Personal Branding ~ Reinventing You

The latest catch phrases seem to be branding and reinventing. People keep asking, “What is Branding?” and “How do I reinvent myself?” Well dependent upon whom you ask you may get a fancy dressed up answer but since I posted this I guess I’ll give my version.

Branding = Labeling/Marketing. Reinvention = Change.

Think about back to when your mother may have said to you, “If you don’t do your homework your going to get labeled as lazy.” When you were attending junior or senior high school, you probably dressed and acted in accordance to how you wanted others to perceive you. You were marketing your image. In reality, you have been “branding” yourself since you were old enough to have attentive self-expression.

As for reinventing yourself, what does it mean to “reinvent” you? I guess we could look at a full-blown plastic surgery overhaul as a true meaning of reinventing yourself but I personally don’t know anyone who has done that. When your children went off to school and you went back to work, was that a reinvention or simply changing your lifestyle? When I got divorced and took charge and responsibility over my life, was that a reinvention or simply growing up?

Think about it. “Branding” and “Reinventing” ain’t new concepts, just fancy words for age-old life processes.

True Connection

“The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention... A loving silence often has far more power to heal and to connect than the most well-intentioned words.” ~Rachel Naomi Remen

Are we stereotyping ourselves?

Last week, I received a phone call from a girlfriend who holds the position of CEO at a relatively decent sized company. She had called to vent about woman-to-woman jealousies within her office and how she feels that she is perceived as having “Queen Bee Syndrome.” During our conversation, I took a very supportive stance. But our conversation really got me thinking about stereotypes of women in the workplace.

I sought out to find the male perspective and found that the majority of men, which I spoke with, believe the typical stereotypes that women are catty, less efficient and the worst, that women in positions of authority are generally bitchy. I’ve spent a good portion of my career in “male dominated” industries. If we are catty, less efficient and bitchy, I wonder what the terminology is for those same male behaviors.

As women we need to stop using stereotypical terminologies if we expect men to stop perceiving us this way!

OMG! Another Label!

Gender Discrimination, Gender Bias and now…Gender Fatigue.

I’m probably a little behind, until today I’d never heard of “Gender Fatigue.” Being the curious person that I am, I had to find out what gender fatigue was. Google is a beautiful thing. Where would I be without Google? Probably blissfully unaware of nauseating terms like, “gender fatigue.” Have we stopped using the term “branding?” Note to self, Google.

In a recent study by Elisabeth Kelan, Ph.D., from King’s College London “Gender Fatigue: The Ideological Dilemma of Gender Neutrality and Discrimination in Organizations,” published in the Canadian Journal of Administrative Science. Dr. Kelan found that workers acknowledge gender discrimination is possible in modern organizations, but at the same time maintain their workplaces to be gender neutral. Dr. Kelan notes, “Gender fatigue is caused by workers not acknowledging that bias against women occurs. The problem with gender fatigue is that it prohibits productive discussion regarding inequalities between men and women, making gender bias difficult to address. Future studies should explore what happens to gender fatigue over time and whether practical strategies can be developed to shape the way in which people in organizations speak about gender.” The study conducted in 2003-2004, included 26 men and women from two information communication technology (ICT) companies. To this, I say “whatever!” I have one or two friends in the ICT field and never have I been treated like a “stupid girl.” If Dr. Kelan had chosen the Automotive Industry, I might have viewed her study differently. ;-)

Women in the Labor Force: A Databook 2009 Edition published by The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics cites, that in 2008 women accounted for 51% of all persons employed in management, professional, and related occupations, somewhat more than their share of total employment at 47%. Further research from The World Economic Forum’s 2009 Gender Gap Report states, “No country in the world has yet managed to eliminate the gender gap.” But the report also states, “Out of the 115 countries covered in the report since 2006, more than two-thirds have posted gains in overall index scores, indicating that the world in general has made progress towards equality between men and women.”

If we look at statistics from the United States and the World Economic Forum, perhaps we should hold-off on using yet another label that divides the genders and focus our energies upon avenues to close the gender gap. Just a thought.

Something’s Missing

My friends will tell you that I love acronyms; I make them nuts. But even more then acronyms, I love statistics. There’s so many different ways to interpret them, like a big yummy puzzle. So here come the stats.

The number of humans existing on the planet is approximately 6,792,470,645. (As of about an hour ago, when I check the World POPClock.) Did you know that the natural ratio at birth is 105 males for 100 females? But males have a higher death rate so basically it all evens out. Getting to my point...and I’ll get there eventually.

I was researching stats on the WEF website and I happened to find a very interesting video from the 2009 Annual World Economic Forum. The video is really nice, happy people, lovely music and projects this feeling of world peace and love for all humans. Yeah, right. You gotta take 10 minutes to watch this video and I’m gonna go barf. Hopefully at some point, while you’re watching the video, you’ll figure what’s missing.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau World POPClock project. (This is actually kinda cool in a weird way.), weforum.org