Winning Strategies

Managing your brand

By Larry G. Linne

My five daughters give me “the look” every August when I sit them down for a talk before school starts. I ask them questions and help them think about the year ahead. The most powerful question I ask is, “At the end of this school year, what do you want people to think and say about you?”

Although the answers are similar with each child, each of them will give me a slightly different response that matches her individual personality, style, skills, and passion. One of them always tells me she “wants to be known as a leader.” My 10-year-old will tell me she “wants to be known as sweet and helpful.”

My question is powerful, but I think my follow-up question has the real power. I ask my daughters what they must do, and what they must not do, for people to think those desired thoughts about them. This question is not as easy to answer. They have to think. They ponder and start working through the answers. I usually have to give them some ideas and help them with the cause and effect equations. But they always come to complete clarity on what behaviors, actions, appearance, and efforts are required to manage their brand.

In our family, we don’t hide the fact that, even as kids, they are going to be managing their brand. In fact, we use that term. My wife thought I was being too corporate when we first started this exercise, but now she is on board 100%. “Manage your brand” is a common term in our house now. All year long, the kids make decisions based on how their actions will affect their brand.

When my wife and I had our first discussion about the importance of doing this exercise, we realized that our kids already had brands. Other kids already had thoughts about our kids. Teachers and neighbors could give very detailed and opinionated descriptions of our children. As I explained the concepts of brand management, it was eye-opening for my wife to learn that everyone already has a brand.

One of our daughters went to my wife the other day and asked what she thought of something she wanted to write on a social media site. My wife answered beautifully when she said, “Manage your brand.” My daughter was able to make the decision for herself.

I speak frequently to people in the business environment about managing their personal brands. I get a lot of frowns and eye rolling as I try to express the importance of proactively managing a personal brand. Many people feel it is manipulative, dishonest, and selfish. I struggle to get them to realize that they already have a brand. It doesn’t matter if you manage it or not—you still have a brand. I can ask people in your life what they think of you, how you act, what value you bring to them, and what they can expect from you, and they will quickly start talking.

You already have a brand!

You may say: “Okay, so I have a brand…so what? What difference does it make if I manage it purposefully or not?”

How about the CEO of an organization who wishes he could focus on his highest and best-use talents, but everyone comes to him for every problem and every decision in the company? He constantly complains about it and wishes they would just make decisions without him. Looks like his brand is “problem solver.” What about the salesperson whose clients call her for every need? She wishes they would call her service staff or someone else so she could have time to sell more new accounts. Looks like her brand is “service staff.”

I could go on and on about negative brand examples. But the power of personal branding comes on the positive and proactive side. I know a CEO who is known as a great presenter and executive presence in front of clients and prospects. Everyone in the organization protects his calendar and makes sure they get him in front of as many clients and prospects as possible every week because of his talent. He gets terrific results, and the organization benefits from his skill. His brand is “executive presence and excellent presenter.”

Brand as a connector

Your brand tells people how and when they should connect with you. An extremely talented salesperson I have worked with has defined his brand in three ways. He is a connector of people, a measurement specialist, and a risk awareness expert. He lets his clients and prospects know these components of his brand, and they connect with him when they need something in those areas. He has masterfully attached his personal brand to the company brand. The personal and company brands complement each other, and it is clear to clients what to expect and what they will get from him.

So, just as I ask my children every year (and myself), I ask you: What do you want people to think about you? In a business environment, I ask a more formal question. What are the clear, powerful, positive thoughts you want people to have when they think of you? This is where you begin to build a brand. It isn’t very difficult to come up with a list of things that you want people to think of when they think of you. The hard part is coming up with “powerful” items. Sure, we can come up with honest, trustworthy, fair, and other common terms. The key is to come up with powerful thoughts that will differentiate you and get people excited about the value you would bring to them.

The next challenge is coming up with the things you have to do and the things you cannot do that will influence others’ thinking about your brand. A salesperson who has a brand of “connectivity” has to frequently connect people to others who bring them value. That’s easy. But what would hurt his brand? His brand would become weak if he started talking negatively about others, connecting with the wrong people, or connecting someone to a business that gives a bad result. So he has to do his homework and research and be sure of his relationships.

We are living in a world of fast and furious information transfer. Your brand is expanding further and faster than it would have just a few years ago. Today your brand can be established, changed, and communicated faster and more purposefully than at any time in history. It’s a great opportunity to influence how you want others to think about you. Let’s look at a few ways to manage the brand of a CEO.

Just tell ’em. As simple as this may sound, once you have established your desired brand, tell the people around you what it is. If you give people an expectation about who you are and how you want to be known, they will usually help you get there. But be careful. You need to be certain about your ability to deliver on this brand. People will help you, but they will also hold you accountable. The best person to know your brand is your spouse. Assessing one another’s brand has been one of the best relationship activities my wife and I have done in our marriage.

We have expressed our desired personal brands to each other. We have communicated changes to those brands as the years have passed. We are very supportive in helping each other stay on track with our brand. This exercise has helped me be accountable to be the person I want to be. In the same way, this technique creates accountability for you to become your desired brand. My daughter is a leader, but she is a better leader because she has expressed the desire to lead to us and to others, and we help her become what she desires.

Social media. If you aren’t on it yourself, someone else has you on it. Social media is so large and powerful that everyone is mentioned at least somewhere on a social media site. Either you are talking about yourself or someone is talking about you. Everything that gets posted about you is now a part of your brand. I have made mistakes in this area, and I see mistakes made every day by people who unintentionally are sending a message to the world about who they are.

Let me give an example. I was in a discussion with a small group of people the other day about a guy in the insurance industry. We were talking positively about this person and thinking of ways to support and help him. All of these people are on a couple of different social media sites. Out of the blue, one person said, “I’m concerned that he’s spending too much nonproductive time on social media. He posts stuff all day long. I get so many posts from him that I don’t even read them anymore.” Then the others chimed in. “I was just thinking the same thing,” and “I stopped reading his posts a few weeks ago,” and “I’m tired of hearing that he woke up, says goodnight, and is eating dinner.” His brand has become a negative one. The guy’s intentions are great. He wants to be on the cutting edge of technology and post everything he is thinking about the business. But his frequent posts about trivial personal details were too much.

So, my advice is to think about what you put on your social media sites. Use them because they are a powerful tool to help you connect and get conversations started to help your business. But realize that everything you write will affect what others think of you. Be purposeful.

Walk through the office. What do people in your company think about you? You may be surprised. The next time you walk through your office, think about each person you see and think about how you communicate with them, when you communicate with them, your facial expressions, how you dress, what you drive, and what your office looks like, and guess what each person would be thinking about you.

Being purposeful is the key to brand management. What message are you sending to those in your organization? Do they know your strengths and how to use those strengths? Each person is probably going to look at you a little bit differently. You would do well to think about how to manage your brand with each person in the office. You may think it doesn’t matter, but in the era of social media, your brand can quickly be damaged by anyone.

Appearance. Of course we know that appearance is important in business. But let’s face it: When it comes to appearance, everyone is not created equal. Study after study shows that more attractive people have greater or easier success than those who are less attractive. We have all been given cards to play in this area. The question is, how will you play your cards? It’s not necessary to be a high-fashion model or a bronzed Adonis. You will be perceived as “attractive” if you take care to use proper grooming, eliminate out-of-date clothes and looks, get in shape, keep your clothes pressed, and keep your look sharp.

Take a hard look at yourself and see what kind of brand you are communicating with your look.

Be the example. If you want your organization’s brand to be a strong sales and marketing company, then your personal brand has to reflect that. Whatever you want your organization’s brand to be, you have to lead that brand effort by example.

One of our clients has a brand that is focused on being heavily involved in community service. The CEO of that company sits on the boards of chari­table organizations and is actively involved in the community. The employees of this organization follow the leadership of the CEO and are also involved on charity committees and service opportunities in the community. Their individual brands match the corporate brands.

Use language to drive brand. Language drives culture and beliefs. I mentioned earlier that you should directly let people know your brand. After you communicate your brand, you have to over-communicate it to those around you. They will not remember a single message. They will start telling you what your brand is if you repeat it often enough. My family and my team keep me focused on my brand better than I do it myself. This happens because I used frequent repeated language to drive those thoughts and beliefs.

Identify do’s and don’t’s. When you have clarity about your brand, take the time to list all of the behaviors that will support and reinforce that brand. You’ll also need to think through any behaviors that would detract from or damage your brand.

Write these “do” and “don’t” items down and refer to them daily at first, and then go to weekly when you become more confident that they have become normal behaviors.

Managing your personal brand may be a foreign concept to you today, but it’s a better option than having a brand and not managing it. Take the time to identify and purposefully manage your brand. You will find increased success and enjoy a more purposeful career. n

The author
Larry G. Linne is president of Sitkins International, a consulting firm that brings vertical growth strategies to the insurance industry. He is also the author of Make the Noise Go Away—The Power of an Effective Second in Command and is a principal in a new benefits consulting firm, Benefits Growth Network.