It's Time to Hit the Reset Button on Personal Branding

As I’ve embarked on the journey of brand strategy consulting, I’ve been thinking through my approach to personal brand consulting. Personal branding is a practice that has exploded over the past two decades. That’s happened for great reasons. But, as with anything else that gets wildly popular, folks have gotten somewhat lost in the sauce. For many, personal branding has turned into nothing more than a popularity contest where having the dopest digital presence rules the day.

The internet has become so much a part of our lives that we barely notice how we expose our behaviors to others. When we engage in personal branding, we are all, to some degree, influencers even if we don’t have thousands-to-billions of followers.

As a consultant whose background includes career development, talent acquisition and brand strategy, I think it’s time to hit the reset button on personal branding. At the American Marketing Association’s 2022 Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education, I heard two quotes that speak to the core of branding. One was by the 2022 Higher Education Marketer of the Year, Kate Ledger, who began her acceptance speech with, “Great brands are rooted in truth.” The other came from the 2020 Higher Education Marketer of the Year, R. Ethan Braden, who said, "How well a brand is delivered externally depends on how well it's understood internally." Put a pin in those thoughts.

The other part of the reset is recalling the piece that launched the practice of personal branding as we know it today, Tom Peters’ 1997 Fast Company article, “The Brand Called You.” Peters wrote about a brand being “the promise of value you’ll receive,” and he called on us to act like a “credible leader” to reinvent ourselves “on a regular basis.” As he wrote, “You’re leading you!” That part.

The internet has become so much a part of our lives that we barely notice how we expose our behaviors to others. When we engage in personal branding, we are all, to some degree, influencers even if we don’t have thousands-to-billions of followers.

Quick sidenote: My favorite part of rereading this article is Peters’ references to “Web site” and “that other killer app of the Net–email.” And can I get a “World Wide Web” witness??? Such a simpler time.

As one of today’s biggest leadership challenges is to manage change, I think it’s important to be adaptable in a rapidly changing world.

It’s About Personal Leadership

Our personal brands flourish and do the most good when they are aligned with personal leadership. I like to center personal leadership on identity and value–being aware of yourself and your behaviors while understanding what and how you contribute to the people around you.

Peters urged us to focus on four personal branding measurements, all of which are boosted by personal leadership and all of which are still relevant. The first is to be a “great teammate and supportive colleague.” To further his second measurement, build your expertise authority–mastering the knowledge and skills of your area (in a way that encourages people to look to you). Third, Peters also calls on us to be visionaries. Finally, he urged us to be businesspeople and to be “obsessed with pragmatic outcomes.”

I’ll take the liberty to add fifth and sixth measurements. As one of today’s biggest leadership challenges is to manage change, I think it’s important to be adaptable in a rapidly changing world. The sixth is to simply be ethical.

All Eyes on You

With many choosing to publicly amplify their brands, be aware that authenticity is the currency of the day. That is one of the biggest lessons that I learned serving Millennials and Gen Zers in higher education for more than 15 years. As an ardent student and observer of leadership and as someone who has led marketing and communications under four college presidents, people want to know that you really are who you say you are. However, you don’t need a sexy title to be a leader. Just by putting yourself out there, you’re leading. The more authentic you are, the more value you deliver because people trust that your words, decisions and actions align.

To be honest, a lot of this may not be “new,” but we live in a noisy digital world where it’s easy to lose sight of personal mission. The reality is that personal branding, if handled thoughtlessly, can easily and quickly become the tail wagging the dog with people’s desperation to get noticed taking precedence over doing what’s right for the collective. To that end, personal branding doesn’t have to be a public display. It’s just as effective for the everyday person who chooses to advance their career in silence.

Personal branding is a great practice, and it’s probably more important than ever. I love watching people flourish, and I love watching people inspire others. The best results, however, come from personal branding being done in a truthful, genuinely understood way.