Personal Branding 3 – Crafted or Automatic

“Now being competent in your job is not an option in business or corporate life. I can argue that being conscious of your personal brand, crafting it and projecting it is becoming equally important. “ 

Personal branding, a concept that can be traced back to 1997, is relevant to you irrespective of your position in the organization. But the question that is often asked to us Coaches by our Coachees is ‘If I do a good job, I will be seen as a performer. And  automatically I should become a strong personal brand. Why should I bother to do anything more’. As an old saying goes if one ‘keeps one’s nose to the grindstone’ we will achieve our results. And it may be logical to extrapolate and say that our personal brand will get built on its own.

If you are seen as a performer, someone who delivers his results, should you even bother worrying about what your personal brand stands for? Who has the time anyway?

As I was discussing this with Prof Janakiraman Moorthy at SPJIMR where I am an Adjunct Professor of Marketing, he suggested an interesting 2 by 2 matrix [competency vs personal brand building]. Take  competency; he said you can be very competent or you can be not  so competent. Looking at personal branding; you can be good at building your personal brand, or you can be poor at building your personal brand. We end up with four nice quadrants.

Let us take the first one. You are not so competent but you are also not good at projecting your personal brand. You become a  survivor. You manage to survive by escaping notice. On the other side you are competent but ignore the importance of building your personal brand. You are complimented for your skills but you get the recognition, the promotion, the increment strictly based on seniority. Then come the next quadrant, you are good at personal branding but are not all that competent. You get discovered and may be reassigned [if you are lucky] or god forbid even asked to leave the organisation. Finally, there is the sweet spot: you are competent and you are also not shy about projecting your personal brand. If you are able to get into this quadrant, your career will progress at a fast clip.

Obviously the 2 by 2 matrix is an oversimplification as most 2 by 2 matrices are. But it makes an important  point. In the workplace there are people you are competing with, for promotion, for that prized posting. Who is going to get that? A person who is competent. Or a person who is competent but is also able to project his personal brand.

Now being competent in your job is not an option in business or corporate life. I can  argue that being conscious of your personal brand, crafting it and projecting it is becoming equally important.

Author – Ambi Parameswaran, CFI Coach