Corporations spend massive sums positioning their brand in the mind of their customers and the public. How much do you spend making sure you make the right impression with your market?
Many people advocating the development of personal brand will suggest you need to develop a catchy personal statement or tag line. Nothing wrong with that, except some can find it very difficult without marketing or literary skills.
In a nutshell, your personal brand is the impression you leave with people. We are all making impressions all of the time we are in contact with others, but how deliberate are you about creating the impression you want, and are you consistent?
A simple way to make rapid progress on improving your brand is to think of three words you’d like to be in the minds of those around you when they think of you. Then, look for simple actions which you can take to ‘turn up the volume’ on those words when you’re interacting with people.
It really helps if your three words:
- Help you stand out from the crowd.
- Are close to what you can deliver, but still stretch you.
- Sound exciting and motivating to you.
- If lived up to, will help you get even better results at work.
- Do not work against any of your core values.
For example:
- Tenacious, Hard-hitting, Crisis Manager.
- Formidable, Results-focused, Friendly.
- Relentless, Engaging, Expert.
- Challenging, Approachable, Fun.
Beware of what I sometimes refer to as boring words. Words like Integrity, Professional, and Trustworthy are picked by many people at their first attempt. Intrinsically, there is nothing particularly boring or unsuitable about these words, except that they don’t usually help you stand out from the crowd. I’ve yet to meet anyone who wants the opposite of any of these words (thankfully!), but they are usually insufficient to really make your mark in the competitive world.
You should also be careful what you wish for. The impact of these words on your behaviour can be profound and turn down the volume on other aspects of you. Example number one is not perhaps going to be the most popular person around!
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