The perceptions others have of you, right or wrong, can severely hamper your success, or open doors.

“ ...all of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are the CEO’s of our own company’s: Me Inc.....Being CEO of Me Inc. requires you to grow yourself, to promote yourself and to get the market to reward yourself” – Tom Peters 1997.

In this day and age, “personal branding is more important than company branding because we trust people more than we trust company’s.” (Montoya & Vandehey 2005)

The complexity and competitiveness of business today, especially in these tough economic times, is well understood, but many of us are left wondering how we are going to stand out, how do we make sure our service or product gets noticed and selected. Whether you are an entrepreneur or leading in a corporate the truth is, your personal brand determines your success.

Prof Michael Shea from the University of Strathclyde says “you may be brilliant at what you do, but unless you are recognised as such, you may well be ignored” in his book called the Primacy Effect.

Whether presenting, meeting a prospective client or interviewing for a promotion, your first impression is critical to how you are perceived. If you do not create a desire to know more and create a positive perception you can lose out on making the deal, getting the promotion or selling your idea.

Of course you need to have the skills to back that up, but without mastering that initial few seconds of meeting people, or how you operate in your environment, where stereotypes are cast and unavoidable judgements made, you diminish your impact power and your competitive edge.

The “Primacy Effect” is the name psychologists have called the first critical moments that create the “schemata” in the minds of your audience. This creates the basis from which interactions unfold. Research has shown that within 7-15 seconds of meeting someone for the first time, they have determined the car you drive, your education and what dog you might own. In this tele-visual age, we are learning to make quick judgements faster in order to deal with the overload of information. Social media and the online environment is also adding new layers of complexity to our channels for expressing ourselves and how we manage relationships. The rules are changing, and while the world changes, your brand needs to be refined and adapted.

Business has understood the power behind the emotional associations and internal relationship with a brand that creates brand ‘equity’, which translates into behaviour and thereafter profitability. It’s no different on a personal level. If most people have associations of trust, professionalism and connection to you, you have successfully branded yourself. If you have understood yourself, your strengths and authentic, unique ‘differentiators’, communicate this confidently and adjust to your audience or ‘target market’, then you are successfully operating as a consistent brand.

Steps to create a powerful, authentic brand

Know yourself first

“Know thyself” was inscribed in the forecourt in Temple of Apollo at Delphi in Greece. This wisdom is ever-pervading and applies not only to your inner strengths and weaknesses, qualities, goals, dreams and visions, but also in seeing yourself for what you are, enhancing what you can and accepting what you cannot change. While conforming to stereotypes often seems like the easiest route for many, this does not provide a core differentiator and will not give you a competitive edge, it will not live and breathe in everything you do.

We are each a unique fingerprint and you want to establish a brand as close to your authentic self as possible, one that espouses your values, distinctive and relevant qualities and is in harmony with your dreams and characteristics. It also needs to be short and impactful, much like the well-known concept of the elevator pitch. Hubert Rampersad in his new book says "then you will create a life that is fulfilling and you will automatically attract the people and opportunities that are a perfect fit for you.” It’s not cosmetic polishing, it’s about understanding and valuing your uniqueness. If you don’t know what’s different and special, you will not be able to bring that across to others. In essence, you need to define your brand and understand your intentions of this brand, within the boundaries of who you are.

Many of us understand this concept, but don’t know quite how to get in touch with this self-knowledge. Today, many are turning to personal image and communication coaching to help not only delve into oneself but also understand the perception that you could be unwittingly creating and help you to bridge those gaps.

Develop an awareness of all the elements that express your personal brand

If you don’t know how you are communicating your personal brand, there isn’t much you can do to manage and optimise it. It’s much more than just about clothing and grooming. While, the visual aspect is the most immediate aspect of your impact power and the phrase “the eye is hungrier than the ear” indicates how important this is, but there is a lot more to it. Have you ever thought how amazing it is that we are able to produce sound that people understand and respond to and create transactions in relation to them? This ability is largely taken for granted in the business environment as it happens so normally and naturally, but many of the problems with relationships and mis-understandings that occur happen because of the malfunction or lack of understanding of the full process of communication.

Your voice quality, clarity, rate and effectiveness of your speech and language is essential in how you are perceived. Tone and pitch can radically affect how seriously you are taken. Many women have a higher pitch than men, and in some cases this could cause them to lose impact in the presentation of their input. Monotonous or unclear speech patterns can make people have to work harder to listen and stay focussed. Luckily, you can learn to control and manage all components of communication once you become aware of them. Your non-verbal behaviour, which is highly emotionally driven, is also critical as it subtly influences the interpretation of a message, affecting over 60% of the message received. Non-verbal behaviour extends way beyond your body language. Many theories about reading and interpreting non-verbal behaviour exist, but the key is to understand that people are different and culturally programmed.

Your non-verbal behaviour can enhance or detract from your message and will more likely detract when you are being insincere or emotionally dishonest.

It is more important to become conscious of your behaviour in your context and in response to your emotions and see how that would be adjusted in other environments. It’s also extremely important to monitor and observe how others respond to you.

Emotional intelligence, fast being recognised as the intelligence most associated with success in life and business, is a critical part of your overall brand, arguably, more so than intellect or IQ according to Dr Goleman. This is again why it is so crucial to know yourself and emotions, your attitudes and how you respond to life – a core competency in the emotional intelligence framework. Our communication style is not separate from our personalities. Whether passionate and aggressive or cold and aloof, our emotional intelligence is expressed through our communication, and we can learn to optimise this and make it work, or allow it to create obstacles to our growth and success.

Social intelligence is also a fundamental aspect of learning to express, interact and respond to others. Nelson Mandela said “if you talk to a man in a language her understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” (Rampersad)

International specialist Paul Ekman’s research indicates that those who are more socially intelligent, have the ability to read peoples non-verbal signals and more accurately interpret the over 7000 possible iterations of facial expression created from our facial muscles. This ability allows us to universally empathise, connect and build rapport. Without these essential skills we are unable to win favour, influence or inspire others. We often forget that your brand doesn’t exist inside you, it resides in the minds and hearts of others.

Stretching your brand into situations

Understand your audience expectations. It’s important to realise that brand associations need to remain constant, but how that gets communicated can change according to the audience and expectations required. Whether pitching for new business or doing a performance appraisal, always think about what statement you are trying to make in each situation, know where your limitations and strengths lie, where your personal uniqueness can serve each situation, then you will be able to do the rest with dignity. Learn to align and adjust how you dress, what sort of tone and approach you need to take. Continue to monitor and evaluate how you are doing in any situations in relations to the responses you receive. This awareness takes time to develop. If you are facing a panel for an interview you may need to accentuate certain qualities over and above other qualities you would highlight at an office social. The best is to put yourself in your audience’s shoes and see what they would be looking for and how you can provide the solution.