“Your personal brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room.” – Chris Drucker
In the arcane language of military terminology, he was what people referred to as a blue falcon. He had reputation for claiming credit for the work of others. His peers called him Casper – after the friendly ghost – because he would disappear whenever there was work to be done, only to magically reappear when the commanding general came around. He sought out the attention – and praise – of the boss like a moth to a porch light. And when things went sideways, he was Teflon: nothing sticks to Teflon, nothing sticks to him.
He wasn’t well liked. He wasn’t considered trustworthy. When he entered a room, others kept a close eye on him. When he spoke, people listened closely for a hidden agenda. If he showed interest in your work, you put it away. If he asked you about something, you assumed he was pursuing his next scheme.
When he was in the room, few people spoke aloud. When he left the room, people relaxed, and conversation stirred again. And when people spoke his name, the response was visceral: nobody likes a blue falcon.
WHAT’S IN A BRAND?
We all have a brand. Regardless of what you might want to believe, it exists. It precedes you wherever you go, speaks for you when you’re absent, and will be your legacy after you leave. In business, a brand is a mixture of attributes – both tangible and intangible – that create value and influence. It’s what makes Coca-Cola my drink of choice or New Balance my preferred running shoe. It’s the reason I might pay a little – or a lot – more for a Breitling when a Timex might work just as well.
Your leader brand is a vision of what you represent, a promise of what you deliver. Ideally, you want your brand to communicate four things: reliability (dependable and consistent), honesty (trustworthy and truthful), uniqueness (original and distinctive), and appeal (exciting and attractive). Your leader brand should be a strong reflection of your values, work ethic, performance, leadership style, and a myriad of other attributes.
FIVE MYTHS OF LEADER BRANDING
But do you manage your brand? Probably not. You work hard, put pride in your performance, and trust that your reputation will speak for itself. For some, that works. For the rest of us, it doesn’t. Take a moment and you can probably name any number of talented colleagues who failed to achieve their professional potential. In most cases, it comes down to an unwillingness or an inability to reflect inwardly, to see themselves how others perceive them.
Typically, there are five things that stand between you and a strong leader brand. They are the myths – born out of sheer stubbornness in most cases – that prevent us from building a brand that truly represents who we are:
1. I don’t need a leader brand.
That’s too bad, you’ve already got one. It’s up to you to manage it.
2. My work ethic speaks for itself.
If that was really true, then every single one of your evaluations would put you at the top of the food chain.
3. My boss will market my brand.
In a perfect world, yes. In this one, they probably have too much to do and a lot of other people to manage. You might get lucky and get some marketing support right around evaluation time.
4. It’s all about who you know.
That’s only half of it. Do it right, and people you don’t even know will be helping you build your brand.
5. My resume is my brand.
If you’re like 90% of the rest of the world, your resume is about as neglected as your brand. And that’s not a good thing.
Have you ever hit a career speedbump and not understood why? Have you found yourself holding everyone else up on the evaluation totem pole? Oftentimes, it has less to do with your talent than it does brand management. Yet, most of us overlook our personal brand. We take it for granted. We leave it for others to manage for us.
If you really care about your future, that ends now.
FORGING YOUR LEADER BRAND
In his 2015 book, Team of Teams, General Stan McChrystal talks about the process he went through whenever he interviewed someone for a position. The one question he asked during every interview? “What would someone say about you who doesn’t like you?” If that isn’t a measure of your leader brand, I don’t know what is.
Acknowledging your leader brand is the first step in taking control: you define it, you describe it, you deliver it. This is the point where you stop allowing others to define you and choose your own fate. You decide what constitutes your brand, not someone else. Taking control of your brand involves a difficult personal journey of self-awareness and reflection. To many of us, that’s a frightening proposition; better to slouch along through a life of blissful mediocrity, ignorant to how others view you. But if you truly want to Be All You Can Be, then you have to open yourself to feedback, both positive and negative.
A well-crafted curated leader brand will provide renewed visibility and presence. It will define and differentiate you. It will draw on an enhanced sense of self-awareness to give you image control and power. When you extend your leader brand across time, it will help you to clarify and achieve your goals. And when you weave it all together, it sets the foundation for your career success.
Taking control of your leader brand has the potential to fundamentally change how others perceive you, but it also translates to an incredible sense of power and liberation. And everything comes down to you making one simple decision: do you want to control your future, or do you want someone else to do it for you?
Good or bad, it’s your leader brand. You only get one. Make it count.
