Page 96 - Straight Talk On Project Management IV

In the realms of personal professional brand consistency, this applies to things like documentation.
Imagine if your customer sees lots of different style documents, inconsistent in look and feel and
message, how professional will they think you are?

As a business, if you don't look professional then you won't win more work, customers won't
recommend you and they won't perceive you as being a quality, trustworthy organisation. If you're
going to sell your business, then having a strong brand is one of the most valuable assets you can
have.

Ultimately, as IT Project talent, your brand is what you’re selling. Your brand is one of the most
valuable assets you have.

Your message has to consistently match your delivered product.

Writing this over a few hours I’ve heard the same song played three times on a radio station that
promises music variety between every song. They’re message doesn’t match what they’re delivering.
Same for you! If you’re famous for being the kind of project manager who finds a solution to every
challenge, when a resource problem arises you can’t start moaning, you need to be on the phone to
your Project Management as a Service partner to get the right resources drafted in.

In conclusion, companies know the value of a successful and recognisable brand – they can literally
point to it in their bank statements! You could too. Not just financially, but from a fulfilment
perspective as well - you want to be working on the most interesting, business case projects.

Beyond any value to you (financial or fulfilment) consistency will benefit the industry as a whole! I
wonder how many project failures might be avoided if we all committed to a personal professional
brand.

I mean, if we all set ourselves high brand values and consistently delivered them, what could go
wrong?