YOU … Product or Brand?
Performance + Potential = Career Advancement
Jeanne’s manager informed her of her position in the organization’s talent pool. For the 2nd year, Jeanne is disappointed in the evaluation of her potential for advancement in the organization.
Jeanne is an information security analyst in the Information Technology organization. She has received solid job performance ratings. She has received praise from business partners on several occasions for her prompt responses to addressing issues with their access to applications and information. Jeanne wants to advance. She works hard at being a solid and reliable performer.
During previous discussions with her manger, Bill, he explained how the organization uses the 9-Box Grid to evaluate its talent.
The discussions with Bill have gone as follows.
Jeanne: I want to move from Effective to High Impact Performer in the pool. How can I accomplish this?
Bill: You need to improve your performance and impress management that you have the potential to advance.
Jeanne: I feel that I can control improving my performance by “upping my game”. Tell me more about potential.
Bill: Potential is relative. Your potential is based on how management believes you rate relative to your peers.
Jeanne: So, what can I do to increase my potential?
Bill: Work toward being the best you can be. Volunteer or seek assignments to high visibility or high priority projects and initiatives and be a key contributor.
Jeanne: Bill, thank you for the advice.
Bill’s advice did not satisfy Jeanne’s need to understand how she could advance in the organization. She wanted to share her frustration with someone she trusted. That someone was Carole. Carole was a college classmate and a close friend. Carole was a brand manager with a consumer products company located in the same city. Carole and Jeanne serve as sounding boards for one another and outlets to share their concerns. Jeanne invited Carole to dinner. Carole accepted the invitation.
Carole and Jeanne meet at their favorite restaurant.
Jeanne: Thanks for meeting me for dinner. The tab is on me.
Carole: Thank you. We have picked up the tab for one another on so many occasions as we sought each other’s support as we migrate through this thing called a career.
Jeanne: Yes!
Carole: What’s on your mind?
Jeanne: I feel that my career is stuck in neutral. My performance is solid, I keep up with technology, and my business partners think I am great. However, I am not progressing in my organization’s talent pool.
Carole: Jeanne, you are having an experience similar to what companies experience in marketing their products.
Jeanne: Oh, yeah. Would you break that down for me?
Carole: When I meet people at conferences or during my travels, I introduce myself as a brand manager. During the course of the conversations, people eventually refer to me as a product manager. I correct them by saying that I am a brand manager not a product manager.
Jeanne: What’s the difference between a product manager and a brand manager? I thought they were the same.
Carole: No, we are not the same. Let’s start with the difference between a product and a brand.
Jeanne: I am all ears.
Carole: Products are about “function”. They perform tasks for their customers. There is little differentiation among products. Customers believe that they can replace or alternate their purchases among products that perform the same functions.
Jeanne: Okay, what is it about brands?
Carole: Brands are about “perception”. Customers perceive brands as being unique versus competitive products and other brands. Brands establish expectations and evoke “wants” instead of just “needs”. Brands create emotional connections with their customers. Some examples of product versus brands are coffee versus Starbucks; colas versus Coca-Cola; and sneakers versus Nike athletic shoes.
Jeanne: How does products versus brands relate to my career advancement challenge?
Carole: Jeanne, you are a product. You perform your responsibilities as an information security analyst very well. However, your organization’s management does not perceive you as being unique versus your peers. You have not established the Jeanne Brand. That’s why you come up short when it comes to potential for advancement.
Jeanne: Wow! Carole, you are a genius!
Carole: I am just a marketing professional who has learned to apply consumer marketing principles to managing my career or just marketing me. By the way, I am positioned as a Future Leader in my organization’s talent pool.
Jeanne: How can I establish the Jeanne Brand?
Carole: Start with developing your Personal Brand Statement. Your statement should include 3 components—what you stand for; the value you offer; and what makes you unique. Use your brand statement to guide how you perform your job and interact with others.
Jeanne: Would you help me develop my personal brand statement?
Carole: I most certainly will. I have one more suggestion.
Jeanne: What is it?
Carole: Think of the management in your organization as “career brokers”.
Jeanne: What is a career broker?
Carole: Career brokers are individuals who decide who gets promoted or get which assignments.
(Carole pulls out her tablet and shares a diagram with Jeanne.)
Carole: You have direct or indirect interactions with career brokers in your organization. Perfect these interactions. They can influence career brokers’ perception of your potential for advancement.
Jeanne: Carole, thank you so much for informing me of what I can do and how I can do it?
Carole: That’s what friends are for. You have helped me deal with my challenges and concerns. I am glad that we accepted jobs in the same city.
Jeanne: I am, too. Watch out! THE JEANNE BRAND IS COMING!
Do you know where you want to be in your career over the next 3 years?
Do you feel that your career is stuck in neutral?
Are you satisfied with your position in your organization’s talent pool?
How would you describe your personal brand?
How well are you managing “touchpoints” with the career brokers in your organization?
Does the 9-Box Grid cause you stress?
Have you considered using the 9-Box Grid as a tool to guide your professional development?
I invite you to share your comments, experiences, and suggestions. This helps me provide information that may help you address your career opportunities and challenges.
Linwood Bailey is a career coach and the author of The Business of Me: Your Job … Your Career … Your Value. The Business of Me provides a career management process and information designed for today’s business professional. Since 2008, Linwood has enabled business professionals to manage their careers. Linwood, the been there coach, enables business professionals to increase their effectiveness by leveraging his 34 years of experience managing functions in multiple industries, regions, and corporate cultures.
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Founder, Fields of Success, LLC
Enabling professionals to convert career challenges into career success stories.
