Meet Rita Balian Allen

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rita Balian Allen a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Rita Balian, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?

My resilience is engrained in me and comes from a combination of nature and nurture. I am an immigrant and migrated to America as a toddler with my father’s work. I grew up with a very strong work ethic and values that including being of service to others which was role modeled to me by my parents throughout my lifetime. I learned early on how important it is to stay grounded in your values as a guide. First, and most importantly, you have to know what they are and allow them to be a strong foundation of personal and professional empowerment. Identifying our values and having them serve as a reminder incorporating them into our decision making and life choices allows us to stay true to our authentic self. Typically when there is a push and pull, if we get to the core of the issue, it is due to a compromise of a value. We can then determine what is to be gained or not gained by making a compromise and be the leader we aspire to be using our values as our guide. Resilience requires a strong sense of self and values are the anchor that allow us to be our most authentic self.

My father was a survivor of the Armenian genocide and growing up as an Armenian, I learned kindness and compassion exhibited from my parents through both their words and their actions. They embodied great strength, resilience, determination and motivation to provide a better life for their family. My parents had high standards for excellence and all their behaviors embodied the highest level of integrity and honesty. As a child, I learned that being the best person you could be meant being truthful, transparent and genuine. My father always said to me, “Do the right thing and you will never regret it.” As a genocide survivor, he saw a lot of unthinkable things as a young boy. This shaped his character deeply to be the person of the highest integrity and honesty I have known in my life and I have tried to emulate. I watched both my parents acts of kindness and compassion on a regular basis. Mom always said, “If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” They didn’t talk about emotional intelligence but in reality, that is what they were teaching me. Stay positive, optimistic and be happy which is foundational for being resilient.

Resilience also requires the confidence to stretch out of our comfort zones and to be vulnerable, take risks, bouncing back as needed, while having faith in ourselves. This begins with the importance of knowing ourselves well and staying true to who we are, to our personal brand as well as our values. Believing in one’s self starts with inner strength and leveraging our strengths. Grounded with a strong base growing up, I was encouraged to find my purpose and passion, to chase it and fulfill it! I did not wait for things to come to me and was not afraid to make mistakes along the way, which usually ends up being our greatest lessons. Only in my later years now do I realize the resilience that was nurtured in me to take risks because I had strong support. If we can see every potential as an opportunity to progress or to learn, we are more apt to pursue them without fear of failure since there is no such thing as failure. As Nelson Mandela says, “I either win or I learn.”

To be resilient, we must also be agile and stay open to learning new things, new environments and unexpected directions or paths. I have a lot of curiosity, an eagerness to learn and try new and different things in addition to being open to new roads and directions. This has fueled me throughout my life and career. As a business major, I never would have thought of myself as a writer and when an opportunity presented itself, I took the risk to write an article which led to another, and another, yet another after which point I found myself publishing articles and blogs regularly. Today, I am also the author of two books on the topic of ‘Personal Branding’. Had I not taken the initial risk and been open to a new path, I would not have discovered an unrealized talent that has added to my portfolio and created much opportunity for me. I have learned to say yes when it scares me because I believe I will either learn or succeed.

I also believe much of my resilience is innate from birth for me as a part of my personality. I am a driver and embrace challenge. I am also a planner and do a lot of due diligence which prepares me and helps me feel ready to take the risk. I would never have described myself as a risk-taker yet many of my friends and colleagues do. Upon deep self-reflection which is also a necessity (often and consistently) to build resilience, I have learned that I am a risk-taker and because I do my due diligence, it is more of a calculated risk as I am prepared and ready.

Last and most definitely not least, my resilience comes from a deep level of spirituality which means different things to each of us and we all find our faith in our own way. Whatever the source of our spirituality may be, identifying it and allowing it to guide you is an essential ingredient to feeding our mind, body and soul in order to be at our best and to push ourselves to grow. This was the most compelling lesson I learned from my parents and has been my anchor throughout all the peaks and valleys of my life. It enables me to have the strength, grace, confidence, wisdom and resilience to thrive.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I own an international career management firm specializing in executive coaching, leadership development, management training and career development and have worked with leaders across all industries and disciplines. My career spans over many years within the field of human resources in different capacities. I am also a lecturer at Northeastern University, a speaker, presenter and author of numerous articles, blogs and two books on the topic of “Personal Branding and Marketing Yourself”. I hold an MS in Organizational Leadership and a BS in Business Administration; and am also a Professional Certified Coach (PCC). In addition, I currently serve as a member of the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers of the Supreme Judicial Court as well as the Board of Directors of Seeding Labs.

I provide coaching, training and consulting services for individuals and organizations representing a variety of industries including high technology, biotechnology, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, financial services, professional services, higher education, healthcare, manufacturing, service, not-for-profit and retail/consumer products. Working with all levels of leaders, managers and senior professionals, my mission is to assist individuals empower themselves to take charge of their careers and organizations to maximize their fullest potential and create strategies for growth, development and success. My goal is to partner with executives to achieve specific results and desired outcomes and ultimately build/enhance leadership capability. Executive coaching is a development opportunity for both the individual and the organization to stretch beyond their comfort zone and achieve greater value to impact individual and business performance.

I am an authentic approachable leader, a relationship builder who delivers high quality results for my clients. I am fluent in Armenian, love to cook, travel, read, do yoga and listen to all kinds of music. My greatest pleasure is spending time with my family!

My new workbook on personal branding, can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/Personal-Branding-Marketing-Yourself-Balian/dp/0991505123. This complements my first book “Personal Branding and Marketing Yourself,” which can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0991505107. You can learn more at www.ritaballenassociates.com.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

There are so many skills that I believe are critical in creating, building and realizing our stories, our journeys. I also believe we evolve and continue to build new skills and knowledge.

One of those key foundational skills includes establishing, building, and nurturing mutually rewarding relationships and having a strong network. We want to be deliberate, intentional and strategic about building allies and being of service to others. Having a network is essential as relationships truly can make or break careers. Being authentic and genuine is critical. Putting yourself out there to help others is what relationships are all about – being a resource to one another. Remembering that it is more about how you show up for others and how people receive you as an ally, colleague and resource.

Another key skill is emotional intelligence; having a strong sense of our true self, being able to manage our self, having empathy/social awareness, as well as (once again), building relationships and influencing effectively. EQ actually includes many qualities, skills and competencies that we want and need to continue to develop, and can do so with intentionality.

While these skills are very important, I have also learned throughout my career that there are three commonalities of successful professionals:

1) They know what they have to offer – their value-add and differentiator(s)
2) They know what they want – goal-oriented, short and long term
3) They know how to ask for it – advocate effectively for self and others

In order to develop all of the above, it truly starts with conducting our own personal due diligence to define, create, build and articulate our personal brand. I talk about this concept in my books on the topic of ‘Personal Branding and Marketing Yourself’ with a framework I offer to develop this which I refer to as the “Three Ps Marketing Technique”:

Preparation – identify and define your personal brand
Packaging – create and build your personal brand
Presentation – articulate and enhance your personal brand

This is a cumulative process that is also fluid and one that we want to engage in throughout our careers, no matter what industry or stage of career. Taking the time to walk through this process empowers us to be in the driver’s seat rather than sitting in the back seat going along for the ride. We want to know our story, build it and tell it in our own voice and on our own terms. Allow it to evolve and grow in ways that fulfill us professionally and personally.

To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?

As I mentioned earlier, my parents have impacted me greatly in becoming who I am today. It is due to their unconditional love, support and confidence in me that enabled me to push, seek and grow throughout my life. As a kid, I had a long term goal of starting my own business one day and 20 years ago, I was able to realize that goal. It has been more amazing than I could have imagined! I started out with a vision and wanted to make a difference, have impact in a positive way. All of the steps of my career were strategically crafted so that I could realize that end goal. It is because of the support of so many people – family, friends, clients, colleagues, trusted advisors and other key alliances, that I have been able to build a successful business and celebrate my 20th anniversary in business this year!

My parents instilled in me a very strong work ethic that is foundational to my story. Working hard and pushing yourself to your fullest potential was engrained in me from the time I was a child and was given household chores and responsibilities at home. Both my parents set an example of hard work and doing their absolute best in everything they were involved in whether it was their family, their jobs, their friends, their church or their community. They both emphasized and illustrated how a strong work ethic cannot only allow you to achieve great things but will set you apart from others. That is what I have carried through my whole life and over to my children as well who also have a strong work ethic.

My immigrant beginnings and my parents values truly made a huge impact on my life teaching me and allowing me to practice gratitude and optimism on a daily basis sprinkled with hard work, determination and resilience. My hope is that is the legacy I have passed on to my children as well.

So many words of inspiration lead me every day including ‘stay positive and be happy’ and ‘get comfortable being uncomfortable’. Enjoy the journey!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ritaballenassociates.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ritabalianallen/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rita-B-Allen-Associates/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ritaballen/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/RitaBAllen
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI0HtMn2RcM