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The Personal Branding Canvas back to Wired Next Fest

Di il in: Design Thinking, Personal Branding

After the huge energy of last year edition, Wired wanted to propose again the format with the Personal Branding Canvas this Sunday, May 24 from 17:30 at the Museum of Natural History.

Canvas Job Edition

This year, however, I decided to dedicate the event to all those who in these difficult times are looking for a job or want to change it. I’m going to present, in fact, a version of the Personal Branding Canvas I created specifically for job search.

I designed this edition starting from the needs of hundreds of students I met at IULM University, Politecnico di Milano, Università Cattolica of Milan, Ca ‘Foscari University and IED. But also students of the Bocconi MBA, the brilliant innovators of Digital Academia and students of many Master of Business School of Il Sole 24 Ore.
[Read more…]

A poster for your SWOT Analysis

Di il in: Design Thinking, Personal Branding

UPDATE: the Personal SWOT Matrix has been updated and is now distributed with the Professional Innovation Toolkit among some other great tools.

Few weeks ago I’ve been invited as a judge for the project #SheFactor by my friend and colleague Francesca Parviero, a free initiative that leverages Personal Branding and Networking to enhance the online presence of women, in order to facilitate a better access to opportunities.

In the private group on Facebook #SheFactor tied to the project, I made the participants a question that is close to my heart: what does it mean for you to enhance your value? Well, 99% of the responses concerned the themes of knowing how to identify your strengths and weaknesses and opportunities. I don’t really agree with that definition but I decided to distribute a free PDF of a Personal SWOT Matrix.

Personal SWOT Matrix PDF poster

Why using it

The Personal SWOT Matrix is used to do a SWOT Analysis of yourself, considering your career as a real business.
SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, it is a tool that has dozens of years, but do not make the mistake of those who snub it only for this reason: it is still used by organizations to make some important assessments of assumptions and scenarios.
Looking at yourself using the structure of the SWOT helps to start the process to identify what distinguishes you, and to discover or develop further opportunities that otherwise you would not have thought to and that, above all, do not depend only on you but also on external factors.

Look Out!

The SWOT Analysis is not a thing to be taken lightly! You’d better to do it with someone else.
Everyone thinks that the difficulty lies in having to list the points of weakness, but I personally noticed that many people are struggling more to become aware of the strengths!
To enjoy the benefits of visual thinking, you must print the PDF minimum as A3, fill it with Post-it and use a marker to write the answers to the questions. So you can re-use it for multiple scenarios and maybe take a negative factor and move it in a positive quadrant simply by detaching and attaching the sticky note.
After all, sometimes we are convinced to have a deficiency when, with the right perspective, it is something that makes us interesting and memorable. We need to use all that nature has given us!
Go to the reserved page on the site BigName.pr for more instructions.

How to download it?

Download it there on the site BigName.pro …
The Personal SWOT Matrix is a prototype in continuous development.
Have any suggestions on the text or any questions? Write to 100log@centenaro.it and I shall be grateful!
Have a good SWOT…

Personal Branding for managers and executives? An interview to William Arruda

Di il in: Personal Branding

My 2015 started with a new book curation: the italian edition of the book “Ditch! Dare! Do!”, by William Arruda and Deb Dib, in collaboration with my publisher Hoepli!

Personal Branding per i manager di William Arruda e Deb Dib a cura di Luigi Centenaro edito da HoepliThe Italian title sounds like “Personal Branding for the Manager”, because the focus of the book is on how a Personal Branding strategy can help executives to achieve success for themselves and their company, but of course its content is really useful for anybody: I loved the book! In fact it is a practical instruction handbook, designed specifically to achieve maximum results with little time available.

I couldn’t be more happy since the book preface is by Enrico Pedretti, marketing manager of ManagerItalia (the Italian Association for Executives), honouring us with some good coverage on their media assets!

In occasion of the book release in fact, ManagerItalia interviewed William to get some other sparks on Personal Branding. Here below the original short interview in English:

William Arruda - Personal Branding StrategistWhat’s Personal Branding for you in 3 words?

Being your best self (OK that’s four words!)
How many managers are really developing a Personal Brand strategy in the USA?
Most Fortune 100 companies and many smaller companies have Personal Branding programs installed as part of their leadership development. When I started in the world of Personal Branding, few managers knew about it. Today most career minded leaders know what Personal Branding is and understand its importance to success.
Why should a manager do Personal Branding?
Because to make things happen, they need to influence a lot of people. Personal Branding helps you stand out from others and get people to want to work with you and to support you. People work with people they know, like and trust. Personal Branding helps managers lead authentically and builds strong bonds with all stakeholders.
Is Personal Branding useful for professionals too?
The line between the personal and professional is fading. The most successful people live authentically in work and personal situations. They days of having a persona for work and conforming are long gone. Business is a human endeavor and it requires that you be yourself – your best self – always.
Could you list 3 must do for a good Personal Branding strategy?
First: Understand your brand. What is authentic to you, differentiating from your peers and relevant and compelling to the people who are making decisions about you.
Second: Build a communication plan. That means writing a compelling bio and identifying the tools you will use to reach your target audience (Blogs, video, articles, public speaking, networking, etc.)
Third: Integrate your brand into everything you do. Put your mark on meetings. Make sure people know your contributions and the value associated with them. Rethink how you lead meetings, participate on conference calls, etc.
How could we evaluate our Personal Brand?
Measure it against your goals. Are you achieving your goals? Do more of the right people know you? Are opportunities coming to you without you having to pursue them? Are you happier at work?

An interview to Tim Clark, author of Business Model You

Di il in: Design Thinking, Personal Branding

Con Tim Clark al Politecnico

Last October 2014 we had the pleasure to invite Tim Clark in Italy for a series of events. The opportunity came after the great success of the Italian translation of the book Business Model You (published by HOEPLI), of which I am the curator. The idea of translating the book into Italian was actually born during a course with him (the very same nice day I had the idea of developing the Personal Branding Canvas). I immediately contacted my (enlightened) publisher Hoepli, who showed great interest and courage, deciding everything in a few hours.

While Tim was here in Italy, we took advantage of his presence to ask him some questions and hear from his words some explanations about his model and his book, that has already helped thousands of people to reinvent their careers.

You may find Tim online on his website or his gorgeous  and inspiring new LinkedIn Blog.

 

Where did the idea of your studies came from?

I was a consultant to Amazon.com starting in 1997. We built their first foreign-language Web site (Japanese). Starting in 1995 we served many other US and European clients who were seeking to enter Asian markets, particularly Japan. In some cases we even replicated their entire business models in Japanese. That’s when I became interested in the idea of international business model portability — why some business models work in foreign markets, and others don’t.

Could you explain us what Business Model You® is?

Business Model You® is a methodology for designing and managing your career based on what I call “personal business models.” A personal business model is the logic by which an individual creates and delivers something valuable to customers.

Many people are disengaged at work because they do not understand their employer’s business model, nor do they understand their own business model — let alone how the two are interrelated.  Business Model You® is my attempt to help boost satisfaction at work for both individuals and enterprises.

What is the episode (or reason) that prompted you to embark on your career as a trainer out of Universities?

Pains and gains. [Read more…]

David Meerman Scott on Personal Branding

Di il in: Personal Branding

I went full of enthusiasm to a one day long event with David Meerman Scott (author of very successful books as The New Rules of Marketing & PR) on May 9, 2013 in Milan and now I can’t get the term “newsjacking” out of my mind…

The most interesting aspect to me was David’s style of public speaking. Very motivational, effective, spectacular, sometimes almost like a street artist: anchor tied to space, use of objects, programming examples, public involvement, offline as online via some Twitter interactions.

David on Personal Branding

After the meeting I stopped by with some friends in order to ask few questions on Personal Branding.


Photo credits: Francesca Bucci

Watch below the results:

Personal Branding and Startup

Personal Branding and recent graduates

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