Robert A. Sereci, CCM, General Manager/Chief Operating Officer, Medinah (Ill.) Country Club, says branding isn’t just for cattle anymore. But just as a rancher brands cows to show ownership, managers should own, nurture and care for their club, and claim it appropriately with a consistent and well-defined brand that goes beyond mission statements and vision, to state who you are and why you do what you do.
I created my personal brand strategy about 10 years ago, after I noticed that my peers and my network started to only associate me with my clubs. While I am an extension of the club, I didn’t want to be so closely tied to it that I felt like I was riding on its coattails, whether that meant getting credit for accomplishments, or blamed for blunders, that were not of my own making.
That is when I decided to develop a personal branding strategy, through which I spelled out a plan for how to grow and enhance my personal brand. I developed my own professional mission statement: To improve the lives of the people I work with and work for. From there, I crafted a list of words I wanted my personal brand to represent—empathetic leader, innovator, mentor, educator, influencer, strategist, visionary, connected, and humble. I developed specific strategies and tactics to try to embody these words so that, one day, my peers and network can use them to describe me.
Many club professionals confuse their clubs’ brand with their personal brand—they are not the same, and it’s not wise to conflate the two. You are not the club, and the club is not you. If you work for a well-recognized club, it is not that difficult to leverage your club’s brand to enhance your own. What is even more challenging is to develop a personal brand that is strong enough so that your own personal brand enhances and adds value to your club’s brand. To me, that is the ultimate goal of a successful brand.
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