Creating The Brand That Is Uniquely You
Have you ever been in a workplace where your business day overlaps with a social element such as a lunch or cocktail party, and you find the person you spend the entire day with is a completely different person away from the office?
In my business, I see this frequently. I am often tempted to ask people why they are relaxed and so much fun outside of work and somewhat more hardnosed and severe at the office. Their answer is usually, “Oh no, when I am at work, I am a different person. That’s what is expected of me.”
Most of us learned early in life to adopt both a public face and a private face, one mask that we wear professionally and another that is closer to our real personality, the one we show to our friends and family. And yet, as companies evolve their own branding strategies based on authenticity and transparency, many employees are not keeping pace with their own brand. It’s time to take a good hard look at your own personal brand to see if the ‘who’ you think you are matches the ‘who’ your company believes you to be.
Personal Branding
Personal branding is fast becoming a critical element for organizations that understand that the success of their own brands is determined by the feeling of ownership and belief from their employees. They are realizing that the best way to keep employees engaged is to allow them to develop their own brands and then ‘present’ the company to others in their own unique style. For employees, personal branding is the way to expand your success and still be in touch and focused on who you are without a hint of phoniness. A craft or specialty is certainly a marketable skill. But to be distinctive is to be memorable!
A brand, whether corporate or personal, is not about marketing spin or smoke and mirrors. It is a mark of trust. It’s shorthand. It’s a sorting device. When you hear the name “Volvo,” the first thing that comes to mind is safety. That doesn’t happen by chance. The company has over 40 patents related to automotive safety. Auto safety is the Volvo brand. And they work hard at making sure you remember it.
When you hear the name “Tiger”, we associate him with golfing. Yet his true popularity stems from the emotional connection people have for this outstanding athlete. We trust him and we admire him. It is this connection that inspired Nike to agree to pay Tiger Woods $40 million to wear the company’s apparel and use its equipment.
So what companies are increasingly looking for from their employees is a brand proposition that creates value and presents a win-win situation for everyone – the companies want unique contributions and they want employees to show their unique value and to gain recognition for it. It’s time to step out of your comfort and become your best PR person.
Personal branding also presents a clear opportunity for all of us to be a little bit more like ourselves, to develop and communicate our best qualities that differentiate us from others in terms of the value we have to offer. If you are able to clearly identify and communicate those differences and use those qualities to guide your career, then your strengths, skills, passions and values will separate you from your competitors.
There are several steps involved in creating a personal branding program for yourself.
- First, a personal brand audit. Ask yourself: “Who am I and how did I get here?” If you are able to dispassionately review your life and harvest both positive and negative experiences for useful insights, you can move forward without the baggage that hinders professional advancement.
- Next, address the question of your image. List the qualities you think make you unique, and assess how others perceive those qualities. People provide clues to how they perceive others. Taking these messages and incorporating them with feedback from job reviews and trusted individuals helps to reduce the disconnect between self-image and others’ perceptions. Are you seen as reliable, trustworthy, full of integrity, or pushy, inflexible, slippery? This is your reality check, a chance to see yourself as others do, rather than persist in a false reality.
- The third step is to determine your identity by focusing on your core values and principles. If you are able to define your personal and intellectual equities, you can identify transferable core strengths that can effect professional as well as personal changes.
- Fourth, set realistic goals. It can be as simple as: “What can I do best with what I have learned so far? What can I change to make it better?” Sometimes the goal may be unrealistic or unattainable. Not everyone is suited for the C-suite. In that case, adjust your sights.
- The final step, implementation, is where the rubber hits the road. It means committing yourself to a specific plan of action. Set exacting timelines for commitments and results and stick to them.
One way to simplify and speed up this process is to package who you are with what you do. Here is my personal checklist:
- What do you do in meetings? Are you contributing or just present?
- Understand how to translate your talents into a viable economic proposition.
- Have a customer focus. Treat everyone like your best customer.
- Focus on one business strength but offer a variety of associated services.
- Upgrade your skills. Offer more value than your competition.
- Stay current with the latest advances in your field.
- Sell yourself. Become comfortable with tooting your own horn.
- Embrace the opportunity for a lateral move. Increasing your business skills is integral to building your brand.
- Don’t ask permission. (Asking permission is like being told “no”.)
- You have to take a stand.
- Embrace politics. All of life is political, especially in the workplace. Even though you’d rather not, if your politics is backed by integrity and motivated by teamplaying, you will be recognized for it.
- Become a change agent…not about issues but about moving people forward.
- Network like it is your only source of networth – lunches, associations, alumni, sports.
- Take lousy projects and make them shine. Over deliver.
- Find a big problem and solve it.
- Focus on the experience of the results – make it positive.
- Demonstrate a commitment to values like credibility, dependability, trustworthiness.
- Combine confidence with humility.
- Adopt a win-win attitude in whatever you do and say.
- Seek mentors who are smarter and wiser than you.
- What do great leaders do? Emulate those qualities.
Win the trust of customers by following through on promises. Win the trust of colleagues by being a committed teamplayer. Win the trust of your boss by exceeding expectations. Not only will you reap the rewards but you will attract others to follow you.
Finally, recognize that personal branding is a process, not a goal. Brands lose their value if they are unpoliced and unrefreshed. Focus on continuous improvement and plan your life to implement your plan.
Oh, and don’t park your personality at home between nine and five. Allow other people to enjoy the experience of your personality. You are your own compelling selling proposition. You get to where you are going by being authentic. Why not enjoy the spotlight when it’s as simple as being who you are?
Wishing you continued success.
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