Personal Brand Development
Tips for developing your personal brand and managing your reputation for professional development and career advancement.
One afternoon, I received a call from an acquaintance, Roger, the head of a prominent banking institution. He had finished up a meeting with another contact in the building and wondered whether he could stop by to catch up.
For close to a year, I had been in the process of setting up a meeting between Roger and one of my contacts, Larry, who had a successful financing business. Operating in the same business circles, the two of them knew of each other, but had never met. Understanding that business results from professionals who know, like, and trust each other, I thought this was the ideal opportunity for Larry to make a great, first impression with a prospective client.
As soon as I hung up the phone with Roger, I called Larry to see if he could swing by my office and join us for the meeting. He was eager for the opportunity. Since it was a Friday and I figured Larry was dressed casually, I inquired if he had a suit at the office he could change into. He did.
I met Roger in the lobby and escorted him to one of my conference rooms. A few minutes later when Larry joined us. I could not believe my eyes. Larry was in a suit, but one that had been fashioned more than ten years earlier when he was 20 pounds lighter.
At some point during our professional upbringing, we were conditioned to strip our business relationships and interactions of anything and everything personal. This all-too-common practice suggests that professionals have one persona that is “all business” and a second that is “personal” and rarely the two shall meet.
Couple that conditioning with a communications environment ripe with email, texting, internet browsing, tweeting, and Facebooking, and it’s no wonder why we continue to have issues connecting. The tools we were told would help us stay better connected seem to be working against us!
Daily, I find myself fighting the de facto urge to email or text instead of picking up the phone or walking down the hall to have a live conversation. This is especially true when resolving conflict or communicating an important business decision. Whether it’s truly more convenient to email or just an excuse to justify one’s passive aggressive tendencies, many of us use it as a mechanism for issue avoidance.
One of my sisters, Heidi, accepted a management position with a well-known cosmetic company. She was excited for the new opportunity.
Shortly after arriving and settling in her new position, the company decided that Heidi’s talents and sales track record were better served with one of its cosmetic lines located in a major department store outside the city. It would be the company’s last ditch effort to save the cosmetic line’s business in the area.
The news of the change came with mixed reviews. On one hand, this presented a great opportunity for Heidi to make an immediate impression and position herself for future growth within the company by turning around a fledgling cosmetic line. On the other hand, the commute from her apartment in the city to the new location would be a grueling two-hours each direction, requiring her to take a series of trains and buses. Nonetheless, she felt up to the challenge.
Forty-eight hours before Rodney, a technology executive in Silicon Valley, was to speak at a major industry conference in Las Vegas, he asked my agency to prepare press materials that would be distributed during his presentation.
In short order my team assembled the materials, and provided them to Rodney for his review. Given the tight timeframe, we suggested that he carry the materials with him on the plane, as opposed to having them shipped overnight, to reduce the risk of them getting lost or misplaced.
Because Rodney was unwilling to lug the materials himself, we contacted the conference manager for specific shipping and delivery instructions to ensure the materials would arrive on time. As is routine, we also called to confirm delivery. Continue reading
Don't be a Hater
Throughout September, controversy in the Entertainment Industry has centered on Chaz Bono as a contestant on Dancing With the Stars. Amid varying suggestions that spotlighting a transgendered individual during prime-time television programming would usher in Armageddon, I was impressed with the professional manner and decorum that Mr. Bono displayed (and continues to display) throughout the ordeal.
But, criticism toward those who are in pursuit of a better station in life isn’t exclusive to individuals in the limelight.
One of my dear friends, Sophia, is a successful businesswoman. She is smart, attractive, articulate, likeable, physically in great shape, and sought after professionally as a consultant by sophisticated organizations throughout the country. She is at the top of her game.
From time-to-time, Sophia shares with me what she perceives as negative feedback from others, mostly women. She is criticized for her appearance (professionally dressed to the nines with tailored suits, great coif, tasteful attention to hair, makeup and nails, etc.). She is criticized for her continued efforts toward professional development (she regularly attends seminars, is active in industry associations, and serves on boards for community-based organizations). And, she meets resistance when suggesting that the “status quo” isn’t good enough.