In my previous article (Part-1) I presented a brief synopsis on the importance and impact of personal branding or personal reputation of a Project Manager (PM) in an organization based on my experiences. I also reflected as to how the lack of personal reputation can trail the project success to failure.
Perhaps we all know that the remedial measures are linked to leadership traits and most of us already know these. Like I said earlier, I would be sharing the small details that matter most to achieve those relevant leadership traits and ultimately establish the personal branding in the organization and within the team.
There are many doctrines of thoughts on leadership that generated enormous publications of books comprehending principles and guidelines of developing leadership competency. There are also abundant research papers, articles and documentaries on leadership available even in the Internet. I will try avoiding speaking about high level spectrums of leadership; rather I would speak about the minor details – the ‘down to earth behavioral attributes’ that matter most for establishing personal reputation in an organization; even in our personal and social ecosystem. I can assure you that summary of these minor details indeed are the most essential ingredients and ultimately contribute to the big bang theories and principles of leadership in general.
When a new PM takes over a project or anyone joins in an organization, project teams or peers and colleagues are not aware of, nor do they care much about the level of leadership competency at the first sight of the new PM or the incumbent. The dynamic of first introduction and interaction is in fact the way the incumbent greets and meets irrespective of any lack or absence of welcoming gestures in the recipients’ end. Typically, most of the people tend to remain as impassive observant while receiving an incumbent although they minutely observe everything starting from dress up to bodily movement, facial expression and manner and etiquettes. As an incumbent, one should always remember that ‘it is me who will need to get adapted with the new team or organizational environment, not the other way round’. Here, I am not advocating merging with any prevailing malpractice or unethical norms and standards by compromising ones own ethical values. Rather, I am emphasizing to create the first impression of acceptance in a new setup. One can always work on driving the appropriate or required changes after establishing the initial foothold within the team and as whole, in the organization.
The art of exchanging greetings and self-introduction at the first meeting plays a very vital role to create the first impression within the new project team and new colleagues in the organization. One must be very careful about controlling the egocentric drives in oneself. Most often people tend to withdraw from being friendly or conversational and hence express a reserve attitude while exchanging words of greetings or introducing themselves. Here is the very first alarm of becoming ‘persona non grata’ in peoples’ mind and is truly detrimental to establishing the foundation of a long-term relationship with spontaneous acceptance within the project team and the organization! This may even permanently seal-off the possibility of promoting oneself in the organization in future days to come.
In my personal, social and professional experiences I observed people onboard newly, attempt directly or indirectly, to draw the attention or respect of people they are meeting for the first time. They start with what great things they did or in what hierarchical grades they worked previously and in what grades they are joining in the new organization rather than telling the basics in the first introduction like name, new portfolio they are taking over, expressing gratitude with aspiration of working together as a team or at best, they can tell about the previous organizations they worked with etc. And in the process they end up with either being too much charismatic or gets uncontrollably overwhelmed on ‘beating the own drum’ that in reality interprets to as sort of ‘mockery’ or ‘person being naïve’ to recipients mind! Again, this is again an alarm to impede the establishment of self-reputation in the organization from which none to blame but them. There must be appropriate balance while introducing oneself for the first time to a new project team and in a new organizational setup.
It is thus predominant to understand and accept the fact that the inception of establishing personal reputation begins at the first day of the journey in the new assignment as PM or as a new member in the organization. Once this is done appropriately, on a lighter note, the mystical analogy of ‘falling in love at the first sight’ is achieved! On a serious note, I believe this is the most essential prerequisite one must achieve without which it would be extremely difficult for one to create reputation or establish personal branding in the organization.
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