What’s A Leadership Brand & How To Build One?

We often heard about Personal Branding and how important it is for us to build a strong personal brand. As a leader is equally important to build a strong leadership brand which is another facet of personal branding.

What is a leadership brand? Why should you care??

In this article, we will explore what a leadership brand is and how to develop one for yourself.?

First, let's get to know the overall concept of a Personal Brand. Whether or not you are aware of it, your personal brand is virtually built every day. Every decision you make, every word you say, and every action you take reflects on your personal brand. It is important to remember that your personal brand is not just about what you say or do, it is also about the impressions you create.

"Your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room", Jeff Bezos.

What is a Leadership Brand?

A leadership brand is a representation of a person or organization in the minds of others. It can be thought of as the visual representation of who you are and what you stand for. Leadership brand is about building a brand that represents your values and ideals as a leader. Your brand is shown and experienced through your actions, words, and demeanor. ?

Your leadership brand reflects your leadership reputation, and it's your guiding principle in a way that you lead, deliver your promise, and get the results.

A strong leadership brand can provide many benefits for an individual or organization. It can help to build trust and credibility with stakeholders, attract and retain top talent, and create a sense of community among team members. In addition, a strong leadership brand can help to drive innovation and growth in an organization.

Without a strong leadership brand, your performance as a leader may suffer.

A strong leadership brand is essential for any leader to have in order to motivate their team. Without a strong brand, leaders may struggle to communicate their vision and goals and inspire their teams to work together towards a common goal.?

The common team challenges that leaders who don't have a clear leadership brand are:

• Inconsistent team performance where the leaders are not certain about their style and the way they lead the team
• Team members don't understand the leader's expectations and can't deliver accordingly
• Too many assumptions were made in communication, which compromised team performance
• Difficulties and challenges in delegation

When a leadership brand is not clear, a leader could potentially send inconsistent messages to the team members and colleagues and make an inconsistent decision.? On the other hand, if your leadership brand is strong but doesn't serve you in your current role, your career path might be stalled.?

An example of a strong brand: “A” is known as a great technical manager. People know that he is an expert in logistics software. He is hands-on and can help his team solve any problem that the clients throw at them. His team has no question about his technical expertise to lead the team.

However, “A” is working to be promoted to the next leadership role. His current leadership brand doesn't reflect whom he wants to become as a leader of technical managers. As a result, “A” needs to develop a new leadership brand that will present a leadership competency of a leader and not a technical manager.?

How to build a strong Leadership Brand??

To build a strong leadership brand, start by getting to know yourself as a leader.

The skills, reputation, and experience that helped you to get to where you are might not all be relevant to you as a leader. For example, you might be known as a problem solver who can solve highly technical issues, but you are now a leader of technical managers, your problem-solving skills will not be as relevant today.

To shift from a technical expert to a leader or a director to VP, you will need to develop a new leadership brand. Your brand evolves as you grow in your career.??

As a result, getting to know yourself, gaining more awareness of your blind spots so they won’t trip you over, and understanding where you are in your leadership journey will help you make a decision on your role, responsibility, and how you'd like to be known.?

Connect with your guiding principles

Leadership is not a position, it’s an identity. To build your leadership brand, you have to connect with your true identity, personal core values, and what you stand for to create a vision and strategy to guide you through your leadership journey.?

Whether in life or business, you make a decision based on your values and what you stand for. These guiding principles will be able to help you lead, act and connect with others in an authentic and genuine way. Your vision and strategy will help remind you when times get tough, so you can come back to why you got started on this journey.?

What do you want to be known for as a leader??

Many leaders I talked to prior to their coaching engagement often say: "I want to be a better leader.", "I want to be a servant leader." or "I want to be an inspiring leader."

To craft a leadership brand, you need a more specific answer. My definition of a better leader is different from yours. There is no one answer to this question. Some things to consider include: being a leader who is accountable, being a leader who is knowledgeable, being a leader who is innovative, and being a leader who is compassionate. Then we can dive deeper into competencies and specific behaviors

When you have a clear picture of how your leadership brand would be, you will be able to create a strategy to gain new competencies and skills so you can act, communicate, and express your behavior in a consistent way.?

Center for Creative Leadership suggests that you audit your current brand to understand how your brand is perceived so you can adjust and strengthen your leadership brand accordingly.?

It's a journey, not a destination.

Leadership is not a destination, it's a journey. Leaders are constantly evolving and growing, which is why it's important to have a leadership brand that reflects your personal values and reflects your journey as a leader. Building a brand, in general, takes time to cultivate, but the results will show in the long run. The same goes for building a leadership brand.?

Having a strong leadership brand can help you become a better leader in an authentic way because it's only true to you and not others. In addition, a leadership brand will help you achieve your career goals by signaling your leadership competencies and team management ability to others.?

As you become more respected and appreciated for your leadership contributions, you gain more opportunities and can create more impact for yourself, your team, and your organization.?

I hope this short article helps you understand more about leadership branding and inspire some actions to build one for yourself.?

Any questions, suggestions, or want to have a quick chat, reach out to me at [email protected]