You have a brand.

Yes, you! Isn’t that great?!

But the question still remains, what is my personal brand, and how is it affecting my professional growth? Or is it? Well, that answer is yes, it’s impacting your professional growth, whether you realize it or not.

So, what is a personal brand?

As Tom Peters once wrote in Fast Company, “Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.” In essence, each one of us goes about our daily life protruding a “brand” that we can be conscious or unconscious to.

When it comes to your professional advancement, be sure to be conscious regarding your personal brand. Here are 3 ways you can be more conscious.

Note: there are additional ways that your personal brand can impact your career.

1. Understanding.

   Your personal brand is always active, and whether you are conscious to it or not, others are. This means that you are continuously protruding a flattering or unflattering brand to others. Because of this reality, it’s important to understand yourself and how others understand you. By asking questions, taking assessments and utilizing coaches (or 3rd party mentors), you can look inward at your skills, values, personality, and behavior and how they relate to your career and your brand.
   

2. Alignment.

   Alignment really looks like goal setting. As our sister company has written about before, “the challenge isn’t just about how to create goals. The challenge is how to better understand our own self in a way that allows your goals to truly affect – and empower – you.” When your goals are in alignment with your own personal understanding, you’re able to thrive. Instead of focusing on what we can have or could obtain, a better perspective is to look into what fulfills us; what can we align ourselves with for the majority of our lives.
   

3. Development.

   Individuals (and teams) who have understanding and alignment are powerful. However, that doesn’t mean their personal brand is advancing their career. To better aid in executing the foundation of your personal brand, we recommend that you engage in some sort of career development program (either internally at your organization or externally with a coach, mentor, or peer group). A few examples include:

   • Subscribe to blogs by industry / thought leaders
   • Attend conferences
   • Hire a personal coach
   • Read constantly
   • Start a mastermind group

These 3 areas are just the start of you developing your career. The important piece of information for you to understand is this: you personal brand, whether consciously or unconsciously, is impacting the development of your professional advancement.

If you’re interested to learn more about how we can work with you, setup a FREE consultation.