Executive’s communication
The Gallup Management Journal website has an interesting interview with Blaise James, Gallup’s global brand strategist and principal. “It’s Time to Brand Yourself” explores why now, in this challenging economic climate, personal brand is more critical than ever to your career. Countless articles and how-to books have been written about personal brand, peddling simple prescriptions for turning anyone into a personal power brand overnight, or sooner. Mr. James offers a common sense explanation on what a personal brand is, including the critical fact that no one’s brand starts with a blank page: “You already are a brand, whether you know it or not. Your bio, experience, skills, behaviors, appearance, even your name -they all express your brand.”
A personal brand has many elements and reputation is key to a strong personal brand. I like this anonymous quote regarding reputation: “A person’s reputation is a mixture of what his friends, enemies, and relatives say behind his back.” You can add employees, ex-employees, co-workers and classmates. Thanks to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, ZoomInfo and whatever else you use to network, there’s a mother lode of information about you to remind your friends and enemies what you were like way back when… LinkedIn became a new and a far more effective way to check references or to get information about prospective candidates from former colleagues and bosses than the obligatory list of candidate-supplied references of yesterday.
The most critical driver of a personal brand is communication: how well an executive can put into words his or her experience, achievements and personal strengths. Presentation skills matter, but content matters even more. And yet, few executives invest the time to develop a personal portfolio that can make the difference between getting a dream job or accepting second best.
“You’re every bit as much a brand as Nike, Coke, Pepsi, or the Body Shop,” wrote Tom Peters in his ground-breaking article on personal brand, published in Fast Company almost two years ago. Mr. Peters is right when he says that your brand is your responsibility, not your company’s corporate communications. What counts is your communication on every social networking site and everything you do above and beyond your everyday job – from training your daughter’s soccer team to helping at a food bank.
Tom and Jack: two alfadogs…
We have holidays coming up on both sides of the border, so I thought I would keep this one light. I checked Tom Peters’ blog last week, just to see what he’s up to lately. His book, In Search of Excellence, was a huge hit back in the ‘80s, though the book didn’t age as well as Mr. Peters’ reputation. He’s still considered an über-consultant, just as Jack Welch has been called the über-manager of the twentieth century. I noticed something else when I checked Mr. Peters’ blog: the great consulting alfadog is no friend of the great CEO alfadog, Jack Welch. Who knew?
Mr. Peters’ post “MBA Musings” had this to say, writing about a Financial Times article regarding a new oath for MBA students: ”Some of this seems to follow not only the financial crisis, but the famous/infamous recent Jack Welch disclaimer. Welch, father-patron saint-cheerleader-haranguer-in-chief of the ubiquitous ‘shareholder value movement,’ recently dissed the primacy of shareholder value as ‘the dumbest idea in the world.’ Presumably dismissing as scurrilous the primary thing you stood for in your widely heralded career does not tarnish your reputation (Welch was just reported as starting an online B-school); to me, it makes the former GE icon a self-anointed laughingstock.”
That’s adjective-rich, pretty personal and a bit funny too.
I did a little research and found that the feud may go way back when Mr. Welch became CEO at General Electric. GE was one of only a few clients Mr. Peters dropped. Janet Lowe’s book, Jack Welch Speaks: Wit and Wisdom of the World’s Greatest Business Leader, describes their early relationship: “Insiders said Welch and Peters became ‘mutually disillusioned’ with one another. Mr. Peters once called Welch’s style ‘management by fear.’” To be fair, there have been a few examples of Mr. Peters praising (except for the vision thing) Mr. Welch’s accomplishment, as in this Fast Company article:
“When we think of Welch, we do not ordinarily think vision. (What is GE’s vision? I haven’t a clue! “We bring good things to life” ain’t it.) We do think rigorous performance standards, empowerment (“WorkOut” in GE-speak), leadership, and talent development. Jack Welch, it turns out, is a great manager (see rule #1). But great managers are the bedrock of great organizations. To save you searching for rule #1, here it is: “1. Leaders on snorting steeds (the visionary greats!) are important.”
And there is a tacit acknowledgement of the great CEO’s achievements: “I say ‘Get radical!’ That’s one thing. But then I show a quote from Jack Welch, who, after all, ran a $150 billion company (I didn’t): ‘You can’t behave in a calm, rational manner; you’ve got to be out there on the lunatic fringe.’ Suddenly my radicalism is ‘certified’ by a ‘real operator.’”
I searched in vain for anything Mr. Welch said about Mr. Peters. If you find anything, please let me know. In the meantime, happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians and happy Independence Day to my American friends!
