Career Advice to Be Promotable – Warning Signs That Your Personal Brand at Work Needs a Facelift
Personal branding has become critical in this age of microwave celebrity status. If you have watched any reality television lately, you know that makeover shows have become very popular. In the span of a 30 minute show, someone can go from a rough “before” look to a well polished “after” look. As important as a professional image is, it is just as or even more important to overhaul a professional reputation. And it certainly can take more time. Read on for five of the signs that might signal it’s time to get a personal branding facelift for your career. A simple way to define your personal brand is that it’s the way that others perceive you. In essence then, your career brand is how people perceive you in the workplace – your professional reputation.
Signs and symptoms
You hear crickets chirping in an uncomfortable silence when someone asks what you do.
If an employer or potential client Googles you, all they pull up is trashy information about your last relationship.
At your last performance review, your manager broke down and said, “I got nothing”.
The biggest benefit you are getting out of your degree is how well the framed mat matches your home/office furniture.
When asked for a personal reference, you have to reach back 5 years or more to find someone that would vouch for you.
What can you do about it
If any of the above symptoms sound like you, your personal brand at work may need a facelift. Fortunately, the internet has made available many resources and tools to accomplish this. There are career coaches, workplace advocates, HR consultants, and even marketers now teaching people how to polish their on and offline reputation.
Here are just a few tips to branding yourself more attractively in your career and business:
Understand your strengths
There are many free and low cost resources these days to help you determine your strengths, talents you are skilled at, and even tools to help you identify your preferences for work environment. Consider taking a branding assessment like the 360 Reach, invest in the Strengthsfinder book and use the code to take the online inventory. Explore ways to understand your selling points and what you most want people to know about you.
Put together a complete branding plan
Work with a coach to develop a plan. Based on the type of work you do currently or the ideal work you want to do, you need to determine what your specific goals are for branding, what kind of professional reputation you want to establish, who for, and what is necessary for any “repairs” that might be required.
Market your brand
Within your plan, you have developed ideas and goals you would like to achieve to create a dynamic career branding plan. Here is the part where you now implement action to make yourself more visible to the group you have identified, and in a positive way.
You are invited to use these branding tips to give your professional reputation the uplift you need. It will jumpstart a stalled, or average career development plan in ways you have not imagined.