10 tips for building your personal brand
Most of us get the point that we need to continuously build our knowledge and skills if we want to develop and perform at our best. I think that only some of us get the point about building our personal brand as we advance in our working lives. I find that the concept of personal branding often comes up in 1:1 coaching conversations. It’s been my observation that we often only get clear on our personal brand with the benefit of hindsight, in the rear view mirror. Whilst that’s useful, it’s not the only way. We can all take proactive steps to build a brand that both supports us in our progress, and is true to who we really are. Try these 10 tips:
- Create a brand mission statement: what are you for? If you haven’t tackled this before, you can check out this online resource – lots of mission statement examples, from organisational to personal, plus a tool for you to create your own mission statement ‘in under an hour’. Use this to guide how you then build your personal brand.
- Find ways to help people – at work and beyond – that allow you to make the most of your expertise.
- Get involved with your professional association.
- Seek stretch assignments that will challenge you, develop your skills and raise your profile with different colleagues.
- Write a post on a blog or forum. Start a blog of your own.
- Always attend formal and informal company events. Don’t just stick with your work buddies: aim to make contact with some colleagues you don’t know.
- Stay in touch with your passions, interests and hobbies via meet-ups, groups and clubs.
- Ask for introductions. This might be at work, at a business event or conference, or socially.
- Study the people you admire, and note the top 3 things they’re known for. Notice the words that crop up most often and plan how you can be better known for those attributes.
- Revisit, review and update your personal brand mission statement from time to time.
You may also find this blog post useful: What’s your personal brand about?
