Selling yourself effectively means promoting your image. Your image is not ‘you’ but others’ perceptions of you. Your image is fundamentally important because others will make judgements concerning you based upon your image in your organisation. You can develop a ‘good’ image by determining what qualities your particular organisation finds desirable and then making sure that all your communication, particularly face-to-face, displays those qualities.
What is image?
‘Image’ is not something you actually possess. Like beauty, image is in the eye of the beholder. Everyone has their own image of you. It is the summary of their perceptions, subjective feelings and evaluations of you. When others talk about you, it is not the real ‘you’ they are discussing but their concept of you made up of many personal encounters with you and what others have said about you.
You might think that your personal job performance should be the main determinant of your image because your performance is important to others. Certainly how well you carry out your tasks is important to your own team leader, for you are an economic/production unit in a group that your leader is responsible for and your leader will be evaluated on the productivity of the team. Also, your immediate peers might be intensely interested in your output levels because you may be in competition with them. Or they may be concerned with your output because you all work as a team and their remuneration is related to team output. But most people in the organisation are usually only indirectly concerned about the productive/economic benefits you bring to the organisation. How they evaluate you, and therefore your image in their eyes, maybe based on something surprisingly different, e.g, the help you can give them in solving problems, or your willingness to share some skill or knowledge that is of benefit to them.
Image is not necssarily likeability. Generally, in our social lives we behave in such a way that we will be liked, at least not actively disliked. Indeed, one of our basic psychological needs is to be liked. But in organisations, likeability is usually only one of many positive aspects to image. We have all heard it said, ‘He is a nice chap, but…’, or ‘I like her, but I wouldn’t want to work for her’. Indeed, in some organisations likeability might be considered counter-productive.
This example also shows that attributes which constitute good image in one organisation will differ from those in another. The ‘culture’ of an organisation will also be a factor in determining what a good image is. You need to determine what constitutes good image for your organisation and your position in it so that you know precisely what it is about yourself you are going to sell.
Why your personal image is so important
How you are perceived by other organisation members is fundamentally important to you because in many instances this perception will determine the way they interact with you and this will have an impact on your success, or otherwise. For example, if they believe you to be disloyal and a ‘clock watcher’ they will not offer support for your efforts to get a better position.
Image, like reputation, precedes you. People who have not even met you will still have an image of you. They will have heard about you informally. Or, out of curiosity, they may have asked others who work with you, ‘What do you think of so and so?’. The reply they receive will be the basis of the image they hold of you.
How image is developed or changed
Every time you communicate, particularly face to face, with other organisational members you have an opportunity for projecting or reinforcing a positive image. It is also an occasion when, if you are not careful, you could inadvertently damage it. This is because, even in the act of communicating some petty information, you are also displaying your attitudes, values and your potential for being of some value to the person with whom you are communicating.
It is in your communication with others that you can let others see that you have the qualities they find attractive and that the organisation as a whole values.
You need to identify what these qualities are for your particular organisation so that, by projecting them, you can build a ‘good’ image of yourself and therefore ‘sell yourself’ more effectively.
What makes a good personal image?
The qualities that constitute ‘good’ personal image may vary between organisations. However, the great majority of organisations have basic similarities.
As a result, these organisations tend to have similar ideas about what is an appropriate image for staff – these qualities, listed below, are ‘success indicators’.
• Doing your job well Every employee joins an organisation to do a specific job. Hopefully, this should be defined and the employee given clear performance objectives. These should integrate with the objectives of other organisation members to achieve the overall goals of the organisation. Your good image will then be based on how well you carry out your actual job: how well ‘you do your bit’ for the overall welfare of the organisation and its members.
• Commitment Similarly, most organisations value your commitment to the organisation. This is because the members generally want the organisation to survive and prosper and their material benefits to continue. Your commitment indirectly supports the stability that
they value.
• Energy Commitment is the first step. Next, your image will be enhanced if you energetically involve yourself in your work and your relationships with others in the organisation. Energy and drive not only confirm your commitment, they are indicators of strength and health, of youthfulness and vitality.
• Positive attitude When this energy can be expressed in a positive attitude it becomes a valuable component of your good image. A positive attitude is infectious. Organisation members find it motivating and energising. It makes them feel good and if you can make them feel good you will enhance your image.
• Ongoing learning A positive attitude and intellectual energy are identified in someone who involves themselves with ongoing learning. This might be the development of skills and knowledge applicable to the workplace, e.g, taking a course. But even if the area of learning is not immediately relevant, eg, learning a foreign language, many fellow workers will find your efforts admirable. It demonstrates that you have intellectual capacity and personal drive.
• Enjoyment Your positive attitude will be reinforced by the enjoyment you show in your involvement with your job. In the real world, your job will not always be enjoyable. You should hide negative feelings when they occur. (Hopefully this will not be too often.) But when you are truly having a good time, show it. It makes you an attractive person. It also lifts others and indirectly motivates them because it confirms to them that, even though they, personally, might be going through a rough patch at the moment, the organisation can be a great place to work, and that they have made the right decision by committing to work there.
• Ambition Most people aspire to improve themselves. We all have ambitions and goals that we strive