Executives Branding

I thought what better way to provide you with a deeper understanding of who I am (my beliefs, philosophy and thinking) and what I do (the process, approach and outcomes) from a mock interview conducted with myself.
Feel free to submit further questions and queries through this enquiry form. 
Meanwhile, enjoy the session!

Q        What is a Career Branding Strategist?
A        A Career Branding Strategist is a qualified and well trained professional both in Personal Branding and Career Coaching expertise   
Frankly, it is rare to see someone trained in both these areas as most professionals in these two areas are either Brand Experts, Brand Consultants or if they specialise in coaching, then their expertise are in the different spheres of coaching, like executive, career or business coaching. As someone who has been involved in coaching since ten years ago, I see Personal Branding as the context to enabling my clients (middle level and senior executives and professionals) achieve greater success in reaching their career goals.  

Coaching is the means or “methodology” to working with my clients while Personal Branding is the framework or structure which coaching takes place in. And the end in mind or destination is the client’s career or business vision.
To understand what coaching is and is not, (Read Coaching produces REAL, LASTING and REWARDING results) There is a powerful confluence of empowerment for the client when Coaching is used simultaneously with Personal Branding. By enabling the client through personal discovery, identification of motivated abilities and eliciting the key core values, coaching invokes creativity, innovation and a desired vision from the client. 
This form of empowerment is to stimulate the passionate mind to think of possibilities and futures and when it is built into the Personal Branding framework, the end result is a powerful human system of internal motivation, direction and purpose which is aligned to the individual’s desired vision. 
And because that career vision is one of a greater calling, higher purpose and of maximum impact and which has been specially crafted, developed and owned by the individual, the pathway to achieving the vision requires the client to show clarity, consistency and constancy in living that vision INSIDE OUT!

Q        Why do you select this group of clientele, the mid-level and senior executives of banking and finance institutions and finance professionals?
Wonderful and intelligent question and I will now explain to you why after much introspection of my values, passions and abilities, my vision is to be there for them by making a difference to their personal and professional lives.
A       They have a common desire to RE LAUNCH their lives again In many societies today, here in Singapore and around the world, many matured working professionals who are in the peak of their careers are facing a critical turning point in their lives. They have been successful in what they do but with the organisational demands ever increasing as their careers progress, they are searching for answers to make sense of what they should do in future.
Unfortunately, they cannot continue to breeze through like the good old yesteryears. New, enthusiastic, ambitious and better qualified candidates are snapping at their heels.  

1.    This group are the ones facing a mid-life crisis.
They are grappling with greater demands at work and also at home where with children getting older, the demands on their resources of time, finance and energies are taking a toll on their own personal lives.   They are confused and not sure what to do about their situations. It is no wonder that many in this group seem to have lost that zeal, energy and passion in their work and in their own lives.

2    There is also another group, the high achievers. 
With higher aspirations and ambitions, they are constantly looking for better career development and prospects in terms of more work opportunities and greater learning but unfortunately for some reasons, they are not getting them from within and outside of their organisations.  They possess the right motivated skills, correct values and possess strong attitudes and professionalism but opportunities seem far and few in between.  Disillusionment and frustrations soon begin to set in and they are questioning if they are still “valuable” in the corporate world to the extent they are ready to jump ship or worse, give up and start something new altogether. In both these groups, these individuals are seeing themselves as Liabilities and not as Assets. Often it is a case of them being their own inner critics.

And even if the organisation feels they are past their “prime”, it is within their control to change that perception. What they need is an effective and resilient Personal Branding Strategy to position themselves valuably in the eyes of their bosses or potential employers.  

Employers buy into your futures and not into your current or past contributions.

In fact, when your Personal Branding Vision is able to create and design a powerfully attractive proposition that your employers cannot refuse (lest you join the competitors), your employers will be willing to pay a PREMIUM to keep this Asset, YOU Inc! My question to you is What priceless or valuable proposition that you have which your organisation finds you INDISPENSABLE? And the more you have, the greater is your VALUE and the more is your PREMIUM to your organisation!  And these could come not just from your motivated abilities but very often from, your Values system for your values characterise who you are while abilities represent what you do. Both are necessary and critical in designing a powerful Personal Brand, one which is attractive and desirable.

3    The last group consists of new and aspiring leaders.
These are the newly promoted leaders who are now tasked with more responsibilities and wider spheres of influence. Over time, they realise that what had brought them success to now is no longer sufficient to propel their careers further. Rational accomplishments like MBAs, networking and professional skills are common tools which their peers or competitors in the industry are also using to preach their worth. On the contrary, it is now the emotional attributes of the executive which if properly communicated, would differentiate the person from the rest of the competition. 

Some emotional attributes are visioning, strategising, evangelising, entrepreneurial, innovating, etc. are the critical value propositions that the executive can build and develop to gain a strong personal brand.

Think Air Asia, a highly successful budget airline which started as a low cost carrier serving the domestic Malaysian air routes but today is flying into most major airports of the world! The aspirations of Air Asia’s customers as global travellers have been fulfilled. 
And the CEO of Air Asia, Mr. Tony Fernandez is a creative, adventurous, innovative, risk taker, down to earth human being and a friendly and customer-oriented executive. Time and again, the media has been capitalising on his attractive Personal Brand to build Air Asia and not vice versa!  Customers are drawn to his charisma and extraordinaire.  His Personal Branding is certainly a very valuable brand.

My questions to you are As an executive, what is your tremendous value proposition to your organisation? Are you working at your job or are you working at your vision? Are you only using your rational attributes to justify your good performance or are you also using your emotional attributes to build your great brand?

Q        What makes you credible and valuable that your clients should engage you for your services?        Thank you for the great and very relevant question. 
A       Apart from my professional training, i believe it is my intense and varied life experiences that have enabled me to add value to my coaching. Over my last ten years, i have evolved so much to understand the meaning of life that i am now very excited about my next 20 to 30 years! 

In fact, I feel that this question is very timely as in recent times, there have been many individuals who are providing personal development courses in the market and certainly, I have been asking myself what is it that I have which could bring tremendous value to my clients

•  Leaving Behind A Legacy.
As an authentic coach who prefers my clients to be in the limelight, it has not been easy to take to Personal Branding. But I was challenged by my many good friends, associates and clients who seem to believe that I should offer my professional services to as many people as possible instead of keeping within a small group. And having researched, studied and trained in Personal Branding, I have come to realise that Personal Branding is not about marketing or driving sales or boosting one’s ego. Instead, it is about maximising the leverage to touch, influence and coach to build a better life for each of my clients. My inspiration in all this is that through Personal Branding, I can leave a legacy of a better future for others. And that is my primary motivation than merely closing another sale. My desire is to be able to work with individuals to create possible futures for their careers in the hope that their lives can be resurrected and transformed with minds renewed, behaviours shifted to realise their potentials in them.

•   Bringing A Whole New Set Of Life Experiences
As an ex-bank executive, ex-training company founder, a stay at home dad and a coach to my corporate executive wife, I have gone through many life experiences which have enlightened and deepened my understanding of what is a better person, a better community and a better world.
The greatest teacher is often our own life experiences. And through interaction and conversations with my network of successful businessmen, successful senior executives and aspiring entrepreneurs, there is much wisdom and insights that I can offer to my clients so that their learning curves can be shortened.

•   Offering A Fresh New Way Of Personal & Professional Success
Many personal or business development programmes out there in the market are too focused on training the individuals to achieve financial rewards or results. I feel most people want to find a balance between financial rewards and a fulfilling life.
As a coach, my core value proposition to you is that you will be able to achieve both personal and professional success without sacrificing one or the other. Your family is important to you just as your career or business is. Your personal life is important to you just as your family and professional lives are. Your aspirations and ambitions are important to you just as your responsibilities and obligations are. With Personal Branding and coaching, you can develop a strategy to meet and fulfil these objectives.  

Q          How qualified are you to coach these individuals given that your company, Executives Branding lack a business track record?
Another insightful and wonderful question!
A         I strongly urge you to spend sometime going through the website so that you an see, read and feel about who I am and then make your decision

And you know, that was also my inner critic who surfaced every now and then to diminish my value and instil fear in me. But thanks to Personal Branding and my training as a coach, I was able to overcome the initial resistance to put things in perspectives. Most of my clients are referrals from people that know me well to trust me and I am happy with that arrangement as Personal Branding is still a pretty new phenomenon in Singapore and in Asia.

But just as it was with coaching when the latter was introduced to organisations some ten years, Personal Branding will soon be a “must have” career management and business development tool. And it is already happening in America and individuals are very excited about it as for the very first time, an executive or entrepreneur has a tool kit to create and develop his/her brand value to accurately market to their respective target audiences! Amazing!
And the Reach Personal Branding Methodology is helping organisations like JP Morgan, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley and others to achieve tremendous success in organisation's excellence and engaging their executives to produce extraordinary results with fulfilled lives. 
Realising how many of us here in Asia can benefit from this bridging of supplier and customer interface where executives/bosses and entrepreneurs/customers can connect with each other through shared values, passions and even interests, I have decided to include as part of my mission, the need to educate the public and organisations of this wonderful and exceptional empowerment concept.

This is especially true when Asians who are generally conservative are not comfortable with revealing their private selves and this can be a problem in areas where good talent is scarce.

Also, as I am more concerned about providing value to my clients, my focus is on delivering the impossible to them. I am not a marketing person and I do not profess to be competent in driving sales and I am not worried about that too because I believe as long as I continue to add value into my clients’ lives, the results will come! I am building a legacy and not merely closing a transaction. I want to build a great company that lasts and not merely a good company for the short term. I prefer to be attractive to my clients in that I have something which is of great value to them and by their own choices, they are happy and excited to work with me.

There is no hard sell, no motivational talk and certainly no emotional marketing.

What you read, see and feel about me in this website is exactly who I am in person.

♦   And that is why, ExecutivesBranding is one of the very few websites which has so much impressive, insightful and valuable resources given out free or at an affordable subscription fee.

♦   What better way to know my professional competence than reading my own writings which are accumulated from more than ten years of research, reading and testing. 

♦   There is also an updated blog which I share my insights and learning on a regular basis.

♦   Your comments and feedback are taken seriously and my intention is to engage in conversations with you so as to learn from one another

♦   I am constantly upgrading myself through attending cutting edge programmes, reading, studying and researching futurists’ thinking.

♦   My training, certifications and memberships will reveal my thirst of knowledge and development.

♦   My vision goes beyond coaching individuals to better communicate their personal brands for a tangible economic benefit.

I am more passionate about the positive impact that personal branding can bring to Asian societies – that of a tremendous shift in socio-economic policy thinking from a state directed economy to a more entrepreneurial focused economy. In both private and public sectors, executives are empowered to manage their own careers’ development. At the national level, talented high achievers through personal branding and online presence can address the issue of shortage of talent across all industries in the economy. Entrepreneurs by building businesses which are aligned to their values, motivated abilities and passions can create a more diversified economy of different and varied industries and services.