As described on Wikipedia, National Secretaries Week was created in 1952 through the work of Harry F. Klemfuss of Young & Rubicam, in conjunction with the National Secretaries Association, now known as the International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP). His goal was to encourage more people to consider careers in the secretarial/administrative support field. Using his skill and experience in public relations, Klemfuss promoted the values and importance of the job of administrative assistants. In doing so, he also created the holiday in recognition of the importance of administrative assistants.
The brand of leadership recognizing the partner relationship with a great secretary shows a direct relationship to productivity and professionalism, in my experience.
As I have had dialog with as many executive assistants as I have with executives, I experience the excellent customer service and respect for time and culture from the good ones. I have seen executives change companies in their career while negotiating secretary compensation as part of the move. The team is a package deal! Respect I admire!
Just like any other profession, there are good and great professionals in this field of choice. The great ones make a significant impact in the success of a team. Celebrate the people who make you look better and are the front line in experience for everyone who interacts with your company.
Dan Schawbel and team release issue 4 of Personal Branding Magazine to the public on May 1. This promises to be another great issue on personal brand topics with a cover story interview with Robert McGovern, Founder JobFox and CareerBuilder.com.
Articles:
- 3 Tips for Visibility, Memorability and Credibility in Your Job Search
Confidence in what you have to offer is valuable and an important discovery.
If you have not uncovered who will buy your skills before or along the way, you may find yourself barking up the wrong tree in your job search and/or business development activities.
Understanding your customer involves focus on understanding the customer problems and needs and validating you are the solution.
Learning about who your customer is and whether or not you are solving a problem important to them is critical - take the guessing game out of your job search and business development process.
Who specifically is your customer? Who is the decision maker and who influences decisions at companies you target - those people are your customer - who are they? Your customer has problems - what are the problems in their words?
What is it about you that solves your customer problems?
Those who invest in defining themselves and customer have a clear understanding of a unique value proposition they can target to the needs of their target company - and are quick on their toes. That brand of confidence gets hired!
I don't need to tell you about the job loss and other scary economic statistics because the media is covering that well and opinions about the "war for talent" tag line is all over the blogosphere.
I know, it is scary when the company and industry where you are an expert is cutting back and the job loss vs. job creation ratio seems to be against you. The fact of the matter is there are strong industries and even those industries cutting are hiring the right talent and in some cases even struggling finding the right fit. I see examples of this all over the country and certainly right here in Denver.
You are now asking who is hiring? Fair question. This is where I hold you accountable because YOU need to be familiar with your current and forecasted environment. Answer this question instead - who is hiring YOU?!! YOU need to tool yourself and invest in yourself for marketability and transferable skills. That is what the talented do in good and challenging times. It is part of the personal brand awareness. When you do your homework, you learn and add value when networking.
When you do your homework, you position yourself with knowledge and confidence your competition lacks and that is what companies hire even when they are not...hiring. That is right, the talented know what they offer and have the confidence to target companies that may not even be hiring.
I experience your struggle as a candidate marketing yourself to me for my own companies, interests including clients. Pay attention. I have always seen a direct relationship to those who complain about not getting a response and those who do not invest time targeting their value proposition to the company needs, vision and culture.
Even in this ultra competitive environment that is not going away, I see people as recent as today that don't make the minimum investment in themselves for opportunities they know I am leading recruiting activity or at minimum a great networking source for them. Even potentially qualified people communicate a brand of disrespect and laziness...don't be this brand during your career search:
"To whom is may concern" on letters and email. - I got one of these today and my email is david @ YourBrandPlan . com and another referencing a job description with my name on it and even the company for research opportunity.
Highlighting experience that hurts you more than helps you for the company you are targeting. Equally, passing along an obvious one size fits all letter and resume.
Misrepresent your current situation.
Not picking up the phone
Not following up
These, and many others, are the easy activities for you to do. If over looked, it is easy for those in a position to hire you to discount you. Take it a step further in your due diligence and professional communications and even if the timing is not right, you will create a network of value. Multiply your efforts times 100, and you will find the right deal in any market.
Yesterday on Your Brand Radio, Mark and I had a mixed conversation with a common theme around changing roles in your career and/or business.
Where does your brand sit in the mist of change? If your brand is a collection of values, not much. Your value proposition, competencies and even strengths may change over time so how you express and market your brand will change.
Change is often a result of your external environment. The place where it is easy to place blame and become a victim of circumstance. Market. Jobs. cost of living. Bad boss. On and on...If you are in control of your brand and environment, these don't matter as much...they are only challenges of time and strategy.
Since becoming somewhat active with Twitter, I find myself considering communicating my every move. I don't mainly because I am not always online due to other commitments (life, business and client confidentiality) and I am on the phone alot. Others tweet everything (selective no doubt) and show more of the personal brand.
Today I was excited to announce my new PR and speaker booking team, but waited until the other candidates were aware of my choice so not to learn via twitter. If I wait to long, it is not authentic tweeting culture.
Not just for the personal brand by the way. Companies (made up of individual brands) are promoting their culture as well.
Fun new culture. What is your tweet strategy? That reminds me to see if KnowMoreMedia.com and which authors are on twitter and Lijit for search and stats.
Have you ever had a conversation with a pro athlete, rock star, political leader or famous actor about their career? How about the anchor on your favorite nightly news, popular radio show host or best selling author? If you have, you notice that not only are they always on brand, but you realize they are conscious of their brand at all times. You also recognized that they have learned from pros from the beginning of their profession that personal brand awareness of consistent and projected success have always been part of a strategy in staying relevant.
Whether the brand or values of the brand reach you or not, you notice the discipline and constant innovation of self. You notice big time decisions on growth that the competition follow. You notice a vision and confidence as a result.
The professions mentioned above provide ease to identify the stars because of media culture, but the lesson remains the same. Identify the famous personal brands that impress you and ask yourself what they do to keep popping in your mind. What can you learn from them and apply to your career? How do you communicate to those you influence?
With the Internet medium, the game is more open is it not? I'll bet the personal brand that came to mind has a significant presence online - check. They may even be way ahead on communication tools like twitter - as an example, I started getting active on twitter just recently. Most people are not aware of twitter yet, but the highly influential bloggers out there have huge followings in short time because of their reputation of adding value online. The same people have a great presence online because of the content and experience they bring offline as well. The content came first in other words. The brand is easily extended online.
Final post in Personal Brand Manager series starting with "There is No ing in Brand" Your personal brand changes as you the individual learn more details about your natural talents and build on your core competencies. It also changes along with your environment. Today, those changes are happening faster than you can accomplish your current tasks on the job and in your community. The perception of what you have to offer could be great one day and irrelevant the next. That perception can also be different from how you see it vs. your market and even from person to person as they experience you. That is why there is no "ing" in brand.
Your personal brand exists in it's current state. Not everyone is going to get it. But does everyone respect you? Are you proud of who you are? Do you communicate a focused brand to an audience who can benefit? Do people trust you - do you have confidence in yourself?
When you re-brand, meaning changing your promise of value and experience people have with you, you are in a cycle of change. It is here where you prove your vision of who you want to be is your greatest asset. Living and talking (BEING) that brand will make your transition seamless. Communication, marketing, networking your change is a process that will take time in the masses. But with existing trust and your confidence shining to those who don't know you, your brand, continues to be present in the moment.
You are not branding...you are. The question is, do people know who you are?
Do they know how you can ad value, RIGHT NOW? Do they know how to help you get to where you want to be?
Building brand awareness is as easy as being authentic in adding value to yourself, family, community and business. You build brand awareness by adding value and doing a GREAT job consistently - by being a connector. The rest is marketing. here, there and everywhere on and offline where people will listen.
Be you - be great and make it an "Absolutely Incredible Day" for someone!
How much to charge for services and how much to pay for services can be a time consuming due diligence task if you are not aware of your value and environment. It is also a tough sell if perceived value and trust is not where it should be - your brand. In other words, price can be an easy indicator of fit or deal killer early. The fear of paying too much or too little is found out over time. Too little results in lack of motivation and active searching for a better fit; too much holds poor expectations resulting in adjustments (firing) over time.
That said, there are multiple ingredients to what makes a fair compensation agreement. It is a good idea through negotiations to learn all parties motivations. Unique benefits and risk/reward scenarios come into play - understand what a true win:win looks like.
Traditional employer/employee situations have ranges that are easily understood so skills vs. needs tend to find each other rather easy. Salary.com and the 2008 Inc Magazine Executive Compensation Guide will give you an idea. Look for these studies each year for trends. If your personal brand shows an obvious premium or learning curve - negotiate appropriately.
Consultants have other cost and cost savers for the client to consider. The otherwise salary being replaced is a starting point. Consider business development and other non-paid time in your equation and know how your higher rate saves the client company money under traditional hire situations - your value proposition.
Finally there is your products and services and how they should be priced in the market. Not much changes here. The market will help determine your price and you help communicate value in terms of ROI. If you offer something new to the market, clearly more research and testing may be required.
We understand the concept of being the CEO of ME, Inc in this fast paced and ultra growth competitive age. It is a hot topic Oprah has covered in a series called Investing in Me, Inc and if you Google discussion forums about personal brand, you are sure to find many discussions and ideas.
Great idea in theory, but what if you are a commodity with no known competitive advantage or your talents and passions don't line with your skills? What if you have no perceived value? What if your brand is negative because of a poor experience others have with you?
Your career is in the service business so it is worth repeating: Careers are our own business - a business that we create, brand, own and manage. Our careers go through the same service model cycle a business does. So it is logical to think that any professional needs to plan, manage and brand a career. The Classic disciplines required such as those listed above are not required core competencies of the career and community minded professional. But the strategy as a tool is required to build and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage.
What do you sell?
Without a solid answer to this question you can not have the confidence to pitch your offering to people. You must believe in yourself first before you can start communicating your brand. As you continuously learn and build market trend and identify needs, you too can tool yourself with a competitive advantage packaged with a promise of value.
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