(81) Standing out from the crowd

Title: Career Distinction: Stand Out by Building Your Brand by William Aruda & Kristen Dixon
Publisher: Wiley
224 pages
Genre: Business

Synopsis: As a professional, your reputation is your most valuable career asset. Whether you're climbing the ladder at your current company or seeking a new job, in today's fast-paced work environment, you must proactively and continuously position yourself for success. Your credibility, visibility, personality, and personal style all make up your brand. Build and nurture your personal brand and you'll make yourself a must-have, can't-fail professional—and you'll do it without having to be someone you're not.

Career Distinction outlines the proven personal branding process and provides case studies of successful professionals that will help you not only survive, but thrive, in today's dynamic and ultracompetitive workplace. You'll learn to manage your brand with innovative tools that enable you to differentiate yourself and stand out from your peers.

The increasing pace of change in the business world gives you less time than ever to make your professional mark. Career Distinction demonstrates how to express who you are and the value you bring to your organization—branding you as an indispensable, memorable, and unique professional. Success takes more than just hard work; brand yourself and watch your career soar.

Review: I read this book for a class I'm taking for my Masters in Organizational Development and while the information wasn't necessarily new to me I like the way it was written.  This book is one of the most readable and engaging of the books on business and branding that I have read.

Career Distinction makes the case for thoroughly understanding yourself and how building your unique brand will bring value to your audience. Standing out from the crowd and being constantly sought out by potential employers is the payoff for putting these ideas in action.  I was particularly interested in the 360 degree assessment of how others perceive my personal and professional skills and attributes. Knowing how others perceive you is incredibly important to understanding yourself.  In the book there is a code to get your own free assessment but unfortunately the website has since changed and it doesn't seem to work.  My professor passed along to us the website for the free 15 day assessment which I will add later in the comment section.  This was an incredibly invaluable tool.  Its fascinating to see how others see you.

If you are looking at switching jobs or just want to learn how to better your career this is a great place to start.