Brand Audits Update x Christine Moody*
There have been numerous articles over the years in business magazines—for example Harvard Business Review and Forbes—on why women need to understand the importance of self-promotion to reaching their leadership potential.
As author Levo League explains in the Forbes article ‘Why is self promotion so hard for Women?‘: “…Self-promotion can be daunting, annoying, and even terrifying. As much as you’d like to flaunt your educational and career background– in person, or even on LinkedIn–you may have a much stronger desire to avoid being seen as precocious, egocentric, or self-absorbed.”
Nonprofit organisation Catalyst released a report this and with findings on self-promotion: “When women were most proactive in making their achievements visible they advanced further…were more satisfied with their careers, and had greater compensation growth than women who were less focused on calling attention to their successes,” reads the report. In other words, the greatest way to even the playing field for women and men, in terms of earnings, is self-promotion. So what’s not to like about self promoting?
…the greatest way to even the playing field for women and men, in terms of earnings, is self-promotion.
So how do we make ourselves visible and create the right ‘tools’. To work out what tools you need, you must understand your ‘brand’ and how this can be integrated into your organisation’s brand. Like it or not, social media has created transparency in our personal profiles and everyone is now “on show”. And this public face of your personal brand needs to be seamless and consistent. As corporate brands have ‘brand platforms’ and ‘brand assets’, so too does your personal brand. The brand platform is your vision, mission, and values statement and your assets are how you leverage your unique professional experience and qualifications. The next stage is to create a set of brand tools—linkedin, facebook and other social media; photography, business cards, personal stationery, and corporate wardrobe etc—to tell your unique story.
Starting with an audit your personal brand the brand tools selected will ensure that your brand tools reflects your ‘voice’, your point of difference, and your unique story. In other words, ‘looks and feels’ like you! They all come together to help you self promote in a consistent way so what you say and do, aligns with your personal brand. Self-promotion is crucial part of reaching your potential so ladies, it is time to stand up, stand out, and self promote!