A clear & strong professional brand is a complete and total game changer.
There’s virtually nothing else that, when you get it right, makes as much of an impact on landing your next promotion.
Professional branding is one of my passions because I’ve seen it transform my clients careers & lives. I know from experience that it does truly make a difference.
The brand struggle is real
When I ask career women to describe their brand, just way too many of us are saying things like, “Oh, I don’t have one.” Or they just generally don’t know what to say.
If I ask how well their brand is helping them achieve their career goals (your brand exists to elevate you to your next level), most score their brand a 3, 4, or 5 out of 10. That’s way too low.
Unfortunately, most of us don’t understand what a brand is or how to create it so that it works in our favour.
What is a professional brand?
If I had to pick just one word to capture what your professional brand is, that word would be REPUTATION.
Your brand is your reputation. Your rep. Your corporate credit. Your standing. Your rank.
Your brand is their perception of who you are
and what you’re capable of doing.
You may be wondering where this perception even comes from?
There’s one true source of the mighty brand and that source is YOU. Your brand is influenced and informed by how you show up.
Let’s take this one step further.
Think about yourself in this setting
Imagine that you just walked into your company’s quarterly sales meeting. You look around. There’s a typical boardroom scene with your colleagues around the table making small talk and waiting for the meeting to kick off.
The meeting starts and shifts into full swing. There’s a lively discussion, ideas are floating around the table, and everyone is dissecting the latest results.
>> Are you the one who challenges the ideas and gets everyone to think differently and be better?
>> Or do you first sit back and observe and then form an opinion? Maybe you share your thoughts later on in one-on-one conversations?
>> Do you continuously feed new ideas and it becomes a massive brainstorming session?
>> Or are you the one who doesn’t even go to the meeting at all?
Many of us show up in our professional lives as unconditionally loyal to the company. We’re heads down hard workers, get-the-job-done type of people. And oftentimes we stay in the background. We’re that type of professional.
Whether you know it or not, you’re
communicating your brand all the time.
And let me be really clear in saying that there’s nothing necessarily wrong with any of these personas.
But here’s the question…Is this what you want?
Does having a reputation as a heads down, hard worker align to the brand you want to create?
Do you want to be known as the one who always gets it done and never misses a deadline?
Does this describe you fully & completely?
If yes, then more power to you, sis. Keep doing exactly what you’re doing.
But, if not or if there are other elements to your brand that you want to make sure get visibility, get highlighted, and get space to shine, then you’ve got work to do.
Without making the effort to reshape your brand, you’ll easily fall into the feelings professional dissatisfaction and unfulfillment.
Ask yourself these two questions
To get clear, ask yourself this:
- How do I show up?
- Is this truly the brand that I desire to have and to create?
Especially think about your answer to the second question. It shouldn’t be yes just because it’s the “right” thing to do, what you should do, or is what’s expected of you.
The answer should be yes because it’s based on what you want for yourself. And if that’s not the case for you, change it. Make sense?
Now all of that being said, here’s the really tricky thing about your brand.
Most of us (myself included along the way) are very unconscious about how we show up.
We’re unaware of how we’re perceived in our professional lives, maybe even in our home lives too. We can’t clearly articulate what we stand for. We either haven’t taken the time to explore this (life gets in the way or we allow life to get in the way) or we haven’t had the coaching, mentorship, or guidance on how exactly to do it.
The real truth is that your reputation and
how you’re perceived should not be a mystery to you.
If you fall into the category of not knowing, then take the time and be intentional about observing yourself. Pay attention to your habits. Take notice of what you do when you walk into that meeting room or into the office first thing in the morning.
And if you want to take this several steps further, then get feedback from the people you interact with on a day to day basis. Ask them – What’s my reputation? How would you describe me?
Side note: There is one caveat to asking for feedback. Be mindful of who you ask because not everyone’s opinion matters. You’re not looking for random points of view here. You’re looking for credible, objective perspectives that can really help you grow.
Learning how to choose the right people for feedback is another topic for another blog. If you’d like me to talk about how to choose the right people, then make a note in the comments below and I’ll pull together a blog with my best pointers to teach on that topic.
The main takeaway is that you’re very likely unconsciously moving through your day, your week, your year, and just showing up by default, without intention, or without being deliberate about growing into your best, most dynamic self.
The outcome?
You’re creating a default professional brand that’s determined and shaped by someone other than you.
You certainly contribute to creating it. You’re the main source of information about it.
But, my friend, you’re not intentional about what you’re creating. And if your brand is inconsistent with what you want it to be, then the results you ultimately receive (money, impact, promotions, influence, visibility, team, title) will be inconsistent with what you truly want.
When you live and work with that level of inconsistency, you’ll forever be searching for the magic solution to get seen, heard, and celebrated for your work and contribution.
That’s because the clarity around your brand doesn’t come from them. It comes from you.
Have you given your brand creation power away?
What do you think?
Leave a comment below and if this message resonated with you, I’d really love for you to share it with at least one person today. Let’s keep this conversation going.
And be sure to watch the video to hear me talk about this topic too. So good!
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Did you hear??
I made something special for you! It is my new FREE career guide, Get Promoted Playbook!
Learn the 10 strategies you can use to help position yourself for a promotion, even if playing politics isn’t your thing. Go to www.cindyharveyonline.com/playbook and grab your copy today!
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Cindy Harvey is a Leadership Coach and Founder of Amelia Dee, a career strategy company for women. She has coached hundreds of clients on leveraging the power of energy & mindset to create success at work as well as designing a magnetic professional brand to make their next career move a breeze.
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