Branding is Not Bragging!

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What is your brand? How do you differentiate yourself from your colleagues, so your unique strengths make you stand out? If you had a customized logo, what would it look like? What colors would your brand be?

I recently facilitated two training sessions on professional branding for over ninety summer interns at Takeda Pharmaceuticals at their offices in Cambridge, MA and Deerfield, IL. The first session was Discover Your Brand. It focused on exploring what personal branding is and the impact it can have on career and resiliency. The second session, Develop and Communicate Your Brand, shared step-by-step strategies for determining their unique brand and developing a brand statement. This session also covered why and how to get feedback on your brand and the importance of managing your brand. We talked about why LinkedIn is a key aspect of personal branding and how to create a strategic LinkedIn profile. By the end of the training, every individual had a draft of their personal brand statement they could use as the basis for a supercharged summary on their LinkedIn profile.

I received positive feedback from the interns on the training. The top three themes were:

  1. Branding is not bragging! Branding is authentic and genuine, and it is an ongoing, proactive career process.
  2. Branding requires knowing what you value, your interests, your current strengths, and where you see yourself in the future.
  3. Personal branding is part of the resiliency process.
Takeda Intern Group Photo: Deerfield, Illinois

Brand is a key strategy of my Benatti Resiliency Model® because I have learned over the years that my coaching clients who were clear on their brand were more resilient during the never-ending changes taking place in their organizations. They were able to navigate the unexpected. However, if you do not know your brand, your career may take twists and turns that result in lots of career frustration and disengagement. In my upcoming book Career ReCharge: Five Strategies to Boost Resilience and Beat Burnout, I highlight the importance of brand and introduce strategies to hone in on and communicate your brand. I share the story of a client who was on the road to burnout until she took a detour, figured out her brand, and realized her present career was not a good fit for her interests, strengths, and values. She transitioned to another department in the same organization and within months, had a new lease on life and felt much more energized in her career. Think about the times when you have been highly satisfied in your career. Do you notice that your career position complemented your brand and unique attributes and strengths?

A key concept of personal branding is being clear and consistent with your brand communication. From a one to ten, ten being the highest, where would you score on not only knowing your personal brand and what makes you stand out, but how well you communicate your brand to others? It is critical to not only follow your own purpose to build your personal brand but to speak your own narrative.

Email me at bbk@bethkennedy.com with some examples of how you are proactive in your personal brand and share how it has added to your resilience. Thanks in advance for any feedback or insights on your own branding story.

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