Elevating Your Personal Brand as an Executive: Strategies for Standing Out and Building Credibility was originally published on Ivy Exec.
Some executives simply don’t consider their personal brands.
They might believe that their work speaks for itself or that their colleagues will share what they’ve accomplished. Others may not have considered the priorities, values, and expertise necessary for constructing a brand. Others may simply not have the time or interest.
But elevating your personal brand as an executive is key to your success.
“Personal brands aren’t reserved for CEOs. A company’s rank-and-file employees should capitalize, too. It allows professionals to differentiate themselves, and also angle for the promotion that best suits them,” CEO of Co-Communications Stacey Cohen told Forbes.
In today’s professional climate, you can’t simply opt out of personal branding, like you can’t opt out of creating a LinkedIn page or a resume.
“By establishing a strong professional brand for yourself as an executive, you enforce your value as an organizational leader and open new opportunities for professional growth. Whether you are looking to advance your career or turn around a negative reputation, a cultivated executive brand is essential to meeting your career goals,” said Sarah K. White for CIO.
In other words, if you don’t have a personal brand, you’re simply leaving it up to others to perceive you however they see fit.
Do your colleagues think you’re quiet or shy?
Do they think you have interests that are totally different from your authentic passions?
If you don’t have a personal brand, they can think what they will about you.
If you’re ready to control how others perceive you, you might not even know where to start. Here are a few steps to creating and elevating your personal brand.
Identify your personal brand for yourself.
What if you just don’t know what your personal brand is?
The first step, of course, is figuring out who you are as a professional.
Writing for Harvard Business Review, Nahia Orduña describes how to think about defining your own personal brand.
First, she suggests determining what makes you different from others in your field. You can consider your intersectional identity, as well as your upbringing, education, work history, and other factors.
Next, consider what matters most to you. What problems do you care most about, and how do you want to solve them?
Finally, identify your unique value proposition. How can you use your positionality and skills to solve problems at your company and in your industry more broadly?
“Maybe your talent is analytics, and you know how to tell data-driven stories about why a business strategy is or isn’t working. Whatever your area of expertise, how do you use it to add value to your individual work, team, or field at large?” asks Orduña.
Pursue only the activities at work that shape your personal brand.
Whether or not they’ve devised a personal brand, some executives don’t have a particular niche or expertise at work.
Some might simply be interested in a breadth of projects. Others may want to be perceived as helpful, so they volunteer for almost every opportunity presented to them.
However, if you’re trying to elevate your personal brand, you only want to participate in the projects that showcase and develop build your expertise.
“Actively seek out and volunteer for high-profile roles and assignments where you can demonstrate your new brand in action,” CEO of Be Leaderly Jo Miller said to Forbes.
Participate in industry activities that position you as an expert.
Once you’ve started prioritizing the projects and initiatives that match your personal brand, you also want to situate yourself as an expert in your field more broadly.
For instance, you can seek out opportunities to share what you know on podcasts, at conferences, or in media interviews.
Workplace Futurist Marti Konstant says that if executives don’t share their personal brand online, someone else will do it for them.
“Your digital footprint can cultivate, ruin, or launch careers. Why not be intentional about it?” she writes.
Share and create thought leadership.
If you want to be viewed as an expert in your field, you can share your ideas on other people’s platforms, but you also want to create your own content.
If you’re unsure how to start, consider sharing articles you’ve read or videos you’ve liked from others in your industry, adding your own comments about what you found particularly useful in the content.
Once you have some followers, consider writing your own articles on LinkedIn; if you’re not sure about crafting this content yourself, you can always hire a ghostwriter. What’s more, you’ve established a network that will share what you’ve posted like you’ve shared their posts.
You also don’t have to limit yourself to writing if that’s not your thing. You don’t even necessarily have to create new content specifically for this purpose.
“Are there presentations you’ve created that you can publish to SlideShare? Can you get a recording of any public speaking you’ve done? All of this can be shared via your social channels as well,” says David Erickson, vice president of PR firm Karwoski & Courage.
Elevating Your Personal Brand as an Executive
If you want to elevate your personal brand as an executive, the first place to start is by defining your personal brand for yourself.
If you don’t know what you stand for, then you won’t know how to choose projects, build your online presence, or develop your expertise.
If you have a complex professional background and many interests, crafting your personal brand can be difficult. So, you may want to work with a career coach who can help you decide how to position yourself in a way that feels authentic and meaningful.
