Give The Gifts You Have - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Give The Gifts You Have - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career If you’re reading this in real time, you’re spending Christmas Day with me.   No, not just my blog post. Me. Perhaps like you, my work shows up more often and in more places than I ever could. Of course, this is largely due to the web, which encourages people to read and share what matters to them and their audiences. You’ve got to be thinking YOUR work has the potential to be YOU, when you aren’t there with your audience. Produce your work the way you give gifts â€" with good intention and focused on delighting the people receiving them. No matter when you’re giving it, your work is the gift you give to your clients, boss, co-workers, investors, referral sources and more. Your work undoubtedly involves some measure of patience, diligence, hopefully some ingenuity, and the panoply of qualities that define your personal brand.   Whatever your words, numbers, drawings or details, infuse it with whom you are proud of being. If you’ve spent any of the last few days wrapping the gifts you planned on giving, then you know that presentation often improves on the substance of your offering.   Oprah says love is in the details, and even if love is too strong a word for your intention: at least show us you like us. What can you do to wrap your gifts? Beyond the basics like spell check, complete sentences and numbers computed correctly â€" how about developing a style guide for yourself? Standardize the format of your documents â€" use the same margins, same pagination, and even the way you present lists (bullets? boxes?). When your work shows up right and looking right, we might not send you a thank you note but you sure do make a great impression for your brand. It makes it easy to pass along your work, and to recommend you because we remember you for all the right reasons. Let your work be the gift that keeps on giving â€" giving you the basis for a building a great reputation and spreading joy to the working world! Author: Nance Rosen  is the author of  Speak Up! Succeed. She speaks to business audiences around the world and is a resource for press, including print, broadcast and online journalists and bloggers covering social media and careers. Read more at  NanceRosenBlog. Twitter name:  nancerosen