I OVERHEARD two people talking and one of them quipped, “But bulldozer will not like that.” “Huh? Who is bulldozer?” the other person intriguingly asked. And when the first one said the name, they exchanged a knowing grin and laughed. I am not fond of these talks but they are surprisingly incisive of what goes on in the office. Unluckily for the one called bulldozer, that is exactly how people feel about him. It turns out, he earned that nickname because he pushes through with his own agenda even in the face of better and carefully deliberated alternatives. In leadership positions, or even in dealing with people outside your team, your personal brand is how people perceive you.
Personal brand is who you are, the values you believe in, and how you demonstrate those values in the way you do work and relate to others. In gist, if people were to ask you to describe yourself in one word or to describe how you do your work, that would be your personal branding. Just like organizations have a vision, mission and core values, your personal brand is what people think of you in the organization. This is especially important if your work involves dealing with different departments or dealing with external stakeholders.
To know your personal brand, ask yourself who you really are without your designation or the team you are handling. To help you understand yourself better, list down the values you strongly believe in and then choose the ones that are non-negotiable about yourself. Next, create a list of compliments your colleagues or other people in your organization say about you. Those would be your strengths and observed asset to your team. It might also help if you can discover what sets you apart from others in your team and the value you add to the group. It does not just make you stand out, it also helps create your relevance and importance to the team. You can also look at the projects which energizes you and gives you a sense of accomplishment as these point toward areas in your organization where you can contribute the most.
Conversely, negative feedback would indicate a need to work on those areas and might also signify it is an expected or desired behavior for working with others in your organization. You can work on those so you can work smoothly with the rest of the team and set expectations to minimize friction in the workplace. Sometimes, negative feedback is a good sign of your decision to pursue a personal brand which may not be popular to most people. I know of leaders who maintain a strict air about them in the workplace but are pushovers in their homes. This may not be an ideal personal brand, but it is a carefully calculated decision for the objectives they have in mind. Your personal brand does not have to appeal to everyone. But it should emanate from the values and principles you hold as absolute.
If you are satisfied with what you have listed down, well and good. You are on your way to fine-tuning your personal brand. But if you do not like the ones on your list, you need to ask yourself: How do you want to be known? Focus on an end goal in mind and how you want to be perceived. Make sure that what you have in mind does not stray too far from who you really are. Focus on your strengths as your baseline and work yourself from there.
In everything you do, be authentic. Your personal brand should not be trying too hard because people would know if you are being genuine. True, people change. But they seldom change overnight. People see right through dishonesty and it might even be taken against you later. Your authenticity will be tested by your consistency. If you focus on who you really are, it will not be too hard to maintain a personal brand. Being consistent will be easy when you are genuine because you do not need to work for it.
Next would be to think of your audience. Why? Because you cannot please everybody. You need to know the people you work with and how they will affect your work and your personal brand because if others do not contribute to your development, they should not be a hindrance to the work that you do. This goes without saying that foremost on your list is the person who evaluates you, next is the people who have a say in your evaluation, and then the people you work with closely. Does this mean you act differently to people who do not belong to those categories? Absolutely not. You need to remain consistent to your personal brand. That is why it is important to join an organization whose core values reflect your own because it will be easier to remain consistent to yourself and to others in your team.
To guide you further, look to the experts in your field because they would know what is needed to go further in your discipline. You can start by looking at the respected leaders in your organization and observe why people view them with such regard. If you can talk to them, ask them personally. If not, read about them or ask around what makes them influential leaders. This will give you an idea what it takes and what you need to work on to be esteemed by your peers and your leaders. And as you grow in the organization, you also need to grow your professional circle. You know your personal brand is established when people recommend you. And that is the best compliment you can receive—when people tell others about you and when your reputation precedes you.
You may have the best education and the best designation in your company, but when you do not have the respect of the people you work with, you can only do so much because people would not be willing to exert the discretionary effort to help you succeed. But leaders whose personal brand resonates with the people they work with can do more than the sum of their team’s productivity.