Insights on Using a Personal Brand to Achieve Goals   

Oprah.  Amy Poehler.  Amal Clooney.  A quick impression of these women is evoked when one reads their names. Oprah is thought of as someone who is warm, approachable, and philanthropic.  Amy Poehler is funny, clever, and a good friend.  Amal Clooney is considered brilliant, stylish, and beautiful.  These impressions are part of their personal brand, their outward image that they’ve worked hard to cultivate.

Just like these famous women, typical women are viewed by the public in a particular light as well. For example, a best friend may use these words to describe her friend: active, thoughtful, loyal, and spontaneous.  Now, consider co-workers; they may describe a colleague as serious, service-oriented, driven or understanding.

Impressions are made when people come in contact with one another. Within your family, in your romantic relationships, with your friends, and at work, everyone has a personal brand.  In fact, people who are parents or leaders at work, likely manage the creation of a brand for their family or team.

Discovering one’s own brand and learning how to best use that information to achieve goals may lead to enhanced success in various aspects of life.

What is a personal brand?

The first step to take when considering one’s personal brand is to assess values and personality. A variety of different tests help to get a clear picture of one’s essence, from Myers Briggs and the Enneagram to the StrengthsFinder assessment.  A good place to start is to read Anne Bogel’s new book, Reading People. It gives a great overview of several of the most popular assessments.

Once personality test results have been reviewed, patterns will emerge.  Reading through the assessments and making a list of reoccurring words will allow key terms to become evident and shed some light on one’s own personal brand. More likely than not, the list of words pulled from the personality assessment are also similar to other’s perceptions and ultimately make up a personal brand.

Establishing a Personal Brand

Though personality is a kind of definition of oneself and gives insight to preferences, a person can choose which traits to present to others.  The next step is to determine how to use these results to either grow or change your brand.  Nora Ephron once said,

“We have a game we play when we’re waiting for tables in restaurants, where you have to write the five things that describe yourself on a piece of paper.  When I was [in my twenties], I would have put:  ambitious, Wellesley graduate, daughter, Democrat, single.  Ten years later not one of those five things turned up on my list.  I was:  journalist, feminist, New Yorker, divorced, funny.  Today [in my sixties] not one of those five things turns up in my list:  writer, director, mother, sister, happy.”

This may be true for most.  Five words from ten years ago won’t apply to life today.  This shows that while many innate personality traits are present throughout our lives, people typically grow and change with age and experience, and the most important five things often reflect that.  One thing to note in Nora’s list is that the words from her twenties included terms that described her fitting within a larger group (Democrat, Wellesley graduate).  Her list describing herself in her sixties focused more on the roles she had, not her place within a larger organization of people.

After taking the personality assessments and compiling the list of traits that were evident on multiple lists, one may like what she sees, or must come to terms with characteristics that may not be favorable.  In addition to the assessments, ask a small group of trusted people to write down a list of words that describe you. Compare their lists to the assessments and see what stands out. How similar are the lists? What are the characteristics on their lists that did not show up on the assessments?  Spend some time working on the characteristics that do not show up on both lists.  If there are characteristics that need growth, spend the same time intentionally focused on expanding in those areas.  Then, come together with the same people in a year’s time to evaluate both lists.

The Group’s Brand

People are usually part of one or more groups with a set of values– family, a team at work, or a social organization.  What are these groups’ goals? Does the way time and money is spent align with personal goals?  Blogger Joanna Goddard describes how she and her family have taken the time to pick three words to define their core values.   She notes that their words include “’friendly’ and ‘service,’” and that they’ve been intentional about focusing on these words as they raise their sons.

Businesses have done this for years in an attempt to create a brand for their products.  This article does a great job of explaining brand archetypes, where large companies have created advertising to represent a certain character, such as a “Hero” (Nike) or “Caregiver” (Johnson & Johnson).  It is wise to consider individual brand archetypes in the groups to which one belongs in order to ensure that the right characteristics are being projected.

It’s a worthwhile exercise to define the brand for your family or organization together and to take the time to periodically evaluate that definition to ensure that it’s both accurate and that one’s actions continue to reflect it.

What Role Does One Play?

Another important thing to consider is how a personal brand fits into the world.  For example, a person may be a leader in a family group because of exceptional organizational skills or forward-looking personality.  However, those same leadership skills may not shine at work if you’re surrounded by a team of Type A driven personalities.

Take time to assess the role of a personal brand in different groups and determine what traits are most valued.  For instance, a straight-shooting boss who values short, direct communication may overlook an employee for promotion if she only communicates with the boss in wordy e-mails.  However, if strength for analytics sets one apart from the rest of a peer group, continue to emphasize this strength while modifying communication to fit the boss’s style.

If one’s personality and brand doesn’t match up with the skills needed to succeed in a situation one does not need to abandon who she is. However, it does bring to light opportunities for tension and opens up an opportunity to tweak some traits that may need improvement.

People make an impression with everyone they meet.  It’s worth taking the time to establish a personal brand and to become intentional about casting a vision for oneself.  Companies put millions of dollars into researching and creating their branding, and it impacts the way the public interacts with them.  It’s worth considering how you and the groups that you’re vested in can become more focused on your goals by establishing an individual brand.

Feature Photo Courtesy of Oprah Winfrey