Your Personal Brand: An Emotional Journey
Your personal brand, what the hell does that even mean being a product manager? Well, guess what. It means a lot, especially if you want to further your career and step into new opportunities within your organisation. I had no idea what this was when I first stepped into product management. Luckily, my mentor and boss showed me just how important it is. Your personal brand is pretty much the portrait painted of you as an individual. This means all the conversations that are happening, good and bad when they’re looking up at your portrait on a museum wall discussing your legacy. Do you “get the picture” now? ;)
First thing’s first, forge a path; emotion is back! Yes, that’s a reconfigured line from the hip-hop artist The Game. I’m not kidding about emotion, though. If you think about your experience working with others, how often do you notice what is called “emotional weakness”? As an ENFP (look it up), I have some fantabulous ideas all the time and firm direction on where I want to take them. The problem? Being practical folks, it’s harder for more people than you think. It takes enormous discipline and practice to be practical off ideas you formulate in that brilliant brain of yours.
Another one is the truth, AND YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!! I know it’s crazy, but a lot of people can’t handle it. Furthermore, they can be quite delicate when told they are, well, doing a crappy job, to put it bluntly. I know I have skated on quite a few things in my life and dropped the ball, HARD. These are parts of us that can make us emotionally weak, and it hurts. Especially when you think what you did is right, and guess what, it wasn’t, and that’s justification for you. The truth can be painful but embrace it. It leads to growth and healing if you’re willing to let go of that dark-side crap you see Darth Vader touting all the time until Luke Skywalker pummels his…you know what I mean.
The last one, complaining. We all vent, sure, but how far does that go? Complaining about meeting results and what was said to a fellow peer just isn’t cool. You know what? It also damages your reputation more than you think. I’ve done it; I’ll hold my hand up high on this one. I sometimes catch myself being that person, and I realise this isn’t who I want to be. If something doesn’t go your way, why not ask yourself first, “what can I do to get a positive solution out of this?” Where do you fit into the picture? If you are in the wrong, where did you sway, and how can you recover? This is really all about growing up actually. The older you get, the wiser you become. However, that depends on your view to be more open-minded.
So, Michael, how does this relate to my personal brand, you ask? It’s easy. Suppose you wonder why you have all of these missed opportunities or no one is taking you as seriously. In that case, you probably need to look at how you handle specific situations when it comes to your work-related scenarios, precisely your product-based initiatives, and how you are dealing with your peers around you. You have to accept that you will fail and learn from that pain. You have to accept and avoid justifying that you didn’t do anything wrong. You have to bypass complaining and come up with a solution to how you will rise above your faults. I know you have great ideas. Now take those ideas, formulate a plan, and take action to make those ideas a reality to make others more successful. Remember, you can’t do it alone, so you have to ask for help and delegate.
It comes down to being a human being, which we all hope still a thing (aliens) in 2021, but who knows. We make mistakes, pick ourselves back up, and learn from our faults and strive to do better. I want always to be remembered as someone who put in the effort to do great work and build success in my peers around me. I want to be a positive person and a mentor to others looking to build success out of their careers. Fact check, this isn’t just about product management. This about you and how you want to be remembered in the workplace no matter what type of job you’re in. From experience, I know that we all deal with the hard times, sometimes regularly. But, wouldn’t it be cool to be that person with a portrait on a wall somewhere that people look at and say, “Oh yeah, so and so, that fool is awesome.”
