Unlocking the Value of your Personal Leader Brand
Hi. I’m Perri Richman and I coach professionals on how to build their personal brands and reputations within the context of their organizations and outside.
In the digital age, a professional reputation is our most precious asset because it is what we are known and remembered for. This is important for three reasons:
1. First, recent research shows that 50% of a company’s reputation is attributed to its leaders, like you. This means that your reputation is as important to the company’s reputation as other things like products and services, culture and customer experience.
2. Second, leaders who actively design and cultivate their personal brands are more successful in managing their career progressions, do a better and more focused job of networking, and present themselves more consistently in person and online.
3. And third, the people who are important to you are watching and forming opinions. New people like prospective customers, suppliers or managers “learn up” about you from what they see online or what they hear from other colleagues. Those that know you watch to make sure that your feet match your mouth.
The first steps to knowing who you are and what you stand for is stating a clear purpose and objective, understanding how your key stakeholders perceive you and stating a unique value proposition similar to what you would do for a product or service.
From there, it is about making intentional choices about
1. Your image: Including your communications, your social media profile and how you present yourself.
2. And your actions and behaviors: Where you spend your time, what you speak up about, the role you play in meetings, the work you deliver and the experience working with you.
Aligning your image and your actions ensures consistency and it benefits both you and your company.
Because the key to achieving a productive and rewarding personal brand is to make sure your actions and others’ perception of you are a genuine and consistent expression of who you are from within.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Perri Richman is a brand and reputation advisor for individuals and companies of all shapes and sizes. She a principal at The Brand Promise, a firm that builds the brands through the behavior of leaders, and the creator of “Brand You,” a leader branding methodology shared with hundreds of professionals in industries ranging from consumer products to professional services to technology. She is a certified executive coach, reputation manager and image consultant, speaker and writer.