Your Brand is Everything

Perception is Reality

What people think of you and your work is just as important, if not more important than the actual quality of your work. I learned this lesson early on in my professional career and this is something that I stress to everyone that I advise. Invest your time, resources and money to build the best professional brand possible. Also, recognize that the impact of your work is half impact and half people perceiving the impact of your work through personal PR.

Many people dress very poorly to work. Honestly, some of them are embarrassing. To think, you are showing up to work, what do you want your clothing to say about you? Do you want your clothes and grooming to say I am a scrub who looks slovenly and disheveled? Or do you always want people to see you and say, now that person looks fresh? You want people to say he looks like a million bucks so he must be worth a million bucks!

Looking fresh makes a difference. People are regularly passed up for promotions because they do not look the part. In today’s world, HR prevents you from even commenting on someone’s appearance. So no one is going to tell you that you aren’t dressed well. However, without a doubt, you will feel its repercussions.

Control everything you can control. Grooming is essential. Get regular haircuts, trim your beard if you have one, or be clean shaven otherwise. Shower and wear a nice scent, as being the smelly guy at the office is another way to torpedo your brand. Make sure you always smell as great as your work--if not even better.

It's not just limited to how you dress, it everything about your presence at work. Are you someone that is habitually late? That is a really easy way to destroy your brand. Late for work, late for meetings, late for deadlines--these are all big No-Nos. Avoid being late at all costs, otherwise you are setting yourself up for failure.

Now these are just the superficial elements of your brand. Obviously, there is a lot more to your brand than just your appearance. Combining positive imagery with consistently delivering strong results on your work product is how you build the brand you want to be known for. The individual that looks good, smells good, shows up early, leaves late, and does great quality work, that is the person that is going places and that is exactly who you want to be. 

One other element of branding is what kind of persona you take at work, that of an employee or an owner. The employee acts like an employee and just does what is required by the job description. The owner acts in the best interest of the business and treats the company as if it is his own. The owner is someone that will do whatever they can for the company, even if it means making sacrifices or going the extra mile. 

I remember visiting a restaurant where the normal policy was that you had to reserve the private room days in advance. However, our sales team wanted to see if we could get the room in 15 minutes and it happened to not be reserved that evening. The guy who answered the phone, who worked in the bar, made an exception, setup the table, and made it happen. He took an owner’s approach and made both him and the restaurant a ton of money because he took the right approach--that of an owner.

Additionally, nowadays investing online through social media channels like LinkedIn can further enhance your brand as well. Producing quality content will definitely increase your stock value and get the office buzzing about you as well. Branding is related to everything that defines who you are professionally, and in today’s world, what is there online has a major impact on your overall brand image.

One of my mentors summarized this all as simply “Always be Excellent!” This means exude excellence in everything that you do. Be excellent in your work product, how you show up, and be known for excellence. Try your best to be your best. Put in an effort into every area of your professional career every day and work on improving areas where you can improve. Ask people for advice and radical candor in their feedback on your brand. Find a way to always be improving your brand.

So go out and make sure you are paying attention to your brand and the various factors that influence it. Always put your best face forward, and act like everyone is watching. Control both the superficial and actual aspects of your job. Be an active positive producer on mediums like LinkedIn. Take an owner’s approach. Focus on building the brand you want to be known for and the brand that will take your career to where you want to go. 

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Zeeshan Javed Hafeez, is the Head of Cloud Sales & Customer Growth for Canada and the Northeast USA at Google Cloud. He is focused on helping everyone on his team build the best brand possible at work. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of his employer.