Art of Branding

Recently, I had a lovely lunch with Diane, a business colleague who used to work for me who’s now become a close friend. At one point, we reminisced about what we would do differently if we were starting our careers over again. The first thing I said was, “If I were to write a letter to my younger self, high on my list would be seeking out more mentors along the way.”

Finding a mentor – ideally a network of mentors – is such a smart career move. Your mentors will help you achieve more in good career times and help you survive through the tough times.

Here are my mentoring thoughts from my letter to my younger self.

• Pile on the mentors

Begin with the mentor your company assigns, but don’t stop there. You’ll benefit most from a circle of mentors and advisors. Think of it as your personal board of directors. That way you’ll have a rich source of advice, counsel and inspiration, and you won’t be too demanding of the time of each one individually.

• Ask for advice initially not mentorship

It can be daunting when someone – whether you know him or her well or barely know them – asks you to be their mentor. (I know, it’s happened to me.) But if you approach someone with, “Can you give me 15 minutes of your time to go over a career turning point. I’d love to get your advice,” is an appeal that I don’t think many prospective mentors would turn down. Then, if the short meeting goes well, ask the person if you could call them again from time to time to discuss a work situation. If all goes well, presto, you’ve got a new mentor.

• Don’t neglect your boss

Most of us look far away when we’re looking for a mentor, but a good candidate may be the person you see on a daily basis – your boss. My lunch companion whom I introduced at the beginning of this post used to work for me, and I served as a mentor to her for almost ten years. Who better than your boss to discuss your career aspirations with? Who could be a better brand ambassador for you to others in senior management?

• Consider a “step-ahead” mentor

Most people try to aim high when choosing a mentor, feeling that the higher up in an organization, the more valuable the mentor relationship. But many mentoring experts point out that high status often doesn’t translate into high-value mentoring. Many recommend finding people at the next level up from yours. This person will likely have more time than the top brass, but more important, they will have more practical advice for you in terms of the career issues you are facing.

• Start now

Don’t wait until you’re in serious need of help to seek out mentors. Figure out the kinds of advice and kinds of people you need in your mentor network. Look around and see whom you admire.  For example, maybe you are looking for advice on how to build a career path in the company, or how to be a more effective team leader. Once you have the criteria, there are lots of places you can tap for suggestions: your network, professional organizations, friends, and even social networking sites like LinkedIn.

Having a circle of mentors will give you confidence. If you are stuck, you can tap one of your mentors. You’ll have a group of brand ambassadors who will talk up your abilities and potential. Best of all, mentoring won’t be one of the things you need to write about in a letter to your younger self.

It’s the Nobel Prize season. This year the Nobel Prizes generated an enormous amount of media attention – much more than usual – because some news commentators were surprised that President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize after such a short time as president.

Now, I will never receive a Nobel, and most of you won’t either. So you may be wondering, why I’m talking about this in the context of personal branding?

From a branding perspective, the Nobel award is the ultimate brand label one could aspire to. The Nobel is arguably the highest honor in the world one can receive. In terms of branding, it is a label that will always be attached to anyone who receives it, It gives every person who receives it very special status.

Like the Nobel Prize, awards are common in business to acknowledge and recognize top performers and to inspire top performance in all employees.
The world takes special awards seriously because they are “branding labels” that define and position someone as special in the minds of others.. If you receive an award for outstanding performance in your division or a special leadership title, you will be branded differently than your colleagues.

Your job title is an important branding label, too. Having a corporate title sets you apart from someone who is aspiring to one. If your job title is VP, you will be viewed differently than someone who is a director, or from someone who is a SVP

Different labels carry different assumptions. A number of research studies bear this out. For example, if you resume says you graduated from Harvard College or other well known and well respected school, people assume you are better than a candidate from a lesser known school – assumptions that may or may not be true. That’s why in personal branding, it helps to acquire credentials and performance recognition to help your brand stand apart.

But if you didn’t graduate with a brand name school, have no fear. An Ivy League brand is an edge, but not an overwhelming one. And it’s an edge that wanes over time. Then, what is more important is your work career and accomplishments – the projects, experiences and companies aligned with your brand. After all, only 11% of S&P 500 CEOs had Ivy degrees in 2008. For women, though, school credentials seem to carry more branding firepower. Of the top fifty women on the 2008 Forbes list of the 100 Most Powerful Women, 20% had Ivy degrees.

You have lots of opportunities to enhance your brand alliances throughout your career. You can already experience the branding power of labels and alliances just by working at PepsiCo. Every industry has its leading brands. In management consulting, McKinsey is the top brand. In packaged goods, it’s P&G. In investment banking, it’s Goldman Sachs. In the food and beverage industry, PepsiCo is the leader. And by working at PepsiCo, you are branded as top-notch as well.

What you want to do is to acquire additional performance labels and credentials throughout your career to differentiate Brand You. That way you’ll keep the brand narrative relevant and up-to-date. It will give you personal branding power.

It’s the Nobel Prize season. This year the Nobel Prizes generated an enormous amount of media attention – much more than usual – because some news commentators were surprised that President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize after such a short time as president.

Now, I will never receive a Nobel, and most of you won’t either. So you may be wondering, why I’m talking about this in the context of personal branding?

From a branding perspective, the Nobel award is the ultimate brand label one could aspire to. The Nobel is arguably the highest honor in the world one can receive. In terms of branding, it is a label that will always be attached to anyone who receives it, It gives every person who receives it very special status.

Like the Nobel Prize, awards are common in business to acknowledge and recognize top performers and to inspire top performance in all employees.
The world takes special awards seriously because they are “branding labels” that define and position someone as special in the minds of others.. If you receive an award for outstanding performance in your division or a special leadership title, you will be branded differently than your colleagues.

Your job title is an important branding label, too. Having a corporate title sets you apart from someone who is aspiring to one. If your job title is VP, you will be viewed differently than someone who is a director, or from someone who is a SVP

Different labels carry different assumptions. A number of research studies bear this out. For example, if you resume says you graduated from Harvard College or other well known and well respected school, people assume you are better than a candidate from a lesser known school – assumptions that may or may not be true. That’s why in personal branding, it helps to acquire credentials and performance recognition to help your brand stand apart.

But if you didn’t graduate with a brand name school, have no fear. An Ivy League brand is an edge, but not an overwhelming one. And it’s an edge that wanes over time. Then, what is more important is your work career and accomplishments – the projects, experiences and companies aligned with your brand. After all, only 11% of S&P 500 CEOs had Ivy degrees in 2008. For women, though, school credentials seem to carry more branding firepower. Of the top fifty women on the 2008 Forbes list of the 100 Most Powerful Women, 20% had Ivy degrees.

You have lots of opportunities to enhance your brand alliances throughout your career. You can already experience the branding power of labels and alliances just by working at PepsiCo. Every industry has its leading brands. In management consulting, McKinsey is the top brand. In packaged goods, it’s P&G. In investment banking, it’s Goldman Sachs. In the food and beverage industry, PepsiCo is the leader. And by working at a top company, you are branded as top notch as well.

What you want to do is to acquire additional performance labels and credentials throughout your career to differentiate Brand You. That way you’ll keep the brand narrative relevant and up-to-date. It will give you personal branding power.

I doubt that there is anyone in America unaware of David Letterman’s apology. A blackmail attempt forced Letter to tell a stunned national audience: “I was worried for myself. I was worried for my family,” Letterman said on air. “I felt menaced by this, and I had to tell them all of the creepy things that I had done.”

So, you might be wondering, how does this affect my career and me?
Of course, the threat of exposure forced Letterman into his moment of truth in front of the cameras and we should hold ourselves to a higher standard of ethics. But from a branding perspective, Letterman handled a very bad situation extremely well. Brands can face similar nightmares, for example, when a product this is tampered with harms a customer.
While it’s unlikely that any of us would have the kind of problems Letterman has had, many of us can feel similar career distress when a project blows up or when we experienced a major professional mishap. It’s certainly happened to me.

If this ever happens to you, here are three key lessons from Letterman on how to handle a potential career blowup:
• Be the first to talk about the problem
Letterman was the first person to speak about the problem. He did it himself – in person – without letting a third party speak for him or responding impersonally through a memo or press release. This allowed Letterman to control the message. Likewise, if you have a project that ends badly, don’t wait for others to inform your boss, or hope that it will get swept under the carpet. Do it yourself. Do it in person. Do it immediately.
• Take charge and admit responsibility.
While Letterman’s conduct is not something that any of us would condone, he spoke about it in a direct and personal way that seemed authentic and powerful. And he acknowledged his mistakes and apologized to all the different groups he affected. As a result, people were more likely to feel sympathetic with him. Likewise, taking charge and taking responsibility will brand you as a leader.
• Tell your side of the story.
Letterman took control of the message which resulted in the best possible outcome for him. Likewise, you want to explain what happened when a project goes awry and outline a course of action.

Doing these three things in a business crisis will result in the best possible outcome for Brand You.

Getting noticed is one aspect of making an impact in business.

Of course, you want to get noticed for your ideas, accomplishments and hard work, but having a visual identity that helps you get noticed can be a big plus. The goal is to have a visual identity that brands you in a positive and distinct way and highlights your brand message.

One of the female masters of getting noticed for her ideas, brains and visual branding is Madeleine Albright. Larry King has his suspenders, Sarah Palin has her glasses, and Madeleine has her pins.

Albright’s changing repertoire of brooches often made the news when she was Secretary of State. As one reporter noted, for a stalled summit, she’d don her turtle in lapis lazuli; for a friendly negotiation, she pinned on her dandelion with a moonstone puff, and for a rancorous encounter, her rhinestone bee or copper-pincered crab was just the thing.

Now, years after her high profile role as Secretary of State, I’m still thinking about Albright and her pins because she has a new book out, Read My Pins, and there’s a show of her entire collection at the Museum of Arts and Design.

Albright’s pin fixation started when she was U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and Saddam Hussein was angry over her attempts to get his cooperation on weapons inspections. The next day, a news story in the Iraqi press called her an “unparallel serpent.”

As Albright recalled,” I had this snake pin, so I thought it would be really fun to wear it when we did Iraq things.” The snake pin, an antique 18-carat gold piece of a coiled snake with a diamond dangling from its mouth, was a big success.

When she was negotiating an anti ballistics treaty with the Russian Foreign Minister she wore a four-inch interceptor missile. (Albright told him, “We make them very small.”). One thing lead to another, and over the years Albright acquired a vast collection of pins – hearts, angels, mosquitoes, panthers, even a rocket-propelled –grenade launcher.

Pins became her trademark visual identity and even brought a light, personal touch to her tough image as a negotiator. Interestingly, the vast majority of Albright’s collection is costume jewelry, pieces she picked up at airport stores or antique shops over the years. Many were given as gifts as pins became her brand trademark.

In her book, Albright reveals that she often was often mistaken over the years for Margaret Thatcher, Barbara Bush or Helen Thomas. That didn’t happen so much anymore once the pins became her trademark.

If there’s no pin, it’s not Albright.

Let me know if you have a visual trademark that’s part of the visual identity for your brand.