"The brand of you" is killing me

Management guru Tom Peters' cover story in Fast Company is now an icon of a super-heated era, tbe origin of a species of employee for whom work is more means than end and a cause of a hangover without a cure. "The brand of you" was rooted in the emergence of the knowledge worker at a time when the compact between industrial-age companies and their long-standing work forces was crumbling and technology was remaking the nature of market influence.

If a person was to succeed in business, so the story was now being told, he or she could not rely on an employer to create opportunity and a career path. It was up to each of us. We each had to distinguish ourselves, to establish ourselves, to brand ourselves. Rather than see business as a top-down hierarchy, it needed to be viewed more as a salon or flea market where individuals gathered to pursue jointly their individual careers. It led to incredible innovation and productivity; and it led to ever-faster cycles of boom-and-bust.

It has evolved as workplace theory to where we are now: People are drawn to the purpose of a company, not that it is a company. It is the meaning of the work that creates cohesion and it is the presence of the right mix of people that provides its energy.

If we are knowledge workers, then there must be people from whom we can learn. If we are there to learn, it must be persistent. And if it is persistent, the rewards must reflect growth. Lose, or see slowed, any of these elements -- purpose, growth, reward -- and the cohesion degrades. When cohesion degrades, purpose is questioned. When purpose is questioned, the business model becomes unsupportable.

In this environment, a manager certainly needs to be more than a solid practitioner of the business at hand -- a teacher, he or she must also be part meterologist, alchemist and empath. This is the way others assess the "brand of them." Do you know without asking? Can you lead without rank? Do you have a historical sense of tomorrow? Can you create new "jobs" for the same people every 9-to-12 months or so? Otherwise, they'll change them on their own. In the you-branded world, everything happens at once or not at all.

Success walks a fine line between obsession and disintegration. Focus too much on the pace of things and the pace will overwhelm. Focusing too much on the breadth of things will leave you breathless. Balance requires finding allies and forming a team of parts who agree on priorities. This argues for a "small group" approach to business.

It is counterintuitive to the business mantra for growth -- quarter-over-quarter, year-over-year -- and so with few adherents. But those few know that growth can be defined in many ways and so they cohere in ways that give them a chance to create a lasting impression in a fast-changing, fast-evolving, fast-forming and fast-evaporating business environment.

Now that is quite a purpose.