Who does your personal branding if you don't?

What a lovely way brothers have, of pushing you to do something! My older brother had been advising me to work on brand building and I had been procrastinating. So, on Raksha Bandhan, I received this lovely book via Amazon.

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We are aware of the branding of the corporates we work with and the products or services they market. I have attended many cross-functional meetings with the sales team telling functional teams about how customers perceive the brand, in the light of a new ad, or handling of a customer complaint, or even a new communication that was sent out.

We are equally aware of the brands we buy as consumers, the wrist watch you wear, your music system or the pen in your pocket?

Why then, is it that we avoid consciously working on our personal brand? In our attempt to "be me", do we miss out on defining "me" or "my personal brand"? Sometimes it can be as simple as not being aware of the aspects that define a personal brand.

Let's look at what are the aspects of our personal brand

-????????? Brand name and impression management- this is about what we are addressed as, and how we turn out (look, dress, the personal appearance) and manners (gestures, facial expressions, body language and language)

-????????? Personal brand identity- competency capital or relationship capital or a balance

-????????? Brand mantra- three words that describe you

-????????? Changing direction- aligning your brand to the corporate brand (dressing/conducting yourself as formal if your organization or sector is formal, and being casual if the organization or sector is less formal)

-????????? Communication- how you communicate

-????????? Executive presence- the effect you have on people

-????????? Executive voice- how you speak, and this will be different in different cultures

Most importantly, being authentic.

Being Authentic- this drives credibility in your brand, belief in your brand and respect for it. When we are authentic, we do not feel the pressure to ‘be the brand’, we are comfortable and relaxed.

Being cognizant of our personal brand is important, because the brand exists, whether we work on it or not. Who will do our personal branding if we consciously do not work on it?

The book which triggered this post and the conversation points is Ambi Parameswaran’s All the World’s a Stage, with its far deeper and richer insights.

So, which aspects of your personal brand do you feel you have to work more on?

What are the three words that others would use to describe you?