How to Brand You

Received an interesting email yesterday. One of my “mentees” from the UW SEBA mentor program asked me a question. He is a super sharp doctoral candidate and taking in internship with the World Bank this summer. He is anxious about how he will fit in a large office of a large organization with tons of outside interaction. Pretty natural stuff. He wanted to know if I had any advice for him. Here is my reply:

1) Be yourself. Your hard work and friendly personality got you the job. Don’t forget that.
2) People like to work with people they like. I have found this to be true working on 4 continents.
3) It is easy to be liked when you are being yourself.

Also think about what you want to accomplish from the internship. What will make it a success for you? Then work towards those things as best you can and it will be easy to be yourself — anywhere.

Then this morning in my Inbox was this very timely newsletter from Steve Yastrow. Yastrow goes in detail about the great Tom Peters article, “The Brand Called You.” My mental hamster-wheel turned over to generate a spark. There really is no difference between “Brand You” and being yourself. Simple stuff, but true. Even a snake like Polonius figured it out, “This above all: to thine own self be true.” So very true.