Your Personal Brand

Musings from Dennis #6: How does your personal brand look like? What do people say about you behind your back? And if you lived a good number of decades, do the people in different stages of  your life say the same thing about you despite not knowing each other? I don’t agree that personal brand includes work skillsets. It is more of who you are to co-workers, clients, anyone – even the janitor that cleans up your event after it is over. Your attributes that make you you. “Oh she’s a kind person who looks out after you”.. “oh he always keeps his word”.. “oh he’s a cowboy, don’t trust a thing he promises!” “Oh he looks at status, if you are a low ranking staff, be sure she will ignore you” “Oh he is always saying no, can’t be done or she is one of the most positive “can do” people around”. More than the positive things people say about you now, but over the years do you hear the same thing spoken about you from different people in varying distinct stages of your life?” It's not too late to change if the feedback is not quite what you want to read on your epitaph. Quite a few senior people I know only care about their own superiors and those of their same (lofty) titles and treat the lower rung poorly. It just so happens when I joined my current company nearly 10 years ago that I heard of a VP who left the company and the team actually held a celebration of her departure. At the same time my most recent boss who left some years back is someone I would dearly miss. Tough but always looking out for her staff and showing she absolutely cares. You see long after you think you made a difference, people are not going to remember you for what you did but for who you are. Heaven smiles on such people.