How good are you really?

When was the last time you relied on the brand of your employer to secure the business and not your own personal brand?

I know of situations where with 100 people in the room, a quick survey has had 89 of these people rate themselves as the top 10% of those in the room!

If you have a personal brand that means people ring you, and want to do business with you; not the business you work for, then you are in a much better position to survive the current crisis than your peers who are still sitting around waiting for the phone to ring!

The bad news is, if you are not as good or great as you think you are, then it may be too late to taste some humble pie and spend some time working on your personal brand!  If however, you know that your clients do business with you, and you do not hide behind the corporate brand, then you are well positioned to survive the current squeeze and continue to be valued by your employer and your clients!

So, for those ready to eat some humble pie - where do you start?  Maybe you could start by developing some good manners!

Steve Sammartino caught my attention with a super post on “Brand Manners” (thanks to @rosshill on Twitter) he drew inspiration from “the Children’s National Guild of Courtesy - a Good Manners chart which was distributed to elementary / primary schools in UK and Australia from 1898 until approx 1950!”

This chart lists such traits of good manners as;

• Listening to others
• Have patience
• Wait your turn to talk
• Never interrupt
• Be punctual
• Be honest and truthful
• Keep out of bad company
• etc

And my personal favourite; the Golden Rule -  “Always do to others as you would wish them to do to you”

How funny…after Gordon gecko of the 1980’s, we have gone full circle to realise that perhaps being nice to other people might actually make us more effective, and generate greater success in our careers and lives.

Steve writes “That’s actually what we’ve been getting at during this Business 2.0 Post Industrial Complex Devolution. We’ve been getting back to basics. The basics of acceptable behaviour. Moving away from the school yard bully - (read here - large inconsiderate conglomerate) - to something which deserves our attention”

After working with leaders on their leadership brand, and espousing a similar message, it was great to read this piece.  Thanks to Ross Hill for bringing it to my attention!

Take this away and think about your Personal Brand..is this how your clients see you, or do they see you as just another employee of brand X?

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