In-House Counsel

Developing Your Brand In-House

What are people saying about you when you’re not in the room? What are you known for?

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Whats Your Brand?

(Image via Getty)

The term “personal branding” can be controversial. For some, the term has a negative connotation — something “sales-y” and “icky.” And I get where that can come from — the idea that a brand is fake. But from my experience, at least in the legal profession, your brand is often synonymous with the word “reputation.” Basically, what are people saying about you when you’re not in the room? What are you known for? Do you have credibility? Do people trust you and what you offer?

In my opinion, everyone has a brand or reputation, whether you ascribe to the idea or not. The question is: do you want to be intentional about it? If the answer is yes, here are some tips for developing your personal brand in-house.

Be Authentic.

Authenticity is key in developing your personal brand. Why waste energy in trying to be someone you’re not? Energy is better spent in discovering who you are, what your strengths are, and to bring those to the table all day, every day. This is why I don’t think personal branding, if done right, is “icky” or “fake.” It is not who you aspire to be — it is who you are.

And if you, like me, didn’t know where to start or question your self-awareness — consider asking others that you work with that you can trust will tell you the truth and not just what you want to hear. I asked the following people for three words that best describe me at work: my Associate General Counsel (essentially, my boss), a former shareholder I worked with at the law firm who supervised me (a former boss), a current colleague who I respect and knew would tell me the truth, a paralegal I supervise, and a client. The idea here is that your brand will rise to the top (kind of like a word cloud).

Be Intentional.

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Now that you have an idea of what your brand is, be intentional about sharing that with the world. Start with your bios on work systems (i.e., Sharepoint), LinkedIn, and other social media (Twitter). Next, consider how you communicate and sign your emails. It would be a bit strange to have your own logo or tagline as an individual — but it’s important to put some thought into your interactions. How do you show up at meetings or on calls? Are you always late and apologizing and a bit flustered? Or are you early/on-time, prepared, making a connection with others in the room? Every interaction you have with someone is an opportunity to fortify your brand.

For example, if being responsive to clients is a part of your brand, then you want to make sure you respond to client emails as reasonably quickly as possible and in the times that you can’t, have an automated response that advises clients of when they can expect a substantive response. Or if a part of your brand is to be helpful, then you may want to routinely end your emails with an offer to help.

Be Consistent.

While this is perhaps the most obvious part of developing your brand, it is perhaps the most important. There needs to be follow through or substance with the “promise” of your brand. Because if you are inconsistent, that it and of itself becomes your brand. Consider a product you consistently buy – and your expectation that it is exactly what you expect every time you use it. You want to be just as reliable. By no means is perfection reasonable (we are all human), but you want inconsistencies to be the exception and not the rule.

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Meyling Mey Ly OrtizMeyling “Mey” Ly Ortiz is in-house at Toyota Motor North America. Her passions include mentoring, championing belonging, and a personal blog: TheMeybe.com. At home, you can find her doing her best to be a “fun” mom to a toddler and preschooler and chasing her best self on her Peloton. You can follow her on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/meybe/). And you knew this was coming: her opinions are hers alone.

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