Brand YOU: Are you Managing your Manager?
You leave your manager and not your company. All of us would have come across some email forward or article on this at least once. Very popular, especially among non-managers. My post is not on the merits of demerits of this adage but has to do with my continued interest on personal branding.
I am bringing the very large topic of personal branding to a very specific relationship. The relationship between you and your manager is a very special one and yet like any other relationship. Now ask yourself if your Manager is your Target Audience then what is your brand telling your TG?
Look at what your TG needs.
-Your manager needs to grow by showing good work done by the team
-Your manager needs team members who take initiative
-Your manager needs team members who do their job well
-Your manager needs team member who learn well, fast and apply it to work
-Your manager needs team members who will build the team’s brand and therefore of the manager
Now, look at the branding you do to your manager
-When you meet your manager are you going with a problem you could not solve?
-Are you going with a solution and making decision-making easy?
-When you make a presentation are you getting your message across or you just doing a ppt?
-Are you ensuring work given to you is handled or does your manager have to follow up?
-Are you giving your manager an opportunity to showcase your work?
-Are you learning fast enough and enough volumes to create a difference?
OR
-Are you doing things that you assess and are satisfied and not the TG?
-Are you looking at giving your TG a reason to buy you or are you looking at your own reasons?
-Are you letting your TG get a clear answer to WHY ME and WHY NOT SOMEONE ELSE?
-You have not figured out WHO YOU ARE and that message is not getting through strong and clear?
I hope what I am trying to say is getting through. While not everybody is fortunate to get smart understanding manager’s you need to realize that managing your manager is nothing but the way you handle your personal brand with your audience. In this case an audience of ONE, your manager.
Remember your manager is a person who also has a manager. Your manager is a person with aspirations, emotions, feelings, dreams, needs and actions. Have you understood your audience? Are you using your personal brand to target your audience? In other words, are you managing your manager ?
