Welcome to the October edition of your “Year of Personal Branding“, where I’ve broken down key branding concepts as part of a month-by-month guide to help you with each step of growing (and implementing) your personal brand. As always, I invite you to use these monthly Year of Personal Branding posts as a map that will allow you to navigate all aspects of Personal Branding.

You may not realise it, but there’s a whole team out there that supports your personal brand. As virtual assistant Natalie Guerin of pebble.uk.com pointed out in this article, your team can include a wide range of people in your network; your friends, your personal trainer, your answering service, your cleaner and, of course your team at work, if you have one.

This month, we challenge you to take a closer look at identifying your “A Team” (or “YOU Team”!) and evaluating whether you are getting what you need from them. Are they supporting your brand in a way that is in line with your brand attributes? Have you communicated your values to them? Does your hairdresser understand that you want to look a little edgier? Have you communicated to your cleaner how you want your office or house to be left?

You can also extend this to the people who surround you on a daily basis. Are your friends supportive…or at least provide fun and stimulation and take your mind off work and worries? Or, is one dragging you down with back-handed compliments or draining you with their problems to the extent that you are beginning to feel like their counsellor? Of course, it’s important to help and support people yourself, but if it gets to the point where you know you are being affected yourself, it is time time to draw up some boundaries and point them in the direction of a professional.

Don’t forget your significant other. A supportive partner can be a huge boost on so many levels, but they can also end up a liability! Just as politicians are also judged by their spouses, our own partners factor into how others see our personal brand. We’ve all come across the colleague with the questionable partner, whether they can’t hold their drink, dress inappropriately or just give off the wrong impression. Of course, it’s not all about being charismatic and confident. A quiet and supportive partner can contribute just as much to a personal brand as an openly extrovert and ambitious one.

Regardless of the relationship, it is when their behaviour holds you back or diminishes your own brand that problems emerge. First, collect data and observe how you work together over time. Second, make a decision on how you’d like to proceed with the relationship. If you notice a pattern, you have some choices:

• Stay and change what you can, while building acceptance around the rest.But do realise that can be very hard to change someone else!
• End the relationship. The most dramatic of the options but if you’ve been thinking this for a while this may just confirm what you’ve been feeling all along.
• Do nothing. But the likelihood is that you’ll get frustrated and the situation will deteriorate.
• Shift focus. Focus on developing your own personal brand and cultivating relationships with other “team members” as opposed to co-branding with that individual. This may include going solo to events or with someone else instead of your partner. This works for a lot of people!

So this month, spend some time developing and giving a little TLC to the personal and professional relationships behind your personal brand!