The Branding Gavel » personal brand development

Personal brand management

yinkaolaito — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 07:41:22 +0000

Today, I stumbled on my old write ups. I do believe it will help someone so I decided to share it again.Just as companies manage their corporate brands; individuals and professionals should do it for themselves. Personal Brand is a necessity for professional and business success.
Peter Montoya says ‘Personal brand is the powerful, clear, positive idea that comes to mind whenever others think about you. It is what you stand for-values, abilities that others associate with you”

The good news is that we all have Personal brands worthy of remarks. There are fourteen (14) important factors in personal brand management (either for professional or business success) but we will share seven here (7).

1. Let your talents flow naturally: This makes you look like a genius and not a workaholic. It is not a bad idea to be a workaholic, but if your talents flow naturally, people, client, boss and subordinates will respect you.

2. Flattery: In work place, learn to flatter indirectly by downplaying your contributions. This is essential when you are dealing with your boss.

3. Organized to be noticed: This is a not contradiction to the above. You stand no chance of rising if the ‘ruler’ does not notice you in the midst of the crowd. Master this art. Give adequate attention to your physical appearance, work on both your content and container.

4. Speak the same language with your audience: Different audience requires different approach, style and language. Don’t speak big grammar to a gateman from the village and don’t speak ‘pidgin English’ in the palace.

5. Don’t be bearers of bad news: The king kills bearer of bad news. Don’t be tail bearer. It damages your personal brand value. By all means avoid bringing bad news, let another person do.

6. Don’t criticize your boss directly: Couch your advice, criticisms as indirectly as politely as possible.

7. Developwarmed personality: People flee what is unpleasant and distasteful. Charm and delight draw us to others like Bee to honey. Remember life is full of unpleasantness and pleasure is scarce. Your personal brand becomes indispensable when you are warmed. We may not be able be blessed equally in this regard, but we can all control our unpleasant qualities and obscure them intentionally.

Personal Branding: Do you really want to get attention?

yinkaolaito — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:18:32 +0000

Personal branding has become the current buzzword since Tom Peter’s article of 1997.It is no longer news that your personal brand is your face in the marketplace. It is your ability to use your own uniqueness to help others who buy into you. Getting and sustaining attention today is huge work. Many wonder why their efforts are not appreciated as much as they want. The problem with most of such efforts is fabulous self promotion that adds little value to their audience. If your personal branding will get, sustain attention, there are basic principle to follow. The followings are what I believe will aid an individual, These 8 Rs are very vital and I think Rajesh Setty captures them very well while talking about social media. What is true for social media as proposed by Rajesh setty is extremely relevant to Personal Branding. So consider the following opinion of Rajesh Setty with modification, inputs from me to fit this context.

1. Resources: An individual has to be a good resource point for his market. Aside from this, this resource has to be dedicated to market’s good. Being resourceful will demand that you dedicate considerable time, energy to your personal branding project. Use the resource generously for your network. Remember that a shoddy result here will affect your personal identity.

2. Relevance: Understand that personal branding is not all about you. The resources you share must be highly relevant – not just for you but for your audience.

3. Reach: What is the positive effect of your reach on the target audience? Remember the guy with the highest positive reach will always carry the day.

4. Relationships: When it come to getting and sustaining attention in personal branding; think long term and not short term, Short term approach does not work most times. Long-term relationships provide a huge competitive advantage on this or any other big project. Your audience will appreciate it that you do not just want to milk their cow and run away with it.

5. Reciprocation: Personal branding is not just one way traffic; everyone should know that by now. It functions better when it flows in a two-way street. You give and you get (and the order is important) Giving does not entitle you for getting anything back but not giving is a sure way of ensuring that you don’t get back anything. Unleash the power of reciprocation by giving first.

6. Results: Personal branding has to show testimonials to build trust and credibility. Past results will influence the willingness of stakeholders to be willing to promote your Brand. Remember that everyone is busy with their own lives. But past results accomplished are often proofs of your relevance.

7. Resonance: You also need to ask yourself if your contributions, impacts resonate with the audience you are seeking attention from. Everyone plays WII FM. Where there is no linkage to them, never expect any attention. If you get attention that way it is a product of chance.

8. Remarkable: Make your personal brand project stand out. Do not be one of the crowds. Everyone wants to be associated with something unique, different, hot and they sing about their association to family and friends. If you want to really get attention, I guess you should start from here.

Is Brand You C-Level compliant?

yinkaolaito — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 09:44:53 +0000

Many are worried that the management often bypasses them when it comes to vacant position in the top management or C-level. C-Level is short form of Chief executive level. The source of their concern may be the fact that they are delivering on their jobs than most people that are promoted. Though Brand You may have the hard skills require delivering on the job, C-level positions demand more than just hard skills. There are several other skills that are important to get to the C-level in any organization. Ability to be C-level compliant will give Brand You an edge. Let us quickly examine some of the C-level requirements when the basic skill has been given.

1. Social intelligent: This great capital much stronger than any other skill. Ability to flow with other people with ease is important. Knowing your job is not enough at the c-level, the position requires you to work more with people, interface with your organization’s stakeholder among others. If Brand You has no social intelligent and ability to flow with social setting, you can do a lot of damage to the organization.

2. Ownership mentality: Brand you may have the necessary skill in place, but do you have ownership spirit or mentality. Do you see the organization as yours contributing more than what you are paid for or just giving your time based on what you are paid.

3. Magnetic personality: is your brand magnetic? Does is draw people or repel them. If people, team member can not come to you, there will be a lot of problem for the organization if you assume a c-level position.

4. Personal Leadership: Leadership is a strong quality of C-level executive. A leader takes responsibility. A leader leads an exemplary life that others can copy. See where any organization is triumphing and breaking new grounds, the C-level executives are great leaders who lead their lives well before leading others.

5. Mentoring ability: Can your brand mentor team member, do you have what it takes to be patient with some, be hard with some and to coach a slow learner. Believe me someone is watching your performance within that organization to see whether they can move you hope. The ball is in your court. Is Brand you C-Level Complaint? These are not all it takes, but you may start with these.