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What is your personal brand saying to others? Getting bigger promotions, better clients, and a richer career depends largely on how you are perceived by senior managers, and potential clients or employers. So to maximize your career opportunities and get into a career that actually inspires you to get out of bed in the morning turning cartwheels, let’s start by polishing up your personal brand.
Here are my 3 tips to creating a red hot personal brand…
- Understand your value to an organization. Having a powerful personal brand means that you consistently deliver what you say you’re going to deliver. In other words, it’s the skills, experience, and value that you provide to your employer or clients. Whether it’s bringing in new streams of revenue, managing highly valued projects, developing creatively outrageous marketing campaigns, or whatever, your career is fueled by the value that you consistently deliver to employers.Your value is a unique blend of your strengths, professional accomplishments, and personal characteristics (such as being a good leader, risk taker, problem solver, strategic thinker, etc.). All of these things combined make up your “value package” which makes you truly unique from a crowd of colleagues, business associates, and even job applicants.
- Get into a career where you can thrive (not just survive!) Today’s marketplace is so volatile that “surviving” is not a smart career strategy.
Being in a passionless job is a career killer! If you’re walking around dull and listless, then others are sure to see you that way. It’s impossible to have a powerful personal brand if you’re just going through the motions at work. You’re not fooling anyone. Everyone sees that you are NOT a key player in the organization.You need to be in a career that challenges you, flexes your professional muscles, and excites you! That’s when people are going to take notice. That’s when doors will start opening up for you. People want to be around others who enjoy their work and enjoy talking about it and sharing ideas. That’s the kind of positive energy that others are drawn towards.And when others are drawn towards you they’re going to let you know about other career opportunities. That’s when the better jobs and bigger promotions will start coming your way.
- Send the right messages. Everything you do and say sends messages to your manager, senior leaders, clients, peers, and potential employers. Your words, actions, presentations, reports, work deliverables, shape the perceptions others have about you and the value you provide.Think of yourself on a stage.
Think about how you want others to perceive you. Do you want to be recognized as being smart? Strategic? Having specific expertise? A great leader? Whatever it is, you should be striving to send that message loud and clear.
Every day you have opportunities to shape and manage your personal brand. In every presentation or update that you give, in every meeting you attend, in all your networking conversations with other professionals – think of yourself as being on a stage.
Talk about those things that excite you in your career – those project, or teams, or initiatives that you ENJOY doing… or talk about what excites you about working in that industry… find something in your career to get excited about!!
It’s your opportunity to shine and get noticed.
Powerful personal brands don’t happen overnight. It takes time, focus, and commitment, but the payoff is huuuuuge. Imagine a world where you are in such high demand with potential employers that you get to choose where you want to work :))
