Expat Careers: When a Personal Brand is not Authentic its a No Win Game

It is a common misconception that personal branding is the same thing as personal marketing - it's packaging a person like you would a product.  Being a personal branding strategist, when I read an article or hear someone supporting this notion....well it just gets under my skin a bit.

So I wanted to write about something that I always talk about when explaining personal branding to people. In my training as a Reach Personal Branding Strategist, I was taught that personal brands, unlike product brands, are uncovered, not created.

Successful personal brands are authentic. They are a true expression of a person's unique qualities, values and strengths.  Powerful personal brands exist where a person's unique qualities and strengths intersect with a target audience's needs, vision and objectives. It is often the quirks, the uncommon combination of qualities, that demonstrate that what a person is offering can meet an organization's needs in a way that no one else can. It also helps to clarify whether or not there is a 'fit' between the person and the organization. 

A personal brand that is crafted for a professional or executive will ultimately fail. Why? Because if a leader is to lead, if a professional is to perform, s/he must bring her/his vision, values and into her/his work. If s/he is too worried about monitoring everything s/he does to conform to a desired image, s/he will not only exhaust and frustrate her/himself, but inevitably violate that image in the process of being themselves (as being someone else 100% of the time is just not possible).

If a professional or executive has positioned themselves to be something that they are not when they are hired, the charade must continue long after the interview is over. This leads to a very unhappy professional, as trying to be someone you are not is exhausting and ultimately unsatisfying. 

It can also lead to an unhappy employer if the person is unable to regularly deliver on the promise of value they put forward during the hiring process.  This may lead to a person quitting or being fired, and would not likely result in a strong reference from the employer.

In the end, nobody wins.

Your Expat Success Tip: Your success is based on using your authentic, differentiating qualities to communicate your promise of value to an employer. Not being authentic leads to a no-win situation. So as you are writing your bio, CV, resume or any career marketing materials, ask yourself, "Does all of the language I am using truly reflect who I am, or I am including it because it is what I believe the employer wants to hear?"