Every week, NETSHARE hosts Ask the Coach, a phone-in coaching session with leading career management experts. Here is an excerpt from this week’s session with career transition coach and consultant Randy Block.
Randy Block was this week’s career coach, and he shared his innovative and effective strategy for developing your own personal brand. One caller was struggling with feeling “stuck,” and Randy’s recommendation was to get out there and start networking, but before you can do that, you need to determine what makes you stand out from the crowd. That’s why you need to create your personal brand.
Your personal brand is not your last job title but what makes you unique in your field. It characterizes what you do, and what others believe about you. To identify your personal brand, ask yourself what you are good at? What do you truly love doing, and what you do very, very well? How do you contribute to a company? Just as Starbucks has a product that makes you think “coffee,” and Coca-Cola has a product that makes you think “soda,” you need to create a personal brand that would make someone want to buy the product that is you!
To identify your personal brand, look back on your achievements from the last 10 years, including group achievements where you played a significant role. This does not mean listing your duties and responsibilities – everyone with the same job will share those and they don’t differentiate you. Be specific about your achievements and include metrics; measurable results. People can relate to metrics.
Randy has defined two steps for finding your persona brand?
- Make a list of your achievements since you obtained your degree and group them in three categories: a) You loved this work; b) You did the work and it was okay; and c) You did the work, accomplished something, and never want to do it again.
- Now take the achievements in category A and look for a common thread. What verbs come to mind over and over again? Focus on what you accomplished, not how you did it. And “metricize” your achievements – talk about profits, growth, lowered costs, positive changes.
Now write a three-to-four sentence outline of what you uncovered and share it with six of your closest friends; people who will be honest and say what they think. Let them know you are working on your personal brand and want their input. Ask them, “When my name comes up, what comes to mind – both personally and professionally?” Then wait for the response without prompting. (Note that if they can’t provide an example, that’s not a good sign.) Then take their answers and compare them to your four-sentence outline. Refine the results into a two-sentence description and share it with your six friends to see if you are on the mark. Make sure your value statement highlights your unique qualities.
Now you can take that value statement and have it printed on a business card beneath your name, and you now have a mini resume that you can use anywhere.
Remember that the impact of a good personal brand is that it makes you memorable. Five years ago at a networking event, Randy met an attendee and when he asked her what she did she replied, “I help the world stay in focus.” She was an optometrist, but Randy still remembers the value statement.
