Leading With Insight Helping Your Team Unlock Their Personal Brand
Discover how to empower your team to grow their personal brand and elevate their professional development.
By Insight Editor / 25 Jul 2024 / Topics: Culture & careers
By Insight Editor / 25 Jul 2024 / Topics: Culture & careers
In this episode of Leading With Insight, Z, Rich and special guest Melany Clayton, vice president of global business solutions, explore how to help your team unleash their unique personal brands. From exploring the vital role of personal branding in today's competitive work environment to sharing practical strategies for team members to cultivate their individual strengths, this episode is a treasure trove of wisdom and inspiration. Join the conversation as they discuss the power of storytelling, networking and online presence in building strong personal brands — and discover how fostering a culture that values and celebrates individuality can elevate team cohesion.
To experience this week’s episode, listen on the player above, watch the conversation below or scroll down to read a complete transcript. You can also subscribe to Leading With Insight on Apple Podcasts, Pandora and Spotify.
Audio transcript:
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Hey everybody this is Z Tinnoco and I'm Richard Reeves. You're listening to Leading With Insight. Join us as we explore the latest trends, insights and strategies for people who love leadership. Get ready to unlock your full potential and take your career to the next level.
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Welcome back to another episode of Leading With Insight. In our last episode we had a panel of guests so we didn't get to really dive into the whole Thayer experience Z and I'm really excited to hear about the 2024 experience. So do you have a little bit of nuggets or highs lows to share with us? Yeah yeah I mean I don't say this to all the groups but that was the best group ever.
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But no it was a good it was a good time. So a couple highlights what I love to highlight is that this year you know with some of the acquisitions we had we had representations from you know some of those acquisitions and leaders. So Infosenter we had two leaders.
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SADA as well which is pretty cool and again what I love about that not only do you connect with leaders that have been here a while and never really had an opportunity to connect that's the highlight but then also when you have these new leaders coming in and kind of seeing them you know integrated or well part of our culture and this them connecting immediately that's just the best part right such a cool highlight. So I would say that was a big one.
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Attendance too I know that summer is usually around June. Weather is amazing up there can't complain gorgeous. When I come back to Arizona I'm just like can I just bottle it bring it back and open it up here.
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Amazing weather but the other cool thing is it's summertime so a lot of leaders it's a hard time to kind of take that vacations and you know trying to get them to go out at that time is difficult and we had literally almost like 98% attendance or 99 almost 100 that was my goal. I was right there I was pretty good. So you know it's all about informing them giving a heads up collaborating working. Almost nailed it. I would say it's a win.
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But that's it but you know I want to I kind of put that little little insert about the best group because we have another alumni here a few years ago that went through it so I wanted to get her reactions and it was what I wanted.
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So we'll talk about our guests here shortly. Very cool that's awesome it sounds like such a great experience it's no wonder why our leadership team is you know really doubles down on our core values and you know it just really helps the mold and that trickle-down effect from leadership. Yeah I mean it starts from the top right like our leaders have to really invest in their development take care of themselves and their leadership and I talked about this in all the trainings I just had a PDL2 purpose driven leadership course too that I graduated a bunch of leaders as well and I just reminded them right don't forget you know you as a leader need to take your purposeful time off which was a popular episode of ours and you know not only take care of your whole person but then from there you can take care of your teammates whole person right and you know put them in a position to win but if you're not doing it for yourself it's gonna be hard to do it for them. Yeah and shameless plug if you didn't see that episode please go back and visit that. That was huge and it was perfect timing was during the holidays yeah so it's like I think we just nailed the timing yeah speaking that we're gonna have one today because it's perfect timing as well we're talking about there we're talking about leadership but we're talking about how your personal brand not only yourself but now how can you encourage your team to start you know thinking about their personal brand and develop that so with that let me introduce our guests yeah all right so this guest actually we've been trying to get her on the podcast for a while she's so popular always busy always traveling so much going on and finally it just the stars aligned today and we have her here with us today our very own Melanie Clayton now VP of global business solutions did I know it you did I was practicing that for hours welcome thank you thank you very much so how's it been so far your journey with this I have people that don't know you if you don't kind of like give us a quick you know was it consumer digest or what is a what do you call that a quick version a short version of your bio with readers digest readers that's one too I think no absolutely I think one of the little-known facts about me as I started as an elementary school education teacher and so when I tell my bosses today I'm like if you ever want to rehire me hire a teacher because even though you think well how does that apply to what you do today and I'm like oh it applies the most because a lot of the principles are the same so I started my journey at insight in 2005 so I've been here almost 19 years I know I don't look that old enough to be here that long but I am and made my journey through many different facets of insight between contracts my first job at insight was folding invoices for public sector contract and then found my way into system integrations which is where my passion was and so made my way through many different integration projects and landed in IT in 2012 2014 timeframe and from there has just been an amazing journey as well and now I am responsible for wait for it quality assurance globally automation sales force which is the big news these days the ERP team so if you think of SAP and smart as well as now the financial tools team so a huge amount of teams amazing people that I get to lead on a daily basis as part of our overall global business solutions team well that I say that that there's probably a lot more there that this is like the short version but what a journey right from being a teacher to now leading such so many big projects and not only big visible high impact yes it's amazing well it's awesome almost part of the double deck we call a double decade club yeah what's that 20 years 20 years you're right there so I know we have topics today so we're gonna really just dive into like as leaders what are things that we can do to first of all empower our team or actually let our team is know the value of your personal brand because a lot of times they maybe never been taught that or they don't know anything about that or maybe they receive some feedback right where it's like it comes to you or you get feedback from others or like yeah they need to work on some of these things so why should they care what are some best practices that you've done along the way and of course you know anything else that you can help help help our teammates develop their personal brand especially coming from your background is such I'm very curious to dive into it yeah absolutely and it sounds like I mean with all the things you do you're over quite a few teams so tell us a little bit about why personal branding is so important for teammates especially in today's professional landscape I think it's your first step forward like it's how you're seen by others and I think it's so important for people to kind of understand who they are and how they're represented across the organization and not just organization but in life in general so these apply both places and and I think it allows you to potentially have opportunities so if people see you in a certain light hopefully positive because that's the goal but if they see you in a positive light they know your skill set and they know what you're about then that leads to potential growth which I'm a great example of that over my career so yeah that's so important let me let me go back in time how did you you know first go into thinking about your personal brand was there a manager a leader how did you start thinking about that for yourself that's a great question I will tell you to be very transparent honest because that's how I am I don't think I saw my potential in myself early on I really didn't and it took leaders and mentors to ask the right questions and kind of give me feedback and even to this day I will tell you I've mentors that you know same thing you know I'm always asking for feedback but it's it's really about self-reflection and kind of understanding what you're good at what you're not good at which is equally as important and then surrounding yourself with people who can help bring that out of you and maybe people for me I had a mentor who saw more and myself than I did and really just pushed me and when I would question and hesitate they'd be like no no like good luck let's go and they would push you right out of the nest and into it and then guess what you're successful because they set you up for success so yeah that's great and that's that kind of goes back with the Tom Brady philosophy know your limitations as well so that's that's really great and if you do have some sort of negative connotation with your personal brand we also have an episode for that too so go back in the catalog and check that one out as well you're good at the plug
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but I love that and that's the thing where I was tying it into leadership is that a lot of times you know hopefully we're fortunate enough right to have those leaders and hopefully early enough in our career to bring that awareness to I love that you said you know I guess lovingly nudge us to set us up for success but what about those situations where let's say you're you have a teammate who I don't know if anybody had this have you had a teammate in your team that reported up to you that hasn't had that kind of mentorship or guidance that you you sense it right away they're just like maybe hesitant or when you tell them hey you got this or what have you that maybe they still push back or have those you know past experiences kind of hold them back and how do you overcome that if you have those yeah I have them all the time actually and I think as a leader you absolutely are going to but it you have to catch it and see I think for me when when you sense that you really have to do a lot of kind of mentoring with them and one-on-ones I would think of just saying trying to get to the five whys if you will of asking the questions of going back to try to understand why they are that way or why they're hesitant about doing that and then show them that you support them and be there with them but have them be the front you know and one of my leadership philosophies I'm I'm never in the front like I always want my teams to be out in front if there's that opportunity and so it's supporting them in that success and making sure they understand how to get there not just the why or the what it's how do you get there and then give them feedback along the way and eventually it builds upon itself as a rolling momentum
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seems like basically follow the process right don't give up on kind of keep keep reminding being there doing the one-on-ones the coaching the mentoring and over time hopefully they start to go you know what there's something different about this leader that they keep investing and really are curious about my development and my journey then I'm you know what let's give it a try right and it's not gonna happen overnight because they have this history who knows all of us have a history of our careers and what's led us to where we're at but it's never too late then we're finding out right yeah yeah yeah so how can leaders really educate their team on their personal brand and how to expand that and grow yeah I think for me I'm another shameless plug there are a ton of opportunities I'm not saying that just because Z sitting here but there is a ton of opportunities that insight offers there is a great example for the leaders purpose-driven leadership one of my favorites and on top of that working with them they they will build anything right that you ask for to help support the teams but I think it's training it's reading books on the topic and self reflection modeling I think is a great one and then I think one of the big pieces also plug is mentoring and I know we have a fantastic program at insight but I think for me it's finding what my gaps are and for my team but also for myself because I do this too not just you know for my teams is finding mentors that fill the gaps that I perceive that I have and working with them on how do they build you know their rapport how do they learn these skills and that helps me grow and then conversely I have my teams do the same thing and have mentors and I think that's um that's one of the things I got to give you kudos and there's a lot of leaders like that as well but you know is knowing your resources knowing your tools knowing what's available you know for you but also your team and that's always the hardest part because I think with leaders they tend to focus so much on driving delivering results that they forget well that's not sustainable only if you're just going let's go let's go let's go hey are you taking time to develop yourself and by the way here's what we have I encourage you right not force you but encourage you these will be perfect for you but let's work on a plan for you and you know that trickle down right having your leaders do it to their teammates and so on and so on and even then to your point yeah if there's something that maybe that isn't in the catalog or isn't something they're like have a conversation you know here's some gaps I'm noticing a trend do we have anything no well can we what can we what can we create or what can we do to get that to them and yeah I've noticed that a lot recently especially with your a lot of your teams we've been doing some cool stuff and what it's a win-win all around because what we do is that was ago you know what this is actually could be beneficial for the other teams and now it becomes an offering right and it's pretty awesome and it keeps my team on their toes they get excited all the time like I just talked to Ivana and she's always like oh my gosh I'm creating this new thing her and again it's that energy you sense it from them and you don't want to stop that momentum you're just like to go for it like how can I support I want to get involved right but at the same time it's yours run with it and it's really awesome so you know testament kudos to you and your team and I think it builds the autonomy within the team too because not only do we have the programs at insight but they create their own like our teams being a global team we have teammates around the world literally and to see them come together and support each other and and have monthly events where they talk about diversity and inclusion and cool things going on or just laughing at whatever random things come up so I think having the brand and building the brand of our leaders trickles down to our teammates because then they want to do the same and so it's been really cool to witness yeah that's that's amazing and you know it helps out everybody right when you when you start from the top and it trickles down it's that it's that trickle down effect that we spoke about at the beginning where you know it just creates that good team culture and then it just flows everything flows it seems like synchronous almost you know throughout the teams yeah and it went out you know even tiny back now let's just go back to the Thayer right what's really cool is that I mean this is like what almost a week worth of content right you're taking out of your day-to-day which sometimes you hear a leader saying I just don't have time I'm gonna develop myself I can't take this time off which again that's that's a sign that you do need it right like you know put on those brakes a little bit like you this is not it's a clear sign that you this is what you need so talk about your experience how was that for you it's been a few years like you know was it what first of all when you got the invitation and you're like hey it's gonna be a week you're gonna be you know New York West Point like what was your initial reaction with that opportunity and what was your experience like when you did it I was all in because I had heard other people talk about it and I love Thayer I love leadership I love learning new tools to be able to employ with the teams I'm all about the competition as well and so Z saying this was the best group beg to differ but that's okay we can let them have their moment but it was probably life-changing for me I will say and I don't use that it's just a cliche term because it truly is in everything that I do and I do take time to level my own skills but also require my team to take time to do that during work hours not additionally to that and so giving them space to do that too but specifically for Thayer I love the tools that they gave you I don't use them all I think it's impossible to use them all every single time every single day but some of the one of the key ones and I think we renamed it recently but was a completed staff work and I think it's now before action yeah and to me that one is one of my favorites and I've used it for my leadership you know going up to my leaders but also have my leaders do it for me is allows them to be autonomous and drive that ability to think through what they're trying to accomplish what possible outcomes could they have what you know solutions do they have and they come and say here's what I recommend and nine times out of ten it's cool and it just speeds up the process and allows them to to do what they need to do more quickly it's it doesn't be more intentional right be problem solvers instead of pointing out problems yes this doesn't work this sucks this isn't efficient like okay but what can we do do you have any ideas yes what do you recommend and that's where it's that process and it's really cool to have those processes yeah so it's a popular tool you know a lot of our leaders are loving that tool but it's the ones that are you know maybe like to your point maybe haven't done it or maybe they've seen it but they're just like doing their day-to-day just give it a chance give it a try you'll be surprised if you start building that culture within your team you'll see those those returns I imagine that you have hundred percent hundred percent speaking of tools there's a lot of tools that we discuss on the previous podcast but one that's that's come up is storytelling how how can storytelling you know really turn the dial for personal brands how can it really impact and you know grow that personal brand I think for me it's you were able to relate to somebody so if you put it in context of a story or you know somebody that you've experienced this I think people nature by nature humans relate better to stories and so I think for me explaining to my teams when we've had a challenge how you handled it or my favorite when I talk about mentorship is finding people not necessarily of like mind you have to have like core values I think in order to have a mentorship having core values the same are important but you don't want somebody that's of same mind because you want to learn and they have different viewpoints and so building that into the storyline of how to get there how to achieve things I think is really important and allows teams to grasp on and understand what you're trying to convey yeah it's such a great call out to your point like mentorship I mean even just in general networking and all that we tend to gravitate with people that are similar like have similar backgrounds experiences that's the easy part but we're finding out like in leadership and even your personal brand get out of your comfort zone get out of the easy track and make make thought make the harder right right and if they are going back to the condemned prayer they talk about that right you can easily take take the easy route but you know difficult conversations you know making those difficult calls those decisions all that that's the hard right and you have to that's part of our responsibility as leaders is to do right by that so I love that you know kind of encouraging them one of the other things that I've been taught that has been coming up in a lot of our trainings recently is balance right we talked about work-life work-life balance or work-life harmony but outside of that we're also talking about balance when it comes to first of all emotional intelligence when it comes to communication when it comes to even your personal your balance on work and development right or even hump being was it confidence and humility right balance that's the kind of the job of a leader is you have to have that right balance but now how do you instill that into your team when they're like work work work work work and you're seeing that how do you encourage them or help them through cake you have to find spend some time for yourself develop yourself think about your personal brand any any tips that you've recommended with your team yeah so balance is a tough word for me because I think it's what's most important for you to focus on at that time and then other things may be less of a priority at that moment so yes balance but typically it's a pool of what's most important I think modeling is so important so I can't as a leader say you need to take your vacation you need to be off and then I work a million hours or you should only work your standard working hours with some exceptions but then I'm working 20 hour days so which is difficult I will admit but it's modeling first and foremost it's supporting teammates it's making sure that they feel supported and and cutting them off and saying and I have the power like to go to a team and say hey cut their access if needed but I don't actually really do that we know some people I know some people but I think that's important and and when I am on vacation not answering emails and and then having the team hold me accountable so if they see me online I bet you within three seconds I'm getting an IM why are you online and so it's allowing them to also give me feedback of hey you say you're supposed to be off you need to be off so I think that's some of the key things that I do in order to make sure the teams can take their time off that is a great and that goes back to personal brand right because you know you develop this brand of like always on always on you know constantly working various different hours well your team's gonna be like well I want to be like you because you're successful or you know you're doing what you need to do I need to do the same thing of be that successful and then you're gonna create a whole bunch of burnout right hundred percent and that's scary yeah so you kind of touched on this a little bit before but how can you know fostering a culture of individual personal brands really contribute to the success of teams that's my favorite so I think for me and I mentioned it a little bit around my leadership philosophy of have my teams be first always in all situations where that's possible it's enabling them and their authentic selves because I think that is so important authenticity is one of my favorites and putting them in forums that they can rise their you know raise their brand and be seen and for their skill set so it's not always me it's I know you were like oh Melanie's a celebrity no actually my team's the celebrities because they're rock stars but it's allowing them to be in the forums that allow their brand to be seen because I think one of the most important things to me is you want people to say your name when you're not in the room and in order to do that the networking Z you were talking about earlier you know having the team just feel empowered to make decisions when I'm not around is so important so I think that's that's the key for me yeah and it's interesting to say that because again I is when I'm interacting with other leaders and having conversations and then when I find you know always what I do I was like all right who they're reporting to let's see what oh that surprised me they work and the team Melanie that makes total sense because he can tell the just the language that they're speaking right I mean just wasn't how long has it been six months ago I don't know it's last year sometime I did and I talked about some previous episode we did a career panel for a bunch of college high school kids going into college right and whenever team one of your leaders was part of that panel and I this again just the words that were coming around like trying to get my comfort zone you know this this is where I was in the past but here's where I am now this is how you know just a word empower you know getting out of comfort zone challenging myself this is not something I'm comfortable doing but I'm doing it because I want to get better and I do the same for my teammates so don't that language you can tell the type of culture that they're surrounded by and guess what now that's that's gonna pay pay for it for their team and then so on and so on so I think that's a big testament you know and to your point yes it's the team but it's that it's like that we talked to me you talk about sports a lot of time it's that coach that has all those coaches that come up and they're the next super super coach right and I imagine what what satisfaction do you get when you see your teammates developing it's my favorite is literally it's funny because we were talking before this around you know the announcement of my promotion and that I'm not you know it's not my spot I don't want to be in the spotlight I'm fine in the spotlight but I don't want to necessarily be there and I think my most impactful thing about that was when people reach out and they're like you're it's so well deserved you lead your team and your team is amazing and you're such a people first leader like to me that's why I'm here and that's why I stay here is the culture and being able to impact so many people on a daily basis so yeah just that reassurance right like what your personal brand is being noticed and people are that you know recognizing or at least calling it out which is awesome yeah yeah yeah I don't know if Melanie he's been watching a few episodes but she's hitting all the topics that we've discussed along the way yeah so it's really pretty for another plug yeah yeah people first servant leadership no that's that's amazing and you know it really pays dividends right you know when you you're that servant leader and you want to develop your team you know people want to work for that people want to really show up and you know put put in that work and whatever it takes to really develop and develop their personal brand so yeah so I know we're coming we're coming towards the last few minutes and I'm just trying to think of like okay there could be some leaders out there that are still struggling possibly with you know hey like I'll not only am I working trying to work through my personal brand but then I have to now you know teach my my team about it what did what final advice would you have for those leaders that maybe are still hesitant or maybe even haven't thought about hey I need to spend some time and really helping my team think about their personal brand and getting them to that next level or at least getting them I think you mentioned the word like the visibility or opportunities any final advice for those leaders that are maybe I don't say hesitant but maybe not quite sold or think that this is an investment into my team or my or my you know or yourself right I think for me it's be authentic and be transparent about what you're good at what you're not and then fill in what you're not so good at with training reading books asking for help which is probably the hardest thing to do is reach out and say hey I'm not great at this can you you know come in and teach me some things and shameless plug for Z and his teams like that's where I would start is really just get some of the core trainings that we have available and start building that rigor within yourself and then not allows you know you to move it forward into your teams I love the plugs today man it's like the key way I always have a key word in today's that but just to add to that you know again this is open up to outside of you know insight right there's could be some listeners listening right now going you know my organization doesn't have as many resources because they actually it is like that there's some that don't have as much resources or maybe they outsource it which costs more money the list goes on you know my plug for that is like if you see yourself in that if you have a passion for it maybe you're a next teacher right and you're an educator you love this you know start start start with something right start internal start with your team you know raise your hand and be like hey next team meeting I like to share something that I've learned that could be helpful for the team or I read a book right that I like to share some of the highlights and benefits that has helped me that I like to pay forward I say start there you know and that actually will help your personal brand and then start once they finally you know they have an opportunity to say hey we would like a role or create a role around development or training guess what this teammate or this person has been a rock star always doing this you know like we always call like a stretch assignment or a passion project of theirs they will be great for this role right and that's where it starts like you may not see the results right away and the reason why is because I'm kind of telling from my story too like I've always saw that opportunity and then just you know start finding your own creating it for yourself letting people know what you're strong and your strengths and leaning into it and you'll be surprised right and you'll be surprised how quickly what's that thing we talk about in fears is gradually but suddenly gradually you're putting in the work gradually you're doing that but before you know you're gonna look back and be like how did I get in this role how am I sitting in this podcast right how are we sitting here today it's like well it's all that gradually but suddenly it's like now flooding in and you're just like this is amazing and get uncomfortable with being comfortable comfortable yeah because that's where the growth is it is you gotta lean in you gotta like to stop you know stop holding back just go for it another theme and we're gonna invite Melanie back for a couple of next episodes cuz she's great at the plugs I don't have to do it anymore but I know right yeah yeah no but in all seriousness thank you so much for joining us today it's been a pleasure and for all of you listening thank you so much for joining us today remember to hit the like button subscribe and also you can get all of our content as soon as it releases until next time folks keep leading with insight
Host
Z Tinoco is a diversity, leadership & organization development manager who believes in building teams, inspiring minds and creating authentic connections. He helps people reach their goals and find success through humor, leadership and a diverse mindset.
Co-host
Richard is an experienced paid media specialist with a proven track record of creating and executing successful campaigns across various platforms. Richard has a passion for tackling new challenges, connecting with people and loves all things tech.
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