Doing your security job – whatever the sector, whichever city or country – is only part of your career. Another part is managing yourself – your personal brand, as two recruitment consultants in the security field have called it.
They are (pictured left to right at Frankfurt in March) Graham Bassett and Mike Hurst, each vice-chairmen of the UK chapter of ASIS International, and speakers on the subject ‘Develop Your Personal Brand and Enhance Your Career’ at ASIS’ recent annual European conference in Frankfurt. If nothing else they made a change from the talks on cyber, kidnap and ransom, and so forth. It’s common place in business to think of a company as a ‘brand’, such as Nike. Does the same apply to managers? We took Graham and Mike out to lunch in London to go over what they said.
Name on business card
If you are a UK, EMEA, or global head of security, or a manager for a contract guarding company – whoever – it’s your name besides your employer’s on the business card you hand over. You are then, not only representing yourself, but that business, whenever you are ‘networking’, that is, attending events with your peer group. While it’d be unfair to single out security providers or corporates, we all have perceptions of some firms as classy, or not so; and will judge the person who hands over their business card, as a good and typical representative of their firm, or not. Just as there is such a thing as ‘brand protection’ – the likes of Nike seeking to stop counterfeits, knock-offs that undercut and undermine the brand and siphon off sales – so staff are protecting the brand when in public. To act and look professional does not mean that you cannot wear slacks and an open-neck shirt; it depends on the brand. You can create your own ‘brand’, a set of clothes that make you recognisable, whether a pin-stripe suit and sensible tie, or a colourful tie. What are you renowned for, and known for when you do your networking? Besides what you look like, are you regarded with goodwill, as someone who volunteers (whether in your workplace, or for an industry body). Are you a giver, and not a taker. “Having a personal brand doesn’t mean you are a one-off,” Mike Hurst said. Your ‘brand’ can be like someone else’s: educated, professional, competent, quiet, a mould than many, or any, of us can fit in. You want to be liked, but you also are your own man; you want to be the best that you can be, and you want the job, but you have to be honest; authentic was a word that kept cropping up in the conversation. It’s no good projecting a face to the world that isn’t really yours, bite your tongue when normally you pepper your talk with swear-words (or do the opposite), and you get a job at company X and find that in three months you aren’t suited to the way X does business. Your brand, then, is about more than a few buzzy words on your CV about how you are a passionate self-starter (and a good team man). Graham recalled that he had come from meeting a man who looked good on paper. Only by meeting the man, however, did Graham come away with the conviction that the man would be a good fit for a particular job, an impression that Graham would never have got from the CV alone, or even talking over the ‘phone.
Authentic
About that word authentic. Any of us could wear a purple tie; some could carry it off, some couldn’t. There’s no point in looking like something you aren’t; others will find you out. We came on to language. Mike Hurst recalled David Burrill, the former Army intelligence man who went into corporate security notably at British American Tobacco; now a consultant. Mike recalled how David Burrill would say that he was in the tobacco business; rather than, ‘in security’. Others have followed his lead. This identifying with whatever your business does has a parallel in corporate management, where people will bob between marketing, finance, compliance and so on. Without changing the facts on your CV, you can present your work life in a different way. It’s perfectly valid to have more than one CV. If you go for a job as a sales manager, you stress your sales management skills; if a channel manager, you stress your experience of that channel. Just as, if you include in your CV how you have experience as a sniper – not much called for in your average British business – you are making it that much harder for the recruiter to connect with you, to appoint you rather than another, so if you go to a job interview and dress inappropriately, that puts you on the back foot.
Feedback
Are people taking themselves for granted? Working so hard and long on their job, that they forget to be self-analytical, to renew membership of an industry body, to attend that conference to see and be seen? Graham agreed that, from feedback to their talk at Frankfurt in March, some in the audience (and ASIS typically caters for the English-speaking security manager with an international outlook) admitted that they had never thought about themselves in that way, as a ‘brand’ for developing. Graham wondered aloud how we view ourselves and how others – friends, family, workmates – view us. If we asked, might we hear something surprising?! And if you are honest to yourself, what would you do about that feedback? Being an authentic ‘brand’ is not necessarily about being nice. If you want to hire a lawyer, do you want a nice one, or one that goes to war on your behalf?! Mike quoted the five personality types as set out in the Frankfurt talk: sincerity (down to earth, wholesome), excitement (daring, spirited), competent (reliable), sophistication (charming) and ruggedness (tough). Graham summed up with a quote from the thinker and author on management, Tom Peters: “You are your story, so work on it.” Your brand, and your CV, are works in progress.
