This
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is a quick tip ezine for Managers who believe in
"Results Derived from Within"
Written by:
Vickie Bevenour, a Professional Certified
Coach, PCC
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June 2008
Your Personal
Brand – Part 3 Your Packaging
Continuing on our exploration of Susan Hodgkinson’s book,
The Leader’s Edge, Using Personal Branding to Drive Performance and
Profit, the third “P” in personal branding is “packaging”. Remember, you are building and managing the brand of a product and packaging is how you “wrap” and “display” that product.
That product is YOU: therefore, how you look and behave does make a difference. Your appearance also speaks volumes about you before you even open your mouth. Susan Hodgkinson says that packaging is the KEY DRIVER to brand management. Since the beginning of documented time we have artifacts that show the ways that people adorned themselves to send a message to others. What is the message that your packaging is sending to others?
In today’s organizations packaging is the way in which we capture others attention to communicate and influence them. What does your appearance say about you? Is your wrapping sending the right message to your market?
Your packaging also extends to the physical environment that you create. What does your work space (office, cubicle, virtual office, car) say about you? Is it messy, tidy, clean, dirty, cluttered, peaceful, chaotic, colorful, bland, smart, classy, expensive, cheap, welcoming? Whatever words you use to describe your work space the important question is “what conclusion might be drawn from what people “see” about you?” How do their conclusions effect the impression of your personal brand? Is this impression consistent with the brand message that you want to send?
A third element of packaging is the company that you keep. I invite you to take a long, hard, objective look at your team. What message are they collectively sending? Are you constantly getting complaints that your team members are hard to get along with? Is your team consistently described as: innovative, cooperative, worthless, problem solvers, strategic, mediocre, value-added? Is this impression of your team consistent with the brand message that you want to send?
As discussed above, it is important to understand how your personal packaging is influencing your personal brand. Once your have a through understanding of this, the next step is to answer the following questions:
1. How much do you “stand out” within your work environment or organizational culture?
2. How much do you embrace or “fit in” to your work environment or organizational culture?
The point here is that packaging in the corporate world is all about “fitting in” while “standing out” through powerfully adding value to the organization.
Developing and being proud of your personal packaging is key to successful brand management.
Congratulations, you have
taken the next step to deriving results from within.
If
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with a friend or colleague. As always, YOUR SUCCESS IS MY
GREATEST PLEASURE.
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