your desired future path, it’s essential to be strategic about how you’re positioning yourself and your experience in order to maneuver to where you want to be.
As Henry Wadsworth Longfellow noted, “we judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.” So when you’re a finance guy who moves into marketing, a venture capitalist who wants to become a career coach, or an executive trying to win a promotion to the next level, your path may make perfect sense to you, but that doesn’t mean it’s clear to everyone else.
Reinvention, and overcoming past perceptions, can be a daunting process. Not everyone needs to rebrand himself professionally, of course. If you do have a long-term career at your company and are happy with your trajectory, you may not need to worry about it. But for many of us, that luxury doesn’t exist.
This book is intended to help executives at all stages of their careers who want something different and better in their professional lives—and know there has to be a more strategic way to do it. You may be struggling to find a toehold in an inhospitable economic climate, like Johnna, a young professional I’ll profile later who was forced to bide her time with retail jobs instead of hopping on the career fast track. You may be facing a crisis in your industry that’s forcing you to consider new options, like Tom, who was laid off after more than two decades as a newspaper reporter. You may, like Dan, have to fight back against misconceptions about you in order to succeed at your company. You may be looking to build new skills and explore new interests, like Karen, a corporate attorney who realized she desperately needed a change. This book is an invitation to ask what you want out of life.
When Should You Reinvent Yourself Professionally?
You’re at a new phase in life and you want to be known for something different.
You’ve been laid off and need to ensure you’re in the best position possible to land a new job quickly.
You want to move up in your company, and you need to take control of your reputation.
You’ve been trying to win a promotion, but feel you’re being held back by misconceptions about what you’re capable of.
You’d like to move into a different area of your company, perhaps from legal to human resources, or from sales to finance.
You’re just starting out in your career and haven’t built up a powerful résumé yet, so you need to find another way to stand out.
You’re changing careers and need to make a compelling case that your unusual background is an asset, not a liability.
The Perils of Reinventing Your Personal Brand
“Hi Dorie,” read the message in my inbox, from an executive I’d been hoping to interview for this book. “I’d be happy to talk with you, but I’d prefer to remain anonymous. I’m afraid it might hurt my personal brand to be seen talking about my personal brand!” His message was only half-joking (I did eventually interview him), but it highlights an important truth. Again and again, as I’ve talked about the book in business school classrooms and corporate boardrooms across the country, I’ve heard from professionals who recognize the need to reinvent themselves, but still have qualms. Won’t it look calculating to think too hard about my reputation? Shouldn’t I just focus on doing good work?
The idea that it’s somehow sleazy to manage your reputation is, of course, what the anonymous executive who e-mailed me was getting at. We can all think of examples. I know one executive who is legendary for her ability, within minutes of meeting any new person, to inform him or her that she’s the graduate of two Ivy League schools, drives a BMW, and makes six figures working at a prominent firm. Sometimes, if several months have elapsed and she’s forgotten she’s already met you, you’ll get to hear her spiel again. No one likes her.
I am in no way suggesting you should start spouting your credentials to passersby or puffing up your résumé. This book isn’t about spin or presenting yourself as something you’re not. It’s not about “foghorning” your way into other people’s consciousness and telling them how great you are. Instead, it’s about taking control of your life and living strategically. Who do you want to be? And what do you need to do to get there? This is a book about defining your goals, working hard and ethically to get there, and then making sure that people notice once you do.
I come from the world of media relations and marketing, so I’ll admit, I’m biased. But I’ve also seen firsthand that there are always plenty of talented, qualified people out there. If you aren’t strategic about getting the word out in a thoughtful way that adds value, then other people will win the accolades instead of you.
That’s why, unfortunately, it’s no longer possible to sit back and count on getting noticed for your hard work alone. Years ago, the successful Wall Street investor (and former US Treasury Secretary) William Simon declared, “I have never been interested in merchandising myself or perpetuating a public image. Indeed, it is always difficult to ascertain just what your image is and it is almost impossible to improve or diminish how people view you other than through direct personal contact. I simply work hard and try to be successful at what I do.”4 Simon perfectly captures the classic upper-crust ethos that it’s tacky to take an interest in anything so shallow as a mere image. And certainly, he’s right that what matters are your actions and your character, rather than the spin you put on it.
But his response, which may have been perfectly appropriate for a child of the Depression who died in 2000, just as the internet era was rising, no longer makes sense for any professional who aspires to excellence. The idea that you can just keep your head down and work without any regard to office politics, for instance, has been thoroughly discredited (just look at the profusion of networking books, workshops, and seminars). Even the office wallflower knows he should hit the company holiday party or risk missing out on the connections he needs to advance. So why should it be any different for taking control of your personal brand?
Sure, you can take a chance that perhaps you’ll be noticed, and perhaps all those hours slaving at your desk will pay off. But why risk it? Why not take the time to think about how you’d like to be seen in the world and then work strategically to accomplish that, rather than waiting for life to happen to you?
My Own Reinvention
I became fascinated with the topic of reinvention because I’ve done quite a bit of it myself. These days, I consult on strategy and marketing for clients like Google, Yale University, and the National Park Service. But my first brush with professional reinvention came shortly after graduate school, when I was working as a rookie political reporter at a weekly newspaper. It was a Monday afternoon; someone told me I should stop by the HR office before heading home that night. I figured there was an adjustment to our health insurance policy or I needed to fill out some forms. Instead, after less than a year on the job, I was laid off. As my colleagues were streaming out for the night, I had to pack up my desk and close out my online accounts; there was no chance to say goodbye.
The next morning, glancing at CNN over breakfast, I watched the planes hit the World Trade Center. I lost my reporting job on September 10, 2001, and—as the geopolitical order spun out of control and the economy collapsed—I had to figure out how to make a living, and what was next.
Over time, despite the fear and paralysis in the marketplace, I built up a stream of business as a freelance journalist. But the money wasn’t great, and I was still hoping that I’d eventually be hired by the daily paper in my city. But it was under a hiring freeze, subject to the same internet-driven contraction as everyone else in the industry. For months, I plowed on, still imagining a future in journalism. So when I received an offer to “switch sides” and become the press secretary for Robert Reich, the former US Labor Secretary who was then a gubernatorial candidate, I initially said no. But an hour later, I called back; that’s perhaps where my reinvention process began.
If the world hadn’t