How Certain Job Decisions Can Hinder Your Personal Brand; or ”From coveted genius to average Joe in one bad decision”

It never ceases to amaze me how people can damage their professional standing and personal brand with one bad decision.  No, I’m not talking about baseball players taking steroids, or execs sleeping with the intern, or scandalous embezzlement from public coffers.  I’m simply talking about a far more insidious, and yet more common mistake – the bad idea of ever becoming an employee at a venue where you were a successful consultant.  The more successful you were, the worse of a choice it is, in my experience.

 

Intangibles like these are hard to write about, much less document.  For those who haven’t experienced this phenomenon, the idea may not even be skimming the surface of Lake Sensibility.  However for those who were the victim of this quiet, soul crushing, ego correcting, pay check dividing, personal brand killing move – it has traction.  (Tell us your thoughts – has it happened to you?  Leave us a comment!)

 

I asked many friends and professional colleagues why this positioning slur happens…and no one could quite agree, but there was an underlying theme of “its part of human nature.”  Let’s explore that idea!

 

When someone is a consultant and you are paying them higher wages, you respect their opinion more and place them on a pedestal of sorts.  Then, when you begin to believe they could be an asset to your company, they are hired – but to a detrimental loss.  Once they are an employee, the ingrained hierarchy sets in and culture takes over.

 

If you ever find yourself staring at that offer letter after doing great work consulting – simply put –consider the potential consequences.   If you  accept, once the mystique of consultant is gone – if it ever really existed – you are “just another employee” and your cache and status are relegated to something less than they were – significantly less. 

 

That’s how you can go from coveted genius, to a daily average Joe, in one bad decision.  It’s about your personal brand  - and how it is positioned and leveraged.  Make strong decisions and consider all the variables – even the intangibles.  Protect your reputation, keep your credibility and make the best choice for yourself long term.

Andy “Google Me” Greider is a marketing consultant and new business director with Carroll/White and radio show host of business growth solutions show, Uniqueness is Power. Andy is also Brand Manager with qAlias, plus he is a serial entrepreneur, author, blogger, inventor of the Gorelephant and networther.