Your brand is how you are perceived by others. The perception of others will influence your brand strongly. Unfortunately, perception is finicky and totally subjective. Having people see you the way you see yourself establishes a uniform perception and consistent brand.
As humans we do not all see the world the same way. We do not have the same beliefs, opinions, priorities, and dreams. Although we share similarities, we are unique at the core.
So, the way you will see someone or address some situation will not be like someone else. Knowing all this, why do we assume to know how people perceive us instead of asking them? Because feedback is not always fun to hear and imagining is so much better.
You need to reach out to people to ask them in the hope that they will give an honest reply. In some cases, you will get a truthful response. In others, especially if you are their manager, you may get a wishy-washy version or worse, a suck up response.
To build a solid brand, you need to include assessing yourself to better understand what your strengths and shortcomings are. There are many assessments out there, including 360° feedback ones, which are geared to leadership traits and will cost to get e results.
Types of computerized assessments:
Personal assessments to complete to better understand your traits
Feedback assessments where you submit names of your peers, mentors, manager, etc. so, they can complete the questionnaire anonymously, making the responder feel more at ease to give honest feedback
When creating your brand, you need to understand how you are seen so that you can become self-aware of what characteristics you need to improve. For example, you may think you are a self-starter, yet the feedback you receive states that you need to have your hand held and that you complain a lot at the beginning of every assignment. Or you believe that you should not brand yourself because you think people will not follow you, only to find out that they trust your judgement and will follow you in your new venture Feedback allows you to understand someone else’s perception and improve your brand.
Keep in mind, you need to be fully prepared and open-minded to listen to your feedback. If you are someone that believes you guess right all the time on how people view you, you may not be open to feedback that states the contrary. If on the other hand, you are someone that thinks everyone is out to get you, you tend to prepare yourself for the feedback. Regardless, do not seek completing any assessments if you are going to get defensive with the responses you do not like. It will be counter-productive!
There are people that hire a coach who will have the 360° feedback done verbally through interviews, making it a non-biased exercise. In some cases, you will have the coach also include a self-assessment to understand your characteristics. Then they are able to coach you on personal branding. It is wise to check with your company if they offer coaching incentives because you can get a more rounded picture of yourself, establishing a better brand and working on your shortcomings to improve your perception of yourself.
If you are tight on money, paying for a 360° feedback software is not possible. Don’t despair, this isn’t rocket science. You can actually do this with some help from a trusted colleague or friend. You start by listing the characteristics and traits that you believe make up your brand. From there, you formulate the questions you want to ask. Then you have your colleague or friend do the asking. Collect and review the responses. Once you have synthesized the information, you take one trait you want to improve upon and apply self-coaching. This may not be easy to do without a coach, but it is still possible.
The goal is to get more information on yourself, so as to have insight to improve your brand. If you are interested in investing in a coach to improve your brand, go to our Solutions tab for more information.
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