What is my message? is a question that has an out-sized impact on our lives, even when we aren’t aware of it. We are forced to answer the question in all sorts of ways. It comes up in the essays we write as part of our college applications, where admissions officers strain to figure out which candidates to accept and which to reject. The question raises its head again as we search for jobs after graduation – whether from high school, college, or graduate school – and are faced with the not-so-simple task of expressing who we are on one or two pieces of paper called a resume. 

If you succeed in your job, you come face to face with the question again, as you rise through the ranks to a supervisory, or leadership, position. What is your message, then, to the people who work for you? …

… Not, what tasks do you want them to complete, but, rather, why should they follow you, beyond the fact that you’re their boss? 

The question slips into our lives on more modest levels as well: for instance, at large social gatherings when you are introduced to people for the first time. Or, at intimate dinner parties, when you are one of only a handful of people, who are thrust together for three or four hours and need to figure out how to keep the conversation going. 

In all of these situations, you have a choice. You can try to discern what is important to someone else and tell them what you believe they want to hear. You can supply information you feel is safe and easy for others to digest. Or, you can make a point of finding ways to tell people something about who you are at your core, and risk making yourself vulnerable, if only for a moment. 

The fact is that taking the “safe” route isn’t safe at all. Most people, from college admissions directors and would-be friends, to the people who report to you at work, are searching for signs that give them reason to believe that you are someone with integrity — someone they can trust. 

This is where identity comes into play — those special characteristics that reveal how you create unique value in the world. Your identity is ‘an integrity machine.’ It expresses what makes you the individual you are. It invites people to trust you. 

Hiding what you stand for takes a toll on everyone. It may make it easier for you to navigate business or social relationships that require chameleon-like skills to maintain, but, over time, it erodes your sense of self-worth: you know you’re faking it. Moreover, keeping your true self hidden makes life harder for others by keeping them guessing; off balance, in fact. 

Until I faced an auditorium full of people who were interested in the subject of identity, I had kept my message under wraps, at least publicly. For years, I’d lived under the radar. While working with companies and individuals, I knew who I was, and, certainly, I let my passion for identity show in everything I did. Yet, I never had the courage to stand up and be counted. I had let my writings and my work speak for me. Now, I would speak for myself; I would make my message clear: I am Larry Ackerman and I am driven by the need to help people to see. As I spoke these words in that auditorium that day, I exhaled deeply. I felt completely naked as I stood before my audience, knowing there was no going back. I was finally free. 

Answering the question, what is my message? Is liberating. It frees you from the fear of telling the world who you are and doing what you know you must. It brings the self-confidence to not be deterred by what others may think of you, even in the face of possible rejection. You may also realize that you no longer have a choice: you must take a stand. 

Consider your message a personal declaration — a commitment to follow one path and walk away from others. What makes declarations so powerful is their intent, which, in short, is to remove doubt. It is to make something clear to people that wasn’t clear before. Personal declarations lift the veil of mystery. They state something emphatically about who you are, often, for the first time. 

Your identity is the source of that declaration, the essence of your message. It’s a message the world needs to hear. 

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Here’s another approach for fashioning a personal business card that asserts your more powerful, more meaningful parts. Stay with me …

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to make a presentation to the Association of Career Professionals(ACP) here in Connecticut — a diverse group of career coaches and consultants, outplacement executives, and individuals in various states of transition. The session was entitled: My Brand, My Career: Building the Relationship of a Lifetime. 

While shaping one’s personal brand was the ostensible focus of the meeting, my intention was to take the crowd to a deeper place — a place that, once reached, would become the foundation of their personal brand, but also provide them a fresh perspective on how to build a life and legacy they’d be proud of. In short, their brand would become their authentic, distinctive, and sustainable center of gravity.

To get to this “deeper place,” we tackled a variety of questions ranging from who am I? and what makes me special? to where am I going?, who can I trust?, and what is my message? All of these questions, and others, were aimed at cracking the code on one’s essential identity as the starting point for shaping a truly meaningful brand.

Once you crack your code, you’re ready to get real. Put your personal brand statement on a business card — if you don’t have one, or only have a company card, have some made — you’re inviting people to get to know you faster and better. You’re inviting notable discussions, which could lead to a new job, or even a new career. (And, it’s a great conversation starter at cocktail parties!) You’re promoting what you’re really “good at” and what makes you unique. That’s what your brand needs to do.

What are you waiting for?

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This is a challenge of personal differentiation.

Personal differentiation may include more training in one’s current trade or profession, or even training in new fields. But it also depends heavily on something closer to home: Getting a clear handle on one’s identity as the source of their value-creating potential—and then determining where these powerful capacities can be best applied, to everyone’s benefit.

Promoting who you are, not just what you can do isn’t a conventional resume item. Yet, blending identity information into one’s work history and goals can transform the impact of a resume, in ways that help you stand out from the proverbial crowd.This may be cold comfort for people who have been blinded by chronic unemployment, and who are slowly melting into the background, but it is nonetheless true.

So… Is our new jobs economy killing people in the name of productivity? Such inexcusable irony.

You don’t have to take a life to kill a soul.

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Flickr photo courtesy of H. Kopp Delaney 

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I’m concerned that personal branding is about packaging – sizzle more than steak, more hat than cattle. If so, it’s destined to pass like a fleeting fashion. That would be ashame, for one’s personal brand has the real possibility of capturing the truest, most valuable aspects of one’s self – the stuff that accounts for career success like nothing else can.

If there is one statement that,for me, frames the challenge of creating a powerful personal brand, it is The Identity Credo, which is the backbone of both of my books – Identity Is Destiny and The Identity Code. Should you decide to craft a personal brand, do so in ways that will help you live up to the Credo. It will help you become a leader and achieve the success you deserve.

I am alive, I am unique, and I am immutable
Even as I grow and evolve.
To truly live, however, I must express myself fully
And in this regard, have much to give.
But to do so, I need others and am most productive with those
Who need me in return.
To establish these relationships, I must first be recognized for who I am
And it follows, then, that I will receive in accordance with what I give.

How would you describe your personal brand?

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Ask yourself this question: Have you ever heard of a VP for Financial Resources? Not likely, They’re simply VP for Finance, or Chief Financial Officer. The word, finance, stands on its own. Therein lies a seemingly innocent, yet elephant-in-the-room sized challenge for HR: Getting beyond the word ‘resources’ and focusing on human issues. “Human Resources” conjurs up all of the standard people management challenges, ranging from benefits administration, labor and leadership development, to recruitment, training, and compensation. As much as these disciplines are needed, do they really do justice to the human issues that deeply influence how well organizations perform? Issues like personal happiness and fulfillment that are the backbone of motivation? Issues of self-actualization and purpose which, unlike any financial incentive, fire the imagination and lead to unstoppable energy?

When we unleash the uniqueness and potential of individuals, we unleash value-creating instruments unlike any others. But doing so isn’t a human resources challenge; it is a human challenge and meeting it promises to be one of the great adventures of the 21st century.

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Ever since “the vision thing” collided with “execution is everything,” people have failed to resolve the ‘what is more important’ tug-of-war between these two powerful forces. Here, I offer a way to resolve the debate to everyone’s potential satisfaction (or consternation). Forget business for a moment; let’s garden.

It’s a simple fix, really, with a simple manifesto: Be the gardener. To all prospective CGO’s – chief garden officers – follow these instructions for a healthy organization.

Envision the harvest you want your business to produce, then, start with a few well-placed seeds: the right people, ideas, products, technology, capital, etc. Water, fertilize, tend, weed. In relation to your objectives, do all the little things gardens require in order to bloom. Beware over-fertilizing or watering in the name of speed. It will kill your plants. Don’t try and force growth. It just won’t work.

Combined, vision and execution are both a matter of cultivation. Practice being the gardener with your business – or your life – and small accomplishments will have great significance as your company – and you – blossom.

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Here’s a quote from a corporate recruiter, who is noted in the article, and which I want to use as a launching pad for this post: “Rachael, I don’t know you all that well yet, but I know you are not being yourself. You have 10 weeks here. Be yourself. We have to feel like we know who you are in order to consider you for full time.”

What a great admonition from a recruiter! In my experience, most may say this, but don’t really know what they’re asking; what they do care about is fit, but from another angle – from the perspective of your values and whether your values and the company’s will mesh. A reasonable need, but not enough to ensure the kind of fit that matters when it comes to contribution and long term performance.

The problem doesn’t lie with recruiters, however; it starts with the recruits, in this case, the MBA candidates themselves. I’ve lectured at several schools,
including Wharton and UCLA’s Anderson School. Topic? Identity. Understanding who you are and your value-creating potential. It’s a subject no one teaches, but everyone needs, if they’re going to turn an MBA into a meaningful career.

At the close of my session at Wharton, two years ago – there were about 120 people in the 3 hour session – several people came up to me and admitted that they really had no idea what they were going to do with their degree. And, yes,
they valued the chance to begin to dig into discovering who they really were, beyond the labels they carried and the expectations of parents, friends – and recruiters.

At one point we were talking about trust: who you can really trust to want what you have to give, by way
of your special capacities as an individual. The talk was lively. I just listened. Then, a young man in the back of the room raised his hand and said, “I don’t even trust myself right now.” The room got stone cold for a moment. Then, several students turned to him, addressed him and wanted to somehow help him. A number of others laughed, knowingly: they knew what he had had the courage to say also applied to them.

Whenever I address MBA candidates on the subject of identity and its impact on their careers and lives, generally, a cloud seems to lift in the room. People exhale. Reality sets in. Permission is granted to be human. And I leave people with an
entirely new frame of reference from which to assess what paths they should take and which ones they should avoid.

I’ve written two books on this subject, The Identity Code and Identity Is Destiny. They are the foundation of my lectures and my deeply held belief that if you understand your uniqueness and the potential it contains, you will create more value for everyone, including yourself.

Rachel is a fortunate woman. She seems to have an inner light and courage that has enabled her to go down the road of learning to be herself. More MBA candidates could use a dose of help along this line – not when they’re being recruited, but in the course of career counseling during the program.

When I open the lecture, my standard line is: Who wants to be in investment banking? Usually lots of hands go up. Then, Who wants to be in management consulting, and more hands go up. Who wants to be in marketing: more hands. Pause. Then, finally, who wants to be happy? And, invariably, all hands go up. The message is pretty clear:If you connect who you are with what you do, your chances of being happy go up a lot.

Personally, I think it would be pretty innovative for a business school to decide to make this outcome part of their process. Not only would it benefit their own reputations; it would benefit prospective employers looking to hire people who want to be with them, for all the right reasons.

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