Guide to Creating Your Personal Brand.
A personal brand is what you are known for.
Your brand influences how others make decisions on how to include you in their working life.
What’s a ‘personal brand’?
A personal brand is what you are known for.
A personal brand is the sum of experiences someone has with you. This forms an overall ‘impression’ of you.
Based on your reputation, and someone's personal experience with you, they then make judgments about you and what it’s like to work with you.
Here’s an example.
Pick one of the following:
Michelle Obama.
Dylan Alcott.
Oprah.
Terence Tao.
What comes to mind when you think of the person you chose?
Have you met this person? Why did you associate that with them?
Chances are, they behave and communicate in a way that shows you what they are capable of. Equally, they associate themselves with other people, companies, and institutes who convey the same vibe.
You already have a personal brand.
The people you work with have already formed an impression of you.
They’ve based this on what it’s been like to work with you, how you communicate at work, and what others say about you when you’re not there.
Consciously or not, they’ve also decided whether they want to invest time, money, or effort into future interactions with you.
Wait, what - people are judging me?
Yes. But not for the reasons you think. They’re not judging you to criticise you.
They’re asking themselves what your intent is. And, whether you know what you’re doing.
Researchers have called this assessing your ‘warmth and competence’.
Considering your personal brand.
If it’s true that people are instinctively sizing up your intentions and capabilities, how could you showcase what you’re capable of?
Could reverse engineering what you want to be known for help you achieve that?
The benefits to thinking about your personal brand at work.
Your brand influences how others make decisions on how to include you in their working life.
For example, if your personal brand is strong, people are more likely to treat you positively at work. They’re more likely to include you, invite you to important meetings, and share info.
And if they know what your goals are, and you have a solid relationship, they’re more likely to help you achieve them, by introducing you to useful people or helping you out.
They’re also more likely to vouch for you, stand up for you, and let you know of potential opportunities. Social scientists have called this activating your ‘weak tie network’ (one network removed from your immediate friends and family).
How do I know if I need to work on my ‘brand’ at work?
If you’re not getting the opportunities you’d like.
If that’s the case, you may likely be experiencing one of these:
A competence problem.
You need to get better at your job or show people what you do well, more often.
A warmth problem.
You need to work on demonstrating your intent or understanding of other’s goals.
A network problem.
You need to have relationships with people who can influence your career prospects.
The below exercise is a first step.
The two minute exercise.
Based on the research of warmth and competence:
What would signal to your colleagues your intent? What could make it explicit? What could make it get lost?
What would signal to your colleagues you are competent? What could give them a reason to question your competence? What would give them confidence you’re the go-to person?
What can you start to do, or quit doing, that could positively influence this?
Re-defining your personal brand.
In our Communicating with Influence workshops, we step through this exercise to create your personal brand. Take out a notepad, pen or voice memo to begin this exercise.
Profile: What would you ideally like to be ‘known’ for at work?
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?
Are you interested in being known in your industry?
Perception: How would you like to be described by others?
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?
What types of people could help you learn or grow?
What would access to one new person enable you to have/think/believe/do?
Do you have a ‘career crush’ (i.e. someone you admire professionally)? What part of their job do you admire and why?
Here are examples.
“I want to be known as a cyber security expert. To do that, I need to show what I know. I can prepare a short update in my weekly meetings.”
“I want to be known as a scientist that makes learning about indigenous history easy. I can work on communicating complex ideas, simply.”
“I want to be known as a reliable team mate that is on my boss’s side. To do that, I need to figure out what her goals are.”
What might your version look like?
If a personal brand gives you the ‘ick’.
Here’s what could be happening for you:
To you, it feels ‘fake’.
You don’t like the idea of the spotlight.
You don’t like the idea of being ‘perceived’.
You don’t like that you can’t control what others think of you.
You don’t like the idea of thinking about how to behave vs just getting on with work.
Here are some ideas to consider.
A great personal brand doesn’t change you. It shows people what you are already capable of.
You’re not being fake by thinking about how you want to come across. You’re just making it easier for others to see what you can do.
You’re not being inauthentic by thinking about how you behave. You’re helping yourself behave in a way that makes achieving your goals more likely.
You’re making it easier for others to see what you’re capable of.
Instead of thinking of it as being watched or perceived, try the idea that when people think of you, they are reminded of X. What ideally, would the X stand for in your context?
You can’t control how others think of you.
But by sending ‘signals’ about the types of work you’d be great at, are well suited for, or could do one day, you’re more likely to be considered for those opportunities.
Bring this workshop to your workplace.
Did you know we teach a workshop that steps through how to create your own brand? Available as a 90 minute session, half day workshop or a full day training.