Conducted by Mr. Javier Alés Sioli, Director of the International Forum of Professional Mediators (FIMEP) and collaborating teacher in EIM – International School of Mediation
We must never forget that as mediators we need our clients, the mediators, to legitimize our profession, our initiated process and ultimately ourselves. They will only voluntarily trust a matter if they believe in us. Therefore, I dare to suggest working on your “fingerprint”.
It is likely that the mediators, although you do not know them, when they come to the first session say “I have searched for him on the internet”. From there I dare to think about the personal brand of the mediator, in English personal brand, as "the mark we leave on others” or it is not true that when we mediate “we leave a mark of what we have done” and therefore we have an educational value in our work. They say that "The management of that footprint, the management of the personal brand, is known as personal branding.”.
From these lines I encourage you, dear mediator, to manage your personal brand. But not as many professionals understand it, trying to promote yourself as many believe in this century where the “ego” is the main cancer, but essentially to achieve:
- Self-knowledge, since knowing yourself will make you do your best in conflictive situations. Let them trust you, being yourself and not representing a situation.
- The Personal Strategy, which will make them know you, make them know about you, make them come to you because in desperate situations there is something that they say works well: mediation. Remember, “the best medicine when the relationships of those who are in conflict will continue over time”.
- And finally, visibility, which will position you in this new profession.
For all these reasons, I allow myself to speak of the personal brand of the mediator as «the mark we leave in our mid»; That is, to legitimize us, to enhance how others perceive you.
I once read a great quote on a blog where they mentioned that Jeff Bezos (CEO of Amazon) defined it as “what they say about you when you are not there”.
But we need several keys to build our personal brand:
1.- First of all, have patience and perseverance, since we are talking about a long-distance career, both to know ourselves and to be known and to continue learning this exciting profession day by day.
2.- We must do good planning, like when we develop a project or a schedule to study, get married or change residence. Because mediation, let us not forget, is an art.
3.- Be natural, since naturalness will lead us to success. That means being authentic, being yourself, as I said, with your flaws and virtues.
4.- Have passion and responsibility, two words that we rarely see united, but that require introspective work from the mediator that makes us totally convinced of the benefits of this profession.
5.- Be generous, to the point of offering ourselves and giving back to others how much we have learned along our path. That will help us, as it was in my case, to “remove my lawyer's robe.”
6.- Honesty, dedication and effort... will I be useful for this profession? And for the case that they are currently entrusting me with? This question will always accompany us, and we must resolve it every time they trust us.
7.- Try to create the best version of yourself because, as a good friend of mine says, to be a good professional you have to be a good person and only then can you be credible.
8.- You must manage to reinvent yourself in each process. They say that mediation professionals are “chameleon-like” to the point that we adapt to different circumstances to achieve our “essence”, to be a “public mirror” to society.
Behind these keys that I have been explaining to you is you and we must never forget our personal satisfaction.
Once you know yourself and if you want to follow my advice, you will learn to sell what you do, not what you are. Escape from the ego and set a goal since your name, mediator, is your best logo and that will also determine your presence on the network.
If you want to work as a mediator, there are many options offered by the International Mediation School, allowing you to access the main records, such as the Master in Mediation and Multidisciplinary Conflict Management or the programs Specialist in Civil, Commercial and Family Mediation and Civil, Commercial and Family Mediation Expert
With all of them we will help you in your professional objective as a mediator.
