Mind Tools in What Is Personal Branding-Present An Impressive, Impactful and Authentic Image has the following advice for us.
- Your words, presentation and behaviors always reveal something about your core values, passions and achievements so people will often make a snap judgment about you thus you already have a personal brand whether you realize it not. What do you do think your brand is? Ask a few folks.
- How do you perfect your personal brand
- Be aware
- How you present and communicate in your organization
- Do you adjust to your audience rather than always using data/graphs and “pharmacyspeak”
- Is your personal appearance what you want it to be
- Do you use your emotional intelligence to recognize your own emotions and those of others around you and use that knowledge to enhance your working relationships
- Do you express your thoughts clearly but tactfully to win people’s support
- Do you ask yourself what’s in it for them
- Do you ensure that timely decisions get made that take other people’s needs into account
- Are you conscientious in everything you do because people will be more likely to do the same for you
- Simple courtesies such as always being on time for meetings and acknowledging others efforts will count for a lot
- Identify your USP your Unique Selling Point so you can focus on promoting it
- Figure out what makes you uniquely valuable
- Be sure to include skills/knowledge beyond pharmacy
- What’s your personal leadership vision or why are you a leader
- What are your values, and strengths and what opportunities do you have to use them such as volunteering to lead the organization’s ACO or Service Lines
- Be clear with yourself about how your personality underpins how you carry out your responsibilities thinking about the various roles you have
- Document your roles such as
- Pharmacist
- Pharmacy leader
- Staff coach for developing people
- Role model for your leadership team
- Teacher/preceptor for residents/students
- Contributor to the whole organization
- Assisting other departments such as nursing, medical staff, quality, safety, etc. with their roles and challenges
- Be ready to talk about your achievements as educating/marketing people is not necessarily selling them
- Be careful not to embellish your accomplishments as any mismatch between your image and reality could damage your reputation
- Document in a paragraph your USP which will clarify your thinking and provide you a reference point
- Be authentic
- What are your priorities
- Where can you have the most impact
- Think about, plan and create your and pharmacy’s future
- Have a clear mental picture and document your personal, professional and skills based goals you want to achieve
- Break each down into smaller, short term ones that are easier to achieve and establish a timeline
- Be an effective delegator so you free up your time to think/plan and develop your people
- Identify your audience
- Think about who you want to aim your personal brand at
- Current or potential employer
- Need to know their values, priorities and beliefs so you can use examples from your experiences that dovetail
- Your skills such as establishing your credentials
- Is there value in obtaining an advanced degree so you can compete for positions that open down the road
- Mentor co-workers, blog on relevant topics, speak, publish, etc.
- Choose your channel
- Always play to your strengths as well of taking care of your day to day job responsibilities
- As an example if you are a natural presenter think about building your brand through online videos or podcasts
- If you write well put a blog together
- Networking
- LinkedIn remains the most widely used professional online network
- Is your profile up to date and always upload a photo
- Blog if you have special insight
- Be aware you need to produce a constant stream of useful content to keep your audience interested
- ASHP Connect is an available blogging service
- Microblogging
- Twitter and Facebook are good for sharing insights, opinions and content, and for establishing frequent contact with like-minded people
- Remember that short and precise communication is an art and be prepared for some potential public criticism/challenge which is good as it means people are reading what you write
- Your own website
- Be aware that it takes time and effort to set up and maintain
- Can be a hub for a whole range of content
- Make sure your web address is relevant, memorable and short, and that your site is attractive and easy to navigate
- Across all sites consider the type of content and comments that you share as they will remain in cyberspace forever
- Work on developing a user friendly, conversational writing style which is easy and engaging to read
- Document what you need to do to enhance and maximize your brand
Comments are always welcome and remember Health-System Pharmacy is a very small world