Personal brand and business brand alignment

I recently read a post on Jason Markow’s blog (which you should read frequently; it’s good for you) about narcissism and personal branding. He brought up some excellent points about not sacrificing the business for sake of someone’s personal brand of those involved. His argument was that the business should be able to survive if that person and their brand leave and that some focus so much on being known that actually doing gets lost.

I commented on the post because I’m someone that’s always in the process of refining & redefining my personal brand. Always thinking about how to tell people how I can help them and not oversell my capabilities. I feel that your personal brand should reflect what your most passionate about. Your personal brand needs to be tied to a vertical and you NEED to be prepared to re-brand. You will not retire doing what you’re doing now. Plain and simple.

With respect to your personal brand and its impact on the business you work for. It should be aligned with the overall business goals just as operations or marketing need to be aligned with the goals of the overall organization. If you’re brand is out of sync with the business, you need to find a new job. Quickly. It’s painful work if there is no alignment. Now more than ever a business is a team.

As the economy moves inextricably towards social commerce with flat/porous business organizations (the rise of the prosumer), robust personal brands are becoming essential.