ISE Magazine

JUN 2017

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30 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine Hone your brand, believability and style 3. Refine your style flexibility: Be able to communicate with and sell to various stakeholders and stakeholder groups. Let's zoom in on these. The personal and professional brand A personal and professional brand is a set of promises that an organization (or an individual) makes, implicitly or explicitly, to stakeholders (customers, users, investors, suppliers, partners and others). It is often a collage of different promises: You can count on us to do these things for you, create these experi- ences, cause these outcomes, deliver this value or meet these service levels. We all experience product and corporate brands and brand- ing in our everyday lives, so we intuitively get that process. People have brands, too. Some understand this already. But for many – college ISE seniors and young professionals alike – thinking about a personal brand is not common. Their con- cept of brand might be: "This is who I am. I am who I am. And that's all I'm ever going to be." But in reality, your brand is what people perceive it to be, not what you believe it is. Understanding your brand requires feedback. The Johari window model in Figure 2 has four panes. Pane one – I see/ experience it, they don't; pane two – They see/experience it, I don't; pane three – They see/experience it, I see it; and pane four – They don't see/experience it, I don't see/experience it. To understand your brand as it is experienced, you have to get feedback from every pane in that window. Being intellectually honest with yourself is the first step to continuously improving your brand. Leveraging your brand helps position you in the market- place. As you create and hone your brand by performing well on assignments, being proactive and seeking new opportuni- ties, you earn a reputation of being a go-to person. That's a good thing. There are different philosophies about saying yes to oppor- tunities. Early in your career, it's important to never say no, as saying yes reinforces you as that go-to person. However, this should be tempered by your capacity to deliver. The more you take on, the more you learn and develop the ability to handle more challenging and valuable tasks. You stretch yourself and build your capacity to do more work better and faster. You broaden and deepen your knowledge and skill. You are dem- onstrating that you can be that go-to person. Note the importance of continued learning – what some have called the T-shaped professional model shown in Figure 3. There is a synergistic effect from being proactive and at- tuned to opportunities that further your skill set and reputa- tion as a solid brand. You can accelerate this broadening and deepening of your knowledge and skills by being active in leadership opportuni- ties with IISE at any number of levels. Volunteering for com- munity service and for your professional society is a way to round yourself out by gaining leadership experience in lower- risk settings and situations. Let's also look at the role that habits and tendencies play in terms of both brand and our believability index. Habits and tendencies The Columbus/Eastern Ohio Chapter of IISE offered a we- binar on January 26 that reviewed what we called the second set of seven habits of highly effective young professionals. (The webinar will be held again June 14; see sidebar on Page 31). FIGURE 2 Johari's window Properly understanding your brand requires getting feedback from all four panes of the Johari window's basic model to make sure your blind spots are uncovered. FIGURE 3 Learning to a 'T' The T-shaped professional model details how continued learning is important in deepening your skill set and enhancing your brand. Johari window: The basic model BOUNDARY CROSSING COMPETENCIES Teamwork, communication, perspective, networks, critical thinking, global understanding, project management, etc. MANY DISCIPLINES Understanding and communications MANY SYSTEMS Understanding and communications DEEP IN AT LEAST ONE DISCIPLINE Analytic thinking and problem- solving DEEP IN AT LEAST ONE SYSTEM Analytic thinking and problem- solving ME

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