What is personal Brand? Why is it important, how do I build a successful brand and where do I start? Your personal brand will do more to influence your success than any other factor, including education and experience. This week we will define what personal brand is and over the coming weeks, we will begin to plot a course for developing a winning brand.

You r personal brand is your corporate reputation. It is the way others see you and categorize you based on your actions. Often it is based on a very small set of your actions either good or bad. Your personal brand is how you are known, and once established it is very hard to re-brand yourself. Re-branding often requires that you leave your current company and start fresh. More on re-branding later.

Your brand will be built on behavioral trials and tests that you may not even be aware are going on. To truly direct your brand you have to be constantly vigilant about your behavior both in and out of the office. To build a successful brand you have to care what other people think, and you have to seek the approval of those who influence and can contribute to your brand

The first step is to assess your current brand, how are you viewed by others in your company, or social circle. You have to work very hard to cut through your own self absorption, and see yourself the way others see you. You have to embrace the negative, the ugly, the stuff we usually hide from. If you do not think you have any faults you are delusional. If you have ever had a 360 peer review, start there, then write down any humour about you that has ever been uttered. If you are really brave ask people you trust what your worst qualities are.

People view your behavior as outward signs of your personality. They do not lend you the benefit of viewing the things that you do and say within a context of your larger life. If you are short with your boss's secretary, she will think that you are a rude person, and make your life hell. She won't know that you are late, have a tooth ache, or are going through a divorce…

If your career is stalled, and you have applied for internal promotions with little success and you are qualified on paper, then you have your brand to blame. It is astonishing how influential your brand is to your success. Promotion decisions will often be based on single impressions that you have given others. “He is a great manager, but I do not know whether he balances our corporate needs very well”.

When your name comes up the first thing that pops into your bosses head will determine your fate.

Over the next few weeks we will be examining the foundational rules to building a successful brand. We will hopefully help you identify the windows of opportunity to build your brand and help you navigate the minefields that can destroy your brand.

Link to Second Part: Iconoclast, Castrati, or Sage...

(Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) (Part 6)