Build Your Personal Brand – ASK THE EXPERT SERIES 1-6

Your Personal Brand

Branding demands commitment; commitment to continual re-invention; striking chords with people to stir their emotions; and commitment to imagination. It is easy to be cynical about such things, much harder to be successful.”

– Sir Richard Branson

In this CorporateTrainerConnect.com – Ask The Expert article, we speak to Ms. Cindy Tien, a speaker, trainer and coach in personal branding, emotional quotient and social intelligence.  With clients spanning diverse industries from global MNCs, including banking and financial institutions, real estate agencies, universities, and government-linked corporations, Cindy believes that every individual should be an authentic personal brand of their own, and she takes pride in helping individuals elevate their ability to connect and influence people through their Appearance, Behaviour and Communication skills.

Here are her answers to our questions:

Q1. How can one have a better understanding and perspective when interacting with others to up our emotional quotient and social intelligence?

The first key to increasing emotional and social intelligence is to be crystal clear about who you are as a person and how you come across to others, as well as the advantages and disadvantages that follow. We might assume that we are self-aware after all nobody knows us as much as ourselves, right? But again and again, we see people falling into the same traps and not being able to pull themselves out.

Self-awareness means that you have a clear understanding of your personality, strengths and weaknesses, your thoughts and beliefs, your emotions, and your motivations. It’s only when we analyse our deepest needs and fears that we understand why certain behaviours put us off, or why we are attracted to, for eg. Different types of people, culture, music. It’s only when we know our internal standards and expectations that we understand why we have strong reactions to different things, words, images, sounds. People with high self-awareness seek clarity about who they are, who they want to be and how they are seen.

They live their lives intentionally, with little ambiguity. So using ABC as an acronym – Awareness needs to be present Before Change. The more we know ourselves intimately, the better we can gain mastery over ourselves and make changes that lead us to happiness, success, and fulfilment.

Research shows that when people are able to see themselves clearly, they become more confident people. We can’t be confident of what we don’t know! And confidence is attractive in social interactions.  I don’t mean confidence just from a perspective of dressing well and having good body language. When people are secure, they are able to speak authentically, listen humbly, and give generously – they can connect with others easily because they don’t see people as threats to them.

To be socially intelligent, we need to work on our empathy levels – by refraining ourselves from judging others (even though we naturally do!), avoid comparing ourselves to others, and intentionally stepping into another person’s shoes. In every human interaction, ask yourself “How would I want to be treated and spoken to in a situation like that?” – Asking this question always works for me when it comes to connecting with others because I have made the effort to put myself in the other person’s position, and this changes the entire dynamics of the interaction. Every contact point with a person is an opportunity to build connection – whether it’s having a meal together, sending an email or text, or having a telephone conversation. Don’t squander these opportunities. People have higher levels of social intelligence when they truly believe that other people are as important as they are – no more, no less.

Q2. As a speaker, trainer, and coach in personal branding, what is your top 3 tips for others to build their personal brand?

The first tip is to first ascertain how people are perceiving you. Ask your good friends, colleagues and loved ones for honest feedback. Your brand is really your reputation through perceptions – what is yours?

How would people describe you if they have to give you 3 – 5 positive words, and 3 – 5 not so positive words?

Are these words accurate in describing you? Are you happy with them?

The second tip is to work on your personal brand on an ongoing journey and these are questions to ask ourselves these questions:

1. What would the best version of me be?
2. What do I want to achieve as an endgame in my life mission and career?
3. How will I show up in the world when I’m the best version of me?

Seeking continuous clarity on these things will help you to chart your path to building a brand that resonates with your true self – it’s progressive, meaningful and inspiring.

The third tip would be to identify specifically how will the best version of you surface up in your 3As – Your Appearance, Actions, Attitudes.

For eg. If you want to show up as a polished, smart and warm person – how would that look like in your choice of clothing and style? What would be the words you would choose to use online and offline?

What would be the necessary attitudes that would help create or destroy that brand? Our clients engage coaches like us to help them develop themselves through their branding journey as there may be blind spots in which they are not aware of.

Q3. Having transitioned in various roles from an SIA air stewardess to corporate roles and to your current role as a speaker, trainer, and coach, what is your advice for peers who are at crossroads in their career?

Take the next step.  Many people I know are at crossroads and unfortunately miserable but they don’t do anything except ponder and complain. Start by doing some online research, talking to someone for advice, attending a course – It’s ok to be unsure while you are figuring things out but don’t just do nothing! Clarity comes from taking responsibility for your life, and taking action towards clarity.   I left my corporate job because I felt unfulfilled and I decided that that’s not the type of life I wanted, but I didn’t know what to do then so I attended courses which I’m interested in – one of which was a self-awareness course.  I was smitten by how the trainers and coaches facilitated the program, and I wanted to be like them. I attended courses after courses to explore my interests and to clarify what I could do as a career in terms of my natural talents. And the career path became clearer and clearer.

Give yourself a timeline to make decisions. Yes, you will need to make decisions – don’t be afraid of that. Some people refuse to make any decisions, this is an action in itself.

Connect with Ms. Cindy Tien and learn from her experience!

It’s important to build a personal brand because it’s the only thing you’re going to have.Your reputation online, and in the new business world is pretty much the game, so you’ve got to be a good person. You can’t hide anything, and more importantly, you’ve got to be out there at some level.

– Gary Vaynerchuk

Click on the following links to read other what other Experts have to say in building our future skills:

1. https://corporatetrainerconnect.com/article/applying-design-thinking-and-agile-strategies-to-increase-revenue-ask-the-expert-series-1-1/

2. https://corporatetrainerconnect.com/article/keeping-our-motivation-and-passion-going-ask-the-expert-series-1-2/

3. https://corporatetrainerconnect.com/article/complex-problem-solving-the-most-desired-skill-for-2020/

4. https://corporatetrainerconnect.com/article/critical-thinking-and-innovation-ask-the-expert-series-1-4/

5. https://corporatetrainerconnect.com/article/team-building-building-a-high-performance-team-ask-the-expert-series-1-5/

CORPORATETRAINERCONNECT.COM PLATFORM

Thank you for taking the time to read this article. This article is part of the series from our newly launched CorporateConnectTrainer platform where we help connect corporations to trainers in the region. You can now search, qualify and connect directly with your best-fit trainer on one single platform, saving you time and hassle. We aim to share the subject matter expertise of our qualified trainers on the CorporateConnectTrainer platform through these articles.

Written by Janet Yung, founder of Trilogy People Performance Consultancy. We enable learning for businesses and individuals by bringing you programs, learning, and design delivery services, and technologies cum platforms, that will aid you and your team to build skills and be ready for current and future business needs.