“When employees really focus on who they are, who they aspire to be, and the changes they need to make, they stand out – because so many people don’t,” by Lisa Orrel

Reading "Your Employee Brand is in your hands" I understood why so many people don’t act consistently.

They don’t really know where they’re going when they are looking for a job, and as recruiters its important identify and attract this kind of employees.

First you need to know who this people are.. This are the employees that are stuck in jobs they don’t enjoy and they don't have plans to get out of them. They have no clarity about who they are and who they want to become.

According to this book, they need to know exactly who they are, exactly where they want to go, and, most importantly, what they need to do to become the person they aspire to be. They need to active their personal brands, to get structure, strategy and a path to conduct themselves to hit the goals that they have in the back of their mind. The question is “who I want to become.”

But, How can you build a personal brand?”

1. Career Path.

Basically consist on explore your career options by looking at which jobs can lead you to better jobs.

A career cluster is group of careers that share common features. A career path is a smaller group of jobs within a career cluster that use similar skills. Each career cluster contains several career paths.

A career path helps you find out how you might move from one job to another within a career cluster.

Here are a few examples of career paths:

• "Patient Care" is a path within the "Health" career cluster
  • Home Health Aide → Nursing Assistant → Licensed Practical Nurse
• "Administrative Support" is a path within the "Business" career cluster
  • Receptionist → Office Clerk → Office Manager

2. Behavior

The employee brand is about helping employees stand out as trustworthy experts in their industries and their companies. You need to have objectives as an employee, to get notoriety in your company and get a higher profile, especially if you’re working for a large company. You need to figure out how can you stand out.

Some employees aspire notoriety in their industry – they start getting attention when they do an outstanding job or when they become experts. Many people don’t realize that their employee brand is at play in every interaction they have and, as a result, employees can end up doing themselves a lot more harm than good.

Personal brands are not just about who we are now, or who we want to be in the future, we always need to be working on strengthening our brands. Also its important notice who you aspire to be, It’s making the changes that you need to make to move towards that person you aspire to be.

Employees need to take stock of their weaknesses and formulate strategies to address them, so that they can become the person they want to become.

Employees need to work with those weaknesses and those challenging aspects of your personality that are affecting their career, and how are they going to change them. You need to take solid steps in the right direction.

According to Orrell, strong employee branding brings three major benefits to the people who build it:

• Clarity: A well-crafted employee brand gives an employee insight into their strengths and their weaknesses, into who they are and who they aspire to be.

• Job Satisfaction and High Performance: When you know your personal brand and your professional values, you have direction in your career. This means you can answer difficult but necessary questions like, “Am I in the right job? Am I in the right role? Do I even like what I do?”

I know people that have turned down really good job offers because they don’t feel that there’s a match with their personal brand. On the other hand I also know a lot of employees, that are willing to just jump because they’re going to get a 20 percent pay increase or a better title. They never stop to think: "Is this a smart move for me? Am I going to be happy there?’”

• Notoriety: When your personal brand is strong, people will have more consistent experiences with you. They’ll know what to expect, because you’re living your brand according to the same values every day. When people trust and respect your personal brand, you gain company and industry notoriety as someone who is an expert and who can be counted on.

Building a strong employee brand is not easy. It’s a process that requires employees to be in touch with their thoughts, values, feelings, and beliefs at all times. Start know and get focus, everyone can Build their Personal Brand.