It’s Time For Your Personal Brand Checkup

If you had the opportunity to overhear someone describing you to one of their contacts, what might they say? What specific adjectives would you want them to use in describing the value you provide? He’s dynamic! She’s resourceful. Other descriptors might include well connected, the most informed, really smart, or strategic.

Earlier this month, I spoke to a group of professionals. As part of my training on personal branding and reputation management, I asked each of the attendees to write on index cards their first impression of everyone else in the room. Then, I distributed the individual cards to their rightful owners. For perhaps the first time ever, conference attendees experienced a personal brand checkup. In other words, they became aware of how others perceived them.

In some cases, the descriptors were consistent with how each attendee saw themselves. In other cases, attendees felt as though the comments belonged to someone else. Ultimately, the exercise demonstrated that, whether we’re conscience of it or not, each of us lead with a specific brand or message. What is yours? Is your lead message the one by which you want to be known?

Every time my acquaintance Joe speaks during our monthly networking meeting, he mildly reprimands the group for something they failed to do–reach out to less-active members of the group, support a specific charity, or go out of their way to make referrals. As a result, every time I think of Joe, a feeling of chastisement comes over me.

Another contact of mine, Susan, makes a concerted effort to let people know that she can only eat at kosher restaurants. Although Susan is a brilliant business attorney, the first thing that comes to mind when I think of her is her dietary requirements.

Yet a third contact, Jeff, is consistently late to every scheduled meeting and event. Each time, he provides an elaborate excuse as to the forces outside of his control that caused his tardiness. Regardless of the reasons–valid or otherwise–when I think of Jeff, the impression that leads is his poor time management skills.

Without our solicitation of feedback from clients, referral sources, colleagues and friends, how can we ensure the messages we hope to communicate are the messages received?

If you seek to refine your personal brand, identify a few, key people who you respect and ask them the following question, “What is it about me that would keep you from referring me to your best clients and contacts?”

Armed with this new insight, you can decide the personal development changes you must make in order to advance your personal brand. In the words of Aristotle, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.”

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