Career Enrichment Primer -- Part 1

Introduction
In his book, “The Circle of Innovation” (1999), Tom Peters writes about the “white-collar revolution.” He believes that a confluence of factors – including a streamlining of business processes, technology that replaces jobs, an increase in outsourcing to foreign countries, and an age of entrepreneurialism where more and more people see themselves as free agents – are combining in such a way that over 90 percent of all white-collar jobs will be radically different or won’t exist at all in ten to fifteen years. [1, 225]

While the timing of his prediction may have been premature, it is apparent that many of these factors are beginning to impact our world. Whether it is outsourcing to foreign countries, increased productivity from new mobility devices, or the inexorable movement to “cloud” computing – the nature and number of white-collar jobs are changing.

What does that mean for you? How are you going to find a job in this new marketplace? What are you going to do to survive in this new economic order? While I do not have the complete answers to these questions, I would like to provide you with a primer on how to build, enhance, and protect your career. As Keith Ferrazzi writes: “Our careers aren’t paths so much as landscapes that need to be navigated” [1, 17]. This primer is for those in transition and for those currently employed. It is not intended to be an exhaustive career development guide. Rather, it is an attempt to provide you with a clear, concise plan of action that will increase the likelihood of greater success in your career.

This plan of action – characterizing, connecting, and communicating – involves a significant amount of work. Just as gardening requires you to sow, water, fertilize, weed, and harvest – your career strategy requires that you plan, feed, tend, and reap the benefits of your job efforts. This primer is not a guarantee. It merely sets forth a set of wise principles that more often than not, yield success. I am mindful of what James writes in his epistle:

“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow, we shall go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and also do this or that’” (James 4:13-15).

I hope that this primer provides you with a valuable resource for building, enhancing, and protecting your career.

Characterizing (Brand Yourself)
If I were to place a “swoosh” in front of you, how many of you would struggle to identify the “swoosh” as belonging to Nike? If you saw a billboard with black and white-spotted cows (whether or not there was any writing), how many of you would immediately know that the billboard is from Chick-fil-A? If you were parachuted into a pro football stadium and one team had blue stars on a silver helmet, how many of you would not think that you were watching the Dallas Cowboys?

As a technology professional, I’m keenly aware that image and identity have become increasingly important in our new economic order. With the information marketplace drowning in sameness, a powerful brand – built not on a degree or product but on a personal message – has become a competitive necessity. Or stated differently, the bottom line for everyone comes down to a choice: to be distinct or extinct (Tom Peters).

How does one brand them self? What does a personal branding message look like? How is a brand statement used? Let me try and answer these and other related questions by setting forth the following points:

1. The Owner of Your Brand
You cannot expect someone else to define who you are. You cannot depend upon someone else to influence other people’s personal and professional expectations of who you are. Your career is yours and yours alone to manage. Your career requires work. It involves a lot of “sweat equity.” So how do you create an identity for a successful career? How do you become the “swoosh” of your company? Of your network?

2. The Qualities of Your Brand
A brand is nothing less than everything everyone thinks of when they see or hear your name. The best brands, like the most intriguing people, have several qualities. First, a brand should be seen as authoritative. Being seen as an authority isn’t just about acquiring a degree or accumulating up a set of experiences. It entails having a well-thought-out point of view. It is about knowing what you have that most others do not. It’s your expertise. In every job and at every stage in your career, you had some expertise, some content that makes you interesting. It gives you a cause, an idea, a trend, or a skill – the subject matter on which you are an (or the) authority. [1, 206-207]

Second, a brand should be unique. It should have a distinct message. You want to be the brown egg in a carton of white eggs! Your brand statement will come from your content/unique value proposition and a process of self-evaluation. It involves finding out what’s really in a name – your name. It calls for you to identify your uniqueness and how you can put that uniqueness to work. It’s not a specific task so much as the cultivation of a mind-set. When it comes to making an impression, differentiation is the name of the game [1, 145].

Third, to become a great brand, your brand must be seen as being relentlessly focused on delivering value. What do you want people to think when they hear or read your name? What product or service do you best provide? What value do you consistently deliver? To determine your “value proposition”, take an inventory of your skills, combine them with your passions, and find out what value you can consistently deliver. This becomes your value proposition. Remember, the choice isn’t between delivering value or not. All of us deliver some value. The choice is between consistently delivering superior value or risking nothing and being certain of mediocrity.

3. The Packaging of Your Brand
After you’ve established your brand, it is time to package your brand. Your packaging message should include a list of key words that you want people to think of when referring to you. Ask your most trusted friends what words they would use to describe you -- for good and for bad. Ask them what are the most important skills and attributes you bring to the table. Ask yourself what are three words that summarize your success. Writing these words down and including them in your marketing message is the first step to selling it to others. [1, 229-230]

As you “package” your brand, remember that your brand statement must possess three “packaging” characteristics. First, it must be relevant. Don’t create a brand statement that is irrelevant. Determine what skills or areas of expertise will be valued in this new economic order. Second, the packaging of your brand should resonate with others. When others think of you, your brand message should be so simple, they can describe you in a single sentence (or at least in a few short phrases). Much like a stone cast into a pond or a tuning fork that is struck but one time, your brand needs to resonate in the minds of others long after it is presented. Third, your brand statement needs to be real – which leads to authenticating your brand.

4. The Authentication of Your Brand
Each of us would love to have a “killer” brand statement. What’s a “killer” brand statement? While there’s no definition, it is basically a value proposition that supersedes the brand statements of your peers or establishes a new category in the market. The greatest difficulty in creating a “killer” brand statement is that, ultimately, it must be authenticated. It must be real. To authenticate your brand statement, you need to identify seven to ten success stories that support your brand statement. These success stories should in crafted in terms of how you increased revenues, decreased expenses, increased efficiencies, and/or diminished risks. These success stories must be real examples, drawn from your work experience, that prove your brand statement to be authentic. It is easy to try and become something you want to be rather that what you are. Don’t go down that road. Work diligently to establish a brand statement that is real.

5. The Marketing of Your Brand [1,230]
Once you have crafted and packaged an authoritative, differentiated, authentic brand statement – it is time to market that brand. How do you do that? First, you need to have a single statement that encapsulates your brand. Second, you need to develop a thirty second speech (the infamous elevator speech) that explains your brand. Third, you need to incorporate this thirty second speech into your resume, your LinkedIn profile, and your biography. Fourth, you need to dedicate the top half of the first page of your resume to this brand statement and some of the killer success stories that authenticate your brand statement. Remember that this is the most valuable space on your resume – use it wisely. Fifth, you need to create a blog site (or even better, a web site) that serves as a marketing tool to clearly articulate your brand. Sixth, you need to write articles for trade journals, magazines, and/or company newsletters. Seventh, you need to get on seminar panels (or even better, on the seminar podium as a speaker). Bottom line: you need to take advantage of every forum and medium to broadcast your brand.


Endnotes
[1] Keith Ferrazzi, “Never Eat Alone”