As much we hear about the labor shortage, competition for the best jobs is still very fierce. Leaders who want to grow an organization are always on the hunt for corporate rockstars. How can you get recognized as a rockstar? By creating your own Personal Brand.
Here are (3) surefire actions that will differentiate you.
- Bring a Deliberate Personality to the Table. Your personality (even without doing anything) differentiates you from everyone else. Your personality is a representation of your attitude, your actions, and your performance. Stepping up (and succeeding) shows the boss who you are and why you are valuable. Being remembered as a standout makes you valuable.
- Initiate Ideas that Prove You are Thinking About Growing the Organization. Senior leaders are impressed with people who initiate new insights related to your industry – as well as ideas to either make money or save money. But don’t wing it. Make sure you can back up your ideas with research and options.
- Be the Person who Offers to Take the Lead on a Project. Senior management wants to promote people who seek more responsibility. So, don’t be shy. If you think you can manage the lead position on an important project, make it known. Even though you don’t know the perfect solution (yet) a leader will appreciate your effort to find the answers.
So, let’s look at what just happened. You stood out by creating a Personal Brand that risked taking your personality public. With just those three actions, you are ostensibly saying, “Pick me! I will prove I can be trusted with more responsibility. I will find new ideas to help our company. And, I will take charge of a project when others won’t.”
You have elevated yourself from being the employee who dutifully shows up to do a job…to being a team member who has just shown leadership you can think ahead and offer the potential for future organization growth.
One Caveat: Superstars can fall too. Once you’ve successfully created a Personal Brand, all you have to do (every day) is live up to your brand promise.
Ross Shafer is a former TV Emmy winning talk and game show host who, for the last 22 years, has been a consultant to Fortune 500 companies. Mr. Shafer has written (10) business books on Leadership, Customer Experience, Motivating Teams, and Growing Market Share. www.RossShafer.com