My patrol officer neighbor has an interesting front license plate on his cruiser. It reads something like, “Reputation is what you do when other people are watching. Character is what you do when no one is watching.”

I’ve heard this before, just never seen it on the front bumper of a public vehicle. But I want to discuss it in light of how I’m building my business.

Personal branding?

In my blogroll is Dan Schawbel’s Personal Branding Blog, a blog I read regularly because it does have good career advice for young people in particular. But I have never been fond of the term “personal branding.” Dan himself theorized why people feel this way: “Could another term downplay the marketing connotation that risks reducing human beings to commodities?”

His answer to that particular concern:

Human beings start off as commodities and by way of personal branding, they can stand for something, achieve greatness and become visible to their audience.

He’s got a point about humans starting as commodities. People young and old do need to learn how to stand out from the rest of the labor force.

Still: branding? Do we have to put people on a par with Pepsi or J. Crew? Kami Huyse writes an even better explanation for those of us uncomfortable with the term: “…it leads to an undue focus on the self rather than developing and communicating character.”

Character as part of a team

Implicitly, what this means is that “personal branding” doesn’t do enough to support “team branding.” When you’re focused on reputation—what you do when others are watching—you’re not working with those others. You’re not part of a unit. You’re doing what you think is the right thing without considering whether it really is the right thing, whether it works for the team. You’re doing the right thing for you.

This is a crucial point when dealing with law enforcement and allied professions like digital forensics. Many of these professionals have the kind of character that deflects individual praise. They’d rather support team efforts. That’s because they know they wouldn’t be where they are without strong community support.

And yet they have great ideas, great talent, which deserves to be noticed so that they can help the wider community. Sometimes professionals know this; they want to go beyond where they’re already known, from law enforcement to the private sector, or focused on a new aspect of their careers.

Others are content just to help their team members and friends via training, doing favors, and such. They wouldn’t mind putting their expertise out there for more to see. It just isn’t a high priority. And that’s character.

Thus, good reputations. Even at times when they thought no one would be watching, someone was. They went the extra mile for a colleague or client, thinking it would stay just between them. And maybe it did. Except that even when loyal friends and fans don’t talk, people pay attention to loyalty.

Promote the mission

Writes Kami Huyse, “A better model is for the company (or individual) to develop strong values that they can live into and put all of their focus on that.” Values are related to missions. The best “personal brands” are those who have missions like, “Find the bad guys and put them in jail.”

Because when there’s a solid mission, and a person who’s devoted to it, they will do whatever they need to to make it happen. They’re not thinking a whit about what’s in it for them. They’re thinking about what they can do to strengthen the team to move as a cohesive goal toward completing the mission.

Professionals don’t just need to be scared into realizing that the Internet is as wide and as public as Times Square. They also need to be inspired to make that square their own digital billboard. Yes, this will be uncomfortable. No one likes to self-promote. Promoting the mission, though, is a whole different story.

What mission can you promote in the online square?

Image: striatic via Flickr