Really now, is everyone ’special’? In a word…no. I know I’m not.

I don’t have a blog. I’m not flashy. I don’t have grand plans or grand ideas that I pitch to executives. I just do my job and do it well.

The only thing I have going for me at work is my experience with the current systems and business processes. As long as I keep up-to-date, and don’t cause more trouble than it is to train someone new, I’ll have a job.

I don’t think this is fancy enough to call ‘branding’, but I could be wrong.

Excellent commentary. Managers often make quick snap shots of their employees “talent”. If you’re not proactive about your perception and your skills, your image, expectations, and execution can often be distorted.

The answer to the question of how one’s work is perceived is a personal brand. Even with a “cushy” job, that would be an important question to answer as it will affect future pay raises and promotions.

In addition, every manager looks at their people and tries to understand their talents. What it is about them that they bring to the job so that they can both fit in and provide unique value. They do this because they need to figure out how to distribute the work and make their goals.

Wouldn’t it be much easier for them to understand your talents if you already knew them, figured out how they provide value to the work place and you had already articulated this brand to your manager?

In a world of corporate churn, getting things done faster often means ramping up in a heartbeat rather than taking months of figuring out who does what and knowing how well they do it. By knowing and articulating your brand, you can ramp up quickly, are more likely to get the right kinds of work that fit into your strengths and get things done faster.