Personal Branding is a leadership requirement, not a self-promotion campaign. Successful leaders know this and they make it a point to focus on advancing themselves by serving others. According to my organization’s research, less than 15% of leaders have defined their personal brand and only 5% are living it every day. A lot of leaders talk about personal branding, but few hold themselves accountable to take action. This explains why leaders have difficulty reinventing themselves; only 32% of leaders define themselves as being change agents – at a time when every leader must be a change agent or face extinction.
Have you ever asked your employees or clients what they expect from your leadership? Do you know the added-value they want you to deliver every day as a leader?
Leadership is being proactive about discovering the full potential in others through the unique needs of your employees, the business, your clients and external partnerships. Great leaders get the most out of every situation they are faced with by seeing the opportunity it presents. They anticipate the unexpected by managing crisis and change before circumstances force their hand. Their passionate pursuits of excellence open new doors of endless possibilities that they aim to share with others. Great leaders know what is expected from them and seek to over deliver on it.
Throughout the early stages of my career, my father would always ask me after a day of work: Did you see possibilities that you didn’t even know existed? If not, keep going, son! His goal was to make sure that I always took ownership of everything I was associated with. As I’ve come to learn, this is how the most effective leaders think and what they do when living their personal brand.
As you continue your journey toward developing your personal brand as a leader – remember this: the demand for great leadership already exists – you just need to be courageous enough to take action and be your most authentic self in everything you do and how you do it. With your focus on strengthening your leadership identity, be more mindful of the following three things in your pursuit of excellence:
1. Leverage Your Distinction To Make Others Better
Great leaders are in tune to what gives them distinction. They are aware of how they are wired to think, act and innovate. They know what makes them unique from others in their organization and within the industry they serve. They effectively use their distinction – by knowing when to take action, by elevating the potential of others to help solve problems, and by identifying opportunities previously unseen.
Leaders that have defined their personal brand know how to leverage their distinction and are not afraid to test their ideas and ideals. They are the change agents that challenge the status quo by being constructively disruptive. They assure that the leadership culture they create never grows complacent and that those they lead are always exploring endless possibilities. Risk is their best friend.
2. Over Deliver On What Is Expected
Great leaders know that people expect a lot from them. They don’t hesitate to ask the people they serve what they expect of their leadership – every day – taking notes along the way. They train themselves to be more mindful, to hold themselves accountable to what others expect, rather than exercising their power and influence mindlessly over others.
Effective leaders know that you can never go at leadership alone and that their ultimate responsibility is to over deliver on what people expect from them. They over deliver to silence the skeptics that may doubt their capabilities as a leader. Leaders that live their personal brands don’t delegate their own responsibilities to others. Instead, they inspire, educate, and lift others to achieve more by stretching their thinking – well beyond the obvious. They help others build self-trust and confidence, expand their expectations – and get discovered along the way.
3. Elevate Expectations By Consistently Adding-Value
Great leaders never take their success for granted. They aim to be significant by finding new ways to elevate the expectations that others already have of them. Their goal is to continuously add-value to those they serve and their professional relationships. People build trust and relationships with leaders who are constantly adding value to their careers and lives. The moment a leader stops adding value, their reputation begins to wane – and their effectiveness as a leader goes with it.
Interwoven within these three aforementioned things that leaders do every day to strengthen their personal brands is the ability to take ownership. Great leaders know that taking ownership is the difference between wanting to be relevant – and watching your employees, the workplace and the marketplace pass you by.
Defining your personal brand and consistently living it every day can be challenging – and that’s why most people don’t. But great leaders aren’t most people. They know what it takes, which is not self-promotion but self-awareness – about their distinction and how to use it to advance others – and the desire and ability to over deliver on expectations and continually add value for the organization and people they serve.
Follow me on Twitter @GlennLlopis. Visit our new online, interactive personal brand training program at: www.personalbrandtraining.com.
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