Time for a R.E.S.T.

Welcome to the fifty-fifth edition of “In-Touch”. As always, I would love to continue the conversation so please let me know, in the comments section below, what you think.

Story of the Week: "Time for a R.E.S.T."

My friend?Konstantinos Kintzios?says that personal branding is a key element of business success and I have come to agree with him. But branding yourself is not easy. It requires continuous effort and a clear plan of action.

Some years ago, I came up with the R.E.S.T. principle, which will help you remain confident that, no matter how unfavourable market conditions may be, you will remain in your job and excel at it.

R.E.S.T.?stands for:

• Building?Relationships
• Creating?Engagement
• Enhancing?Skills
• Gaining and Maintaining?Trust

Building Relationships: My grandfather used to say: “It’s not what you know or even whom you know but who knows you!” By building genuine professional or personal relationships and letting more and more people get to know you, you gradually gain a reputation. It is through these relationships and your personal branding – when done correctly – that your company will also become known and, hopefully, land deals that will not only make the business reputable but profitable as well.

Creating Engagement: One of the most vivid examples of creating engagement was?Dr. Richard Hughes, who had hundreds of patients queuing for more than four hours to say goodbye to him when he retired in 2014 after 32 years of practice. Dr. Hughes was an affectionate doctor, adored for the way he took time to get to know people and talk through their issues, rather than simply treating patients as ‘a number’. Creating engagement is the follow-up to building relationships. It requires time, effort, consistency of service and a genuine concern for taking relationships to the next level.

Enhancing Skills: In the world of entertainment, it’s often said that you are only as good as your last performance. Any performance is determined by your attitude and your skills and, in a world where the only constant is change, your attitude towards acquiring new skills and enhancing those you already possess can be a determining factor when it comes to how you are perceived. Having many and varied skills can pave the way to becoming seen as a person of value.

Gaining and Maintaining Trust: You build trust, first and foremost, by delivering on your promises and you maintain it by being consistent with the overall expectations of your internal and external customers. One of the best examples of this is University College London?Professor Richard Pettinger. He has gained the trust of his ‘customers’ (i.e. his students) by always replying extremely promptly to their requests, making sure to be available and willing to advise and guide them, being polite and charming in manner and, of course, proving his expertise in his chosen field as an author of dozens of books. To be seen as an ‘important’ person within your company, you need to gain the trust of the people you serve.

By applying the R.E.S.T. principle to your professional and personal life, you can be sure not only of survival in today’s highly volatile world but of sustainable success.

Words of Wisdom

Success vs. Value

“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”

Albert Einstein

A Question to Ponder, dear friend.

“From your experience, how essential is personal branding in business?”