Personal Branding for Project Managers
- Joseph Fint
- Feb 23
- 4 min read
I recently finished reading the special edition of Harvard Business Reviews “How to Build a Personal Brand (HBR Special Issue).” This was an excellent read of a combination of articles on how you can analyze, assess, and improve your personal brand. I wanted to summarize some of the lessons and apply principles from a capital project manager perspective.
An AI overview defines a Personal Brand as: the unique combination of skills, experience, and personality that defines how an individual is perceived publicly. It is a consciously curated, consistent, and authentic image that highlights professional strengths, builds trust, and positions a person as a credible authority within their industry.
When we think about working on a project as a leader with people, we need to think about how our brand can impact the ability to get work done. Whether we know it or not, many of our core values and work styles are established at an early age based on our upbringing and family values. These have a large and profound impact on our work values and leadership signature. Those working with you on a project will quickly form an opinion of you and your leadership style based on your actions and brand. When I think about working as a project manager or working with a senior leader, some of the most important qualities are:
Approachability – The project manager must establish be approachable. I have collaborated with leaders that do not have time to discuss issues or opportunities with team members. I have also observed project managers that react negatively to bad news. Team members and vendors will notice that your not approachable and share less information with you. This could stifle communication and impact the project negatively.
Great listener – A project manager should actively listen to people. To be able to make decisions and help with issues, the project manager must know all the facts. If the project manager is doing most of the talking, the team may not be as engaged and feel that their opinions or information that they have may not matter. A project manager must also be able to diplomatically silence a team member who is always quick to take control of a meeting or conversation. I have seen poorly run team meetings where a large group of employees come together to listen to several team members that commandeer the meeting.
Trustworthiness – A project manager must be establish that they can be trusted with information and data about the status of the project and even more importantly. Employees need to know that the project manager is trustworthy with personal information. A project manager’s brand will be damaged if they lose trust from the team by playing favorites, sharing confidential information, talking about people behind their backs, and not sharing the credit.
Experience – Being a project manager is not an entry level job. It can take years over multiple projects to become proficient in just one area. Project managers must rely on the knowledge and capabilities of experts, but if the project manager lacks the basic knowledge in project management tasks their brand will suffer. The project manager must be confident but not seen as a “know it all”. Project managers will know they have a good brand when they are asked for their opinion or knowledge on a topic.
The Harvard Business Article describes brand building as a 7-step process.
Define your purpose and write a personal value proposition.
Why do you want to be a project manager?
What do you like about it, what do you dislike about it?
What motivates you as a project manager?
Define your long-term vision and mission
What makes you unique? Consider experiences, competencies, and character traits.
Audit your personal brand equity
If you are a PM now, identify your brand and how you may want it to shift. If not, look at a PM that you want to resemble.
Consider what people know about you. Associations, feelings, attitudes. Have you been labeled something that you don’t want to be?
Outline your connections, experiences, education, achievements. What do people know about you?
Assess yourself against peers and how you would like to be perceived.
Construct a personal narrative.
Consider how you would like to be described. Think about stories that you can communicate with people.
Think about times that you have felt connected with work and people.
Describe your unique self as a project manager when asked to “Tell me about yourself”
Embody your brand
Think about your brand in all conversations. Be aware of the verbal and nonverbal messages that you’re sending.
Creatively introduce your brand and narrative to build connections with people.
Think about what you want to share and the best story to illustrate.
Communicate your brand story
Create a plan that specifies the channels through which you will convey your brand to others.
Increase discoverability, awareness, and understanding with people
Outline what makes you valuable and give people a clear understanding of what you can offer.
Socialize your brand
Get people to help share your brand. Make a positive impact on people’s lives.
Know who the gatekeepers are to unlock your success and knowledge of your brand.
Know the communities, mentors, friends, and allies that can help you spread your brand.
Reevaluate and adjust your brand
Audit your value proposition and how it fits with the project manager or person you want to be.
Perform an annual audit
Fill weaknesses, take training, solicit feedback from your network
I want to stress the importance of step 7. I have encountered many coworkers and project leaders that have struggled to recognize blind spots and brand damaging behavior. I refer to one such trait as the “look at me” or “listen to me” attitude. This individual is so consumed with showing, telling, and pushing their expertise in a public setting to a level that prohibits other team members from sharing ideas, risks, or other critical updates. As part of my personal brand as a project manager, I am always checking for engagement and ownership from all team members. The HBR special edition has an article on how to self-promote without feeling self-centered along with other great ideas and knowledge about how to build a great leadership brand. Part of my personal project management leadership brand is to develop interesting blog posts to give back to the community.
As always, I look forward to your thoughts and feedback.
Joe
Harvard Business Review - How to Build a Personal Brand (HBR Special Issue)
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