Everyone Has a Personal Brand (Even You!)
Did you know that you have a personal brand? In fact, you can’t NOT have a personal brand. It’s with you 24/7 as long as you have been alive and will exist after you’re gone. You can think of it as the impression you leave on others, your identity within a field, or others’ expectations of you based on past experience. The more intentionally you manage your personal brand, the more likely you will get the positive results you desire professionally and personally.
I’ve had a career coaching business for 9 years and have worked full-time in career services at 3 universities. I strongly believe that intentionally designing our personal brand is a vital part of our career progression, something I’ve taught in classrooms, conferences, and webinars.
I define personal branding as a concise, compelling way to communicate who you are and what you have to offer to your target audience.
There are 3 components of personal branding:
- Self-awareness: identifying your own traits, passions, values, talents, and goals
- Articulation: putting the parts of your brand into concise and clear words
- Communication: sharing your brand with others in person, in writing, and online
This article will focus on the first two components.
Translating Your Spiritual Gifts into Marketable Skills
As a faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach, I want to incorporate spiritual gifts into identifying our talents.
Gallup defines talents as naturally recurring patterns of thought, feeling, or behavior that can be productively applied. When we invest time and practice into developing our talents, they become strengths which give us the ability to consistently provide near-perfect performance.
1 Corinthians 12:6 teaches that “there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.”
Doctrine and Covenants 46 teaches that “all have not every gift given unto them; for there are many gifts…all these gifts come from God, for the benefit of the children of God.”
How do we become aware of our spiritual gifts that can be translated to marketable skills? One Gallup article presents clues to identifying our talents:
- Yearning – What do you naturally crave doing?
- Satisfaction – What do you genuinely derive great pleasure from doing?
- Rapid Learning – What do you pick up faster than most people?
- Excellence – What tasks or results do you get complimented on the most?
If you have not worked outside the home for many years, it may be challenging to articulate your talents in a way that is impressive in the workplace. Here are some ideas of strengths you may have honed as a stay-at-home mom:
- Organization – I don’t have to describe to you all the many components of housework, activity schedules, and emotional needs you need to juggle everyday. Your home may sometimes feel more chaotic than a professional office ever will, and you can bring your organizational expertise to the workplace.
- Teamwork – It takes a village to raise a child and you probably have several allies in the community that you partner with. How well you communicate and coordinate with others on a regular basis can make you a more attractive candidate in an office setting.
- Critical Thinking – With the internet of endless information at our fingertips, employers may have increased expectations of resourcefulness for their employees. As you’ve researched the best ways to treat an illness or the best car seat to buy, you likely have had to sort through a lot of questionable and contradictory advice to find the best solution. The professional world requires the same kind of judgment and discernment.
- Event Planning – Ordering the food, inviting guests, setting up décor, being a gracious hostess…these are all useful skills for your child’s birthday party as well as a corporate function.
- Adaptability – Hardly anything goes according to plan. Children get hurt or sick, activities get rescheduled or cancelled, the weather or car doesn’t cooperate. If you are able to easily roll with the punches, that will serve you well in the workplace where new technologies arise, budgets shrink, deadlines shift, and colleagues change.
This is by no means an exhaustive list; your spiritual gifts that may have been developed at home, with your children, and in church callings can be extremely valuable in the workplace. If you are transitioning to working outside the home, it is critical to pause and ponder about how your God-given talents have become strengths and how you will incorporate them into a professional identity.
If you’d like career coaching on your personal brand, please check out Launched By Linda.