Throughout 2012, barely a month went by when gender in the workforce wasn't a hot topic. For women looking to move their careers forward in spite of gender-biased obstacles, it can be difficult to create the right opportunities to ensure your talent is noticed.
One way to achieve your career goals and make sure that your potential isn't overlooked is to develop your own recognisable personal brand. While a personal brand seems like a strange concept, it's actually incredibly important. Having a clearly defined brand helps you make that all-important first impression, formed within seven seconds of meeting. Research has shown that it can take as many as 20 further interactions to change someone's first opinion so it's vital that you make every second count.
Your brand affects how people perceive you professionally; having and projecting a strong personal brand can give you greater confidence and open up more career opportunities. It also has important business benefits too. These include more productive teams, more effective relationships with clients and improved customer service.
So, how do you go about creating one?
It's important to identify what makes up your personal brand. Assess everything from your style, body language and tone of voice, to how you communicate on email or by phone. Even Margaret Thatcher sought extra help to refine her brand, famously employing a vocal coach to lower the pitch of her voice.
When constructing your brand, it's essential to focus on your key strengths. Once you have identified these, build on and make the most of them by seeking out opportunities to demonstrate your skills in these areas. That may means putting yourself forward for a specific role on a project or working with someone who brings out your strengths
Decide exactly what you want people to know about you. A good place to start is to think about why someone would want you in their team. Ask yourself: what are my values? What motivates me? What are my key skills, strengths and achievements?
Focus on the things that make you different and concentrate on the positives on a personal and professional level. Consider the way you react in everyday situations, from how you manage people and deal with stressful situations, to your creativity and the way you think and process information. Write your answers down so you have a clearly defined set of objectives.
Finally, critique it. Look back at what you've written and be ruthless. Remove any irrelevant or unnecessary detail and make sure that you're using simple, language that has impact – no jargon. Once you're happy, seek feedback from others. Talk to friends or family, or if you're comfortable, other colleagues. It's important to ask people who will be honest.
Once you have identified what makes up your brand identity, you need to put it into practice. Often this is easier said than done, but here are my top tips for projecting your personal brand at work:
• Plan. What do you want to achieve with your personal brand? This could be linked to a specific project or meeting. For example, consider what you want the outcome to be, what you want people to remember about you, then think about how you go about doing this.
• Social media. Use networks such as LinkedIn to make connections with new people and build your network of influence. Do this by joining groups – or set up a group if there isn't one already – and participating in online discussions.
• Mentor. Who do you admire for their personal brand? Could they mentor you to help you build your brand, without becoming a replica of theirs?
• Keep it fresh. It's important that you keep reviewing your brand at regular intervals. Are you portraying yourself the way you want to, consistently? Are you achieving your goals? What skills/knowledge do you want to be known for? Keep ahead of the game and do your research (you don't want to be known for just one thing to the exclusion of others).
Regardless of your role or the stage of your career, the way you project yourself at work will go a long way to getting you noticed for all the right things – your ability. Telefónica have been running personal brand sessions for women across various operations and levels and the response has been really positive.
Ann Pickering is HR director at O2
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