Colin Gautrey

A Healthy Dose of Obsession

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Obsession is frequently defined along the lines of:

“The domination of one’s thoughts or feelings by a persistent idea, image or desire.”

If you want to build a reputation, becoming a little obsessive about it is a good thing. The trouble with most great ideas (such as your new idea about how to become distinctive) is that given a few weeks, they start to fade into the background. Little by little, they get forgotten. Don’t let this happen to your ambition to build a strong reputation in your organisation. If you’ve put the investment of time and thinking into crafting your desired reputation, now is the time to capitalise on that clarity and make sure you continue to build it in your mind, and in your behaviour. Here are five ways Read More

Leaving an Impression

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From the statements you developed in the last article (if you didn't I would strongly advise you do this now, click here), it is now necessary to simplify them so that you can return your focus to getting the work done. These statements will continue to sit behind everything that you do however, you don’t need to keep these at the forefront of your mind — merely review on a regular basis. What is more important now is that you find a way to keep the essence of them in your mind as often as possible. To do this, I want you to:
  1. Reflect on what thoughts you’d like to enter the minds of important people in your organisation when they think of you.
  2. Imagine Read More

How to Build Your Reputation

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Building your reputation is hard work, it takes time and commitment, but will certainly be worth it. If you have a reputation for being a tough negotiator, you will influence the other party before you even meet them. Your reputation will precede you. They will be expecting a hard time, they will be working harder on their strategy and even harder on their alternatives. They may even be expecting to get a poor deal and this may become a self-fulfilling prophecy. They will certainly be more stressed and their performance might nosedive the moment they meet your cool, expressionless face — or worse, that charismatic (or enigmatic) smile. Yes, your reputation may influence them to bring their heavy hitters to meet you head on. Brilliant, another opportunity to strut your stuff and boost your credibility. At the other end of the spectrum, a reputation for being kind, considerate and trustworthy will bring many people knocking on your door. Your intelligence about what is really going on in the organisation will give you significant advantages not available to the hard-nosed people around you. You don’t have to agree with everyone, but your approachability will keep you in the loop. More importantly, it Read More

Developing Your Personal Brand

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How many millions do companies the world over spend on developing their brand? Why do they spend all this money? Here are just a few reasons:
  • They want to create a clear impression in the minds of their customers and potential customers that separates them from their competitors. This allows them to play to their strengths and position their offering in the minds of those they want to attract and retain.
  • They want the customer to automatically think of them first whenever the customer’s mind wanders near to their value proposition.
  • They want to focus their employees so that they present a consistent customer experience, which reinforces their competitive strategy.
  • They want to make more money by taking a larger share in their market/a higher margin.
Why should you invest time and effort in building your personal brand? Here are Read More

Personal Branding Caveats and Warnings

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Having worked with so many people on developing their personal brand, there are a number of points which I feel I need to stress. Some of them have already been referred to, but I want to use this final opportunity on this development stream to stress them clearly.
  1. This can work fast. Once you have your brand in focus, you may well be surprised how Read More

Exercise: Establishing Your Personal Brand

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Once you have completed the exercise to identify your personal brand words, you will need to start to implement it. To establish your personal brand, you are going to have to take some action. This exercise will help you to begin to put your brand into practice and, over time, progressively enable you to create the impression you wish to create. For each of your words, think of Read More

Brand Expectations

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During a coaching session today I was taking a client through my approach to personal branding with three words. As is often the case, coming up with suitable words that really make an impact and allow for differentiation was easier said than done. We happened to have a map of career stakeholders up on the flip chart so to get the words flowing I asked him to quickly think of three words for one of these stakeholders. Then another. Then quickly into asking who is the most challenging, the most innovative, rebellious, etc. This really got the ideas flowing. Read More

Focus Your Personal Brand

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Corporations spend massive sums positioning their brand in the mind of their customers and the public. How much do you spend? Many people advocating the development of your Personal Brand will suggest you need to develop a catchy personal statement or tag line. Nothing wrong with that, except some can find it very difficult without marketing or wordsmithing skills. Instead, a quick and easy way to Read More

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