You and I have been given an awesome privilege: We are managers of the world’s most important brand- our own personal brand. This statement does not reflect an egotistical, “I am the greatest” worldview. Rather, you manage the world’s most important brand in that on one else can define Meaning, shape Makeup, and communicate Message about you like you can.
Here is another fact about your personal brand: Once you open for business you never close. We live in an “always on” world, thus making it difficult to separate your personal and professional lives. Why? Your Facebook posts, Twitter tweets, Instagram photos, and other digital breadcrumbs you leave influence how others perceive you and the value you have to offer.
Caught in the Camera Eye
It almost seems unnecessary to make the above point that your brand is always subject to scrutiny whenever you are interacting with the world around you. But, an incident burning up social media this week serves as a reminder that forgetting that our personal brand “Open” sign is always lit can be costly. Britt McHenry, an ESPN reporter, has been suspended by the network for one week following release of a video in which she berates an employee of a towing company that had towed her car. The video, which you can see by clicking here, shows an irate McHenry lobbing several insults at the female attendant as she is paying to recover her vehicle. The backlash on social media has been brutal for the most part, condemning McHenry for her attitude and actions.
Forget Brand Perfection
The aim of this post is not to pass judgment on Britt McHenry; the Twitterverse has taken care of that already. What can we learn from an incident like this in which a person who has worked diligently to craft a professional brand seems to go out of her way to sabotage it. Here are three points to remember:
- Brand failure happens. All brands, product and personal, are governed by humans and thus are susceptible to making mistakes. No brand is perfect, and attempts to orchestrate a perfect brand image will inevitably end badly (reference Tiger Woods).
- Embrace brand failure. You have two options to deal with mistakes when (not if) they occur: Deny their existence of accept responsibility and learn from the mistake. In this case, McHenry has issued an apology on Twitter (hopefully she will return to the scene and issue a face-to-face apology). How a brand responds to failure can make the difference between instilling confidence and eroding trust.
- Make failure part of your story. Instead of hiding failure, weave it and the redemption process into your personal brand story. Pretending you have not experienced failure is denying your reality. Revealing vulnerability is a trait consistent with an authentic brand.
Failure is an Option
Ideally, we learn from the mistakes made by Britt McHenry and others. We like to think we are smarter or more tactful than to let our personal brands get into such an unfavorable light. Hopefully, you or I will never be the scourge of the Internet, even for a few fleeting moments. However, we will make missteps at some point that could damage our brand. How we respond when those missteps occur is crucial to becoming a better steward of the world’s most important brand.
Image Credit: Sally Mahoney, Flickr