Leadership branding

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” – Warren Buffett

How do you want people to remember you?

This question will be one of the many questions I asked in the leadership workshop. The moment someone mentioned your name, what will be the first few traits or identity that come into their minds? More positive or not so positive?

I believe that building your own leadership branding will take time and it’s a journey to be consistent and maintain a great brand. It also serves as a good reminder for us to ensure we are practicing what we are preaching. It all boils down to integrity.

You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.” – Henry Ford

Yes, another profound statement by Sir Henry Ford, intention alone may not be enough, we need to put into action should we choose to build our leadership brand.

The key areas to a great leadership branding, based on numerous interactions with leaders from around the region are as listed below;

Self-Leadership, leading others, emotional quotient, communication with others (the manner), how we make people feel after they have interacted with us…

One of the videos I have watched (introduced by one of the MNC leaders) mentioned the following process…

Character —> process —> results

Based on the process, the gain results and to sustain is to focus on the process. Once we get the process right (mastery and habits), the results will come automatically. Thus, to build our leadership branding, we need to work on how we are being, doing and getting it…

Our reputation and how we carry ourself when dealing with people (best is to stay true to ourselves), to strife by living your own brand (be comfortable in your own skin) and build good mindshare of others on you, and that is how I believe we can practice our differentiation (any how, we are unique).

How can we then work on building our leadership branding? We can make use of Deming’s PDCA model…

Plan, do, check, act

Plan; to me it means plan your own strategy and goals on your leadership branding.

Do; action and execution of your strategy and goals…

Check; what is the outcome from your action? How do you feel and what is the learning?

Act; fine-tune on the outcome and learning. It’s all in the details… a little bit goes a long way… the back to planning – setting your sight on your own improved version. Bigger and better… continuous improvement; Kaizen!

Recently while working on this leadership branding topic for my blog… I came across an article from Harvard Business Review;

The title of the article is as follows;

Define Your Personal Leadership Brand in Five Steps by Norm Smallwood

After reading it, I have picked up some good points that I would like to share with you… also my answers as example ?

1. What results do you want to achieve in the next year?

In the next 12 months, what would you like to see and experience with…

clients and partners;

My answer: Value in new approach, new topics, improved delivery

Own organisation;

My answer: Additional clients, new products, certification, partners

Community;

My answer: Serving with more CSR, charity,

Inspiring and developing leaders to reach their highest potential for God.

2. What do you wish to be known for?

Willingness to share, genuine and reliable

Innovative, ethical, fast and accurate

3. Define your identity

Dynamic, Integrity, Ownership, Nurturing

4. Construct your leadership brand statement, then test it.

“I want to be known for being ______________ so that I can deliver __________.”

I want to be known for being generous, ethical, dynamic, accountable so that I can deliver value to people that I served for the best memories of my life.

• Is this the brand identity that best represents who I am and what I can do?

• Is this brand identity something that creates value in the eyes of my organization and key stakeholders?

• What risks am I taking by exhibiting this brand? Can I live this brand?

5. Make your brand identity real

Being true to myself. Living my own legacy. Designing my own life as my leadership branding.

And my final thoughts,

Consistency is key.

“Your habits, your future!”

21 Personal Power Habits

Recently, I re-read a book by Brian Tracy, “Eat that Frog!” and it made a lot of sense. There are 21 topics that he covered in the book, I took some notes based on what I have learnt.

My humble opinion, if you are able to focus on one topic and take action for at least 30 days (it works better with an accountability partner). You will definitely see yourself change for the better.

There you go… the 21 Personal Power Habits (based on my understanding…). All the best in your action.

  1. Have a goal in writing for clarity. When you write down the goal, means you have put in some thoughts for the goal.
  2. Invest some time in advance planning. As the saying goes, “a stitch in time, saves nine…” though we have to expect the unexpected, we are preparing ourselves for any circumstances.
  3. Using the Pareto principle (80/20) to our advantage. Focusing our time and strength on the main 20% of activities to give us 80% of results.
  4. Weighing the critical-ness of the outcomes will point us to setting priorities (urgent versus important).
  5. Apply a system to assign the importance or sequence of tasks using method of preference (ABCDE, High-Medium-Low. Numbering, etc.)
  6. Effort versus results. Which area do you need to get results first? Focus on that first or get someone to help you to complete that area first before moving on to the next one.
  7. Time may be limited to finish all the activities… where you focus your energy, you get the results. Priorities on the most important ones.
  8. 6P’s on preparation: proper prior preparation prevents poor performance.
  9. Invest time in doing research to find out more before starting. What resources are needed? How can you be more resourceful?
  10. Utilise your strengths and talents. Things will be easier when you use your strengths to do it. More will be achieved with higher motivation as when focus on strengths, the less challenging the tasks will be.
  11. Determine the barriers and constraints. When the goal you set is audacious, you will bump into bottlenecks that slow you down. Once identified, get help or overcome them.
  12. Take one step at a time. Chunk the big tasks into smaller ones and keep going. Accomplish the most complicated ones, inch by inch , everything’s a cinch.
  13. Set a deadline for yourself. Some healthy pressure will be good to get things done. Remember the day before you went for your holiday… you get more things done that day…
  14. When are you the most productive? Leverage on that positive flow to achieve better results and getting more demanding tasks done.
  15. Being positive in the journey to get to where you want to be, makes life sweeter… be a fixer and focus on the solutions.
  16. Certain tasks is worth procrastinating. Focus on the high priority, important and adding more value to you.
  17. When you are fresh and full of positive energy, tackle the difficult tasks first.
  18. Divide and conquer. Segregate the tasks into manageable segments then deal with one at a time.
  19. Block your time (calendar) and make time to action with concentration.
  20. Be fast and accurate. Having the sense of urgency with quality execution is a good personal brand to have.
  21. Focus to finish. When you start and stop a task, it will consume more time to complete.

 

To learn more from the Guru, please visit this link:

https://www.briantracy.com/blog/category/personal-success/

 

Let me know how it goes. Enjoy the journey!

 

“Change your habits, change your world!”