By Sharon Williams, Branding Expert
You only get one chance to make a first impression. If you are a leader or an expert—whether you like it or not —you are captain of your personal brand. You may be loud and outspoken or quiet and discreet, but either way it pays to be yourself on purpose and not leave it to chance.
Your personal brand helps you stand out
Your personal brand is what differentiates you from the pack and makes you stand out in a tough market. Your brand is represented through your body language, the way you speak and what you say, what you write, your image, how you promote your online presence, how you demonstrate your expertise and how you deal with people.
A strong, confident personal brand allows you a richer choice of future options. It is amazing how few leaders and next generation leaders are not embracing the full opportunity to improve their personal brands. Take a look around you.
A strong personal brand allows you to:
- Be more recognisable in terms of what you are offering
- Charge premium pricing
- Be exposed to a greater range of opportunity
- Be a thought leader and sought after for comment
- Handle the press and communication situations with ease
- Build tangible brand assets and bankability
- Increase employee morale
- Attract the most highly skilled workers
- Shine in the eyes of your target audiences, customers, prospects and suppliers, media, investors, partners and analysts
- Increases awareness of your company or product
- Feed the sales pipeline
- Build personal, professional and corporate reputation
Good leaders demonstrate their core values with every appearance. If you look at CEOs such as Richard Branson, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, who they are, what their companies do and most importantly, how they do it, is all a reflection of their personal brand values. Everyone knows them, everyone knows what they do and each could start a new business tomorrow and have instant recognition and success.
This is no time for modesty
We are no good at blowing our own trumpet. Listen to men present or speak, then listen to women. On the whole men will expose their virtues and their experiences – while we hold quiet in modesty. Believe me, although there is always a time to be still, in business there is no time for that now!
While modesty is an admirable virtue, it seldom feeds the sales pipeline.
The GFC saw the division widen between those with a strong personal brand and those who are less confident of espousing their skills and capabilities from the rooftops. Very few of us were lucky enough to sit quietly, holding our breaths waiting for the recession to pass, and still see a healthy sales pipeline and profit flow.
I strongly believe that only the focused survive extraordinarily challenging times. We have to decide whether to cut and retreat, or take the bull by the horns and do whatever it takes to succeed.
Evidence shows that the more recognisable your CEO – the closer the link with a stronger business performance. Your personal brand is more than a personal asset – it is the face of your business and it has been proven that a strong, ethical leadership brand increases the bankability of a company.
Leadership has to be defined by strong core values and these should reflect in your business. By building and promoting your personal brand, you are defining leadership and practising what you preach. Doing one thing and saying another will not build a brand of integrity.
And don’t forget to utilise the rise of social media. The traditional ways and pace of how we used to do business and build brand holds little promise in the future. Social media is everywhere and ignore its influence at your peril. Embrace it and use it to build the brand of you and your company!
So whether you like it or not, you are the captain of your brand. It is up to each of us to steer it in the most profitable and successful direction we can. Indeed, many of us have employees who are relying on us to keep that pipeline active. Travel well! And meanwhile, follow us on twitter for more ideas and tips – sharonwilliams_1
Sharon Williams is a pioneer in the Australian agency industry as founder of Taurus Marketing. Sharon has worked in marketing and PR for 25 years in London, Europe, Hong Kong, throughout Asia and Sydney. She has grown a reputation as an international speaker presenting on a broad range of Marketing, PR, Social media, business and lifestyle issues and has previously presented for over 50 organisations.