Do you wear your personal brand?

If your personal brand at the office was defined by fashion, what would you wear?

Do you ever think twice about what you will wear to work. Have you ever found yourself wanting to put on something more expressive but decided against it for fear of coming across of as unprofessional or for being judged? Do the new laws for personal branding in the workplace extend to fashion?

In the corporate world, dress down Friday’s was the closest that we got to bending the rules, but we are now moving back into skirt suits and ties to round out our week. If we were all to express ourselves through our personal fashion, what would the workplace look like?

How would expressing yourself through fashion help or hurt you? Would you dawn a Mohawk, a temporary tattoo or put on a colour to break up the black for the first time? Would you appear more interesting, generally boring or a little too out there? Where do our professional boundaries live today? How can employees express themselves in the workplace and in social and professional media in a way that is appropriate and authentic, all at the same time?

I have often said that a professional networking event would be so much more seamless if we were able to wear a nametag which said our name, what we did and gave a hint on what we wanted to talk about. We all need a little help in cutting through the social niceties. Fashion Friday’s would be a type of professional lubrication so to speak.

So, let's hear it for Fashion Friday's! The latest personal brand expression.

Master of our own brands? Maybe not quite yet.

Social media DIY unearths some pretty exciting opportunities for individuals to express themselves and shape their online profiles and reputations. Not only can we have an online profile, we can present different versions of that profile to different audiences based on the community where it lives. We can communicate in code, in full sentences and in published written works. We can bring our personality to life with audio, video clips and music. We have so many options now that building and managing the online profile can be a full time job.

Perhaps the key distinction is where this brand originates. To have a personal brand pre-supposes that there is some thought that went into the original brand platform. Be sure the your personal brand strategy resides and starts with you. You have the opportunity to steer this as you go but once launched, that digital thumbprint lives on and will be shaped by the communities that you engage with and the ongoing dialogue and storylines that define you.

The Power of "We"

I chatted with Barry Libert, co-author of We Are Smarter Than Me and CEO of Mzinga, about the power of harnessing community and the collective creative thought in the workplace. As we have send, employers are still struggling with how to mobilize community in the workplace as they are uncomfortable letting go of the reins. Barry says that one of the key imperatives for Employers is to let go of control. "The more you give up, the more you get in return." More on this podcast interview.