How valuable is a brand? More than anyone could imagine. Organizations spend dizzying sums of money, time and talent to ensure their brand is visible and compelling. With ever-increasing choices of products available, branding often provides the differentiation to influence decision. A well liked brand will often stand out over the others.
The same goes for one’s personal leadership brand. Reputations are critical for everyone, and should be managed with the same rigour as organizations invest in products. Your strength lies in your brand value. And your brand must consistently be promoted and communicated. Therein lies the challenge. Some professionals believe personal branding takes too much time away from real work – a sorely misguided perception. Brands are powerful, intangible assets, giving a competitive edge for organizations AND individuals.
Reputations–like brands–take time to build and minutes to destroy. Managing your reputation is managing a brand. Some of us forget this, or can’t be bothered to grapple with creating a tag line. It’s not about a mission statement, but it is about communicating your ‘story, purpose and vision.’ Whether leading a team or starting out, you must have your story ready. Your brand is a story, a promise, a purpose, and a perceived quality, and it must be sung with your voice, no one else’s.
In global organisations, who stands out? Your expertise gets you in the door, working hard paves the way, but your reputation sustains. Working in multiple markets and virtual teams provides little visibility to senior management and influential decision makers. Every organization goes through an annual review of Who’s Who internally. To ensure visibility, many companies arrange dinners, seminars and programs, providing exposure and avenues for networking. Some organizations have advocacy programs to ensure high potential talent is sponsored and known inside the company. An advocate can be a personal brand ambassador. These well-intended programs play a key role in career management. Only if you’re prepared and know what to do and how to act will it have a lasting effect.
Our reputations are built on how we behave and interact with customers, partners and employees, but also how our key audiences interact with us. We all need to put more emphasis on what is said- how we are perceived in various social networks, and incorporate that into a leadership brand strategy. Think about your brand as reputational capital and invest in it!
