“Have you ever wondered what people say about your leadership when you’re not in the room? That’s your leadership brand.”
Everyone has a leadership brand. Not just senior leaders – everyone.
The question every leader should ask themselves: “Is the leadership brand I think I project, the one other people actually experience?”
Defining Your Leadership Brand
When I say leadership brand, I am not talking about a title, a position, or personality type. I am talking about the two elements that form your brand. The first, what people experience when they interact with you. The second, how they feel after the interaction is over.
That’s it. Not what you intend. Not what you hope others experience and feel. It is a description of what it is like to work with you and how people walk away feeling.
Your Brand is Your Impact Rather than Intent
Many leaders spend time thinking about who they want to be as a leader. When they should spend time understanding how they are actually experienced.
As a leader we do not experience our own leadership. We know how we intend to have people experience us and how we intend to make them feel. Are you sure that your intent equals your impact?
The gap between intent and impact is a leader’s blind spot. For example: You might intend to be an assertive and direct leader. Yet others might experience you as intimidating.
You might intend to be an easy going, low intensity leader. Yet others might experience you as disengaged.
Intent versus impact. The difference is a blind spot. Which means your brand is being shaped erroneously and you don’t know it.
Why This Matters
Your leadership brand affects everyone in your leadership orbit; seniors, peers, and subordinates
It affects individual’s trust, candor, motivation, performance and more.
People decide how open to be with you long before you ask for their opinion.
They decide how much effort to give before you ever set expectations.
Those decisions are based on how they experienced you and how you made them feel over time. Your brand.
Leadership Brand Reflection
Suppose I have the time this week to ask those you work with; “What’s it like to work with you?” What will they say and how will they say it?
The answer is your brand.
Julie has been a great leader, organized, direct, and listens well. I have enjoyed the challenge of meeting her expectations. We have accomplished a lot this quarter. (spoken with positive energy)
Bob is a challenge to work for, he has high expectations however, he doesn’t set the vision at the outset. He communicates in bursts which has us constantly changing our direction. I am seriously frustrated with our progress. (spoken with a negative tone and body language)
What they say is how they experience you – how they say it is how you made them feel.
As leaders we don’t get to decide whether we have a leadership brand. We already have one.
What we get to decide is how deliberate we are about shaping our brand. That shaping requires us to understand the gap between our intentions and impact.
This week, gather feedback from others in your leadership orbit to understand how you are experienced and how you make others feel.
