Why The Haas School of Business Works as a Personal Branding Model

Perhaps the most important aspect of your professional life is your personal brand. How are you professionally perceived by colleagues and others? Given that your professional image is critical to your success and well-being, why would you not have a personal brand vision and manage toward that vision? In reviewing the Haas School of Business brand vision, I was struck with its potential to be a role model in developing and implementing personal brand vision elements.

The Haas School of Business at UC-Berkeley, under the leadership of Dean Rich Lyons, has developed an outstanding brand vision that resonates with relevant audiences, differentiates from competitors and guides programs. While a personal brand will need to be based on your interests, ability and professional context, I believe that the dimensions of the Haas School of Business vision elements can provide inspiration in developing a personal brand vision and bringing it to life.

Consider the four Haas School of Business core vision elements and notice how they might apply to the most accomplished of your colleagues. How could they apply to an aspirational personal brand vision for a talented person with the ability to solve problems and create opportunities?

Question the status quo. A person that makes a difference will speak his or her mind even when challenging convention. He or she will champion bold ideas, develop new approaches, take risks, and confidently deal with failures.

Confidence without attitude. A business professional that excels will have confidence based on talent, the right training, evidence-based analysis, a get-it-done mindset, and the ability to lead collaboration efforts. When that confidence comes without arrogance or an in-your-face attitude, respect follows.

Students always. The best will not assume they know it all but will be engaged in a lifelong pursuit of personal and intellectual growth through books, courses, seminars and new challenges.

Beyond yourself. Concern for a higher purpose, behaving and leading ethically, working beyond quarterly financials toward a longer view of decisions and actions, and recognition of others creates the picture of a person that is not simply out for him or herself in the short run.

An aspirational personal brand vision should guide substance as well as perceptions. It should reflect what capabilities need to be developed and what behavior needs to improve. It should be supported by programs that will create the needed change.

A “new” person is not the end of the story. There is also a need to enhance some perceptions and change others, which means creating perceptual cues that reflect the brand vision. Such cues might involve signature decisions or programs, changes in management style or even a new wardrobe. A changed image will not often happen automatically, no matter how much it is deserved.

Certainly the Haas School of Business vision has created dramatic change and communicated a sharply differentiated school and school experience. The curriculum, for example, has been extensively revamped in order to introduce elements of creativity, innovation, collaboration, ethics and social responsibility. In addition, the vision has resulted in a new student profile, an effort to connect the disciplines, new research programs, a change in faculty recruitment, different ways of presenting the school to alumni and recruiters, a burst of energy and an enhanced school culture. Without the brand vision, it is probable that these changes would not have happened.

A personal brand vision can make a real difference if it has the support by an ability to invest in substance and the creativity and discipline to communicate that substance with credibility.

David Aaker is a best-selling author and Vice Chairman at Prophet, a strategic brand and marketing consultancy. He blogs weekly at www.aakeronbrands.com and can be found on Twitter @DavidAaker.

His next book, Aaker on Branding: 20 Principles That Drive Success is available for pre-ordering now. For a limited time, purchase 25 or more copies of Aaker on Branding and save 42%. Click here for more information.

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