Mention ‘brand’ and most people think about sales and marketing. But ‘brand’ can be a much wider topic if we think about it as being the emotions which people associate with people as well as with products.

(The following list was posted on our Twitter account. We no longer use Twitter.) 

How is your career brand doing?

(1) Pegasus NLP Tip: ‘Your brand’. We each have one. It’s how we want others to feel about us: colleagues, customers, managers, interviewers etc

Think of your own career brand – do people think of you as

• approachable or aloof
• wise or a bit dim
• someone who knows their stuff or someone who is bluffing
• supportive of others – or needy and clinging
• a team player – or someone who is only looking out for themselves
• trustworthy or to be doubted.

Your brand is very important in your career. Whether you work for others or have your own business people are evaluating you: customers, colleagues, managers, interviewers, team members, etc. so it’s wise to look after your career progression by consistently managing your brand.

Look after your brand

(2) If you’re not managing your brand/image you’re leaving it to chance. In your career this is risky.

Your brand or your image needs to be “managed” proactively.  It’s not enough to do your job well and hope that people will recognise and appreciate this.  In the highly competitive world of work it makes sense to make sure that your strengths are evident to those who matter.

It doesn’t matter how you think you come across – what matters is how other people perceive you.  Discover this by asking people what they see as your strengths and weaknesses – having first assured them that all answers are welcome.

You can also evaluate yourself using the NLP Different Perspectives technique to put yourself in other peoples shoes and identify what works really well, what doesn’t work at all, and what needs fine-tuning.

Having done your research begin upgrading your image.

Little things mean a lot

(3) It’s not just the big things. It’s the sum total of many little things that make you appear professional or not!

It’s rarely the really big issues that undermine our brand. These are so obvious that we usually deal with them immediately.  What is much more undermining is the multiplicity of little things which undermine credibility, irritate people, etc. such as

• are you generous in your praise of colleagues – or undermining of them?
• are you in charge of your emotions – or the moody person that people avoid?
• do you look after your personal and professional development through books, workshops, etc?
• do you dress appropriately for your job?
• do you stand out for your professionalism?
• do you allow the boundaries between your social life and your work life to get blurred?
• do you join in the team gossip and backbiting – or distance yourself from this?
• do you set an example with your timekeeping?

Your tendency to be a few minutes late for appointments might not seem important to you but, if this happens a few times, it seriously undermine how people perceive you.

 Sum it up

(4) What do you mean/suggest/convey to the people you aim to influence? What short phrase would they use to describe you?

Decide how you want to come across to people. Begin with a bit more research. Ask people what short phrase would they use to sum you up.

Now come up with your own phrase – how you want people perceive you. From now on this becomes your new brand and anything, major or minor, which doesn’t fit with this is dealt with immediately.

What’s been your investment?

(5) Your Brand. ‘Recency & frequency’ count. What have you done in last 2-3 weeks to enhance your brand in their eyes?

Beware of the common tendency to rest on one’s laurels – to continue basking in the glory of a former era which no longer exists.  Not only is the world of work highly competitive it also is very fast moving.

‘Recency and frequency’ refer to what you’re done recently and what you do consistently. It doesn’t matter how people perceived you six months or a few years ago. What matters is how they perceive you right now.  And that’s based on the ways in which you have recently and frequently impacted them i.e. in the last few days or weeks. Has this enhanced your image or brand or weakened it?

Finally

The more usual approach is to manage one’s brand or image reactively – to wait until someone complains or you receive a poor appraisal. But, by the time things get to this stage, damage has already been done.

The opposite, being proactive in relation to your ‘career brand’, means taking action to improve it on a consistent basis rather than waiting for a complaint. It means adopting the Kaizen or ‘continuous small improvements’ approach.

Other Pegasus NLP  articles on branding

http://www.nlp-now.co.uk/nlp_customers_branding.htm

Brands – robust or damaged