PPB August 2018

Always Have A Story To Tell I cannot begin to tell you how important having stories to tell is in developing and maintaining your personal brand. We all learn from stories and we remember them. Your brand stories give people mental hooks as to why they should think of you when they need whatever you can offer them. What do I mean by that? You need to have stories that illustrate who you are, what you do, why you do it, and the value that you provide. You need to paint a visual picture of your value in the eyes of those who you wish to influence. For example, “tell me a little bit about yourself” is something that I hear at least once a week. People want to know something about the people they do business with. Having that information in a story format allows you to easily recall it, tell it, and have it be engaging and coherent every time you tell it. Otherwise, you are stammering for an answer, and that impresses no one. It is not about telling people your life story, unless they ask you for it; it is about having a few salient points at the ready that tell people who you are and what you do. For example, I have been living in Vancouver now most of my life. I have traveled pretty much halfway around the world and lived overseas, but Vancouver has always been home. I got married about 21 years ago and have one son in high school. He is way brighter than I am—then again, so is my wife. I work with clients to help them tell compelling stories and engage their audiences in meaningful ways. What about you? It is short, and to the point, but it is more than just work-related. It has a human factor to it and gives people reason to ask more questions. The key to powerful personal brand stories is that they have to be authentic. They have to be in your voice and come naturally to you. They need to entice your audience to want to know more and not be so long that they become distracting. Tailor your story to your audience. Ask others about themselves first, actively listen, and find out what their passions are. Possibly, you will find something that you both have in common like cooking, golf or tango dancing. Who knows? But if you listen, you will have a better chance of relating to them on their level. It is not as much about what they say, but how they say it. If they are soft spoken, do not be loud and boisterous. If they do not share an enormous amount of detail, be succinct. If they are animated, you know it is ok to be the same, if that is part of your personality. Be curious, watch, listen, observe body language and intonation. All these will give you hints as to the style and mannerisms of the person you are talking to, and knowing those things allows you to engage in a way that is not going to be perceived as threatening or boorish. Excerpted from Powerful Personal Brands by Ben Baker. opportunity to have face-to-face, private time with department heads so they know who these people are and what their responsibilities are so they can gather intelligent information on how to help that person do their job better, and vice versa. 4 Hold a department meeting on the first day. Having a departmental meeting on the new employee’s first day is key to any onboarding process. Make the meeting about introductions and finding out about each other—and that is it. 5 Don’t assume that posting something on the bulletin board means it will be understood. How many times have you posted or emailed an important message and assumed that what you said was clear without giving employees the opportunity to ask questions, clarify or understand why a new policy or procedure was going into effect? Learning to communicate more effectively, with response mechanisms in place, allows employees to have a clearer understanding of what needs to be done and why. 6 Listen. Develop a mechanism your employees can use to voice their opinions, and give them avenues to be heard, understood and engaged. Every idea is not an amazing one, but it is incredible how many great ideas get missed every day because employees fear their opinions don’t matter. 7 Lead by example. All employees—from the CEO down— should live by the company’s values. If openness | AUGUST 2018 | 69 THINK