Most of Pontsho Manzi’s early clients couldn’t find jobs simply because of a lack of personal branding. As the founder of FabImage, Manzi spent her formative years in recruiting and training, and quickly realised the importance of personal branding. “Developing your personal brand is essential for the advancement of your career and your development as a leader,” she says.
Manzi places a lot of emphasis on serving others, which is where her personal branding journey began.
“Personal branding is about making a commitment to the journey of defining yourself as a leader and how this will shape the way in which you serve others. You need to think about what your intentions are and what you are capable of delivering to the communities you engage with, both in and outside of your work environment.”
How to define and protect your trademark
- Developing and managing your personal brand requires you to be a great role model, mentor, and representative that other people can turn to or depend on. That is why it’s important to offer something of value every time you communicate.
- Every time you are in a meeting or at an event, be mindful of how others are experiencing you and what you want them to experience about you. This will enable you to become more aware about how you approach the personal brand you are trying to define and aiming to live.
- Being true to yourself will naturally enable you to be more accountable to others, and to have a greater overall impact on people. By committing to this responsibility, you will develop a level of accountability that naturally becomes part of how you define, live and manage your personal brand.
“Those who define and live their personal brand will more naturally demonstrate leadership presence and will find themselves advancing more quickly at work and in life,”says Manzi.
Vital Stats
- Player: Pontsho Manzi
- Company: FabImage
- Est: 2007
- X-Factor: Developing a personal brand is the first step to successfully leading others.
- Contact: www.fabimage.co.za; +27 (0)11 510 0087