I’ve a confession to make.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been obsessing about how I come across to
other people. At times it’s felt like a
return to adolescence, when I worried endlessly about whether I’d been noticed
by those I most wanted to impress, or if in fact they were sniggering behind my
back at my clumsy efforts to fit in. It’s
not something I find natural or indeed very comfortable; it’s even felt as if I
was at risk of undermining years of work building a self-esteem independent of anyone
else’s approval.
Am I having yet another mid-life crisis? Am I undergoing therapy? No, I’m just reviewing my brand as a
management coach.
There’s something about the idea of personal branding that
sits uncomfortably with many of us, that is if it registers in our
consciousness at all. After all,
branding is something that organisations do, or rather is done to them; to do
it to an individual seems to be treating them like some kind of commodity, and unless
you’re a minor celebrity craving publicity it’s a vanity that should be avoided
at all costs.
For many people, part of the transition out of adolescent
insecurity is the ‘I am what I am’ phase, pushing your emerging adult personality
into everyone’s face at every possible opportunity without worrying what they
think of you. Fortunately, this is usually
followed by the realisation that you can still be true to yourself while adjusting
how you present yourself depending on the situation. For most of us, it doesn’t even take much
conscious effort to alter which aspects of our personality we project depending
on whether we’re with our friends down the pub or with elderly relatives.
Sometimes however, this realisation comes after some much
needed feedback or a period of self-reflection. I remember working with a young
graduate management trainee who insisted that she should be able to wear to
work the short skirts and low necklines that were part of her normal style. After a few months, she recognised that because
of her youth and inexperience she already had a tough enough job establishing
her managerial credibility, without adding to her challenges by the way she
dressed.
Personal branding isn’t about changing who you fundamentally
are, it’s the art of presenting a clear consistent image that promotes the
message you want to put across. It’s
also about you taking control of how you’re perceived rather than leaving it to
accident or other people who may not necessarily have your best interests at
heart. On the BBC Radio 4 programme Today earlier this month, I heard a
discussion about the latest cabinet reshuffle.
Former Member of Parliament James Purnell gave the following piece of
advice to the new cabinet members: ‘you need to create a caricature of
yourself, or a frame through which the rest of Westminster can interpret what
you are trying to do before the media or the opposition does’.
Although your personal brand may be an exaggerated, even
slightly idealised version of who you are, the real challenge is to make sure your
day-to-day behaviour lives up to the image as closely as possible,
strengthening rather than undermining it.
If this isn’t the case, it would be easy to dismiss branding as being all
about cosmetic change, a clear case of putting lipstick on a pig. What
branding is actually about is identifying and promoting your authentic self, celebrating
your unique pigginess without the need for disguise.
Tim Schuler is a coach,
facilitator and business partner. He specialises
in bringing out the very best in managers, whether it’s their first management
role or something they’ve been doing for a while. More information is available from www.tschuler.co.uk