My Personal Brand Survey Results (2014)

In the last few years, I read some books about personal branding and pretty much all of them highly recommend to take an anonymous 360 degrees surveys in order to understand how people perceive you.

For this reason, I decided to give it a go and try.

After a little bit of research I decided to use the 360 Reach platform. The survey is completely free for 15 days but I decided to pay for a premium version in order to get more results and a detailed report out of it.

In this post I am going to share with you the most interesting results.

I sent the survey to my ex-co-workers and managers in Citrix and my new colleagues and managers in Red-Gate. In total I received 14 responses. I have to admit that the most difficult part of the entire process is to persuade people of doing the test. A big thanks to all the people who participate. Your feedback is invaluable to me.

My top brand Personas are

I was very pleased to see the first result to be Evangelist because I consider myself very passionate and enthusiastic about my work and apparently the people around me notice it.

Evangelists exude passion and enthusiasm. They quickly inspire thosearound them with their fervor. They are typically very loyal to people,brands, ideas, etc. Evangelists can ignite a fire under those aroundthem – compelling them to act. Evangelists’ passion is contagious andthey have the ability to get those around them just as excited andenergized as they are. 

The second was surprising to me because I don't see myself as an expert. I probably I will never see me as an expert because my thirst in knowledge is unlimited.

Experts are often referred to as bright, intelligent or brilliant. They canbe expert in a certain area, but can also be knowledgeable about a lot ofthings. People respect them for their intellect.

I surely see myself as a driver and self-starters because I am definitely ambitious and I personally want to become a better professional and constantly improve my skills.

Drivers are ambitious. They like to get things done. They are driven toachieve a goal. Drivers enjoy directing others to accomplish tasks thatare necessary for success. Once they achieve a goal, they are alreadyworking on the next goal. Some drivers are driven by competition,others by personal ambition and yet others by common goals.

Self-starters have the energy and drive within themselves to makethings happen. They usually don’t wait for direction from others. Theyare pro-active and self-motivated. They usually don’t need or ask forpermission or approval. They often make things happen – forthemselves, others or the project at hand - without having to be askedor told what to do.

And finally, I definitely see myself as a wonderers because I want to know how things works and I am not afraid to ask questions to deepen my knowledge.

Wonderers have an innate curiosity. They often don’t accept things atface value. They are interested in many things and want to know moreabout them. They can ask lots of questions to learn more about thatwhich surrounds them.

My leadership competencies are

Developing: Growing professionally; adopting new, relevant habits
(staying fresh and connected to what is happening in the world).

Solving: Identifying and resolving problems; managing crisis. 

Visioning: Developing and executing strategy (creating, defining and
focusing on the big picture); thinking big/globally.

Inspiring: Activating, inspiring, nurturing, empowering and developing
others. 

Expressing: Communicating clearly and consistently (listening,
speaking, writing, presenting, etc.).

Relating: Meeting/connecting with constituencies (colleagues,
employees, customers, supply chain and business partners); building
trust, respect.

Some of the most interesting feedback come from the Strengths and the Weaknesses that I am not afraid to share with you.

I have very little to say about my strengths because it is all very good :)

Let me have a little say about the weaknesses.

Desire to specialise in one development technology

This is true and it has been mostly a conscious decision. I used to spend a lot of time exploring very different technologies to get a good overview of the development industry. I learnt many languages BASIC, VB, C, Assembly, C++, PHP, Java, Python and C#. I played with different OS (Windows, Unix and Linux) and different platform (J2ME, JSP, .NET, ...) in particular during the time at the University. I always being a huge fun of Windows and I really felt in love with C# and the .NET Framework and I decided to focus heavily on that. I got certifications, I founded a community and I put together very desirable skills that really helped me to get my first job and also to enter in an amazing company like Red Gate Software. I have to admit that the decision I made at the time was a good one and I can see the effects now. Said that, I completely agree about the importance of exploring different development technologies and I still have innate curiosity to do so.

English

Oh yeah, of course! I couldn't agree more about this. I have still a lot to learn about English. I need to expand my vocabulary, improve my grammar and listening. It is hard but hopefully with time this will improve. I also believe that blogging is surely a good way to improve on this. Please, if you see grammar mistakes on my blog, let me know. I really appreciate it!

Food

No comments ;)

I'd really like to see Andrea pushing the team and inspiring them a bit more

This was a surprise for me but apparently I have room for improvements in this.

Not yet learned about Compare/SQL Server - will change with time

This one is very specific to my current role. I definitely agree and I already started to learn more about SQL Server that is a very important competence to have in Red Gate.

Time & keeping focus

Oh sure. These days is very difficult to be focused especially for a very passionate person like me who constantly want to learn new things. I also think that pair programming helps a lot in this area.

Underestimate his capability

This one was really enlightening and I think that it is true. As I said before I don't see myself as an expert. I am humble and I know that I have a lot to learn. My infinite desire to learn sometimes makes me blind of what I am really capable of doing. I surely need to be more confident and believe in my skills. This feedback really helped.

Very little but he could get some more direction into the many things he's trying to excel at

This is also surprising as I always ask for feedback in the things I do. Apparently sometimes I don't and I need to pay attention, especially now that I am in a self-organizing team following agile principles and practices.

Finally in the open comments I received really good feedback that makes me very proud. I was particularly impressed that people expect me to grow in a technical leader role and being an inspirational source for the team.

Andrea is always learning, always growing... always passionate about software & his goals. Andrea has an amazing ability to involve others in this pursuit of excellence - he facilitates other people's growth too. Andrea values relationships with people as much as the objective pursuit of work goals. Andrea is a life-long learner.

I'm not directly in the team, but I hear great things about how Andrea is doing, and very impressed with his clear ambition. He seems to have made a huge difference to the team and the project in the short time he's been here. I'd very much like to see Andrea grow into a 'tech lead' role and own the code/processes and help inspire the team.

Thank you very much for your feedback.

I definitely encourage you to try a 360 degrees feedback survey. You will be amazed by the results.

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