Is your Personal Brand helping or hindering you?

Have you ever sat back and wondered why Frank got that promotion and you didn’t, or why Daisy seems to always do a little better at work, even though your skills and performance are as close to the same as possible? (Insert the names that suit you!)

Well some of it, not all of it will be down to their personal brand verses yours. There are loads of books out there which are mainly full of crap on this topic, so I’ve tried to demystify it. 

It’s a truth in today’s world (maybe it’s always been like this) that personal brand actually counts more than performance. You remember the that old analogy that you have a few seconds to make a first impression, yes that’s true to a degree, but if you really get that wrong you can always work around it, Personal Brand is the extreme version of that. It’s how you are externally perceived with everything from who you surround yourself by, your style, social presence, network…. Basically, the whole nine yards.

You must have all seen this Meme below, pretty true. Although I can tell you that years of dressing up as Spiderman, this dream has still not become true for me!

Think of yourself as your own personal marketing team, you have a great product, great packaging (hopefully, if not you can work on that, go for a run, hire a stylist) and great experience. So how do you get this to Market?

The reason that Frank and Daisy are doing better than you is because while your performance is equal (and in some cases, theirs is a little worse, honestly) it’s because they have a better internal marketing team than you. Their internal PR machine is firing on all cylinders.

Time to level the playing field. Let’s fix this. 

So the biggest question I get asked is how do you start to develop a personal brand? The good news / bad news here for you is that you already have one like it or not. So the question is more about how do you understand what your personal brand is saying about you and equally how to get a grip of it.

Let’s start with the company you keep.

Everyone has personal traits that makes you gravitate towards like minded people. Both in your work life and personal life. Just a fact of life. So if you are the ‘fun time Frankie’ of your social circle chances are that in work you will carve out that reputation by hanging with this crew, having a great time, laughing a lot and potentially partying a lot. I know what your thinking…. This sounds great, let’s go and grab a beer!

Is that how you want senior leadership to see you? Is that how you want to be perceived?

I am from the work hard play harder generation (I’m sure a few of you have experienced this), I’m happy to say that I successfully have managed both, although hangovers in meetings are seriously shit. However there came a time when I needed to focus more on what I wanted tomorrow than what I fancied tonight.

It might not be ‘fun time Frankie’ it might be that you always hang with the ‘Career complainers’, you know these soul sucking assholes. They have worked in the business before we started to evolve from chimps and are always ‘leaving’ they hate their work and always moan about it, yet never do anything about it, trust me they will still be working there long after you leave!

So who you hang with means people start to bolt that to who you are, it becomes an extension of your personal brand. This is something very much in your control. Take some time to really think about who you are connected to, who you hang with and what that is saying about you.

Social Presence and Network (on and off line) I cannot stress enough that getting your face in front of the right people is really important. Make a reason to see senior leadership, get yourself in front of them! When I was a GM I used to always visit head office on a monthly basis just to network and build by work profile, ask questions to get involved and build that fan base.

Don’t shy away from doing this, the very best of us also take other managers at times to, helping them raise their profile (the most rewarding part of any job is helping others grow).

Now on line social presence is just as real and important. I overheard two people talking at the airport about how they have been interviewing for positions and part of that process was to review the candidates Facebook page. Now I didn’t want to point out that Facebook is a pretty shit way of doing this and they should use Instagram, but they obviously haven’t read my other articles.

There is a strong chance people from work follow you. You know how it is they start as colleagues and over time become work friends and start to ebb into your social circle, it’s a crazy small world.

So do you think that posting that picture of you with your pants on your head drinking tequila in the middle of Slough high street is helping build your personal brand then crack on. I suppose it depends if you want a job working for a tequila brand or not!

The last thing you want is something posted socially coming back and biting you in the ass, or even worse you might never find out the opportunities you’ve lost because of it. That would be real sad.

Go and have a quick flick through now, and review who can see what.

Style is a huge topic, and massively subjective. It is however an important part of your personal brand. I mentioned it earlier the old saying of dress for the job you want. Now while to some you might see this as fickle, it actually forms a huge part of the perception of your personal brand. Remember the senior leadership of your company might not know you and the amazing person you are. They do know that you are the person who is always dressed impeccability or has great style… the list goes on. Rather than being known as the person who doesn’t know how to operate an iron!

The more senior you grow through a business the more important this is, think of your style as a suit of armour. It’s there to give you confidence, to protect you and most of all to be an external representation of you and your aspirations.

Look up at the roles you are striving for and what is the style of the people at that level? Take that as a guide, and add your twists to it. Don’t get yourself ruled out of a job because you don’t have the image that they ‘believe’ is required (even if you think it’s all bollocks), even if you have the skills (remember Frank and Daisy).

What do you really want next. Jezzzzzz that’s a pretty big question. I’m sure some of you have an idea of where you see yourself. Paint that picture in your mind, what that job looks like, how it feels to have it, what you need to learn to get it. Don’t forget that ‘next’ may also come with an image change.

If the next step means you have to develop a new skill, you would focus on that as part of your growth it seems logical. Don't forget to focus time on aspects that might not seem so binary. Personal branding.

Oh, if you wanted one last bit from me.... Don't make your personal brand about belittling people. So many times you see people progress through the business by stepping on people (I can actually think of a good handful now). If someone talks badly about someone to you, chances are they are talking about you to someone else. Don't build a personal image and brand on hate, build one of mutual respect and love. It will last a lot longer than being an asshole.

Do you put that much effort into your personal brand?

Frank and Daisy do.

Time for you to.

Drop me a line if you want to talk about this content, I do love hearing from you.

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P.