Personal Brand is the strongest currency you have to deal with in business. It can make or break your career, your leadership and your reputation. So are you aware of the implications that being busy can have on your brand?
A leader needs to be the architect of their brand. A strong personal brand is what will win you the respect of your team, peers, leaders and associates. Respect is something we all need to earn. If you are clear on who you are, what you stand for, and ensure this is relevant and authentic then you will start to gain the respect you deserve. As singer-songwriter Miranda Lambert said: ‘If you don’t stand for something how can anyone respect what you do?’
Having a strong personal brand will enable you to:
- influence and create an impact on others
- position yourself as a thought leader
- attract talent to want to work with you
- attract and create opportunities for you.
When I reflect on leaders who epitomise the above, names like Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Steve Jobs, Seth Godin and Tura Pitt all spring to mind. Barack Obama is someone I have always admired because of his authentic and confident style, his ability to influence and lead through his ability to communicate and engage others. President Obama is comfortable in who he is and demonstrates incredible courage to get to where he is going.
Tom Peters, an American business management writer and author of In Search of Excellence, first popularised the term ‘Personal Brand’ back in 1997. He says: ‘All of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.’ I couldn’t agree more.
A strong personal brand is essential for your career advancement and ongoing leadership development. It naturally lifts your standards and expectations and means that you no longer accept the status quo. It forces you to think outside of the box and have a progressive mindset.
It is also essential for you as a leader to influence outcomes. You have so much more power when you have a strong and recognisable brand.
So why do people continually compromise their brand by choosing to be absorbed by busy? Busy is a brand wrecking ball! It comes in swinging with significant weight and can destroy a brand in a day or quicker. By being absorbed by busy, by using busy as an excuse and continually thinking busy isn’t supporting, promoting or building the brand you want or need. It’s not influencing and it’s not being a strong role model. It’s simply boring.
Busy creates the perception of being unorganised, reactive, out of control and often untrustworthy. This is not the perception of a leader. It’s the perception of someone you want to avoid.
Busy has become so ingrained in our language and mindset that it can be something we have become unconsciously very competent at! I encourage you to raise your level of self-awareness around how your busyness is impacting on your brand and implement the required changes before your brand has been destroyed.
A quick side note – I hope I haven’t caused you to have Miley Cyris’ song playing on repeat in your head as I have created for myself! Rather annoying! But if it annoys you out of being busy then job done!