Seven personal branding essentials for 09

Whilst many are focused on a dry January, nil-per-mouth and a gym membership to shift the holiday pounds, I thought I'd add to the mix with seven personal branding essentials for what promises to be an interesting year...

1. Perception is reality - spend some time discovering how you are actually perceived by your audience or markets - what you learn will give you invaluable clues as to anything that might be creating obstacles for you.
2. Really focus on what is distinct, different, memorable, unique, and ultimately compelling about who you are and what you do and find ways to demonstrate this to those who can influence your success.
3. Turn the tables and examine each market or audience that has an influence on your success from their perspective, and ask yourself what they want from someone like you – adapt how you deal with them accordingly.
4. Ensure that all of this is authentic and consistent – anything less will be perceived as untrustworthy and unreliable.
5. Take the lead in a variety of ways appropriate to your role and markets to demonstrate your brand - from initiatives to focus groups to keynote speaking or new endeavours – you will be associated with the topic and perceived as the person to go to in that field.
6. Relationships are key… ultimately we tend to go with those that we feel that we have some sort of emotional connection with – let your personality shine through in order to give others something to buy into.
7. Make sure that your image is not standing in your way… first and foremost it needs to be appropriate, which will communicate how you value yourself, leading others to value you in the same way.

Above all, don’t attempt to be anything other than yourself - just do it better.

30th October invitation...

Please join me in London at the Chicago GSB campus on the 30th October. I will be talking at a breakfast meeting - the topic is "Personal branding in an uncertain world: why it matters, how it works and how we can turn it to our advantage."

Who: CGSB, Insead, LBS and Harvard Alumni will be attending
What: Breakfast meeting
When: Thursday, 30th October 2008
Where: CGSB London Campus, Woolgate Exchange, 25 Basinghall St, London
Why: Soft skills are vital in tough markets
How: Register online to book your place

The event starts at 07:45am, will finish at 08:45am and costs £15.

We still have some places left, so please book as soon as possible - and for those of you who have already confirmed, thank you, I am looking forward to seeing you there.

Louise

Financial Crisis explained...

Adversity and wry humour are never far apart....

CEO - Chief Embezzlement Officer

CFO - Corporate Fraud Officer.

BULL MARKET - A random market movement causing an investor to mistake him/her self for some kind of financial genius.

BEAR MARKET - a 6 to 18 month period when the kids get no allowance, the wife gets no jewellery, and the husband gets no sex.

VALUE INVESTING - The art of buying low and selling lower.

P/E RATIO - The percentage of investors wetting their pants as the market keeps crashing.

BROKER - What my broker has made me.

STANDARD & POOR - Your life in a nutshell.

STOCK ANALYST - Idiot who just downgraded your stock.

STOCK SPLIT - When your ex-wife and her lawyer split your assets equally between themselves.

FINANCIAL PLANNER - A guy whose phone has been disconnected.

MARKET CORRECTION - The day after you buy stocks.

CASH FLOW - The movement your money makes as it disappears down the toilet.

YAHOO - What you yell after selling it to some poor sucker for $240 per share.

WINDOWS - What you jump out of when you're the sucker who bought Yahoo @ $240 per share.

INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR - Past year investor who's now locked up in a nuthouse.

PROFIT - An archaic word no longer in use.

Do people see right through you?

In the tightening job market its more important than ever to stand out with a strong, robust personal brand. And for those who have lost jobs and are focused on getting back into the market - a strong brand will give you an all important competitive edge.

Last week, after five months of development and beta testing, we launched iWorkshop™ - the first interactive personal branding workshop available online. It feels extraordinary to crystalise an enduring, relentless niggling fascination with what makes one person succeed above others - into an application that can help people to stand out and shine.

Credit crunch fallout

This week, the world as we know it changed forever. Well, at least for the foreseeable future. The inevitable fallout from the credit crunch happened. Shockingly, it was all concentrated into one brutal week. The bastions of unshakable establishment on Wall Street and in the City of London crumbled. Lehman, Merrill Lynch, AIG, HBOS. Bank failures, rescue takeovers, government bailouts all came thick and fast. Massive, intense, relentless.

And the markets roared into life yesterday and bounced - a hugely energetic bouncy bounce that reverberated around the world. Shanghai gained 9.5 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng 9.6 per cent, the FTSE 100 had its biggest daily gain in its 24-year history with 8.8 per cent and the S&P 500 closed up 4.0 per cent, having risen 4.3 per cent on Thursday. And the surges in London and the US were partially fuelled by a ban on short-selling announced on Thursday night.

With friends and clients describing their week as hellacious, many feel they have literally been to hell and back. Most feel that there is more to come. No one seems terribly sure about anything. The markets may be closed for the weekend, but the floors and desks and corridors are occupied as exposures are calculated and able minds grapple to find a way forward in unchartered terrain.

Sarah Palin

What a week for US politics! And the brands on display have made for fascinating viewing. First we had Michelle Obama with a heartfelt rendition of family values and the power of the American dream. Then came Hillary... dynamically rousing her supporters to vote for Democratic principles - and to get over the attachment to the person.

Then the nation collectively held its breath waiting to see if Bill would do the same. And he did - even describing himself as the warm-up for Barack's running mate Joseph Biden. Biden delivered his yin to Obama's yang - or is it the other way around? And the grand finale, Obama accepting his party's nomination in front of 38 million countrymen - fighting, fierce, up for it.

And just when we thought it was all over until next week when the Republicans will do the same, McCain stole the weekend media thunder and announced his running mate, Sarah. Sarah who? Who? Oh, Sarah Palin of course. Virtually unknown, a governor for less than two years, small town beauty queen, small town mayor - who has (now famously) said of the Vice Presidency role "...what is it exactly that a VP does every day?"

And so the rapid building of a brand is occurring as I write this and by next week, Sarah will be a household name. Fascinating. But not as fascinating as the impact that this has had on McCain's brand. We are now thinking of him as a maverick, a risk taker. If this is his way of showing that he is not George Bush, then he has certainly gone out on a limb to do so - far, far out.

Men in Tights

With the recent focus on men's tights (yes, tights, as in pantyhose) on almost every news channel here in the UK, the question of whether men should wear make-up has also raised it's head.

It seems that men's tights and make-up are in demand - thousands of pairs of soft, silky tights are sold in super-large sizes every month, and a major retailer here in the UK is about to launch a new range of make-up for men. Although one wonders how it will differ to women's make-up apart from the branding? Perhaps the heavily macho version won't include a waterproof mascara as men don't cry?

When it comes to tights, we can all see the benefit to the Queen's Guards - standing in the freezing cold for hours on end - guarding the bastions of the English monarchy against anarchists, terrorists and stalkers. Or perhaps men could wear them at home to stave off the recent energy price rises. Afterall, it seems that the average UK household may soon be paying 100 GBP per month for their energy bills.

All well and good, except for the very simple question - do women find men in tights, or those with a dash of eyeliner attractive? From my (un)scientific research conducted on a group of smart savvy women (my friends) the response has been overwhelmingly conclusive. No. Howls of laughter, loads of eeeuuuw's, noses crinkled in distaste. And the "I'd run a mile if he took his trousers off and then started peeling off a pair of 10 deniers." It's always useful to put things into context.

Online presence...

What is the point in being on a social or business networking site if you don't put a photograph of yourself on your page? We certainly remember the names of our close friends and those we do business with, however, most of us have hundreds if not thousands of 'contacts' that we have interacted with over the years and the chances of remembering everyone without a visual reminder is slim.

Furthermore, why do these faceless people feel that its ok to connect without any explanation of how you might know each other or why they would like to know you?

The most common explanation that I've heard is that people want to maintain some sort of anonymity or exclusivity and only connect to those who know them really well. A comedy of contradictions - if you only want those who you know to connect then why have an online presence?

And the most fascinating aspect of this is the negative first impression that we have of this faceless brigade. I am sure that I am not alone when I say that I am deeply suspicious of those who attempt to connect as friends or business contacts without a photograph to jog the memory or explanation - what's the point?

An online presence, which is what this boils down to, is a vital aspect of a personal brand. We live in a world where 'googling' others is considered normal - even potential employers check out their applicants online. Very simply, we need to ensure that every experience that others have of our brand is one that represents us effectively. Masked ball's aside, we wouldn't appear at a party or business event hiding our faces - why do this online unless you want to make others suspicious of your intentions?

What do people say about you?

So what do people say about you when you are not there? When we are actually present, we have the opportunity to influence people - perhaps to convince others that we are the right person for the opportunity, the role, the project, the deal. However, more often than not, most of the important decisions are made when we are not present - and this is where our personal brands need to stand up for us.

One way of becoming aware of how you are perceived is to observe how others introduce you. There are usually three elements to an introduction - your name, what you do, and then the interesting bit - some sort of comment about what you do or how you go about doing what you do - which demonstrates how you are perceived by the person introducing you.

The alarm bells should be ringing if you find that you are regularly introduced in a way that doesn't represent who you are and what you do. Worse, they should be clanging loudly if you find that the people introducing you are at a total loss as to what you do - filling in the gaps with inane comments like "he's a good egg". So... if you are a personal trainer trying to build your client base, something useful like "meet Michael, he's a personal trainer who'll get you looking like Adonis in no time" could be reduced to "meet Michael, he's wearing the coolest trainers here".

Powerful personal brands need to be four things – the first is compelling – or in other words - interesting, unique, memorable, different. The second is authentic – we need to be able to ‘show’ not ‘tell’ if we are to be believable. The third is consistent – without a consistency, we will not be trusted. And lastly, we need to be well known to our market or audience. There is little point in being incredibly good at what you do if no one knows about you.

Women in Business

I found Lina Saigol and Roula Khalaf's article in the FT yesterday titled "Women make gains in Arab boardrooms" particularly interesting bearing in mind that I spent three and a half years based in Dubai. From a survey into boards in the six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council, it seems that public companies listed in Oman and Kuwait have more women (2.7 per cent in Kuwait) on their boards than in Italy (2 per cent) and Japan (0.4 per cent).

However, these figures are not representative of the region as a whole where only 30 per cent of woman play a part in their economies versus 55 per cent worldwide. My personal experience of working in the middle east is that women are well respected in business and are a formidable force to be reckoned with. The UAE, in particular, is vitally aware of the impact of having 50 per cent of their 'local' workforce in play - and my impression is that women are encouraged to excel in the workplace.

From a personal branding perspective, I found that the women in business that I met are particularly aware of how they are perceived and the initial impressions that they make. Business is still primarily oiled by relationships and reputations in a far more obvious way than in the UK and USA where the fundamentals are often masked by big company brands. Not that personal brands are necessarily stronger in middle east - rather, they seem to take the lead. I think that we mistakenly rely too heavily on corporate brands in the west - often to the detriment of our careers, and ultimately, the detriment of the companies that we work for.