Today I read a blog post – thanks to the Google Alert I set up for “Personal Brand” – that says Personal Branding needs to go away. This is from someone who writes “The BrandBuilder Blog”. His comments indicate that having a personal brand makes you a fake. I beg to differ.

As a business owner and a leader, each decision you make involves opportunity costs. There is always another way to accomplish a goal you set out to accomplish.

Taking a risk involves finding the place where you can remain comfortable with the possibility of some loss in the process of making a gain. In very simple terms, this is a definition of risk tolerance.

Taking a risk always involves the potential for loss, but it also has potential upside or gain. Without the potential upside, one wouldn’t even consider the risk.

The Unknown quadrant of the JoHari window contains information we don’t know about our self and others don’t know as well. It can be latent abilities, skills, desires we possess or experiences that we’ve buried in our subconscious for some reason.

What are the stories and situations in your life you don’t lead with in a conversation? We all have parts of our life we choose to keep hidden.

Do you recognize this experience? Like clockwork, your curmudgeonly uncle makes a comment that aggravates your sister. Or a team member asks that annoying question after the decision is made and everyone wonders why they didn’t raise this issue while the discussion was going full tilt.

As a business owner, the leader of your business, your self-awareness and openness with your team sets the tone for openness in your entire organization.

We have all experienced it – the frustration of working with someone who doesn’t see the implications of their behavior.