Be honest, if I asked you right now how confident you are about selling yourself and your career achievements to someone else how would you score yourself out of 10? Five, maybe six or seven on a good day?

For a lot of people, it’s one of those uncomfortable things they sometimes make you do on a training course without you really knowing the benefits of doing, something you usually want to forget never mind use it again…

Surely if we are just good at our jobs, people will notice? Our work speaks for itself? Doesn’t it?

Sadly, this is not the case. It never was the case, and it certainly isn’t in the ‘new normal’ work world. The way we interact with each other has changed considerably adding further challenges to how we can stand out and be known for the right things.

But the good news is, no matter how much technology is in our lives, people will always buy people – always have and that will never change.

So, what is personal branding?

Quite simply its how you choose to present yourself to others. Your personal brand is what makes you you. And how you present yourself is crucial for increasing your credibility and value to a wider audience; being able to stand out irrespective of geographical location.

Why should I be bothered …?

We’ve all heard of Jeff Bezos’s thoughts on personal brand – ‘it’s what people say about you when you leave the room.’ So how can positively impact this?

One of my favourite personal branding models originates from Harvey Coleman’s pie model which simply put looks at three key elements that he believed contributed to people progressing in their careers. These are:

1. Performance – how good you are at your job and how good are the results of what you do? Just 10% of career progression is down to your overall performance. Yes, you read that right.
2. Image – how you are perceived? What do people say about you when you leave the room? A whopping 60% is based on this element. Think of it like this…when your name gets put forward for something, what do people already know about you?
3. Exposure – is all about how much people know about what you do. Not just your immediate work circle but your boss’s boss and the leaders of other departments and indeed country counterparts. That’s the next 30% right there! There is piece of research that states that as human beings we make our mind up in the first 5 seconds of meeting someone as to whether or not we like/trust/want to do business with them. How do people like working with you?

In this model, a gigantic 60% of career progression is based upon the exposure element. So, when the committee sees you name on the list, the individuals will search their minds for what they know about you, if anything. If they know nothing about you i.e., they have had no exposure to you then your chances of promotion are likely to be slim, your best outcome is probably a pay rise for the good performance. Assuming they have had some exposure to you then this links into the final

30%, which is image – what was their impression when they interacted with you? Do they perceive you as able to take the next step up and do well? What is their experience of you interacting with others?

But all is not lost. One thing remains the same. Even in a world which is now driven by digital experience and personalization- People will always buy people.