Three Ways to Super Charge Your Professional Persona

“It is this simple. You are a brand. You are in charge of your brand. Start today.” - Tom Peters, “The Brand Called You”

So many of us are single-mindedly focused on the day-to-day business of managing our careers and the performance metrics that tell us we’re succeeding at work: promotions, client or case wins, financial gains — that the idea of taking a close look at how we are being perceived by our professional peer set is simply not top of mind.

Yet, having a clear professional persona is a critical tool to engage more meaningfully and proactively. A professional persona can be a powerful career asset and is especially useful to accomplish new business agendas.

If your personal brand needs some fine-tuning follow these three steps:

1. Define Your Signature Professional Persona

This answers the question - “How would I like to be known?”  

A good place to start is to create a list of people and persona types that resonate with you. If you’re on social media create a Pinterest board of women you admire and articulate what it is specifically about each one that speaks to you. Is it the piercing inner strength of Helen Mirren, the quiet effectiveness of Melinda Gates, or the collaborative leadership of your former mentor? 

You likely will find that there are quite a few qualities across a number of (real and celebrity) aspirational women that appeal to you. When this happens simply identify the thread common to many of them and reframe your ideal aspiration around that. For me, the qualities of “integrity”, “real”, “truth” and “genuine” came to the fore. When I reflected on those I laddered them up into a single lens — “authentic”. So when I answer the question: “How would I like to be known?” “Authentic” captures the big idea and guiding principle that drives who I am.

Use this process as inspiration to explore qualities that are important to you as you define exactly the type of professional you truly want to be.

2. Shape Your Persona Point-of-View

Next, you take your persona off the page and bring it to life.

The way to do this is to make it truly a reflection of you while also being relevant to those you work with, (or would like to work with). This involves blending several contexts to create a relevant whole. 

  • A first, and very important context is the mission of your firm and the culture of where you work. It is critically important to consider this along with the broader context of your profession. A professional persona for a lawyer is different from that of an advertising executive. And a professional persona for a partner at an entertainment-industry firm in Los Angeles is going to be different from that for a partner at Magic Circle firm in London.

  • Another contextual consideration would be your personal values. Since this is your professional persona you are formulating, one that defines who you - uniquely - are, it is imperative to ensure that the essence of “you” is a key part of this process. Tap into your core personal values to ensure the outcome is a reflection of what is important to you.

  • To round out your persona point-of-view, you need to connect these various parts to a timely and relevant external issue or problem that you care about. Think about your pro bono work, your hobbies, and your passions to guide you. What you care about will likely rise to the fore.

Now, bring all these parts together in a thoughtful way to frame out a platform that works for you. My persona platform journey looks like this: 

  • As a professional, I provide insights and information to Fortune 500 companies helping them to understand and enhance their reputation. It is therefore necessary that my professional persona project confidence and intelligence. 

  • In my work I care deeply about mentoring young professionals and helping experienced senior executives find their voice through effective communications, so the idea of being able to use my experience to transform people or take them to a different place professionally is a quality I knew I needed to capture.

  • The world today is fraught with challenges: from entire industries and companies going through transformation; to culture shifts taking place as a result of macro-movements such as increased nationalism, hyper-politicization, and social tipping points like #metoo — therefore helping companies and executives communicate effectively in times of drastic socio-cultural change is an area where I can make a difference.

Let’s put this together. Given the groundwork above, my professional persona, or executive brand, is — “I instill confidence in leaders to help them thrive by delivering insight-forward communications strategies and authentically meaningful ways to navigate transformation.” 

In a similar way, you look at the parts of the exercise above and combine the elements into a framework that works for you. 

3. Execute with Executive Presence

Now that you can articulate your professional persona, give it a voice.

There are three key areas to consider — 

  • What You Control: This is the simplest way to manage your professional presence. At a minimum you want to ensure that your profiles on these platforms are consistent and clearly communicate the professional persona you have created:

    • Firm bio

    • LinkedIn profile

    • Bios and content for any speaking engagement

    • Any communications about you coming from your firm

  • Get Social: This requires a higher level of time commitment as you now need to generate some form of content with some consistency. These could include:

    • LinkedIn posts, comments or discussions

    • Publications and thought-leadership (online or offline), such as memos or analysis or briefs

    • Twitter or any form of social media content that meets professional and firm standards

  • Amplification: If you are making a commitment to communicate your professional persona, then it might be helpful to do so in a way where you can leverage scale.  For example, if you write a client brief on “The Impact of Brexit on the Regulation of Technology Companies” - you can amplify that by also:

    • Posting a shorter form version on LinkedIn

    • Sharing key takeaways on a Podcast or Video

    • Delivering an opinion to a reporter at a trade or national publication

Your carefully crafted professional persona is an extension of who you naturally are. Once you have it articulated, it becomes a secret weapon that will increase your confidence and your focus with powerful results.

Nicky McHugh instills confidence in leaders to help them thrive by delivering insight-forward communications strategies and authentically meaningful ways to navigate transformation. She provides communications coaching through her firm BlueRidgePoint, and publishes the SavvyBizTravel blog for business travelers. Learn more at www.nickymchugh.com. 

Nicky McHugh