Things are not so happy on the job front these days.

After reaching its highest levels in 2020, employee engagement declined for the second year in a row according to a new Gallup study. Engagement, a key measure of job enthusiasm and involvement, is important because low engagement often results in quiet quiting that fosters employee unhappiness that often leads to job hunting.

Not surprisingly, Gallup’s survey of 60,000 people reported that 57% thought that it is a good time to look for a job.

Better than being a lethargic employee, better to do something about it. Analyze your grievances like better in-office policies and develop your target list.

You’ll also need a good pitch, a focused pitch that will get you noticed. In my new book, The New Brand You: How to Wow in the New World of Work, I outline the Top 10 Personal Positioning Strategies to stand out from competitors.
1. The Innovator: Are you a creative problem solver? Give examples
2. The Leader: Is your strength your ability to lead people and get things done? List key accomplishments
3. The Maverick: Do you have an unconventional approach that produces results? Share the ways.
4. The Superman: What’s the one strength you have in spades? Focus on this one attribute.
5. The Engineer: Are you adept at tweaking and improving things? Share your new processes you set up on the job.
6. The Expert: Are you an expert in one, important area? Focus on it.
7. The Target Marketer: Do you have a strong customer service orientation to one group of customers? Share the advantage in your job
8. The Elitist: Are you among the top tier in your line of work? Play up your elite credentials because not many people can claim them.
9. The Heir: Do you have a unique heritage and connections? Fit them in the interview narrative.
10. The Activists: Is there a special cause that you are passionate about that is important in your industry too? Demonstrate the power of commitment to a cause.

Focus on the best positioning that plays to your strengths and go for it. Imagine your best future with the flexibility, culture and opportunities you crave.

What animal signifies Brand You?

Often in doing a brand assessment, asking focus group participants to identify what animal or car they associate with a brand is more enlightening than traditional analytical methods and questions.

Symbolic associations can be powerful branding. We all know the symbol of the United States, the bald eagle – it conveys power. But the bald eagle was not the only animals our founders considered. Other animal imagery debated was a cow with horns, a goose, a bear and a white-tailed deer. (See Stuart Halpern’s interesting article about the search for a symbol of the United States in the Wall Street Journal: July 1 – 2, 2023.

Even the British got caught up in the branding suggesting a zebra with 13 stripes, each symbolizing a state with Massachusetts strategically placed on the animals behind.

The eagle’s imagery had staying power and strong symbolism with 13 arrows in one claw and an olive branch in the other. Its powerful wings became a stymbol of liberty. Prominent on the eagle’s breast was the motto E pluribus unum Out of many, one.

The bald eagle also satisfied Benjamin Franklin’s desire for a native American bird representing America’s courage in breaking away from Britain.

So what animal represents you best. To find out what animal your strengths are most aligned with, take our animal assessment test https://www.selfbrand.com/tools/animalQuiz.html

Say what you will about Martha Stewart, but she’s always on top of a trend.

In the 1980’s and 90’s Martha became famous for her cookbooks and lifestyle tips. She made hand-crafting everything in your home look so beautiful, effortless and fulfilling that it helped launch the DIY trend. And Martha was our guru.

Today, she’s rebranded her as beautiful and relevant even in her 70’s and 80’s. – naysaying he fear we all have of ageism, of being seen as a caricature – as irrelevant and frumpy.

The reality is that looking good is important. It’s the price of admission in many arenas and careers, and Martha knows that. And Martha swears that her sex appeal is all natural, the result of healthy living, and she’s challenging women to belive that each era can be beautiful if we have a healthy lifestyle.

I’ve always admired Martha’s ability to take control of her brand narrative. Even when she served five months in prison for a securities violation in 2004, she taught inmates how to crochet and do the downward dog yoga pose.

Remember the gray poncho that Martha wore when she was released from prison? A handmade gift from a fellow inmate, Martha’s prison poncho became the symbol of her release from jail.

The poncho carried a powerful message. In spite of doing time, the poncho communicated that she can make lemonade out of lemons, that she is stronger because of her experience, and that she had bonded with her fellow prisoners.

Wearing her swim suits today, Martha communicates that she’s still relevant, in control of her life and destiny, and she’s not handing her personal brand power over to anyone. The shock of her magazine cover turned into a runaway PR success for Martha and Sports Illustrated.

Brand builders use a range of visual tools to create an emotional bond with customers: shape, color, design, imagery, logos and the like.

It’s the same with people. That’s why my advice to people is: Let your clothes talk. As I point out in my new book, “The New Brand You,” strong visual identities are a quick read telegraphing to us what a person is like (or so we think).

And clothes are one of the easiest ways to communicate a message about who you are. Clothes can offer more insight than what you say. Look at E Jean Carroll at her trial accusing former president Donald Trump of sexual assault and defamation.

In a trial, you win or lose on how a jury sees you and whether they believe you. The perceptions of others are the perceptions that count.

79-year old E Jean Carroll looked elegant, attractive and professional during her days in court On day one, she stepped out in a black shirtdress with a cream coat and pearl earrings. And she continued with her subtle style that was somehow both soft and strong. No flashy jewely or colors. A trial is a serious matter and her clothes communicated that.

She won her case on key charges and awarded $5 million.

Rarely has there been as educational an example of the transformative power of clothses and visual identity as the radical before-and-after makeover of Elizabeth Holmes during her fraud trial in 2021.

The CEO of Theranos, with its miracle medical product, Holmes went from the appropriation of Steve Jobs’ black turtle neck, beautifully accented with kabuki red lipstick and sleek blond hair.

Yet her trial wardrobe was the opposite. She went from glam to nondescript business casual shirts and skirts and soft curls.

In short, she went from Superwoman to the Girl Next Door. In Holmes case, visual identity can only take you so far. Jurors must have a reason for the transformation, and in Holmes’ case, they may have felt played.

Your visual identity has to sync with your actions or there is a brand disconnect. As we all know, she lost her case and found guilty of fraud.

Camilla’s rise from villain to queen is a master class in image transformation that we can all learn from.

For decades, Camilla was vilified by the British media as the villain who broke up Charles’s marriage to Diana, the Princess of Wales. Her transformation would have been unthinkable in the years after Diana’s death. Many of the scandalous details may have faded over the last twenty-five years though they have been reintroduced in our collective memory by the popular Netflix series,  “The Crown.”

Camilla’s rebrand wasn’t happenstance. It was achieved through calculated effort with the help of advisors, PR experts and image consultants. Rebranding involves positioning , image development, packaging, storyline, marketing messages, and PR, all aimed toward building and extending a person’s shelf life, just as in brand development.

So how did Camilla do it?

Camilla went dark for a while to clean the slate. Then she emerged with a spotlight on public service. Camilla’s focus was not on herself and parties or glamour but discretion and service. Camilla has a strong record of charitable causes, particularly in the medical and health care arenas, like her work supporting victims of osteoporosis, the illness that plagued her mother.

And Camilla’s rebranding campaign has paid off.

Now even if people may not like aspects of her role in the breakup of Charles and Diana, they are accepting of it, according Professor Purcell, a professor of modern British history at Saint Michael’s College in Vermont. She’s just done a great job at hanging in there and trying not to make missteps.”

She’s more popular than Prince Harry and Meghan Markle among the British public.

And her rebrand was assisted by the endorsement of Queen Elizabeth who made known her wish that Camilla become queen consort when Charles ascended the throne.

Branding is all about perceptions and taking control of the narrative, as I outline in my new book, “The New Brand You.” Whatever the state your personal brand, realize that you too can transform perceptions and the narrative others have about you.

While tough talk can work to motivate everyone into the rah-rah spirit when it’s done in person, tough news – like no bonuses this year, can backfire on Zoom.

What you think of as inspiration, can sound harsh, even mean, when done on the air waves. And disgruntled employees can record a zoom call and push it out for all the world to see.
According to Media Richness Theory, “rich media” like in-person communication is more powerful way of communicating and connecting with people. There’s no barrier or distance between you and your audience.

You have a complete arsenal of tools to communicate your message and get in tune with your audience. In “leaner” like email, text and even Zoom, you’re more likely to find yourself misunderstood and branded but not in a way that you want to be branded as MillerKnoll CEO Andi Owen learned last week.
An unhappy employee made a video that went viral on social media and traditional media. (I read about it in the Wall Street Journal in a long feature story, and again when it was one of the questions in its weekly news quiz.)

Owen broke the news about bonuses not being paid this year and said that some employees were asking “not so nice” questions about it. Her advice to her team: “You can visit Pity City, but you can’t live there. So, people, leave Pity City.” The resulting firestorm over her words led her to apologize to her staff in an email.