According to Wikipedia, branding can be the permanent
marking of wood with heat, the marking of animals to imply ownership, or the
application of specific marketing techniques to separate one product from
another. In short, you can brand objects, animals, and other things, but can
you brand your leadership?
Much has been written on the idea of leadership branding
with a focus on the leader’s role within an organization. Leadership branding,
like branding in general, includes concepts such as identity, distinctiveness
and reputation. However, most of what I have read explores these
characteristics in terms of the uniqueness of the team and not so much about
the individuality of the leader.
Leadership is idiosyncratic and effective leadership exists
outside the artificial confines of the typical organizational leadership
paradigm. In other words, one size does not fit all despite the organizational
pull to conform to the skills of the most dominate leaders or those in top
positions. I think of leadership branding in terms of one’s personal leadership
vision… how do I utilize my inimitable mix of personality, performance, and
process to be the best leader I can be?
Personality
Our personality is how we present ourselves to the world. As
leaders, our success is often measured on various personality traits, some of
which have no bearing on our leadership ability. How well we perceive our
leadership abilities is a personality trait that directly correlates with how
well others perceive us as leaders. Our challenge is to be confident, not
arrogant in our abilities while always seeking to improve ourselves as leaders.
According to Peter Drucker, “Leadership is lifting
our vision to higher sights, the raising of our performance to a higher standard,
the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.”
Performance
What would it take to make you a better leader? This is the
primary question behind the concept of performance. Our performance as leaders
can be summed up in the development of the organization, of others, and of our
own knowledge. Great leadership is a magnet for excellent performance – both
individual and organizational performance. However, leadership performance has
to be measured on concepts individual to the leader and not on some commonly
defined set of traits or measures. Consider the words of Mark Sanborn, “Our
brand is a promise for the future based on our past performance.” Leadership is personal therefore our
performance is personal.
Process
Leadership is an accomplishment… not a position we hold in
an organization. Successful leadership often requires some level of
self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-sacrifice. We must be thoughtful in
recognizing ourselves as individuals separate from the organizational
environment so as to fully realize our leadership capacity. This requires
self-control while maintaining the ability to adapt quickly in an ever-changing
environment. Leadership is often a call to service whereby we surrender
personal interest or gain for the betterment of those around us. Yvon Chouinard
states it this way, “How you climb
a mountain is more important than reaching the top.” This is the process
we refer to as leadership.
Within our organizations, common sets of leadership skills
are scalable. We can teach others to manage their time, communicate, and engage
with their teams. It’s the excellence in the execution of these skills that
doesn’t scale so well. The tactics used by one leader to achieve leadership results
may not work for other leaders. When we try to force conformity, we sacrifice
authenticity… and authenticity is the most precious commodity of leadership.
