It’s never been more important to get your personal leadership brand right as a leader. But, it isn’t easy to concisely articulate what you want to be known for and what your unique value proposition is. So, what is a personal leadership brand and how can you begin crafting it? How can you activate your leadership brand in the market? And, what are some of the common mistakes leaders make when cultivating their personal leadership brand? In this episode of Leadership Lounge, we talk to some of our trusted advisors—Jenna Fisher, Rafael Martinez Gallardo, Shoon Lim, and Chief Marketing and Communications Officer and Executive Producer of Redefiners Amy Scissons—who share their perspectives on: The three key elements that make up a strong personal leadership brand. How leaders can effectively activate their brand in the market. The benefits when leaders get it right—for themselves and their organization. The advice they have for emerging leaders who are starting to craft their brand. “I think earlier in one's career, there’s a tendency to want to be well-rounded and to try to hone things that perhaps you're not as naturally good with, and that's great. But I also think what's really important is to do the self-reflection, to figure out what is it that I am uniquely good at? What can I opine on to others? What can I be an expert at?” Jenna Fisher, Leadership Advisor, Russell Reynolds Associates. Listen now on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. Four things you’ll learn from this episode Your leadership brand exists whether you shape it or not. Take control of your narrative by clearly defining your values, passions, and the legacy you wish to leave behind. Authenticity is key to a powerful leadership brand. Align your public persona with your true self to build trust and credibility. Don’t try to imitate anyone else. Don't just broadcast; interact. Your brand thrives on meaningful engagement with your community. Curate, create, and contribute to discussions to establish a dynamic presence. Your brand is a journey, not a destination. Continuously refine it through self-reflection, feedback, and intentional content creation. Remember, depth and consistency over time yield a robust presence. In this 16-minute episode, we will cover: (3.00) How a well-crafted personal leadership brand can differentiate you in a crowded marketplace. (3.47) The importance of clarity, congruence, and consistency when building your brand. (7.51) How much of what a leader shares should be personal. (8.12) How to identify what topics you should speak on. (11.17) One common mistake leaders make when creating their personal leadership brand. (14.04) Why there are no quick fixes to establishing your brand. A closer look at the research from this episode: Global Leadership Monitor 2022, Russell Reynolds Associates The New Leadership Portrait, Russell Reynolds Associates Listen now on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.
Chapter 1: What is a personal leadership brand?
Welcome to the Leadership Lounge, a place to kick back and listen as our experts dissect some of the biggest questions leaders face today. I'm Emma Coombe, Leadership Advisor in our London office. Today, we're talking about how to develop your personal leadership brand.
It's never been more important to get your personal brand right as a leader, but it isn't easy to concisely articulate what you want to be known for and what your unique value proposition is. So what is a personal leadership brand and how do you begin crafting it? How can you activate your leadership brand in the market?
And what are some of the common mistakes leaders make when cultivating their personal leadership brand? Before we dive in, remember to share any burning questions you want our experts to answer by emailing redefiners at russellreynolds.com. We'd love to hear from you. And if you enjoy listening to our episodes, leave us a five-star review on Apple or Spotify. So let's dive into the topic.
First up, we'd like to welcome Jenna Fisher, Leadership Advisor at Russell Reynolds Associates Palo Alto office and author of the book, To the Top, How Women in Corporate Leadership are Rewriting the Rules for Success. Jenna, welcome to the Leadership Lounge. Thank you so much. It's great to be here. Jenna.
We know that a strong personal leadership brand can be a powerful differentiator, but leaders aren't spending enough time crafting their brand. We found that 74% of CEOs said that they spend too little time on themselves. And no doubt this statistic applies to a broader cohort of leaders. How would you define a personal leadership brand?
I think it was Jeff Bezos who said that your brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room. And everyone has a personal leadership brand, whether they know what it is or not. Certainly online, when somebody Googles your name, that's your brand. What they see on LinkedIn, that's your brand.
And I think it's really important that you spend some time crafting and honing what your brand is. But I think it's super important that it is authentic to who you are.
And Jenna, it's really interesting. Somebody actually said to me only today that 60% of who you are is what people say about you when you're not in the room. 20% is what you do. 20% is what you say about yourself. But 60% is exactly what you're saying when you're not in the room. And that can obviously be in the virtual world as much as in the real world.
To talk further on this point and to uncover some of the benefits when a leader takes control of their leadership brand, we'd like to introduce Shun Lim, Leadership Advisor in Russell Reynolds Associates Singapore office into the conversation. Shun, welcome to the Leadership Lounge. Thanks Emma, really glad that I could make it and I'm really glad to be here.
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Chapter 2: Why is clarity important in a leadership brand?
So Shun, why do you think it's important for leaders to develop their personal brand and what are some of the benefits when they get it right?
When it is crafted well, your leadership brand can differentiate you in a crowded talent marketplace. It quickly helps you to build trust and credibility with stakeholders because it gives people a very quick sense of who you are and why you do what you do. To quote Koji Sato, the CEO of Toyota, on this point, people do not buy what you do, they buy why you do it.
Chapter 3: What are the key elements of a strong personal leadership brand?
I think that's a great point, Shun, and demonstrates the importance of knowing your purpose and effectively communicating it. So when we think of a strong personal leadership brand, it's like a well-crafted story. It has depth and resonates with the audience. But Shun, what exactly goes into creating this narrative? What are the key elements that make up a strong personal leadership brand?
There are three key elements that make up a strong personal leadership brand. The first one is clarity. So being clear-headed about who you are, taking time to consider what is truly, really important to you, the legacy that you want to leave, what you want people to say about you. The second is congruency. The brand needs to be authentic to you.
It should stand for who you are, your values, your passion, aspirations and personal purpose. When it is authentic you will more naturally act and behave in ways that are in alignment with your brand. Finally, the third one is consistency. This is a function of you showing up consistently across different challenges and contexts in alignment with your values and passions.
That's exactly right, Shun. And you can see these traits in many successful leaders today. Knowing your values in particular is key to not only starting to develop and hone your personal brand, but also to your long-term success. And Shuna, our research found 95% of leaders said having a clear sense of their personal values was important in preparing them for their current leadership roles.
When I think about a leader who really has, to your points, clarity, congruence and consistency, Richard Harpin comes to mind, who is the founder and chairman of HomeServe, an international home repairs and improvement business that he founded from nothing, a £10,000 investment into a £4.1 billion revenue business in 2023.
I feel Richard has developed an incredibly clear narrative across multiple platforms. He writes a column in the Sunday Times business section. He's a very active voice on LinkedIn, and he's the author of a book.
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Chapter 4: How can leaders activate their brand effectively?
Chapter 5: What common mistakes do leaders make with their personal brand?
It should stand for who you are, your values, your passion, aspirations and personal purpose. When it is authentic you will more naturally act and behave in ways that are in alignment with your brand. Finally, the third one is consistency. This is a function of you showing up consistently across different challenges and contexts in alignment with your values and passions.
That's exactly right, Shun. And you can see these traits in many successful leaders today. Knowing your values in particular is key to not only starting to develop and hone your personal brand, but also to your long-term success. And Shuna, our research found 95% of leaders said having a clear sense of their personal values was important in preparing them for their current leadership roles.
Chapter 6: How does authenticity impact a leader's brand?
When I think about a leader who really has, to your points, clarity, congruence and consistency, Richard Harpin comes to mind, who is the founder and chairman of HomeServe, an international home repairs and improvement business that he founded from nothing, a £10,000 investment into a £4.1 billion revenue business in 2023.
I feel Richard has developed an incredibly clear narrative across multiple platforms. He writes a column in the Sunday Times business section. He's a very active voice on LinkedIn, and he's the author of a book.
And all of his communication, whether on LinkedIn, in his articles, or through other means, is really consistent about his desire to support growth, to support entrepreneurs, and to share the lessons that he's learned. I'd now like to welcome Amy Sissons into the conversation. Amy is Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Russell Reynolds Associates and Executive Producer of Redefiners.
She's based in our New York office. Amy, welcome to the Leadership Lounge. We're really excited for you to share your insights on this topic. Thank you. It's great to be here. Amy, we've spoken about how important it is for leaders to spend time defining their personal leadership brand. But when it comes to activating their brand in the market, what's your advice for leaders?
Great question, Emma. When I'm meeting with C-suite leaders to talk about activating their brand, there's sort of three things I ask them to think about. First of all is how are you engaging your community on a regular basis? Making sure that you're not only using your voice in the market, but also reacting, responding to things that are happening in the market. That's one.
The second piece of this, which is really important, is curating content on a regular basis when you're reading something that's particularly relevant or there's a new piece of research that comes into the market. You want to make sure that you're on front of that and you're sharing that with your community.
And then the third piece around this where I think it gets really interesting is when C-suite leaders start to think about what is the content that I can create as an individual? And some people find that really overwhelming, but it doesn't need to be. With AI tools like Cloud and ChatGPT, it can become very easy to sort of create first versions of content and then you iterate on that over time.
Wow, Amy, that's some quite bold things that you've raised there. Absolutely fascinating. And if you feel that content writing isn't your strong suit and your time strapped, I can see that some of these tools, if used correctly, could be really helpful. And actually, this podcast has really helped me to think about different topics and how and where to share my perspectives.
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Chapter 7: What role does personal passion play in leadership branding?
But I'm also conscious that it's a journey. There's more I could be doing. I'm sure I could bring more of a personal angle into it, but it It takes time and obviously you don't want to distract from the professional persona that's central to what you're typically doing on platforms like LinkedIn.
Amy, on the point of activating your brand in the market, how much of what you share should be personal from your point of view?
This is a tricky question for many professional leaders in the marketplace because oftentimes we anchor ourselves in our role or our function or what we're particularly known for. But where the brand really comes to life is where you have your uniqueness and you have a bit of your personality, your interests, and your overall purpose come through.
One way to think about that is what are your personal passions? If you could donate 10 hours of your time every month to a nonprofit organization, what organization would that be? And how does that relate to your purpose? And once you start to weave that in with some of your professional expertise, it becomes very, very unique and ownable in terms of your brand.
I think that's such an interesting way of framing it, Amy, for leaders who might be unsure of what to share besides who they are in their role or their function. It helps you to rethink beyond your corporate persona, but make sure that it's all tied into some consistency around your values and your purpose.
When I think about issues that align with my values, I've led charity partnerships with the Princess Trust at Russell Reynolds Associates and with a local secondary school, the Chelsea Academy. This has been able to really neatly leverage our skills around leadership advisors, developing careers. So doing things like mock interview practice, CV writing workshops is tied in really neatly.
And it's not something that I've shared, to be honest. I think it's incredibly British to kind of hide these things under a bushel. But actually, I will now reflect on whether that could be helpful to share a bit more about who I am, what I believe in, and also to represent Russell Rengels Associates in an effective way in the market.
I think Nike is an organization that's great at not talking about their products, but actually the purpose behind it. It's really quite sophisticated. They tend to focus on the power of sport and how sport can enhance people's lives. And whilst they don't ever specifically talk about products, The brand resonance in the market, as we all know, is incredibly powerful.
We'd now like to introduce another voice into the conversation, Rafa Martinez-Gallardo, Leadership Advisor at Russell Reynolds Associates' Mexico office. Rafa, welcome to the Leadership Lounge.
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