personal leadership brand presentation

Published November 18, 2019
8 Minute Read

What’s Your Leadership Brand?

How You Get Results Defines Your Value as a Leader

Chances are, you spend at least some time thinking about your reputation at work.

You may wonder how a recent initiative you led influenced how colleagues think of you, or worry if your boss considers a recent mistake part of a larger issue you struggle with. You may fret about whether your direct reports look up to you as a leader. But have you ever thought about your personal leadership brand?

What’s a Personal Leadership Brand?

Among your community of family and friends, you have a reputation — a personal brand that reflects your priorities, the values you stand for, the offerings or promises you consistently deliver, and how you go about delivering them.

At work, your leadership brand is how your personal brand plays out in the social process of leadership. In other words, it’s how you interact with others to produce results.

While the sum of your previous interactions and experiences with other people may all be in the past, the personal leadership brand you aspire to should guide you into the future. It’s all about who you are and who you want to be.

Why Your Leadership Brand Matters

Your personal leadership brand illustrates not only what you deliver but also how you deliver it, and should be an authentic representation of what you aspire to and cherish. Chances are, if you aren’t thinking about it, your leadership brand isn’t closely aligned with what you want it to say about you.

A well-tended leadership brand is a reflection of your deepest values, and it helps people — including yourself — define who you are and assess your anticipated value as a leader. You should consciously and authentically shape your leadership brand for the following reasons:

A powerful leadership brand can enhance your ability to achieve your career goals. Whether you aspire to a higher-level position or want different challenges than you currently have, you need a leadership brand that signals your capabilities and interests. As you become more respected and appreciated for your leadership contributions, you gain more opportunity and experience, which then reinforces the brand that supports your aspirations.
Your leadership brand can help you broaden and deepen your impact. Your brand reflects not only the work you get done, but how you interact with and relate to others to do so. Do you work effectively with others? Do you build and sustain partnerships? Do you and your team achieve the 3 crucial outcomes of leadership: direction, alignment, and commitment ? The way you engage in the social process of leadership helps you to execute or scale work and creates a leadership brand that others will likely remember and talk about. Remember that your persona comes through in virtual interactions , as well.
Your leadership brand differentiates you from other leaders based on your own unique value. When you have a clear leadership brand, people know what to expect from you versus others on the team. Maybe you’re uniquely able to organize complex projects, mediate disagreements, or develop others. When people think about your brand, those talents should immediately come to mind. You will then be pulled into roles where those talents are valued — and given more and more opportunities to do the type of work you like.
A fuzzy leadership brand — or one you don’t want — will stall your growth and keep you in roles where you don’t thrive. Without a clear and well-communicated leadership brand, others may be unaware of your capabilities, your value, and the contributions you make. This is why authentic self-promotion is key . You may end up working in a vacuum, unseen and unheard by your boss, key stakeholders, and even your peers. Promotions and interesting assignments are likely to pass you by. You could even end up derailing your career.
Managing your brand is a powerful way to be authentic and a true agent for yourself. Realizing what you want your leadership brand to be gives focus to your actions. It helps you clarify what you should be doing — and what not to do. Articulating and cultivating your personal leadership brand is the proactive way to work and lead in ways that are authentic , not based on the expectations of others. If you’re trying to be someone that you aren’t, people will see through it. It might not happen immediately, but if you aren’t being true to yourself and your values, colleagues will notice eventually. And it doesn’t feel comfortable for your thoughts and actions to be incongruent, so if who you are and what you stand for is not valued in your organization, find another place to be.

How to Strengthen Your Personal Leadership Brand

You may recognize that a personal leadership brand is important, but you’re not sure how others perceive you or how to tap into the skills you need to be more influential. The following 6 steps will help increase your self-awareness, define the competencies you need, and strengthen your personal leadership brand.

6 Steps to Build Your Brand

1. make 2 lists..

List everything that you love about the work you’re doing, and make another list about all of the things you’d prefer not to be doing. This sort of clarity will help inform your professional goals and the decisions you make toward realizing them.

Part of tending to your leadership brand is a constant process of self-evaluation and building your self-awareness .

2. Audit your online presence.

Check your digital and social media footprint. This will often be someone’s first impression of your leadership brand, and you want to be sure the image you present meshes with your desired brand. Look for examples of other people who do this well and emulate them by creating a website, contributing to a company or trade newsletter, or joining social groups on LinkedIn or other platforms.

3. Choose an accountability partner.

Pick someone who will give you the truth about what other people think about you. They can also help hold you to your other goals for improving your leadership brand. Incorporate feedback from others, whether it’s your boss, friends, significant other, or colleagues. Does what they say about how others view you align with your desired projection? Ask your accountability partner what you can do more of or less of to be more effective.

4. Create a tagline.

If you summarized your unique leadership contribution, what would your tagline be? Think of an image and a catchphrase that depicts the core of your leadership brand. Gather feedback — from your accountability partner or others — and adjust as needed. Once it’s ready, post your tagline and symbol somewhere you can easily reference it as a regular reminder to yourself.

5. Design an action plan.

Once you’ve figured out the gap between your current leadership brand and the one you desire, develop an action plan to improve on your weaknesses. A plan will help you build new competencies, solicit help where appropriate, and assess your progress.

And be patient! If you’ve figured out that your leadership brand isn’t working for you and you try to change it too rapidly, the shift will appear disingenuous. Colleagues will view radical changes with suspicion. Authentic change takes time.

6. Ask yourself key questions.

What do I value, and do my values still reflect who I am? What am I known for? Am I doing everything I can to build my leadership brand? Returning to these guiding questions regularly will help you determine if you’re on the right track and ensure your behaviors are supporting your values and goals. (Learn more about identifying your values and setting goals that align with them .)

As you ask yourself key questions and design an action plan, take some time to consider the core leadership skills you need in every role : self-awareness, learning agility, influence, and communication. Consider ways to strengthen these 4 core skills, because in doing so, you’ll also be building your leadership brand.

How to Know If Your Personal Leadership Brand Is Working

When you consistently integrate these tips into your personal analysis and your work with others, you’ll start to see signs that your efforts are paying off.

You may have to turn down invites to work on various initiatives because you’re getting pulled in several directions. You may notice that you’re being asked to take on assignments you enjoy. You may find that colleagues are complimenting you on aspects of your work that align with your leadership brand.

These are all signs of progress, and chances are, your boss or other leaders in your organization are taking note of your leadership brand, as well.

Even without considerable external confirmation, this is about an authentic transformation that emanates from your core identity. As you grow and advance within your organization, you’ll find your leadership brand evolves, as well. Our guidebook, Leadership Brand: Deliver on Your Promise , gives additional tips for evolving your leadership brand throughout your career.

If you follow these short- and long-term steps, regularly reevaluate your progress, and put in additional effort, your personal leadership brand will evolve and start paying dividends.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Build a stronger personal leadership brand by strengthening your skillset and mindset. Many of our research-based programs and solutions offer a deep dive into leadership topics including Authentic Leadership , Emotional Intelligence, Influencing, Self-Awareness, and more.

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Based on Research by

David has designed and facilitated numerous creative leadership and innovation development experiences. He’s the co-author of The Leader’s Edge: 6 Creative Competencies for Navigating Complex Challenge and co-inventor of many of our leadership development tools, including Visual Explorer® , Leadership Metaphor Explorer™, Wisdom Explorer™, Targeted Innovation Toolkit™, and Transformations™.

Lynn provides design, development, and facilitation for a diverse array of clients. Her organizational development work includes analyzing processes to improve innovation in teams and organizations and working with organizations to increase their ability to collaborate. She’s the co-author of the guidebook Leadership Brand: Deliver on Your Promise .

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7 Personal Brand Statement Examples for Leaders

How many of your employees are active on social?

As a leader, part of your job is to build trust among consumers and in the workplace. And one of the best ways for executives to do that today is to establish a personal brand on social media.

In fact, 82% of consumers are more likely to trust a company whose CEO and leadership team engages on social media.

And the benefits of executives building personal brands extend to the employer brand and team morale, as well. 81% of employees believe that CEOs who engage on social media are better equipped to lead companies in the web 2.0 world.

One of the critical components in developing your professional reputation online is to have a strong personal brand statement. This article includes personal brand statement examples for leaders and shows the creative ways that executives are highlighting their expertise and strengthening trust within their organizations.

We’ll explain why personal branding is important and how leaders are using employee advocacy platforms to boost their personal brand strategy.

Why Personal Branding Matters for Leaders

Personal branding revolves around how people can share helpful content and become a resource for their networks. It is a strategy that can have a great impact on leaders’ ability to advance their careers, provide value, and build trust.

Having a strong personal brand can often lead to being an established industry thought leader which can lead to speaking opportunities, partnerships with other companies, and amplifying the achievements at your company.

And really, any employee is expected to be able to explain what they do in their role and how they make an impact at an organization.

Personal branding on social media extends the impact of that knowledge by sharing expertise with others and also benefiting the business by attracting partners, customers, and talent. That’s why some companies are starting to invest in employee personal brands and seeing big benefits to the bottom line.

Companies find value in executives that are using their platforms to build an audience or community that cares about their industry and will be weighing that influence more and more in their leadership hiring decisions.

The Best Personal Brand Statement Examples for Leaders

The leaders below are building powerful audiences online and using their personal brand statements to drive connections and followers. Check out these personal brand statement examples for leaders as inspiration and that can help you craft your own.

1. Mona Kiblawi Charif

Mona Kiblawi Charif is the Chief Marketing Officer at NTT DATA Services and offers a master class in the short but sweet personal branding statement. From just her Twitter bio, Mona shows her dedication to customers, topics of interest like STEM, and her sense of humor. She is both professional and personable while clearly identifying the expertise she will share on the platform.

2. Robin Daniels

“I’m a business and marketing leader focused on delivering epic results through innovative, fun, and highly differentiated go-to-market activities while empowering people and teams to do the best work of their lives.”

As the CMO at Matterport, Robin Daniels has developed an enthusiastic personal brand that is all about growth and positivity. And his personal brand statement reflects that excitement by describing how he wants his teams to feel about working with him with words like epic, fun, and empowering.

3. Anjali Sud

“Every day: pursuing our mission to enable professional-quality video for all. These days: just another working parent trying to keep it together.”

Anjali Sud , CEO of Vimeo, uses her personal brand statement to connect her professional mission and her personal life in a way that is both timely, personable, and informative. She establishes herself as someone who will share all aspects of her life and backs it up with posts of her family and interviews about a typical pandemic workday.

4. Dan Price

“I want to be a small part of a revolution where business ceases to be primarily about money, but instead is focused on mission, service, and solving the problems of humanity.”

The CEO of Gravity Payments, Dan Price , gained recognition after he announced a minimum company wage of $70K and cut his own salary by 90%. He uses his social media to share content about the U.S. workforce, income inequality, and global social issues. His personal brand statement and his actions that back it up, show a level of authenticity that is appealing to a lot of people and has built a large following.

5. Carla Piñeyro Sublett

“All my work, in marketing, sales, and non-profit organizations, is fueled by an unwavering commitment to make a difference in the lives of the people I work with, the customers I serve and the community I live in. As CMO at IBM, I lead the global marketing organization and am responsible for all aspects of the company’s marketing efforts including company brand, proactive demand generation, and enhancing customer engagement through partnering with sales.”

Carla Piñeyro Sublett , CMO at IBM, tells the story of her career and responsibilities while focusing on the common thread that connects everything that she does – making a difference. She is able to succinctly sum up her responsibilities while also highlighting what is most important to her which builds trust.

6. Leela Srinivasan

“I’m a marketing leader these days, though my journey has included significant stints in sales and management consulting. I’m a connector at heart. I’m proud of the teams I’ve built and I turn to my customers for inspiration. It’s important to me that I love what I do and who I’m doing it with because that’s when my best work happens.”

The CMO of SurveyMonkey, Leela Srinivasan , has a personal brand statement example for leaders that focuses on the personal. She describes the personality traits and motivations that make her unique and establishes her leadership style as inclusive and aspirational.

7. Robert Chatwani

“I believe that technology serves as a force for positive change in society. My passion is building businesses that foster human connections, create hope, and expand opportunity. I lead with empathy, and focus on attracting, retaining, and growing great talent and world-class teams.”

Robert Chatwani , CMO of Atlassian, uses his personal brand statement to express his purpose and drive for personal impact on the world. His focus is on the large-scale impact of leading successful teams and increasing hope and empathy in the technology industry.

Want more personal brand statement examples? We’ve rounded up the top employee examples to share even more inspiration.

Want expertly crafted content to help refine your marketing, social selling, and recruiting strategies? Sign up for our newsletter and get a copy of our Personal Brand Starter Kit. 👇

How Leaders Grow Personal Brands with Employee Advocacy Platforms

Using an employee advocacy platform like EveryoneSocial is a great way to save executives time and effort while getting involved in building a personal brand.

Leaders can quickly, share, create and share, or schedule posts ahead of time with just a few clicks. So even with busy schedules, it can take a short time to get social and make a big impact on business results and brand reputation.

It’s also a great tool for executives to have centralized access to industry news and company content sources, what teams are working on, and share announcements about the company internally.

EveryoneSocial’s leaderboards and gamification features encourage executives to see which leaders and employees are most active in sharing and engaging and lead from the top down to increase employee advocacy efforts.

The benefits of personal branding for leaders can have a large impact on strengthening employer brand, empowering brand ambassadors , and boosting team communications that can lead businesses to success and industry differentiation.

Ready to develop your personal brand on social media? EveryoneSocial is a perfect platform to add to your tech stack to help employees and leaders organize and share content. Schedule your demo to learn more .

More posts related to marketing, how to build trust on social media in 2024.

I recently joined our partner Khoros for a webinar on the importance of brands rebuilding with trust on social media…

What Is A Personal Leadership Brand And How To Build Yours

What’s a personal leadership brand, stand out from the crowd, present your authentic self to the world, build trust and credibility, helps you achieve professional goals, 1. figure out your current brand, 2. identify your core values, 3. identify areas of improvement through feedback, 4. create an impact with your work, 5. prepare a personal branding statement.

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Personal leadership brand of managers – Examples

Visionary leadership: A manager who inspires their team by articulating a compelling vision for the organization and rallying team members around that vision. They are often known for their ability to think creatively and strategically, and they may be skilled at identifying new opportunities for growth and innovation.
Servant leadership: A manager who prioritizes the needs of their team members above their own needs, and who focuses on creating a supportive and empowering work environment. They may be known for their willingness to listen to feedback and ideas, and for their commitment to helping team members achieve their goals.
Authentic leadership: A manager who leads with transparency and honesty, and who is true to their values and beliefs. They are often known for their integrity and their ability to build trust with their team members, and they may be skilled at fostering open communication and collaboration within the team.

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How Do You Determine Your Leadership Brand? (+Template)

Whether intentionally crafted or not, every leader has a brand. We can all reflect on different leaders and, for better or worse, the brands they portrayed, like the visionary, hot head, or coach. Your leadership brand is how people talk about you when you leave the room, and that’s far too important to leave up to chance.

That’s why crafting a distinct identity as a leader is not a mere exercise in self-promotion; it’s about understanding yourself, who you are as a leader, and how you want to be known. It’s about cultivating authenticity, consistency, and trust in those around you. In this article, we will explore the four steps in determining your leadership brand and provide you with a personal leadership brand template you can use to craft your own. However, if you’re still skeptical that creating a leadership brand is a good use of time, the following benefits may just change your mind.

What are the benefits of a leadership brand?

Crafting a well-defined personal leadership brand is beneficial for leaders as it:

Acts as a compass for what others can expect from you
Provides a consistent and authentic identity others can trust
Communicate your vision, values, and unique strengths
Shapes your reputation and how you’re perceived
Provides clarity that fosters confidence in you
Demonstrates behavioral expectations and standards for others to follow
Promotes a positive company culture by leading by example through your behaviors

How Do You Determine Your Leadership Brand? A 4-Step Process

Creating your personal leadership brand is a thoughtful and reflective process. It starts with identifying what you stand for and the principles that guide your actions. You’ll reflect on your strengths and the unique leadership qualities you bring to the job. You’ll evaluate how others perceive you today and use all of these insights to create a compelling narrative that authentically communicates the leader you want to be. To help you get started, use this editable personal leadership brand template . Record your thoughts and insights from each step to create a compelling leadership brand statement that serves as a compass for your leadership.

4 Steps to Determine Your Leadership Brand

Reflect on who you are as a leader
Evaluate how others see you
Determine the leader you want to be
Create your leadership brand statement and put it into practice

Step 1: Who Am I As A Leader?

The first step in curating your leadership brand is to identify your core values and the principles that guide your decisions, interactions, behaviors, and actions. In addition to evaluating who you are, you will also look at your strengths, leadership skills , and the value you bring to your team and organization.

What do you stand for?
What is your vision?
What are your strengths?
What are you the go-to person for?
What problems do you solve?
What skills do I excel at?

Step 2: How Do Others See Me as a Leader?

After you’ve reflected on who you are as a leader, the next step is to evaluate how others see you as a leader. Often, there can be a mismatch between how we perceive ourselves and how others see us. That’s why, during this step, you may want to incorporate the results of any assessments you’ve recently taken or seek out feedback from peers, direct reports, and your leader to gain insight into how others perceive your leadership.

What words would people use to describe your leadership today?
What is positive feedback on your leadership?
What is negative feedback on your leadership?
What impression do others take away from an interaction with you?

Step 3: What Kind of Leader Do You Want To Be?

It’s now time to envision the leader you want to be known as. Reflecting on the insights gleaned in the first two steps, you’ll begin to formulate the words and feelings you want associated with your leadership brand .

What words do you want people to use?
How would you like people to describe you?
How would you like others to say it is like to work for you?
How do you want to be known or remembered as a leader?

Step 4: Create Your Leadership Brand Statement - How Do You Want To Be Seen?

The last step is synthesizing the information in steps one to three to create a clear and compelling brand statement that communicates your authentic leadership self. Take the words and ideas you’ve generated from step three to create a short leadership brand statement. You will want your statement to align with the leader you want to be and the impact you’ll make. If you’re stuck, these leadership brand examples are a great source of inspiration.

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Why your personal leadership brand matters and how to improve it.

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Founder and CEO of 212° Brand Lab : building memorable brands, profitable businesses and thriving communities.

The Covid-19 pandemic has been a litmus test for leadership across the world. In my opinion, the past year has clearly proven that strong and compassionate leadership is now the need of the hour. Be it in business, politics, academia or philanthropy, exceptional leaders are now rising to the fore to steer their people through uncertainty. What is the hallmark of these resilient leaders? Let’s find out.

As the founder of a business that specializes in branding, I was recently working closely with two business leaders. Both are dynamic and successful leaders, yet each one has faced immense challenges during the pandemic. Their teams were collapsing, key employees were facing burnout, customers were reneging on commitments. What was happening? They were focusing excessively on driving results and not thinking enough about their personal leadership brands.

In sharp contrast, many of us have also witnessed business leaders deftly leading their organizations through the pandemic by pivoting to remote work, providing technological support, opening up new workstreams and building a "care culture." In a global crisis, I think what matters most is empathetic leadership.

Stop to think: Is your leadership brand exuding compassion? What is your personal leadership brand? And why does it matter?

Norm Smallwood wrote , (registration required) "A leadership brand conveys your identity and distinctiveness as a leader. It communicates the value you offer." A strong leadership brand can grow existing businesses, position you as a thought leader, build a following, foster powerful connections and positively impact the employer brand. All of these are vital ingredients for leadership success, more so in current times.

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As a leader, you owe it to your teams, businesses, investors, customers and yourself, to invest in building your leadership brand. Whether you are an established or an aspiring leader, it is never too early — or too late — to work on your self brand.

Developing your leadership brand requires an investment of time and effort and the commitment to consistently take action. It is a tight-rope walk between empathy and control. It requires a firm resolve to be known for your mission, values and purpose, and an action plan to translate your vision into reality — a reality that reflects on your reputation and your credibility.

How do you start?

This is always the starting point of any journey toward significance. Realize that it is not always about you. It is mostly about the relationships that you build, the connections you nurture and the conversations that you initiate. Turn the spotlight away from you and toward those you serve. That’s when you can start creating magic as a leader.

The pillars on which your brand rests are the 3 Es of leadership branding: expression, emotional intelligence and executive presence

Identify your values, vision, purpose and goals and package them into an authentic expression — so that your signature style and voice are unique, yet consistent. Craft your key messages and define your target audience. Who are you communicating with? Then, select your communication tools. How will you best reach your audience? Create open and predictable channels of ideas, dialogue and feedback from your teams.

Emotional Intelligence

A Bain & Company survey of 2,000 employees found that the ability to be mindfully present (called centeredness) was seen as the most important trait among 33 leadership traits. Mindfulness can enhance emotional intelligence at the workplace, encourage creativity and innovation and reduce impulsive reactions . Empathy and compassion are necessary for nurturing teams and enhancing productivity in my experience. Empathy is a key component of emotional intelligence, which in turn can build trust and rapport. An empathetic leader puts the "why" before the "what."

The first step to building emotional intelligence is self-awareness. Understanding the range and the root causes of your emotions and how to use them correctly can help you to effectively identify who you are and how you interact with others. Ask these questions:

• Is there a zone where I am overinvested or underinvested?

• Are there emotions I experience in excess?

• Are there any I want to experience more often?

Having identified the above, it is equally important to know how to manage your emotions. Consider practicing mindfulness and the principle of 45-5 (take five-minute breaks after every 45 minutes at your desk). I also recommend tech-free walks, which allow you to focus on yourself and your emotions.

Executive Presence

A mindful and focused leader exudes leadership presence. Mindfulness can open the door to emotional connection with oneself and others. An important characteristic of executive presence is to remain focused and present. The equation is simple: Focus on mindful communication to build your executive presence and leadership skills. A leader with the gravitas to lead with decisiveness and the compassion to serve with sincerity, is what the world needs now.

When you develop powerful gravitas, you automatically strengthen your leadership personal brand, i.e., the way others perceive, think and feel about you as a leader. When presence is not an innate quality, you can build it through training. What are some gravitas builders?

• Practice pausing and recentering so you can be poised and deliberate.

• Become a master communicator. Build your skills at speaking confidently with positive body language, eye contact, good posture and active listening. Analyze how you show up. Connect with authenticity and competence.

• Practice to be consistent. Leaders who seem to effortlessly demonstrate presence are paradoxically the ones who have invested in rehearsals, practice sessions and feedback to get their leadership brand strategy perfect.

Leadership is going through a change in narrative during the pandemic and more often involves encouraging bonding with team members around the nucleus of purpose, values and authentically shared personal experiences of loss, vulnerability, grit and resilience.

In the current situation of a global crisis, are the people you lead turning to you as their navigator in turbulent waters? Your communication, actions and decisions will determine whether your leadership brand is merely a footprint in the sand or if it's helping you build a lasting legacy.

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How to build your personal leadership brand

Author Dr. Paul Brewerton
Posted on April 6, 2021
Read time 12 minutes

In my executive coaching work, I often spend time with leaders working on their values as the principles they work to and which others need to understand. We also spend time on the strengths and skills that mark them out as unique.

For some leaders we also talk purpose – what difference they want to make and what legacy they want to leave as a leader. And for other leaders, we work on their gravitas and building a strong reputation – how they can be seen as credible, confident and trustworthy.

In this podcast, I combine all of these elements into one activity which will help shape your communication of what’s important to you and how you can make an intentional positive impact as a leader.

Today’s podcast is all about building your leadership brand.

A leadership brand helps you in several ways:

To differentiate yourself in competitive internal and external marketplaces
To increase your visibility in your organisation and make others aware of your value
To ensure people have a clear sense of who you are and how to work with you
To become more self-confident and self-motivated as you gain self-awareness and clarity about what you have to offer and how that marks you out as positively different.

Building your leadership brand pyramid

Onto the activity. There are plenty of ways of doing this but my favourite is to use a pyramid – practically, there’s more space to capture what you need to at the fat end but the shape also shows the importance of the base layers as providing you with strong foundations for your leadership proposition and legacy, which sit at the pointy end. So first thing is to draw a pyramid with four layers or levels.

“Who I am” – Values and attitudes

Values and attitudes are the bedrock of your leadership brand

The base level includes the core values and attitudes that guide your leadership. I recommend James Clear’s list of values as a good starter for inspiring your own values list. Try and keep it as a relatively short list, say 7-8 and do use your own language.

Think about the things you truly value and hold dear, the way you feel that the world should be, the behaviours or actions in others that anger you – all of these point to your key values and attitudes. This is important because everyone’s values are different – they come to us from our upbringing and from our experiences through life. We can’t assume that anyone else sees the world in the same way that we do.

So think about the people who work for you – would it help them and you if they knew what you valued? Think of this list as a ‘survival guide’ or playbook in working with you – if the people who work for you act in alignment with your values, you’re more likely to see them in a positive light. And if they do something that is out of alignment with your values, they can expect that it won’t sit well with you.

It’s very important therefore to capture these as the bedrock foundations of the other brand elements.

“What I bring” – Strengths, skills and experience

Strengths, skills and experience are the ‘features’ of your leadership brand.

Second layer are your strengths and skills and expertise – if you thought of yourself as a product, this level would contain your ‘features’. Your Strengthscope Standout 3 strengths sit here, along with the leadership skills that you want to bring to your role, whatever they may be – strategic vision, networking and relationships, project management capability, flexibility, critical analysis – whatever your gifts and talents and features are.

If you’re not 100% sure, you can always ask for feedback from others who know you well.

Where do they see you at your best?

What do they see as your greatest leadership strengths and talents?

“The difference I wish to make” – Your leadership legacy

Your leadership legacy communicates the benefits of your personal leadership brand.

If the second layer up included your product ‘features’, this layer includes the ‘benefits’ of those features. Think of this level as the difference you want to make and/or the leadership legacy you want to leave.

Try and get this down to an inspiring ‘statement of intent’ around your core purpose. A couple of examples: ‘I create environments where teams thrive and I support each individual to reach their true potential’ or ‘I build and deliver strategic plans which always create measurable value for my organisation’.

It needs to evoke emotions in you (and possibly others, but mainly you because it is intended to stimulate you towards action) and it should be something that sets you apart as being different.

“My essence”

Your essence gives you a strong leadership brand promise.

OK, top and final layer is your essence – when you are at your best and most energised and the reason others would follow you. 10 words max, ideally fewer, in fact the fewer the better. The idea here is to capture a statement that when you say it or others hear it, it will inspire the kind of people who you would want around you to get around you.

Think of this as a leadership brand statement or a brand promise if you like.

What’s next: developing your leadership brand management plan

So that’s quite a bit of work, it’ll take time to hone.

Once you have, say the words out loud to yourself (particularly those in the top two layers) and test your own reaction. Does what you have sit right with you? Does it feel like you? Can you own it? Or does it feel awkward, does the language not quite work for some reason, might you just feel embarrassed if you were asked to describe your brand in this way to your team?

Then do some more work until it feels right. It will be a mix of the now and the future, of what you have attained already and your aspiration and ambition for your leadership future.

Make sure it’s sufficiently ‘now’ that it represents a reasonably accurate picture of how people will experience you today – they need to be able to recognise you. But make sure it has a future-focused perspective too, so that you have something to move towards, space to grow into.

Once you’re happy with your leadership brand, you’re going to need a leadership brand communication plan. So I have some reflection questions for you to ask yourself which should help.

How close are your stakeholders’ perceptions of your current leadership approach to your ideal leadership ‘brand’? What do you need to do more of, less of, or differently to close the ‘gap’?

So these questions are getting you to think about your behaviour and what others see in you day to day that will lead them to conclude that your brand is aligned with the human in front of them. And we all have work to do on that.

Do you need to make your values more visible or talk to more people about them? Do you need to communicate the value that your strengths and skills and expertise can bring? And to whom? And who knows about the legacy you want to leave right now, and who would you like to know?

How will you communicate your leadership brand to colleagues, direct reports and other stakeholders?

Once you’ve worked out where your gaps are in terms of people’s perceptions right now and how you would want ‘brand you’ to be seen, you can get to work on a comms plan, a brand management plan, that will help you get the right messages to the right people in the right ways.

For example – translating your values into leadership behaviours and behaving consistently with them. Talk to your team about your values maybe at an all-hands meeting, where you ask them to share theirs too or maybe 121 with your top team.

What about your legacy and your essence – ideally you would want more senior folk to see and hear this so work on an elevator pitch that you can switch on if you get the opportunity to be in front of your plus ones, plus twos or plus threes.

What immediate steps can you take to start communicating and living your leadership brand right now?

Finally, start taking steps today. Small actions can make a big difference but you’ll need to make those actions habitual and repeat them consistently over time if you want others to shift their current perceptions or to solidify a view that they may of you already.

In conclusion: the benefit of working on your personal brand as a leader

Strong personal brands are not built overnight, they take a long time to build. It’s worth it though, as all great brands produce strong results in terms of improved demand, perceived value, reputation and results. I hope you’ve this blog useful. If you have, please subscribe on your favourite platform (button below) and share it with others who you feel might find it useful. ‘Till next time, stay strong.

You can find this podcast on Apple podcasts , Spotify , Google podcasts , Stitcher , ACast , TuneIn , Breaker and Soundcloud . Please support it by subscribing to get it at the start of the working week!

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Why would anyone want to be led by you? The question all leaders should still be asking themselves

The loneliness of the leader (and what you can do about it)

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Research Alert – This is what makes an effective leader

Effective leadership in times of change – the value of strengths with Nyawera Kibuka

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How to Build Your Personal Leadership Brand in 5 Steps

By: Grace Windsor | Published on: Oct 31, 2017 | Categories: BrightWork | 0 comments

Think about your most recent purchase. Did you choose a particular brand over another? Did you make this choice based on your previous experience with that brand in terms of cost, quality, consistency, ease of use? Maybe the brand fits with your lifestyle or values?

Develop your leadership skills with our free project handbook

Brand acts as a signal to consumers, and in turn, our brand choices reveal part of ourselves to those around us.

Your personal leadership brand is no different. Developing and sharing your leadership brand lets your team and colleagues know who you are, what you stand for, and how you work.

Read on to learn how to create your own personal leadership brand for project and career success.

What is Leadership?

Before you can establish your own leadership brand, you need to figure out what leadership really is and what it means to you.

Numerous definitions and styles exist, but in the context of collaborative project management, leadership is a way to excite people to outstanding performance.

A project leader uses influence – not seniority, titles, or strong personal qualities – to drive the efforts of their team towards a goal.

Leadership is critical to organizational and project success. In their book, How to Be Exceptional: Drive Leadership Success by Magnifying Your Strengths , Zenger and Folkman et al., note that organizations with exceptional leaders benefit significantly. These companies enjoy more profits, increased customer satisfaction, and higher employee retention and engagement levels.

According to the Project Management Institute’s Pulse of the Profession 2017 , more organizations are prioritizing the development of leadership skills to boost project success rates. 81% of organizations surveyed for the PMI’s 2013 Navigating Complexity report cited leadership skills as paramount to project success.

Who Can Be a Project Leader?

Whilst some researchers believe leadership is an innate skill bestowed on the lucky few, experience suggests otherwise. Everyone can lead and anyone can become a great leader.

Zenger and Folkman identify 16 popular leadership qualities, which fall into five key areas, as a starting point for aspirational leaders:

Focus on results and stretch goals.
Initiate and lead strategic change in your organization.
Act with honesty and integrity.
Develop key interpersonal skills such as communication, and decision-making.
Build your personal capability by working on relevant professional and technical skills.

They note whilst exceptional leaders have three to five outstanding strengths, developing just one area can radically enhance both individual leadership ability and benefits to the organization.

Leadership is about intent and practice. Taking time to identify, craft, and share your personal leadership brand is a critical first step to becoming a project leader.

Why do you need a Personal Leadership Brand?

Whether you realize it or not, you already have a personal brand . Your team and colleagues use what you say and do, and what you don’t say and don’t do to decide what kind of leader and person you are.

By developing your own personal leadership brand, you can control their perception, and establish direction, alignment, and commitment to agreed goals.

Unlike reputation, which is derived from past experiences and interactions, your brand is about who you are now and how you want to be seen.

Much like a commercial brand, a personal leadership brand establishes your identity and communicates your unique value to others.

Determining your leadership brand provides clarity around your goals, helping you to stay focused on the right work.

A leadership brand impacts how you behave, react, interact with others, and make decisions, influencing how effective you are in the workplace.

Your leadership brand enhances your career opportunities, demonstrating your ability and desire to take on more responsibility. Establishing your brand also makes it easier to identify what type of organization and environment will work for you.

Now that you understand the value of a personal leadership brand to project and career success, let’s look at how to create your brand.

5 Steps for Creating a Personal Leadership Brand

Developing your leadership brand requires significant investment, and a willingness to acknowledge both strengths and weaknesses. Your leadership brand is also a work in progress, changing and evolving as you move through your life and career so don’t worry about creating a final, defined vision!

Before you get started, it’s helpful to start a leadership journal or folder to document your ideas and feedback from others.

1. Identify Your Values

Values are core to our individuality and experiences. Who you are and how you treat others influences your ability to be an effective leader.

Team members will follow leaders they like, trust, and respect so what are your values? What do you stand for and what will you not stand for? What do you want to be known for? What role did your values play in key successes or failures in your life? What values do you admire in others?

When reviewing values, look for ‘hero stories’ within your organization. What traits and habits are admired in your organization? Do you currently exhibit these traits? If not, can you or should you do so? Remember – your brand must be authentic.

Trying to imitate the behavior of others to win favor is not a long-term strategy.

2. Understand Your Current Brand

Next, assess how others perceive you. Reflect on how you learn, share information, and influence others. Ask for feedback from your manager, teammates, and family regarding your communication and decision-making styles, and strengths and weaknesses.

Make note of common keywords and areas for improvement.

3. Decide Where You Can Make a Difference

Your leadership brand must clearly communicate your unique contribution to an organization or project. Think about what impact you currently have and what kind of results you wish to deliver in the next 12 months.

You should also consider who will benefit from your efforts and expertise – customers, investors, employees, and the company. This is your path to success and will help you say ‘no’ to distractions.

4. Craft Your Personal Mission Statement

At this stage, you have identified your values, figured out how other people perceive you, and set some goals for the coming year. So, how do you leverage this insight for your leadership brand?

A good place to start is a personal mission statement, which is a clear, purposeful promise to yourself, to your work colleagues, and to your family.

In addition to guiding your actions, a mission statement helps answers the big questions your team may ask – who are you, what do you stand for, and how do you work?

Stephen R. Covey introduced the concept of a personal mission statement in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People .

In the second habit, ‘Begin with the End in Mind’, Covey argues everything is created twice; once in our imagination, as we visualize an outcome, and again when we actually achieve the goal. A personal mission statement, which draws on your values and desired end-goal, helps integrate this thinking into our lives.

Here are a few examples from CEOs across various industries to get you started:

“To have fun in (my) journey through life and learn from (my) mistakes” – Sir Richard Branson, The Virgin Group

“To live life with integrity and empathy, and be a positive force in the lives of others” – Amy Ziari, Pasta

“To be a teacher. And to be known for inspiring my students to be more than they thought they could be” – Oprah Winfrey, OWN

5. Live Your Brand

In Learning Leadership: The Five Fundamentals of Becoming an Exemplary Leader , Kouzes and Posner argue that consistency and frequency distinguish adequate and brilliant leaders, noting many individuals lead tentatively and sporadically.

Build trust in your band by living it. Share your mission statement with your colleagues so they know what to expect from you. A public commitment to your leadership brand makes it difficult for you to abandon your course at the first hurdle and creates a network of supporters.

Use your values as a compass for actions, interactions, and decisions. Ask for feedback periodically – do they see you as you imagined in your mission statement? Is your behavior consistent?

Don’t forget your online presence. If you use mediums such as LinkedIn or project management forums, your profile and interactions should be the same across all sites and tally with your daily behaviors. If you are not using these tools, now is a great time to start!

As you live your brand, make sure you take time to reflect, learn, and evolve as your goals and circumstances change. Deliberate practice and constant learning cultivate great leadership.

Leadership is not an innate quality, gifted to a select group. Be intentional about the kind of leader you aspire to be, commit to this goal by sharing your mission with others, and live your brand every day.

Image credit

Grace Windsor

Grace is a content creator within the marketing team at BrightWork. She loves creating actionable content in different formats to help others achieve more project success. Grace spent far too long at university studying English literature, which instilled a life-long love of learning and upskilling. In her free time, she enjoys a challenging session at the gym, tucking into a good book, and walking the beautiful Galway coastline with her dog.

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Be More Authentic, Offer More Value and Make Stronger Connections By Adopting This Unique Leadership Style In this article, we define the personal brand leadership style and explore what leaders can gain from embracing and developing it.

By Shaan Rais Edited by Chelsea Brown May 24, 2023

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Personal brand leadership is the new standard for leaders who want to be authentic, connect with their clients/constituents and differentiate themselves from the competition. Everyone is talking about personal branding — and with good reason. Personal branding has emerged, not only to be a trending topic but to be one of the quickest routes to gaining mindshare and customer/client buy-in.

Personal brand leadership pushes the envelope further to forge personal brand as an actual leadership style (i.e., leading teams through the personal brand leadership style).

Related: 5 Surefire Ways to Become a Better, More Effective Leader

How does one develop their personal brand leadership style?

Personal brand leadership begins with a story. We call it the origin brand story . Between the ages of 0-7, 7-14 and from 14-21, core experiences were formed. From these experiences, lessons and wisdom were drawn, and operating principles were formulated. These operating principles became guidelines, or what the scholarly body refers to as "worldview." This worldview is our perspective and how we see the world, and we deal with the world based on our MVPs or morals, values and principles. In order to do this, you must go back into your past and detail your origin brand story. It is not easy for a lot of people, and it works better when someone facilitates or coaches you through that process as it can be painful and challenging — and many get stuck.

However, once someone has gathered that data central to who they are and how and why they conduct themselves as they do, the job becomes to relate this data to the world. You can see the power in this as you think of those you formed strong bonds with and leadership figures who changed the world or had a strong positive and enduring impact. They always told their story . When you tell your story , you open yourself up to the world, which takes courage. You lay yourself bare, to be judged and held accountable, and you become vulnerable.

You tell of your mistakes and shortcomings, regrets, losses, etc. In other words, you become human. Humans want to do business with humans. Humans want to be in relationships with humans. That's just how the world works. So, the more human and the more imperfect you make yourself, the more relatable you become and the more people begin to respond to you. They have these epiphanies, me-too and ah-hah moments as you tell your story, and when you don't stay or dwell in your mistakes but make the appropriate adjustments and overcome challenges , they see themselves as being able to overcome challenges, too — and until they do, they get to live vicariously through your ability to overcome their mistakes.

Thus, they become inspired, motivated and inclined to grow, develop and progress. This is how the world becomes a better place and why personal brand leadership is a futuristic form of leadership looking forward and not back into the past, except as a way to realize strengths to power us up for the next quantum leap.

Related: 5 Steps to Becoming an Authentic Leader

Who does personal brand leadership work for?

Personal brand leadership works for anyone who is tired of faking it and truly interested in making it. It works for anyone trying to live an authentic, genuine life and be of authentic and genuine value to their clients and shareholders; be they employees, family members and/or investors. Personal brand leadership is being able to be comfortable in your skin and never having to remember your lines because you live unscripted, reliant upon the lessons you have learned, and the (what we call 3 Es) education, experience and expertise gained delivers up to you next.

This is also relatable to living in flow, where you tap into the eternal reservoir of trust and belief in one's self . When you do that, anxiety declines, and appreciation, gratitude and good feelings take over — and instinct abounds. Depression may subside because you're no longer trying to be what you're not and you're comfortable not trying to be all things for all people.

With the advent of all things artificial and automated in the name of advance and further removing the human element from business, communications and relationships, it is absolutely imperative and more desirable that a person be authentic. How many times have you gotten a phone call and instead of it being a person, it was some "bot" on the other end? How many times have you received an email that you knew was artificially created? People are starving for the human touch and authentic expression, especially in business, and the knowledge is all out here.

I tell my clients all the time: Knowledge is easily accessible. Humanity, on the other hand, not so much. In the job market, once you pass a certain pay grade, the tech skills no longer differentiate. Everyone has them. Everyone has the degrees, the letters, the social group memberships, etc.

So, what's missing, and how can you differentiate yourself? The only differentiators now are behavioral, social, interactive and experience. Customer experience and end-user experience are the things that most business owners erroneously seek to automate, ever searching for the key to sustainable scalability. However, the last thing you want to do is scale to fail, and that happens when you remove yourself from the equation, try to grow too fast, automate and outsource everything, and your business loses its personal touch.

Related: The Power of Personal Touch Leadership

In summary, the future is personal. There will always be those who want less experience — those who desire to outsource and de-personalize everything, but what this does for the people who have established strong personal brand leadership is it positions them as the OVO, or the only viable option. The only viable option for people who want to remain human in every growing artificial simulation of the new world. This is as true in business as in every other sector.

The CEO who can be transparent and vulnerable and interweave their morals, values, vision and principles into the underlying fabric of the organization, products, services, employee's mindsets and marketing campaigns will yield an undeniable competitive advantage over the ChatGPT-generated slogans and computer-generated social media posts, blogs, email and customer service templates. We are coming to the precipice of a fork in the road where we will be forced to choose ... choose wisely ... choose personal brand leadership.

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Personal Branding: What It Is & Why It Matters

21 Mar 2024

Think of your favorite brands. What makes them memorable? What value do they provide, and how do they communicate it?

Just as products and services must be branded to communicate their differentiators and attract customers, you can craft your brand through a practice called personal branding.

“How do we apply everything we know about branding products and services to branding our most important product, which is ourselves?” says Harvard Business School Senior Lecturer Jill Avery, who teaches the online course Personal Branding—part of the Credential of Leadership, Impact, and Management in Business (CLIMB) —on an episode of The Parlor Room podcast. “Every time we apply for a job or vie for a promotion or try to land a new client or try to land a new date, we have to market ourselves. How do we apply the theories of branding to understand how to best express and communicate our own personal value proposition about the difference that we'd like to make in the world?”

Listen to the full podcast episode below or watch it on YouTube :

Before diving into how to create your personal brand, here’s a primer on what personal branding is and why it’s important.

What Is Personal Branding?

Personal branding is the intentional, strategic practice of defining and expressing your value.

“It’s the amalgamation of the associations, beliefs, feelings, attitudes, and expectations that people collectively hold about you,” Avery and her co-author, HBS Executive Fellow Rachel Greenwald, write in the Harvard Business Review .

They explain that personal branding’s goal is to ensure the narrative about you is:

Accurate: Is it true?
Coherent: Does it make sense?
Compelling: Does it draw people in?
Differentiated: Does it demonstrate what makes you unique?

If you don’t intentionally craft your personal brand, other people’s assumptions and perceptions of you may not align with those four attributes. By engaging in personal branding, you can define what you’d like to communicate and do so effectively.

Why Is Personal Branding Important?

By determining your unique value and living in a way that promotes it, you can become known for your defining attributes. That reputation can help attract opportunities in your career and life that align with your authentic self.

For instance, imagine you position yourself as a financial analyst with high emotional intelligence who loves to ski.

Attract projects, promotions, and job opportunities that correspond to your skills
Spread knowledge of your unique differentiators so you’re sought out for them
Connect you to people with common personal and professional interests

It can also have internal benefits, including:

Increased confidence in your financial and leadership abilities
Clarified goals and values
Decreased imposter syndrome and a better sense of your authentic self

Drawing from Avery and Greenwald’s research , here’s how you can build your personal brand to increase visibility and own your unique value proposition.

How to Become a More Effective Leader | Access Your Free E-Book | Download Now

How to Build Your Personal Brand

1. define your purpose.

The first step to creating your personal brand is identifying your values, goals, and purpose.

Start by asking yourself:

What do I care about?
What are my values?
What do I want people to know about me?
How do I want to define myself?
What makes me special?
How do I provide value to others?

Consider either your professional or personal life while brainstorming, and ensure you think about your audience.

Afterward, come up with a sentence that clearly states who you are and what value you provide—that’s your value proposition . For example: “I’m an experienced social media manager in the athletic wear industry who’s passionate about empowering my team.”

Try several variations to find what feels authentic and impactful.

2. Audit Your Personal Brand Equity

Next, take stock of your current personal brand. Even before consciously deciding to craft one, others carry perceptions and knowledge about you.

In the Harvard Business Review , Avery and Greenwald outline several factors to consider during this phase:

Credentials: Your education, awards, and achievements
Social capital: Personal and professional connections’ quantity and quality
Cultural capital: Emotional intelligence and expertise you’ve garnered through life experiences

What gap exists between your current personal brand and the one you want to implement? How can you use your credentials and social and cultural capital to bring the new version to light?

3. Construct a Narrative

Once you understand your purpose and current personal brand, compile stories that illustrate your value proposition. While a one-line statement can be effective, you must oftentimes prove your value in conversational settings.

For instance, if one of your differentiators is that you take bold yet calculated risks, you may tell a story about when you went skydiving. During an interview, you may call, instead, upon a time when you took a chance on a new product innovation without knowing how it would perform—and it paid off.

What experiences convey your best qualities? Brainstorm a list to keep in your back pocket.

4. Communicate and Embody Your Brand

After planning your personal brand, communicate it by identifying outlets through which you can promote your value. Just like marketing products and services, you can use a mix of paid, owned, and earned media to make your value proposition and stories accessible and visible to a wider network.

While it may feel unnatural to market yourself as you would a product, keep in mind that it will attract opportunities that align with your unique value. By increasing your visibility, you can provide value to more people.

You can also communicate your personal brand by embodying it in face-to-face interactions. Think of them as chances to show who you are. For instance, if you want to convey your passion for volunteerism, enthusiastically share your involvement at a local charity event if a co-worker asks about your weekend plans.

Embodying your brand also means taking steps to bolster your unique value. If, for example, you’re a skilled engineer who wants to improve your leadership skills , taking a leadership program not only can help you build those skills and gain expertise but signal that you’re serious about doing so.

Related: Leadership in Engineering: What It Is & Why It’s Important

5. Socialize Your Brand

While you are your best advocate, the next step of personal branding is making sure others share your value. In the Harvard Business Review , Avery and Greenwald outline four groups that can be instrumental in socializing your brand:

Gatekeepers: Those whose buy-in is critical to reaching your goals
Influencers: People with authority who can source additional platforms for sharing your brand
Promoters: Those who actively support pursuing your goals
Communities: Groups who share your mission or interests or seek the value you provide

One example is the HBS Online Community , where you can connect with other business professionals before, during, or after taking an HBS Online course. Beyond a global network of supporters, joining an online learning community can provide new perspectives and opportunities to make positive change .

Related: 9 Benefits of the HBS Online Community

6. Reevaluate and Adjust

Personal branding isn’t a one-time project—it requires continually reassessing and adjusting to ensure you live and project your intended brand.

Enlist people you trust to help you reevaluate and describe your brand and value, such as co-workers, friends, and industry connections.

“For example, if you’re being considered for a managerial position but learn that not everyone perceives you to be a strong leader, you might take a leadership training course , volunteer to head up a new project or task force, or take on relevant roles in your personal life, such as joining a nonprofit board,” Avery and Greenwald write in the Harvard Business Review .

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Define Your Value and Make an Impact

A strong personal brand can help you attract the right people, land a job or promotion, and make connections that lead to new opportunities.

With reflection and intentional actions, you can gain confidence in your personal value and project it in your life and career.

Do you want to develop your personal brand? Explore our yearlong Credential of Leadership, Impact, and Management in Business (CLIMB) program , which comprises seven courses for leading in the modern business world. Download the CLIMB brochure to learn about its curriculum, admissions requirements, and benefits.

About the Author

Alan Stein, Jr.
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What is Your Personal Leadership Brand?

Being a leader in today’s world is complex.

Now, more than ever, leaders are tasked with a seemingly endless – and often conflicting – list of priorities. It’s essential that leaders within an organization grow the business, keep customers and clients satisfied, and retain and attract the right team members. They also need to create a culture of inclusion that promotes growth and supports the company’s mission and vision.

Is it any wonder many of today’s leaders are overwhelmed and exhausted?

Leaders at all levels within an organization are also increasingly asked to maintain a digital presence — to be seen as the faces of their companies and thought leaders in their industries. Many leaders are uncomfortable with [or unsure of how to] successfully navigate this new facet of leadership.

The demand for an increased digital presence has given rise to the need for leaders to develop personal leadership brands. Much like the brand of a company itself, a personal leadership brand needs to communicate a leader’s values and what sets them apart.

Developing a personal brand.

As a leader, your personal brand gives focus to your words and actions. Your brand is what you are known for. It’s about being consistent and acting with integrity.

How should you go about building a personal brand? First, give thought to what you want to portray. What is important to you as a leader? How do you want to be perceived by others?

Is your communication style formal or informal?
Do you want to be seen as innovative or as providing proven solutions?
Do you have high standards and expectations for your employees, or do you make room for employees to make mistakes and grow?

Taking your personal leadership brand online with intention.

Developing a personal leadership brand online creates a place to share ideas, position yourself as an expert, and communicate what matters to you as a leader and a member of your organization.

Your personal leadership brand represents the value you deliver consistently both within your organization and to the larger community — this includes your online audience.

Give careful consideration to your intentions and objectives before you start building your social media presence. Make it a point to revisit your social media strategy often and course-correct if necessary. Ensure how you appear online is consistently aligned with your values.

Leadership experts share their thoughts on personal leadership brands.

How can organizations support leaders as they discover and develop their personal leadership brands? What challenges and opportunities does The Digital Age present to leaders’ brands?

To answer these questions, I turned to two of our experts on leadership here at Michelle Joyce Speakers: Alan Stein, Jr. and Shama Hyder .

Alan Stein, Jr. – Raise Their Game: How to Improve Your Leadership Performance, Impact, and Influence

Before becoming a keynote speaker and author, Alan spent more than 15 years working with athletes at the highest level. He combines this background with a natural talent for storytelling and practical, actionable lessons to engage and inspire corporate audiences.

When Alan speaks to leaders, he focuses on effective leadership, team cohesion, and collaboration – factors as important to success in business as they are to success on the basketball court.

In his keynote presentations, Alan teaches leaders to employ the same approaches in business that elite athletes use to perform at world-class levels. It all starts by focusing on the fundamentals – of leadership, that is:

Servanthood
Empowerment

You’ll notice Alan’s fundamentals are “you” focused rather than “me” focused. Leadership that prioritizes service to and for others serves as the foundation of a powerful, personal leadership brand.

Alan encourages leaders to, “become the leader you want to work for,” as they strive to attract, empower, and retain top talent.

Learn more about Alan’s leadership programs HERE .

Shama Hyder – The Digital You: Leadership and Personal Branding in the Digital Age

Shama’s expertise as a visionary strategist for The Digital Age has led to her being named “Zen Master of Marketing” by Entrepreneur Magazine and the “Millennial Master of the Universe” by FastCompany.com . She is the bestselling author of The Zen of Social Media Marketing and Momentum: How to Propel Your Marketing and Transform Your Brand in the Digital Age . The recipient of numerous, prestigious business awards, Shama is uniquely qualified to guide leaders as they develop their own personal leadership brands.

Shama encourages leaders to embrace this new digital world and leverage technology to engage, influence, and lead. There are more options than ever before when it comes to creating a personal brand online. Shama emphasizes the importance of choosing the right channels. Leaders should use their online presence to connect more deeply with their audiences, grow their brand, and create a greater impact.

As an expert in the digital marketing space, Shama reminds us that the future of work and leadership has been forever transformed by technology. Now is the time for leaders to embrace those changes as they develop personal leadership brands.

Learn more about Shama’s leadership programs HERE .

Help your leaders craft their personal leadership brands.

Personal leadership brands reflect the vision, mission, and values of your company’s leaders as individuals. As representatives of your organization, their brands also reflect on the company as a whole. Provide them with the support they need to develop a leadership brand that serves them – and your organization – well.

A New Approach to Building Your Personal Brand

Rachel Greenwald

How to communicate your value to the world

For better or worse, in today’s world everyone is a brand. Whether you’re applying for a job, asking for a promotion, or writing a dating profile, your success will depend on getting others to recognize your value. So you need to get comfortable marketing yourself.

In this article a branding thought leader and a professional dating coach present a guide to creating your personal brand. It’s an intentional, strategic practice in which you craft and express your own value proposition, and it involves seven steps: (1) Define your purpose by exploring your mission, passion, and strengths, and thinking about whom you want to make a difference to and how. (2) Audit your personal brand equity by cataloging your credentials, doing a self-assessment, and researching how other people view you. (3) Construct your personal narrative by identifying memorable, resonant stories that will best convey your brand. (4) Embody your brand by paying attention to the message you’re sending in every social interaction. (5) Communicate your brand through speeches, social media, the press, and other channels. (6) Socialize your brand by getting influential people to share your stories. (7) Reevaluate and adjust your brand by doing an annual audit to find deficits to fix and strengths to build on.

This process will not only allow you to better control your image and the impact you have on the world but also help you uncover and share the unique abilities you have to offer it.

Much of professional and personal success depends on persuading others to recognize your value. You have to do this when you apply for jobs, ask for promotions, vie for leadership positions, or write your dating profile. For better or worse, in today’s world everyone is a brand, and you need to develop yours and get comfortable marketing it.

Jill Avery is a senior lecturer of business administration and the C. Roland Christensen Distinguished Management Educator in the marketing unit at Harvard Business School.
RG Rachel Greenwald is a professional matchmaker and dating coach. She’s also an executive fellow at Harvard Business School.

Partner Center

Building a Leadership Identity Starts with a Personal Brand

Wed Sep 09 2015

If you’re reading this blog post, you’ve achieved a significant level of leadership. Your workday is likely consumed with leading your team and delivering results for your organization. But what about you? How much time do you think about your future goals and leadership identity?

Defining Leadership Identity

Whether I’m working with emerging or senior leaders, when I discuss leadership identity, a lot of questions come to the surface. Emerging leaders often ask: “What is my leadership identity? How do I create it? What does it mean to my leadership path and career?” Meanwhile, senior leaders often ask: “How do I further leverage my leadership brand? How do I continue to make an impact in my organization? How do I fill in gaps to ready myself for even greater leadership?”

Let’s take a look at the big picture.

Leadership identity is your presence in your work—and in the world. This is about your physical and mental presence, your attitude, and your readiness to take on new challenges and make an impact. It’s how you “show up” every day and for every interaction. Do you show up looking the part of a leader, acting the part of a leader, and with the attitude of a leader? Are you ready for the next opportunity when it arrives?

Leadership identity drives your decisions toward big-picture leadership goals. Think for a moment about your big-picture leadership goal. What kind of person will you be when you reach that goal? What will be different, better? Now compare the mindset and decisions of the person you are today to that of the person you will become when you reach your big-picture goal. If you’re like most, there’s a gap; your mindset and decisions need to be consistent with where you want to be, versus where you are today. It’s like the old saying goes, “What got you here won’t get you there.”

Leadership identity reflects your values, mindset, actions, and responses. The best way I can describe this is with an example from my own life. One of my top values is health and wellness. When I reflect on my life I can see it almost everywhere, from playing sports as a child to my role models and personal habits. That value, along with the mindset, actions, and responses that go with it, shows up in my leadership identity—my energy in front of an audience, my attitude, my creativity levels, and my overall presence.

The Basic Building Blocks

Now that we’ve defined leadership identity, I’ll share five key building blocks to creating and evolving it.

Leadership brand. Each of us has a brand, whether we consciously shape it or allow others to do it for us. What are you known for that distinguishes you from the crowd, and are you visible to senior leadership?

Behaviors. Our self-initiated behaviors communicate a lot about us. Do your self-initiated behaviors reflect assertiveness, decisiveness, and confidence

Responses. Our responses to situations and people also say a lot about us. What is your emotional intelligence in handling workplace situations and people around you?

Presence. Do you dress the part of a leader? What does your physical presence exude? In addition, every communication, verbal or written, is an opportunity to showcase how well you organize your thoughts and articulate yourself. Do you sound like a leader?

Habits. Our small actions, done day in and day out, are also known as habits. Who you are as a person is reflected in who you are as a leader, so it makes sense that your habits have a big stake in your leadership path and ultimate success. With the right habits, you stay on course. With the wrong ones, it’s easy to end up off the path.

Getting Started: Your Leadership Brand

“Branding and marketing yourself” is a fancy phrase for how you choose to project what is unique, genuine, and quality about you. I intentionally use the word choose because it is your choice to actively design and build awareness for your personal brand, or passively allow others to do it for you. Your brand and how you cultivate awareness of it can determine what leadership opportunities you have in the future.

The hallmarks of significant and successful brands are consistent quality and consistent awareness. In fact, if you examine the brands you are most loyal to, they likely have both in spades.

Consistent quality drives you to create the best product possible (you being the product). Its factors include:

talents and skills

unique expertise

overall presence, including dress, presence, posture, voice, and articulation of thoughts.

Consistent awareness is where the big leap frequently comes into play, and I can relate. It’s awkward for most of us to actively keep ourselves top of mind in our industries and organizations. For example, I’ve always known that I brought consistent quality to my work. In fact, I joke that I’m a recovering perfectionist! The work quality itself was only the starting point; I had to adopt the mindset and actions of consistent awareness. Was it uncomfortable at times? Yes! But if I didn’t move past that barrier, it’s likely I wouldn’t be sharing this article with you right now.

As a leader, you must learn to create consistent awareness in the market and get comfortable with it. I’ve learned that the actions often come first in order to help cultivate the mindset. Here are some concrete ways you can take action. (I have used many of them myself). When creating your own list, it’s important keep in mind the things you are naturally good at and enjoy. That will help you consistently deliver on creating awareness for your leadership brand.

Write articles for a key professional or industry association.

Join or lead a relevant group on LinkedIn.

Present research or a topic within your areas of expertise at an industry event, seminar, or conference.

Prepare a presentation for your organization’s board of directors or executive leadership team. For instance, track your major accomplishments and impact on the business each quarter, and present them to your leadership.

Ask your clients to provide feedback and forward positive feedback to your leadership. For critical feedback, find ways to improve the client experience and share those improvements with leadership.

Elevate your networking by developing relationships with other senior leaders or industry thought leaders.

I challenge you to put one of these actions into play in the next 30 days. See what happens as a result of getting yourself into the marketplace!

Next time, we’ll take a deeper dive into the next building block: behaviors and leading through action.

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IMAGES

Leadership Brand PowerPoint Template
What's Your Leadership Brand?
How to Build Your Personal Leadership Brand in 5 Steps
Leadership Brand PowerPoint Template
Steps To Build Personal Leadership Brand
Leadership Brand PowerPoint and Google Slides Template

VIDEO

Market Share and BRAND LEADERSHIP: What is a BRAND LEADER? (Formal Definition)
Leadership Advisor, Marty Sunde on his advisory approach
What's your personal leadership brand?
Leadership Brand
Creating a Brand Purpose: The Key to Inspiring Leadership
It’s Not About the Ring Light

COMMENTS

Define Your Personal Leadership Brand in Five Steps
The question is not trivial. 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 ...
What's Your Leadership Brand?
This sort of clarity will help inform your professional goals and the decisions you make toward realizing them. Part of tending to your leadership brand is a constant process of self-evaluation and building your self-awareness. 2. Audit your online presence. Check your digital and social media footprint.
7 Personal Brand Statement Examples for Leaders
The CMO of SurveyMonkey, Leela Srinivasan, has a personal brand statement example for leaders that focuses on the personal. She describes the personality traits and motivations that make her unique and establishes her leadership style as inclusive and aspirational. 7. Robert Chatwani.
22 Leadership Brand Examples (+ Worksheet)
Data-Driven Leader: Makes decisions on thorough analysis and data, ensuring a rational and evidence-based approach to problem-solving. Agile Leader: Thrives in a rapidly changing environment, quickly adapting strategies and approaches to seize opportunities and minimize the impact of challenges. Networking Leader: Establishes and maintains ...
What Is A Personal Leadership Brand And How To Build Yours
A personal leadership brand helps you do just that. It establishes your credibility and gives people something to expect from you. In addition, having a strong personal leadership brand can help boost your career trajectories. Your personal leadership brand is your opportunity to set yourself apart from the competition.
How Do You Determine Your Leadership Brand? (+Template)
To help you get started, use this editable personal leadership brand template. Record your thoughts and insights from each step to create a compelling leadership brand statement that serves as a compass for your leadership. 4 Steps to Determine Your Leadership Brand. Reflect on who you are as a leader; Evaluate how others see you
PDF Global Guide to Personal Branding for Executives
Global Guide to Personal Branding for Executives - 4 The good news is you already have a personal brand. In fact, you are a brand. You may or may not be aware of your brand identity, and if not, that's okay. That's why we are here—to help you uncover your authentic personal brand and to fully leverage it for maximum opportunity.
Why Your Personal Leadership Brand Matters And How To Improve It
The pillars on which your brand rests are the 3 Es of leadership branding: expression, emotional intelligence and executive presence. Expression. Identify your values, vision, purpose and goals ...
What Is Personal Leadership Brand?
Harvard Business Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School. Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood, founders of The RBL Group, say that to start building your personal leadership brand, ask ...
How to Define, Develop, and Communicate Your Personal Brand
Develop. The best place to start showcasing your brand, and developing it further, is through your daily actions at work. When you're completing a task, always think about the outcome that will ...
How to build your personal leadership brand
A leadership brand helps you in several ways: To differentiate yourself in competitive internal and external marketplaces. To increase your visibility in your organisation and make others aware of your value. To ensure people have a clear sense of who you are and how to work with you. To become more self-confident and self-motivated as you gain ...
PDF Five Steps to Building Your Personal Leadership Brand
phone phone 1-800-988-0866 1-800-988-0866 or or 617-783-7500 617-783-7500. phone phone 617-783-7627 617-783-7627 or or fax fax 617-783-7658 617-783-7658. Permission Permission to to copy copy or or republish: republish: phone phone 617-783-7587 617-783-7587. Five Steps to Building Your Personal Leadership Brand. by Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood.
How to Build Your Personal Leadership Brand in 5 Steps
Make note of common keywords and areas for improvement. 3. Decide Where You Can Make a Difference. Your leadership brand must clearly communicate your unique contribution to an organization or project. Think about what impact you currently have and what kind of results you wish to deliver in the next 12 months.
What Is Personal Brand Leadership and How Can It Benefit You
How does one develop their personal brand leadership style? Personal brand leadership begins with a story. We call it the origin brand story.Between the ages of 0-7, 7-14 and from 14-21, core ...
Personal Branding: What It Is and Why It Matters
Personal branding is the intentional, strategic practice of defining and expressing your value. "It's the amalgamation of the associations, beliefs, feelings, attitudes, and expectations that people collectively hold about you," Avery and her co-author, HBS Executive Fellow Rachel Greenwald, write in the Harvard Business Review.
How to Define Your Personal Leadership Brand
Follow the steps below to consider aspects of your leadership style in order to develop a more intentional leadership brand. Last Updated: December 3, 2020 A personal leadership strategy is your guiding principle for the type of leader you want to be.
What is your personal leadership brand?
Think of it as your personal leadership brand—what you stand for, including the values that guide your behaviors as a leader, and what you expect from others. It's not that people don't have anything to say in response to these questions. Some will volunteer that they believe in " servant leadership ," or that they are results-driven ...
What is Your Personal Leadership Brand?
Your personal leadership brand represents the value you deliver consistently both within your organization and to the larger community — this includes your online audience. ... In his keynote presentations, Alan teaches leaders to employ the same approaches in business that elite athletes use to perform at world-class levels. It all starts by ...
Building a Leadership Brand
To build your leadership brand, first articulate what you want your firm to be known for by your best customers. Then link those qualities to specific managerial traits and activities. For example ...
A New Approach to Building Your Personal Brand
So you need to get comfortable marketing yourself. In this article a branding thought leader and a professional dating coach present a guide to creating your personal brand. It's an intentional ...
Building a Leadership Identity Starts with a Personal Brand
Getting Started: Your Leadership Brand "Branding and marketing yourself" is a fancy phrase for how you choose to project what is unique, genuine, and quality about you. I intentionally use the word choose because it is your choice to actively design and build awareness for your personal brand, or passively allow others to do it for you.