What do John Thain (former Wall Street golden boy) and Toyota have in common?  Both have known fame and fortune, and both found themselves in trouble when the wheel of fate turned.  This week, Mr. Thain landed a fancy new job after a year of unemployment, and we await the unfolding of the Toyota story to see how they bounce back from unwelcome developments.  What can we extrapolate and learn from these two cases?

The fragility of your brand

If you are the leader of an organization, are you aware of how the organization is perceived by all stakeholders including prospective employees?  How do you get perceptual feedback?  Do you actually deliver on the value you promise? How often do you take the pulse of what your brand actually stands for?  What could you do to further strengthen it?

If you are a job seeker, developing your personal brand is what you are working on right now. Here are some tips to ensure you represent yourself in the best possible way:

• Be clear about your goals – who is your ideal target audience, and how do you want them to see you?
• Have a sense of what you are trying to accomplish not only in your next job, but also in your whole career – what is it all for?
• Understand what drives and motivates you – what would you be willing to do even if weren’t paid to do so?
• Get feedback from others even if it feels painful to ask – what qualities (and development areas) do others see in you that either confirm what you think yourself or open your eyes to something you may have missed?
• Focus on your differentiators – in a competitive job market, you need to know the following: what makes you stand out from others; what is unique about you; your knowledge; your experience; the way you conduct yourself, and the way you work with others.
• Know your target market – do you have a clear understanding of what is needed and how your abilities can help the targeted organizations achieve their goals?
• Find the language to describe it all – can you articulate who you are and why you are a good fit for a position succinctly and in a compelling way?

Strong brands take a long time to build but only moments to destroy.  Make the effort to convey a consistent, attractive brand – both in the real world and virtually – and be vigilant about anything that could damage it.

The importance of self-belief

If you have taken all the measures you can to protect your brand and things still aren’t going as smoothly as you would like, find the inner resources to encourage yourself to persist.  Remember, positivity is a choice.  You can manage your messages to focus on strengths, attributes and opportunities for improvement and not dwell discouragingly on what is not working.  The wheel of fortune does turn, so keep throwing the dice until you are heading back up the ladder.  Keeping a winning attitude is half the battle.

The usefulness of goals

Not everyone enjoys committing to goals even though they are supposed to be a failsafe way to ensure success.  Formally writing down and committing to goals can feel unnecessarily constraining and, for some, can actually force such focus on the end point that the journey is not enjoyed.  So, know how you respond to goal-setting exercises before you embark on any program that might feel like a strait-jacket.

On the other hand, if you don’t create a future-directed pathway for yourself to give you some guidance, you may find yourself flailing about without much progress. I suspect Mr. Thain, during his period of professional exile, set himself clear goals in a variety of areas – what kinds of roles, organizations and offers he would entertain, for example – and, in time, the right opportunity appeared.  For Toyota to return as a trusted brand, it is going to have to have some stringent goals, too.

In the game of Chutes and Ladders, getting to the top of the board is the ultimate goal. But, enjoying the ups and tolerating the downs as you go can be rewarding in its own way.

Fredia Woolf , founder of Woolf Consulting, blogs to help people improve their workplace effectiveness and optimize their careers.  As an organizational consultant and leadership coach, she works with clients to increase insight, inspiration and impact. She can be reached at fwoolf@woolfconsulting.com.
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Last updated on March 14th, 2010 at 07:18 am