Growing up, among the many things that fascinated me about my father was the way that he answered phone calls when on duty. There was a way he said “Hello?”  that was peculiar and only identified with him. In my years of working, I have tried to also have a unique phone response but I certainly cannot be the judge of that!

Much later in life, a colleague referred someone to me to have a phone chat, generally about corporate governance. That was two years ago and since then we have been chatting on the phone and other social media platforms without having a physical meeting! I hope we can meet one day, but nothing has been lost as a result!

In one of our many interactions he told me that the first time we spoke it was only for 20 minutes but he was sure that I would be able to assist him with the input he needed for a recent governance appointment he had accepted.

As the years went by, the tables turned and it was me that was seeking his input after he put some very challenging questions and statements to me that changed my whole perspective about who I was as a professional and what I aspired to be.

When he perused my curriculum vitae, his feedback was that there was nothing in it that highlighted who I was in the corporate world and what I brought to the table. It was a document that was dependent on my speaking into it. In my mind, I thought, “Isn’t that how it’s done? Haven’t I been offered jobs on that account?” I mulled around whether my colleague’s views were just peculiar to him, especially that he had a professional academic background. Eager to get the best out of the interaction, I asked him to explain his views to me in more detail.

He responded and very unapologetically, by saying that I struck him as the kind of person that went to work every day and worked diligently…and then went home. He explained that in his view, there were far too many people in the world with that kind of approach towards their work, which he believed did very little to exploit the potential to grow and have a greater impact on the professions they belonged to. This, in his view, was a hindrance to personal and even national development.

He advised that I consider personal branding through my curriculum vitae and bio data and to do that, I needed to take a journey of self-introspection and discovery when it came to what I had done, what I was doing and where I wanted to be in my career. He also encouraged me to start writing down my thoughts on corporate governance practice and related topics because he thought I had a passion for it.

Excited at the prospect, I began reworking my curriculum vitae and submitted it to him more than five times with no luck! I took a couple of months off from the exercise out of frustration, I suppose, but I believe that my subconscious was still actively pursuing the matter. I made some more changes and there was a shimmering glimpse of hope that I was on the right trajectory and the rest is history! I got the nod from my colleague!

It was quite the journey indeed. From then on, my attitude towards what I do and why I am so passionate about it is clearer to me. I am developing my “signature” about a number of things from a point of awareness of what to consider as my enablers, strengths, weaknesses and opportunities.

I think that as a person, performing certain functions, there should be something about your conduct that makes you stand out as “you”. I urge colleagues to embark on that journey and surprise themselves with their unique signatures.

Thank you!