How to be the Sheryl Sandberg of Your Industry

These days I’ve been having many similar conversations with clients in the C-Suite...they are all curious about how to raise their profiles and create a solid personal brand. We are fortunate enough to work with some of the best leaders in the world, and they are looking to build a personal brand which conveys credibility, allows them to showcase their intellectual capital, and raises their profile within their company and industry. And, this has me thinking about Sheryl Sandberg. 

I have much respect for Facebook’s COO, Sheryl Sandberg, and for many reasons. She has broken barriers in multiple fields as a woman and a mother and her accomplishments from Google to Facebook are well noted. We’ve spoken at many of the same conferences, and while I admire her career trajectory, I also consider her to be one of the best strategists at building a personal brand. It is clear that she invests a great deal of time and energy into building a sound thought leadership platform for herself.

Why? A major clue lies in her original book, Lean In, in which she shares her philosophy on how to build a great career.

“Careers are a jungle gym. Not a ladder.”

In order to be successful at the jungle gym, however, you have to build your brand beyond your current role. This is precisely why Sheryl Sandberg can move laterally at any time. With her current profile, she can choose to stay in the technology sector but she can also choose to transition into government, the media, or a wide variety of other industries. She is no longer limited. At the end of the day, the best part about building a solid personal brand is that it allows you further opportunities and opens doors you may not have even known existed in the first place.

Here’s how to be the Sheryl Sandberg of your industry.

Bring the steak. Just don’t forget the sizzle. 

Many leaders focus their entire careers on creating and adding value - for their teams, their departments, their companies. They forget the crucial part - sharing and showcasing the value and the journey to getting there. Sheryl Sandberg is a master at both. She clearly does the work and has turned Facebook into a profitable company (the steak), and she very much documents and shares her challenges and accomplishments (the sizzle.) Let’s face it. Most Chief Operating Officers, even at the Fortune 100, are not household names. This has taken a strategic and consistent effort on Ms. Sandberg’s part.

Think and invest in yourself as a personal brand. 

Building a personal brand isn’t about vanity or narcissism. Far from it, it is about documenting and sharing your lessons and empowering others while creating a credible platform for yourself. Sheryl Sandberg consciously invests in building the brand - from PR to speaking to authoring books. You don’t have to do it at her scale. The idea here is to start thinking strategically about the value you create, curate, and distribute.

Stand for more than yourself. 

The best personal brands are the ones that truly make a mark in a space. They serve as stewards for a greater cause, and the messenger often lives the message. In Sheryl’s case, her books and thought leadership have revolved around women, women in the workplace, and more recently - resilience and how to tackle challenges. My areas of expertise are marketing and technology and how brands and leaders can thrive in the digital age. It goes well beyond a job title. A personal brand is not an exercise in vanity or how many likes or Instagram followers you have because while they are useful metrics in determining reach, they aren’t the heart of a sound brand. 

Be a human, not a robot. 

Sometimes leaders reveal a fear that they won’t be able to express their true identities or on the other end of the spectrum, that creating a personal brand will lead to a loss of privacy. Neither of these fears is founded. Sheryl Sandberg proves this as she continues to balance vulnerability with professionalism. She has been very vocal about the loss of her late husband, Dave Goldberg, and has shared her personal challenge as a way to inspire others. The key here is to see your experiences through the lens of how they may benefit others.

See yourself as a brand ambassador. 

One big shift I’ve seen in recent days and believe this trend will continue into 2018, is that companies are now seeing the value and are often investing for their key leaders to build their personal brand. My employees hear me say, ad nauseam, a rising tide raises all boats. This couldn’t be truer when it comes to building a personal brand and a solid thought leadership platform. Sheryl Sandberg’s increased profile visibility has been an asset for Facebook. In an era where investors and consumers alike were cautious of Mark Zuckerberg’s youth and style, she served to provide comfort and stability. Sheryl Sandberg has been a huge champion for Facebook, and as her star has risen, as has Facebook’s.

My message to you isn’t that you need to be Sheryl Sandberg. Instead, it’s to urge you to take a look at how you can apply the lessons of a very astute and clever woman who clearly knows where the puck is heading. For more, you can also check out my earlier post on the seven things you can do to build an awesome personal brand.

Shama Hyder is CEO of Marketing Zen, a leading digital marketing agency, a best-selling author, and an internationally renowned keynote speaker. Her latest venture is Made.design.