Your Personal Leadership Brand in Five
CREATING YOUR LEADERSHIP BRAND
STEPS TO CREATE A LEADERSHIP BRAND
You probably already have a personal leadership brand. But do you have the right one?
A leadership brand conveys your identity and distinctiveness as a leader. It communicates the value you offer.
If you have the wrong leadership brand for the position you have, or the position you want, then your work is not having the impact it could.
A strong personal leadership brand allows all that’s powerful and effective about your leadership to become known to your colleagues, enabling you to generate maximum value.
What’s more, choosing a leadership brand can help give you focus. When you clearly identify what you want to be known for, it is easier to let go of the tasks and projects that do not let you deliver on that brand (NVA)
Instead, you can concentrate on the activities that do.
So how do you build a leadership brand? The following questions will help you.
What results do you want to achieve in the next year?
“In the next 12 months, what are the major results I want to deliver at work?”
Leadership brand is outward focused; it is about delivering results.
Consider the interests of these four groups of stakeholders
Customers
Investors
Employees
The organization
Focus on the expectations of those you are working to serve, rather than on what you identified as her personal strengths.While identifying innate strengths is an important part of defining your leadership brand, the starting point is clarifying what is expected of you.
What do you wish to be known for?
“Are these the traits that someone in this general manager role should exhibit?”
Pick six descriptors that balanced the qualities that came naturally to you with those that would be critical in your present or aspired position.
Some probable response- please come up with your own list
Collaborative
Deliberate
Independent
Innovative
Results-oriented Strategic
Define your identity
The next step is to combine these six words into three two-word phrases that reflect your desired identity.
This exercise allows you to build a deeper, more complex description: not only what you want to be known for, but how you will probably have to act to get there.
For example:
calmly driven differs from tirelessly driven.
Experimenting with the many combinations that you can make from your six chosen words helps you crystallize your personal leadership brand.
Independently innovative
Deliberately collaborative
Strategically results-oriented
Construct your leadership brand statement, then test it.
In this step, you pull everything together in a leadership brand statement that makes a “so that” connection between what you want to be known for (Steps 2 and 3) and your desired results (Step 1). Fill in the blanks:
“I want to be known for being ______________ so that I can deliver __________.”
Example: “I want to be known for being independently innovative, deliberately collaborative and strategically results-oriented so that I can deliver superior financial outcomes for my business.”
Checkpoint:
Ask the following three questions to see if it needs to be refined:
Is this the brand identity that best represents who I am and what I can do?
Is this brand identity something that creates value in the eyes of my organization and key stakeholders?
What risks am I taking by exhibiting this brand?
Can I live this brand?
Make your brand identity real
Ensure that the leadership brand you advertise is embodied in your day-to-day work
Adopted-but-unlived brands create cynicism because they promise what they do not deliver.
Check point – Work in pairs/ or Walk around the room
Check in with those around you.
Do they see you as you wish to be seen? If you say you are flexible and approachable, do others find you so?
let people know that you are evolving as a leader and invited their feedback, especially on efforts at working collaboratively.
In Conclusion
The exercise of forging a leadership brand and the day-to-day discipline of making it real, helps one stay focused.
To ensure your leadership brand isn’t static; it should evolve in response to the different expectations you face at different times in your career.
Leaders with the self-awareness and drive to evolve their leadership brands are more likely to be successful over the long term — and to enjoy the journey more.
Ready to redefine your leadership brand? At NicheBrains, we help leaders connect, collaborate, and transform. Share your leadership vision in the comments or reach out to start building yours today! Contact us at (support@nichebrains.ai)
Comments