Using the Power of Personal Branding for Leadership Success
“We embarked on consciously building Virgin into a brand which stood for quality, value, fun and a sense of challenge. We also developed these ideas in the belief that our first priority should be the people who work for the companies, then the customers, then the shareholders. Because if the staff are motivated then the customers will be happy, and the shareholders will then benefit through the company's success.” - Richard Branson
Almost every organization is acutely aware of the challenges it faces over the next few years with regards to talent acquisition and development – ensuring that their future leaders are being stimulated and retained within the organization.
Very few however have made the connection between the use of personal branding and employee engagement. This is in part due to the mis-conception that personal branding is going to be used by the employee to develop the necessary visibility and credibility to make a move elsewhere.
In fact the use of personal branding inside an organization is the perfect match for the direction that the job market is heading and with where the demographics of the future talent pool lies. Boomers are retiring at increasing rates and those that are sticking around to work longer in many cases seek many job variables that cannot be satisfied by traditional approaches, for example even though telecommuting has been shown to increase productivity and retention in North America it’s adoption is stagnating in terms of percentage of the workforce being allowed even one day of remote working.
Companies such as Starbucks and Virgin have embraced much of the personal branding concept to develop a culture that recognizes individuality (with in a corporate branded framework), rewards loyalty from day one and ultimately creates an environment that employee and customer alike are drawn to and enjoy interacting in. It is even reported that the key measurement Starbucks looks at for store success is employee satisfaction.
The talent pool of future leaders lies in the under 35 year old age group. The most technologically advanced, non-conformist and individual generation (yet!). They shudder at the thought of being the same as others, they want challenge and variety, whilst still finding an employer that understands that their values and causes are important and supported and that they can connect and communicate at all levels internally and externally with openness (see the rise of corporate sponsored blogging as an example). And they are not afraid to ask for what they want and move on if they do not get heard.
Enter personal branding – built around being authentic and from a strong foundation of building on unique strengths and skills it is a natural fit for the employee that wants control over the direction of their career, but still stays true to what they believe and stand for and encourages them to be themselves.
In many cases this is the first opportunity to design what their work should look like and employees that go through the personal branding process recognize and appreciate the investment in their future that their employer is making – it’s not just another training session, but something that provides them with a concrete career plan that can be followed and they were responsible for creating – the ownership and accountability is the employees.
Corporations that have embraced the concept fully, now take it to the next level and incorporate the personal branding review as part of any other annual review process, and even drill down to quarterly ‘check-ins’. Others have even taken the branding approach to the team stage and looked at creating team brands and messages that can be understood internally, helping everyone to appreciate each others part in the company’s success.
Bottom line is that in an increasingly competitive global market for talent, salary increases and improved benefits are short term fixes that get forgotten or worse still taken for granted – there is always another company out there that can pay a little more. Personal branding provides a much more permanent benefit that can be tied to both corporate goals and individual objectives whilst ensuring that there is less interest or inclination when the competition next comes knocking.
PAUL COPCUTT
E-mail: keynotes (at) paulcopcutt.com Tel: 905-628-1100
SquarePeg Solution, 1063 King Street West, Ste 412, Hamilton. ON L9H 7S1, Canada
Copyright 2011-12 Paul Copcutt & Square Peg Solution Inc
ARTICLES
The Personal Brand Architect
Leveraging employee strengths
for greater engagement and
higher performance.
