Resolve to Improve Your Company or Career in 2016!

The start of a calendar year is usually a great time for evaluating the leadership and growth of your organization, and ways to take your own career or company to the next level. What better way to start off the New Year than assessing areas that need improvement and establishing new goals for the immediate and long term future. For many executives, especially ones who are already somewhat accomplished, this task is easier said than done. From time to time, we could all use a little help figuring out next steps and how to get there, yet not everyone can afford to hire their own personal leadership coach.

Below are a few key lessons from The Strategic MVP on cultivating a personal brand and unleashing one’s ‘inner nerd’ to help you become a true MVP.

1. The Importance of a Personal Brand

Similar to the brand of a company, your personal brand is the feeling and experience that people have when they interact with you, think about you, or talk about you. Do you have an identifiable personal brand? Managing your personal brand can be one of the most important things you do as you progress in business. What do you want to be known for? If your personal brand is authentically focused on your career aspirations, then the right people will think of YOU when the right opportunity arises. Your personal brand should articulate your values, story, message, and things that are important to you.

[wcm_restrict]2. Checking Your Self Awareness

So what ‘brand’ are you projecting? Is it what you think it is? Only one way to find out: after you write down four words that describe you, ask three different people to send you four words that describe you (in both cases, think of words in 30 seconds or less). Try to select personal and professional contacts, superiors, or direct reports, allowing for diversity in your feedback. Then, compare the results. In which ways are the descriptors you gave yourself the same, or different, from your feedback group? Use this to develop steps to better manage your brand.

3. Reinvent To Stay Relevant

Your personal brand is an important part of your MVP leadership journey and the key to your long-term success. Resolve to build upon those characteristics and be consistent in your efforts and message. You may have to reinvent yourself along the way to stay relevant.

4. Never Stop Learning

For most, when you are young, your life revolves around school. As kids, learning, growing, and developing is at the center of what you do. Once you get into a career, you might think you can sigh with relief. You are done, phew! In most cases, that is when the journey begins. Learning is a lifelong task in every part of our careers.

5. Take Advantage of Opportunities

Is there a degree or a next level of learning that you have been “meaning to do” or a course you have always wanted to accomplish? Almost every industry has conferences and conventions – can you take better advantage of the events you attend? How are you sharing knowledge gained with the rest of your team? Think of one person who can help enhance your learning, or with whom you should connect to learn more.

Your willingness to always learn something new, paired with a positive attitude, is a sure formula to gaining and sustaining an MVP status. No matter where you are in your career, it’s never too late to apply these lessons and achieve the professional life you desire and deserve. We hope 2016 is the year you decide to take the necessary steps to becoming your own MVP![/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember]

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About the Author

Dr. Brandi Stankovic is a professor, organizational change expert, motivational speaker and mommy who inspires firms globally with her models of leadership, engagement and award-winning education. Her clients include billion dollar organizations, trade associations and non-profit foundations.

The Strategic MVP (co-authored by Mark Thompson) is an interactive guide offering motivational lessons from the world’s top CEOs (Warren Buffet, Sir Richard Branson, Martha Reitman, Ingrid Vanderveld, etc.) and ongoing workshop-type exercises. These exercises help readers identify challenges specific to them while offering solutions to help develop important business skills that will take their career and/or organization to the next level.