Your personal brand

Many times we tend to define ourselves as a certain professional, and we think that is our brand. A student will say Iam a student, a nurse will say Iam a nurse, nothing wrong with that but these tiny words aren't something that defines us who we are as an individual human beings. A personal brand is something that people feel when they're around you, and what they talk about you when you're not around them. We must have heard a quote that says "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care", that truly defines our personal brand.

I had two managers in my former workplace, they were at the same level in the corporate ladder, but people reacted completely different with each of the two. Staff didn't like when the 1st manager was working, they weren't comfortable, they rarely talked to one another and they performed because only because they need to perform, while when the 2nd manager was working, the environment was completely different, staffs were all of a sudden very friendly, passionate, the environment was completely different and people performed because they wanted to perform, not because they needed to. These two managers probably had the same training, same resources, were on the same corporate ladder, and were probably making the same money, this wasn't something people felt, people rather reacted according to how they felt when they were around.

Having a strong personal brand is very important in every aspect of not only our life but to the life of our future generation as well. A personal brand is a promise that you make to yourself that pays you more, that earns you trust and quality relationships in life. Your choice to do things in an excellent manner is your personal brand.

Few tips on how we can create our personal brand or make it better.

1st Impression:

We often hear the word, "The first impression is the last impression", this phrase might not be true in all cases but is certainly true in most cases. Our dress-up, our grooming, our body language, how we talk, and most importantly how we made them feel in the first impression plays a key role in what kind of relationship we'll develop and in our personal branding too. So it's always important to have these things in mind.

Communication & Body language:

A message can be delivered in different ways, many times, it's not what we communicate that matters but how we communicate. Our body language, our hand gestures, facial expression plays a key role more than the message itself. . The two managers I described earlier didn't really convey the different messages, but they conveyed the message differently. So, it's always very important to communicate in the right way, be it our work colleagues, our business partners, our kids, our parents, our spouse, and every single person around us.

Integrity:

I heard the phrase "Fake it till you make it", well I don’t really agree with this statement. I believe we just can't fake something that we don't have, that is integrity. Integrity is about being as genuine as possible, as honest as possible. Integrity defines our character and we can't fake out character, we might fake it for a day, a week, or two, but it has to come out at a certain point. Integrity is a true sparkle of honesty, values principles, that people feel when they look at your eyes. People don't buy what you have but they buy who you are, this comes in handy in entrepreneurship, selling, in the profession, and in every aspect of our life. People don't buy a 200 gram of iPhone made from metals and glass, but they buy the value it posses. It's so important to live with our core values and be accountable to them.

Accountability:

I recently read the book 7 Habits of highly successful people, where the author Stephen Covey, talks about the very thing that separates people who are successful and who are not, is accountability. Successful people are men of their words, when they speak they own it and make it happen regardless of any circumstances. They are not only accountable for their words but are accountable for their mistakes, they own their mistakes too, and learn to form them.

When you possess the right integrity and accountability, your influence goes beyond your effort and is the most important factor in your personal branding.

Social media & online community:

Since the world is slowly adapting the virtual interaction, it's very important for us to be aware of minor things even in virtual. How are we dressing up, our facial expressions, how attentively are we listening to others? These tiny activities play an important role in defining our personal branding.

We also need to be very mindful of our social profiles to build our personal branding. What are we posting, what does our social media profile look like, does it define who we are as a person or does it sounds fake. It's so easy for any person to know about us through social media even before meeting us. We need to be very mindful of these to create our personal brand and make it better.