Reebok has one. So does BMW. And You and I do too.

So, what exactly do you, me, Reebok, BMW, and all other organizations have in common? We all have a brand.

That's right. A brand. As Tom Peters wrote in his article "The Brand Called You" for the August/September 1997 issue of Fast Company magazine, "We are the CEO's 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."

This concept of a personal brand is new to me. I've only recently heard about it in a session on branding as part of the Career Enhancement Program (CEP) that I'm taking part in this summer at work. To be honest, I don't fully understand it.

As we discussed it in class, this is not unusual for people of my MBTI type (click here for more on this). We have to really be sold on the idea. For us, we should just be able to be the best employee we can be, do the best work we can do, and the rest should just take care of itself.

But I'll try.


Part I: What is a personal brand? Where does it come from?

Simply put, your personal brand is your organizational reputation. It is the match between what you would say about yourself, and what others would say about you. It's what comes to mind when your name comes up.

Your personal brand is the combined information from a variety of sources:

• Stories people tell about you and that you tell about yourself. 
• Beliefs that people have about you. For instance, if you keep a sloppy workspace, people may believe you do sloppy, haphazard work.
• Indirect exposure, i.e. if a third party asks your boss about you, they have indirect exposure to you. 
• Direct exposure, you with a co-worker. 
• Perceptions such as what people think about your personal appearance. 
• Personal experience--what people know about you outside of work. 
• Professional experience--what people know about your career and plans for the future. 

For a brand to be effective, it has to be powerful. It has to show how you are different from the others. Also, it has to be relevant. If you won "Employee of The Year" 10 years ago, but nothing since...well, who cares? It really comes down to: what have you done lately?

Part II: The Recurring Elements of a Brand

There are 5 elements of a brand:

Personality

• Your personal style and energy
• Others' emotional responses to you as a person
• Perceptions and beliefs about you

Product

• YOU are the product--not just your role
• Total sum of your skills, experience, education, potential, knowledge, etc
• Features vs Benefits--as an example from the Peters article, a feature could be that you anticipate and solve  problems before they become crises. The benefit is the client saves money and headaches just by you being on the team. 

Wrapping

The things that "wrap" your product, such as appearance, word choice, meetings, reports, e-mails, etc. 

Marketing

• The strategic and proactive actions you take and behaviors you use to build and maintain your desired brand and reputation.
• It comes down to this: "It's not just what you know, it's who knows you know it."

"I Inc" Mentality

• Don't wait to be invited.
• Want to be the best. 
• Be accountable.

Part III: Assessing and Developing your own brand

In the few days since taking the class, I have made some progress in this part of the process. But sitting there at the table in group, I really struggled. 

Initiation

First, clarify the desired outcomes of your project. In this case, develop my personal brand. Start by asking yourself: how am I known? How do others experience  me? Do I have a following--an appetite for what I offer? 

Next, determine who will be involved in the project. Who is the Marketplace for "I, Inc"? Start with the answers for the third question above. 

Planning

Create your plan and determine a timeline----what steps do you have to take to complete the project? Define each step, decide who needs to be involved, and set a deadline for completion. I'm still working on this part. My coach, leader, and program cohort will help me with this. 

Execution/Monitoring/Controlling

Put your plan into action, manage changes, gather input and feedback, and work to complete the tasks required to achieve your goal.


As I said before, I've been struggling with this idea. But I'm starting to come around--even just writing this post has helped. By the end of the summer, I'll have it. 

**In addition to the Peters article mentioned, material for this post came from the "Enhancing Your Brand" Participant Guide put together by the Talent Management team of the BCBSMA HR department**

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

About a month ago, I applied and was accepted into a program at work called the Career Enhancement Program (CEP). Included in the program are various excersizes and group meetings meant to teach you not just about the company, but also about yourself. In the end, you should be armed to take your career to the next step.

One of the requirements is to take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Commonly known as a "personality test", the MBTI surveys how you would react to and feel about various situations.

Based on the work of Carl Jung and created by mother-daughter team Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers during WWII, the team first published the full MBTI in 1962.

The Types

Isabel Myers developed four pairs of  "preferences". Everyone has all eight prefrences within them that they use according to the situation, but within each pair, you will skew towards one or the other.

The pairs are:

Where you focus attention:
Extraversion (easily relate to the outer world of people and things)
Introversion  (easily relate to the inner world of ideas and impressions)

The way you take in information:
Sensing (interested in what the five senses show, what exists in the present)
Intuition (use imagination to see new possibliities and insights, focus on the future)

The way you make decisions:
Thinking (base decisions on objective analysis and logic)
Feeling   (base decisions on values and people-centered concerns)

How you deal with the outer world:
Judging  (like to have things decided, life is planned and orderly)
Perciving  (don't want to miss anything, life is spontanious and flexable)

Once your questionaire is analized, to find your type, just take the first letter of your preference from each pair. There are 16 different types.


My results

How did I come out? My type is ISTJ--Introversion, Sensing, Thinking, Judging. Remember--these are prefrences--we all have all eight within us, and we switch depending on the situation.


What this means

Like all things, all 16 types have benefits and negatives.

A few of the  benefits for my type:

• Strong sense of responsability and great loyalty to family, organizations, relationships
• Work with steady energy to fulfill commitments
• Go to any trouble to complete something seen as neccessary, but balk at doing anything that doesn't make sense
• Perfer to work alone and have accountablility but will work in teams when needed and when roles are clearly defined
• Have a profound recpect for facts
• Practical, sensible, realistic, sysematic
• Clear and steadfast in opinions
• Believe standard procedures exist because they work. Support change only when facts demonstrate it will bring better results. 

And a few negatives:

• If not developed in Thinking--may not have reliable ways of dealing with the world and instead may be preoccupied with thier internal memories
• If not developed in Sensing--may rush into premature judgements and actions without considering new information
• Generally don't share their wealth of Sensing observations and memories except with close friends
• Others see ISTJ's standards and judgements, but may not see the individual, sometimes humorous, private reactions

I think this is generally pretty accurate. It certainly sounds familiar.