One key to growing your power is to recognize the simple fact that we now live in a project world. Almost all work today is organized into bite-sized packets called projects. A project-based world is ideal for growing your brand: projects exist around deliverables, they create measurables, and they leave you with braggables. If you're not spending at least 70% of your time working on projects, creating projects, or organizing your (apparently mundane) tasks into projects, you are sadly living in the past. Today you have to think, breathe, act, and work in projects.
Project World makes it easier for you to assess -- and advertise -- the strength of brand You. Once again, think like the giants do. Imagine yourself a brand manager at Procter & Gamble: When you look at your brand's assets, what can you add to boost your power and felt presence? Would you be better off with a simple line extension -- taking on a project that adds incrementally to your existing base of skills and accomplishments? Or would you be better off with a whole new product line? Is it time to move overseas for a couple of years, venturing outside your comfort zone (even taking a lateral move -- damn the ladders), tackling something new and completely different?
Whatever you decide, you should look at your brand's power as an exercise in new-look résumé; management -- an exercise that you start by doing away once and for all with the word "résumé." You don't have an old-fashioned résumé anymore! You've got a marketing brochure for brand You. Instead of a static list of titles held and positions occupied, your marketing brochure brings to life the skills you've mastered, the projects you've delivered, the braggables you can take credit for. And like any good marketing brochure, yours needs constant updating to reflect the growth -- breadth and depth -- of brand You.
Everyone is saying that loyalty is gone; loyalty is dead; loyalty is over. I think that's a bunch of crap.
I think loyalty is much more important than it ever was in the past. A 40-year career with the same company once may have been called loyalty; from here it looks a lot like a work life with very few options, very few opportunities, and very little individual power. That's what we used to call indentured servitude.
Today loyalty is the only thing that matters. But it isn't blind loyalty to the company. It's loyalty to your colleagues, loyalty to your team, loyalty to your project, loyalty to your customers, and loyalty to yourself. I see it as a much deeper sense of loyalty than mindless loyalty to the Company Z logo.
I know this may sound like selfishness. But being CEO of Me Inc. requires you to act selfishly -- to grow yourself, to promote yourself, to get the market to reward yourself. Of course, the other side of the selfish coin is that any company you work for ought to applaud every single one of the efforts you make to develop yourself. After all, everything you do to grow Me Inc. is gravy for them: the projects you lead, the networks you develop, the customers you delight, the braggables you create generate credit for the firm. As long as you're learning, growing, building relationships, and delivering great results, it's good for you and it's great for the company.
That win-win logic holds for as long as you happen to be at that particular company. Which is precisely where the age of free agency comes into play. If you're treating your résumé as if it's a marketing brochure, you've learned the first lesson of free agency. The second lesson is one that today's professional athletes have all learned: you've got to check with the market on a regular basis to have a reliable read on your brand's value. You don't have to be looking for a job to go on a job interview. For that matter, you don't even have to go on an actual job interview to get useful, important feedback.
The real question is: How is brand You doing? Put together your own "user's group" -- the personal brand You equivalent of a software review group. Ask for -- insist on -- honest, helpful feedback on your performance, your growth, your value. It's the only way to know what you would be worth on the open market. It's the only way to make sure that, when you declare your free agency, you'll be in a strong bargaining position. It's not disloyalty to "them"; it's responsible brand management for brand You -- which also generates credit for them.
It's over. No more vertical. No more ladder. That's not the way careers work anymore. Linearity is out. A career is now a checkerboard. Or even a maze. It's full of moves that go sideways, forward, slide on the diagonal, even go backward when that makes sense. (It often does.) A career is a portfolio of projects that teach you new skills, gain you new expertise, develop new capabilities, grow your colleague set, and constantly reinvent you as a brand.
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Recent Comments | 58 Total
September 10, 2008 at 2:34am by Huynh Phuoc Nghia
This is great way to approach this concept !
Thanks
September 21, 2008 at 9:26pm by robina bedwell
This is an inspiring approach to professional self development. Thanks you.
January 1, 2009 at 2:01am by KARAN KUMAR
The article is about YOU
Building the real YOU.
And who else but YOU can build YOU.
It gives us excellent insights into creating a brand out of YOU.
Right from creating , making it get noticed and building the BRAND.
It requires you to be an all rounder.SERIOULSY.
The article tells us about how to use the real power of YOU-
It gives you the importance of loyalty.Shares with you the importance of win-win situations in this era.
Its all building a better YOU - combining all your strengths into one,picking the best from the people around you,taking together as a team your people,constant motivaion and being responsible .
Being a teammate,leader,active listener and a far-sighted "imagineer".
After all you are the in-charge of YOUR brand.So,start today and make yourself vibe.
January 1, 2009 at 7:31pm by Siddharth Manuja
A very interesting take on how every person is a brand unto himself.Looking at oneself as a company would at its brand can really provide a person with a refreshing new perspective.Tom Peters is deservedly called the "father of branding". He was right back in the late 90's and he is right today. Those who succeed do so because they understand who they are, the authentic value they offer, and can clearly and consistently articulate it
January 2, 2009 at 2:34pm by Samiksha Rajput
This article gives new vision to look at carrier path .
In day today life we all are doing some or other project and this step by step handling of any project is imbibed in our mind so much that it’s now easy for us to look at our self and our carrier as one of the biggest project. And when we are dealing with “you company” we have to start with brand building. Building “YOU” brand and looking at carrier with this perspective is valuable because this approach gives us opportunity to apply all stereotype methods of materialistic world to our self.
For building “You” brand we can use “Power”,”project”, “Communication” and “loyalty” as the benchmark for evaluating our own success.
This thinking also emphasizes on treating “YOU” as a brand and taking steps to build loyal and successful brand.
The baseline for all this discussion is “when one work for oneself he delivers the best “and hence if person is motivated to look at himself as a company he would take it seriously and the results would be quicker and better.
January 2, 2009 at 11:34pm by Rohit Majumdar
Its a brand new 'brand' world indeed.
The need to differentiate yourself from the crowd has become paramount in the search for professional glory.
Peters with his inimitable style & chutzpah gives us a crash course on how to brand ourselves, how to become the
chief brand managers of brand 'Me'.
In the internet economy, becoming your own 'free agent' is a concept that is so powerful in its simplicity. Your
brand is in your hands.. you can mould it, shape it in any way you think will offer you visibility.
But is it only a means to an end? Will branding only help you to get page hits on your website, or a readership of
your blog or book? I feel that's a very myopic look at the whole thing..
To undertake a self branding exercise, we are required to often take a hard look at ourselves & ask - "what do I
have that others are not able to offer"? what is my unique selling proposition?
so in a way branding also lets us embark on a journey of self discovery & self awareness and since people have
really smartened up in the information age, it has become all the more difficult to pull a con job & play sleight of
hand to misdirect the target audience.
You need to very carefully choose and cultivate the features that you'd want to showcase to launch brand 'You'.
January 3, 2009 at 12:26am by Priyanka Ingle
Must say a gr8 aticle to start the New Year with.It stimulates self-motivation in reader.It carves out the framework to make the YOU brand a real success starting from understanding YOU as a brand then to visibiity-word of mouth,Project world,win win logic,feedback concept and career as a checkboard having lot of possibilities.I am gonna reflect on all these to encash its value.
January 3, 2009 at 12:30am by rahul gautam
Excellent article emphasizing on the equality of opportunities to everyone in this Global Business Era.In the current scenario,everyone is looked up as an individual brand,so its up to us to create a brand out of ourselves,to create a brand called 'YOU' which would help us to stand out from the crowd.So be an opportunist and create urself into a brand so that big organisations and brand would look up to you as their future leaders
January 3, 2009 at 1:01am by arpit sharma
An eye opener article to read when u just wake up in 09....it tells me about how important it is to market n create a brand value for oneself..the corelation between the companies n an individual is interesting...
January 3, 2009 at 1:18am by Abhinav Suri
The article definitely makes you think of Brand YOU. May be knowingly or unknowingly we all are creating a brand ‘Me’. We always try to get an edge over other people, create a bigger space which will satisfy our power needs. I personally believe that power is one of the most important motivator, even bigger a motivator than money or anything else. But the important thing to understand here is how one gets that power status. No body gets more power then he deserves and no one should be satisfied with anything less than that. So it is mandatory that every individual understand himself and conducts himself in a manner that will do justice to his skills and caliber and he should not be ashamed in asking for what he thinks he deserves.
January 3, 2009 at 1:29am by Sharmistha Biswas
The brand You is the oldest brand that has the most variety in its product line!!!The brand building process has already been set rolling..its now about positioning it while we keep the innovation clock ticking...
January 3, 2009 at 1:35am by Ami Jhaveri
"Everyone has a chance to stand out".The article says everyone understands this-big companies, every single Website sponsor and professional service firms too.WE need to realize this more than ever today.Great way to communicate this concept!!
January 3, 2009 at 2:20am by Liju Mathew
Well when I read the first paragraph of the article I couldn’t stop myself from reading the rest of it, it kept me really glued to the article.
It made me think of the brand which I never bothered of thinking of and that is “YOU”.
It’s all about how we are going to market ourselves in today’s world.
It gave me insight on "personal branding" that is how to develop ourselves into a brand, an unused and the most powerful tool in one’s hand.
It also dealt about the fact that if we have to become a brand we need to focus on what adds value, something that we are strong of and can take credit for.
The most important part of this article was that it gave high regard for "word-of-mouth marketing", which is the most important marketing instrument that we have got so as to build ourselves a powerful brand “YOU”.
We will need to absorb the concept “YOU” into us, to have the edge over others.
January 3, 2009 at 2:47am by mudit murarka
Intresenting article to begin with new year.In the competetive world how important is to market and create the brand value called "YOU".Every individual has to understand his power do justic to his skill and potential which is inculcated in the individual.
January 3, 2009 at 2:58am by Pavan Swaminathan
There s a line which made a lot of sense to me : "Define what you see as success - for some it might be money ,for others it could be power or Fame and for yet others ,it might just be to be able to do what they love the most". Nice article and a nice way to address the issue of individualism.
January 3, 2009 at 2:59am by rome mele
Nice article. Well, no wonder we keep thinking about ourselves for whole of our lives... and no wonder we like looking at the mirror along that.
Regards
Rome
www.arunachalblogspot.com
January 3, 2009 at 3:41am by neha rawat
My father always told me that it is not that intelligent people do something different, its just that they do things differently. To survive the cut-throat competition one should be smart enough to be able to distinguish themselves from the other smarties. Right from school it was ingrained in us that "It is not necessary to be perfect in whatever u do but to excel in whatever u take up." They always asked us to introspect and realize what u are good at and then make it your strength and hence your USP. Your USP is something that will take you places in this highly competitve world is what they always said. This article for me was nothing more than a reminder and extension of what i learnt since school but definitely with a more modern approach.
January 3, 2009 at 3:45am by Sonal Goenka
This article is all about the brand YOU and how important branding is in today's world. No matter what field you are in, your product should have a strong impact on the customers.
YOU as a brand is strong, as the article says. They have a very different work culture and everything works very quickly. The employees hired, if they are smart enough can make the brand more stronger.
January 3, 2009 at 4:49am by NANCY RAWAT
Brand - Its about creating your own identity.
Its about creating YOU.Building YOU.
In today's world everything you wear , everything you own or would like to own is branded.
Each gives an own individual identity.
Strat identifying yourself - your qualities that make you distinct from the others in the crowd.
Playing different roles at different situations and making sure you are constantly in tune with the brand YOU.
These could be your strenghts,your job,the value addition you do and the goals you wish to achieve.
The next in line is to market yourself.Its about making you heard and felt.It's being honest to you and keep moving inspite of the hurdles.
You must have a long term prospect - where does the brand YOU goes ahead.How to achieve it.The aim should be clear and constantly motivating.
It's indeed simple- you need to manage YOU-YOUR BRAND.
January 3, 2009 at 5:07am by Kuldeep Kashyap
The article gives us the insights about creating our own brand ,it gives us the very simple steps to achieve success in business or life
the steps are-
1) Identify the qualities that makes you distinctive from others.
2) Think about the things that can add remarkable,measureable,distinguish and distinctive value in you.
3) Increase your visibility
4) Analyze the feature and benefits you are giving to your customers.
5) Continuously evaluate your self,how you as a brand is doing.
6) Never limit your scope.
In short to achive success you need to continuously evaluate, adapt and improve yourself.
January 3, 2009 at 5:18am by Mohit Mittal
Nice article. Brand definitely do play an important role in today's competitive world. Today everyone is trying to build brand whether it is student in mind of a teacher, or any company regarding its product, subordinates in the mind of their bosses. Millions of products are their in the market but consumer can remind hundreds of product out of them because of their brand awareness.
January 3, 2009 at 5:21am by mobashir parwez
its a nice article to start new year..The most important part of this article was that it gave high regard for "word-of-mouth marketing", which is the most important marketing instrument.
January 3, 2009 at 5:25am by akanchha sahai
Brand building in context of individualism as the foremost reqirement has been enlisted here with the known fact that every product or service has a brand image that induce everyone to adopt that image.Individual branding in terms of efficiency in profession is the recommended solution.In the overcommunicated society standing as an important entity is what the building a brand for yourself is.
January 3, 2009 at 12:02pm by Siddharth Manuja
Extols the "virtue of selfishness" not as we have come to accept the meaning of selfishness but more in an Ayn Rand mold.The case made for individualism blending it with the application of branding to one's life,in essence building the brand called you is truly commendable
January 3, 2009 at 12:51pm by Millan Samal
Gives a completely new dimension to branding.Tom Peters,when this article originally came out a decade ago felt that the idea of "being a brand" was ahead of its time,but it fits much more readily into today's world.It forces you to rethink the perception you have of yourself.It might be a bit hard to accept at first but it can make for a profound learning experience once we accept that we are all,already,walking brands.
January 3, 2009 at 11:13pm by Vikas Tiwari
It is a wonderful idea, although i believe that everyone of us in our own ways subconsciously do some of these things, but to put it in perspective is a nice thought.
I think not even what we represent is essential, even with what brands we associate ourselves with sends a clear message out to others.
January 3, 2009 at 11:32pm by Som Indora
Yes this is a good article to think and help me recall our session of MRA Camp, the only difference is the message is in MBA language and which is clear " Make yourself ‘Branded’ ",or Make yourself ‘ Unique ‘ and ‘ Loud ‘. ‘Every person in this world is unique with unique trait/s’ this line is also known by everyone .the only thing is identification and carry it to the highest level.Brand yourself to world but true at your heart, “don’t copy”.
January 4, 2009 at 3:15am by Saket Dhotre
Wonderfully well-written article especially the part where Tom talks about career of an individual being a checkerboard. It holds so true in today’s times where every individual is trying to outdo others, trying to reach his/her goals by taking the shortest possible route in the maze called LIFE.
January 5, 2009 at 5:10am by mahip agarwal
A very good and well written article . This article clearly high lights the need to marketing and branding of the most valuable asset "WE, OURSELF". it shows us how important it is to branding of "YOU" how important it has become in today's life. A very nicely illustrated article and the way it shows us how unintentionally we market ourself, and i completely agree with the points put before us.
January 5, 2009 at 5:31am by Ronny Kochery
Has it ever crossed your mind why is it that "YOU" didn't get that promotion you deserved or why "YOU" were overlooked for the new assignment? "You" probably deserved it, but no one knew that you did, basically because you failed to market the brand called "YOU".
What i find here in this article is what I have always believed in...YOU are a brand and need to be managed by "YOU". I also believe that to truly make a Brand of yourself you need to truly be "worth it"...no one believes in brands that do not have any value. What I find most interesting in this article is the need for you to learn and improve yourself and thus create and maintain YOUR brand value. Wouldn't it be great if everyone thought this way and worked at self improvement to change their own personal brand image...that way we would have people striving to achieve their fullest potential at all times. Interesting isn't it?
January 5, 2009 at 6:42am by Shakti Pandey
the article was quite fascinating in a way as i had a pre-conceived notion to enter the competitive arena with big support (as in behemoth organisations)or to be part of that culture to make it big.so i always feared what to do if i dont have this support. but now i feel more relaxed and liberated as i am a brand in myself....
January 5, 2009 at 6:48am by Rohit Bhatnagar
i heard this self branding concept in class but i always had doubts whether it will work or not for me. i was sceptic about going against the conventional wisdom and knowledge to make big. but now i feel more confident about myself as a brand and it has made me think into unchartered areas that i would not have thought of....
April 12, 2009 at 1:03pm by Jarrod Weaton
Great Article. As a designer, I create brand identity for the company I design for. Thinking about using those skills to build my own brand is very interesting. Thank you.
June 11, 2009 at 3:01am by hank jmatt
Well...Excellent article emphasizing on the equality of opportunities to everyone in this Global Business Era.In the current scenario,everyone is looked up as an individual brand,so its up to us to create a brand out of ourselves,to create a brand called 'YOU' which would help us to stand out from the crowd.So be an opportunist and create urself into a brand so that big organisations and brand would look up to you as their future leaders.. club penguin
June 30, 2009 at 2:04am by Zin Zin
Your post make my brain bright now, now I must have a plan to build a great brand for myself.
Thank you.
Ezinez
July 6, 2009 at 2:49pm by Robert Johnson
I always believed that everything we do is marketing, or rather branding ourselves one way or the other.
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July 18, 2009 at 1:24am by Joana Mariam
Thats a good article.
Every individual has to understand his power do justic to his skill and potential which is inculcated in the individual.
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July 21, 2009 at 10:19am by Garry Wertu
Excellent article emphasizing on the equality of opportunities to everyone in this Global Business Era.In the current scenario,everyone is looked up as an individual brand,so its up to us to create a brand out of ourselves,to create a brand called 'YOU' which would help us to stand out from the crowd.
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July 22, 2009 at 5:47am by AnnaLee AnnaLee
It’s moderate to select the best writing service, when people know about The Brand Called You.
August 3, 2009 at 10:16am by Mike Shine
This was truly inspiring and motivational! Right on time.