Admitting you were wrong is a powerful learning lesson for people in general - nice work and post.

However, my experience with sr. executives, politicians, and independent business owners shows personal brand strategies long before Tom Peter's great article. His insight and mainstream acceptance of rapid job and career change has brought the urgency to build a brand and communication strategy. It is just getting started...happy brand building!

Hi Gill,

Very interesting discussion. The way I see executives and business leaders in multi-national companies branding themselves, is very much focused towards differentiating themselves from the crowed. I think this is, in many cases, a major force that is driving the power of personal branding.
On the other hand, in many management courses, an advise is given for executives to "be yoursefl". In this case, how can executives brand themselves in a way that will keep the "be yourself" commitment as a differentiator?

Many thanks !!

Gill, Like many older people I was brought up to believe that modesty was an important quality. That is not to say I have ever knowingly undersold myself in my career. Self promotion has always been an essential component of a successful person. I agree with you that changes within business, such as the fluidity and internationalisation of teams, means quiet self belief of the sort I believe I embody is no longer enough to ensure career progress. An ambitious young person must deliberately cultivate an image as if he or she was a product like a car. It is a matter of regret in my view that modesty is a thing of the past. But it is today's world.

Great subject and one that will become a theme for tomorrows successful leader.

The dilemma for the post modern manager is "how do I manage my self in an organisational setting and retain the candour and humanity that is (or at least should be) not negotiable?". We can do this if we can distinguish the boundary between the culture we are members of organisationally and our personal boundaries.

Quite a balancing act.........the force to be versus the joy of being

Dear Gill,

I'd add the fact that we are now in a networked world, where there are much more transparent markets in talent. We know from common sense, and from auction theory, that as there is a more liquid market, and more "bidders" the value of "quality" increased. So, with the vast global networks of professionals emerging, the relative importance of personal brand, so that you don't get lost, and the economic value of being well known - is increasing at an increasing rate.

I was on a panel with Mike Gamson from Linked In last week at the Kellogg School's technology conference, and he said that Linked In -- whose goal is to become the world's largest professional network -- took over 480 days to get their first million members. The last million came in in 28 days. They are now at just under 20 million members and growing faster all the time.

Brand, in a vast, global, growing market like this is worth a lot.

Best,

John

I agree with Alan Whitaker that modesty is the least admired quality today and it is very easy for me to observe working as Human Resources Officer and in the particularly dynamic ICT sector. The median age at my organisation is 24 and sometimes I feel that the behaviour is at least at a quarter that. New employees expect to be treated as individuals in organisations that are basically conglomerations of human beings. All work is group effort as people depend on each other to complete projects. There is an unsettling desire to be coodled personally. The refrain is 'I don't care what everybody else done, this is happening to me.' The more dramatic the tantrum the more individual a person is considered and it is proving very disruptive in the workplace especially for an African like myself where, for example, a parent's love is taken for granted and need not be demonstrated with hugs and kisses! Personal Branding can surely co-exist with teamwork in my world. Why is it so difficult for Generation Y to get with THAT?

In the "old days," only a handful of people were known outside of their immediate circle of friends and acquaintances. So there was no reason to worry about your "brand" when just about everyone who might care about it knew who you were already. But along came the ability to search the Internet -- for anybody. Who hasn’t put their own name into Google to see what shows up? Now there are vast numbers of people who might find out something about you. And since you can’t actually meet all of those people, you need to think about what they see and read about you. You need to think about your brand.

The Internet has also enabled amazing levels of self-expression -- from YouTube to MySpace to blogs. There’s a wide array of opportunities to broadly communicate personal information. These communications represent free channels for marketing your personal brand.

Do you want to know who I am? Read my blog: http://experiencematters.wordpress.com/

Dear Gill,

I agree with you to some extent on your viewpoint of personal branding. I however am also aware of the negatives that such an approach can bring up in organisations. The individualistic personal branding approach if followed constructively can help boost a person's career. If followed in the wrong spirit it can spell disaster for team work and productivity in a group.

1. Firstly, if an intelligent person is concentrating more on personal branding then they are most probably sacrificing time and energy that could be more constructive in business or research or whatever they are good at.

2. Secondly, I believe that this can be a team spirit killer if adopted by people who anyways do not have any chemistry for working together and are thrown in a team to do so.

3. Thirdly, the damage can be huge on an organisation if they end up having leaders that are good at personal branding but not really good at running the company and leading it to its next level of growth.

Dear Gill,

I am in agreement with personnal branding if the following principles are followed:

Strong self knowledge in order to promote individual unique strenghts and interests

Understanding that one individual does not have it all, find a niche

Authenticity

Develop ability to promote oneself honestly to the right audience

In this very complex world you have to chose and decide where you want to go and when, be in the driver's seat for your career otherwise you will go under the radar and others will move ahead of you.

Personal branding has been with us since people organised into societies. It has gone under many names since that time. What Gill and readers have identified correctly in my opinion is the impact of the increasing complexity of the means of communications between individuals. Instead of functioning within local, regional or national entities many people work now in international and multicultural environments. Since communication today is often electronic and impersonal so it becomes vital for a person to develop an identity, which can also be called a brand.If they do not do this they can be reduced in their working lives to an email address.

So many interesting responses to my post – thank-you for taking the time to engage in the debate. Some really interesting points are emerging:

1. Personal Branding is important at every level – not just the top
As David says, Personal Branding is something senior executives and business owners have long done to raise their profile and differentiate themselves. Think Richard Branson of Virgin, Bernard Arnault of LVMh, Warren Buffett of Berskhire Hathaway – and what their personal branding says for them. Today’s business pressures mean that everyone has to consider their personal brand.

2. Balancing your branding with authenticity
How can you develop a personal brand and remain true to yourself? Good question, Mohamed. You are right to say that it’s a fine line between raising your profile and keeping real.

Manon offers some useful guidelines for this – (a) Strong self knowledge can help you promote unique strengths and interests (b) Understanding that one individual does not have it all, you can find a niche for yourself and (c) Learn how to promote oneself honestly to the right audience. Great advice!

3. The power of the internet and social networking sites
Bruce is absolutely right – anyone can ‘Google’ you or check you out on Face Book or YouTube, so you better make sure that social networking sites communicate personal information about you effectively! Use them as positive ways to enhance your brand.

The story about LinkedIn’s members from John was fascinating as it shows the exponential growth of these sites. He also makes the important point that it is easy to get lost in this vast, networked world – so don’t forget the economic value of being well known. William puts this more succinctly – make sure you are not reduced to an email address!

4. Don’t take the brand too far….
Evelyn and Alan make the important point that modesty and restraint are important factors in managing your profile. Generation Y’s demands and tantrums can be too much – quiet (but visible) self-belief is admirable in the face of such relentless self-promotion. Restraint might prove an important differentiator.

Rachna is right to point out the dangers of over-reliance on personal branding –it can result in time-wasting, excessive individualism that undermines team spirit and over-selling of talent that can result in a badly managed organisation. You have been warned!

5. Finally…the postmodern manager’s dilemma
I really like this question from Adrian….how do we remain human in a corporate culture? I have often wondered how and why people become ‘corporate’ in everything from their dress to their thinking and speaking. I am sure you have all come across people who switch to corporate mode when asked a challenging question about their company. Howe do we define where the personal and the corporate boundaries end? I think we need a discussion on this – watch out for my blog in the next couple of weeks!

Thanks again to all the contributors – and please keep your comments coming.

I used to have a great boss. He never claimed credit for work done by the team. He went out of his way to make sure senior management knew what we were doing. My new boss is not like this. He works hard but makes sure senior management knows it. If any of the team comes up with a great idea he gives the impression that he was behind it. He is too clever to do this bluntly but somehow everyone always thinks he is the genius behind the idea. People are always talking about him and saying he s destined for great things. He gives the impression that he doesn't care what he looks like but recently I have noticed that he only wears expensive designer clothes which are always carefully rumpled. Having read Gill and her readers I can see now that he is cultivating his own brand.

Choosing and eventually getting on the path that suits you is tricky business. Mentors can help, personal experiences and trial and error are also key factors in solving the puzzle. The personal brand should represent the in process journey toward that goal. Being true to yourself, your values, interests, and goals are key ingredients to being authentic, a key element in how you define/brand yourself.

Good luck, I have a site in alpha designed to help folks build a free personal brand. Comments welcome. I still have a lot to do.

Dear Ms Corkindale,

Personal Branding is human nature gone Hi Tech. The Social Networking opportunities connected with the global growth of personal wealth and freedom have invited human nature to take the global stage of recognition. Writing ones own script is where the challenge lies. There is a strong moral element to personal branding. Those who chose to brand for pure personal agggrandizement are seen as selfish, taking and not contributing to society as a whole. Those who tie their brand to a cause that contributes to the good of mankind, are seen as givers to mankind and leave a lasting personal brand that becomes a legacy worth leaving.

Great post Gill. Truly. I'd like to comment on the aspect of retaining the human element in the "corporate" world ... I was recently discussing this with some colleagues. Somehow you're expected to dress, speak, walk, present, and "act" a certain way to be part of the corporate culture. For many this is not who they are. To quote Shakespear "To thine own self be true" ... What saddens me is where I work that element has been expolited far and wide that people are isolated, people have nothing to talk to each other about except work, many eat their lunches alone and in many cases afraid to socialize with others for fear their individuality may not "fit" into the accepted norm. Some even give you a surprised look when you say "hey" to them in the elevator, or "enjoy your day" ...

Looking forward to your upcoming blog on this!!

Warm greetings to all from Dubai

Hi Gill,
Great post and I am sorry that I only read it now because there has been some good comments from others. I am curious - it appears that 'personal branding' and 'self promotion' go hand in hand. Is it possible that a person may have a strong personal brand without major self promotion? Some people whom you have never met, can walk in to a room and command a presence. Is that their personal brand? And if it is - how did they build it and you sense it if you have never met them before?
ian

Gill,

Here are my views:

1. Personal branding to some extent is no longer a choice. In the world where your career and to some extent personal history is available at the click of a button, you have to maintain a branding and a messaging about who you are. You consciously highlight some part of you and underplay the others.

2. While each one of us needs to be conscious of our brand / image, spending too much time on, can be counter-productive as one would become too self centered and this is bound to impact teams that one works in.

Striking a balance between the two is the key.

Yes, I believe that Personal Branding is the order of the day.

Like my coach, used to say:

" Do the good work,

and let the World Know

that you did the good work".

Thanks
Manoj Onkar
India

Gill,
what maybe being slightly overlooked in this interesting response to your article is the importance of Context in any brand evaluation - particularly in terms of the interaction between corporate brand and personal brand. This is often described as the "psychological contract" individuals and institutions establish between themselves. Nowhere can this be more telling than in start up situations, where imature brands are often disproportionately valued (tacitly at least) based on the personal brand value of the founding team or individuals.
For the individual it is important that this should be a two way contract - and that personal brand value will not necessarily be maximised by heavy handed plouging of personal furrows. Instead individuals should remember the value of the truism of bringing the corporate brand to life, and thereby your part (and fit) with it. For the corporation, understanding that its brand is a conglomeration of brand elements that need expert co-ordination and network management will be as fundemental as judicious segmentation of external customers.

Hi Gill:

The topic of personal branding is not new. I first used the term personal branding several years before Tom made a personal brand out of personal branding, but I digress...

You correctly referenced two of the real business drivers behind the proliferation of personal branding in your post when you touched upon the impact of globalization and social media. While personal brands have always existed (they used to be referred to as your reputation), they have simply become more relevant in today's Internet driven world.

In order to stand out from the crowd, and to be heard above the deafening amount of noise and rhetoric you must develop a strong personal brand that becomes visible across markets, mediums and constituencies.

The simple truth is that everyone has a personal brand of sorts...An honest evaluation of anyone's personal brand will show one of the following:
- a personal brand in stealth mode;
- a personal brand that is shaped by others by default, or;
- a personal brand which is carefully managed by design.

For more information on personal branding feel free to go to http://www.n2growth.com/blog