Your Job Title Isn't Your Personal Brand
A few years ago I asked a room of experienced professionals to introduce themselves without using their job title and the room went quiet! They were terrified. This was a room full of accomplished people who had all the qualifications and credibility that they need to get them their jobs but many of them struggled to say what they were actually known for. They had spent so long being described by a title that they had never stopped to work out what sat underneath it. This is something that happens a lot whether its during a 1:1 conversation or a group training session.
A lot of people draw comfort and pride from their job titles, of course they do, that’s the prize after all. You work hard and your title describes your position, it gives perceived meaning to what you do and what you are responsible for and it measures how senior you are. A personal brand is goes beyond this because you get to control it, its not necessarily handed to you, it describes what people believe you are known for when you are not in the room. This is so powerful because it can travel without you and it does not depend on anyone having to read your CV or checked your LinkedIn headline.
Early in your career a job title does a lot of the work for you, because it signals a level, a function and a rough idea of what you can do, and that is usually enough for people to place you. As you become more senior you need a stronger anchor than simple CEO, Founder, Consultant - you deserve to be known for the impact that you make in combination with that title. When people think about you they should be able to bring your personal brand to life when they introduce you: "she is the person to speak to about turning around struggling teams" or "he really understands how to break into the Nigerian market." Notice it goes beyond what you do but what they remember about your impact.
In my experience, what sticks in people's minds comes down to three things working together, which are your expertise, your perspective and your associations. Expertise is what you know and can do, perspective is how you think about it and what you believe that others in your field might not say out loud and association is the topic, idea or problem that people connect your name with automatically. In order for people to keep you in mind you have to stay visible and remain visible. If people can finish the sentence "when I think of you, I think of..." with something specific, you have a reputation and a strong personal brand and if they finish it with your job title…you’re a cog in the wheel of your corporation.
Most of us know someone in our own field who stands out beyond the work that they do for example; the finance director who is known for making numbers understandable to non-financial leaders or the HR consultant who is the go-to voice on menopause in the workplace. None of these people are remembered for being a director, a consultant or a founder, they’re remembered for a small and clear territory that they have returned to again and again until it became inseparable from their name. You do not need a global platform for this to work because the same principle applies at every scale
How to move from what you do to what you are known for
The shift starts with changing the question you ask yourself, because "what do I do?" produces a list of tasks and responsibilities, while "what do I want people to come to me for?" produces a direction. From there, the work is mostly about consistency, which means talking about that subject regularly, sharing your point of view in the places where the right people are listening (which might mean social media or it could mean real world event) and connecting your stories, examples and opinions back to the same theme until people begin to associate the two. This is often slower than people expect and far less glamorous than it sounds, because it is built through many ordinary moments such as a comment on someone's post, a point made well in a meeting, a talk given to a small room or a piece of writing that clearly says what you think. Each one is small, yet together they build a picture that becomes impossible to ignore, and that is exactly the kind of work I do with clients in my 1:1 sessions, where we get clear on the territory first and then build the habits that keep it visible.
Why your reputation should outlive your current job
A job title belongs to your employer and it disappears the day you leave or they ask you to leave…. A personal brand and your reputation belongs to you. They go with you into your next position, your next business, your board work, your consulting and whatever else you decide to do. It’s yours and that is powerful don’t overlook or minimise it.
I want to highlight that the cost of being defined by a title or by other people's assumptions, is not shared equally. Black women in particular are often placed into narrow boxes at work, we’re silenced, overlooked and undermined more than our counterparts. To me this makes it all the more important to rise up and be seen. I know it’s not easy but it’s worth it we just need to ensure that we have communities like Join Our Table and The UK Black Comms Network to keep us going when things get hard. that can help.
How to identify your own Personal brand & reputation territory
Finding your territory is less about inventing something new and more about noticing what is already true, so I usually suggest starting with the moments when people seek you out. It also helps to think about the subjects you have strong opinions on, the problems you find yourself explaining over and over because you can see them so clearly and the topics you could talk about for an hour without notes because you care about them so much. Once you have this in place think about where everything overlaps, that overlap is your reputation territory and your personal brand and you can test it with a simple sentence that finishes "I want to be known for helping..." followed by who you help and how, which will not be perfect the first time and does not need to be, because it will sharpen every time you use it.
Your job title will keep changing throughout your career which is normal what isn’t normal is being so forgettable that you can’t take control of your trajectory.
If you would like support working out your own territory and building the visibility to go with it, I work with professionals and entrepreneurs in 1:1 sessions and I also deliver personal branding and visibility training for corporate teams who want their people to be known for the right things. Get in touch if you would like to work together.