Approach Your Personal Brand Like a Project Manager

我們很多人都太忙了，無法持續(xù)思考或?qū)Ｗ⒂诖蛟煲粋€強大的個人品牌，即使我們知道這從長遠來看是有益的。在忙碌的會議、電子郵件和其他職責中，我們?nèi)绾尾拍軘D出時間在這一關(guān)鍵領(lǐng)域取得進展?

Many of us feel way too busy to give sustained thought or focus to cultivating a strong personal brand, even if we know it would be beneficial in the long-term. Amidst the crush of meetings, emails, and other obligations, how can we carve out the time to make progress in this crucial area?

一個解決方案是將項目管理的原則應用到打造個人品牌的工作中。借鑒多莉關(guān)于如何重塑個人品牌方面的觀點以及安東尼奧在項目管理方面的背景，我們開發(fā)了一個框架，當你想要打造個人品牌時，這個框架可能會對你很有用。

One solution is to apply the principles of?project management?to your personal branding efforts. Drawing from Dorie's work in how to?reinvent your personal brand?and Antonio's background in?project management, we've developed a framework that may be useful as you embark upon the important work of getting?recognized for your expertise.

并不是項目管理的每個要素都能借鑒——例如，在個人品牌中，你的“項目贊助者”幾乎總是你自己！但這里有六個關(guān)鍵的項目管理原則，你可以遵循這些原則，使你的個人品牌推廣工作更有可能取得成功，盡管幾乎每一次的專業(yè)嘗試都會讓你分心和忙碌。

Not every element of project management transfers perfectly to personal branding — for instance, in personal branding, your “project sponsor” is almost always yourself! But here are six key project management tenets you can follow to make it far more likely your personal branding efforts will succeed, despite the distractions and busyness almost every professional experiences.

Identify your purpose.

確定你的目標

發(fā)展和磨練你的個人品牌需要時間——而且它幾乎從來都不是那么“緊迫的”。那么為什么要費心去做呢？在開始之前明確你的目標是很重要的，否則當時間壓力出現(xiàn)時，你的動力可能會迅速消失。找到個人品牌項目的一個簡單方法是多次問自己:“我為什么要做這個項目?”

Developing and honing your personal brand takes time — and it's almost never “urgent.” So why bother? It's essential to get clear on your purpose before starting, or your motivation is likely to flag quickly when time pressures emerge. An easy method of finding the purpose of your personal brand project is to ask several times, “Why am I doing this project?”

答案可能是：因為我的專業(yè)知識而獲得認可。然后再問問自己：你為什么希望自己的專業(yè)知識得到認可？

The answer might be: to be recognized for my expertise. Then ask yourself again: Why do you want to be recognized for your expertise?

你可能會回答：為了在銷售領(lǐng)域擁有更大的影響力。再問一遍——為什么呢？答案可能是任何事情，從養(yǎng)家糊口，到讓更多的人獲得你的產(chǎn)品或服務。沒有所謂錯誤的答案，重要的是了解你的動機以及它對你有多重要。

You might answer: To have more impact in the field of sales. And again — why? The answer might be anything from providing for your family to getting your product or service into more people's hands. There are no wrong answers, but it's important to understand your motivation and how much it matters to you.

如果在練習之后你沒有確定一些相關(guān)的目標，一些能激勵你去做這個項目的目標，那么我們強烈建議你不要開始這個項目。

If after the exercise you don't reach something relevant — something that will motivate you to work on it — then we strongly recommend that you not start the project.

Decide on your investment.

決定你的投資

這個項目要花多少錢？如果我們談論的是一個企業(yè)項目，成本可能會用員工時間、廣告支出、研究和開發(fā)、原型設(shè)計、軟件、制造等等來衡量。

How much will the project cost? If we're talking about a corporate project, the cost might be measured in staff time, advertising spend, research and development, prototyping, software, manufacturing, and more.

但當涉及到你的個人品牌時，你的大部分投資將是你的時間（即使可能有一些投資，例如你可能認為創(chuàng)建一個個人網(wǎng)站是有用的）。你可能會決定要專注于建立人際網(wǎng)絡(luò)，創(chuàng)建內(nèi)容，比如發(fā)布博客，或者培養(yǎng)社交能力。重要的是要認識到，建立強大的個人品牌是一個需要數(shù)年才能獲得結(jié)果的項目。例如，安東里奧自2012年以來就一直致力于打造他的品牌。

When it comes to your personal brand, even though there may be some investments (you might decide it's useful to create a personal website, for instance), the majority of your investment will be in the form of your time. For instance, you might decide to focus on building your network, creating content (such as launching a blog),or?cultivating social proof. It's important to recognize that building a strong personal brand is a project that will take years to accomplish in the form you’d like. Antonio has been concertedly working on his brand since 2012, for instance.

在《長期游戲：如何在短期世界中成為一個長期的思考者》一書中，多莉觀察到，想讓你的工作獲得些許認可，通常需要兩到三年的努力，而要獲得有意義的認可則需要五年或更長時間。這是一條漫長的道路，你可能會覺得不值得，至少現(xiàn)在不值得。但也有可能你會認為時間總會過去，所以現(xiàn)在就開始很重要。不管是哪種方式，重要的是要認識到并主動選擇你所承諾的投資。

In her book?The Long Game: How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World, Dorie observes that it often takes two to three years of effort to attain even minor recognition for your work, and five years or more to attain meaningful recognition. It's a long road, and you may decide it’s not worth it for you, or at least not at this time. But it’s also possible you may decide that time will pass anyway, so it's important to get started now. Either way, it's important to recognize and proactively choose the investment you're committing to.

Get clear on the benefits — and how you’ll track them.

弄清楚它的好處

這里有一個任何項目經(jīng)理都應該問的重要問題：你如何知道你已經(jīng)成功了？會發(fā)生什么，什么時候會發(fā)生?

Here’s an essential question for any project manager to ask: How will you know that you've been successful? What will have happened, and by when?

假如你尋求的是收益（更多的客戶因為你強大的品牌而找你）；影響力（你有機會為知名刊物寫書或?qū)憣冢?；或者職業(yè)晉升（在擁擠的領(lǐng)域，你被選中獲得夢寐以求的晉升機會）。

For instance, you might be seeking benefits such as revenue (more clients seek you out because of your strong brand); impact (you're offered the chance to write a book or a column for a?high-profile publication); or career progression (in a crowded field, you're chosen for the coveted promotion).

建立強大的個人品牌是一個需要多年才能完成的過程。它的好處很少在幾周甚至幾個月內(nèi)就能積累起來。但是為了在這個過程中保持你自己的動力，你有必要提出一個假設(shè)，預計你的項目會花多長時間（可能通過與你欣賞的同事交談，或者研究你不認識的人物傳記）。同樣重要的是，你應該留意一些小進步，這樣你就可以定期地對照目標檢查自己的進展情況，并慶祝自己的勝利。

Building a strong personal brand is a process that plays out over many years. The benefits rarely accrue in weeks or even months. But in order to keep yourself motivated during the process, it’s essential to develop a hypothesis (perhaps through conversations with colleagues whose career path you admire, or researching the biographies of people you don't know) for how long you suspect your project will take. Equally important, you should identify small signs of progress to monitor along the path (Dorie calls this “l(fā)ooking for the raindrops”) so you can periodically check your progress against your goals — and celebrate your wins.?

Identify your stakeholders.

確定你的利益相關(guān)者

打造強大的個人品牌可能看起來像是一個只影響你自己的項目，但實際上，它值得對可能受到影響的利益相關(guān)者進行思考。例如，如果你突然開始在社交媒體上活躍起來，或采取措施提升自己的個人形象，你的老板可能會感到威脅，或者擔心你正打算辭職。在可能的情況下，讓他們知道你的目標并爭取他們的支持是很重要的。

Building a strong personal brand may seem like a project that only affects you — but actually, it's worth thinking expansively about the stakeholders that may be impacted. Your boss, for instance, may feel threatened or worry that you’re plotting to leave your job if you suddenly start to get active on social media or take steps to raise your profile. Where possible, it's important to keep them apprised of your goals and enlist their support.

同樣，確定你想利用新的個人品牌與誰接觸也是很有用的。例如，你希望自己的專業(yè)知識不僅在公司內(nèi)部得到認可，而且在你所在的領(lǐng)域也得到認可，因此你可能會想辦法獲得關(guān)注，比如申請在會議上發(fā)言或為行業(yè)出版物撰稿。當然，事先了解公司的溝通指導方針和政策是至關(guān)重要的。

Similarly, it's useful to identify whom you'd like to reach with your newly robust personal brand. For instance, you might decide that you’d like to become recognized for your expertise not just inside your company, but also within your field, so you might think about ways to gain notice, such as applying to speak at conferences or writing for industry publications. (Of course, it's essential to be aware of your company's communication guidelines and policies upfront.)

Lay out your resources and deliverables.

列出你的資源和可交付的成果

項目是由人交付的，不能被自動化。所以確保你有足夠的時間來建立和管理個人品牌是關(guān)鍵。在大多數(shù)情況下，項目開始之前，我們建議你停止一兩項當前正在進行的活動。也許這意味著減少你的志愿者活動，或者退出你的體育聯(lián)盟，或者你今年需要放棄學習意大利語。但給自己足夠的資源，也就是時間，投入到新項目中，這是一個必要的起點。

Projects are delivered by people, and they can't be automated. So ensuring that you have enough time to dedicate toward building and managing your personal brand is key. In most cases, before starting the project, we recommend that you stop one or two activities that you are currently doing. Maybe that means reducing your volunteer activities, or quitting your sports league, or recognizing that you won't actually learn Italian this year. But giving yourself sufficient resources — i.e., time — to commit to the new project is an essential starting point.

理解你將要負責的交付成果也很重要。所有項目的存在都是為了以產(chǎn)出和可交付成果的形式開發(fā)一些東西，通常是一些新的東西。為了提升你的個人品牌，可以采取以下形式：發(fā)布播客，建立一個網(wǎng)絡(luò)群，在當?shù)卮髮W開始兼職教學等。

It's also important to understand the deliverables you'll be responsible for. All projects exist to develop something — often something new — in the form of outputs and deliverables. In the case of bolstering your personal brand, this may take the form of launching a podcast, starting a networking group, beginning a side gig?teaching at a local university, etc.

Nail down your plan.

確定你的計劃

最后，你需要問：這項工作將如何開展，以及何時開展？每個項目經(jīng)理都會告訴你項目有一個常規(guī)的流程。項目開始時有一種輕松的感覺，因為離結(jié)束似乎很遙遠。隨著項目進展到接近一半時，團隊意識到截止日期即將到來，壓力也隨之而來。項目快結(jié)束時，每個人都在瘋狂地搶著完成任務。項目經(jīng)理的一項關(guān)鍵工作是將項目分解成帶有截止日期的、較小的可交付成果，從而減少這種影響。

Finally, you need to ask: How and when will the work be carried out? Every project manager will tell you projects have a natural flow. There is a relaxed feeling at the beginning of the project, as the end seems distant. Stress starts to hit as the project moves toward the midway point and teams realize that deadlines are coming quickly. Toward the end of the project, everyone is in a mad scramble to get things done. A key job of project managers is breaking projects into smaller deliverables with deadlines to lessen this effect.

如果你將工作分解成需要每周或每兩周完成的最重要的事情，然后開誠布公地討論在這期間完成了哪些事情，團隊就會對自己負責，專注于他們需要做的事情。養(yǎng)成每周回顧的習慣是一個好方法，可以讓你專注于重要的事情，并且清楚地知道要做什么。

By breaking the work into the most important things that need to be completed on a weekly or biweekly basis and then having honest conversations about what they accomplished during those periods, teams hold themselves accountable, focusing on what they need to do. Instilling the habit of making and reviewing commitments each week is a great way to focus on what's important and get a clear picture of what's getting done.

制定規(guī)律的時間表對你的個人品牌項目也很重要，因為它可以確保即使你很忙，最重要的任務也不會從你的視野中消失。例如，在每周的同一天和同一時間，對你的個人品牌項目進行狀態(tài)檢查?；蛘咴诿恐艿耐粫r間、同一天發(fā)布你的新博客?；蛘呙恐芪逑挛绨才乓淮慰Х壬缃?。這些小習慣會幫助你養(yǎng)成自身的習慣和滿足他人的期望，從而讓你更快地認識到你正在創(chuàng)立的品牌。

Developing a regular schedule is important for your personal branding project, as well, because it ensures that even if you get busy, the most important tasks won't fall off your radar. For example, establish a weekly status check on your personal branding project, on the same day and time of the week. Or release your new blog posts at the same time each week, on the same day. Or schedule a networking coffee every Friday afternoon. These small habits will help build habits (in you) and expectations (in others), leading to faster recognition of the brand you’re creating.

我們永遠無法完全控制別人對我們的看法。但是，當你像管理一個項目一樣來打造你的個人品牌時——充滿了強烈的目的、雄心勃勃的目標、現(xiàn)實的時間表和清晰的交付成果——你成功建立聲譽的幾率就會高得多。

We can never fully control how others view us. But when you manage the cultivation of your personal brand like a project – replete with a compelling purpose, ambitious objectives, a realistic timeline, and clear deliverables – your chances of success in developing a reputation you can be proud of will be much higher.

多莉·克拉克是一位市場營銷戰(zhàn)略家，在杜克大學富卡商學院教書，并被 thinkers50評為世界50大商業(yè)思想家之一。

安東尼奧·尼托·羅德里格斯是《哈佛商業(yè)評論項目管理手冊》(Harvard Business Review Project Management Handbook)、《哈佛商業(yè)評論》文章《項目經(jīng)濟已經(jīng)到來》(The Project Economy Has Arrived)的作者。