Brand 'Me', Part I

There has been a lot of discussion on branding oneself on the web lately. CIO magazine has discussed it and there are books about how to do it. There is a part of me that has long been suspect of marketing--someone else's or my own. On a conscious, logical level I know that there is value and importance to it--many of my favorite products have brilliant marketing but then again, most of them are not as overt as the marketing that makes me shudder.

Most modern technology managers are also aware that their IT departments could use some good PR. IT people tend to be a little bit reclusive, often don't follow-up as well as they could, and treat projects as a problem that needs to be fixed. As a result, many IT departments and individuals are not seen as being part of the rest of the organization and may not be included on as many business and organization high-level projects as they could be. Like most things in life, a certain level of balance is necessary to be successful. It's not realistic to expect your strongest programmer to be an extrovert and actively meeting with the departments to find new opportunities but if they stay holed up with the lights out and complain about the operation then they're never going to make it very far.

Not long ago my department included some very diverse, creative, and intelligent IT personnel. One in particular was capable of a lot more than he was immediately tasked with but he seldom looked to work outside his immediate group though he would throw barbs at other areas of the technology staff and the organization as a whole. It's completely normal for people to whine about their employer and others but that's all it seemed like he ever did. I encouraged his manager to work with him on the notion that anyone can criticize, the successful people are those who can provide solutions. In his case he would provide solutions for other people's problems but not to them, to their supervisors instead. As a result, it was interpreted as him complaining about others instead of actually providing solutions. It's a reputation that was earned quickly and will take a long time to improve, even if he chose to actively work on it. I guess that's an example of branding, though not well.