Whatever you think of our President-elect, Donald Trump has spent his lifetime building and constantly selling his brand, shaping it to the needs of his marketplace be they investors, a TV audience or voters. He is a master of personal branding.
That said Trump’s rise actually pre-dates the concept of personal branding—the idea that success comes from how you present and market yourself and your career as an individual—which dates back to 1997. Since then, a lot of leaders have talked about personal branding, but few connect it to their leadership to evolve into what they and the people they represent want and need them to be.
According to my organization’s research, fewer than 15% of leaders have defined their personal brand, and only 5% are living it every day. And if you can’t define your personal brand then how can you expect to know its value proposition (what your personal brand solves for)?
Over the course of four months in 2015, I interviewed three-dozen senior executives, and not one could clearly or succinctly answer what opportunities their personal brand solves for, and only 25% of those executives provided answers that were close to being strong responses. And when leaders lack this clarity and understanding of what their brand solves for, they are unable to effectively strengthen their own personal brands, let alone the personal brands of those they serve.
Your personal brand should represent the value you are able to consistently deliver to those whom you are serving. This doesn’t mean self-promotion – that you should be creating awareness for your brand by showcasing your achievements and success stories. What I didn’t tell you about my research I mentioned before is that 70% of professionals believe they have defined their personal brand and 50% believe they are living it. But when you peel back the onion so to speak and ask them to define it you realize that their focus was centered on self-promotion rather than a commitment to advance themselves by serving others.
Your personal brand is the total experience of someone…