Second Silent Career Killer: Not Having a Personal Brand

Have you ever wondered what your coworkers think of you?

What about your boss?

If you work in a B2B company, as I do, you may have a group of stakeholders you work with daily. Do you know how they perceive you and your work?

“Why?” you ask. “Who cares what people think of me, I’m my own person. I’m unique.”

If you don’t know how you’re viewed, you are in trouble, deep trouble with a capital “T,” as my mother used to say.

In fact, you could be quickly on your way to damaging your career at your current company by neglecting one critical, vital component.

Your personal brand.

What?

Your brand.

Your brand is what people think of you and what it is that you are known for.

Now, a lot is written about personal branding, much aimed at marketers and executives. But guess what? It is important for every employee at a company – from the mail room clerk to the CEO.

You need to know how you are PERCEIVED at your company, because PERCEPTION IS REALITY, fair or unfair, and that becomes your personal brand.

Are you known as the person that is the “Excel Wizard?” The “Creative Employee,” “PowerPoint Expert” or the “Technical Specialist?” Maybe you are the “Operational Guru” the “Executive Whisperer,” or simply the “Person Who Knows How to Make Things Happen.”

When I was a marketing manager back in Chicago I was known as the “Person Who Could Get Things Done and Make Projects Happen.” If someone had an impossible project and had no idea how to make it work or where to start, they knew to give it to me and I would put together an action plan, find the right resources and the creative hook to grab audience interest and make it happen. That was my brand; I could “Make it Happen.”

Now not every personal brand is good.

If you don’t pay attention to your brand, you might not realize what your colleagues and stakeholders REALLY think of you.

You could be thought of as the “Department Complainer,” the “Slacker,” the “Office Micro-Manager,” the “Executive Penny-Pincher,” Or the “Employee Who is Technically Good But Talks About Their Personal Life Too Much.”

What you don’t know CAN KILL YOUR CAREER at your current company.

So my question to you: do you know what your personal brand is?

If you don’t know what it is you are known for, it is time to take ownership of your brand!

How? The good news is that there are a ton of books and articles out there you can dive into to learn about the topic.

Here are a few tips to get you started.

1. Check with your HR department to see if they offer a 360 assessment survey.

“What? You want me to actually find out what people think of me? No way!” you say. YES! It is incredibly helpful because they identify what perceptions your boss(es), employees and colleagues have in their interactions with you. This is very valuable information when determining what your current personal brand is, as well as determining how to better communicate with the people you work with at your company. If your HR department doesn’t offer the survey, a free online tool, SelfStir offers a great 360 assessment. I encourage you to use it to not only help with your personal brand, but your overall career relationships.

2. Create a Brand Statement for yourself.

In a few words, what captures you and your abilities that you want to be known for. Such as, “Trusted Marketer with Crazy Design Skills.” “Organized Accountant with Long-time International Tax Clients.” “Innovative Social CRM Connector.” What is the headline that captures you? That is your Brand Statement. Here are a few helpful sites: How to Craft Your Personal Brand Statement, Personal Branding Statement

3. Create an Elevator Speech for yourself and practice it so it is ready to go.

I use the method of putting everything on index cards and flipping through them until I am comfortable enough with the 30- and 60-second version of who I am and what it is I do. It is OK to show your personality a bit in your Elevator Speech, so if you are funny, be funny, but don’t cross the line. Be original and practice until you can do it in your sleep. How to Create Memorable Elevator Pitch

4. Analyze your web presence and take ownership of it.

If you haven’t already worked on your online “persona” it is not too late to start. There are many different online tools out there where you can develop an online presence for a few hours a week.

- LinkedIn is the perfect place to get involved, build out your profile, join groups and comment in the sections.
- Look for the online publications for the professional organizations you belong to and join the groups to comment and share as part of your membership.
- If you are building out your expertise but don’t have time for blogging, try curating – using a service such as Scoop.it is great. This and similar applications let you comment on articles in your industry and service line and use it to create a blog or newsletter easily.

Now it is a few cities, jobs and years later in my career, and I’m still the “Make it Happen” person. I’ve also acquired a few more brand statements along the way. But it takes hard work and patience developing and maintaining a personal brand.

Start with your brand statement and elevator speech.

How do you want people to think of you?

Put it into practice.

Own it.

Live it.

A Silent Career Killer

Early one morning I sat at my desk reading and re-reading an email from an employee. I could feel the frustration and I hadn’t even had my first shot of espresso yet, and it took every ounce of control not to walk over to the wall and bang my head against it.

What was it that caused me to get a headache early in the morning? Why was my high performer suddenly turning in half-finished work product?

Was there some viral slacking bug infecting my team? No, unfortunately it was nothing that simple.

Instead, it is something that is the bane of every progressive, fast-moving, innovative leader.

It’s something that keeps me up at night. It’s something that is so irritating, aggravating, annoying and causes me to grind my teeth in an effort to keep my patience under control.

What, is it you ask? What could possible cause so much harm?

It is a silent career killer, an attitude that many employees unconsciously adopt.

A lack of curiosity.

There. I said it.

It pains me even to write it.

My keyboard might even explode as a result of typing it.

Now, some of you might be thinking, “What is the big deal? That was a big build up for a whole lot of nothing.”

Let me tell you, few things are more dangerous to a department – and a company – then an employee’s lack of curiosity.

It is especially dangerous in a marketing department, where we depend on our team members’ curiosity in order to explore and keep up with evolving technologies.

What exactly do I mean by “curiosity”?

The dictionary states it is “the desire to know something: eagerness to know about something or to get information.”

In the workplace, curiosity is the lifeblood that flows in the veins of an organization, bringing ideas and innovation.

For employees:

- Curiosity in an employee is stopping and thinking about the task they are doing instead of robotically doing it.
- Curiosity means thinking about what the next step might be and how the task they are working fits into it.
- Curiosity means asking “is there a better/faster/more efficient way to do this task?
- Curiosity means keeping up on new technology and playing around with it in your free time or asking your manager if you can try the task out in parallel in the new technology to see if it is more efficient.
- Curiosity means knowing what is going on in the world around you, outside your regular sphere of influence. You never know where you next great idea will come from.
- Curiosity means reading at least one “real” news publication a day to know what is going on in the world and being able to talk intelligently about world events, not just about reality TV.
- Curiosity means identifying a challenge and instead of dumping it on your managers desk, researching solutions, outlining a proposed solution and giving that to your manager with the backup research so they can just make modifications.

Get the point?

Curiosity is necessary to move ahead in a career.

It is the “what if I” and “how can I” and “where can I” of the job.

It is exciting. It is how we learn and grow.

It is how we challenge ourselves to stay interested in what we are doing.

The moment I have an employee bringing me something half-done, or telling me they don’t know what to do next when all they need to do was ask the person next to them, or pick up the phone to figure it out – I know the individual has lost their curiosity.

This is a sign that they are disengaged from their job and I’ve found that there are usually three causes:

They hate their job (Some would argue that they are satisfied with things the way they are and don’t need to be curious. That’s an excuse. You hate your job.)
They have something personal going on in their life that is affecting their work
They are looking for a new job

So as leaders and managers, what can we do?

Well, that’s a HUGE discussion, one that could take months and pages to discuss.

Instead, I will share my top three suggestions for encouraging curiosity:

Interests: Find out what interests your employee and encourage them. It could be learning a new skill or taking a new class. It could be as simple as leaving on time to coach their kids’ games. Discover their interests and encourage them to pursue them. Ideas come from all areas of life and when your brain is rested or doing different activities. So encourage what interests them. It helps the ideas flow.
Variety: While some individuals are hired to do a particular task, offer them the chance to work on different projects or help another colleague. Encourage cross-training. It can lead to them developing new interests and ideas within the company and that can lead to better ways of doing things as well. You never know.
Growth: Give your employees a “growth” project that will benefit them and their career. Show them how it will build their skills and position them for growth. It will do wonders once they take ownership of their own career and see you taking an investment in them.

So what did I end up doing with that particular employee? I quickly found out that their apathy was due to their upcoming out-of-state move. Still, it was frustrating and stressful for the rest of the team to work with an indifferent teammate.

Cultivate curiosity in your team.

It will drive your best performers to achieve beyond your expectations and launch them from their current roles into their future careers.

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