By Insight Editor / 28 Jun 2024 / Topics: Culture & careers
In this episode of Leading With Insight, Rich is joined by Javier Arias, senior manager of partner management and alliances, to discuss the importance of personal perception and how to realign your personal brand. This conversation is divided into three topics: understanding personal perception, identifying and addressing negative perceptions, and tailoring your personal brand to your values and goals. You’ll also gain valuable tips on how to accurately gauge how others perceive you, solicit honest feedback and manage negative perceptions that can impact your mental health.
To experience this week’s episode, listen on the player above, watch the conversation below or scroll down to read a complete transcript. You can also subscribe to Leading With Insight on Apple Podcasts, Pandora and Spotify.
Audio transcript:
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Hey everybody this is Z Tinnoco and I'm Richard Reeves. You're listening to Leading With Insight. Join us as we explore the latest trends, insights, and strategies for people who love leadership. Get ready to unlock your full potential and take your career to the next level.
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Welcome to another exciting episode of Leading With Insight. You might notice a few things that are different today, namely my co-host is gone. Z is actually at the Thayer Leadership Academy training out at West Point, which is an amazing program. I won't spill all the beans but what I will tell you about that is it's for director level and above.
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Annually they go out there, they have a really great leadership training program and just kind of integrated with our company values of hunger, heart, and harmony. And you know it makes for great leadership training and that trickle down from top to bottom. As you've probably heard in a number of our previous episodes, we talk a lot about our culture and you know we're very loud and proud about that. And there's specific reasons why we take it very seriously. So but I won't spill all the beans, I'll wait for Z to get back and tell you more about all that the his Thayer leadership training and how he runs that program. But what we will discuss today is still on the vein of personal branding, understanding your personal perception, identifying and actually assessing and assessing negative personal perception, and then also how to realign and align your personal brand with your goals and your values. But before we dive into that we do have a very special guest with us today, Javier Arias, Senior Manager over Partner Management and Alliances. Welcome Javier. Hey Rich, thanks for the intro. Good to be here. Yeah, glad to have you. Hey, so I hear that you're about to be on some vacation time. Tell us a little bit about that. I am. So vacation is very important to me, right? Because I'm more of a work-to-live guy than live to work, right? You gotta have that work-life balance and spending time, quality time with my family is very important to me. So last week I was actually on vacation at the beach, so that was nice for an entire week. And next week we're going to the mountains up in Montana. So my father-in-law has an amazing property up there, taking the family. My youngest has never been there, so he'll be really excited. And his Papa's garage is quite big and it has a car lifted and everything. So my son's a big car kid, so he'll be living it up up there. Oh, that's great. And I bet you it's amazing landscape. What's the weather like out there? So it's gonna be gorgeous right now. It's gonna be like low 80s for a high. And then so we're gonna catch, I think there's like an independent baseball league down there. We're gonna go catch a couple games and just be pretty active with the kids because obviously it's an outdoor area right? Yeah, yeah. Montana, you got to be outdoors. So yeah, we'll be pretty active and taking advantage of the weather. Very cool. That's awesome. That sounds like a fun time. So let's go ahead and dive in. We have a lot to talk about, a lot to unpack today. So tell us a little bit about why understanding your personal perception is so important and how it kind of lends itself with building your personal brand. Yeah, no, so great question. I think for me, I've been in IT sales since literally the year 2000.
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And of all honesty, I think the a lot of a lot of the branding came into perception of how others see you probably not until year 10 or 12 in corporate America. So around 2010, I think a light bulb finally went off. And I realized personally, what people around me thought about me about my work ethic that hey, I came in at 759 and I was out at 459 kind of mentality and he's just here to punch a clock.
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I didn't like that being a perception because when I am at work, I'm fully engaged, involved and there to get work done because like I mentioned earlier, I like my life outside of work.
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So I think be when that light bulb went off in me, I was just like, okay, so I kind of got to change this perception, right of what people perceive as me. And I think again, back in the I would say 2010 2012 timeframe is a real one. They're really light bulb went off on me is like, I have to take my corporate America brand and rebranded. Right. So for me, it was a lot more of coming in earlier, staying later. And although it wasn't something that I really like to do, I felt like the perception of me coming in right at the time I needed to and leaving right when my shift was up, that was suffice. But apparently, it wasn't and others saw that as just he's just here to punch a clock. So I did start to come in earlier and staying later again, something I wasn't a big fan of. But if it was something that had to do to change perception, I think I was okay with that, right?
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I think and then I started to, I guess, inquire more and be involved a little bit more. And that helped me, I think, set a precedent of my brand of saying like, okay, hobby years kind of turned a corner in his professional career. And we actually see him now somebody not only speaks up, gives his very transparent opinion, and is willing to take on projects that it's not part of his daily routine. So, which I think all three of those and there's many more, but those are the three that I really kind of hone in on and kind of own the saying, okay, like, I don't like the perception as people see me as and I need to make a difference. And again, even if it was something that I was uncomfortable doing, or wasn't a big fan of coming in early and staying late, because I have a family and I like my family life outside of work.
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But again, something that I was willing to do just to kind of change the mindset and to have my colleagues take me a little bit more seriously in the workplace. Yeah, that's great. And it's amazing that you were able to identify that and kind of capitalize on it, you know, and really understanding that, you know, the perception of corporate America, sometimes when you get to your job and you work between those hours, it's still perceived as, you know, just kind of doing the bare minimum almost along those lines.
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You know, that kind of leads itself to the next question I have in the back of my mind is, you know, how can social and cultural factors play into your personal perception?
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I also learned that I've had a lot of mentors being in corporate America in different departments.
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And one of the mentors one time actually told me that, you know, who you hang out with inside of work and outside of work kind of put you in a group of people, right? Like if you know is just the the person that's always involved in every happy hour, but you're not selling much of their products, you're gonna see as the person who's just out there for the social life and aspect of things and likes the free things and stuff like that.
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And I was always told like the people you hang out with also helps create your personal brand.
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So surround yourself with positive people who have good intentions inside and outside of the workplace, so socially as you're speaking to and professionally (...)
And make sure you're, I mean, just in life in general, right? You want to surround yourself with genuine good people who have good intentions and best interest for your future, right? And they're pretty much your good cheerleader, the people who are gonna cheer you on the best. Yeah
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Again, so you kind of want to do that within the the office as well too, is just surround yourself with people that have your best intentions that speak well and highly of you and we'll kind of just, you know, do whatever it takes to see you succeed. You want to build your your internal group of people that will go to bat for you and, you know, raise their hand and scream on the rooftops of like, yes, this person would definitely be a good candidate for that, could take that on, could take it to the next level, right? So, but yeah, so there's a couple different aspects here, but at the end of the day, just like outside of the office, it's kind of like who you're surrounding your surroundings with. As I've gotten older, I tend to kind of weed it out of more of, it's gone from, let's say, quantity of people that I wanted to be friends with to more quality of people. And I think that's the same in, again, corporate America or outside of a corporate America building is that you just have to hone in on those people that want to see you succeed and will be there to kind of lift you up. Yeah, absolutely. Very well said. And, you know, it's the way you phrased it, right? Like you surround yourself with the people who, you know, of good character who you want to be around. And it goes back to that saying, you know, guilty by association, right? Like, so we've all heard that. And it's, you know, in the corporate environment and setting, it's more about, hey, how can I, you know, strive to be like these group of individuals or how can I, you know, maybe get into the super hyper, (...)
you know, the people more well known, the ones who, you know, really have their craft down and are really reputable in their, in their talents. So, yeah, because inside has many leaders that are like that. They're like, okay, this, this leader is a legit leader. Like I need to figure out either what they're drinking on the daily or literally just kind of maybe ask them to be a mentor, right? To say like, Hey, you know, I idolize you from afar. I want to be like you. You're an amazing people leader because I think there's different types of leaders, right? There's people who just are good at leading a business and there's people that are good at actually being a people leader. And then there's some that are both, right? That have both qualities. I really enjoy the people leader because they're involved in the business. They make you feel as a person as opposed to just, you know, a number in corporate America, which I think the generation coming up is kind of worried about just being a number, right? So for an example, like I said, in on, I sat in on the U of A panel that came through the kids that are in the business school. And one of their concerns was, I just feel like, you know, I'm just going to be a number in corporate America. How do I
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make sure that does not happen when I enter? And I said, well, when you walk around the office, put your phone down, right? Be a little bit more present of your surroundings. Say hi to everybody. You never know if, if you're gonna,
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if you walk, if we walk by each other today, if I'm going to be the person that interviews you tomorrow, right? So just be present in the moment. And, and I think that helps again, kind of just building out your personal brand and recognition of like, Hey, I know that person by name, as opposed to seat a 39 in this department of the building, right? Yeah, very well said. So how can you and you kind of you, you touch on this a bit, you know, with maybe finding mentors and things like that. But how can you accurately gauge other people's perception of your personal brand? Yeah, for me personally, I think that's come from feedback from others, right? Like just again, being super transparent on a personal experience. Probably about six or seven years ago, I was told I wasn't the best communicator. And I go, What do you mean? I'm not the best communicator. I'm black and white. I'm very transparent. They're like, Well, if there's people that you're speaking to that don't know you that well, that you kind of come off a little brash, a little arrogant. And, and so it was, again, one of those moments where you're like, Okay, I guess I could see how that comes into play. So it was just actually taking kind of just swallowing your pride and be like, you should take this feedback and run with it, right and make it better. So I did. And, you know, and, you know, months later, after I made that change, those same people that gave me the constructive criticism also came back and said, Javier, you did something right, because now we're getting really good feedback on the way you communicate with others, whether it's via email, or whether it's a phone calls or any type of meetings.
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So, you know, they're basically saying, Keep it up, right. And I think you have some individuals that will just tell you straight up, you know, or you could probably tell by nonverbal communication or the engagement, like if they slowly disengage with you. Yeah, you might have rubbed them the wrong way. You might have communicated something that incorrectly, let's be honest, email instant messenger comes across completely different, right? And if you're to talk to somebody in person, because you can see their face, right? (...)
So I think for me, from my personal experience that I had around that, it was just others telling me about like, Hey,
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you're close to burning some bridges if you kind of keep your communicative style up. So again, but just another opportunity for me to grow my career. And I appreciate those those individuals to this day that told me that right, because I think it just made me more aware because you get so caught up in the daily routine and grind that you're less like, I just want to go execute, I want to get things done. And and just that's the way I do it. But then when somebody tells you, Hey, I understand and I respect you as a person, but you're coming across the wrong way and you kind of need to make that adjustment. And I did for the better night again, I that wasn't an uncomfortable thing. I think it was just a more of a realization like, Hey, yeah, you know, you know,
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I am very black and white, there's really no gray area to me, I kind of tell my feelings on how it is. So it was just one of those more things where just think about how you're gonna how like put yourself in their shoes. How would that come across if the if the chairs were reversed, right? Yeah, absolutely. And feedback, and we've talked about it on a number of different episodes. Feedback is a gift, you know, good, bad or indifferent, you, you take it, it might be good feedback, that's great, you still try to capitalize on it bad feedback, you want to, you know, improve off of that, the indifferent, you know, you might get the one offs where maybe one person's perception is this, but you kind of keep it in the back of your mind. And if it's that constant thread continuously coming up, that's when you, you know, maybe want to focus on it. But it's great that you were able to capitalize on it. And I know you touched, you just touched on a number of different things with the whole negative perception thing. So tell me, like, what are some signs to maybe watch out for, when there could be a negative perception around your personal brand? I know you mentioned maybe distancing yourself.
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Yeah, yeah. So once you, it if you have, I think people tend to distance themselves with people who they don't feel comfortable with, or don't like working with, right? So if at any point that comes up, where, hey, I used to be pretty, we used to talk biweekly, now we talk like once a quarter, right, that that might be a sign that, you know, you may need to revisit that person and saying, Hey, I just want to make sure that we're, you know, okay, that, you know, if there's anything that I mentioned that offended you, or just came across pretty brash that I apologize, I, I appreciate working with you, and I would love to continue our cadences that we had something to that effect. But a lot of it is just, yeah, it's just really ensuring that, you know, not only the distance thing obviously takes place in okay, there's something wrong, you know, are you that busy? Or, you know, did something come up where your roles change, we're just got a lot more busy that we disengaged? Or was it something that I said, so I think a lot of people tend to don't like to hear real talk.
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And real talk is like, Yeah, Javier, when I was on the call with you, you said something that I wasn't a fan of, I was offended. And yeah, you know, and that's why we disengage. So I think a lot of the times it just comes down to communication, right? Like if, whether it's inside corporate America, outside of corporate America, let's be honest, any relationship is based on communication. If you don't communicate well, things aren't going to get done, you'll distance yourself, you'll disconnect.
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So,
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but yeah, just going back to your question, I think a lot of it is just really people either voice their opinion to you, like if, you know, rich, if you said something that I didn't like, I may just tell you, hey, man, I just on the side, wasn't a big fan of that. But there are there are other nonverbal signs that you're going to see of disengagements, and not, you know, the collaboration is as much as you used to have. Yeah, that's great. So a little bit about like, just moving forward into that, how can you proactively, you know, solicit feedback to even identify some of those negative perceptions? Yeah, I think it's reaching out to the people that you consistently work with.
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And just say, Hey, look, you don't have to mention any names or throw anybody under the bus. But you know, can you give me feedback on what my perception is in this group on this team, (...)
in this geo, whatever type of, of, of format that you're collaborating in. But I think there are a couple people out there that again, I've asked people like, right, like, and I say, Hey, you don't need to name names. But can you just give me any type of feedback that you heard about me?
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The way I'm planning this event or something like that. So it would be more so I think just reaching out to trusted resources, and just make sure that at a full transparency that there's confidentiality in this conversation.
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And that, you know, if you tell me something about Tim, I'm not going to run to Tim and be like, Hey, Rich told me, you know what I mean? But it's just more of like, it's just more self awareness. So next time I'm engagements with Tim, that I know that I need to tread a little bit lightly or communicate a little bit more clearer or something like that. Yeah. And that's got to be difficult, right? When you're bringing somebody or even receiving, you know, negative feedback of some sort. So you definitely want to be as respectful as you can to be open and know that it's coming from a place of good intent, right? And there's no malice. It's like, I want to help you become the best version of you or whatever work version, you know, what have you. So yeah, that's, that's great.
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What sort of impacts can, you know, negative perspective of, you know, a personal brand have on leaders and their, you know, maybe mental health and how, how can you go about managing that? At the beginning of the day, what you want to do really is kind of set yourself up for success. And the way you're going to do that is again, as we've been talking about building your personal brand, but we all want to get to that level of, we really don't want to have to apply for jobs. We want to be tapped on the shoulder, right? And that goes along with your personal brand that you have, because what you want to do is you want to set up people throughout the company to go to bat for you, right? To be your advocate, your biggest cheerleader of saying, Oh yeah, this a thousand percent rich would crush it if he took on that. Right. So the negative things that could happen out of that is again, you're not going to be looked at for that promotion. You're not going to be looked at as somebody who could lead.
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And you know, again, at the end of the day, it's, it's in this industry that we're in the IT industry, it's a very small circle, right? Yeah, people leave the company, but you see them working for a different logo a couple months later in the same industry.
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So I think that brand, that personal brand, if you don't have a positive one, it gets out there in the industry very quickly.
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So if you are, you know, looking for your next career move, it could be pretty bad to turn to you if you don't have that personal brand. Yeah, very,
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I couldn't agree with you more. It's one of those things where if you have that in the forefront of your mind, knowing how, you know, maybe others perceive you or maybe the way you operate and how it's coming across to everybody, then you can kind of change that. And it's amazing that you've been able to really swing that into some positives with some of the feedback that you've received, which is why you know, you're so successful and senior manager now. So that's great. Yeah. So let's move forward a little bit into, you know, aligning your brand with your values and goals. How can you kind of identify some of the core values or your core values that need to be reflected in your personal brand? Yeah. So again, going back to the family thing, right? (...)
I manage a team and I tell them that they need to take PTO. There's it's not an option.
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You need to spend time outside of work with your family and friends, if not both at the same time. But I think that goes when you, when you can relate to somebody outside of the office, I think that heightens your brand times 10 because now you can share stories about same experiences outside of the office.
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And I feel like if you can share stories outside of the office, that's just going to heighten your personal brand internally in the office because you can relate to something. Right. I've reported to managers that don't have a family. So they're just very work, work, work, work, work. I've reported to managers that do have a family and understand that if my son is sick and I need to leave the office at one o'clock, I got to go do it. Right. But there's other managers that's like, hey, you're doing that, then you're coming back. Right. It's like, well, he has a fever. Yeah, I got to take him home. I got to get him rest and everything like that. So yeah. But I think a lot of it really has to deal with this, the values of understanding where people are coming from. You have to take a step back and understand their lifestyle outside of the office to ensure that they can be successful in the office. Because I tell my teammates, hey, look, if you're coming in and you're just you wake up and you think, I got to go to work today, we need to have a talk as soon as possible. Because I don't I've had that feeling before. I don't like that feeling. So it's one of those things like we have to change that. So it's whether we have to kind of change the focus of your current role or we have to look to see what kind of makes you feel a little bit more happy about coming into the office.
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But that has to be done immediately. And I think that helps build your brand, not only because you may be a good leader, but people are like, well, he actually cares or they care about me as a person outside of the office. I'm not just an employee to them. I'm like, you know, so I think that it's hard to put into words, but I think when you can just relate to people and understand what they're going through outside of the office, the job in the office is going to be a lot easier for them. So that that brand of creating like, again, my values is around family. So understanding that kind of, you know, what your family life is like, and there may be situations come up where you may need a two day mental break. I'm okay with that. Like it is what it is. Like we have a team that can back you up at the end of the day.
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So I think that's where I kind of install my personal brand with my values as a family of just making an employee feel like a human being at the end of the day. Like we all understand that we have stresses outside of work inside of work. Um, but at the end of the day, we just have to treat them as, as a person, right? To make sure that, um, you know, cause there's times that I've had an employee that like brought me a doctor's note for being out for three days. I'm like, what is this? And she's like, well, you know, in my previous job, I'm like, I, I trust you. I understand you're a hard worker. I don't think you're skipping work just to skip worked. And I think the look on her face was like just a shock. Like I would actually trust her that she was literally off those few days, not feeling well. I go, yeah, a thousand percent. Uh, I trust you. Um, so it's just stuff like that where I think
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they perceive you as a whole different person and as a different leader. When you kind of test, take that personal level with them, just to get to them as a person, right? You're not going to ask them personal stuff, but just to find out what their life is outside of the office. I think that makes them feel a lot more. And I think that helps your personal brand as a leader, um, to ensure that,
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you know, you can relate on certain topics outside of the office. Yeah, absolutely. And just expanding on that element of being personal, right? And caring about them as a person rather than just, oh, you're my top ACE employee, you know, like we need you, you know, but it goes a little bit further and adds that extra dynamic, right? And it makes it, I mean, from, from some aspects, it probably makes them want to work harder for you because they know that you care about them, right? It just, it helps out in many different ways. It's super dynamic to, to be able to, to genuinely care about a person outside of like who they are in their role. Right? So that's, that's, and then you see them coming to the office and they are completely different person. Like they are like, this person trusts me outside of the office. If something comes up, but, and they talk to me like a normal human, they asked me how my weekend was and things like that. And they treat me as a human and you can just see it in their face and their nonverbal behavior that they, they want to be here because of the culture and kind of, you know, base that you've set of what the team's going to be about. So it's just, it's really good to see again, just, you know, there's, there's things that team mates, my teammates have come up with, not only have like, I've given them recognized them up and down, but it's just like, I would have never thought about that. Right. And I think the connection that we've made on a personal level has sparked those, Hey, what do you think about this conversation in the corporate office kind of thing? Right. Yeah. How, how important would you say a mission statement is to aligning your, those, you know, personal goals and values to your personal? No, I, mission statement is huge. So I actually have one that I share with my team and I share with them for the fact that I need you to hold me accountable to it. If at any point in time I am not displaying what I wrote down, this wasn't like a copy and paste, right? This is my personal mission statement of what I want to do as a leader.
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I need you to call me out on that, right? I need you to hold me accountable saying, Hey, Javier, you know, you mentioned that your values and you know, we're this and your priorities for this, but it's really not showing by the way you're speaking to me or something like that, or the way you handled the situation.
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So I think it's not only creating it, but making it public.
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Right.
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Again, I'm a big fan of constructive criticism. So my dad was my little league coach for like eight years growing up. So after every baseball game on the way home, I got a near full of constructive criticism of things that could have done a lot better. And at the time I didn't want to hear it. I'm just staring out the window trying to avoid my dad during the drive home. But as I got an old, I've come to respect it. And so that's why I tell my teammates at any point in time, if you feel you need to give me constructive criticism, don't feel like I'm better than you, that you wouldn't be able to do that. Right. And here's my mission statement. So please hold me accountable. So yeah, I think it's amazing to and great to have one, but at the same time, make it public. Just don't hold on to that. Right. However you want to display it, whether it's LinkedIn, whether it's, you know, to all the colleagues that you collaborate with externally and internally of the office, like that, it's just something that I feel that should be, you should be proud about and it's something that you should post so others can see to again, hold you accountable. If at any point in time, you're not displaying those values. Yeah. That's exactly what I was thinking. That's a whole different level of accountability or proactively going on. And I'll again, I'm all for feedback. So that's why that's part of me. That's why I do it. And my team respects that and they've created their own. And same thing. I've asked them to share it as well too. So, um, and, (...)
and it's great. It's again, kind of going back to the, you're allowing me to do this and be creative on my own, as opposed to, you know, doing this, um,
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it goes a long way. Again, just going back to making them feel like a human in the office. So yeah, that's, that's great. And it sounds like you've really built that trust within your team for them to be to feel safe and to feel okay with their mission statements and what they're putting out there and bringing their best foot forward, you know, for you and the team, right? Yeah. So and I talked to them about the brand a lot cause I'm like, at the end of the day, I would love for you to be on my team for about three, four years. And after that I need you to move on your career and I'll be your biggest out of kit. But these are kind of the, this is the brand that you have to build internally to ensure that at the end of the day would be nice just to get tapped on the shoulder for your next career move, as opposed to you having to apply for different roles that you may be interested in. So yeah, great. That's great. So, uh, as we come to the, this episode's closing, do you have any final words of advice or anything you want to leave the audience with today?
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I think I was at the end of the day, let's, I think the key things is just be present, right? Um, you know, acknowledge everybody that you're walking past in the office and outside of the office, even on your way in front to and from the parking lot. Um, be vocal, be loud and be proud, be proud of the work that you accomplish.
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Um, you know, and again, I think that's going to go to help build your internal alliance of allies that will go to bat for you at the end of the day, when it comes down to, uh, you know, maybe the company is, you know, it has to let some people go at the end of the year or fiscal year. Um, but it helps for sure, uh, generating your brand out there. And I, like I said, I think I learned the hard way, but I'm very grateful for that opportunity of, uh, of others telling me, uh, there's perceptions about me, uh, as well as the way they feel I needed to go corporately, um, to ensure my success going forward. So, um, but that was a big game changer. Yeah. So I just say be present, um, be open to feedback, um, be open to criticism, even if it's something you don't want to hear, uh, and be willing to change at the end of the day, right? Cause there's one thing to take criticism, not really make the change, but if you can take the criticism and gradually make that change, doesn't have to be overnight, but just gradually make that change. Um, I, I think that's, that's what it boils down to, to really just honing in that personal brand and making sure that, um, everybody speaks highly of you inside and outside of the office. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for sharing all of your experience and really great insights today. Uh, remember, if you enjoyed today's content, please be sure to like, subscribe, turn on all of your notifications. That way you can get the content as soon as we release it. And until next time, keep leading with insight.
Host
Z Tinoco is a diversity, leadership & organization development manager who believes in building teams, inspiring minds and creating authentic connections. He helps people reach their goals and find success through humor, leadership and a diverse mindset.
Co-host
Richard is an experienced paid media specialist with a proven track record of creating and executing successful campaigns across various platforms. Richard has a passion for tackling new challenges, connecting with people and loves all things tech.
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