Your personal brand is your unique competitive advantage
which is a precious commodity in today’s highly competitive business world; and
your brand is significantly affected by your perceived image out in the big
wide world. It doesn’t matter where you are on the career ladder or what skills
and experience you have – unless you have somehow saved enough money for your
brand not too matter anymore, how you ‘promote’ yourself and how you let others
promote you will have a significant short-term and long-term impact on your
perceived image by others – and hence impact your dreams and aspirations on a
business and personal level.
As HBS
professor Laura Morgan Roberts sees it, if you aren't managing your own
professional image, others are; "people are constantly observing your
behavior and forming theories about your competence, character, and commitment,
which are rapidly disseminated throughout your workplace," she says.
"It is only wise to add your voice in framing others' theories about who
you are and what you can accomplish."
The art
of developing our own brand is something that is lacking in many educational
and business environments. Yet considering how important your image is in
optimizing your potential future – the art of personal image and brand building
should be a part of a teenager’s basic education from 16 years old at the very
latest.
Professor
Roberts highlights how “in the increasingly diverse, twenty-first century
workplace, people face a number of complex challenges to creating a positive
professional image. They often experience a significant incongruence between
their desired professional image and their perceived professional image. In
short, they are not perceived in the manner they desire; instead, their
undesired professional image may be more closely aligned with how their key
constituents actually perceive them. Members of negatively stereotyped identity
groups may experience an additional form of identity threat known as
‘devaluation.’ Identity devaluation occurs when negative attributions about
your social identity group(s) undermine key constituents' perceptions of your
competence, character, or commitment. For example, African American men are
stereotyped as being less intelligent and more likely to engage in criminal
behavior than Caucasian men. Asian Americans are stereotyped as technically
competent, but lacking in the social skills required to lead effectively.
Working mothers are stereotyped as being less committed to their profession and
less loyal to their employing organizations. All of these stereotypes pose
obstacles for creating a positive professional image.”
The
world has become a very critical and hypocritical place as we try to learn to
come to terms with living our lives in such a public arena. The beauty about
the human race used to be our unique individuality and yet this can feel like a
curse in this new social-media focused world with people making blind
judgements based on their own, often ignorant, ‘beliefs’ without even pausing
to understand the situation and the facts. It’s quite scary just how quickly
people are prepared to make huge assumptions and judge complete strangers based
on as little information as a simple photo or set of words.
Professor
Roberts reminds us that “even positive stereotypes can pose a challenge for
creating a positive professional image if someone is perceived as being unable
to live up to favorable expectations of their social identity group(s). For
example, clients may question the qualifications of a freshly minted MBA who is
representing a prominent strategic consulting firm. Similarly, female medical
students and residents are often mistaken for nurses or orderlies and
challenged by patients who do not believe they are legitimate physicians.”
She goes
on to add that “In order to create a positive professional image, impression
management must effectively accomplish two tasks: build credibility and
maintain authenticity. When you present yourself in a manner that is both true
to self and valued and believed by others, impression management can yield a
host of favorable outcomes for you, your team, and your organization. On the
other hand, when you present yourself in an inauthentic and non-credible
manner, you are likely to undermine your health, relationships, and
performance.”
30 years
ago unless you were some form of celebrity or very successful business person,
you were pretty much anonymous outside of your personal and business circle of
friends and colleagues. You just had to worry about your ‘local’ image, which
was pretty much in your hands to control. Probably 30 years ago people actually
wished they could ‘market’ themselves more easily on a global scale, though it
seems that we have gone from one extreme to the other.
In
today’s business world “people attempt to build credibility and maintain
authenticity simultaneously, but they must negotiate the tension that can arise
between the two. Your ‘true self,’ or authentic self-portrayal, will not always
be consistent with your key constituents' expectations for professional
competence and character. Building credibility can involve being who others
want you to be, gaining social approval and professional benefits, and
leveraging your strengths. If you suppress or contradict your personal values
or identity characteristics for the sake of meeting societal expectations for
professionalism, you might receive certain professional benefits, but you might
compromise other psychological, relational, and organizational outcomes.”
The
desire to be noticed and be part of the ‘social media community’ must be tempered
by the need to manage your personal image, both in the short and long term, to
the extent that you feel in control of your ‘projected message’ allowing you to
market yourself more effectively – which should be one of the core benefits of
social media.
Professor
Roberts concludes by reminding us that “first, you must realize that if you
aren't managing your own professional image, someone else is. People are
constantly observing your behavior and forming theories about your competence,
character, and commitment, which are rapidly disseminated throughout your
workplace. It is only wise to add your voice in framing others' theories about
who you are and what you can accomplish. Be the author of your own identity.
Take a strategic, proactive approach to managing your image.”
References:
Roberts, L.M. (2005). Creating a Positive Professional
Image. Harvard Business Review, June [http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/creating-a-positive-professional-image]
