Personal Brand Strategy: How to Help Emerging Leaders Stand Out

In leadership, reputation matters. A positive reputation can build trust and credibility, increase engagement and help leaders stand out from the crowd – boosting their ability to influence and inspire others. We often don’t think about reputation until something goes wrong. However, leaders who adopt a personal brand strategy to proactively manage their reputation can leverage this to create impact for themselves and their organisation.

By supporting potential future leaders to craft a strong, positive personal brand, you can get ahead of the curve and ensure they have the positive reputation they need to succeed when the time comes.

Personal branding isn’t just for influencers and celebrities; it’s a leadership skill your business can’t afford to ignore.

In this blog, we’ll explore:

• Understanding Personal Brand
• Personal Brand Strategy and Emerging Leaders
• Supporting Emerging Leaders to Stand Out
• Next Steps

Understanding Personal Brand

We all have a personal brand, whether we’re aware of it or not; an identity that communicates to the people around us who we are, what we’re about and what they can expect when interacting with us. Our personal brand is what people notice and remember about us… and what they say about us when we’re not in the room.

We’re all familiar with this concept from product branding, though we may not be used to applying it to ourselves. Think about Disney; what words come to mind? You might be thinking something like magic, family-friendly, wholesome, fun… you’re probably not thinking horror, adult-only, immoral or disturbing. You don’t need to see every Disney movie ever made to have a good idea of what you’ll find (and what you won’t) when you watch their latest release or visit one of their parks. Disney has a strong, consistent, well-managed brand that lets us know exactly what we can expect from interacting with them.

Just like you have an idea of what to expect when you hear the name ‘Disney’, other people have an idea of what to expect when they hear your name. Those expectations become your personal brand.

Why Does Personal Brand Matter?

Once people know what to expect from you, they filter the opportunities they send your way. Do people invite you to collaborate on complex projects because they know you’re well-organised and will help things run smoothly? Do they include you in problem-solving conversations because you’re a creative person who brings fresh ideas to the table? Are you always top of the list for attending client meetings because other people recognise you as a great relationship-builder? Or are you considered for leadership positions because you have an ability to influence and inspire the people around you?

Whatever it is that people think when they hear your name, they are thinking something. That something impacts the opportunities that come your way and forms the foundation of your career. A strong personal brand strategy can support career development for everyone – from new graduates who are striving to figure out who they are as a professional through to senior leaders who want to ensure their reputation aligns with what they need to communicate as a leader.

By encouraging employees to take ownership of their personal brand and build their professional reputation in a positive and intentional way, you make sure other people know them for the right reasons. This means they’re front of mind for opportunities that best align with their skills and experiences – boosting personal development and supporting organisational success.

Personal Brand Strategy and Emerging Leaders

One group who can particularly benefit from adopting a personal brand strategy is future or emerging leaders. Transitioning into a leadership role can be challenging but having a strong, positive personal brand can ease the process by:

1. Making Future Leaders More Visible

In today’s professional landscape, where so many of us work in virtual or hybrid teams, visibility is a real challenge. Teams become siloed, remote workers fade into the background and we may overlook people we shouldn’t. Remote workers are promoted 31% less frequently than in-office workers, suggesting visibility is a factor in decision-making. If your high performers aren’t visible, you could be missing out on strong future leaders.

By encouraging employees to adopt a personal brand strategy to increase their visibility at work, you gain sight of potential future leaders and ensure that everyone is equipped to build their professional reputation – regardless of how and where they work.

2. Helping You Make the Right Leadership Decisions

Professional reputation is an important factor in who is selected for leadership opportunities. Personal brand strategy is not just about image. It impacts who ends up in a leadership position and therefore who influences the long-term future of your business.

By empowering employees to take control of their personal brand, you gain visibility over the strengths and potential skills gaps within your talent pipeline, and your people gain the tools they need to build their reputation and make sure they’re recognised for the right reasons. This leads to better development, promotion and leadership decisions that put the right people in the right places.

3. Increasing Buy-in for New Leaders

Leadership is not just about competence; it’s about perception, confidence and trust. When someone steps into a leadership role for the first time, their personal brand forms the foundation of how they’re perceived by their team… and how much that team buys into them as a leader.

By ensuring emerging leaders have taken time to craft a personal brand before that moment comes, you put them in a position to build on pre-existing trust, credibility and reputation. This increases the likelihood that their team buys-in to them as a leader, fast – improving outcomes for everyone.

Supporting Emerging Leaders to Stand Out

Understanding the importance of personal brand strategy is one thing; building it is another. You can support emerging leaders to stand out in the right ways by helping them to:

1. Understand What Their Personal Brand Is

Adopting a personal brand strategy is not about creating a new persona. It’s about understanding what you already have and being intentional in shaping what that communicates to the people around you.

Encourage future leaders to reflect on what makes them them – as a person and as a professional. Are they calm, resourceful, efficient, creative, ethical, inclusive, impulsive, organised, playful, logical, reflective, rebellious, adaptable, honest, analytical… and do they think other people would say the same things?

2. Manage Their Personal Brand at Work

Once they identify their core brand values and attributes, you can support them to get proactive about managing that brand and turning ideas into strategy.

There may be some elements that are aspirational and require more targeted goal-setting, some that require a high level of self-awareness in knowing when to ‘dial up’ or ‘dial down’ certain behaviours or some they may not have brought to work before and need support bringing into a professional context.

3. Build Personal Brand Equity

The next stage of building a strong personal brand strategy is building brand equity, i.e. the value of a brand. Building personal brand equity relies on three key areas: brand appeal, brand differentiation and brand recognition.

Brand appeal

Personal brand appeal is based on credibility and reputation. It’s about whether people find you to be trustworthy, authentic and worth paying attention to. If personal brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room, brand appeal is what determines whether that’s a positive or a negative thing.

Encourage future leaders to consider not only who they are right now but who they want to be. Focus on long-term development that balances growth with authenticity, maintaining trust and credibility.

Brand differentiation

Personal brand differentiation is about how clearly you stand out from other people who have a similar skillset. If personal brand is what people say about you when you’re not there, what makes them bring you up in the first place? What makes people say your name and not someone else’s?

Take time to have conversations with future leaders where you dig into what really makes them different. Help them understand why it’s important to play to their unique strengths and the impact this can have on their career, their team and the wider business.

Brand recognition

Personal brand recognition relies on your visibility, professional network and online presence. It’s about how widely you’re known and remembered, and how easily other people recognise when your personal brand might be a good fit for an opportunity. It’s no use crafting a strong personal brand if no one else sees it.

As part of their personal brand strategy, encourage emerging leaders to get serious about their online presence. As well as raising their profile and helping them to build their professional network and reputation, your organisation also benefits. People are 3x more likely to trust information shared on LinkedIn by an employee than by a CEO and 2x more likely to click-through on a piece of content shared by an employee than by a company. Your leaders are the voice of your organisation and their personal brands ultimately determine the reputation of your company. By supporting emerging leaders to build a strong, positive personal brand online, you can tap into the power of employee advocacy and boost company reach and reputation.

Next Steps

By investing in your future leaders and supporting them to develop a strong, positive personal brand strategy, you not only boost their professional development and help them stand out at work but strengthen your talent pipeline – protecting the reputation and future trajectory of your business.

To learn more about how we can help your employees master the art of personal branding, get in touch! We are here to help.