You have a personal brand. Trust me. You may not know what it is or have personally articulated it, but you have one. Quoting Jeff Bezos “It’s what people say about you when you’ve left the room”. If you’re like me you’re probably wondering “What do they say?” And the next thought is “I wonder if what they say is what I think they should say”. How can we get more intentional about our own branding? Do what some of the mega product brands have done.
In my earlier blog post ”What’s Your Personal Brand” I wrote about how the three steps to defining your personal brand are similar to how many mega product brands define them. Put simply they are:
1) Purpose (or value you bring to others), see more here, 2) Strengths (how you fulfill that purpose), 3) Character (your most deeply held values). Here we will get into how to further define Step 2, our Strengths.
There has been a lot of research done, in particular by the Gallup organization, that proves that developing and honing our strengths is the better way to achieve success vs. focusing on correcting our weaknesses. Exercising our “signature strengths” as Gallup defines them also brings us tremendous joy in the work we are doing.
Why are strengths relevant to our personal brand? Our strengths are critical to helping us accomplish the purpose we have set for ourselves. These strengths are what will allow us to execute our personal brand, to “walk the talk”.
Here are some questions to ask ourselves to discover our strengths:
1) What do I do better than most other people?
2) What is almost effortless for me?
3) What do others always tell me I’m great at?
4) What activities am I engaged in or what strengths am I using when I am “in the zone”?
I am surprised how many people can quickly rattle off their weaknesses but are unclear about their strengths. Women, in particular, are masterful at intimately knowing every weakness within themselves and getting selective amnesia when it comes to our strengths. So, what are some ways to discover our strengths?
1) Use formal or informal 360 degree feedback from our organizations
2) An online test I recommend is StrengthsFinder 2.0 (here is the link)
3) Ask friends, colleagues, bosses, family the questions above and look for common themes.
Here is an important watch out on strengths. Sometimes our “survival mechanisms” or negative views about ourselves show up in feedback as strengths. E.g. “Jane is a real hard worker”. Jane may be a hard worker because she believes that she will not be successful unless she works hard. In this instance, her hard work is a “survival mechanism” rather than a strength for her. Our signature strengths are not only what we do well, but also exercising these strengths is a “in the zone” experience for us.
How did these exercises work for you? What did you discover about your strengths? What is possible for you now that you are much more consciously aware of your strengths? What will you do differently? Stay tuned for Step 3 of your Personal Brand – Your Character.
