Building a Personal Brand: A Must for Leadership
Your personal brand is a promise to your clients…a promise of quality, consistency, competency and reliability.” – Jason Hartman
But the creation of Personal Brands has become extremely mainstream with its importance immediately forgotten. The term has been ‘commodified’ and with excessive number of ideas & tips to build a strong personal brand has resulted in lack of relevance and the loss of demand for such brands. As a matter of fact, Personal Brand Development contributes to the growth of one’s leadership skills and career. Many fail to see that building a personal brand is more than just promotion on social media. It involves the adoption of several characteristics including those of responsibility, accountability and trueness to oneself.
It is extremely important to define the characteristics that make you distinct from those around you and what you wish to contribute to society. A personal brand represents the values of a person and hence, one should be very careful as to what he conveys via his brand. In this manner, the creator ensures that his brand is defined by him, which gives the brand relevance and value. You as the creator will be held responsible for the values you project through your personal brand.
Once the personal values of a person are conveyed through his brand, the audience, clientele, or people associated with him have certain expectations. This is when accountability plays a crucial role as the creator has to constantly envisage change as well as new ideas to intrigue his audience and to meet the standard of expectations set by him for himself and his audience. These characteristics lead to the development of the creator as a Leader who is accountable to his audience.
It is your responsibility to live the brand image you create for yourself. This shouldn’t be mistaken for acting as someone you are not. You need to be true to yourself and uphold everything you believe in. The authenticity of your being must reflect in the brand you create for yourself. This is not self-promotion but the promotion of your brand. Focus on how the objectives of the brand would benefit the community and not on your success stories.
Although this adaptation may seem unnatural and not necessarily who you are, with time, it becomes a part of you – your brand. The development of a brand when done right, changes an individual into one who receives respect without demanding it and has the abilities of a good leader as it incorporates into one, originality and a distinct yet compatible personality. In conclusion, it is fair to say that not everyone who creates a personal brand is perceived as a Leader but the one who decides to put his heart and soul into developing his brand, certainly emerges as a Leader.
