The Personal Brand Final
Learning Goal: Create a personal brand to communicate your purpose and values.
Standards
- Be
- Love the Lord in the way he has gifted them to create, connect, and capture value.
- Know God Created Them by reflecting His image through the work of creating, caring (maintaining), and commissioning (engaging others).
- Know
- Image Bearer: The purpose of an image bearer in work is to create, care, and commission.
- Determine how branding elements can be used for a person or personally
- Image Bearer: The purpose of an image bearer in work is to create, care, and commission.
- Do
- Creating: Create, Connect, and Capture value that leads to restorative organizations.
- Communication: Write and present clear and effective messaging with passion and purpose.
- Analyzing: Get to the heart of complex issues through analytical thinking and application.
Success in life, achieving our life's telos, is all about keeping our vision of the good life as the driving force for our major decisions, as well as our day to day decisions. To accomplish our personal vision, we must think first from the inside, then out! This exercise is about helping students more clearly determine what their vision of the good life is and how they can best pursue it.
While I would love for students to pursue some vision of Christ's redeeming power, it is more important to me that they do this exercise with authenticity.
Likely, some of you are a bit skeptical about this project. You may be thinking this is a bit too spiritually or emotionally driven for your liking. For the most part, I would have agreed with you until about two years ago when I came across a couple of books you should consider:
- Good to Great by Jim Collins
- Creative Confidence by Tome and Davie Kelley
- Dare to Lead by Brene Brown
- Everybody Matters by Bob Chapman
- Creativity Inc by Ed Catmul
You get the point. This assignment is about you connecting with yourself and understanding what you are trying to achieve. While this is deeply rooted in our image bearing, it is something that a lot of secular thinkers agree on too.
You have 4 hours of class time to complete this final. Likely, it will take time outside of class.
Vision or Purpose
Big Question: Why do I exist?
"Defining the basic vision and purpose of any organization is very difficult, painful and risky. But it alone enables an organization to set objectives, to develop strategies, to concentrate its resources, and to go to work everyday. It alone enables an organization to be managed for performance." - Peter Drucker, The Essential Drucker, Harper Business Publishing
The Japanese have a term for purpose called ikigai. It is the infusion of a ton of concepts that include:
- What you can be paid for?
- What you are good at?
- What the world needs more of?
- What you love?
Ultimately, this is about defining why you exist beyond yourself.
Mission
Big Question: How will I achieve my vision/purpose?
"The mission statement is a pithy yet robust statement of how the vision will be accomplished. The mission tells "who" our customers are, "what" customers needs the organization is trying to satisfy, "how" the organization will serve its customers. It's realistic, easily understood, sharply focused." - Peter Drucker, The Essential Drucker, Harper Business Publishing
Your mission statement drives the company. It is what you do/the core of the business, and from it come the objectives and finally, what it takes to reach those objectives. It also shapes your company’s culture.
This is how you will make the vision and purpose of the company come to life.
Core Values
Big Questions: Who am I? How do I conduct myself to achieve my vision/purpose?
"The small individual act is the basic cell of all performance...The secret behind outstanding companies, departments, or contributors is simply that they work harder at adding value to their individual acts." - Frederick G. Harmon, Playing for Keeps: How the World's Most Aggressive and Admired Companies Use Core Values to Manage, Energize, and Organize Their People, and Promote, Advance, and Achieve Their Corporate Missions, John Wiley & Sons.
Example: salesforce focuses all their efforts on aligning every thing they do as a company with the core values to the left.
Listing core value on a wall or above your bed on a sign from Hobby Lobby will do nothing. These have to be lived out in all things and easily explainable in every action of life.
6-10 will do just fine.
Why do we need to discuss, instill, and reinforce values?
- Values are the foundation for everyone's behavior. The question here is what are your stated values vs. your embodied or lived values?
- In periods of significant organizational, cultural, process and technological change that affects all employees from very diverse cultures, no company can take for granted that everyone understands the company's values.
- Everyone must understand and align with the Mission, Values, and Business Roadmap and Performance Expectations in order to achieve success.
Values Define the "How"
- How we will behave?
- How we will make decisions?
- How we will connect to the Vision; and execute the strategy?
Winning Organizations Have Strong Values
- These value define acceptable and desirable behaviors
- They support the organization's central goals
Winning Leaders Live the Values
- Their personal conduct embodies the values
- Their actions reinforce the values in others
Values are a Key Competitive Tool
- They are the fabric of the corporate culture
- They provide the "instinctive" foundation for smart decisions and actions
- They allow organizations to respond quickly and appropriately
Strategic Roadmap
Big Question: How will I go about achieving my vision of the good life?
- What practical steps must I take to direct my life towards my vision?
- What are the required competencies?
- What are the skills, education, network, etc. needed?
- What are the critical measurements to drive progress towards the vision/purpose?
Alignment
Big Question: Where is my life currently not in alignment with the vision, mission, core values, and strategic roadmap?
Without clarity of the vision, mission, and core values their is no possible way to align life to the purpose of your life. The questions here are simple:
- What needs to change in my life?
- Who needs to know the vision, mission, and core values of your life?
Personal Responsibility
Big Question: How do I start to align the areas of life which need to be changed?
- How will I make the appropriate changes needed in my life?
- How do I engage the people who want to help?
- How do I ensure these people have the freedom to speak into the process?
Ultimately, personal responsibility is about allowing and encouraging other people to participate in the process of us pursuing our goals.
Results
Big Question: How am I measuring results to assure continuous improvement based upon my vision, reality, and key stakeholders?
- Anything worth doing is worth measuring.
- A dashboard of the 4-5 most important measures of success - whether a secular or faith-based organization...it makes no difference. "Measurables" exist in all realms.
- Devoid of measuring, there is no basis for continuous improvement or embracing the fact that organizations are organic, evolving, and malleable-based upon the changing needs of the market/customer.
Lesson Information
Overview Form from John Dozier
John Dozier.pdf
Grades
- Insert Personal Logo Here (25 Points)
- Slogan (10 points)
- Vision (10 points)
- Mission (10 points)
- Core Values (10 points)
- Strategic Roadmap (10 points)
- Alignment (10 points)
- Personal Responsibility (10 points)
- Results (10 points)
- Branding Guidelines: Color (10 points)
- Branding Guidelines: Typography (10 points)
Student Activity
- Complete the Personal Branding Sheet on Google Classroom
Sources
- Overview Form from John Dozier