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With the current flood of information, the desired quality isn't going to be who has the information in their head, but rather who can retrieve, dissect, distill, and apply the information best. Companies will seek creative minds, and in my opinion those with more diverse experiences and interests will more quickly see analogs between fields and come up with better solutions.
Part of it is just keeping the faith and continuing to swim against the tide.
I appreciate your thoughts on allowing your people to explore their many facets and how they might put them into play for your organization. We're full of surprises if given a chance to find them.
This topic has been near and dear to my heart and mind in 2009. I find it helpful at times to use branding concepts to think about who I am and what I do? I hate elevator speeches and the "social media experts" who know a touch about form and little about substance. I think there is a place for authentic personal branding based on strengths+value+visibility+authenticity. So I contradict myself and close with a line from Walt Whitman: "Do I contradict myself, very well I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes."
David
Like David I have been a pretty vocal proponent of strengths and values because they focus on the why and how we do the things we do instead of what those things are. I much prefer thinking of brand as Ho‘ohanohano: The value of conducting oneself with Aloha, dignity, and a distinction – reputation if you will, but one that is based on the consistent grace and honorable reliability with which you do what you do, whether a single thing, or the whole capacity-filling variety of what you might do from dabbling and experimentation to full-fledged evangelism. Plus I so dearly love projects, that concentrating on just one thing seems so boring… it seems we deprive ourselves of living in as complete a way as we are meant to.
As far as other people not getting that, so what? Would you prefer to please their conventions, or have a great life?
I think that "branding" as it pertains to reputation is a legitimate exercise, and that's why I stop short of saying that Authentic Voice is a desired ideal. Of course if you allow yourself to follow the full breadth of your passions you'll may just end up more authentic and with a stronger reputation than if you're out there with one specific purpose.
I think a lot of people end up surprised at how the peripheral interests can move into focus and change your path, and also how they can help create the ties that may serve us well in the future.
But here's my question for you (and others): I partially equate personal branding to the quick and clean labeling that is expected at networking events. *How do we introduce our selves when asked what we do?* This question is what got me thinking about Franklin and others who dabbled in several pursuits. Is this a matter of blazing our own iconoclastic trail and not giving in to the conventions of our times?
When it comes to how we work in an organization, though, I think that strategy definitely is iconoclastic.
Great conversation. I hope you won't mind the thoughts of a new grad. Excuse me if I'm simply restating already accepted ideas. I'm just starting to read "theorists" on these concepts.
Chris, you mention famous people from the past avoiding personal branding. I actually disagree a bit. Sure, maybe they didn't actively brand themselves, or ever consider that the might be viewed as a brand, but they functioned as brands regardless. That's why they gathered a crowd when they gave speeches or why other politicians, scientists, etc publicly aligned themselves with these names. Personal branding is really just a focus on reputation. With the tools at our disposal, it's the natural evolution of reputation dissemination.
Also, when anyone mentions social media causing a lower quality of content it makes me think back to my New Media class at school. In the beginning of the semester, our professor badly laid out the claims scholars make about us Millennials. Some see us as leading the curve since we're born digital and easily navigate technology. Others see us as the stupidest generation since we rely so heavily on technology such as Google for the easy fix. Neither is entirely correct in my opinion. It's the same for personal branding. For those who are smart enough to understand it as the chance to make a unified impression and build a platform for themselves, personal branding enables their thoughts to be heard to an active audience. For the rest, well... it's still the chance to contribute, whether they capitalize on it properly or not.
I agree with the reputation part of branding. It's similar to what Rosa proposed as Ho‘ohanohano. We carry our reputation and integrity with us every day and everywhere we go. Where I fall off the boat is the notion of unified impression. This is really where my point of the renaissance person kicks in. To intentionally limit ourselves in order to fit into a brand model is poor bargain. Yet, as Bill mentions below, there is some benefits to working from a Twitter profile approach.
There really are no right answers here, which is liberating all on its own.
I agree with David Zinger when he said, "My brand is only a guide not some narrow view of myself that I always have to fit into."
I'd love to understand your perspective though. How is it that you feel restricted in your personal branding?
And I would never consider you disingenuous for voicing your concerns. I consider you engaged.
And yet, as David mentions, I contradict myself openly because I know that I need to brand myself for my own work. And maybe that's the critical distinction. I brand what I do...I can never brand who I am.
There are many interests from which to choose, however, In practice over only the last 4 months, the twitter short profile concept has directed me down a path where I now have an elevator speech, (people are engaging and asking focused questions about my intentions), a business plan is in progress that supports this profile, and I am branding myself. Short and easy.
The twitter profile as a seed inspired this "branding", not so much as about "me" but about a problem, about a cause, about a solution.
I feel confident I will survive my branding, I have another few ready to go when wild salmon return to the Sierra Nevada mountain range. I'm resisting the temptation to think about it now.
Your introduction and your "brand" is what's in your focus *right now*. When you introduce yourself, distill it to the reason why you're there.
Your reputation is what those you've influenced have seen - a meta-brand, essentially.
The danger in personal branding is taking the exercise to the extreme and getting personal about it. The self is non-existent and impermanent. But the more we identify with it, the more susceptible we are to potential pain (conceit, low self-esteem) or perhaps a constriction of potential (if we have established tight boundaries).
Thanks so much for adding a fresh perspective to the dialogue.