The Fallacy of “Personal Branding”
Call it what it is, and change your perspective.
The concept of an Organization’s Brand has existed in at least a similar context to what it does today since the beginning of the 20th century; we’ve since delved into the psychological aspects of a brand, and had to deal with a wider variety of different touch-points and their implications, (UX), but up until recently, the idea of a brand has belonged to companies/organizations.
Since the 2000s, though, many career experts have taken to using the term “Personal Branding” to describe the process of professional-self-discovery, and communicating the results. I feel like this is a bit of a recipe for (professional) disaster in a number of ways:
“Personal Branding” is like saying “Personal Personality”
The idea of branding a company means that people are able to act with companies the same way we interact with other people; they are memorable, recognizable, and either desirable or undesirable depending on our preferences. When we speak about these things in terms of other people rather than companies, we are referring to an individual’s personality. The word “brand” is redundant, and possibly misleading.
Your professional personality is your weekend personality is your personality
Whereas it might have been possible to separate your professional personality from your “other personality” in the past, social media has made this a near impossibility. Even if this weren’t the case, I think most of us would agree that honesty and consistency is the best (and easiest) policy.
“Branding” often invokes the wrong kind of thoughts
One of the biggest dangers when undertaking an organizational branding process is being overly aspirational in how your organization is communicated.When considering “personal branding”, it’s even easier to slip into the trap of overly-aspirational communication. You’re not thinking about yourself; you’re thinking about your “personal brand”, so you can bend the truth a bit, right?
How can the pitfalls of “personal branding” be avoided?
Think about why you are considering your “personal brand”
Is it for getting a job? Improving your career? Strengthening your leadership abilities? Think about what questions people are either actively asking or passively considering in these different contexts. Also, don’t just think of a single context such as improving your chances of getting a job; think about sustaining what you come up with after you get that job.
Be completely honest
We all have aspirations and dreams professionally; the important thing isn’t to hide those things because they aren’t reality yet, just to be honest about the fact that they are currently aspirations and not yet fully realized. It’s much better to be honest in an interview about a skill that you are currently still learning, not yet an expert in. If you find that the skills necessary for a job you want to apply for are more aspirational than “current reality”, reconsider if this is the right opportunity at the moment.
Visuals can come from your personality, rather than your brand
I know that for my own professional reality, a portfolio/personal blog/website is a must. Just because I don’t consider my “personal brand”, doesn’t mean that I can’t have visual standards that are based in my personality. This can actually be a great exercise in itself; if you were to create visual standards related to your personality, what would they be, and why?
At the end of the day, the most important thing is to understand who you are as a person, and specifically, how this applies to your career. I think it’s safe to say that doing so almost guarantees your best chance at success.
