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Effective personal branding requires a lot of introspection. That’s because your brand is not created, it’s unearthed. But personal branding isn’t all about introspection. In addition to being self-reflective, you need to validate the results of your self-perceptions with feedback from others. After all, your brand is held in the hearts and minds of those you seek to influence and impact.
Once you’re clear on the six drivers of your personal brand (values, passions, superpowers, differentiators, purpose and goals), it’s time to get feedback to validate what you learn about yourself with input from the people who know you.
This part of the personal branding process is critical. It helps you refine your thinking and sometimes provides insights that will forever change how you see yourself and the value you deliver to others.
According to Gallup, leaders who offer frequent and continuous feedback are more likely to lead employees who feel motivated to do outstanding work, and those employees are nearly three times more likely to be engaged at work.
According to professional services firm PwC, nearly 60% of employees surveyed stated that they would like feedback on a daily or weekly basis. That number increased to 72% for employees who are under age 30.
Feedback is critical for developing and refining skills—especially communication and empathy, which are related to building and nurturing relationships and helping you amp up performance. Even if it feels a little uncomfortable at first, regularly seeking and processing feedback is also essential for effective personal branding. That’s because feedback is the essential ingredient for keeping your self-perceptions real. There are many different ways to obtain feedback. Here are a few:
1. Get 360-degree feedback
360 assessments are helpful in providing candid, anonymous feedback and translating widely varied input into actionable insights. Polling people who have different relationships to you will help you uncover those attributes that you exude consistently.
2. Ask for it
Get in the habit of asking for feedback regularly. Demonstrate that you really care what people think and continue to refine your thinking and your actions. When it comes to personal branding, focus on feedback questions that will help you validate the six drivers of your personal brand. Here are some questions that you can use:
- What am I doing that I should be doing more of?
- What do you think I am best at?
- What one thing am I not doing that I should be doing?
- What skill or behavior should I work on?
- What sets me apart from others who do what I do?
- What one thing should I stop doing or do differently?
- What three adjectives would you use to describe me?
3. Review your reviews
Your annual performance review and other company-sponsored reviews can give you powerful insights into external perceptions, especially if you get input from people you respect who have experienced you. Looking through many different reviews, in many different formats, can be extremely helpful. It allows you to find trends, which can be even more valuable than any individual piece of feedback.
4. Listen
If you pay attention, you can get the real scoop on what people think about you. That’s because they often share what they think. Listen to what people say when they introduce you to others or when they compliment you. What they say is often connected to your superpowers or differentiators.
Feedback is essential for effective personal branding. It helps you keep your brand real and gives you the insights you need in order to be an even better version of yourself. Being receptive to external input and introspection, in equal measure, ensures that you develop—and project—a complete picture of your unique value to the world.
William Arruda is a keynote speaker, co-founder of CareerBlast.TV and creator of the 360Reach Personal Brand Survey that helps you get candid, meaningful feedback from people who know you.
