The Art of Branding

“When you reach for the stars, you may not quite get one,
but you won’t come up with a handful of mud either.”

David Ogilvy
Whether you are an executive, a professional or an entrepreneur, a self brand action plan can also help you create a sense of value added – the X factor – that sets your self brand and your business apart from the pact.

After all, the whole point of branding and action plan is to help you prepare to win. To do that you need to have both the sizzle and the steak to win in today’s marketplace.

Here are some of the tactics to do after a bad performance review:

• Send memo to boss and HR over performance review outlining specific actions to address critical areas. Measurement: Sent monthly memo to boss and HR. Meet with boss and HR quarterly to evaluate progress.
• Get in better touch with the internal colleagues by planning two-three meetings a month and scheduling regular times to talk to various colleagues. Measurement: Trips scheduled and calls made each month.
• Volunteer for major company project to demonstrate leadership and build stronger ties throughout the company. Measurement: Achieve project goals set by company president.
• Revise resume and develop compelling cover letter and Brag Book for job search. Customize resume and letter to each interview. Measurement: Have all documents completed by X date.
• Develop short list of companies to explore and networking list of contacts. Measurement: Ten discussions or meetings per month either with a company, recruiter or networking contact.

Don’t waste much energy on unproductive activities like kvetching about your boss.

Focus on your strengths and activities that wil lead to positive outcomes.

Think of what you can do in your current situation and what you can do to bring about new opportunites.

You always have to keep the plot moving along.

For more ideas, visit www.selfbrand.com

Orlando polished up his elevator speech and put together a resume that sold his accomplishments as a dynamic leader and innovator in his industry.
On interviews Orlando had a strong self presentation and a leave behind (the Brag Book). He developed interesting narratives on each of his key projects linking together his accomplishments to portray himself as a “man of the people” which he was to his direct reports and other company employees. He did homework on each of the companies he was meeting with so that the meeting would be a conversation, not a one way Q & A session.

The more Orlando took charge of his life, the less victimized he felt and the more success he started to have in his job hunt and internally at his company.
To market himself successfully (and have all his successful initiatives at his fingertips), Orlando put together a Brag Book. It was a nice presentation folder that contained the following self brand marketing pieces:
• Letters of recognition
• Key Initiatives (put together in a case study format (Challenge, Action, Results) like a new business pitch.
• Awards for Achievement
• Letters Orlando had written in recognition of others
• Testimonials and References

When the task was successfully completed, Orlando organized a celebration, a Tex-Mex barbeque, at one of the company’s plants rather than at corporate headquarters. He wanted to reward the rank and file who had played a major role in the project.

By focusing on his strengths (nurturing field employees and leading cross-functional team projects), Orlando also drew attention to his new boss’s weak point: the fact that the boss was numbers driven and a poor people person.
When you have a rude boss (or competitor), be the opposite. Be a people supporter.
It came about naturally in Orlando’s case, but it’s always a smart strategy to use with any competitor. Look at your competition’s weaknesses, and position the weakness as a key strength of yours. Emphasize where you are strong and they are weak. Orlando’s strength with people emphasized the boss’ lack of people skills.

When you have a competitor or detractor with a negative trait,
emphasize the opposite trait in yourself.

Initially, Orlando concentrated on the things that would lead to positive outcomes. He started with small projects where he could get some early victories.

But Orlando also volunteered to lead a big initiative that no one else wanted to take on. It was a difficult project with a lot of moving parts. In a way, Orlando had nothing more to lose, but a lot to gain.

The project increased Orlando’s visibility with a lot of executives that he normally didn’t come into contact with, including the president. He updated his boss frequently on the progress of the project so that wouldn’t bite him, either. It was also a stalling maneuver to give him more time to find another opportunity.

Of course, Orlando felt set up. But once he accepted the unfairness of the situation, he was able to take charge. We did the S.W.O.T. analysis and developed a strategy and an action plan. Orlando started setting his own agenda and setting the tone, rather than letting his boss set his agenda.
Orlando’s action plan got him to refocus on what had made him great in the first place. He had built his brand on his hands-on, nurturing style of leadership. His roots were in operations and he knew how to build teams within the organization to get things done. Orlando had been a master of managing from the bottom up and side-ways across the organization.
Orlando used to go directly to employees at the plant when there was a production problem or just to hear what plant employees had to say. Orlando had always found his relationship with factory employees a source of business inspiration that gave him a performance edge. It had branded him in the past as a hands-on caring leader. Orlando started visiting plants and field offices again.
Orlando was creating a brand experience that set him apart from other executives who managed in a more impersonal manner. These days no matter what kind of brand you have, it’s not just image that counts, it’s creating a unique brand experience that sets you apart from others. In fact, marketers go to great lengths these days to develop brand campaigns that are experienced in different venues and touch the five senses. It is much easier for a person to do that than most products if we set our minds to it.

Sure, he had made some mistakes. Maybe he hadn’t stayed fresh and in the mix. Maybe he had gotten too reactive building his workaday activities around the many email and Blackberry messages he got each day. He realized that he wasn’t bringing enough strategic vision and big picture ideas to the business.
But Orlando didn’t really recognize the person described in his new boss’s harsh evaluation. Nor was the boss very helpful when he approached him asking advice on a department problem.
Why did Orlando take these steps with his boss and H.R.?
A job search takes a while and he needed to buy time to find something else. There was also the possibility of turning things around with his new boss (however unlikely) or locating something else in the firm (more likely). In any case, as long as Orlando worked at the company, he had to try to build a positive relationship with the boss, a key target market.

Success is going from failure to failure
with no loss of enthusiasm.

Winston Churchill

Many people get bogged down with what the boss did or didn’t do. It is impossible to control what other people do and think.
But you can always control your reaction and what you are going to do.

On the current job front, Orlando initiated a plan of action with a two-pronged offensive. One group of tactics addressed his boss’s concerns about his performance. The other group of tactics were in support of a major job search.

After getting the negative review, Orlando wrote a long, positive memo to his boss about his performance evaluation. In it he detailed bullet point by bullet point the actions he was taking to address each performance item. He also met with HR to go on the record that while he felt the performance evaluation was unduly harsh, he was committed to turning things around.
You can’t always control a negative situation.
But, you can control how you respond to it.

Orlando took these steps even though he felt the boss’s evaluation was a hatchet job based on a desire to bring his own person into the role.