Designing Your Personal Brand.
Why think of your own ‘brand’?
A brand isn’t just for executives or companies.
You have a brand, too.
A personal brand is what words others use to describe what it’s like working with you.
When someone talks about you … what would you ideally like them to say?
A personal brand is what you are known for.
A personal brand at work = the overall impression someone has of working with you.
Over time, those impressions influence opportunities that are made available to you.
You already have a personal brand.
People you work with have already formed an impression of what it’s like to work with you.
Research has shown people judge us on two criteria: competence (whether you’re good at your job) and warmth (whether your intent is clear to them).
Based on these two criteria (warmth and competence), they then tell their colleagues whether they’d recommend you for opportunities or not.
What could knowing your personal brand do for you?
If you are interested in future opportunities (e.g. job/promotion/partnerships), clarifying your brand and making updates to it, as you evolve and change, is one way to influence that.
Why?
Whether you are considered for future opportunities is determined by how others see you.
The more they know about what you’re capable of, and your intentions, the more they can help tell others about what you can do.
Are you curious about what your brand might be?
Here’s how to figure out what yours is:
Are you being considered for the types of opportunities you’d like to be?
You can be the most talented person on the planet, but if people don’t know what you’re capable of, it makes it tricky to be considered for exciting opportunities.
Figuring out your personal brand in one sentence.
Your brand answers this question: ‘When people think of me, they are reminded of X’.
What ideally, would the X stand for in your context?
Here are some ideas:
Professional.
Legitimate.
A safe bet.
Creative.
One of a kind.
Strategic.
What do you want yours to look like?
A great personal brand doesn’t change you.
It just shows people what you are already capable of.
By figuring out what you want to be known for (profile), how you want to be seen (perception), and who needs to know what information (power networks), you have your 3P’s sorted.
By deciding what you want to be known for, you’re making it easier for others to see what you’re capable of.
You’re not being fake by thinking about how you want to come across.
You’re making it easier for others to see what you can do.
The quick guide to defining your personal brand.
Think about these three questions as a starting point.
Profile: What would you ideally like to be ‘known’ for at work?
For example,
Are you a generalist or specialist?
Do you enjoy leadership or do you prefer the tools?
Do you love problems or do you prefer to do the same thing every day?
Perception: How would you like to be described by others?
For example,
What are three words others might currently associate with you? Why?
What are three words you’d like them to associate with you in the future?
Power networks: Who do you need to have a relationship with to grow your career?
For example,
What types of people could help you learn or grow?
How strong are those relationships?
What would access to one new person help you?
Here are examples of what yours could look like.
“I want to be known as reliable. To do that, I need to figure out what my boss’ goals are. Next time I meet, I’ll ask her. From that I can figure out how to match what I do with what she needs, and show her how I’m helping her achieve her goals.”
“I want to be known as the cyber security expert in the business. To do that, I need to show what I know. I can prepare a short update in my weekly meetings and circulate a summary email each week to my colleagues so they can see how what I do links to their expertise.”
Can you see how the 3P’s are specific and help you take action so that others see what you’re capable of?
What might your version look like?
Why does knowing what your brand ’is' help you?
Your brand influences how others make decisions on how to include you in their working life.
When they know what you stand for, what you believe in, and what you’re talented at, they can hook you up with opportunities they come across that sound like you.
Remember, friends of friends are more likely to connect you to future opportunities than people in your immediate network, because they have:
a) access to jobs you don’t know about as you’re not always in the room with them;
b) access to networks of people you’ve never met.
The benefit of mapping out your 3P’s.
When others know your 3P’s (profile, perception and power networks), they can alert you to opportunities that match those things.
They can’t advocate for you if they don’t know what you stand for and want more of, right?
If you don’t create your 3P’s yourself, what blanks might the world fill in for you?
Bring our personal brand workshop to your workplace.
This workshop is delivered as part of our half or full day Communicating with Influence training.
In the workshop, leaders and individual contributors alike learn what makes their personal brand, custom design their own personal brand statement, and create a strategy to grow their influence.
Communicate with Influence Programme.
Create confident & influential communicators.