Lulu Raghavan, President of Landor APAC and a veteran in the branding world, has released a new book “Go Further, Faster: Shaping a Life that Matters.”
Drawing from her extensive career in branding and advertising, Lulu shares insights on personal and professional growth with a focus on holistic self-development, personal branding, and continuous growth.
In the book, and our conversation, Lulu emphasizes intentionality in shaping one’s career and life, focusing on creating a lasting impact beyond personal success. She explores key concepts like the power of compound interest in personal growth, the art of feedback, balancing being a “workhorse” and a “show pony” at work, and more.
Your book is titled “Go Further, Faster: Shaping a Life that Matters.” Can you talk about what you mean by a life that matters and how your professional experience has shaped this perspective?
One of my observations from several decades in the corporate world is that most of us become victims to our busy lives. While we may be ambitious about the next promotion or the next salary, we often don’t have the time or the mindset to step back, reflect on what we truly want to achieve, and apply the intentionality that is needed to get there.
“It is important to “design your life” in a way that goes beyond personal success to truly leave your mark and your legacy in the world. This calls for aligning your values, passions, and actions to shape and lead a life that matters.”
We may have unconsciously become passive players in our professional journeys which is a huge missed opportunity to make a mark and leave a legacy. I believe that living with purpose, intention and impact can be hugely rewarding both professionally and personally. It is important to “design your life” in a way that goes beyond personal success to truly leave your mark and your legacy in the world. This calls for aligning your values, passions and actions to shape and lead a life that matters.
While establishing and building Landor in India when I was Managing Director for almost fifteen years, I got the lion’s share of opportunities to establish my credibility and authority whether they were opportunities including writing for business magazines, speaking at conferences, moderating panel discussions, judging awards to name a few. The spotlight was always on me and this helped in my success.
Deep inside, this bothered me. My success could not just be about me. It had to be about what value I was creating for others and how I was helping them rise. This is when I started devoting chunks of my time regularly to mentorship both at Landor and externally for WPP Stella, School of Visual Arts New York, leap.club etc.
I was very keen to share my knowledge and learnings with those younger than me and very ambitious about growth. This was what also led me to build a website dedicated to personal branding and professional growth (luluraghavan.com), start a newsletter (Ideas to Play With which is archived on my website) and write my book. All of this above and beyond my work duties gave me the satisfaction that I was shaping a life in which I was able to maximise my contribution to others rather than only focusing on myself.
You mention that this is the book you wish you had when starting your career. What specific advice or insights do you think would have been most valuable to your younger self?
I wish I had understood the concept of compound interest when I was younger. Of course, I had understood it as a mathematical concept in middle school, but I hadn’t quite grasped its applicability to life in general. It’s such a powerful metaphor for personal growth, habits, and life in general.
“Giving feedback is an art that has to be honed and the sooner you start, the more beneficial for you and your teammates.”
Full credit to James Clear and his chart-topping “Atomic Habits” for beautifully landing this message with me. Small actions in life done consistently over time can lead to significant outcomes. My younger team members who have only seen me in the last few years may think I am an overnight success. I joke with them that what they haven’t seen is that I’ve been waking up, dressing up, showing up and grinding away for years and years to achieve what I have today.
I also wasn’t the best at receiving or giving feedback in my early career. My defenses were always up and I felt that the other person was attacking me personally. It impacted me emotionally and physically (the body took on the pain!) and this prevented progress. I also wasn’t trained well enough to give feedback to others where it’s really important to give six doses praise for every heap of negative feedback. Giving feedback is an art that has to be honed and the sooner you start, the more beneficial for you and your teammates.
The book is divided into three parts. Could you briefly explain how these parts – holistic self-development, personal branding, and continuous growth – interconnect in building a successful career?
I speak and write a lot about personal branding which is about using the tools of brand marketers to give yourself a competitive advantage in the workplace. One of the fears that I’ve always had in speaking about personal branding is that people may understand it as just “packaging.” Nothing could be further than the truth. Personal branding should not be equated with shouting from the rooftop when you have nothing substantial to say.
“Changing just the cosmetics by “packaging” yourself without any real change is like a lipstick on a gorilla. You have to have substance before you can amplify your unique strengths through branding otherwise it can come across as inauthentic and fake.”
This is why this section of the book is sandwiched between part one in which I write about a holistic need for self-development (a mind, body, soul approach) and part three in which I write about the need to keep evolving and growing. Adam Bryant in his book “Leap to Leader” says you have to be a workhorse AND a show pony. You can’t just do the work and not showcase your achievements. Neither can you just showcase achievements without being a solid, reliable contributor who adds great value to the organisation. I couldn’t agree more vehemently and this is why the three parts of my book and intrinsically interconnected.
In your ‘Handy How-tos’ section, you address diverse challenges like mastering job interviews and navigating workplace biases. Can you share a particularly important ‘how-to’ that you think is often overlooked by young professionals?
A how-to that’s often overlooked by young professionals is how to disagree with bosses or people more senior than you or people who have more authority. It’s so important to have a point of view in the workplace. It allows you to establish your unique voice and add your perspective which may be very valuable to the company.
“The most progressive leaders know that it is only through disagreement and debate that you arrive at the right solutions to problems. So an important skill for every young professional to master is how to disagree with seniors!”
While corporate cultures must allow for diverse voices to be expressed more freely without fear of repercussions, young professionals too can do their bit in asserting their voices one meeting at a time. The most progressive leaders know that it is only through disagreement and debate that you arrive at the right solutions to problems. So an important skill for every young professional to master is how to disagree with seniors!
As an expert in branding and advertising, how have you applied these skills to the concept of personal branding, and why do you think it’s crucial for professional success?
Your work won’t speak for itself. You have to showcase your achievements. A lot of professionals lament that the value they bring to the table is not understood. This is a barrier to progress in terms of opportunities that could come your way.
Also, there is a sea of sameness when competing for jobs. Your profile has to stand out to be considered. Your uniqueness has to shine through in every way. For this, building your personal brand is hugely beneficial.
“Your work won’t speak for itself. You have to showcase your achievements. A lot of professionals lament that the value they bring to the table is not understood. “
I’ve laid out this entire 5D process in part two of my book in which I discuss how you can build and nurture your personal brand. You can turn to the playbook of branding and design and use a time tested methodology to discover your brand, define what it stands for, design its expression, deploy key assets and deliver day in and day out with clarity, consistency and commitment.
Your book emphasizes the importance of continuous growth. In today’s fast-paced work environment, what strategies do you recommend for professionals to stay committed to ongoing learning and development?
In the third part of my book, I discuss the things that you should commit to in the long term which will help position you as a distinguished professional who is not only highly successful in her own career but has shaped the career of many others, has contributed significantly to the organisation, has played a role in the industry and has positively contributed to broader society as well.
Commitment to ongoing learning and development or being a lifelong learner is absolutely key to continued success.
Here are some things that I consciously do now:
- Curating my reading list to include subjects I would normally not read
- Curating the podcasts I listen to by going much beyond business and marketing
- Reading magazines in new subject areas for me as vastly different as astronomy and gardening
- Taking online courses (short duration and longer duration)
- Signing up for workshops to learn new skills and meet new people
- Going to industry events to learn more from practitioners
There are five key things I learned about incorporating learning into every day.
- Lifelong learning is a mindset. You have to be conscious and embrace every opportunity to learn. It’s not just about classes and courses though all these learnings compound over time.
- Make time for learning. While we go about our lives being busy, if we don’t carve out time for learning, more precious years will be lost. Structure your time and schedule your learning sessions.
- Make time for reflection and application. A lot of learning even from workshops and training sessions evaporates because we have not done the follow-up job of deeply thinking about what we have learnt and how best to apply it. This is the most important aspect of learning.
- Keep track of classes you’ve taken and new skills you have acquired. When you look back after five or ten years this will be very helpful in remembering all that you invested in.
- Learning is a journey not a destination you have reached after your graduation and post-graduation certificates have been awarded.
You can pick up Lulu’s book online here as well as other locations.
