Corporate icons and celebrities know the secret of staying in demand: a unique brand. Craft just the right brand and you have a quick and powerful way to convey a positive image of how you want to be seen.
It's no different for project managers. In the business world, it's not always the best and brightest who get to the top, but rather those who are perceived to be—so project managers would be advised to take their brand identity seriously.
To find out how effective your project management brand is, take this quiz developed for PMI's Career Track Catherine Kaputa, a brand strategist, speaker and author of U R a Brand!, How Smart People Brand Themselves for Business Success [Davies-Black, 2006], winner of the Ben Franklin award for best career book 2007.
The Rules
For each of the following statements, rate yourself from 1-5, with 1 being terrible and 5 being great. Then, add up your ratings to determine how effectively you brand yourself.
26–30
Great—You are a brand! Continue with what you're doing and keep fine-tuning your brand image. Now is the time to set higher goals for yourself.
21–25
Good—You're on your way with your brand-building efforts. Select one or two areas where you can improve your branding and devise tactics such as training courses to take you to the next level.
16–20
Fair—You need to spend more time building your brand. You're halfway there, but you need to think of your personal strengths and weaknesses, set goals for yourself and develop a game plan for getting from A to B to C (and eventually all the way to Z).
11–15
Poor—You're struggling to define your brand. Maybe you feel everyone should be rewarded solely on work output. Take a broader view of how you are evaluated and put your intelligence and talents to work on behalf of your brand.
6–10
Terrible—Nowhere to go but up! You've probably never even thought about personal branding. Why not start reading about branding and make a commitment to think about yourself, your abilities and where you want your career to go?
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