Corporate structure is usually associated with a machine where people are the elements that make it function. Subsequently this association creates opinions and thoughts like ‘there are no people who cannot be replaced’, ‘team comes first’, etc. If we explore cultural heritage of various nations, we will discover that such perception of an individual in a community, company or society has deep roots: from English “Cut your coat according to your cloth” to Japanese “The nail that sticks out gets hammered down”.
But let’s leave societies in peace and focus on employee-employer relationships.
Certainly, any organization wants each and every employee to be ‘the mean of delivery’ for its brand to the World, no matter if it is an ordinary specialist or a top manager. Is such state achievable? I doubt. At least because the most of top managers are known to the public as ‘NAME from the Company’ and not as ‘COMPANY’s top manager Name’.
You may say “Of course, top managers are public figures while ordinary people have no chance”. You are right. About top managers. Publicity is an essential part of their work indeed. But what about ‘ordinary people’? It is all in their own hands.
Social media, video conferencing services and other modern means of communication provide extraordinary opportunities for contacts with the world, and nobody can say that their publicity is restricted by job description and/or employer’s willingness to allow stuff to communicate to the outside of the company. All this makes our networking opportunities practically unlimited: we can get help from more experienced colleagues, assist less experienced ones, discuss professional topics within professional communities and so far, and so forth. Such activities form your professional reputation and through it your personal brand. The personal brand that so many people speak and write about nowadays.
And here comes the question: if you are a corporate employee but run ‘solo projects’ at the same time, how will it affect your employment relationship?
I think there is no clear answer because it depends both on you and your employer.
Conservative companies are confident that they can’t afford their staff members to be individuals in professional community. They want them to be faceless ‘company X employees’ with all possible restrictions and limitations applied to professional openness to the world recorded in their labor contracts. If an employee of such company publishes an article in professional media without mentioning any details of their employer, this will be considered as a treason and the person will be punished. A company will consider its anger as fair and the punishment of that ‘upstart’ as deserved. But will that person accept such perception? I think that this person will find a more open-minded employer very soon, and ‘business conservatives’ will suffer trying to hire a replacement.
Companies that look at modern informational world realistically, treat their employees’ ‘solo projects’ neutrally and many encourage such out-of-the-job activities. Because such relationship provides mutual benefit: an employee feels employer’s support which increases loyalty and motivation while the company through its top managers can say “That person? Of course, I know him/her, they work with us! You see, our employees are rock stars!”
Employees do what they love doing, demonstrate high performance on the job, exchange experience with colleagues worldwide, reinforce their personal professional brands. Employer doesn’t worry about loyalty and motivation of present staff as well as attraction for bright individuals on the labor market.
Everybody wins.
And what is your experience in that respect?
#personal brand #motivation #networking #publicity #recognition #conflict of interest