BUILDING BRAND 'ME'

Inspired by Gill Corkindale(an executive coach and writer based in London. She works with managers and leaders from Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East to develop strategies for business effectiveness and personal change.)

What do you think? Is personal branding vital for success at work? Are there any drawbacks to marketing ourself in this way? If so, what should you do about it? Assuming that Personal branding is now a prerequisite for career success, what does our brand need to offer?

• Rethink the way we view our career. Don’t think of ourselves as an employee but as an asset . Ask ourselves: What do I do that brings value? What I am most proud of?
• Being authentic. Be honest about who you are -- your attributes and qualities. If you know yourself, you can promote an honest brand.
• Learning from the big brands. Identify what makes us distinctive from the competition. What have we done recently to make our self stand out? What would our colleagues or our customers say is our greatest strength?
• Make ourselves visible. Build our profile internally and externally. Ways to do this include networking, signing up for high-profile projects, showcasing our skills in presentations or workshops, writing for internal or external publications, volunteering for committees or panel discussions at a conference.
• Being consistent. Ensure that our message is consistent. If it is erratic, it will undermine our efforts. Everything we do -- and choose not to do -- contribute to our personal brand, from the way we talk on the phone to the way we behave at meetings or write emails.
• Balance substance with style. Don’t forget that the way we do things is often as important as what we do.
• Build and manage our marketing network. Our friends, colleagues, clients, and customers are an important marketing vehicle for our brand. What is said about us will determine the value of our brand.
• Learn to influence. Use our personal power, our role and our network. But use them sensitively and intelligently, or else we will not be regarded as a credible or trustworthy leader.
• Seek feedback. It’s critical to keep checking the value of our brand. This can be done by formal methods such as 360 feedback or informally, by asking people around us for honest and constructive feedback on our performance. Another good way to check is to go for job interviews, regardless of whether we wish to change jobs, which will help you test our market value.
• Reassess. Keep checking what motivates us. What's our personal definition of success? Write a personal statement about why we work and check it regularly.