At the Annual GITPRO Global conference in Palo Alto, CA today, I am asked to speak about building your brand and influence. I plan to speak extemporaneously after exploring the needs of those in attendance. As participants gather in the auditorium I plan to catch a few of them randomly and ask them what they struggle with when building their brand and extending their influence. Based on their insights and needs I plan to frame my talk, which will be followed by Q & As. In preparation for that talk I decided to publish this blog so that those who want to come back to what I might say they can refer to its contents. If really interesting questions come up following my talk at GITPRO I plan to publish an addendum to this blog.
In a professional’s career building a brand is important. It is equally important for a company providing a service or product. In the former case, a brand is a promise of value that people come to expect from a professional’s value proposition, how they practice delivering that value, and their reputation. It is an experience delivered by deliberately positioning oneself as an expert in a given area of professional endeavor, carefully verbalizing it so that people understand what that experience is, and then relentlessly working to protect and enhance that experience, so that those at the receiving end get something beyond the expected; they get the exceptional. This requires creating a “Wow factor.”
This “wow factor” flows from one’s unique value proposition. It is not enough merely to have a strong value proposition; it must also be unique to generate high brand equity. Brand equity is the ranking of impact a brand creates by virtue of its uniqueness and power. Metaphorically, if your value proposition is like a tree, then the brand that flows from it is like its shadow. Of course, that shadow and its size depend on the light that shines on the tree and how it is used to create that shadow. What this means is that how one shines light on their value proposition by using the right verbal message greatly decides the nature of the shadow—your brand.
Verbalizing—putting in words—your brand is called verbal branding. Compared to branding by shapes (a Coke bottle, above), colors, sounds, and other sensory perceptions, verbal branding entails capturing the value you provide and its impact in terms of verbal messages. In professional endeavors such as design, engineering, and architecture, your creation stands for your inspiration, but how you verbally capture that and consistently project that language define your verbal brand.
For most professionals in our line of work—engineering and design—our verbal brand flows from our bio, LinkedIn Profile, résumé, and our written work. So, to develop this branding I use the following process to capture my clients’ brand and to help them establish it:
1 I have a process of building what I have called an Inductive résumé. An Inductive résumé is a forward-looking message (“tomorrow”) that captures your value proposition in two different ways: First, its defines more clearly who you are more than what you have done in the past, as most traditional résumés do; second, it narrates your leadership stories of success that spotlight the Aha! or the Wow factor we mentioned before.
2 To communicate who you are the narrative must shift from writing transactional statements of your work or tasks to your accomplishments. Most do not make a distinction between tasks, responsibilities, roles, experience, and their accomplishments. Focusing only on accomplishments with a wow factor can significantly change your narrative. The rest of the factors can be presented to show the context in which you created these accomplishments.
3 Your leadership stories of success stem from your ability to clearly narrate the context in which you framed your challenge and how you mobilized your leadership to conquer the challenge. I have developed a structure for narrating this and I call it the SIMPLE (Situation, Impediment, Measurement, Plan, Leverage, and Effect) approach. Breaking down your story into these elements gives you the richness you need to capture the pith of your leadership story. Finally, reducing this story into 2-3 lines creates a bullet that reads very differently than if you just wrote what the task was.
An example here may be useful: So, instead of stating that as the Regional Sales Manager you managed a team of 12 and achieved quota, if you say, instead, Upon taking charge as RSM quickly discovered that the sales team of 15 was demoralized due to tanking economy and poorly supported products. Established new regime of building account relationships and worked out three poorly performing employees. Trained staff to provide the missing support and rebuilt account trust. Within just three months sales picked up, ending the year on target with a surplus budget.
4 Once you have converged on your message it is a good idea to create a tagline consistent with your value proposition. In the case of your LinkedIn Profile this now becomes your Headline. Using the same tagline consistently (business card, email, LinkedIn) communicate your verbal brand.
5 Seeking feedback from those who come in contact with your work is a good idea to check the alignment between what you intend to convey Vs. what its impact is. Adjusting the message and rechecking can further cement your verbal brand.
Brand building is an arduous process and takes time, effort, and focus. But if you understand the basics of verbal branding it is achievable.
Good luck!