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LESSONS FROM LEADERS:
Building Your Personal Leadership Brand
Executives don’t reach the upper echelons of corporations alone – they are inuenced and supportedthrough peer networks and interactions with other senior leaders. In this glimpse into the ExecuNetGeneral Management and Human Resources Roundtables, we offer some of the most pertinent advicefrom executives on personal branding.
 
“A personal brand is valuable only if it is positioned correctly. If there is no market, then the brand is worthless or at the veryleast, diminished in value (Who wants the best-made, mostattractive dial phones anymore?)Executives should focus their efforts to gain maximumexposure to their target market. Determine where thesedecision-makers linger and gain presence in their actualand virtual worlds. The goal is not just to be there but toestablish credibility and develop trust in your abilities inorder to promote a warm personal relationship that mightbe taken offline – resulting in referrals, recommendations,mentoring, exchanging ideas, mutual support, access tocoveted leads, etc.This is a process. It doesn’t happen overnight. You canaccelerate the results by starting off in the right placesand communicating a consistent, focused and compellingmessage. Remember that personal branding is intended todifferentiate individuals, to distinguish among competitors,and demonstrate to employers and colleagues that someone isremarkable. In turn, the benets are generating a memorablepositive impression that will be etched on contacts’ radarscreens and will be recalled at opportune moments, enablingthat branded professional to access appropriate leads and beconnected to potential sources of career and personal progress,now and in the future.”
—Debra FelDman, executive talent agent, career management
“The following are ve key components on personal brandingthat I learned from reading Sherri Thomas’ book,
Career Smart – 5 Steps to a Powerful Personal Brand.
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Core Values: What drives you the most? (Even from anon-business perspective.)
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Passions: What really excites you?
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Personal Characteristics/Differentiators: Are you a leader,follower, creative, analytical, etc?
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Signature Talents: What are you absolutely great at? (I amgreat at event planning; I create great marketing plans; Ianalyze nancials very well; I launch new products well.)
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Successes: What accomplishments are you most proud of?(They tend to highlight the other things, but also serve asexamples that typify your personal brand and what you bringto the table.)”
—ranDal gustaFson, managing Director,strategic marketing consulting
“I think personal brands are extremely important. We haveentered the age when a person no longer works for a companyfor an extended period. We are more or less contractors to thecompanies for which we work. We provide a service, and theyprovide income and benets. The average tenure is less than four years. So you now are your most important product. Ask any HRperson and they will tell you that they use the Internet to ndand validate potential employees.There are a number of things that can be done to promote your brand:
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Keep a personal blog and/or a personal website.
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Get on Facebook, LinkedIn, Naymz and Jigsaw.
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Comment on other people’s blogs.
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Publish e-articles or an e-book.
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Get on the agenda of local industry groups, or a committee.Just like any good marketing program, you need to thinkthrough what you want your brand to represent, and make sure you keep a consistent look and feel. Over time, you want peopleto associate a specic thought with who you are. This is the trendin the new job market – the more recognizable the brand, thehigher the premium.”
—tomme stevenson, FounDer anD PrinciPal, businessDeveloPment consulting
“Your introduction on ExecuNet is your brand. I suggest you startwith it, and see if it describes you as a professional. It has a gooddeal of what you have done; now you need to turn that intofuture tense. Give it a try and post it here.”
—DaviD Wit, general manager, HosPitality
“I use several social media platforms (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter,Plaxo) to build my personal brand and nurture my network.However, I have found the combination of a thought-leadershipblog on LinkedIn and Twitter to be very effective at increasing mypersonal ‘searchability’ on Google.”
—alan see, vice PresiDent oF marketing, it
“I nd that by participating in targeted networking groups,volunteering for committee work and maintaining high visibilityamongst your peer group, you’ll get the name recognitionrequired for branding yourself.”
—stePHen smitH, PrinciPal, arcHitectural/engineering
 
LESSONS FROM LEADERS
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“I would like to start to develop my own personal brand and was interested if others have done it and whatresources they used.”
—Debra santolini, manager oF marketing oPerations, liFe sciences
 
“The best advice is to customize your résumé for each position you pursue. As a practical matter, it forces you to investigate thecompany and the job, so you will be better prepared to have agood interview with a hand-picked résumé. Also, it increases thelikelihood that your résumé (if you are qualied) will be pickedup by the keyword search and/or recruiter’s review since you willhave likely added the pertinent keywords from the job posting to your résumé. The key is to be able to show the value you canbring to the position in question by putting your qualications inthe context of their need.The personal brand is what makes you unique and desirable;by optimizing each résumé for the job in question you ‘spin’ yourbrand for each individual opportunity.”
—JonatHan W. coHen, senior consultant, telecommunications
LESSONS FROM LEADERS
WWW.EXECUNET.COM
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10 branDing strategies
Catherine Kaputa, the founder of SelfBrand, a New York City-based brand strategy rm and the author of 
U R A BRAND! How Smart People Brand Themselves for Business Success,
outlines 10different branding strategies in this excerpt from an exclusiveExecuNet FastTrackWebinar.
Be the rst and narrow your focus.1.
Ask yourself if there isa product, customer segment or service that you were therst to create at your company.
Be a leader.2.
You could be a leading salesperson in yourcompany, in a product, with a customer segment; or youcould be the leader of your team, department or tradeassociation.
Be a maverick, the opposite of being a leader.3.
It involvesidentifying the leaders in your company or arena anddetermining the opposite of that brand image, point of view and action plan.
Own an attribute.4.
Look at the product area or companyand then determine the attributes that are prized withinthe industry and which your brand could own. If youdescribe your brand with one word or attribute, whatwould it be?
Find a new process or magic ingredient.5.
Ask if there is anew process or component that could solve a customerproblem in your company.
Be the expert.6.
Ask if there is an area that you know verywell. What can you do to become an authority or beperceived as an authority? Writing articles, newsletters orbooks are important platforms for people executing thisexpert strategy.
Be preferred.7.
Determine if there is a customer segmentthat could become the focus of your self-brand identity.
Set a high price.8.
High price means superiority. It’s thewhole idea that a consultant who charges $400 an hourmust be better than one who charges $100 an hour.
Know your special heritage.9.
This involves determiningwhat connections you can leverage. These connectionsinclude family, schools, training programs, awards, countryof origin and companies.
Owning a cause.10.
Is there a cause or issue you arepassionate about?
“Branding at its core is really about attaching an idea to a product.It’s the same with people,” says Kaputa.
“
5 stePs to a Personal branD
Personal branding is the image, emotion and thought that you invoke in the other person after you have interacted andcommunicated with them. Learn how to stand out from thecrowd and how to build your personal brand in this excerptfrom an exclusive ExecuNet FastTrack webinar featuringexecutive coach “Coach Nick” Papadopoulos, of Sky’s The Limit.
1. Dene
your vision and your mission.
2. Dene
 your value proposition, the unique set of talentsthat you offer.
3. Identify
your target audience.
4. State
your brand promise.
5. Determine
how you will execute your brand.
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