Dissecting Your Personal Brand: 180 Degree Peer Review

I have received a 360 degree peer review – a very interesting process of understand the good, bad and ugly about myself. Illuminating. Personal branding is not 360 feedback. It is 180 degree feedback – it looks forward into the marketplace; it does not (generally) look behind the curtains at the malignancy and maleficence within us all. Save that for the psychologist’s couch, please. No, we want input from your cohort about how great you are, to drive your brand to new heights and to either agree or challenge your own thinking about how you show up. Seeing Eye To Eye. Generally, I … Continue reading Dissecting Your Personal Brand: 180 Degree Peer Review

Dissecting Your Personal Brand: Personality Tests

At TMWK, we do not pretend to be psychologists. We are marketeers! We want to develop a brand with you in the most powerful and meaningful way. We do not want to tell you who you are – that’s your job. We provide some inputs, and the stimulation. So, if you have “personality tests” from other sources, we can add those in – we like data, the more the merrier, because in much data we see patterns, themes emerge, and from that – your brand essence. So, I have nothing particular to add about these tests other than – it’s … Continue reading Dissecting Your Personal Brand: Personality Tests

Dissecting Your Personal Brand: How Do You Show Up Online?

We have to think differently about our personal brand than we did 10-15 years ago. Then, in order to get ahead, to get promotion, to get on that juicy project you could scan your immediate work environment and determine who it was you had to impact to make a difference. Now, things have changed. Your network of influence might be social, virtual, global, segmented based on the communities in which you hang, participate, lead. When I am hiring, the first thing I do in a cursory scan of a resume is to look for online avenues of investigation – therein … Continue reading Dissecting Your Personal Brand: How Do You Show Up Online?

Dissecting Your Personal Brand: How Does Your Brain Work?

The number one area of reading everyone should be doing to better understand the(ir) human condition is modern advances in neurology – we have come to understand more about the workings of brain in the last 20 years than in the previous 10000 years. I remember as a Economics undergrad participating in game theory studies with my professors as they pulled apart long standing arguments about rational decision-making. It is fascinating stuff. So, when we look at your personal brand, part of the process is to reflect on how we make decisions, because it definitely informs how we show up. … Continue reading Dissecting Your Personal Brand: How Does Your Brain Work?

How BrandBoards Help You Say: “This Is How I Make The Difference.”

We are always tinkering with the personal branding process at TMWK, trying to work out how to leverage cool inputs (“Snakes!”) and unexpected syntheses (“Heart brand!”) to drive epiphanies that make people more successful in their lives. My instinct is to limit the focus to our professional lives, but my experience is different. Talking with my wife about my BrandBoard was a most illuminating conversation about how she sees me; and uncovered things she didn’t know about me, given the work-home divide that occurs when you have two kids demanding your attention at the end of the day. The BrandBoard … Continue reading How BrandBoards Help You Say: “This Is How I Make The Difference.”

Personal Branding: Are You A Head, Heart, Or Hand Brand?

When you think about branding, synthesis is critical. You cannot be all things to all (wo)men. You have to choose where your brand stands in the marketplace: niche, low-brow, action, sophisticated, smart, edgy? It cannot be them all. Moreover, there is no wrong place to stand in the marketplace. Just stand somewhere, and sell your wares. [In MarComms, many of us suffer from the curse of the Generalist – where it is impossible to articulate one’s brand in any way other than “I do a bit of everything.”] This plays out when we delve into personal branding. Most people orient … Continue reading Personal Branding: Are You A Head, Heart, Or Hand Brand?

When People Tell You Who YOU Are, Don’t Believe Them

Who are you? How do you show up at your best? How do you make the big difference? These big questions are important ones, increasingly so in light of the changes that will be wrought on all us knowledge workers in the mid-term. At TMWK, we turn these questions into a quest to uncover and polish your personal brand. Being able to articulate your value will make a difference in how people see you; who wants to work with you; what great projects you will be a part of. How do we do it? By having you distill your crazy-ass … Continue reading When People Tell You Who YOU Are, Don’t Believe Them

My Personal Brand: Revisited. Being The Best In The World At *THIS*

It is time to revisit my personal brand.  We have been developing the personal branding system to fully synthesize the input elements and to get to the brand essence. The BrandBoards have been redesigned to better illustrate this. What is that essence? A bit of Head – Heart – Hand. Usually, people have a brand essence clearly in one of the HHH camps. This is good news. Here is where you make the biggest difference; how you show up BIG. Mine, very clearly, is a HEAD brand. I do my best work by thinking; intellectualizing. It does mean I cannot … Continue reading My Personal Brand: Revisited. Being The Best In The World At *THIS*

How Do We Show Up (Most Of The Time)? With Head – Heart – Hand.

When we discuss personal branding, using the TMWK BrandBoard approach, we talk about articulating attributes that map against head, heart, and hand. That’s how we show up, most of the time. Although we might have great strength in one of the areas, and we usually do, balance is usually important to bring people with you, and to win over others. This idea has increasing currency in business circles too: Nilofer Merchant is a great writer and leader in the social business space. In a recent interview with Stowe Boyd, she spoke her truth: “Work has often been the place of the … Continue reading How Do We Show Up (Most Of The Time)? With Head – Heart – Hand.

Sturgeon’s Law: 90% Of Everything Is Crap. Yes.

We read more than we have ever done. And there is more stuff to read than every before – exponentially more. According to some random blog (ok, a WIRED blog, but who cares, I’m amplifying something I read online and you are reading it): The science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon famously said something like, “Ninety percent of everything is crap,” … I couldn’t agree more with Sturgeon’s Law, but nor could I be happier. That law allows me – nay, it practically invites me – to write. Stuff, crap stuff maybe 90% of the time, but stuff I am interested in, … Continue reading Sturgeon’s Law: 90% Of Everything Is Crap. Yes.

Hiring Advice From Dee Hock (Or, Why Experience Is Unimportant)

Which of these personal attributes is most important in someone you are hiring? Capacity Experience Integrity Knowledge Motivation Understanding I asked 25 students this question this week. Three answered ‘Integrity.’ This is the ‘right’ answer, according to Dee Hock – a leader before his time. Founding CEO of Visa, Hock has some great words of wisdom on many topics. Stumble upon more about these words here. I made a prezi to walk through this (see right – unfortunately and erroneously deleted). However, the gist of it goes like this… On hiring associates, Hock opines: “Hire and promote first on the basis … Continue reading Hiring Advice From Dee Hock (Or, Why Experience Is Unimportant)