Mover and Shaker: Chenelle Manley, Manager at National Professional Services, PwC US

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chenelle manleyBy Cathie Ericson

Sometimes the best career advice is the most enduring, finds Chenelle Manley, who took to heart basic lessons gleaned from her parents and grandparents that are simple yet effective. While you can learn all the client and technical knowledge you need, there are some lessons that can’t be taught – being punctual, and having a positive, can-do attitude, for example.

“Have a good work ethic; but don’t feel obligated to tell people you’re working hard because it should be apparent,” she says. Those enduring lessons have been the cornerstone of a successful career at PwC.

A Successful Career at PwC

“If I was talking to my 21-year-old self I would tell her that time goes by fast,” says Manley, noting how fast her tenure at PwC has flown.
She began as an intern in the Detroit office after her sophomore year of college at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, as part of a diversity and inclusion program known then as PwC eXceed. She was one of the fortunate ones to receive both a scholarship and internship, which she counts as one of her best learning experiences where she could get to know everyone at PwC without the pressure of juggling client work.
She completed two more client service internships, and for the third, begged her recruiter to let her try out the Private Company Services group in New York. It ended up being the perfect fit and she joined in 2009, spending seven years there until this fall when she transitioned to the National Professional Services Group.
While she was previously primarily working on audits, now she will split time between two groups, since the National Professional Services Group supports engagement teams and helps with thought leadership on financial accounting standard setting. “I’m excited not only to meet new people, but also to increase my technical expertise. You don’t always have the chance to flex specific muscles unless a client has those needs.”

Rising With the Support of Others

When Manley first joined the workforce, she thought that as a black woman she might have to work harder, but never felt that pressure at PwC. In addition, she worried that in such a big firm, she might just be a number but over the years she’s found that not to be true at all. “I feel I have always been supported both personally and in my career growth,” she says, noting that her recent transfer came about because of robust partner support that allowed her to look into different opportunities.

Through this move she has learned that the partners truly are a resource. Initially hesitant to mention leaving her group since she admired her partners and clients and had great working relationships, she notes that the partners have been supportive of her path. “It’s scary to raise your hand and want to make a change when you’re doing well, but having those conversations with partners empowered me to take the leap – they were so much more helpful than I had envisioned. It was the first time I had activated that specific network.”

As she realized, her partners would rather see someone make a great career move within the firm than leave. She says the bonds extend to the personal side as well; when she was looking for a new house, her partners offered her help and advice. “You expect that from friends and family but when it’s from a relationship at work, it’s surprising and appreciated.”

Over the years she has been involved in a number of internal mentoring programs, including the Vanguard program that was particularly helpful when she joined it within her first month at PwC. She has seen the power that sponsorship can have, noting that it doesn’t have to be loud but often moves in silence, when you have no idea that someone knows your work product or even your name.

“The mentor prepares you for your next role, but the sponsor champions you in areas that are out of your hands,” she says. “I’ve had people help me land on the right engagements and take advantage of the right programs, which has furthered my development. That support is crucial to elevating your career.”

When Manley first interned in New York, there was only one black female in her group in the metro office, a senior associate who had become a manager by the time Manley joined full-time. “She was a hard worker, highly regarded by partners and staff, with high integrity,” Manley says. “Although we didn’t frequently work together, she made a point of furthering our connection by sending emails to check in and see how I was doing. She was that person who was always there and offered her experience, and to me that is the best definition of a role model.”

Currently pregnant with her first child, Manley looks forward to accessing PwC’s working moms’ groups, such as Mentor Moms, which is PwC’s effort to match women returning from maternity leave with experienced mothers who are successfully juggling family and careers. She has seen the value that PwC puts in its working moms by providing support and resources that didn’t exist even 10 years ago. “It used to be that in order to succeed at work, you had to have a crazy schedule that might infringe on family time, but that’s no longer the case,” she says.

Traveling, Volunteering and Spending Time with Family

With days about to be even fuller once her baby arrives, Manley appreciates the support she receives from her family. Avid travelers, she and her husband head out whenever they spot a great travel deal, and have recently visited Dubai, Italy and Costa Rica, among other locales. As Manley notes, PwC’s policies make it very possible to take vacations. Manley is also an active volunteer and has fun assisting her husband, a civil engineer by day and a photographer by night, who often taps her as an “unofficial model.”

“It takes me out of my comfort zone and is so different from my normal job,” she says.

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Are Moms the Original Project Managers?

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As both a mom and a project management trainer, I can’t help but notice the amazing parallels between the two universes. Since I was a project manager long before becoming a mom, I assumed that my project management skills were just amazingly convenient as I juggled the complex labyrinth of motherhood. But as I mingled with other moms years later, I started to notice that the best moms seem to have almost innate project management skills that help them not just survive but thrive when faced with the day to day challenges and complexities of managing life’s most important project – raising our kids!

What Smart Moms Could Teach the Even Best Project Managers

Always Have a Backup Plan

Image via Shutterstock

Image via Shutterstock

The best moms know that if it can go wrong, it probably will. Of course, it’s better to hope for the best but plan for the worst and that includes having a solid backup plan – whether it’s an extra sippy cup, a change of clothes, an alternate lunch option, or a favorite toy just in case little Johnny misses his nap and loses his “pleasant personality”. Likewise, project managers can’t just rely on their project plan/schedule as written no matter how much time was spent generating it – they must plan for technology failure, losing a key team member, product delivery delays, etc. from Day 1.

Avoid Theoretical Time Estimate/Pad the Schedule

Every experienced mom know that a trip anywhere (to church, school, play dates, etc.) almost always takes longer than you’d think on paper. Yes, GPS may say that grandma’s house is only a 20 minute drive, but that estimate doesn’t account for the almost predictable traffic jam, the last minute potty trip/diaper change that definitely can’t be rushed, and of course the extra 5 minutes it takes to load everything into the car (race back for whatever you forgot), buckle car seats, settle any arguments, etc. So often project managers fall into the tempting trap of calculating “theoretical task estimates” that also don’t take into account some of the not so unpredictable delays and snags that we should proactively consider when building the timeline.

Temperature Check Regularly

As a busy mom, it’s so tempting to get caught up in the practical day to day minutia and really miss the important connections with our kids. I’ve noticed that moms seem to naturally “check in” with their kids periodically to find out what’s bothering them, what’s their favorite game/song, who’s their new best friend at school, etc. Similarly project managers can get overwhelmed by day to day administrivia and should remember the importance of checking in with the team to assess morale and see what’s working and what’s not. Whether it’s periodic informal lunches or round robin meeting debriefs, you can’t put the team on autopilot – checking in proactively is key!

Build Broad Networks and Firm Up Relationships Before You Need Them

Moms know that “it takes a village” – no one can do it all on their own. So, they actively reach out to establish their village early whether that includes extended family/friends, play groups, before/after care programs, etc. Moms also know the importance of nurturing those relationships constantly so that when she has the last minute babysitting emergency, her favorite nanny is more likely to come over asap – no questions asked J. Similarly, project managers are ultimately responsible for delivering project results on time on budget but are often completely reliant on others (including distant stakeholders at times) to get the job done! They absolutely need to build a strong extended team to help support the project – particularly during times of crisis. But the key is don’t wait until there’s a crisis to try to build the relationship J

Dana Brownlee is an acclaimed keynote speaker, corporate trainer, and team development consultant. She is President of Professionalism Matters, Inc. a boutique professional development corporate training firm based in Atlanta, GA. She can be reached at danapbrownlee@professionalismmatters.com. Connect with her on Linked In and Twitter.

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Finding A New Job – The “When” and the “How”

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Is it time to change jobs, change firms or leave the industry? (F)By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Pyschologist

There are many reasons to get a new job. It is worth exploring before you jump ship what it is you do not like at your current job and within that, why you do not like it. This way you have a better chance at not repeating the experience in the next job and in actual fact, you might find you ways to stay in your current position and be much happier and more productive. You know what I am going to say- yes, that’s right! Get a good coach to work through any challenges, fears and feelings that you are having right now and to help you articulate what you do want to do in the hours known as work. The “when” to change jobs is a big one. Often people jump to fast or take a very long time to do it, both extremes can be less than optimal to your career plan. If you are saying “what plan?” right about now then hey no judgement but those who plan tend to get what they want faster by virtue of knowing what they want and this process can help with that as the answer is always inside your own heart and mind.

Anyway, If you are sure you that the time is right to find a new job, you might be wondering how to go about it. I say think of it as a pyramid with the peak being knowing a manager or recruiter in a competing team or firm who needs you and by some serendipity has an open spot. Rarely happens, but if you are not networking and talking with peers and competitors and even clients, then you wont know when it does happen. Networking is the number one way to get a new job. Internally and externally- both are equally valid. Ask your mentor and sponsors (careful if they are your boss) if they know of a challenge that would be good next step for you.

The next layer in the pyramid is using a headhunter. Some are better than others but if you can find a good one, then your legwork is greatly reduced and their job is to conquer the art and science of placing the right person in the open job.

The lowest, broadest and most time consuming way to find a job is applying to hundreds of jobs on the internet. It can feel like a blackhole and although many people do get hired this way, it can not be counted on as the core of your strategy. Here is a review of job boards and the job search that just came across my desk recently that might help you get this foundational piece in place. It is hard to ignore it as an activity but do not rely on it as the only way to secure your next job. Remember, the closer your qualifications are to the requirements posted, the more likely your resume will be fished out of the pile by hand or robots to be considered further.

Best of Luck!

Nicki Gilmour is an industrial psychologist and qualified career coach as well as Founder and CEO of glasshammer2.wpengine.com

If you wish to be coached by Nicki in 2017 she is taking on a small number of (paying) individual clients this year- please apply nicki@glasshammer2.wpengine.com

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Voice of Experience: Angela Harrell, Senior Vice President, Corporate Responsibility, Voya Financial; President of Voya Foundation

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LC_Harrell-Angela_full By Cathie Ericson

“Women sometimes feel like they must have all of the answers in a male-dominated industry,” says Voya’s Angela Harrell. Harrell believes that women tend to put pressure on themselves, and hang back, rather than apply for an assignment or position because they might not feel like they check every single box. Men alternatively may only have half the necessary skills, but apply because they plan to manage the uncertainties as they arise. “As women, we need to believe that we are capable and can achieve whatever we set our minds to do. Perfection can be the enemy of good,” she says.

This translates to the board room or in meetings. “Women sometimes risk coming off apologetic or even discount their own expertise with phrases like, ‘You may have already thought of this, but …’ or ‘This might not be a good idea, but ….’ If you have an idea, sell it,” says Angela. “If you are going to speak up, do so with conviction.”

A Varied Career, Focusing on What Really Matters

After earning degrees in foreign affairs, Harrell expected to move into international work. Instead, after grad school, she joined a consulting firm and subsequently an executive recruiting firm, which relocated her to Atlanta. As a Coca-Cola Scholar, she had ties to The Coca-Cola Company and soon joined them as a project manager in the chairman’s office, coincidentally replacing another Coca-Cola Scholar.

There she worked for the chairman and CEO, eventually moving into public affairs and communications, where she performed a wide variety of functions, including executive speech writing, media relations, internal communications, overseeing the annual report, the sustainability report and global photography. During her tenure she travelled extensively, including spending two years as an expat in South Africa.

Two years ago, she joined Voya Financial, where she heads up the corporate responsibility function and serves as president of Voya Foundation. “It is truly a culture that embraces corporate responsibility and all its facets, from ethics and integrity to sustainability and serving clients in a way that reflects our mission and values.”

A Service Ethic

This ethos is evident throughout the company. While Voya employees donate to charities at what Harrell calls “an extraordinary level,” employees are equally as generous with their time. Harrell oversees Voya’s National Day of Service (NDOS), where 60 percent of the company’s 7,000 employees (and 100 percent of its senior leaders) logged 13,500 volunteer hours this year.

For the event, employee-led committees across the country selected community projects for volunteerism efforts. Employees embraced the opportunity to interact with a diverse network of project participants, all in the name of serving the community. Harrell sees this effort as one that encourages ongoing volunteer behavior, since many people desire to help but are daunted at the prospect of diving in on their own. “Volunteering with colleagues to make a difference in a community infuses a different kind of dynamic into relationships and really reinforces the power of working together. In 2016, family members were invited to participate in the event.”

Harrell has acquired a more holistic understanding of how corporate responsibility manifests in financial services, affecting everything from environmental, social and governance (ESG) influences on investment decisions to the importance of transparency and disclosures. “It’s exciting to see businesses and individuals increasingly take ESG into financial investment considerations and think about the long-term impact on people and the planet,” she says.

Imparting Lessons to the Next Generation

When looking over her career, Harrell notes that her achievements of real significance have involved empowering others. “I am proud of how my team members have stretched themselves, either to transform an existing program or to develop a new, groundbreaking one,” she says. “When I stand back to consider my achievements, they center around enabling others to flourish by providing guidance and coaching as a partner, rather than being prescriptive,” says Harrell. “If you give guidance and help clear the runway, people can really soar.”

She adds that the best feedback she can get is positive input about a member of her team. “That is how you multiply and scale your effect,” she says.

Part of this focus stems from her early years when she was self-reliant to a fault, determined to accomplish everything by herself. But that attitude can preclude opportunities to understand other people’s perspectives and how they might approach things, which can influence you to think creatively. She soon realized that asking for help or input would allow her to grow, rather than reflect weakness.

“The kind of leader I want to be is the one who says, ‘How can I help you?’ but lets people succeed on their own,” she says.

She also encourages young women to think about their own personal brand and how they want to be perceived by others. “It’s not about being someone you are not. It’s about making sure you are yourself in all facets of your life,” she says. “If there is too much dissonance between who you are at work and who you are in your personal life, it can be exhausting. You can be your own true self and be successful.”

She mentions one woman who said she was always feeling pressure to “not be too nice” and be less emotional, which was contrary to her personality. Harrell urged her to choose the path where she could be herself, while ensuring that she wasn’t so nice that people would walk all over her.
She reminds senior women to pause and make sure they are continuing to build relationships with those around them, with a special recognition of more junior women.

“Part of our responsibility is to reach our hands down and bring others up with us,” she says, adding that it can be informal and doesn’t need to be overly time consuming, like connecting during lunch or for coffee. “We have to transfer some of the strength we have to those who are less experienced.” As such, Harrell often mentors other women and is active with many of Voya’s employee-led committees.

Noting that many women lead the community-oriented groups at each of Voya’s sites, she says those roles allow women to hone leadership skills they might not otherwise obtain. She recommends women take advantage of leadership opportunities within employee resource groups or through the mentoring programs their companies may offer. They help women flex their leadership muscles and meet colleagues they wouldn’t normally interact with often.

A Global Citizen

An avid traveler who has lived in eight countries and traveled to more than 50, Harrell is serious about her globe-trotting. She is an adventurer who immerses herself in different cultures. “I love learning about culture through the way people greet each other, their dress, food and all other nuances you experience when you get off the beaten path. It really fuels me,” she says.

Equally intrinsic are the many experiences she can obtain right in New York. “The entire world is here, no matter what I want to see or eat or the language I want to hear,” she says. “It’s amazing to literally be surrounded by the world.”

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Black Women Leaders in Business: Will Recent Losses Wake Us Up?

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black women leaders featuredBy Aimee Hansen

Across the past twelve months, four African-American leaders have stepped down from positions of high visibility in the business and political world.

What’s most striking about these few departures is the size of the gap created by them, highlighting an African-American representation among women in leadership that remains far too small and a diversity movement that remains far too narrow.

The large gap left by losing a few powerful African-American leaders is a wake-up call to widen our diversity, not just in intention but in individual practice and in outcome.

Losing Power Players

This year’s Fortune’s Most Powerful Women 2016 continued to feature Rosalind Brewer (#19 – CEO and President, Sam’s Club and Walmart), Anne-Marie Campbell (#20 – EVP, U.S Stores, Home Depot), and Ursula Burns (#25 – CEO and Chairman of Xerox), with Beyoncé displacing Taylor Swift (#51).

But the 2017 list will look different. Last May, Ursula Burns, the first and only African-American women to run a S&P 500 company, announced that she would step down from her CEO position after splitting Xerox into two companies. After Rosalind Brewer’s recent retirement news, black women – already scarce – will now be absent from the helm of major U.S. companies.

Meanwhile, former FLOTUS Michelle Obama has left the high profile visibility of the White House (although her voice may well remain in the spotlight) and Loretta Lynch has ended her term as the U.S. Attorney General.

These four women (Obama, Lynch, Brewer, and Burns) accounted for over 50% of the African-American names on Forbe’s World’s 100 Most Powerful Women 2016.

Losing four black women from highly visible, influential leadership positions wouldn’t be so striking except – in the context of so few peers in positions of power – it simply is.

Monolithic Diversity

The percentage of women CEOS among Fortune 500 companies dropped to only 4.2% in 2016 (from 24 to 21), which is a hit for all women. The near absence of minorities amidst that 4% testifies that diversity’s approach to advancing women remains very monolithic.

Black women remain caught in the blind spot of intersectionality, and while naming the problem helps, it does not address it. As Melinda Marshall and Tai Wingfield, authors of “Ambition in Black & White: The Feminist Narrative Revised,“ write in the Harvard Business Review, “At the intersections of race and gender, both then and now, black women have labored unseen, even to those lobbying for their advancement.”

As a recent AAUW report highlights, “the specific ways in which they (black women leaders) are disadvantaged clearly differs from the better-understood ways that white women leaders are dis-advantaged.”

The diversity movement falls short of advancing women when we too often ignore the rich diversity of needs, realities, and challenges experienced by different women, and work to address them.

Intersectional Barriers

As research has shown, black women are (three times) more likely to aspire to leadership roles than white women and half as likely to attain one.

As summed up by a 2016 report in the Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, some of the myriad of factors holding African-American women back from the C-Suite include dual bias at the intersection of race and gender (a net that affects everything else), the impact of stereotypes on perceptions (as an example, African-American women are often perceived as aggressive in communication), a lack of career opportunities to showcase skills, having to prove competency more than colleagues, a lack of strategic feedback, workplace isolation and ‘outsider’ status.

The Biggest Barrier is Social Exclusion

But one of the strongest barriers for black women is the lack of access to powerful social networking with influential senior executive leaders, which requires a certain level of ‘insider’ status.

According to Wingfield and Marshall in HBR, black women “have mentors and strong support networks but lack sponsors—leaders who will talk them up behind closed doors, steer plum assignments their way, and defend them against detractors.”

Black Women Executives Research Initiative Revisited by the Executive Leadership Council, the first longitudinal study of black women executives (BWEs) in corporate America (2007 and 2015), gleamed insights into both the challenges and experiences of 59 senior leaders across the eight year period.

The importance of creating and maintaining sponsorship relationships, and building a network of allies, was emphasized by BWEs.

As one interviewee said, “I believe you almost have to have somebody in the room where the conversation is happening that says, ‘this is the person who can make the contributions and be valuable.’ If you don’t have that it’s very hard.”

Research by Catalyst has demonstrated how black women and men who experience a heightened sense of “being different” based on their race/ethnicity within the workplace suffer an “Emotional Tax” that can include impaired sleep, a sense of always being on guard, speaking up less, reduced innovation and creativity, and feeling less psychologically safe in contributing their own voice at work.

However, a sense of inclusion reduces the Emotional Tax, and increases psychological safety, such as feeling leaders and team members ‘have your back’, that mistakes won’t be held against you, and that co-workers are not going to try to undermine your efforts – in other words, a corporate environment in which anyone can feel comfortable in taking risks, not just the majority.

Absence from networks also affects black women entrepreneurs. Despite the fact that African-American women are the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs, their endeavors tend to lack major investment backing or significant outsider funding.

Strategic Career Management

The Executive Leadership Council report also found that 27% of BWEs had advanced in their careers (since 2007), and over 60% did so while in Profit & Loss roles. Yet 46% of BWEs left their companies to start their own business or moved to a different company, sometimes losing ground.

In-depth interviews revealed four factors that were most influential in career developments for these leaders: 1) alignment of values, 2) agility and re-purposement, 3) sponsorship, and 4) relationship-building as politics.

The primary reason for satisfaction among BWEs in their work was alignment of values on an industry, corporate culture, positional or interpersonal level – and the primary reason for dis-satisfaction, and hence job movement, was a deterioration of alignment.

A key career strategy for BWEs, referred to as agility and repurposement, was an ability to move rapidly between challenges to foster “continuous learning, cross-functional, boundary-spanning work and intentional, if not always planned, career expansion.”

Many successful BWEs were keen to take assignments, even adjacent opportunities and glass-cliff appointments, that ultimately advanced their learning, broadened their expertise, and gained visibility and network connections.

Disrupting the Silos In Business & Diversity

As written in HBR, leadership which aims for real diversity must purposely disrupt silos in the workplace, creating more opportunities for intersectional visibility.

As Wingfield and Marshall write, “Leaders must create a culture in which people at the intersections of functional or affinity identities have equal access to their attention or equal opportunity to earn it.”

And as champions of diversity, we must disrupt the insidious silos that exist within the diversity movement and within. For each non-minority woman in a place of leadership, we can ask if we are doing our part in including African-American women in social networks and enabling opportunities for visibility?

Are we checking our own relative privilege and our own blindspots? As much as we want equality, are we practicing it within the power and influence we hold?

While theglasshammer is putting a focus on African-American women in leadership during February’s Black History Month coverage, minority women are living the lesser-understood intersectional challenges every single day, and we must make a daily practice of staying awake to that.

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Me, Myself and I: Closing the Gap Between Perception and Reality

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man-and-woman-standing-on-money-featuredBy Nneka Orji

When your colleagues describe you and your abilities, do you recognise the description? Does it accurately reflect the reputation you’ve worked hard to establish or is there a chasm between how they perceive you and how you would like to be seen?

In a 2010 report by Opportunity Now, 57% of women pointed to the challenges of being seen as less committed at work as a result of also meeting personal and family commitments. This was in addition to 49% of women identifying “stereotyping and preconceptions of women’s roles and abilities” as barriers to progression. If perception plays such a significant role in female progression, surely we should be investing more time – both as organisations and individuals – in proactively addressing misperceptions.

It could be argued that organisations have gone some way in trying to tackle these gender-specific perception challenges through initiatives such as unconscious bias training, however a number of studies have shown that an individual level, women could be doing more to define and develop their brands to support their career progression. A recently published report by She Runs It, highlighted the gender divide when it comes to personal branding. Conducted with LinkedIn and EY and looking at over 4,000 companies in the media and marketing industry, the report found that on average, men in leadership roles had 15% more connections in their network than women. At every stage of their careers, women should be investing more time and effort in developing their professional networks and building stronger personal brands.

Branding for opportunities

Some readers may feel some level of cynicism or indeed a sense of dread at these words – “personal branding”. We usually associate brands with products and organisations, including brands such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Visa, and Amazon – all in the top 10 of WPP’s 2016 Top 100 BrandZ list. The idea of a personal brand may be seen as another fad trumpeted by self-proclaimed personal branding gurus, however study after study show the value in developing a personal brand.

Having a strong personal brand can open doors to new opportunities – a promotion or a new international opportunity. Even for those who have established personal brands, there may be a need to redefine your brand. According to marketing strategist and Duke University lecturer Dorie Clark, reinventing personal brand is particularly important when looking for a career change. While being an international trade expert may have served well to date, it may not be the brand that provides the best opportunities for the desired next phase of your career. In her “Reinventing Your Personal Brand” article, Dorie emphasises the importance of defining the destination, developing a clear narrative and other key considerations for a successful rebrand.

So does defining your personal brand mean reinventing yourself?

Reinventing brand vs reinventing you

According to Shelly Lazarus, the Chairman Emeritus of Ogilvy & Mather, the answer is no. Having worked with leaders across a number of organisations throughout her career, Shelly advises both women and men to ensure they are comfortable in their own skin rather than creating a brand that does not represent the individual. In her 2014 interview in Harvard Business Review, Shelly talked about the importance of resilience in every successful career and the obstacles created by an inauthentic voice and brand, particularly as women and men progress in their careers. While there may be a perception that personal brands should change with each promotion, Shelly emphasised the merits of consistency: “Brands exist in the hearts and minds of the people who use them, and if you suddenly try to switch them—which I’ve seen many corporations try to do —you alienate the customer.” The same applies to individuals.

Investing in you

Even the most cynical will hopefully acknowledge some of the merits of authentic personal branding in career progression; think of the leaders you find most inspiring and what their brand does for them. Personal branding is also critical to encouraging diverse representation across the global workforce – much needed in today’s organisations. While a quarter of a billion women have joined the workforce since 2006, according to Catalyst workforce participation rate decreased from 52.4% in 1995 to 49.6% in 2015. The report also shows that women hold only 12% of all board seats globally.

More needs to be done to reset expectations and correct misperceptions; women taking full ownership of their personal brands and clearly articulating how they would like to be perceived – not how others choose to perceive them – is an important part in the journey to more balanced representation across our organisations.

Before starting on your journey to defining and living your authentic personal brand, here are four considerations:

1. Define your brand: It is all too easy to throw the baby out with the bathwater and try to develop a completely new brand. However it is important to pause and acknowledge the valuable traits of your existing brand and use this as a basis to reshape your brand. If your stakeholders always look to you because you have a track record of moving ideas from concept to reality, don’t take this for granted. Maintain this unique aspect of your brand and build on it to, along with other aspects you would like to be known for.

2. Live the brand (and deliver): As the businessman Henry Ford said, “[y]ou can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.” Being clear in your mind about your personal brand is important, however it means nothing unless you deliver on it and establish your desired reputation amongst your colleagues and broader network. In the same way a number of the aforementioned BrandZ brands have established themselves as market disruptors and innovators, you too will need to demonstrate that you are able to live your brand by delivering on assignments and making the right impact.

3. Champion others and be championed: The She Runs It report highlighted the importance of championing others and also being championed – and men tend to champion others more proactively through endorsements than women. The report found that of the endorsements received by female professionals in leadership positions, only 30% of endorsements were made by other female professionals which compares to the 78% of endorsements made by men for other male professionals. What does this mean for you? Once you’ve developed your brand and demonstrated how you deliver on your brand, ensure you have a group of champions, including mentors, sponsors and fans, who can vouch for your credentials. Don’t forget to champion others while you are being championed.

4. Be authentic and remain consistent: Take a “me, myself and I” approach to personal branding. It is all too easy to emulate those individuals who seem to have it all, however the effort of living someone else’s brand can be all too exhausting and unsustainable. Focus on you and once you have established your own authentic brand, deliver consistently against it. Of course your brand may evolve as you progress or transition careers, but the fundamental characteristics of your brand should be unwavering.

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