By Priya Sarkar with K S Ramanan
The 3 M’s: Measurement, Motivation, Mindfulness
We’re sure that by now you have a pretty good grip of how to start building your personal brand! Are you enjoying knowing the ropes? Are you having fun? We’d love to know…. So, please drop in your comments, questions, ideas at [email protected]; they will not only help us know how you’re feeling about this journey, but most likely help others along the way, too. If you missed previous articles or would like to go back and refresh your memory, here’s a quick recall –
Let’s move on now to other exciting facets of this journey – the 3 M’s or Measurement, Motivation, Mindfulness.
Measurement: Mirror, mirror on the wall….
That adage, ‘what gets measured gets done’ holds true again! Now measuring your personal brand and the progress it’s made can be intuitive or metricized. It’s not always easy to do the latter, but some pointers below help you with a loose combination of both:
a) Feedback: we spoke of mentoring in an earlier article. While your mentor is possibly the best placed to give you constructive feedback on how your brand is being perceived, what you need to change or do more of etc., even unsolicited feedback from friends and colleagues can be a great indicator. Comments such as ‘you’ve come a long way…’ or ‘your presentation and how you handled questions was great’ can tell you how you are doing.
b) Your own assessment: there is always that little bulb that sparks up within us to tell us how we are doing. You can actually metricize this in a way – look often at your roadmap that you developed at the start of your journey and check your progress. Also, check for areas where you have not progressed or need to do better on.
c) Visibility: keep track of your social media posts, the views you get, your public appearances, your published works, your key ‘at work’ interactions; note the frequency as well as the highs and lows of each with regard to the brand you are building and you will have a good sense of how you are doing.
Read further >>> The best way to measure your personal brand success
Motivation: choose your personal mantra
It’s not always easy to keep going. There will be times when you will feel like throwing in the towel, when you feel dispirited and down. Those will be the times when you need to pick yourself up and move on… hey, it’s part of any journey!
It helps to have your own mantra that always motivates and galvanizes. Could it be a saying, a proverb, a visual, your personal faith, your vision of where you want to be or just a heart-to-heart with a confidante? All of these may work for you, or you could have your own completely different motivator. I know someone who stands in front of the mirror every morning and heaps self-love upon herself – I am the most inspiring speaker; When I set my mind to it, I do it; My fumbling yesterday was a matter of chance, I’ll show ‘em today… and so on!
The key thing to remember is that you will need to have something to fall back on and get a boost from.. let no one kid you that it will be smooth and easy always, but with the right motivation, it will also not fall through!
Mindfulness: every experience matters
These days ‘mindfulness’ represents something more esoteric; meditation and techniques to focus have become by-words for this. But what it really means in its basic sense is that the mind is fully attending to what’s happening, to what you’re doing, to the space you’re moving through. And this is so important in your own evolution, in the evolution of your personal brand. Being self-aware, learning from your experiences, focusing on not just what you are doing but how you are doing it, all of these help you to become more conscious and thoughtful on how you build your brand.
Complementary to being mindful is being reflective. This also means you introspect and self-assess to see what’s going well, what’s not and what you need to change. Nothing is cast in stone; it’s your brand and you should reflect on what twists and bends you need to make or what course to take based on your attention to your actions.
K S Ramanan’s illustrative true-life account of how to motivate oneself coming up next week!
| 3 Takeaways 1. Measuring how your brand is being perceived ensures you stay on track! 2. Your own mantra, your own motivation, will pull you through the lows on your journey. 3. Being mindful and reflective of every action and experience helps you evolve your brand! |
For coaching and leadership workshops on creating your personal brand roadmap contact: [email protected] or [email protected]
