1. JULY 2015 PROFESSIONAL SECURITY www.professionalsecurity.co.uk
Career Development
About Mike Hurst
and Graham
Bassett
Mike is director of HJA
Associates, and a director
of the Security Institute;
Graham is director of GBR
UK; he’s a member of the
institute, chairs Project
Griffin in London and is a
Liveryman of the
Worshipful Company of
Security Professionals.
Both are Londoners.
HOW AUTHENTIC ARE YOU?:
28
You are your
brand - so
work on it
Doing your security job - whatever
the sector, whichever city or country
- is only part of your career. Another
part is managing yourself - your
personal brand, as two recruitment
consultants in the security field have
called it.
T
hey are Graham Bassett
and Mike Hurst, each vice-
chairmen of the UK chapter of
ASIS International, and speakers on
the subject ‘Develop Your Personal
Brand and Enhance Your Career’
at ASIS’ recent annual European
conference in Frankfurt. If nothing
else they made a change from the talks
on cyber, kidnap and ransom, and so
forth. It’s common place in business
to think of a company as a ‘brand’,
such as Nike. Does the same apply to
managers? We took Graham and Mike
out to lunch in London to go over
what they said.
Name on business card
If you are a UK, EMEA, or global
head of security, or a manager for
a contract guarding company -
whoever - it’s your name besides
your employer’s on the business
card you hand over. You are then,
not only representing yourself, but
that business, whenever you are
‘networking’, that is, attending events
with your peer group. While it’d be
unfair to single out security providers
or corporates, we all have perceptions
of some firms as classy, or not so; and
will judge the person who hands over
their business card, as a good and
typical representative of their firm,
or not. Just as there is such a thing as
‘brand protection’ - the likes of Nike
seeking to stop counterfeits, knock-
offs that undercut and undermine
the brand and siphon off sales - so
staff are protecting the brand when in
public. To act and look professional
does not mean that you cannot wear
slacks and an open-neck shirt; it
depends on the brand. You can create
your own ‘brand’, a set of clothes
that make you recognisable, whether
a pin-stripe suit and sensible tie, or a
colourful tie. What are you renowned
for, and known for when you do your
networking? Besides what you look
like, are you regarded with goodwill,
as someone who volunteers (whether
in your workplace, or for an industry
body). Are you a giver, and not a
taker. “Having a personal brand
doesn’t mean you are a one-off,”
Mike Hurst said. Your ‘brand’ can
be like someone else’s: educated,
professional, competent, quiet, a
mould than many, or any, of us can
fit in. You want to be liked, but you
also are your own man; you want
to be the best that you can be, and
you want the job, but you have to be
honest; authentic was a word that kept
cropping up in the conversation. It’s
no good projecting a face to the world
that isn’t really yours, bite your tongue
when normally you pepper your talk
with swear-words (or do the opposite),
and you get a job at company X and
find that in three months you aren’t
suited to the way X does business.
Your brand, then, is about more
than a few buzzy words on your
CV about how you are a passionate
self-starter (and a good team man).
Graham recalled that he had come
from meeting a man who looked good
on paper. Only by meeting the man,
however, did Graham come away with
the conviction that the man would
be a good fit for a particular job, an
impression that Graham would never
have got from the CV alone, or even
talking over the ‘phone.
Authentic
About that word authentic. Any of us
could wear a purple tie; some could
carry it off, some couldn’t. There’s
no point in looking like something
you aren’t; others will find you out.
We came on to language. Mike Hurst
recalled David Burrill, the former
Army intelligence man who went
into corporate security notably at
British American Tobacco; now a
consultant. Mike recalled how David
Burrill would say that he was in the
tobacco business; rather than, ‘in
security’. Others have followed his
lead. This identifying with whatever
your business does has a parallel
in corporate management, where
people will bob between marketing,
finance, compliance and so on.
Without changing the facts on your
CV, you can present your work life
in a different way. It’s perfectly valid
to have more than one CV. If you
go for a job as a sales manager, you
stress your sales management skills;
if a channel manager, you stress your
experience of that channel. Just as,
if you include in your CV how you
have experience as a sniper - not much
called for in your average British
business - you are making it that much
harder for the recruiter to connect
with you, to appoint you rather than
another, so if you go to a job interview
and dress inappropriately, that puts
you on the back foot.
Feedback
Are people taking themselves for
granted? Working so hard and long
on their job, that they forget to be
self-analytical, to renew membership
of an industry body, to attend that
conference to see and be seen?
Graham agreed that, from feedback to
their talk at Frankfurt in March, some
in the audience (and ASIS typically
caters for the English-speaking
security manager with an international
outlook) admitted that they had never
thought about themselves in that
way, as a ‘brand’ for developing.
Graham wondered aloud how we view
ourselves and how others - friends,
family, workmates - view us. If we
asked, might we hear something
surprising?! And if you are honest to
yourself, what would you do about
that feedback? Being an authentic
‘brand’ is not necessarily about being
nice. If you want to hire a lawyer, do
you want a nice one, or one that goes
to war on your behalf?! Mike quoted
the five personality types as set out
in the Frankfurt talk: sincerity (down
to earth, wholesome), excitement
(daring, spirited), competent (reliable),
sophistication (charming) and
ruggedness (tough). Graham summed
up with a quote from the thinker and
author on management, Tom Peters:
“You are your story, so work on it.”
Your brand, and your CV, are works in
progress. p
Pictured left to right:
Graham Bassett and
Mike Hurst giving
their talk on brand
development to the
ASIS Europe conference
at Frankfurt