THINKing

How Is Your Personal Brand Batting Average?

Photo credit: matthew_hull from morguefile.com

Personal brands have been on my mind a lot recently, as you can tell by my posting last week. A couple of episodes of late have me thinking about how people evaluate your brand and how many strikes you are allowed before they chalk up an out in your personal box score.

Let’s say there is a product manager with great overall skills, who is detail-oriented and very good at juggling several projects at a time as long as he has plenty of time. This manager gets squeezed with some tight deadlines and freezes up. The projects are completed but not all of them are on time. The average human evaluating the manager’s performance thinks that this was an anomaly. Strike one.

Then, it happens again. Ohhh, strike two. But you are still ready to give that good manager the benefit of the doubt.

Here comes the pitch. Strike three! He’s out and has now become known as that guy who freezes under pressure.

That is why you must be vigilant about your brand. You can’t neglect it.

In a case like this one: know your manager’s expectations. Examine your performance based on those expectations. Determine why these things happen. Seek training or communicate to your supervisor to manage expectations before you get to strike three.

In so many cases it is about managing expectations, providing thoughtful solutions before you miss the deadline, and keeping everyone briefed.

How is your personal brand batting average?

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Harry Hoover

Harry Hoover is a partner in My Creative Team, the agency that makes Fortune 1000 clients look good. His communications career spans 35 years and runs the gamut from print and broadcast journalism, government and corporate communications to advertising and public relations agencies.

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