How do Star Leaders Shape Into The Brands They Are?
Summary: Taking responsibility and having visibility are the two cornerstones of someone who’s a brand in the making. Finally, it’s staying relevant and leveraging key relationships. These are the things that turn people into star leaders.
Being a brand is being your own boss. And that’s exactly what’s being expected of you! Follow the below guide in order to turn yourself into the brand you are and deserve to be.
I get calls from companies saying I need to coach a new manager – someone who’s shown a lot of potential in the past and seems ready to take on new and bigger responsibilities. And in my role as their executive coach, I feel essential to make them understand how they’re no longer going to be just managers. They’ll be leaders who their team as well as the company’s clients would personally come to put their trust in. They’re more than just managers, therefore; they’re now onto a path to becoming a brand in themselves.
Jack Welch, the legendary CEO of GE who boosted its market capitalization to 400 billion dollars and is widely recognized as the best manager of all time, was a brand in himself. GE got defined through Jack Welch, instead of the other way round. His problem was the bureaucratic machinery, the long unnecessary hurdles and once he was the CEO, he could be trusted to be decisive and forceful, ready to remove any obstacles in his way. He fired the bottom 10% of his managers every year, did away with layers of management and made the company much more informal. Jack Welch’s legacy continues, and how he defined his priorities is what people sought him out for and how GE survived and thrived1,2.
And for other powerful star leaders – these brands in the making, I have a couple of important tips to share:
Being a Brand Instead of Following One
Being a brand is being your own boss. And that’s exactly what’s being expected of you! No longer will your boss decide how you’re ‘supposed to’ do something. Being a leader, you are supposed to decide the game plan for your team to achieve its goals. The way you do things and get things done is going to be different too. Own up to it, and you will be able to create exclusivity around you and your crew which everyone wants to be a part of!
Bringing Visibility to Your Brand
Having an online presence is not at all negotiable in today’s date. One of the reasons for being a little wary of being active on multiple social platforms on the Internet could be, facing people who are sceptics and critics for little or no reason at all. Social media platforms, with their well-timed posts, well-thought comments, and well-organized weekly or monthly calendars go a long way in growing your visibility and showing your progress. People have to see what you do, how you deal with things in your own way and be able to respect the exclusivity you bring to your discourse on the internet and in face to face interactions.
Build a Culture with your Brand
Tata has positioned itself in the heads of all Indians with the word Trust. They have come to own the word, reflecting the idea and image of Trust in all their thoughts and actions. Clients will expect integrity, customers expect quality, and the community expects them to give back and invest in people, as they do through their extensive social research and programs. If your brand’s culture is being innovative and free thinking, then the second someone wants to solve a difficult problem they should exclusively turn to you and your team.
Impact on Leadership
Research on how consumers behave in a culture of brands reveals that they face ambivalence 3: a mixture of positive and negative emotions when they are going to choose a product, which is constantly changing. A brand isn’t built once and left alone, it’s when you constantly project what you are uniquely good at that clients can reduce their ambivalence and settle upon you as the correct option. This can do unimaginable things for your ROIs, through a little something known as brand equity. Brand equity is usually tangibly referred to as the price that consumers are willing to pay above the market value because they want what’s associated with the brand.
How will you stand apart from other executives when important projects, duties and promotions will have to be allocated? Do you want to carve your name into people’s minds to represent key values you can deliver and they can expect?
3 Immediately Applicable Action Steps
- Choose a word for your brand. It can be trust, it can be creativity, solutions, perseverance, simplicity, anything.
- At least once a week, share a story with your team which reflects your experiences and what you learnt from them.
- Mark the blind spots in your visibility on the internet and become regular with it.
References
- Hackett, R. (2015, April). Jack Welch: GE’s slim-down is “a smart move.” Fortune. https://fortune.com/2015/04/10/
jackwelch-ge-gecapital/ - Cohan, P. (2012, July). Why Stack Ranking Worked Better at GE Than Microsoft. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/
petercohan/2012/07/13/why-stack-ranking-worked-better-at-ge-than-microsoft/?sh=7126a27d3236 - Otnes, C., Lowrey, Tina M., & Shrum, L. J. (1997). Toward an Understanding of Consumer Ambivalence. Journal of Consumer Research, 24(1), 80–93. https://doi.org/10.1086/209495
- What is brand equity and how to build and measure it | Qualtrics. (n.d.). Qualtrics AU. https://www.qualtrics.com/au/
experience-management/brand/brand-equity/
Authored by Coach Vikram
Vikram is an Executive Presence Coach who supports CXOs and senior leaders to make an impact, influence, and lead with ease. He advises C-level leaders and teams to strengthen business performance through their executive presence and star leadership.
Vikram works closely with Boards and senior leaders to align leadership needs with strategy. His forte is his ability to develop trusted partnerships with senior leaders at some of the most recognized companies in the world. Vikram coaches senior leaders to draw upon their best selves, while growing their business and their leadership capabilities.
Vikram and his team have developed a groundbreaking model of executive presence and an Executive Presence Index (EPI) Assessment, the first frequency based, scientifically validated tool to measure executive presence.
Connect with him if you want practical and immediately applicable strategies to accelerate results, develop your people, and influence others to make a positive difference in your organization.
