You may have noticed last week that we put a poll together on Linkedin and asked ‘What is the one thing that would be most helpful in better managing your career?’ Thank you to those who took the time to complete it.
We picked four out of five of the topics we are covering in our newly launched Women’s Accelerator Programme. The results are insightful and are listed in order below. As you can see, ‘’developing a clear personal leadership brand’ has come out in poll position taking 30.5% of the votes.
Developing a clear personal leadership brand
Successfully navigating workplace politics
Building and nurturing strategic relationships
Managing conflict with peers, team members or bosses
It’s interesting as when I think back to my early-to-mid-career, developing a clear personal leadership brand was no-where on the agenda, whereas in today’s world, the power of the personal brand and the ‘influencer’ movement, have continued to gather pace. Professional positioning helps to advance your career in this day and age without a doubt, so it’s something to bear in mind as you continue to climb up the career ladder.
So why is it important to start to cultivate one if you haven’t done so already?
If you’re unsure of what your leadership brand is, you’re not managing it and leaving people’s perception about you and your brand to chance.
By not managing it, you’re not in control of what people think of you. You’re also leaving it up to others to potentially define it for you.
When you’re in control, you can positively influence what people believe and say about you when you’re not in the room.
If you’re consciously intent and consistent in role-modelling your brand attributes, you’ll have more influence and credibility.
The question is if you’re talented and ambitious, are you clear about your personal leadership brand?
If you’re unclear on how to kick start your thoughts around this, here are some guiding points to consider.
Be future focused: think about how you want your career to evolve – what’s your end goal? When you’ve defined this, ask yourself ‘why’ have you chosen this. The answers from this question will then help you to further hone, tweak and substantiate your end goal.
Define what you want to be known for and for what you want to stand: when you’re clear about these, they will help define your actions and keep you anchored when dealing with challenging, high-stress situations.
Know the value you bring and what drives you: clearly define your core values, passions, interests and motivations, as well as your skills and expertise.
One of the topics we cover in our Women’s Career Accelerator programme is how to define your leadership brand – click here to find out more: https://womens-career-accelerator-programme.lpages.co/1/