Why Personal Branding Is A Leadership Requirement (+ How To Build Your Leadership Brand)

Leadership has always been challenging, but the future of work brings a new level of challenges to future leaders. Over the next decade, leaders will have to face obstacles and challenges that current or past leaders haven’t had to face and that also means, a new level of skill set is required

So the question is: What are those challenges and more importantly – how to handle them What are the traits that make a strong leadership brand and how can you get started straight away? 

This is what this blog post is all about.

Ready to level up your leadership brand? Then let’s dive in!

As the saying goes ‘new levels, new devils’.

This is certainly the case when it comes to leadership.

It’s never been more challenging and complex and there are no signs for this trend goes backwards.

That also means that leaders are required to constantly evolve and develop to keep up with these changes.

This is where Personal Branding comes in because I always say that building and managing your Brand is personal development on steroids; it’s a full-time commitment to the journey of defining yourself as a leader and how this will shape the manner in which you show up for others.

There are still so many leaders who think personal branding is self-promotion or self-serving or they don’t need it because they are already in a leadership position.

And this is where it already goes wrong. 

Because managing your personal brand requires you to be a great role model, mentor, and / or a voice that others can rely on and look up to.

If you have listened to episode 43– what type of leader are you – you’d have heard me saying that leadership doesn’t equal people management. It involves how you show up and with that, how you influence and impact others.

Of course, when you manage people directly, you have an immediate influence on them whereas as thought or change leader, people choose to follow you or not based on your executive presence. 

This is where your own, original content comes to play because this is the easiest way to share who you are, why you do what you do, how you do it and for whom you do it. It is what makes people drawn to you or not.

Either way – you have the opportunity and responsibility every single day to make an impact on others by how you show up and that requires a high level of self-awareness, action and accountability. It’s so easy to get busy and buried in the day-to-day activities that we often don’t see the forest for the trees.  

It’s not an accident that the most successful leaders have a coach for years and no matter how successful they are, they continue working with coaches.

Your personal brand as a trademark can either be your biggest asset or your biggest liability; depending how you mould, shape and manage it. 

That alone is a  good enough reason to invest in your Brand.

On top of that, especially younger talents expect their (future) leaders to be transparent and that means, being active on social media, being part of the conversation, leading by kicking off debates through original content. 

The war for talent is real and I’m working with many very large and established organisations who miss out on the best talents because they want to work for leaders who are on the pulse with what’s going on. And that involves having a social media presence and broader influence but also share their experience and learnings.

Take Clubhouse for example- whilst the company and the app has been in the making for years, it has seen a massive growth over the last few months.

Now the developers and founders themselves actually get active on Clubhouse and host Townhalls every Sunday where they talk with their users, ask for feedback for new features and simply share their learnings and challenges they’ve overcome. 

How often did that happen especially back in the days, unfortunately with some companies it’s still the case that the senior leadership team isn’t approachable or accessible to the wider team because they sit in their ivory tower. 

This is leadership by title; not by choice and given talents have a lot more choice, being arrogant about a title definitely doesn’t get you a genuine buy in to your style and vision.

The stereotype of a leader has changed.

Remember the days when the C-suite only wore suit and tie? How many companies still have this policy and how many have adopted the jeans and T-Shirt style?

It doesn’t mean it’s wrong – it just goes to show how much of an impact appearance and external factors have on your leadership brand.

Same goes for your profile photo – it is usually the first point of contact when people land on your profile and based on that, they already make up their mind.

I’ve had a client who is a PhD in computer science and his profile photo was a button up shirt, jacket and tie. When we first met, I already had this preconceived image in mind that he’ll be very ‘correct’, because he had this very professional and sophisticated look, thought he would potentially be a bit hard to talk to because of a dry personality … see what happened? 

I already made up my mind way before we met. When we did meet for the first time, I nearly fell off my chair because he was and still is the most laid-back dude who loves skateboarding and told me he hasn’t worn a suit in years and he was surprised by my statement that I expected a different person.

We are all so quick in making up our mind about others and like it or not, we judge people by their looks. Sounds superficial but that’s the first thing we see when we land on someone’s profile. And checking people out online is something that we all do and won’t go anywhere either.

That’s why it is so important to do the groundwork before you invest any money or efforts in your marketing material. What are traits you want to be associated with? How do you want people to remember you? What are values you live by and how do you show them in action, day to day, not just on a piece of paper.

If your teammates and/or colleagues don’t know what your personal brand is, the fault is yours and not theirs. Having a personal brand is a leadership requirement.  It enables you to be a better leader, a more authentic leader that can create greater overall impact. 

In fact, those who have defined and live their personal brand will more naturally show executive presence and with that, progress quicker in their career.

Why?

Because having an executive presence means you can create an experience, a moment and a feeling for others that gives them the confidence in you because you have the confidence in your own capabilities. It’s not because you shout from the roof top how good you are. It’s because you listen, show empathy, connect the dots quickly, make people feel special and cared for.

There is a reason why Maja Angelo said: They will forget what you said. They will never forget how you made them feel.

Now with that said, I’d love to hear from you!
Have you already a defined Leadership Brand?

If so- how would you describe it and if not- now is the time to get started building yours!