As we enter the Winter season, it’s time to spend some time reflecting on the year’s experiences - the joys, the pains as well as the things we must do differently next year.
While that sounds like our annual holiday season, introspective, self-improvement ritual, I am actually speaking about brand planning for the upcoming year. Stop for a moment and think about the amount of time you spend preparing for and working through planning and strategy sessions, creating PowerPoint decks or forecast spreadsheets for your business or clients.
How many hours would you estimate you spend in these planning endeavors?
A 2003 study performed by FEI Research Foundation to determine the cost and amount of time companies spend to develop annual plans estimated that employees, on average, focus 10.5 days on annual business planning. That timeframe does not take into account quarterly updates, other business planning revisions or, having to start over because market conditions have changed! The easy math would suggest we spend at least 84 hours on this process.
But what often gets lost in the throes of corporate brand planning is your personal brand planning. Your product is your reputation. Remember that the sum of your behavior, your decisions, your values, the quality of what you deliver all add up to your reputation.
So now I ask, how many hours would estimate you invest in critically thinking about your reputation? I’ll make a leap and assume it’s less than the time you spend in business planning – safe bet, right?
There’s no question it’s tough to think about yourself, or your personal brand for that matter, when a Center for American Progress study found that 85.8% of males and 66.5% of females work more than 40 hours per week.
As humans, we have blind spots – those areas of self awareness that just aren’t recognized, but are on display for others to see. If left in the dark, those blind spots can have a significant and negative impact on our personal reputations.
Blind spots can be fatal in the Reputation Economy in which we all live - where word of mouth can make or break brands as well as your personal or professional opportunities.
A Personal Reputation Audit is your opportunity to get hands on and invest in yourself and your future. It may sound overwhelming, scary, boring, even ridiculous or some combination of those. Remember though, not many things grow in the dark!
Be daring and take this first step in planning, honing and owning your personal brand.
Tis the season!
Below are six steps to approaching a Personal Reputation Audit.
1. Identify a core group of people who you know and trust. These can be colleagues, clients, friends or family. A mix of these groups is ideal to gain better Reputational Awareness.
2. Explain the value of this exercise and that you need honest, objective answers about what they see and hear as it relates to your reputation.
3. Don’t react or try to defend the observations they share or feedback they give (be mindful of your body language, too). Remember, you are asking for honesty in order to get a true sense of your reputation.
4. Take notes so you can reflect on the feedback later and see if there are any ‘themes’ or ‘trends’ that begin to surface.
5. Thank them for their honesty since there is some inherent risk in this type of exercise, but remember this is an investment in you and your future and by them being honest, they are also investing in you and your relationship with them (who knows, maybe they will ask you to return the favor?).
6. Digest the feedback and develop an action plan based on specific areas of your reputation that you want to correct OR enhance (remember, it’s not all about the negative!).
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