YOUR 'Personal' brand

Clarity of Purpose
In simple terms, your ‘Personal’ brand purpose is the way others perceive your main reason(s) for existing and your main role in society and/or to them. Regarding your purpose, they would ask themselves: why is he/she here? Are we all clear about the role and value he/she is bringing to society/ our organisation/ our community and us? Is this contribution enduring and positive? Are this person’s core intents simple to understand, straightforward and genuine? Exemplary ‘purposed’ leaders – Nelson Mandela, Thomas J Watson (IBM), Henry Ford (Ford Motor Company), Sam Walton (Walmart), Jamsetji Tata (Tata), Paul Polman (Unilever).
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Cultural Born & Authentic
Culture is who the person deeply is, what they fundamentally believe in and what can hardly be changed about them but rather only evolve. Do others view you as having a strong culture? Is this culture clear and can others express it simply? Would people say that your values, character and behaviours reflect your culture closely? Would people consider that your culture is aligned or at least compatible with that of your organisation? In the eyes of others, do you act spontaneously with a high level of transparency and cultural genuineness? Could they predict what you would do when nobody is looking at you? Exemplary ‘culture’ driven leaders – Winston Churchill, Kiichiro Toyoda (Toyota), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Tony Hsieh (Zappos), Steve Jobs (Apple).
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Functional & Emotional
Do people see you providing relevant, tangible, purpose-led and valuable functional benefits, which are clear to your stakeholders, valued and you continuously work on to improve? In short, do people consider you are a useful contributor to their needs? AND… do people see you imbuing strong emotions/emotional benefits to create an inspiring bond with them within the organisation, with stakeholders or customers – either personal (improving their lifestyle) or societal (improving society)? Are you somebody people respect and like/ love and are you clear about why and how? Would people say that you have charisma and a strong EQ? Ultimately, are people looking for, developing and keeping quality long-term relationships with you? Exemplary ‘functional & emotional’ leaders – Princess Diana, Abraham Lincoln, Indra Nooyi (Pepsico), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Philip Craven (IPC), Oprah Winfrey
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Joy
Do people find inherent, genuine and infectious joy in you? Do they see you as a glass half full rather than half empty person? Would they say you are an optimistic and a can do character? Would they say you create fun at work? Do they ‘like’ you because you believe in and live joy as a natural important start point to enhance their experience and your mutual relationship? Do you imbue or create most of - or some - of the five main sources of joy in them: employee happiness; nostalgia of a happy past; belonging, with them feeling respected and a part of something bigger; enabling them to escape routine; bringing them success and status? Exemplary ‘joy’ leaders – Ronald Reagan, Richard Sheridan (Menlo Innovations), Alan Mulally (Ford), Jim Goodnight (SAS)
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Connected
Do people see you deeply culturally connected, i.e. developing an extensive understanding and knowledge of your audiences, stakeholders and themselves to learn about and anticipate their expectations? Do people say you have empathy? Do they believe you develop a relationship model that makes them and others feel valued and ready to give their discretionary contribution, including loyalty and advocacy? Is what you do defining/important to communities and to them? Would they say that you don’t consider them or your stakeholders as business targets but rather audiences; that you don’t communicate but rather dialogue; that you don’t transact but rather build trust? Do you have multiple ‘friends’, supporters, ambassadors and advocates? Would people of different countries say that you are adopting the cultural symbols, practices and expectations of their national cultures? Finally, do people see you in the ‘present’, using the mix of personal and technology interactions to be ’always on’? Exemplary ‘connected’ leaders – Candidate Trump; Greg Merten (HP); Larry Page (Google)
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People Led & People Leading
Would people consider you as a natural leader? Are you somebody whom some/many people would strive to look like? Somebody whose values, beliefs and guidance influence people when they make judgments and decisions? Somebody people would wonder “what would he/she have thought and done in these circumstances?” Would people say that you genuinely search for, listen and proactively take on board what is important in what they feedback to you? And that, while remaining yourself, you genuinely, overtly and sustainably make changes accordingly to how you do things? Exemplary ‘people’ leaders – Pope Francis, Bill Gates (Microsoft), Ann Rhoades (Southwest), Matt Likens (Uthera), John Donahoe (eBay)
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Partnering
Are you seen as somebody who certainly does not want to do it all alone? Somebody fully determined to collaborate with your stakeholders? Somebody who starts your thinking/journey from the others’ perspective? Somebody who creates deep partnerships and rich eco-systems to innovate and deliver your services? Somebody who is observed ready to give a lot to receive in return, guided by mutual advantage? Are you seen as understanding the power of advocacy and doing what it takes to trigger it; and somebody achieving much higher returns because partners and stakeholders magnify your activities? As partnering is a ‘hit and miss’ process that fails far more times that it succeeds, are you seen as practicing - and guiding others to practice - co-operation as a science, to tap into the transformational potential of partnerships? Exemplary ‘partnering’ leaders - Exemplary ‘partnering’ leaders – Ginni Rometty (IBM), Chuck Robbins (Cisco), Bill and Melinda Gates.
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Customer Centric
Are you seen as having an inherent culture of putting customers | stakeholders first and placing them at the centre of your purpose? Do people understand clearly who your ultimate customers |stakeholders are? Does this understanding define the organisation’s focus on providing an experience or a lifestyle platform which will inspire its target customers/stakeholders? Are you renowned for exploring and dissecting the full customer |stakeholder experience in the field and online to improve and offer excellence and consistency? Do your customers | stakeholders live your relationship as a partnership for mutual value? How is your organisation’s brand performing on the 10 key tenets of customer centricity? Would people find you authentic if you said: “If it is good for you (customers | stakeholders), it’s good for us.” Exemplary ‘customer centric’ leaders – Zhang Ruimin (Haier), Tony Hsieh (Zappos), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Carolyn McCall (Easyjet)
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Future Embracing
In front of ‘uberisation’, platformisation or other types of transformation, are you seen as living and developing two magic powers to deal with this: 1) See, shape and create the future; 2) Be future savvy and confident about it, to enable the enterprise’s and your stakeholders’ transition into the future? Deep into the Fourth Industrial Revolution, would people say that you invest in and embrace the ongoing societal and cross-category shifts that are shaping the future? Are these transformations, notably digital, essential to who you are and how people approach and understand you? Do you associate your stakeholders, customers or colleagues largely / fully to see and navigate into the future? Exemplary ‘future embracing’ leaders – Klaus Schwab (World Economic Forum), Ginni Rometty (IBM), Elon Musk (SpaceX, Tesla), Jeff Immelt (GE)
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Rigorous & Disciplined
Are you seen as deeply reliable and dependable by others, who would say: “we know that by giving this accountability | activity to him/her, it will be executed reliably and thoroughly”? Are rigour and discipline key expectations of others about you and a major point of differentiation about you in their eyes - because it is so hard to achieve? Seen from your stakeholders’ perspective, are we clear on where your brand sits in the ‘rigour & discipline’ house: survival, incentive or differentiation? Are others enchanted with your consistency of execution? Would ‘Implementation is strategy’ be attributable to you? Is your organisation ‘principled’ and structured about best in class practices of disciplined execution? Exemplary ‘rigorous & disciplined’ leaders – Takeshi Uchiyamada (Toyota), Tim Clark (Emirates), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Nicolas Bos (Van Cleef & Arpels), Jean Paul Agon (Loreal).
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Strategy Guiding
Are you predictable to others in that who you are, your values, core beliefs and character drive your strategies, decisions and actions – rather than events driving how you behave and act? Are you known for integrity in decision-making, with your core principles acting as the compass for assessment of options and judgments? Are you reputed for no compromise to what you believe in and because of this, an ability to simplify decisions and actions and empower people to operate accordingly? Exemplary ‘strategy guiding’ leaders – Paul Polman (Unilever), John Mackey (Whole Foods), Doug McMillon (Walmart), Steve Jobs (Apple)
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Trusted
Trust is ‘owned’ by a person’s stakeholders and given to him/her. Do people believe trust is the most coveted dimension of relationships for you? Do people tend to trust you? Do they recognize in you the root causes and ingredients of the four types of trust: competence, judgment, benevolence and integrity? Do people associate you with: “says what he/she does… and does what he / she says”. Across sectors and geographies, do you have and continue earning trust from your stakeholders? Do you have evidence that trust in you personally translates effectively into a positive reputation and ultimately into better outcomes? Exemplary ‘trusted’ leaders – Gandhi, Tom Hanks, Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook)
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High Value & Driving Value
A brand is all about value – financial but by far not only. At work, do people consider you an important person in their activities? Would you be strongly missed or alternatively seemingly replaceable in the organisation in case you were to leave - both functionally and as felt by your stakeholders, customers and/or colleagues? Are you perceived as a value developer? Do people see you having a differentiated impact and power on the business and its stakeholders and associates, notably on some of the following sources of value: stock price, profitability, growth, efficiency, transformation, licence to operate, access and shield? Is this impact clear to most? Exemplary ‘high value & driving value’ leaders – Einstein, Prince, Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway), Severin Schwan (Roche), Elon Musk (SpaceX, Tesla), Paul Polman (Unilever)
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Crisis Resilient
Crisis happens in professional and business life and is the ultimate test of a personal brand. Do people believe that you would remain essentially who you are in a crisis? That your decisions and actions would be driven by your values and beliefs? Do you/does your personal brand hold a strong reservoir of goodwill such that people would come and help you go over almost any crisis – not only to recover from it but also to surpass pre-crisis status? Would you say that this franchise is strong or might it be at risk of vanishing soon after the crisis inception? Exemplary ‘crisis resilient’ leaders – Nelson Mandela, Larry Bird, Mary Barra (GM), James Burke (Johnson & Johnson), David Neeleman (JetBlue), Akio Toyoda (Toyota)
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THE 'Real You'

Clarity of Purpose
In simple terms, your ‘Real You’ purpose is your main and deep reason for existing and your main role in society and/or to others. So questions regarding your purpose would be: why am I here? Am I all clear about the role and value I am bringing to society, to this organisation, to the community(ies) and to others I am involved with? Is my contribution enduring and positive? Are my core intents simple to understand by others, straightforward and genuine? Exemplary ‘purposed’ leaders – Nelson Mandela, Thomas J Watson (IBM), Henry Ford (Ford Motor Company), Sam Walton (Walmart), Jamsetji Tata (Tata), Paul Polman (Unilever),
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Cultural Born & Authentic
Culture is who you deeply are, what you fundamentally believe in and what can hardly be changed about you but rather only evolve. Do you have a strong culture? Is your culture clear and can you express it simply? Would you say that you live in accordance with your culture, i.e. that your values, character and behaviours reflect it closely? Is your culture aligned or at least compatible with that of your organisation? Do you act spontaneously with a high level of transparency and cultural genuineness? Are your decisions and actions the same in public as when nobody is looking at you? Exemplary ‘culture’ driven leaders – Winston Churchill, Kiichiro Toyoda (Toyota), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Tony Hsieh (Zappos), Steve Jobs (Apple).
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Functional & Emotional
Do you deeply believe it is your role and reality to fulfil some of people’s functional/practical needs? Do you strive to and actually provide relevant, tangible, purpose-led and valuable functional benefits, which are clear to your stakeholders, valued and you continuously work on to improve? AND… do you imbue strong emotions/emotional benefits to create an inspiring bond with others within the organisation, with stakeholders or customers – either personal (lifestyle) or societal (me/us and the world)? Are you genuinely and deeply striving to be somebody people respect and like? Is this your reality and are you clear on why and how? Ultimately, do you tend to develop and keep quality long-term relationships and friendships? Exemplary ‘functional & emotional’ leaders – Princess Diana, Abraham Lincoln, Indra Nooyi (Pepsico), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Philip Craven (IPC), Oprah Winfrey
0 1 2 3 4 5


Joy
Is there inherent, genuine joy in you? Do you see a glass half full rather than half empty? Are you an optimistic, a can do character? Do you believe and practice joy as a natural important start point to enhance people and stakeholders’ experience and relationship? Do you strive – and succeed at creating fun at work? Do you imbue or create most of - or some - of the five main sources of joy: employee happiness; nostalgia of a happy past; belonging, with people feeling respected and a part of something bigger; enabling people to escape routine; bringing people success and status? Exemplary ‘joy’ leaders – Ronald Reagan, Richard Sheridan (Menlo Innovations), Alan Mulally (Ford), Jim Goodnight (SAS)
0 1 2 3 4 5
Connected
Do you strive to achieve being deeply culturally connected, i.e. do you develop an extensive understanding and knowledge of your audiences and stakeholders to learn about and anticipate their expectations? Do you have empathy? Do you develop a relationship model that makes people feel valued and ready to give their discretionary contribution, including loyalty and advocacy? Do you strive to get what you do become ever more defining/important to communities and to your stakeholders? Do you genuinely consider your stakeholders as audiences rather than business targets? Do you dialogue rather than communicate with them? Do you build trust rather than transact? Do you have plenty of ‘friends’, supporters, ambassadors and advocates? In different countries, are you deeply and genuinely adopting the cultural symbols, practices and expectations of the national cultures? Finally, are you striving to be in the ‘present’, using the mix of personal and technology interactions to be ’always on’? Exemplary ‘connected’ leaders – Candidate Trump; Greg Merten (HP); Larry Page (Google)
0 1 2 3 4 5
People Led & People Leading
Are you a natural leader, i.e. somebody spontaneous and who does not have to engineer postures or interactions to get actively listened to and followed up? Are you somebody whom some/many people would strive to look like? Somebody whose values, beliefs and guidance influence people when they make judgments and decisions? Somebody people would say “what would he/she have thought and done in these circumstances?” Do you genuinely search for, listen and proactively take on board what is important in what others feedback to you? And, while remaining yourself, do you genuinely, overtly and sustainably make changes accordingly to how you think about and do things? Exemplary ‘people’ leaders – Pope Francis, Bill Gates (Microsoft), Ann Rhoades (Southwest), Matt Likens (Uthera), John Donahoe (eBay)
0 1 2 3 4 5


Partnering
Are you deeply convinced that you / your organisation can’t do it all alone? Are you fully determined to collaborate with your stakeholders? Are you somebody who starts your thinking/journey from the others’ perspective? Do you create deep partnerships and rich eco-systems to innovate and deliver your services? Do you give a lot to receive in return, guided by mutual advantage? Do you believe in the power of advocacy and do what it takes to trigger it? Do you achieve much higher returns because partners and stakeholders magnify your activities? As partnering is a ‘hit and miss’ process that fails far more times that it succeeds, do you practice - and guide others to practice- co-operation as a science, to tap into the transformational potential of partnerships? Exemplary ‘partnering’ leaders - Exemplary ‘partnering’ leaders – Ginni Rometty (IBM), Chuck Robbins (Cisco), Bill and Melinda Gates.
0 1 2 3 4 5
Customer Centric
Do you have a passion for customers | stakeholders and an inherent culture of placing them at the centre of your purpose? Do you unconditionally adhere to: “If it is good for you (customers | stakeholders), it’s good for us.” Are you at heart clear on who your ultimate customers/stakeholders are? Does this understanding define your organisation’s and your own focus on providing an experience or a lifestyle platform which will inspire your target customers | stakeholders? Are you convinced in the imperative of exploring and dissecting the full customer experience in the field and online and doing it repeatedly, to improve and offer excellence and consistency? Do your customers | stakeholders live your relationship as a partnership for mutual value? How are you performing on the 10 key tenets of customer centricity? Exemplary ‘customer centric’ leaders – Zhang Ruimin (Haier), Tony Hsieh (Zappos), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Carolyn McCall (Easyjet)
0 1 2 3 4 5
Future Embracing
In front of ‘uberisation’, platformisation or other types of transformation, are you deeply convinced about living and developing two magic powers to deal with this: 1) See, shape and create the future; 2) Be future savvy and confident about it, to enable the enterprise’s and your stakeholders’ transition into the future? Deep into the Fourth Industrial Revolution, do you invest in and embrace the ongoing societal and cross-category shifts that are shaping the future as a priority? Are these transformations, notably digital, essential to who you are and how people approach and understand you? Do you associate your stakeholders, customers or colleagues largely / fully to see and navigate into the future? Exemplary ‘future embracing’ leaders – Klaus Schwab (World Economic Forum), Ginni Rometty (IBM), Elon Musk (SpaceX, Tesla), Jeff Immelt (GE)
0 1 2 3 4 5


Rigorous & Disciplined
Are you by nature deeply reliable and dependable and looking for people to be able to say: “we know that by giving this accountability/activity to him/her, it will be executed reliably and thoroughly”? Are rigour and discipline key traits and drivers for you and overt points of differentiation - because it is so hard to achieve? Are you clear on where you inherently sit in the ‘rigour & discipline’ house: survival, incentive or differentiation? Are you satisfied with your consistency of execution…and working to continuously improve it? Is ‘Implementation is strategy’ true for you and an operating guideline? Do you ‘principle’ and structure your organisation around best in class practices of disciplined execution? Exemplary ‘rigorous & disciplined’ leaders – Takeshi Uchiyamada (Toyota), Tim Clark (Emirates), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Nicolas Bos (Van Cleef & Arpels), Jean Paul Agon (Loreal).
0 1 2 3 4 5
Strategy Guiding
When requiring decisions or actions, do you spontaneously refer to your values, core beliefs and character to drive your strategies and responses – rather than events driving how you behave and act? Do you insist on integrity in decision-making, with your core principles acting as the compass for the assessment of options and judgments? Is compromise to what you deeply believe in simply inconceivable and because of this, do you display the leadership ability to simplify decisions and actions and empower people to operate accordingly? Sincerely, were there examples in recent times when strategic decisions, judgments or actions appeared at odds with your deep beliefs? Exemplary ‘strategy guiding’ leaders – Paul Polman (Unilever), John Mackey (Whole Foods), Doug McMillon (Walmart), Steve Jobs (Apple)
0 1 2 3 4 5
Trusted
Trust is given and ‘owned’ by a person’s stakeholders to him/her. Do you believe trust is the most coveted dimension of relationships for you? Is gaining trust of people very important to you… or can you operate with more remote relationships? Do you believe and practice: “I say what I do…and do what I say”. Do you believe you have in you the root causes and ingredients of the – or some of the - four types of trust: competence, judgment, benevolence and integrity? Across sectors and geographies, are you actively trying to develop trust and do you have and continue earning trust from your stakeholders? Do you have evidence that trust provided to you personally translates effectively into a positive reputation and ultimately into better outcomes? Exemplary ‘trusted’ leaders – Gandhi, Tom Hanks, Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook)
0 1 2 3 4 5


High Value & Driving Value
A brand is all about value – financial but by far not only. At work, do you aspire to be and are you in reality an important person in your stakeholders’ activities? Do you want to and are you building a personal brand whereby you would be strongly missed, both functionally and as felt by your stakeholders, customers and/or colleagues in case you were to leave - the alternative is to be seemingly replaceable in the organisation? Are you a passionate value developer? Are you striving to have a differentiated impact and power on the business and its stakeholders and associates, notably on some of the following sources of value: stock price, profitability, growth, efficiency, transformation, licence to operate, access and shield? Do you need to feel high impact to be fulfilled? Exemplary ‘high value & driving value’ leaders – Einstein, Prince, Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway), Severin Schwan (Roche), Elon Musk (SpaceX, Tesla), Paul Polman (Unilever)
0 1 2 3 4 5
Crisis Resilient
Crisis happens in professional and business life and is the ultimate test of a personal brand. Do you believe that you would/could remain essentially who you are in crisis? That your decisions and actions would still be driven by your values and beliefs? Have you tested yourself against multiple possible crises in ‘peace time’ and embedded the learning in your development and ‘Personal’ brand plan? Are you deliberate at creating and do you enjoy a strong reservoir of goodwill such that people would come and help you go over almost any crisis – not only to recover from it but also to surpass pre-crisis status? Would you say that this franchise is strong or it might be at risk of vanishing soon after the crisis inception? Exemplary ‘crisis resilient’ leaders – Nelson Mandela, Larry Bird, Mary Barra (GM), James Burke (Johnson & Johnson), David Neeleman (JetBlue), Akio Toyoda (Toyota)
0 1 2 3 4 5

Ideally, the 'Real You' perfectly overlaps with your 'Personal' brand. If your delta is less than or equal to 4, congratulations as your 'Personal' brand is strongly aligned with the 'Real You'.

In the example case, with a delta of 5, work would be advised on the main areas of difference, obviously ‘functional & emotional’ in this instance. As noted on the scale, higher gaps require various levels of intervention… an / or reinvention.

Individual Imperative Scores Comparison

Do you have gaps of 2 or more, like ’functional & emotional’ in our example? Consider this as a significant weakness and/or a risk. A deep dive into the root causes and possible remediation for this (these) individual imperative(s) would be highly advised.

In the areas of a lower 'Real You' than your 'Personal' brand and where the gap is significant – in this example ‘functional & emotional’, you get a mix of messages: on one hand, congratulations that your (perceived) 'Personal' brand is stronger than the 'Real You'; on the other, it requires attention and active management given the risk of disappointment when the 'Real You' expresses itself and does not match strong perceptions and expectations – ‘Oh, I thought he/she was emotional’

In areas where there is a higher 'Real You' than your 'Personal' brand - in this example, ‘customer centric’ – you are either over self-rating or have an opportunity to improve your brand by showing more of self.

Sub-system Imperative Scores Review

Equally important is to run the analysis combining selections of imperatives, as guided by the scores. Let’s use our example again as a mean of illustration:

Here, the 'Personal' brand has stronger scores than the 'Real You' on ‘functional & emotional’, ‘joy’ and ‘trusted’, all in the EQ and human space. This makes up for an appealing brand but, with a medium ‘people led & people leading’, presents significant risks and vulnerabilities over time when you might disappoint as ‘the charm’ ceases to operate.

We hope these high level indications on the brand diagnostic help your thinking and of course to form plans towards a more resilient 'Personal' Strategic Brand. Please let us know if you would value a next level exchange on the findings, where we can notably apply our extensive ‘Strategic Brand’ benchmark.

Many thanks for using the Strategic Brand assessment tool, with very best wishes.