Denise Brouillette

Your personal brand is you. It's the overall impression that flashes in people's minds when they're with you and when they hear or speak your name.

Long before brand became a buzz word and spread beyond product marketing to people, brand was your reputation. These days brand includes reputation, but it's become much more than that. It's now just about everything about you -- that collection of personal characteristics and work results that represent you to the world.

One reason why managing your brand is important is that to get leadership roles, you usually have to sell yourself in some way inside your organization. Whether you're comfortable doing that or not, it's a fact of life. That means that for leaders to make favorable decisions about you, they first have to know who you are and the quality of the results you produce. Otherwise you might fall to the bottom of the pack and be left out of the running for choice roles. You can be the master over what you want your identity to be by pinpointing the elements of your brand that you want to have stand out and those you want to tone down. That way, you're putting the control for designing your brand in your hands, where it belongs.

Here are 4 areas you can start working on now to put your brand message out there.

Value: Your value is what is unique to you. It is what makes you stand out among the crowd. These are the elements to consider regarding value.

• Offer something that's unique and stands out above the crowd. Be very clear in your own mind about whatever it is that makes you different.
• Be able to describe that uniqueness of yours in straightforward, useful terms that are easy to understand.
• Know who benefits from your valuable skills, knowledge, information and connections.
• Keep your skills and knowledge sharp and up to date, your information current, and your connections informed. Most of all, continue to produce results that stand out.

Attitude: Attitude can make or break you in an organization. The right attitude can open the door to more leadership roles. The wrong attitude can have the opposite effect. How would you rate yourself on these four aspects of attitude?

• Are you easy to work with - someone who is open to a good back-and-forth discussion to get to the best result for all?
• Do you have a confident attitude when around others, especially senior leadership?
• Do you believe that important leaders in your organization want to know and should know about the unique value that you offer?
• Do you believe that you can go as high as you want in the career that you have chosen and that you can easily do that in the organization you are in now.

Presence: You may know a lot, have a brilliant message, and know how to promote yourself. But if your presence – and that includes how you lead, walk, talk, dress, and organize yourself – isn't quite right for the organizational culture you're in, you could be broadcasting a less then optimal picture of yourself.

• Make sure that your leadership style fits in well with what's acceptable in your organization's culture.
• Take a close look at your personal style – the way you talk, walk, and dress. Is it consistent with the brand message you want to convey?
• Organize your work space so that it gives off a positive impression about you to leaders at your level and above.
• Learn how handle yourself confidently when under pressure – the way a leader with presence would.

Positioning: We often equate positioning ourselves with selling ourselves, and that makes the prospect of letting people know who we are and what we do seem like something you don't want to do. You may think that it's wrong to “blow your own horn” and that you should wait to be noticed. Yes, when people make regular broadcasts about their own accomplishments, they may be perceived as being ego-driven, and merely interested in furthering their own careers, quite possibly at the expense of others. But there is a middle ground between hoping others will see your accomplishments and pushing your personal agendas at any cost. That middle ground is finding where the “value-add” is in your work and seeking to share that with interested parties. To position yourself effectively:

• Have clear goals for positioning your work, yourself and your team to those who have a say in your future.
• Get yourself on high-profile projects where your skills are showcased to senior leadership.
• Attend meetings where your value-add is likely to be recognized and be seen as a benefit those important others in the room.
• Be strategic about your career; know when and how to position yourself to the right people.
• Engage in value exchange with others; give as much as you receive.