Hone Your Leadership Brand
Struggling with Career Derailers? - Part 4
Enhance Your Leadership Brand
If you think it is important that you strengthen your leadership brand or if you’ve received feedback to that effect, this post is for you!
Your Leadership Brand vs Your Personal Brand
The first thing to know is that:
your personal brand is different from your leadership brand.
Your Leadership Brand is how you are perceived as using the greatness in you to achieve and sustain extraordinary outcomes by engaging the greatness in others.
Because my definition of leadership (modified above) requires Business Savvy in achieving and sustaining extraordinary outcomes, your leadership brand requires that you be known not only for your skills at engaging others or your solid character, but also for your Business Savvy.
Unfortunately, this is NOT what you’ll hear/read if you ask for advice on developing your leadership brand.
As you will see from the example below, the VAST majority of conventional advice over-focuses on telling you to be a great person (P) with great interpersonal and team skills (E).
To give you updated evidence, I recently asked AI to give me the “Top 5 Tips) on strengthening one’s leadership brand. The advice I got back breaks down as follows:
Personal Greatness advice: 47%
Engaging Others advice: 45%
Business Outcomes advice: 0.83%
Let Your Leadership Brand Shine
I often use the analogy of a diamond ring. Caretaking requires two things, polishing the diamond and maintaining/strengthening its setting. I liken the time we spend on our skills at engaging others and honing our character/attributes as polishing the diamond. Time spent developing/enhancing and demonstrating business savvy as strengthening the setting.
Advice, such as that from AI, most leadership programs, most coaches, most companies’ performance measures, etc., tells us to polish the diamond. When we follow that advice and double down on E and P we end up wasting time polishing the diamond. This is why so many women get stuck in middle management. We believe conventional advice, lean on our interpersonal/team skills and watch opportunities pass us by.
Instead, assuming we have no fatal flaws as a person or in our interpersonal/team skills, it’s crucial that we spend time strengthen the setting by honing our Business Savvy. When we do our leadership brand in its entirety shines forth.
I’ve studied the CEO appointment announcements of dozens of women and men who’ve rise to the CEO level.
One finding is that all of these announcements reference the individual’s
Personal Greatness
Business Savvy
Skills Engaging Others
Another finding is that the new CEO’s Business Savvy is referred to significantly more often.
You don’t have to aspire to the CEO level to benefit from this lesson.
Test It Out
Here’s the announcement from when Jennifer Rumsey was appointed CEO of Cummins.
Do you see where all 3 elements are discussed? Hint, they are bolded.
Which is most strongly emphasized? P, E or O? For subscribers I’ve created a key at the very end of this article.
“Jen Rumsey is a once in a generation talent and the right leader for Cummins at this important time in our history. She has been my partner in developing the Destination Zero strategy, which sets forth how the decarbonization of our industry will be a significant growth opportunity for Cummins. Her background as an engineer and technology expertise provides her a deep understanding of the major technical changes taking place and how to capitalize on them. Jen uniquely understands our customers and business, having worked in many different parts of the business during her more than 20-year career, and in every role, she has consistently delivered results. Most recently, she led our global operations as COO during one of the most challenging periods in our history, delivering record revenues and dramatically improving product quality and our market position while addressing unprecedented supply chain constraints. Most importantly, Jen is a principled leader who cares deeply about our stakeholders. We share a common vision for Cummins, and I am confident that Jen will lead Cummins into an even more prosperous future.”
Would you like more information about what matters as you advance toward more senior positions? I’ve written an article based on further analysis of CEO announcements. It was written for coaches, but you’ll find VERY useful information. Find it here: Lessons from CEO Announcements
How Do You Measure Up?
You don’t have to be rising to CEO for your leadership brand to matter - especially your Business Savvy!
Business, financial and strategic acumen manifest at every level from individual contributor to the C-Suite. As I’ve written in a recent post, they just manifest differently.
TAKE ACTION: Ask yourself…
What are decision makers saying about my leadership brand? This most likely shows up in promotion, salary increase and succession conversations that your manager is having with her/his peers.
If you don’t know, what actions can you take to find out?
How would that change if you enhanced your Business Savvy and skills in demonstrating it?*
**If you’re thinking that now’s the time to Be (more) Business Savvy, consider starting your journey here.
The Be Business Savvy Course
Are you frustrated with your career progress, disappointed by career advice that hasn’t worked, angry that mediocre men are moving and you aren’t?
I’m Susan Colantuono, best known for my TED Talk, “The Career Advice You Probably Didn’t Get.”
I’ve devoted most of my working life to supporting the career advancement of women.
Now my work is exclusively focused on offering women tools for developing and demonstrating Business Savvy - the business, financial and strategic acumen we need to succeed and to close The Missing 33% of the career success equation for women.
That includes offering my groundbreaking course in a self-paced version (with coaching support) right here at Be Business Savvy. Check it out!
You will find additional useful and actionable content in my books and other online resources:
No Ceiling, No Walls ebook
No Ceiling, No Walls soft cover
Make the Most of Mentoring soft cover
Coaching Executive Women (occasional) newsletter
Lead ON!
Susan
P “…once in a generation talent”
O “…Destination Zero strategy, which sets forth how the decarbonization of our industry will be a significant growth opportunity (Business and Strategic acumen)
P “engineer and technology expertise provides her a deep understanding of the” (Personal skill set/training)
O “…major technical changes” taking place and how to capitalize on them. (She has tapped strategic acumen to track what’s happening in the external environment.)
O “…understands our customers and business, having worked in many different parts of the business” (Business acumen - focus on customers. Also strategic acumen - external customers)
O “…consistently delivered results” (Focus on financial outcomes)
O “…delivering record revenues and dramatically improving product quality and our market position while addressing unprecedented supply chain constraints.” (Financial outcomes, business outcomes, strategic acumen)
P “…principled leader” Personal attribute
E “…cares deeply about our stakeholders” Proven capacity for/demonstrated engagement of others.
BTW, do you notice the 6 instances where the description touches on her strategic acumen (as it relates to familiarity with the external business environment). This is important because at every level, and definitely the higher you advance, attention to the external environment and appropriate responses matter.
(decarbonization of our industry, technical change, understand customers, market position, supply chain constraints, stakeholders)