Re: Personal Brand
From personal experience, if you are in consulting and are out on an assignment at a major client(or any client for that matter), you can do a nice 'self promotion/touch base with everyone' by sending out a monthly update type email around to your colleagues and bosses(assuming you are working for a consultancy), updating everyone about how well the gig is going, what type of challenges you are facing and how you are overcoming them, maybe make it look like its hardwork but ur dealing with it really well (without sounding cheap or stupid and too self promoting ofcourse)... you can point out some interesting ways the client operates... their change management processes/red tape... how it differs from other 'usual' clients, maybe a couple of funny incidents etc. keeps the bosses updated and you dont return to the office after a 6 month gig feeling like a stranger again because no one knows what you have been upto. All this can be done tactfully to give it the type of flavour you want to give it, based on your goals and how you want to be perceived. I guess this all is applicable to an intra company scenario where you are trying to separate yourself from others by looking more focussed and professional, or maybe making urself the main contender within the company in a niche area and not really as someone out in the market trying to impress potential employers.
Another thing I like to do is just write a brief report about he 'learnings' from a particular project/assignment after its completion and share it with colleagues/bosses... always attracts positive feedback.
Excellent points Kaka... I think these partially answers X2's question regarding how to promote your personal brand. The way I look at it, you've touched upon two important constituents of a personal brand: 1) Business Protocol and 2) Verbal Communications. Both of these are indeed essential in creating a personal brand.
In addition to these, if you read my post above, there’s some obvious blatant self-promotion that needs to be done in a manner that highlights the three elements in personal brand:
- Value Proposition: What do you stand for?
- Differentiation: What makes you stand out? *]Marketability: What makes you compelling? Towards this, the individual needs to establish an inventory of core competencies, expertise, demonstrated abilities, recognitions, endorsements, and positive feedback.