Branding (continued)
“Whether you like it or not, judgements are being made about how suitable you are for a role; if you are trustworthy, and, or, if you worth the investment of a relationship. It is important that how you want to be perceived matches how you are perceived.”
When it comes to personal branding, I feel like I also need to explain that this, '“buzzword”, isn’t just for CEOs or “Leaders of large organisations”, or for people that “want to be famous.”
Charities and aid groups who offer help to those in need, have recognised that regardless of their good intentions, if they don’t deliver the help utilising the “bucket” of “brand”, then their aid like supplies can; be misinterpreted (by the locals), be wasted, and might not just not be as effective. Follow me, I’m going somewhere…
Meaning that, if in the name of “Let’s just get the work done”, the charity workers went out as individuals to “carry out some good work”, the extent of their results might be hampered.
What does have to do with me?
In the same vein, as individuals, the “good” we have to offer, or intend to deliver in life, might not be fully recognised (by potential employers), might not be fully accepted (especially when we are perceived as untrustworthy), and might not be fully understood to be implemented (when people aren’t sure what we stand for, or what our “good” actually is).
Therefore, the correct grasp of your personal brand will;
Enable you to correctly build awareness of and around your strengths (as a key signal to employers).
Help you express why you should be chosen over competitors
Help articulate the “good” you want to deliver (be that on a personal or corporate level).
The main issue is that your desired brand perception, isn’t matching the way people actually perceive you.
Have you ever gotten annoyed when nothing is wrong with you, yet, people continually ask, “Are you ok?”? The reason those questions come in, is that, your facial expression, doesn’t match that of someone who isn’t worried.
Statistics show that of the people that have a deep understanding of their personal brand, only 15% have correlation between their desired brand perception and their actual brand perception.
Perception → Behaviour → Performance
What people think of you, will determine the way they react to your “good”, which will eventually influence the effectiveness of your “good”.