Personal Branding through Focusing on Fundamentals – The 5C Framework

Introduction

The essence of branding is announcing one’s unique identity. It must be on the dimensions that are relevant to the other stakeholders and should surround the desired ‘value proposition’ for the target audience. One simple rule to remember and follow is, we can’t be everything to everyone. There shall be confusion and wasted efforts. As we advise in case of any macro branding, research your audience, choose your identified segment, target them with the communication around ‘what you are’. For doing this, we need to know the context, competition, ‘A class’ items in the potential customers’ minds. As the golden rule says, do what you want the others do to you. Meaning, do operate on authenticity, practice fairness, don’t cheat in terms of your offerings, don’t mis-sell, don’t take a short-term transactional view. With these embedded both in your offerings and promises, makes you the sustainable partner in the journey for any potential customer. Here, our branding is at micro-level of ‘individual’, and the recipients are potential employers, partners for any business venture, and finally professional bodies and platforms that connect and help you co-create value in association with other professionals and forums. Hence, should be sincere efforts and the need for clarity around ‘Personal Branding’ fundamentals.

What is Personal Branding?

Though the term ‘personal’ may mean private and individual level projection, often it is used for professional purposes. Here we do not announce how good or kind a person we are or how good we are in terms of partnership at a personal level. When we talk about personal branding, we talk about our education, professional exposure and experience, contributions in different settings including school and college. We talk of the individual accomplishments that can be showcased for professional shortlisting and engagement purposes. We also talk of the team accomplishments of teams in which we played a significant role. We may highlight the ‘prepared state’ in which we are in accepting next level assignments. The essence of personal brand communication should tell the other side about which are the top two or three qualities that speak for the ‘candidate’, and how this ‘professional’ shall be an ideal fit for the suitable position they have for which the recruitment is now on.

Essential and non-negotiable

Integrity is the first in any list of such dimensions. Personal branding is for employment or business joint venture or economic purposes. Basic care and a big NO are ‘untruth’ and/or overpromising. Untruth is never expected and tolerated. If we are on the shortlisting side, the first quality we look for is ‘Ethicality’. Any lie is always a big no. It is not a small or trivial matter on which or around which the ‘untruth’ is there. It shows the value system of the person. It is akin to multiplying any number with zero. The outcome is zero. The related quality for rejection is overpromises. There is a huge difference between optimistic outlook and overpromising. Overpromising conveys two things. First, the person might not have understood the full context and hence overpromising due to underestimating the effort involved. Secondly, the person may NOT have the medium to long term view of the engagement with the organization and hence making unrealizable promises to ‘get the job’.

Secondly, authenticity in terms of consistency and continuity are valued. A series of rejections happen for senior positions on the condition of ‘how many job switches’ candidate did in the last seven years. It can’t be more than one or two. This indicates inconsistency, lack of stability, or even inability to ‘fit into’ the organizations. One can’t be a ‘rolling stone’, as we know it gathers no moss. In the case of professionals, they hardly can contribute anything if the engagement period is less than three or more years. For senior positions, the duration must be more to have the results of the efforts and plans implemented. Taking one year to settle down and plan, a second year to implement (without results), and a third year to look for a job is the model that is witnessed in the senior job market. It can’t be accepted. Choosing a CXO to take care of transformational efforts is a serious job, and ‘jumping junta’ can’t suit.

5C framework of Personal Branding

To build one’s personal brand with earnestness, one needs to focus and commit along the important five Cs. The same is explained here for the benefit of the interested professionals and organizations.

1.     Context – Organizations are embedded in a context. Within organizations too, there is a context that prevails and aids in value addition. Moving from macro business context which is essential and relevant for all the boundary spanning roles to internal context of smooth and facilitated value creation for fulfilling the promises to the external stakeholders, the professionals should display both knowledge and ease of navigating. The knowledge of the context must translate into ease of working and adjusting. The rigidity has no place when it comes to teamwork and co-creation of value, except in case of compromising on the basic value system. Then it becomes a desirable quality. It is in fact seen as a ‘strength’ in such cases. In a dynamic external environment, the context is continually evolving, so be sure about the recent changes that affect your sector and the company. Ignorance is no bliss and can’t be taken as an excuse for inaction or wrong step. In internal working too, any not knowing the process shall result in delays, confusion, and waste of effort. Time is money, and any delay means loss of opportunity and wrong commitment of valuable resources. Very costly for the teams and organizations.

2.     Content – When professionals offer their respective ‘personal brand’, it should communicate the mastery of relevant content which is applicable and essential for the deliveries. One may have many hobbies and activities, but essence is the industry/ sector / function /domain ‘Content’. Professional qualifications communicate, and often the shortlist happens based on this. What you have studied, where you have studied, what percentage you scored then, all these are important. Sometimes, ‘all through first class’ and/or without ‘anytime fail’ are the ‘filtering criteria’. Companies adhere strictly to their criteria and won’t deviate or take exception. What certifications you have subsequently obtained, skills known, and how regularly you have been updating yourself are looked at. These communicate the potential strength of your ‘Content’ which is in the selection process. Solving a case study, analyzing a situation, group discussion or task, multiple levels of interviews, all these test candidate’s content. The best approach is continually upgrading one’s knowledge and skills in the relevant area. A thumb rule for one’s ‘development’ is - regularly working on oneself say an hour during working days, and couple of hours during weekends. Regularity is important. For professionals, once or twice in a year attending conferences and workshops in physical mode shall help in having a reality check in terms of their own ‘relative position’. The by-product of these meets can be professional networking. So, aspirational professionals and young managers should work on building Content.

3.     Clarity – Clarity essentially means lack of clutter in the thought process and decision making. This is an essential quality in any professional engagement. Knowing and having information but being confused is the last of the qualities that can get us the needed edge. Keep it simple and straight is the oft quoted ‘KISS’ expansion. Considering too many variables for decision making adds to complexity and does not add to the quality of the outcome beyond a threshold. In quantifiable terms, 80-90 percent of the ‘decision’ can be arrived with two to three important variables.  Too many ‘independent’ variables for decision making won’t improve the quality. Most of us who studied Statistics and models are aware of the issue of ‘Multicollinearity’. Thus, straight and simple thinking can solve problems directly and in lesser time. Both outcome quality and the efficiency of process shall be better. So, all young at heart managers need to practice Clarity in all the situations.

4.     Communication – Able to ‘tell’ others of what you are thinking and what would to be done is the essence of communication. The word ‘tell’ doesn’t mean verbal communication alone. As most professionals know, more non-verbal communication happens before any verbal exchange, and it conveys most. There are positions where the emphasis on communication may appear low, but it is only a misinterpretation. What you do as an individual or in a team must be presented well and clearly. Else, the loss can be huge. Additionally, language is an important medium, so one needs to master it well. Both spoken and written language skills are important. It takes time and effort. So, practice Communication early, and on a regular basis.

5.     Confidence – No organization would like to assign an important task to any under-confident, diffident individual. Humility is a noble quality and must be practiced. But when the situation demands, you must stand-up and communicate on the situation, important variables, the actions that are needed, support from the top management, need for collaborating across teams, and identified risks (along with mitigation measures). Confidence gets the attention of the others in the meeting. Being vague helps none. You should have a brief presentation of two non-cluttered slides on the above. The first slide needs to be on the situation and analysis. The second slide shall be on the approach to tackle and resolve. No formality of introduction of the team or thank you slide with a big font is needed. You convey that you mean business and with these two slides. Be ready to lead. Confidence is one important variable used for finalizing leadership decisions. If you have been working on the Context, Content, Clarity, and Communication on a regular basis, Confidence shall be the natural outcome.

On an aspiring closing note

We understand that personal branding is very important and is a long-term process. Huge commitment on the part of the professional is required. Consistency is the key. This shall facilitate offering a serious candidature from professional’s side. Secondly, it helps the right decisions for the organizations to choose their managers, and their top leadership. By working on your personal brand, in the medium to long term you are facilitating fruitful decisions. When you practice the non-negotiable traits of ethicality, long term orientation, and authenticity, and work on the fundamentals in terms of 5C framework discussed here, you are on the verge of becoming a powerful brand. Then the best shall happen. We may welcome it with positive and aspirational disposition.