By Junaid Tahir To be honest and straightforward with you, only hard work will NOT promote you in your professional life. There are...
By Junaid Tahir
To be honest and straightforward with you, only hard work will NOT promote you in your professional life. There are several other aspects of your overall personality which are accounted for your growth. When I say overall personality, I mean your outer and inner personality. And when I say Outer personality, I mean your verbal (when you speak) and non-verbal (when you are not speaking) features of your personality. Together I call it "Corporate Image". In this article, I shall cover sure-fire techniques to improve your Corporate Image. But please bear in mind that the hardware will always be the prime and foremost aspect of your growth.
Well, let us understand first why you should give importance to your official image?
Why Personal branding is important?
In your routine official life, you are being observed by your team lead, managers and/or senior managers on how you work, behave, speak, act, react, meet, greet, resolve and so on. All these observations are contributing to your overall image. This image analysis is being done by the management for everyone. So when it comes to new opportunities or projects in the department, it will be awarded to the one having a good professional or corporate image.
Here are the things which you need to work on to promote your corporate image:
1-THINK BIG:
It all starts from your brain. Good Mind Good Find. It is as simple as that. Focusing on your thoughts will give maturity to your speech and actions which consequently would result in great personality. If you think you should only work on the physical appearance factor of your personality by looking nice through branded coats, pants and other accessories; it is going to result in a disaster since it will be equivalent to a bitter toffee in a nice wrap. Once the wrap is removed, the toffee is going to give a bad taste anyway. You may want to read my article http://paradigmwisdom.blogspot.com/2012/01/need-success-work-on-your-thoughts.html which addresses the issue in detail.
2-WORK BIG:
Try to get engaged in more and more projects. If you really want to do a task you will find a way to do it, if you don't, you will find an excuse to grab more tasks; of course not at the cost of your family life. Try to meet expectations as much as possible. Done go to your boss with a problem without a solution. Develop skills such as problem-solving, analytical skills, and creativity. Be efficient, confident, sharp, dynamic in your day-to-day life.
3-TALK BIG:
Be socially active, do not skip meetings. Try to give your positive and optimistic opinion as much as you can. Say hello to everyone. Be enthusiastic, humorous, and friendly. Do not miss any telephone calls. Avoid reacting. Treating everyone with equal respect, Avoiding irritating & negative comments. Build a vocabulary of positive words. Use and practice these again and again. Develop effective communications skills.
4-LOOK BIG:
Physical appearance matters a lot. Whether you are sitting in a meeting or walking in the office or just working from your chair, you need to look confident. Your posture should portray your confident personality. When you are meeting with someone, try to work on your First Impression. Ask yourself whether the person is going to call you a Decent chap? Rough? Polite? Nice or what?. Your way of handshaking, standing/sitting, smiling, eye contact, shoes, dressing, voice, physical fitness, remembering names matter a lot. Do you have old suits in your wardrobe? Get rid of them. Do you have an old hairstyle for some time? Change it. Do you use the same colors of clothes? Buy new. Do you talk too quietly or too loudly? Change your tone. Remember, you don't need to be in a high-end tuxedo for a great impression, you can achieve the same by having a simple lifestyle.
5-BEHAVE BIG:
Live an ethical life. Your personality should remind others as a confident, honest, friendly, organized, creative, trustworthy, and decent but mature person. Help others whenever it is required. Seek first to understand then to be understood. Don't impose your decisions on someone. Listen emphatically. Listen more and speak less.
Conclusion:
Hard work is definitely the key to success however you need to work on several aspects of your personality to move on your professional ladder. Always remember that consistency in your actions is critically important. Your inconsistent behavior is an indication of your non-predictive personality due to which people won't trust you. If you would like to develop trust please read my article http://paradigmwisdom.blogspot.com/2012/02/how-to-build-trust-to-empower-relations.html
Junaid Tahir, a telecom engineer and a blogger, writes articles on wisdom, happiness and stress management at his personal blog. His personal Google Group can be joined here. He is reachable at mjunaidtahir@gmail.com for any kind of suggestions and comments 
