THE BRAND CALLED YOU
Personal brand is the sum total of all the characteristics that make you, you. It is your reputation and a little more. It is a mix of your many facets - mannerisms, posture,language, technical compe-tence, dressing, perfume, eti-quette, stride, ability, ability to demonstrate your abilities, social skills, relationship man-agement, attitude, principles... It is all that goes into the mak-ing of the person you are to the world or, the image that you project to the world – con-sciously and sub-consciously. It is what they have to say about you after you have left the room. What becomes of you in the eyes of everyone in that room depends on the im-pression you left behind – your brand image.
A personal brand is a prom-ise you hold out for your stake-holders; you are giving them something they can trust and value you for. The personal brand like any other mega brand in the market can be construed as having three parts– Purpose (of one’s existence), Strength (qualities that can be deployed to make the pur-pose come alive) and, Charac-ter (your integrity and moral code) or PSC.
Purpose is your vision for yourself and the impact you are creating in the outer world. It includes your goals, your in-terests and also what will give you joy.
Strength is the sum of all your natural abilities, your technical skillset, your people skills...
Character is your most deeply help values.
Like any brand, the higher your PSC rating the better your brand image. Your PSC is your secret code. The more astute and loftier your PSC values, the higher your chances of breaking into the league of per-sonal brand giants.
Getting into the skin of your dream personality
To get closer to owning your dream personality, you need to close the gap between your personal brand identity and personal brand image. In-troverts and those without clar-ity of life goals have a problem managing this gap. Extroverts manage to reduce the gap more easily. With an introvert, his real self or talent never comes out unless pushed, and this can misrepresent his brand image to others. Introvertedness is of-ten misconstrued as incompe-tence or as having shoddy per-sonal and professional goals. To own your dream personal-ity, you need to work on your-self. First and foremost, you need to catalogue some basics:
- a list of all that is important to you or vital to your existence
- a list of your strengths that can help you achieve the former
- a list of other stakeholders in your life
- a list of character traits and qualities your stakeholders value most in the world and in you
- a list of your best moments,joys and challenges and how you reacted in each of those scenarios.
A honest list can help point out and associate what qualities you need to imbibe to achieve your dream personality.
Building a personal brand
Building a personal brand is, how you manage to take what you have and do what you want with it. Building a personal brand image is taking the dream personality to the next level – public appearance. It is taking the dream personality for a walk in public, in full view of your colleagues, friends, and bosses.
Here are some tips to building a great and memorable personal brand.
Keep the character clean and polished
Dress appropriately
Be aware of your body language and keep its tone in check
Keep your language clean and words, to the point
Stay calm and efficient
Network and build a good rapport with all your stake-holders
Stay competent and update your skills
Display your talents
Make good use of situations without leaving behind dead bodies
Never agree to work against your conscience
Avoid being friends with people of negative character and or those with anti-social agendas.
Reality check: Brand Equity
In brand You terms, Brand Equity is anything that adds to or subtracts from your real or perceived value as a co-work-er, friend or family member. To understand your personal brand equity you must know your brand index – how each aspect of you is being per-ceived by the rest of the world.
Thus your brand index is a measure of the health of your personal brand in real time. Your brand index can help you identify problem areas and ad-dress them so that your brand equity remains stable over time.
Five steps to rebuild your per-sonal brand
Brand Audit: Talk to peo-ple who can be candid with you. Listen to what people re-ally have to say about you.
Acknowledge: Acknowl-edge your shortcomings and mistakes. Do not try to jus-tify yourself. Acknowledging is the first step to creating the need to change.
Making the change: Re-gard the opinions and decide whether you want to change. Figure out if you genuinely want to change and why, be-cause change is a long haul process.
Make a plan: Plan the ar-eas that needs change. Put ac-tions in to your words.
Accommodate failure and stay resilient: New behaviours take time and effort to perfect. What is necessary is to plan for the falls and also the rising from the falls. Don’t give in to pressures and revert to old methods of operation.
Setbacks and disappoint-ments are part of the learning process. They sub-consciously guide our growth and develop-ment into a better person and a better brand. They help us realise what we are and what we are capable of. That makes you more authentic and human which in turn helps you create for yourself enduring brand value.
Happy branding.
BUDDING MANAGERS
MARCH 2014 ISSUE
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Posted On: Thursday, 10 April, 2014 - 17:37