How to Develop Your Personal Brand to Embrace Internal Mobility

A strong personal brand goes a long way in accomplishing your goal of moving up the workplace ladder. It increases visibility so colleagues and superiors notice things about you they might otherwise overlook. Branding efforts can also increase your contacts at the company and more broadly in a field or industry. It then becomes likelier you’ll discover upward mobility opportunities sooner. Which steps work best for getting the biggest and most enduring impacts? 

1. Identify Your Skills and Strengths

Begin by considering what sets you apart from others, whether those characteristics and abilities encompass hard or soft skills. Think about when you have thrived and recall the occasions you’ve received special recognition from a superior or peer at work or in your personal life. 

Personal development opportunities may become apparent when looking for ways to grow. You may consider yourself tech-savvy and often get supportive feedback from colleagues. That could prompt you to learn all you can about advancements such as generative artificial intelligence. One survey of senior data leaders showed 64% viewed it as the most transformative technology of a generation. 

You could also boost a personal brand by pursuing volunteer opportunities in the community. Choose ones that align with existing strengths but push you out of your comfort zone. If you’ve always been a skilled communicator and stayed calm under pressure, these traits give you a good reason to spend time answering helpline calls from those in distress needing immediate support. Once you become established within an organisation, the familiarity may lead to chances to get the workplace involved, such as organising a team charity fundraiser.

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2. Showcase Your Accomplishments

Self-promotion is one of the most effective ways to hone a personal brand while standing out at work. Some experts recommend inviting people to see you at your best, such as encouraging senior leaders to observe you running a meeting. 

You can also turn achievements into progress opportunities, particularly when speaking to superiors. Incorporate what you’ve done into a broader conversation by positioning a recent win as a driver for company competitiveness or other goals. That approach showcases you as a strategic thinker who connects personal efforts to the company’s greater good. 

If your business uses an internal communication platform, use it to share small victories that occur during larger attempts to complete projects on time and to specifications. Keeping a journal and jotting down successes each week is a great way to maintain a thorough record. Mentioning them all only at dedicated meetings — such as an annual review — makes you more likely to forget some or lose sight of all the notable things you’ve done throughout the year. 

3. Build Relationships With Key Stakeholders

Create a list of internal stakeholders and a map showing their relationships, departments and roles. Use them as ongoing resources that reveal where to prioritise your relationship-building efforts. 

You can make notable gains even while doing most of your work remotely. Researchers completing a 2024 study built a model after analyzing thousands of Reddit, X and LinkedIn posts. They used that content to examine workplace relationships for people working from home versus in offices.

The results showed that the former arrangement can improve workplace relationships. It allows learning nonwork information about colleagues in noncurated ways. A dog running into the frame of a Zoom call gives new details to some or all parties in the meeting. Most employees occasionally mention personal lives, but it’s not always easy to incorporate tidbits naturally.

The researchers clarified that people need in-person interactions to improve their workplace relationships, but they can occur less frequently than five days per week and still pay off. Keep this in mind to encourage yourself to maximise face-to-face time when relevant and not assume remote working will harm your connections. 

4. Grow Your Network 

Networking forms professional relationships that could boost your career or open other opportunities later. Check to see if your company has internal programs to join. 

Amazon created over 100 mentorship paths for workers. Although some involve one-on-one conversations, others are group gatherings. If you spend most of your time on a specific team in one department, consider seeking opportunities that let you get to know people in other parts of the business. 

Your community may have similar events for young professionals that encourage attendees to chat over coffee or in similarly laid-back environments. If one doesn’t exist yet, consider taking the steps to launch and host it. Although those things require more work than attending, they highlight you as a go-getter who takes decisive actions to meet needs and nurture connections. 

The internet can also be an effective network-expansion tool if you supplement online and offline methods. One of the benefits is that you’ll potentially meet people from outside your state or country, teaching you how to find common ground despite geographical distance. 

Related: How Bringing Others Along Fuels Your Leadership Success

5. Embrace New Challenges 

Seek options to push the boundaries of your perceived capabilities. Besides encouraging growth, problem-solving and resourcefulness, those challenges could show you new ways to apply existing talents or strengths. 

Research shows that 70% of millennials want to express creativity at work. If you find yourself among them, initial perceptions may have convinced you that your current role offers little or no creative opportunities. Thinking outside the box could disprove that assumption, especially if you enthusiastically tackle challenges and use ingenuity to overcome obstacles. 

You can also push yourself by volunteering for new projects, working groups or similar offerings. This shows an ability to balance an existing workload while hearing varying perspectives or working with colleagues from other parts of the company. 

Asking your manager about specific things to improve is another practical way to challenge yourself and grow. Create a way to track current performance and how it changes over time to stay motivated and recognise wins. 

Keep a balanced perspective about setbacks, too. They discourage many, but naturally build resilience and show yourself and others that you can persevere despite difficulties. 

6. Commit to Continuous Learning

Treating learning as an ongoing process rather than something that only occurs during dedicated events is an excellent way to position yourself for internal advancement while keeping your skills sharp. 

Your workplace may even offer upskilling programs if decision-makers recognise internal mobility as essential for retention. Such is the case for German logistics company DHL. Its executives launched a platform to give over 160,000 workers opportunities to identify current skills. They can then link those to growth and training options.

Leaders believe this investment will help the company keep up with evolving labor demands and enable internal fluidity across departments. It also shows workers at the beginning of their careers that they can advance by planning to stay for the long term. 

Your manager may already have other programs in mind that align with your goals. Schedule a time to discuss the possibilities to show your seriousness about career growth and personal improvement. 

Remain Dedicated and Upbeat

These tips will help you build and maintain a strong personal brand to attract favorable attention at work and elsewhere. As you practice them, recognise that years could pass before you reach your desired goal or position, and that’s OK. Some of the most worthy achievements require ongoing efforts and an understanding of how good things often take time.

Keep looking for relevant, practical ways to better yourself and others in your sphere of influence. The strategy builds momentum and helps you naturally inspire those around you. That visibility presents you as an outstanding candidate for future promotions and other advancement mechanisms.

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