Personal Branding: A New Twist on an Age-Old Idea
It's no secret that your professional reputation can do a
lot to hurt or help your career. In fact, this is a universal truth that has
been around as long as commerce itself: If you have performed well in the past,
acted with integrity, offered valuable services, and treated others well,
you're likely to succeed. If your history and past performance is questionable,
you're probably going to have a much harder time creating the kind of
opportunities that will help you advance.
Personal branding builds on the long-established concept of
professional reputation and updates it with some cutting-edge 21st century
ideas about image, perception, and marketing. Personal branding is about taking
your past performance and your most sought-after skills and melding them into a
coherent, unified marketing message that clearly conveys the assets you offer
an organization.
What Personal Branding Isn't -- And What It Will Be
Contrary to popular belief, personal branding isn't about
selling a phony, exaggerated version of your self. Overly aggressive
self-promotion is off-putting and frankly, ineffective. Experienced hiring
managers instantly recognize and discredit candidates whose message is bogged
down in baseless hyperbole.
Instead, the process of developing your personal brand
involves identifying your core strengths and using them as the basis for a
consistent personal marketing message that will serve as the unifying theme for
your job search and career advancement efforts. According to John Fareed,
personal branding expert and co-founder of Fareed and Zapala Marketing
Partners, this approach is poised to profoundly impact the way hiring decisions
are made in the hospitality industry.
CEO 101: How to Create and Cultivate Your Personal Brand
In order to develop a truly effective personal brand, the
first thing you must do is take on the kind of analytical mindset a corporate
leader would use to make decisions. Rather than looking at your professional
experience and reputation from a personal vantage point, you have to adopt a
broader approach.
It may feel strange at first to assess your career from a
non-personal perspective, but it is very important to try to look at yourself
as others will see you. Then, you can begin to systematically sort through your
past experiences and identify the key strengths, assets, and attributes that
will form the core of your brand.
- What are your fundamental values? Think about the ways
that your attitudes, beliefs, and ideals have been reflected in your
professional accomplishments and experiences. What are the unifying themes that
emerge?
- What is your core marketing message? Your marketing
message needs to draw on your unique assets, talents, and experience, while
also confidently projecting your future plans. Stay grounded and keep your
expectations and promises realistic, but at the same time, don't sell yourself
short.
- What is your brand statement? Just as leading corporations
develop a brand statement that they use as the basis for all of their marketing
efforts, your brand statement should be a concise, compelling statement of your
personal philosophy and ambitions. Make sure that it is confident, but at the
same time, deeply reflective of your genuine character and personality.
Personal Branding for New Opportunities -- and for Long-Term Success
The time that you spend developing your personal brand is an
investment that will pay dividends throughout the entirety of your career. In
your job search, a personal brand will help you differentiate yourself in a
crowded field of competitors by strategically conveying a clear,
easy-to-understand message about your value to hiring managers.
Once you've landed your dream job, your personal brand will
continue to drive your professional success. Maintain consistency -- what
marketing experts call 'message discipline' -- and continue confidently
broadcasting your assets and experience to those around you. If management has
a clear understanding of your value and potential, you'll be much more likely
to be offered opportunities for growth and advancement.
Remember that all brands evolve over time. The messages that
advertisers use to sell cars today, for example, differ dramatically from those
that they used twenty years ago. Likewise, your personal brand will need
fine-tuning over the course of your career. Update your brand to reflect your
experiences, both professional and personal, and you'll remain well-positioned
to take full advantage of the opportunities that will arise.
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