Are you paying attention to your personal brand?
Some people may refer to a personal brand as your image. If you aren’t familiar with the term, here is a great definition from Laura Morgan Roberts in an article titled, Creating a Positive Professional Image. She was quoted to say, “Your professional image is the set of qualities and characteristics that represent perceptions of your competence and character as judged by key constituents (i.e. clients, colleagues, superiors, subordinates).” You will see that at times, the words personal brand and image are used interchangeably.
The underlined words in that quote above are important. Your image is how you are “perceived” by others. For example, your competence in leading a project may be perceived as low, but perhaps you haven’t had the chance to demonstrate that expertise in your current role. This is why finding opportunities to show your value and talent in different ways can have such an impact on your career success. The more you show what you can do, the more opportunities will come your way.
Why is a Personal Brand Important?
In the same article above, Laura Morgan Roberts also stated, “if you aren’t managing your own professional image, others are.” Would you rather let others dictate what they think your image is or would you like to control that narrative yourself? I am going to assume that you answered that you would like to do that and not let someone else do that for you.
I will often times refer to an image in comparison to a savings account when I lead classes on this topic. The positive experiences that you have with others, accomplishments, and impacts that you have made would all be examples of deposits that would go into your savings account. If you run into an issue or make a mistake, you have enough positive goodwill in your savings account to use if needed. If your bank account is in the negative, then you don’t have anything to support you in a tough situation.
What Can Be Impacted by Your Personal Brand?
- Decisions about your career opportunities are based on your skills and capabilities, but your reputation and image can also play a large role.
- It can have a negative or positive impact on your performance reviews
- If you have a business, potential clients will make decisions on whether they want to work with you based on your reputation and image. (This may be online, in-person, or both)
- Does your online image match who you are in real life? If not, it can cause people to have doubts about your genuineness.
- If you have a good reputation and you make a mistake, it is less likely to impact you as much as it would without the positive image.
- Many employees are able to leverage the brand image of their company, but they can also leverage their own image too.
Can You Change Your Personal Brand?
Remember that your personal brand has been created over time. It continues to evolve with new experiences, actions, words, and appearances. Here is a key question to ask yourself, “Is the brand I have, the one that I want?”
If you want to create a new brand for yourself, you can do that whenever you are ready. Here are some inputs that will be needed to build yours if you don’t have one or if you want to make changes to the one you have.
- Identify your strengths
- Your values
- Feedback from others on what you are good at
- Any experiences, skills, or perspectives that make you unique
Find a way to work those keywords or descriptions that are important to you into a few sentences. You can include personal passion areas too if it helps people see you and connect with you in a bigger way. When you read it, does it feel like it represents you? Share it with others and get their feedback. It should describe your expertise, and what sets you apart from others, and will help people connect with who you are. The goal is that when someone reads your personal brand statement, they will know a lot about you and what you care about, even if they haven’t met you.
The bottom line is that this is your story. People want to connect with people, not companies. Personal branding helps you show others what makes you tick by highlighting your personality, opinions, work, skills, and style. Take imperfect action and create one for yourself today! It can help others see you in a new way, but it will also help you see yourself in a bigger more confident way too.