Why collaboration is the best way to honor your personal brand

I’ve met a lot of people with different opinions on collaboration. There seem to be those who believe collaboration ADDS to their genius, and those who believe it TAKES AWAY.

Of course, just like everything else in personal branding, there is no RIGHT way to be.

It’s just interesting to me, from the point of view of personal branding…keep reading to see what I mean.

Your Personal Brand is about YOU

When we’re talking about a personal brand, we’re talking about the feeling that you leave another person with when they leave the room. It’s 100% unique to you. And other people’s are 100% unique to them.

And perhaps this is one of the reasons that people become opposed to collaboration.

For me, since this is my area of expertise, it’s critically important to maintain the experience that is associated with my personal brand. And if I feel like someone is not in alignment with what my brand stands for, a collaboration is out of the question.

BUT…

If our personal brands are based on our personal values, and we show up every day LEADING with those values, we inevitably connect with people who have the SAME values.

Which means, their personal brands are standing for at least some of the same things we are.

Which is where collaboration really becomes possible.

A Good Collaboration is ALSO about YOU

Let me explain.

Now, some may think that once you’re collaborating with another human, it’s not 100% about you.

Which is somewhat true, BUT…

If the outcome of the collaboration is NOT aligned with your personal brand and your goals, then it’s not a good fit. And if it is aligned, in essence, it IS about you.

And if it is about you, it’s about emphasizing the impact you can make in the world.

This is where your area of expertise comes into play.

Your Personal Brand = SPECIFIC Zone of Genius

You are not for everyone. Plus, of all things out there that people are good at, you are good at a small subset of them.

This is why people create teams.

From a sports perspective, it’s critical to have the right skills on a team to to reach a goal. It’s why a basketball team doesn’t have all point guards, or all posts.

A good collaboration is the same. It’s about bringing together a group of people with similar values and similar long term goals, who have DIFFERENT expertise. So they can support each other to the best of each party’s abilities.

But here is where we get into the danger zone of people believing that collaboration TAKES AWAY something from them.

It’s based in the fear that someone else is better at something than you.

Let’s take it back to the basketball analogy.

Without a point guard, the team isn’t confident they can get the ball into the offensive zone. Without a post, the team isn’t confident they can get any rebounds.

I order to score points (and meet the goal of winning the game), the team must be able to do BOTH of these things.

The point guard isn’t afraid that the post will steal their job. And vice versa.

They know they are BOTH needed, and build a plan to execute as such.

In business though, this often gets forgotten. And the fear stops people from collaborating.

Personal Brand confidence eliminates this fear.

When you are truly in the space of owning YOUR personal brand and YOUR zone of genius, you are no longer afraid that someone else is better at something than you.

Because you know that LOTS of people are better at other things than you.

The point guard is better at ball handling. The post is better at getting rebounds.

But no one is as good at YOUR thing as you are.

This is why I titled the article the way I did. Because if you’re truly going to HONOR your personal brand, you don’t have time to be distracted by other things. And if those other things can positively contribute to your mission and vision, they why WOULDN’T you collaborate to get them all in one place?

A point guard isn’t going to spend more time learning to rebound. He’s going to spend his time optimizing his dribbling.

It’s not about YOU being everything to everybody. It’s about you doing YOUR thing to make the change YOU want to make, and partnering with others along the way to create the best outcome for everyone.

Because the whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts.

So, if you’ve been a NO to collaborations in the past, just take a look at why. If that why comes back to confidence in your personal brand, I can help. Let’s hop on a Discovery Call to see what we can do about it :)