Art of Branding

The careerist: ‘There’s a human need to show how good we are’

By Rhymer Rigby

Published: The Financial Times, March 1 2010 02:00 | Last updated: March 1 2010 02:00

The annual awards season culminates with this Sunday’s Oscars, but it is not just the film industry that likes to recognise its own. So how can you boost your career with a gong in your own industry?

Do awards really make you stand out? “They differentiate you from other people and act as a kind of third-party endorsement, which is very valuable in today’s tough jobs market,” says Catherine Kaputa, a New York-based personal branding expert. “People like things that are easy to latch on to and remember, so they’ll say: ‘Oh, he or she won an award for that.’ It can become a kind of recommendation.”

Alan Young, creative director at St Luke’s, the London advertising agency, adds: “In creative circles, there’s a huge desire for peer group recognition and having produced award-winning work will certainly keep you employable and may boost your earning power.”

Are all awards equal? No. For a start, awards are much more important and prevalent in some sectors than others. Second, the money-making potential for the people behind the awards (usually via pricey ceremonies and high entry fees) means there are plenty of less credible schemes out there. So you need to do your research.

“There are awards that aren’t worth the paper they’re written on and to be encouraged by them is a road to confusion,” warns Ben Williams, a business psychologist in Edinburgh. Indeed, having a low-rent award might even tarnish your personal brand.

Should I advertise my awards? “You need to weave it into your personal narrative rather than shout about it,” says Ms Kaputa. “You don’t want to seem arrogant. If a third party brings it up, that’s great.”

Equally, you should not campaign too hard to be entered for awards. It is fine to promote yourself, but do not appear to be overly self-promoting or, worse, deluded. Stevan Rolls, human resources director of the professional services firm Deloitte, says that for those who win them, an award is usually just the icing on the cake: “The important thing to remember is that . . . they tend to be good anyway – that’s what really drives their career progression.”

Are there other benefits? Whether or not you win, awards can still be a powerful incentive to raise your game. “Being in the running for an award can give you a goal to work towards and act as motivator,” says Ms Kaputa. “There’s a human need to show how good we are, particularly if we’re ambitious.”

Awards can also have wider implications for the organisation as a whole. “When an individual or a team wins an award, it says something about us as a firm,” says Mr Rolls. “Everyone feels good.”

Mr Williams says they can also help put training and development on the agenda.

Are there any pitfalls to watch out for? “If you become too fixated on them and don’t win, you can be crushed,” says Mr Young. He adds that too narrow a focus on sectoral prizes can be harmful in other ways, too. “In our industry, the ads that win awards are often the crazy, weird showy things that slip through the net. Having an award-winning agenda can often create a lot of tension with the clients you’re working with.”

CIO Magazine, By Meridith Levinson
IT pros sense that personal branding can advance their careers, but they sometimes have trouble putting it into practice.
I’m always amazed at the amount of traffic personal branding stories generate for CIO.com. My last story on the topic, 6 Personal Branding Mistakes that Can Threaten Your Job Search, turned nearly 16,000 page views in its first week.
The numbers tell me that CIO.com readers are hungry for information on this subject. To understand why, I spoke to two personal branding strategists who have experience working with IT professionals. They explained why personal branding is such a hot topic right now as well as IT professionals’ most common hang-ups around the practice.
Randi Bussin, a certified career coach and Reach personal branding strategist, attributes IT professionals’ interest in personal branding to the competition in today’s job market. They realize that landing a new job requires a lot more effort than searching the web and sending out resumes, she says of her clients in IT._At the same time, she adds, they’re seeing and hearing a lot about the role personal branding can play in their job searches, but they don’t know how to put the principles of personal branding into practice for themselves.
“People are realizing you have to do this,” says Bussin. “It’s a non-negotiable. If you can’t say what makes you unique from everyone else applying for the same job, you’re going to have a hard time rising above the noise.”
Personal branding is equally important to IT professionals who want to increase their job security, if not advance their careers with their current employers, notes personal branding strategist Catherine Kaputa, who is also a speaker and the author of You Are a Brand!

“In the business world, soft power trumps hard power,” she says. “The farther up you go in a company, the more important these soft power skills are.”
These soft power skills, which include leadership ability, communication skills, presentation skills, and relationship-building skills—combine to create an individual’s personal brand.
Despite the advantages personal branding confers to IT professionals, the practice can be painful for them. Here are four common pain points IT professionals experience around personal branding:

1. Some don’t want personal branding to matter in their career advancement.

“A lot of information technology people are struck by the fact that the school rules no longer apply in the business world,” says Kaputa. In school, she says, the student grind pays off: Their intelligence and hard work leads to good grades and academic recognition. But in the business world, she adds, intellect and hard work aren’t always enough to yield a promotion or job offer, and this bothers some IT professionals. Candidates often need to showcase exceptional soft skills and have good reputations as well.
2. They don’t like the idea that their appearance matters.

Like it or not, your personal brand is inextricably bound up with your appearance—the way you dress, whether or not you wear glasses, your grooming. “There’s a lot of evidence that packaging plays a strong role in how people view you,” says Kaputa. If you want to be a VP, you need to dress the part, she says, adding, “You can’t be wearing gym clothes.”
3. It’s hard for them to see the big picture.

Bussin says IT professionals have trouble identifying what’s unique about them—the lynchpin of their personal brands. They tend to be, by nature, so focused on details that seeing the forest through the trees is hard for them, she adds. Another challenge: Figuring out how to talk about the projects they’ve worked on as success stories.
4. They don’t like to promote themselves.

Self-promotion comes naturally to few people, yet it’s a key component of personal branding. To make it easier for IT professionals, they should think of self-promotion not as inauthentic boasting or beating their chests, but as a way of communicating the skills and expertise that they take such great pride in and that could help others.
Are you interested in personal branding? What aspects of personal branding are hard for you?

Link to California Women’s Conference where this articles appears:

By Catherine Kaputa

Searching for a job in a bad economy is not high on anyone’s to-do list. To be successful, you need to use special tactics and strategies – you need to brand yourself. Branding is all about standing out and getting traction in a competitive environment.

Here are 5 ways to market Brand You for a successful job hunt:

1.    Target your customers
Adopt the marketing mindset by determining who your “customers” are. They might be hiring managers, influential people in your network, senior executives at your old company, etc. Then, rather than focusing on your needs (finding a job pronto), ask yourself these three questions:

• What are your customers looking for?
• What reaction do you want to get from them?
• How can you get that reaction?

Then work backwards:

• What is the best way to appeal to them?
• What accomplishments and experiences should you emphasize?
• What should you de-emphasize or eliminate?
• What specific actions can you take to get the reaction you want?

2.    Position your brand differently
When it comes to creating your brand, find the best positioning for yourself – something that you can stand for that is different, relevant and adds value. You want to solve a pain point in the marketplace. Remember, in terms of branding, the most important aspect is how you influence others’ perceptions. Position yourself and your attributes so that they sing for a specific job. Think of your resume as an “ad” for Brand You. Tell a compelling, relevant story with the resume, beginning with the profile at the top of the page. Everything should work together to position you and tell a cohesive brand story for you and the job you are exploring.

3.    Have a compelling “elevator speech”
The elevator speech is a must that many people overlook. Hence, when they are in the job interview or at a networking event, they stumble through explaining who they are and why that is important. The elevator speech is short. (That’s why it’s called an “elevator speech.”) It should be your sixty-second personal commercial. It’s your personal introduction that is colloquial, conversational and memorable. That’s why you’ll want to use a sound bite or analogy or anecdote to set yourself apart. In essence, an elevator speech should convey the key highlights of what you have done and how you did it. It should also imply that there’s more you can do, specifically for that customer.

4.    Be consistent at every touch point
Brands try to take advantage of every touch point so that everything works together when a customer comes into contact with the brand – the product itself, the advertising, the PR, the in-store experience – the total customer experience with the brand. Likewise, you should make sure your brand conveys a consistent image and message at every touch point:  your appearance, your resume, your phone messages, your emails, your follow-up letters, your business card. (If you’re unemployed, make sure you create a personal business card. Nix to writing your contact information on a scrap of paper or your old business card.)

5.    Seek “celebrity” endorsements
You may not know any real celebrities (I don’t either), but you no doubt know another type of “celebrity,” such as the CEO, President or SVP of a company where you worked, or a senior executive who could vouch for you. Ask them to provide a short sentence or two about your ability and character and use it as a third-party endorsement. You can use the quote in an addendum to your resume or in cover letters. You can also invite these “celebrities” to recommend you on LinkedIn. (You may want to make it easy by offering to draft the short testimonial so they can do the final editing.)

In following these 5 steps, you have the chance to weather the economic storm and come out of it with the job of your dreams.

Catherine Kaputa is a nationally known speaker, author, and self-branding guru. Her new book, The Female Brand, Using the Female Mindset to Succeed in Business came out in July. Her previous book, U R a Brand: How Smart People Brand Themselves for Business Success, was winner of the Ben Franklin Award for Best Career Book of 2007 and a bronze IPPY award. (The book is being reissued in paperback as You Are a Brand.) Kaputa is founder ofSelfBrand LLC, a NYC-based personal branding company.

More from Catherine Kaputa visit www.selfbrand.com

Brand yourself. Catherine Kaputa, author of The Female Brand , says “creating an identifiable package” for yourself can help you snag that corner office. Her blog taps well-known women (like Oprah and Sarah Palin) to explore her branding tips in action – like being different and embracing change.