How can you help your team members build their personal brand?

Understand that each team member will have different interests and skills. Carefully observe their performance towards their KPIs, and help they prioritize. One of my Managers had a great saying, "Kaam karenge ek bar, benefit lenge bar bar" (We will do a work once, but benefit from it multiple times). For me, this has become a way looking at my work in a structured manner. Automation, and having personal SOPs are a great way too!

Constructive feedback is usually the best way. This can either be done through one-to-one meetings between the team leader and the individual or a monthly or bi-monthly outing where the team loosens up and afterwards discusses their development and give feedback to each other in a safe environment. If you are the team leader this is a lot of pressure on you to create this environment for your team. If you are a team member pass the idea to your senior and see where it goes.

It's easy to get caught up in the strengths that you currently need from your employees, but it's important to explore the diversity of what a teammate brings to the table. Oftentimes, we overlook things that are not directly valuable to the team but those "other" things are what bring color and meaning to the work that we do and help them to connect more personally to it in the long run. In professional development times, allow your team to speak about what inspires them and what they value outside of work, it may spark new ideas and strengths you and they never really knew they had.

Identify individual strengths, skills, and goals through open communication and self-assessment. Understand each team member's unique value proposition and aspirations to tailor personal branding strategies accordingly.

Establish and optimize online profiles on professional platforms like LinkedIn. Share expertise, achievements, and industry insights. Maintain consistency in branding elements across social media platforms.

When ones work becomes a way of self-expression and not just pushing buttons, they find the meaning in their actions and they start doing it better. Every person is different, and needs different meaning. As Managers, our job is to make them find that meaning.

It's easy to want to lean into what the algorithm wants as you're working to create a digital presence but sharing interests, skills, insights, and ideas with consistency for the specific audience that you want to hear it will make it possible to appropriately create a digital presence that you enjoy and your audience will find useful. Yes, of course, knowing the best format will help you but the content should be fueled by your mission, vision, and values meeting at the intersection of the pain and aspiration points of the people whose problems your solve.

Encourage them to leverage their experience with the company brand to their own benefit. The idea of asking your team to post might seem like a benefit mainly for the company but there are endless examples of people who've leveraged their experience with a company to build their personal authority in a space. And the equity you build around that will carry with you even if you move on some day. Emphasizing their personal, long-term benefits can be a great motivator.

As an employer, it's vital to ensure employees continuously improve in their current role and adapt to evolve. Two keyways to keep the momentum alive can be on-the-job and off-the-job learning. Now, within the organizational structure promoting on-the-job learning involves - offering engaging and challenging tasks, implementing tailored training programs, incentivizing and acknowledging employee accomplishments, and conducting regular performance reviews. And off-the-job learning can be encouraged by demonstrating a sincere interest in the team's career paths, showing that it's not just about work, and empowering them through trust-building measures such as sending them to networking events and consistently incorporating their feedback.

Even inside the workplace, learning should he holistic, and not just functional. Most organizations now have internal learning portals where you can get certified for free rather than buying the same course outside at a price. Certificates issued internally by reputed organizations are just as valid and acceptable in the job market as those issued by educational institutions!

As employers, it's important to encourage personal development as much as and probably more than professional development. The more employees embrace and explore the things that interest them, the more willing they will likely be to share and grow within their own personal brand. We have to remember that a personal brand is the combination of inspirations, skills, interests, personality, and desired results that a person brings to the table. If we only focus on the technical aspect, we tend to get drowned in the noise of the other experts out there as well. It's a holistic and never-ending process. Remember there's no perfection only current reality to share with the community.

Promote continuous learning through training, workshops, and certifications. Encourage team members to acquire new skills, stay updated on industry trends, and showcase their expertise in their personal brand narrative.

This is key. You want your most visible employees to be recognized as leaders in their field. The best way to do this is by creating a culture that rewards employees for contributing to a body of content that establishes them and the firm as experts. Many highly consultative businesses like law firms, large architecture practices, and consulting companies already have this baked into their world. Team members produce thought leadership content to raise their own profile in the firm and industry, which also benefits the businesses. Smaller companies and organizations without a competitive internal structure need to work a little harder to reward and encourage content creators, but it can be done using support, training, and recognition.

The key is understanding their motivations and then strategically supporting them in developing their network, thought leadership and differentiated value. My approach emphasizes authenticity, generosity and leading by example.

Foster a collaborative environment where team members can showcase their strengths. Recognize and celebrate individual achievements within the team to enhance their personal brand and boost morale.

While validation is key, I also push them out of their comfort zone by encouraging calculated risks aligned with their brand vision. This could mean public speaking, unexpected partnerships or reinventing their narrative. I work closely with them to plan contingencies and celebrate small wins. Above all, I cultivate psychological safety where team members feel empowered to experiment, make mistakes and unleash their creativity without fear of judgment. With encouragement and patience, we can help each other become better versions of ourselves. Give your squad a collective 'why' and you'll have a team that loves what they do and surprises you.

Provide mentorship, constructive feedback, and resources to help team members overcome challenges. Support their professional growth by aligning their personal development with organizational goals.

Communication is key, this goes for anything. What is the relationship like between you and your team? Take ownership of your team.

Focus on the value you create for the organization not your own brand. Be an enthusiastic contributor and work hard. Work hard. Work hard. And while you are at it, be open to feedback and new ways of working. If you have a perceptual deficit to overcome, be self-aware of this and actively seek to resources like coaching so you can invest in getting over these hurdles. Be open to the feedback, even if your natural tendency is to be defensive. Right or wrong, if you don't correct these perceptions it will hold you back. Now, if you don't have deficits to fix, keep working hard and in time your reputation will grow organically.

Pushing your employees and positioning them as thought leaders in their fields - doesn't just push their credibility, but also makes them more confident, gives them the drive and purpose that connects them to your organisation. A symbiotic relationship where each one benefits, is anyway the ideal scenario. Also a trend for 2024: employee influencers! Pushing their personal brand and content does provide a unique insight into your organisation - consumers find it easier to trust employees over official brand channels as well.