Let’s set the scene. What is your Business Partnering PB?
When we say PB.
We are referring to Personal Brand.
The hard to measure but precious commodity.
Personal Brand is a business partnering superpower that can influence your career trajectory and help you positively influence business outcomes.
Yes – the stakes are that high!
Personal Brand is like a powerful microscope magnifying your every interaction and action, and shapes how people see you. The powerful adage, ‘your Personal Brand enters the room before you do’ highlights the importance of nurturing, understanding, and developing your personal brand.
As a business partner, you need to constantly look at ways of reinventing yourself – to seek out new challenges, create more meaning in the work you do, shift perceptions of who you are as a business partner and the value you bring to your role. Reinventing yourself could be a simple decision on how you will influence an important stakeholder. Reinvent yourself in small and big ways. It all counts. We have seen the consistent headlines: the external market is unpredictable, and COVID-19 has challenged us in a way we didn’t expect. Emerging from this experience, is a new way of working and partnering with the business and our personal brand needs to adapt accordingly.
In an interview with Dimitra Manis (Chief People Officer, S&P Global) as part of our Impactology Live event, Dimitra shared with us some important development advice about building your personal brand. Dimitra said, “we are like products and we need to differentiate ourselves…we need to stand out. It is important you start thinking about that early in your career…keep nurturing that and developing it.”
Product Differentiation. Positioning or standing out in a crowded market.
All the considerations a skilled marketer navigates when launching, growing, and nurturing a new product.
So, how can this concept help you define your business partnering personal brand?
Prior to effectively developing the core business partnering capabilities of building trust, effective communication, building a strategic mindset, collaboration, and strong organisational awareness, you will benefit from a personal brand blueprint. This is a defined set of principles that will guide you, help navigate your career and evolve your personal brand over the long-term. With this blueprint, you can build the core business partnering capabilities in a way that is meaningful and authentic to you – your personal brand.
Here are five powerful starter questions to get you planning and thinking and help define your Personal Brand:
1. What do you want to be known for?
As a business partner, do you want to be known as Compassionate? Curious? Empathetic? Easy-going? Brave? Thoughtful? Non-judgemental? Humble? The list is (almost) endless, identify the top 5 adjectives and then consider the next question…
2. What makes you unique? How can you stand out?
What is it about being Compassionate? Curious? Empathetic? etc…that makes you unique? What specific behaviours will make you stand out?
3. What is your value set? What is non-negotiable?
Values are fundamental to your guiding principles and helps define your standards; what is important and non-negotiable.
4. What kind of business partner/leader do you want to be?
This consideration brings together the outputs of the first three questions – gaining clarity of what you want to be known for, how you will stand out and the values that will guides you.
5. What kind of work are you attracted to?
Technical? Generalist? Specialist? Whether you are a finance, HR, IT, or procurement business partner, you will gravitate to certain kind of work. It is great to identify this about yourself, however, ensure as part of your overall development, you develop the right mix of depth and breadth.
Avoid the trap of thinking you can short-circuit the process of building a meaningful trusted personal brand. The process starts with awareness and a healthy dose of self-discovery – start asking questions of yourself and people that know you well and develop a plan on how you will develop a personal brand that is your superpower.
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