Assignment #3 Culture

We hear the word branding all the time and believe it is concept only useful for corporations, athletes and marketing executives, not schools and educators. When I used to think of branding I immediately envisioned fictional agents Jerry Maguire and Ari Gold from the HBO series Entourage. Both slick branding professionals focused on making enormous amounts of money at the expense of those closest to them.  Because of this negative association, I never felt the concept of branding applied to me nor did I think it had a function in educational leadership.  After reading the following three articles, my understanding of branding has done a complete 180 degree turn.

In Megan Brio’s 5 Steps to Empowering The Brand You, I feel empowered to self-reflect on who I am personally and professionally.  She maintains that “your brand should start with you and stay true to you.”  This is a big leap for me personally, because in all settings I tend to put myself low on the priority list. This may make me a good team member, but doesn’t help develop my leadership brand as much as capitalizing on my strengths, identifying weaknesses and reminding myself that no one is good at everything. A piece of advice from this article that I will utilize as I develop my leadership brand is the concept of not over/under selling yourself.  Brio maintains that confidence is important, but this confidence should be backed up with results.  I subscribe to the theory that if I work hard, the results will speak volumes for me. Unfortunately, I am learning that this may be underselling my accomplishments.  The next chapter in my leadership journey will include sharing my successes and accomplishment with the leaders in my school district because as Brio states in this article, “Don’t hide your light under a talent, let it shine!” 

Tom Peters, author of The Brand Called You, echoes the concept of finding ways to promote your personal brand.  He refers to branding as being the CEO of Me Inc “…which requires you to act selfishly to grow yourself, to promote yourself, to get the market to reward yourself.”  I have always absorbed criticism and deflected praise which, I am learning, can stall a career.  If my brand isn’t promoted, I will have no reputational power. In order to become the CEO of Me Inc. I want to be, I will stretch myself with Peters’ recommendation that “There are power trips that are worth taking — and that you can take without appearing to be a self-absorbed, self-aggrandizing megalomaniacal jerk.”  As I grow into my brand of a successful digital leader, I know I am going to remember to take power trips that are value-added. brag about what I’m proud of and take credit for success.

 I want to promote culture, transparency and risk-taking to advance my school's brand.  This will be how we  use technology that reaches beyond an app that is used periodically in a math class;   Students deserve to learn with technology as a tool for success.  This means providing and embracing adequate access to technology.  This does not mean an outdated computer that takes 10 minutes to "warm up" and sounds like there is a jet engine inside.  Before I can sustain a digital age culture, it must first include relevant and innovative technology.   As an educational leader, I believe technology should be more dynamic and valuable for all stakeholders. Parents always ask their children what happened at school only to receive a blank "nothing" from their child. Social media should be utilized to brag about the magic that is happening every day so parents can fill this gap. Using concepts from both articles and the NETS A standards will help shape how others view me as a professional and my school as a brand.