3 Fundamental Leadership Branding Benchmarks

Having near-term realistic and well-sequenced goals that foster a rock-solid foundation are “the pixels that create the picture.”

Whether for a personal or corporate brand, primary objectives of a leadership branding endeavour include gaining traction, relationships and awareness. This as it relates to specific initiatives, an overarching mission or a persona at large. Since the potential is often significant and the opportunities seemingly endless, it is important to be intentional and incremental in the approach to ensure you stay on your strategic course. This includes developing achievable milestones that are well-sequenced and provide demonstrable ROI (relative to both impact and profit) along the way for either a personal or business brand. As always, there are various fundamental bases to cover at the onset.

Outline Desired Outcomes

With the endgame in mind at the onset, first identify key strategic outcomes and then develop a road map that will help ensure you stay laser-focused on those desired results. Based on your objectives for a leadership or CEO branding initiative, your strategic outcomes will vary. These might include developing easily articulated and understood brand positioning; elevating a personal or corporate profile to bolster public relations and speaking pursuits; increasing event participation; developing new (or escalating existing) strategic partnerships; and building a strategic thought leadership footprint that demonstrates the calibre of expertise and reach among other outcome types and categories.

In working toward such concerted goals, it is also imperative to consider brand challenges. This can also widely vary and might include managing the tone of the brand to better ensure likeability and relatability; addressing unclear branding that requires messaging and positioning refinement; and recalibrating imagery and visuals that are not impactful or, worse, do not aptly position the personal or business brand.

For CEO branding — or any leadership branding pursuit — to work effectively, it is important to strike the right emotional chords. This can be achieved, in part, through innovative, integrated communications that consistently engages audiences. A simple, unified message is a galvanizing tool for the entire team and serves as the backdrop for consistent messaging to all types of audiences, at all levels, to promote cohesive brand awareness. The key to effective brand planning begins with establishing a solid internal awareness and then continues with the clear articulation of brand strengths — ideas that are supported by consistent, powerful marketplace messaging to target audiences.

Accurate Positioning Is Paramount

In the positioning ideation phase, assess the marketplace to identify its current needs and anticipate those in the future. Then, structure the leader’s message and brand strengths to meet those needs. This will heavily rely on a keen understanding of conceptual brand assets. These perceptions can be outlined by brainstorming specific terms that represent the authenticity and desired feel for the brand (or that for the direction you intend to go). This might include concepts such as “inspiring,” “composed,” “credible,” “logical” and “supportive” — whatever duly represents the brand in the mind of individual customers, and even the marketplace at large. Once determined, prioritize those concepts based on those that best align with overarching branding objectives. Of course, these terms are also mission-critical to guide the direction of messaging, photoshoots and other content creation. With positioning, endeavour to structure the brand so it “intuitively connects” with the target audience at any and every touchpoint.

Of course, part of due diligence for positioning strategy requires competitive intelligence. While you might have throngs of competitors, take a sample of those deemed most relevant and then compare and contrast key points. This might include how they are excelling on social media and in the press, what they are achieving in the publishing world and on the speaking circuit and other such easily accessible barometers.

To cultivate a strong and authentic brand, leaders need to be active and engaged on social media — not just passively posting ads. Grow your brand, and company, by being visible on key social media platforms. Strive to be as transparent as possible when communicating on those platforms, rather than overly formal and stuffy — no matter your C-suite rank. Post achievements, share goals, announce exciting innovations and give shout-outs. Even in a business context, people use social media because it is fun. Just because you are serious about the success of your personal or business brand doesn’t mean your posts have to be serious and boring. Being honest and downright vulnerable can go a very long way. Tell your audience when plans fail and how you intend to move forward so they can relate to you on a human level and cheer for your success. Society values honesty, which will translate into trust and loyalty.

Also, disregard the “trolls,” but do take social user feedback seriously, since it can often serve as bona fide market research. Feedback can often be an indicator of what is currently trending and reflect emerging marketplace mindsets that will help you anticipate the needs and wants of your constituents. In order to take full advantage of this “data,” you need to take time and truly hear what users are saying so that you can strategically plan — and pivot — accordingly. This includes knowing that you sometimes need to make the hard decision to change direction despite the best-laid original plans and intentions.

While it is always wise to keep your eye on the “big picture” and know what you’re working toward with a leadership branding endeavour, having near-term, realistic and well-sequenced goals that foster a rock-solid foundation are “the pixels that create the picture.”

Feature Image Credit: ronstik/stock.adobe.com