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親愛(ài)的安妮：您最近有一篇專(zhuān)欄文章，談到了在工作中因害羞不敢大聲發(fā)言的問(wèn)題。我對(duì)這個(gè)話題很感興趣，因?yàn)槲业那闆r與文章有點(diǎn)類(lèi)似。在有高層出席的會(huì)議上，我的上司總是搶先提出我的創(chuàng)意，而我自己根本沒(méi)有機(jī)會(huì)發(fā)言；而且，他在提出這些解決方案的時(shí)候，就好像都是他想出來(lái)的，對(duì)我卻只字不提。

????一位朋友知道這件事后對(duì)我說(shuō)，我應(yīng)該“宣傳我的個(gè)人品牌”，這樣公司和其他地方的人才會(huì)知道。我在自己所在的領(lǐng)域，即流程簡(jiǎn)化和提高運(yùn)營(yíng)效率方面，已經(jīng)是專(zhuān)家。但要讓我自吹自擂，宣揚(yáng)自己曾經(jīng)做過(guò)的事情，有點(diǎn)難度。有沒(méi)有其他更巧妙的方式，能夠讓公司高層知道我所做出的貢獻(xiàn)呢（又不會(huì)讓我看起來(lái)是在批評(píng)上司竊取我的功勞），或者我就應(yīng)該這樣順其自然？——無(wú)名英雄

?親愛(ài)的無(wú)名英雄：你朋友的建議非常明智。但在聽(tīng)從朋友的建議之前，你應(yīng)該了解什么才是個(gè)人品牌。與普遍存在的一種誤解不同，建立品牌與自我吹噓是完全不同的兩碼事。

????凱倫?康發(fā)現(xiàn)：“人們一聽(tīng)到‘自我推銷(xiāo)’或‘自我營(yíng)銷(xiāo)’這些詞，通常都會(huì)退縮，因?yàn)樗麄冋J(rèn)為這就是要自我吹噓，而他們并不想這么做。實(shí)際上，創(chuàng)建個(gè)人品牌是一個(gè)教育的過(guò)程，是要分享信息，參與討論。創(chuàng)建個(gè)人品牌的目標(biāo)是要決策者意識(shí)到你所具備的能力和能夠帶來(lái)的價(jià)值。”

????康曾是硅谷營(yíng)銷(xiāo)界泰斗雷吉斯?麥肯納【蘋(píng)果（Apple）、英特爾（Intel）等公司品牌建設(shè)背后的智囊】的合伙人，目前在帕洛阿爾托經(jīng)營(yíng)自己的公司BrandingPays，曾指導(dǎo)美國(guó)電話電報(bào)公司（AT&T）、惠普公司（HP）和自動(dòng)柜員機(jī)生產(chǎn)商N(yùn)CR公司的高管如何宣傳自己的專(zhuān)長(zhǎng)。她還曾出版過(guò)一本書(shū)——《品牌化價(jià)值：五步重塑個(gè)人品牌》（Branding Pays: A Five-Step System to Reinvent Your Personal Brand）。

????互聯(lián)網(wǎng)出現(xiàn)之前，打造個(gè)人品牌并沒(méi)有實(shí)際意義。畢竟，你的整個(gè)職業(yè)生涯都要在一家公司，或者最多兩至三家公司里，一步步往上爬，你身邊的所有人幾乎都知道你擅長(zhǎng)什么。而如今，時(shí)代不同了，職業(yè)安全感早已過(guò)時(shí)，大多數(shù)人要在更換八到十家公司（甚至更換職業(yè)），然后才會(huì)安定下來(lái)。或許只有我們自己才知道這一路走來(lái)自己所取得的成就。

????康說(shuō)：“如今我們每個(gè)人都是自由人。要想成為真正的自由人，則需要人們努力打造自身的品牌。任何人想要啟動(dòng)一個(gè)項(xiàng)目，組建一支新團(tuán)隊(duì)，或達(dá)到某個(gè)特定目標(biāo)，都需要知道誰(shuí)具備必要的技能，可以提供什么樣的專(zhuān)業(yè)知識(shí)。”

Dear Annie: I read your recent column on being too shy to speak up at work with interest, because my situation is kind of similar. I work for someone who keeps bringing up my ideas in meetings with senior management before I get the chance to speak; and he talks about these solutions I've come up with as if they were his own, with no mention of me at all.

????A friend who has witnessed this tells me I need to "promote my personal brand" so that people in the company and elsewhere know that I've become something of an expert in my area, which is streamlining processes and improving operational efficiency. But it's really hard for me to blow my own horn and brag about what I've done. Isn't there some other, more subtle way of letting higher-ups know what I've contributed (without seeming to criticize my boss for swiping the credit), or should I just let it go? -- Unsung Hero

Dear Unsung: Your friend is giving you smart advice. But before you can follow it, you need to understand exactly what a personal brand is. Contrary to a widespread misconception, branding and bragging are not at all the same thing.

????"Often, people hear words like 'self-promotion' and 'marketing yourself,' and they just cringe, because they think it's about boasting, and they don't want to do that," observes Karen Kang. "But creating a personal brand is really a process of education. It's about sharing information and participating in discussions about ideas. The goal is to make decision-makers aware of what skills you have and what value you can add."

????A former partner in Silicon Valley marketing powerhouse Regis McKenna (the branding brains behind Apple (AAPL) and Intel (INTC), among others) Kang now runs her own Palo Alto-based firm, BrandingPays, and has coached executives at companies like AT&T (T), HP (HPQ),and NCR on how to become known for their expertise. She also wrote a book, Branding Pays: A Five-Step System to Reinvent Your Personal Brand.

????Once upon a time, in the pre-Internet economy, polishing your very own brand was not really necessary. After all, if you were going to spend your whole career climbing the ladder at one company, or two or three at the most, everyone who mattered already knew firsthand what you were good at. But now that job security is a discarded relic, and most people change companies (or even careers) eight or 10 times before hanging up their spurs, it's a much different world. Each of us is probably the only one keeping track of our achievements along the way.

????"We're all free agents now," says Kang. "And that doesn't work unless people make the effort to brand themselves. Anyone who's trying to launch a project, put a new team together, or reach any particular goal needs to know who's out there with the required skills and what expertise is available."