Tom Peters has been writing about Personal Brand longer than just about anyone, so he knows what he is talking about and is worth reading even if his writing S-H-O-U-T-S!! at you. In this book he has heaps of great tips on how to define your personal brand (Brand You) and he summarises them in a list of 50 items at the front of the book. He is a bit alarmist in his thoughts that the white collar workforce is at risk and all current employees need to be defining them as Brand You, but this book is useful reading for those wanting to leave big business and start up on their own. However personal brand is just as important for those working within organizations, which is less well explained in this book. Tom Peters seems to think that all jobs in large organizations are as characterized by Dilbert cartoons. There may be an element of Dilbert within large companies, but this doesn’t stop any individual being remarkable and doing a remarkable job within one of these large organizations. Creating a positive presence and being aware of how others experience you is important in any work environment.
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Michael Goldhaber, writing in Wired, said, “If there is nothing very special about your work, no matter how hard you apply yourself you won’t get noticed and that increasingly means you won’t get paid much either. In times past you could be obscure yet secure — now that’s much harder.”
Again: the white collar job as now configured is doomed. Soon. (“Downsizing” in the nineties will look like small change.) So what’s the trick? There’s only one: distinction. Or as we call it, turning yourself into a brand . . . Brand You.
A brand is nothing more than a sign of distinction. Right? Nike. Starbucks. Martha Stewart. The point (again): that’s not the way we’ve thought about white collar workers–ourselves–over the past century. The “bureaucrat” on the finance staff is de facto faceless, plugging away, passing papers.
But now, in our view, she is born again, transformed from bureaucrat to the new star. She works in a professional service firm and works on projects that she’ll be able to brag about years from now.
I call her/him the New American Professional, CEO of Me Inc. (even if Me Inc. is currently on someone’s payroll) and, of course, of Brand You.
Step #1 in the model was the organization . . .a department turned into PSF 1.0. Step #2 is the individual . . .reborn as Brand You.
In 50 essential points, Tom Peters shows how to be committed to your craft, choose the right projects, how to improve networking, why you need to think fun is cool, and why it’s important to piss some people off. He will enable you to turn yourself into an important and distinctive commodity. In short, he will show you how to turn yourself into . . . Brand You.
See also the other 50List titles in the Reinventing Work series by Tom Peters — The Project50 and The Professional Service Firm50 — for additional information on how to make an impact in the professional world.
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