On Tuesday, April 12 at our weekly meeting, we had the honor of Heather Ludwig – Professional Career Coach – speak to us about Personal Branding. Anyone can research what personal branding is, but it gets real when you are in the presence of an expert and are able to hear first-hand what can make-or-break or image.
What IS a Personal Brand?
“A Personal Brand is an individual’s reputation; a prescribed image or impression in the mind of others about that individual – what others remember from interactions, what others experience in conversations or work activities, what others see, what others hear, what others read” (Heather Ludwig).
Heather Ludwig’s Six Keys for a Positive Brand:
1. Up-to-date Knowledge. Stay current and continually updating your knowledge in your career area – e.g. expertise, skills, and capabilities.
2. Know Yourself and How You Impact Others. Learn the distinctive qualities you have and how you can most effectively utilize those qualities – e.g. personality, how you act with others, what you do that impacts them, how often you give back to the community, and helping others succeed.
3. Quality Interpersonal Skills. Being intentional when interacting with others – e.g. handling stress, conflict management, delegating work appropriately, ability to hold conversations, showing empathy, approaching work by including others, and what your service to others looks like.
NOTE: I researched how to rate your Interpersonal Skill (commonly referred to as Soft Skills) and found this awesome assessment! You can also take an MBTI, but the website Skills You Need offers a less-detailed version for free.
4. Professional Communication. Sharing messages and information with professionalism in your verbal (tone-of-voice; words) and your non-verbal approach (presence, body language, eyes, face, posture, gestures, appearance, attitude, temperament).
5. Demonstrate Adaptability. Being flexible with personalities and styles on your team; adapting when change presents a need for an alternative direction; being able to let go of one way, and pursue another.
6. Intentional Vision, Strategies & Actions. Having clear and specific thoughts about where you want to go with your work and other people, and how you want to work with them. Be able to articulate your vision; have specific knowledge, skills and abilities about leading and working with others. Be able to create strategies for the work needing to be accomplished. Be able to create action plans by yourself and with others to achieve strategies.
7. BONUS: Integrity. Lead with honesty, moral standards and respect.
All of this information may sound intimidating, but it’s also very true. Think of the statement “anything you say or do can and will be used against you [in a court of law].” Think about all of your actions that you are about to make and consider the consequences. Here are a few questions to review with yourself to help evaluate your Personal Brand and how you can improve it:
- What do you think your brand is today?
- How are you showing up in all of the places your brand is visible?
- What do you want your brand to be from today forward?
- Intentional Action Planning: What will you do? Where will you do it? By when will you do it?
Mrs. Heather Ludwig is a very inspiring, hardworking and motivational woman. We thank her for her time and support of our thriving chapter! All information in this article is owned by Heather Ludwig. For more information about Heather and what she does, please visit her website or check out her Facebook page.