Personal branding is packaging your unique personal features into a consolidated brand. This branding then turns out to be a valuable asset in your repertoire. Every person in business or career shall develop his own personal branding. As time goes on, you and your personal branding are perceived by the society as one and the same. Your unique personal branding is a sum total of one or more of the following aspects:
1. Personality Traits: It is all about how your personality attributes make the man you are. Will you think in silence and be an infighter like Leo Panetta or passionate and extrovert like General David Petraeus. Recently President Obama made a tactical change. He shifted General Petraeus to CIA and Leo Panetta to Pentagon. Obama read the future well. Obama has to season the 1. 4 million US Armed forces to be trained in future wars that require intelligent analysis and actions rather than mere bravado. Leo Panetta fits the bill. Contrarily, the present CIA has to be transformed as a fighting unit with covert operations in armed conflicts. None other than David Petraeus is suitable for this vocation
2. Character Mapping: Strength of character is a unique personal branding. When you remain unfazed on the face of crisis as General David Petraeus oversaw in Afghanistan and Iraq and later as the head of the U S Central Command you are singled out as a person having the grain of character mapping to be a leader. You must possess such vastness of character that can be can be summed up in a simple phrase: personal branding
3. Smile & Style: Frank Sinatra sang “Do it in my way”. In cinema and in real life he had his own style. His cigarette lighter never left him and was buried as a memento with him. He was too smash & bash to go without it. What about his smile. For yesteryear Cinema goers his smile held much allure and they still rock around to see his films even decades after these were originally made
4. Speech & Mannerism: Ronald Reagan had unique personal branding in speech and mannerism. He was an actor, swashbuckler and a great communicator. His choice of words and diction is legendary as his cinema and political career. He used jewelled phrases, sometimes pithy sometimes denigratory. In 1986 confronted with multiple terrorist actions by the fulminating Libyan leader Muammar al Qaddafi, Reagan used fighting words by calling him “The mad dog of Middle East”. In fact, it presaged his wisdom; years later Gaddafi was killed on the streets of Sirte in Libya echoing Reagan’s diatribe
5. Body Language: George Clooney displays his personal branding via his body language. His walk & gait, his sitting postures, the way he moves his head and the mischievous twinkle in his eye are examples of body language that seal his personal branding. Furthermore, as an accomplished actor he uses cadence and rhythm in his tone to orchestrate his body language. He is final embodiment of American cinema today. The point need not be laboured anymore; just look at any survey on eligible bachelors, George Clooney tops the list
6. Image Projection: Your image projection distinguishes you from countless others. Your image can vary according to your skills and attitudes. Positive attitude combined with mastery of inter-personal skills make you a hero amongst your colleagues, peers and subordinates. A proactive executive is a born leader while a manger with a laid-back approach could project the image of a back-room operator. If you act with tenacity born out of conviction you are deemed a social reformer. If nothing can swerve your loyalty to your boss you project as an indispensable aide. As you keep your sight on corporate missions and vision you will be appreciated as the best CEO. When you are consistent in conduct and move with your network in faith and harmony you have groundswell of support and admiration wherever you go. Any of these pointers in image projection can easily translate into your personal branding
7. Value Proposition: James Bond says: “Stir the martini and not shake it”. In the films even other characters accosting him repeat this mantra perhaps to taunt him or curry favour with him. What comes to my mind is the value perception James Bond brings, albeit, as a fictional character. Do it mildly and you shall win. You see the list of movers and shakers in commerce, entertainment and industry. Many of them are too mild to become shakers anyway.
8. Cosmics as Binding Twine: When you finish reading the seven aspects outlined above you cannot miss the central thread connecting people to these aspects. That is their cosmics. Each person has individual cosmics; hidden resources that reside within him shaping and influencing his personality, skills, attitudes, beliefs, conduct and host of others. Before you develop your personal branding you must understand your cosmics and leverage it in your business or career life because it is your cosmics that elicits perception and response on the part of others in dealing with you.
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