Your Boss Telling You to "Focus on Your Personal Brand" is Like Telling a Homeless Person to "Go Buy a House".
One of the best leaders I ever worked for used to drill it into my head that I needed to spend more time building my brand with stakeholders who weren't exposed to my work on a regular basis.
I silently refused, preferring to stick to the "Ummmmm, my work will speak for itself, thank you very much, have you not seen my work?" routine that kept me - and so many others - stuck, overlooked, and forgotten when different opportunities that I wanted to pursue came up.
What I learned in those years is this:
It doesn't matter if you’re doing great work. If you’re delivering results. Exceeding expectations. Putting in tonnes of effort that comes with personal sacrifice.
Your work only moves your career forward if people notice it. Let's read that part again. Your work only moves your career forward if people notice it. Once more, but out loud this time. Your work only moves your career forward if people notice it.
Inside a workplace that's jammed full of meetings, ever-shifting politics, misaligned priorities, and constant noise, great work does not automatically rise to the top. You have to give it a voice.
That voice is your personal brand.
Not the influencer kind. Not the “post every day on LinkedIn” kind. The internal kind. The reputation you intentionally build that makes you impossible to overlook.
Here’s what that looks like when it’s working:
- People know exactly what you’re great at
- You get pulled into higher-level conversations
- Your insights shape decisions
- Your name comes up in rooms you’re not even in
- Promotions and raises stop feeling random
And none of that happens by accident.
So I want to give you a quick breakdown of some easy-to-implement things you can start today to build a personal brand that gets you paid more, promoted faster, and listened to more.
- Pick something specific to be known for. Not “hard worker.” Not “team player.” Something like: she gets things done, best collaboration partner in the company, cross functional relationship-builder, AI-enabled process improvement, customer centric sales hacks, data visualization and storytelling, exceptional teacher, seamless recruiter ... whatever makes you you and sets you apart from everyone else at the company.
- Make your work visible. Send simple summaries. Highlight the impact. Don’t brag. Communicate. Create value in the space you're known for without being asked. If you see a colleague struggling to do something you know like the back of your hand (how'd that mole get there?), jump in and help.
- Build alliances before you need them. Your reputation grows fastest when other people speak highly of you.
- Contribute thoughtfully and consistently. You don’t need to talk the most. You need to add value the most.
- Create things that outlive the meeting. Templates, frameworks, cheat sheets, clean documentation ... these scale your influence without extra work.
- Reinforce your identity over and over. People remember patterns. Show them yours.
At the end of the day, it's up to you: You can be excellent and invisible. Or excellent and unmistakable.
Only one of those gets promoted. Only one gets the raise. Only one gets to shape their career on their terms.
Your talent deserves visibility. Your contributions deserve recognition. And your future deserves the kind of personal brand that clears the path ahead.
If you want help tightening this into your own “career identity statement” or building a weekly habit around it, just reply with “I’m in” and I'd love to help you out.
Let’s make you impossible to overlook.
