“Effective branding is far more internal than external,” Tom Peters in his Essential series, Design, Innovate, Differentiate, Communicate (DK Publishing, Inc. 2005)
A few years ago, I met with a leader who had been targeted for a special development program preparing individuals for the vice president ranks. As we talked, he stated he felt he was being targeted for development to a VP position in information technology (IT). His background was from other areas and he was not sure that he could see a long-term assignment in IT. This was very unsettling for him. Would he be selling out?
I launched into my questions, and within the hour, we had a foundational statement for his personal brand. When I finished reading it to him, he responded that he would accept any assignment where he was needed as long as he knew he could be true to his new statement of personal brand. He is now a VP in IT.
Organizations realize to build success, sustain it, and thrive for the long-term they need to know their brand as soon as possible. There is a lot of money spent and effort exerted to find this identity and market it. The same urgency should be applied to a personal brand.
Most people I meet have no conscious idea of their brand. They seem to work year after year without a personal connection with why they do what they do. This motivated me to create my own personal brand statement.
My personal brand represented who I was and who I was aspiring to be. I claimed it as all true in the present moment. Having a stated personal brand was an inspiring experience. No matter what job I was asked to perform, I knew who I would be in performing it, and that guided me in how I would perform it. I had a blueprint for what I knew I had to accomplish.
In the years that followed this experience, I discovered personal branding was a process. Identity is the first, and most important, part of the personal branding process. Purpose is critical to the effectiveness of a brand. Whether you are self-employed or an employee, knowing your brand is critical to your sustainable success.
- How do people perceive you in the present moment?
- What do you want them to believe that they do not currently believe?
- Why do you do what you do?
Personal branding is about taking personal accountability for knowing who you are, accepting all aspects, identifying the gaps, and owning the plan to fill those gaps.
Personal Brand is both a noun and a verb. It is about a claim in terms of calling and a statement in terms of action.
Our society is in transformation. From this point forward, it may always be in transformation. The power that once belonged to the organization is shifting to the individual. We must each take personal accountability to be who we are fully.
