Be Your Brand | Your Personal Brand Matters

Your Personal Brand Matters

A lot of leaders are complacent in allowing their organization’s brand to speak for itself. “The proof is in the pudding,” they reason. For that very reason, a lot of leaders are average.

Those leaders wanting to make a greater impact on behalf of their organization are willing to embrace themselves as an extension of their organization’s brand. Elite leaders that maximize impact realize that their organization’s brand is actually an extension of their personal brand.

There’s a wise saying that we are the average of the five people that we spend the most time with. Likewise, organizations are mirror images of their leaders, for better or worse. Any effective leader’s vision, mannerisms, values, and even quirks are reflected throughout organizations given enough time. This might mean flexible work hours or being willing to pick up the phone on a Saturday. Or it might mean that family comes first, for everyone from the CEO to the guy validating the CEO’s parking.

What this really means is that every leader’s personal brand matters. Leaders must take time to develop their personal brands, not only to extend their personal impact, but to influence the impact that their respective organizations make on a daily basis.

Leaders must take their personal brands as seriously as they do the brands of their organizations, finding the iconic elements that make them who they are so that they can show their teams who THEY are.