力量就可以確保你的想法能被認真、迅速地對待。

shortcuts:捷徑

For instance, if you make it a priority to start blogging for a publication that everyone in your field reads, that can be a quick shortcut to credibility. If you’ve worked at an industry-leading company,make sure that it’s prominently featured in your bio and that you periodically share anecdotes highlighting your time there. If you take on a leadership role in a professional association, that sends the signal that your peers respect you enough to select you as their leader. Social proof enables others to “relax” about you; they don’t need to be so vigilantin evaluating your credentials because you’ve already been vetted by others. That primes them to listen to your ideas more carefully and with an open mind.

例如,如果你為行業內人人都會讀的一本刊物撰稿,這就是快速獲得公信力的一種捷徑。如果你在行業內一家頂級的公司工作過,那麼你就要在簡歷中突出這段經歷,並分享一些做過的具體案例。如果你在一個專業組織中擔任領導角色,這會傳遞出一種信號,因為你的同事足夠地尊重你,所以才選你作為他們的領導。

有了社會認同,他人對你會更加寬鬆;他們不必慎重地去評估你的資質能力,因為你已經被他人所認同;他們會更加認真地、帶著開放的心態去傾聽你的想法。

vigilant:謹慎的

Content Creation(內容創作)

You can’t become recognized for your ideas if you don’t share them. Busy professionals might worry that it’s pointlessto create content, given the surfeit of blogs and podcasts and social media chatter. It’s true that it’s harder to “go viral” now than in the early days of YouTube or Twitter, but that shouldn’t be the goal of most businesspeople anyway. Creating content — whether audio, video, or writing — serves multiple purposes for leaders.

如果不分享你的想法,你就不能因你的思想而被公眾所認可。由於社交媒體上的信息爆炸,忙碌的職場人士可能擔心內容創作是毫無意義的。如今內容已經很難像以前在YouTube或者Twitter上那樣被病毒式地傳播,但是不管怎樣,這不應該是大多數商業人士的目標。內容創作,無論是音頻、視頻或者文章,都要為多樣化的目標而服務。

pointless:無意義的;go viral:像病毒一樣傳播

First, it forces you to clarify your thoughts on subjects in your field, making you sharper. Second, it gives you the opportunity to network with colleagues or aspirational contacts, either by interviewing them or by simply mentioning them in your post (author Ramit Sethi invited me to breakfast after I mentioned him in this HBR post). Finally,it provides you with thoughtful insights tailored to your clients’ needs. Even if you don’t have 10,000 readers, it’s an invaluable form of credibility when apotential client mentions a problem they’re having and you can tell her, “I just wrote a piece about that — let me send it to you.” The fact that you’re the one creating content, rather than simply quoting others, makes you an expert in many people’s eyes.

首先,它迫使你在專業領域內對某一主題闡述自己的想法,使你的思維變得更加敏捷。

其次,它為你提供了與同事或其他有志之士交流的機會,可以採訪他們或者僅僅是在文章中提及他們(之前我在《哈佛商業評論》的一篇文章中提及作家Ramit Sethi 後,他邀請我一起吃早餐)。

最後,對於理解客戶的需求,它會為你提供更加深刻的見解。哪怕你沒有一萬個讀者,當你的一個潛在客戶提及她正在遇到的困境時,你可以告訴她,“關於這個問題,我恰巧寫了一篇文章,我發給你吧。”這是一種非常有價值的體現公信力的方式。重點是你自己創作了這篇文章,而不是簡單地引用別人的觀點,這會使你在他人眼中顯得更專業。

Your Network(社交網絡)

Having a robustnetwork can help you in three ways when it comes to being recognized for your expertise. The first is that access to a diverse group of people exposes you to different perspectives that can spark new ideas and enables you to refine your ideas by receiving thoughtful and relevant feedback.

當你因專業性而被廣泛認可後,擁有強大的社交網絡能夠以三種形式幫助你。

首先,通過社交網絡,你能夠接觸到類型廣泛的人群,他們向你展示出不同的視角。你獲得了不同的想法和相關的反饋信息,這不僅能讓你迸發出新的思想,也能促使你重新定義自己的想法。

robust:強大的,穩固的

The second is that a wide network enables your ideas to spread faster, because you’re starting with a larger base of people who are motivated to speak, tweet, blog, and write about your ideas with their own audiences.

其次,通過廣泛的社交網絡,你的想法可以快速傳播,因為你的起點是廣泛的人群,他們很樂於在社交媒體上分享你的想法。

Finally, your network can itself become a form of social proof because you’re judged by the company you keep. If the leading players in your field don’t know who you are, that might be considered a mark against you,while public affiliation with top performers (whether they retweet your work,invite you to guest post on their website, or share a picture taken with you on Facebook) may be viewed as an endorsementthat enhances your credibility.

最後,你的社交網絡本身也會成為一種社會認同,因為人脈廣就意味著你獲得了更多的認可。如果你所在領域的領導者不知道你是誰,那麼這可以被視為一種不利情況,因為與頂尖人士的公開關係(他們轉發你的文章,或者邀請你到他們網站做客,或者是在臉書分享跟你的合照)可能被視為你公信力的背書。

endorsement:背書,擔保

There are plenty of useful ways to make a namefor yourself in your field. But at a foundational level, you need to be viewed as credible, you need to share your ideas publicly so others can see your expertise for themselves, and you need to have a network that’s eager to spread the word. With those three elements in place, even amidoversaturationand information overload, you’ve done everything possible to ensure your voice is heard and your talents are recognized.

有很多種方法可以讓你在自己的領域內揚名。但是前提是,你要是一個可信賴的人;你需要公開分享自己的想法,以便他人可以看到你的專業學識;同時你也需要有一個能夠廣泛傳播思想的社交網絡。只要具備了這三種要素,即便是在這個信息過載的時代,你的聲音也能被聽到,你的才能也會被認可。

make a name:成名,出名;oversaturation:過飽和現象

多里·克拉克(Dorie Clark)/文

多里·克拉克是營銷戰略研究者、職業演講者,在杜克大學富卡商學院任教。

翻譯/譯言網網友HiWalkingTree

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歡迎加入哈評“評議社”,這裡有一群熱愛英語閱讀、對翻譯充滿興趣的小夥伴,希望你也是。如果你還有一定的英語背景,比如有過留學經歷,那就更好啦。掃描下方的二維碼,進行簡單的自我介紹,通過小佛爺的邀請就可以加入了,等你來~


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