Your Personal Brand?

Do you have a well developed targeted Personal Brand?

Having developed your key goals and objectives, have you developed your personal brand to help you to influence your stakeholders ie those that can impact and influence whether you achieve your key goals and objectives?

I was speaking about Personal Brand this morning to members of the CIPR, the UK's biggest and most respected PR network.

So what is a Personal Brand?

Put simply this is your story communicated in a way that is positive and helps your listener/audience/stakeholder remember you in a postitive way.

How do you go about creating your Personal Brand?

3 key steps

1. Start with self-analysis - brainstorm what it is that is unique about you, in relation to the person/group you area aiming to influence. E.g. your sales force, your finding a partner, your prospective customers or clients

Tip: Be honest. Inauthenticity is difficult to sustain and people can detect it a mile off

2. Get feedback from people who know you well - what are your signature strengths?

Tip: It is useful to get multiple perspectives so that you can spot patterns in what differentiates you/where you add most value

Tip: It helps to elicit development areas too so that you can work on these

3. Your image is part of your personal brand - what kind of image is associated with the personal brand that you are aiming to develop

How can you apply your Personal Brand?

Having a positive personal brand has true commercial impact so it helps you to get work and retain clients.

Meeting new people at seminars, conferences and other network events gives you the opportunity to share your personal brand and raise your confidence in yourself and who you are, what you are about.

Do remember that how you relate to others is a key part of your personal brand. This is a key area for the coaching that I do with managers and leaders in organisations.

Let me know how you get on with this and do get in touch if you would like help with this or another area of your work and/or personal life by contacting me at pam@westofenglandcoachingandcounselling.co.uk

Coach Yourself Approach

Do you want to explore coaching yourself before deciding whether to use an accredited Coach?

A starting point is to think about your attitude towards your past, present and future.

Answering questions such as 'what have I achieved in the past?' 'what do I want to achieve in the future?' and also 'what do I want to achieve today?' all help to strike a balance in time and they all impact each other.

Exploring your beliefs, talents and values plus your key relationships will also help you to frame where you have been and where you want to go.

What are your core beliefs about yourself?

For example, I believe in myself and my capability to help others to resolve their issues.

What are your core beliefs about others?

What are your core beliefs about the world?

What are your values? IE what is important to you that you want to do, be and have in your world?

From this self-analysis you can identify possibilities, your choices and what you want to achieve in your life next.

You will need to draw on practicalities such as your resources available.

If you have found this short exercise to be useful to you please let me know.

If you would like some support in moving forwards in your life, please get in touch via www.westofenglandcoachingandcounselling.co.uk

What leads to your success in life?

Are you interested in leading your successful life?

Who is not interested in leading a successful life I hear you ask?

Well if you are then please read this short blog.

As Bilbo Baggins in Lord of the Rings expressed "I do not like adventures because they make me late for dinner" what do you think he was communicating about his way of life?

When we express our own generalised comments like Bilbo we unconsciously reveal our own philosophies on life which dictate how we think, how we feel and the results we achieve.

If our philosophy is negative such as 'I won't/don't/can't/should/shouldn't, mustn't' then we can be sure that our philosophy will limit our outcomes in life.

You can spend some time now exploring your personal philosophy - is is helpful or is it unhelpful?

If it is unhelpful it won't help you through the tough challenges that life brings and you may be preventing yourself from accessing the gifts in life.

What is a good philosophy in life for you?

What philosophy will help you to connect to the right people and resources so that you can really enjoy your life?

If you have a go at this exercise please let me know how you get on.

If you want help with this or for any other issue you may have, please visit us at www.westofenglandcoachingandcounselling.co.uk

How to progress as a Business Leader

Are you clear about what you are trying to achieve in your role as a business leader?

I recently asked a client of mine where their revenue target had come from. No one in the executive team knew where the figure had come from or why it should be at that level.

I became curious about whether they could be confident about meeting their target and if it really mattered and if they would be better focusing on the intractable problems which were limiting staff motivation and productivity and ultimately working against any financial target set.

Employees do not go to work motivated to meet a financial target and certainly not one that has no rationale.

Employees are motivated and inspired by a compelling ambition within which they have a clear role.

Few leadership teams talk together about what they want to achieve for the organisation and why. Without a clear purpose the job of leadership is just hard work.

All organisations need business plans and targets but these do not move the organisation forward.

Also much time has been wasted by many leaders developing missions and visions that provoke cynicism amongst those they are intended to inspire.

Research shows that leadership teams that discuss what they are aiming for are the ones that generate truly exceptional results. They discuss what they want to leave as a legacy - what will it be like to work here when we have achieved our ambition? What will people actually be doing that's different from now?

These conversations start with each member of the leadership team articulating the legacy that they want to leave behind.

In doing so, they bring forward and harness the deepest motivations of each leader.

During these discussions leaders develop a set of criteria to apply to decision making so that the day to day focus is complemented by an awareness of what it will take to transform the organisation and it’s results.

Such rigour results in clear and inspiring messages to take to the rest of the organisation, providing more understanding, commitment, trust and stronger alignment to the organisation.

What about your legacy?

What would make your time in your current role worth the vast commitment of your energy, resources and time?

Do you know the answers to these questions for each of the other members of your team?

Imagine how much energy and creativity would be unleashed if you did. What sort of impact might this might have on your results?

Please leave a comment or if you would like help in moving your business/team forward, please get in touch via www.westofenglandcoachingandcounselling.co.uk