A personal brand is how you want people to see you. This is not about creating a fake personality or persona to look impressive. It’s about developing your authentic presence at work because your brand is based on what you value. It also highlights your skills and expertise and makes them more widely known both within and outside your current organisation. It’s important because your results at work will not be enough if you are seeking a new role, people need to know who you are and what you stand for.
If you’re not in control of creating your brand, then others will do it for you, so it’s better to be proactive with it.
You don’t need to make a big statement about yourself, in fact, building your brand happens in the small everyday actions that you do, like the topics that you speak about, the events you involve yourself with, the conversations you have with people about your work and how you work too.
Here are three areas to consider when curating your personal brand:
- Your brand will change at different points of your career and whether you decide that you want to move into leadership positions. That’s why it’s important to work on your career plan first, think of where you want to be in a few years and what actions you need to take to get there. You can tailor your brand to bring out your skills and experience, and what you want to be known for.
- Your brand must be authentic, it has to be the real you or people won’t believe it and it will feel deceptive. Go through your strengths and values, what is your area of expertise that you want to be known for and in which areas do you want to develop further?
- Ask others what they think about you. Contact friends, family, former and current colleagues and ask them to describe you in one word. When you have some replies, think about whether their word matches up with your view of yourself. If you want to make a change then think again about what you want to be known for and the values you want to portray.
Once you’ve done the above you are ready to start sharing your personal brand. Here are a few ways to do that, I recommend that you choose the ones that you feel comfortable with and go from there, small steps mean you will be making progress.
Speaking Up and Getting Noticed
Speaking up at meetings, events, and conferences, so that your profile is increased. Engage with thoughts, ask questions and bring ideas to the table.
From my experience as a South Asian woman working in a national bank, it took me a long time to get comfortable with speaking up in certain situations. I had imposter syndrome and didn’t feel as though I could share my opinions, thinking that I would say something wrong or that my point wouldn’t be valued but I learned that I wouldn’t get where I wanted to be without doing this and so the more I practised developing my opinions and speaking up the easier it became, to the point where I was making sales presentations. Take small steps and you will increase your confidence.
Use social media and join relevant communities.
Social media can be great at supporting your personal brand, for professional networks I use LinkedIn. If you are thinking of changing jobs, many recruiters now look to your social media presence to investigate candidates before setting up interviews, so it’s good to have a presence and regularly update your profile.
If you’re worried about what to post, start small, as I believe fear of judgment is the one thing that stops most of us from going public with our opinions, especially South Asian women as we are often raised to keep quiet and not share too much outside of the family.
I have shared a lot on LinkedIn and I think it’s a great place to celebrate your wins and share information, ideas or events. If you’re not ready yet to post, then comment on other people’s posts and work up to posting your own.
Networking internally and externally
From experience, some people love networking and others just want to get through it. I’ve seen the benefits of networking. Statistics show that women tend to have smaller but deeper networks whereas men have wider shallower networks, but the breadth does matter. See my Networking workbook to learn more about this topic.
Internal networking can be beneficial for supporting your brand and if you want to move within your current company. Get involved in projects that align with your career ambitions and make it known to others what you are interested in. I volunteered for projects that were outside of my normal duties, where someone other than my line manager was involved and I got to work with people I normally wouldn’t. This is another way to increase your profile and network.
See if your company holds events, can you be part of networks that align with your interests? If not, can you create one?
External networking can be in person or on social media/online, there are so many places to meet other professionals, perhaps talk about a subject that you are an expert in, or help mentor other people. There are now many groups dedicated to women in the workplace, Asian Women Mean Business is a membership group that hosts webinars and events for South Asian women, Brown Girl League hold events for young professionals and I’m sure a search on Eventbrite would help you find many more.
If you realise that your brand might need some work and you’d like 1-2-1 support to go through your situation, please feel free to get in touch. We can work together to strengthen your brand, assess your skills and experience and plan where to promote your brand.