A professional’s personal brand (Francesc Domínguez, partner at Barton Consultants)
Thinking is essential. Many professionals believe that intellectual talent is the key to establishing a presence in the business world. Reality disproves this belief. Two examples:
- In politics, the leader is not the one with the most intellectual talent, but the one who best understands how power works.
- There are many companies or professionals who possess intellectual talent and competence, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are competitive or a benchmark in the market. In fact, most professionals are competent but not competitive.
In other words, many professionals are skilled in their field, but only a minority have a brand—that is, the ability to attract the type of clients and projects they want. They lack the commercial talent, or in other words, the brand management skills necessary to become a leader in the vast world of services they offer.
Why does this happen? In our opinion, it's because brand management, in this case, the management of one's own brand, is largely neglected by professionals. Most of us spend our lives helping clients; few of us dedicate time to helping ourselves, to strengthening what makes us unique and different in the market.
We make countless excuses, but there's a key reason for not dedicating resources to strengthening our personal brand: desire dominates our minds and postpones the moment we take action. It postpones. our The moment. Most of us lack the willpower to say, “Stop! I understand that the main strategy in professional life involves knowing how to enhance my own strengths and how to manage my weaknesses or fears that alienate or hinder my career. The time to act is now.”.
There's always a reason to delay our improvement. That's why we often end up living a professional life dictated by others.
Personal branding is "professional life insurance." Thinking about how to strengthen it is essential. Let's think about it.
Francesc Domínguez, partner at Barton Consultants