Attitude is Everything in Personal Branding

It’s downright surprising how many people are unaware that their attitude affects their personal brand – especially those who are career seeking.

Attitude is everything in personal branding, and all personal brands have attitude. The problem is that our behaviors and actions sometimes shape our brand without us knowing it.

You can dedicate countless hours to perfecting your resume, upload a professional headshot to your LinkedIn profile, and max out the privacy settings on all other social media accounts, but all it takes is a few interactions to tarnish your brand. No amount of experience and skill can overcompensate for a poor attitude.

Stephen Covey said,

“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.”

To be clear, I’m not challenging the conventional wisdom of letting your work speak for itself, I’m merely pointing out that there is more at stake than just your ability to complete your work with satisfactory results.

People base their perceptions on factors such as:

     Body language
     Grammar
     Vocabulary
     Telephone etiquette
     Email etiquette
     Social media etiquette

The list could go on. The irony is that there are those who are reading this very sentence nodding their head in agreement, who have no idea that they exhibit behaviors that are negatively affecting their personal brand.

To do an honest evaluation of yourself, reflect on the previous day. Think about all the conversations you had virtually, in-person, and in your head. Being honest, did negativity triumph over the positive?

     Did you tweet about how rough your day has been?
     Post about how much you hate traffic on Facebook?
     Were you short with someone via text?
     Did you send any demanding emails?

Trivial stuff, I know. Even if the good outweighs the bad, think about how each of these small transactions  can negatively affect your personal brand over time. To enhance your brand, you have to make a conscious effort to increase your self-awareness – which is not an easy task.

At the end of the each day, take note of your performance. You may begin to find that in time by being self-aware of your attitude, your daily interactions may become a bit more pleasant, opportunities may present themselves a bit more frequently, and your life may become a bit more enjoyable. I firmly believe that attitude is everything, and that’s how I manage my personal brand.

How are you managing your personal brand?