For business meetings, candidate interviews, and even private meetings, most of us prepare by ‘googling’ that unknown person. On the other hand, someone is also looking at your picture, profile, reading an interview on some portal… Therefore, it is extremely important to build your brand. And not just because of that unknown person.
Do managers even need self branding? The answer to that question is simple: who doesn’t need it? Today, everything is self branding. Managers, entrepreneurs, company owners, athletes, musicians, actors, artists, those looking for a (better) job… The old saying goes, ‘my reputation precedes me.’ This has always been true. Each of us is associated with some perception, but today’s times, digitalization, and social networks have raised all this to a much more serious, demanding, but also riskier level. Self branding carries certain dangers, but also advantages, depending on the goal.
In today’s world, when we are all overwhelmed with various content for business meetings, candidate interviews, and even private meetings, most of us prepare by googling that unknown person. Everyone will look at your picture, profile, or read an interview. Therefore, it is extremely important to build your brand. Business or private. Ideally, both.
Prepare for a marathon
What is personal branding? It is about creating an identity, personal and/or professional, by which you will be recognizable. It implies well-thought-out and continuous communication of your values. It is not a one-time marketing campaign but a marathon. You create a brand through: appearance, clear messages, sharing knowledge, presence online and offline. It is extremely important that online and offline are aligned. In other words, you cannot advocate one stance and values professionally while living something else privately. Example: Al Gore has long advocated reduced electricity consumption, clean energy, personal carbon footprint, etc. At the same time, in 2007, it was presented to the public that he does not live what he preaches: the electricity bill for the estate where he lives was 20 times higher than what was considered acceptable. Of course, his ‘green’ credibility was seriously undermined.
There are countless channels for creating a personal brand, some of which are: social networks, web-sites, interviews for various media, portals, TV, radio, writing articles as opinion makers or experts, speaking at conferences, books, podcasts etc. With personal branding, you want to become recognizable in your field. When someone sees or hears about you, they should immediately have a clear association of what you are an expert in. For example, at the beginning of my career as a headhunter, that term was not so well known, but it was always known that I only worked for senior management. Today, everyone knows that I am primarily headhunter.
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One of the potential dangers is when managers tie their self branding too closely to the name of their employer or product. It is extremely important to know how to balance that. The connection with that company/brand will most often not last a lifetime, and then it becomes very difficult to separate in the eyes of others
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For personal branding to be ‘successful’, it must be authentic. If you try to present yourself as someone you are not, but would like to be, it will quickly be revealed. Moreover, the audience senses that insincerity. Additionally, in personal branding, one should focus on the area in which you are an expert. It is not good to dabble and engage in areas where we are not truly distinguished experts. We often see this today, as some individuals find it most important to post once a day to maintain presence, so they have to invent content or write about anything. Such an approach is harmful in the long run.
Different strategies
Depending on what your goals are, strategies vary. If you want a greater reach, more clicks, higher sales, you will likely opt for a quantity strategy, connecting with anyone. You will post more frequently. Those who do not focus on that will concentrate on quality, the value of the content they publish. They will post less often, but with meaning and when they have something to say. Despite these different approaches, some basic principles remain the same. It is essential to have focus. Know what your topics are, what you are an expert in, and do not wander. Those who want to publish at all costs often go too broad, making them appear as experts in everything, and thus in nothing. It is very important to know who your audience is, to whom you are addressing. This is important because then you will write your statements and posts accordingly, using appropriate language, understandable to the groups that are your audience, and addressing topics that are important to them.
With well-executed personal branding, you gain credibility in your field, become an opinion maker on certain topics, and certainly become a kind of influencer. With such an approach, you expand your networking, which, depending on the platforms, can be global. Some contacts that would be difficult to achieve in life suddenly become possible. You connect with people and topics of interest, and numerous business opportunities, new jobs, collaborations, conference appearances, and similar events can occur.
Building your personal brand requires effort and time. This is often an excuse for many as to why they do not do it. ‘I don’t have time’ is a common syndrome. One of the additional positive effects is when managers share some innovative ideas, out-of-the-box thinking, industry trends, etc. This shows an innovative mindset, openness to change, and often encourages others, within their organization and beyond, to follow such a path.
Effort and time
The most important professional channel for me is LinkedIn. On it, 850,000 Croats have profiles, which is 21 percent of the population. Through LinkedIn, I have made numerous friends around the world, whom I otherwise would not have been able to reach or would not have known existed. I follow trends on topics, companies, and top managers that interest me. LinkedIn is my platform where I write about leadership, employment, as well as sports and humanitarian work, which are part of my identity.
Since leadership is one of my favorite topics, I follow some well-known CEOs. One of my best examples of personal branding is Bernard Looney, CEO of British Petroleum (BP). According to his own admission, three of his employees work on personal branding, operationally, in line with his guidelines. Once a week, they have a meeting to discuss further activities. He is very active on social media, and that is personal, not BP’s. He comments on various topics and uses his platform excellently to express his views on issues such as climate change, pollution, the global energy crisis… He responds to all comments and questions and does not shy away from negative comments and criticisms he receives. He does not engage in debates but responds with arguments. Thus, he is a true example of how to build an independent personal brand alongside a strong brand like BP.
Good examples
In Croatia, many CEOs, company owners, etc., do not have a profile on LinkedIn. Those who do often are completely passive observers. The third category is those who only forward their company’s posts about launching new products, awards received, and similar. Thus, their posts add absolutely no value. To the company or society.
As a positive example in Croatia, I would mention Dr. Dragan Primorac, a man with many interests and inexhaustible energy. He is globally successful and well-known, so in that sense, personal PR is not necessary for him. However, Dr. Primorac is very active on his platforms. He does not focus solely on the results of his business but constantly seeks ways to improve the world, science, the profession, promote his country, healthy living, highlight individuals… He uses his social media to selflessly share knowledge, investing his precious time, aware of how important this is for the development of society as a whole.
One of the potential dangers is when managers tie their self branding too closely to the name of their employer or product. It is extremely important to know how to balance that. The connection with that company/brand will most often not last a lifetime, and then it becomes very difficult to separate in the eyes of others.
Croats – relaxed
Throughout my 26-year career in intensive work with senior management, I have been convinced that true leadership in Croatia is extremely rare. The answer to the question of why this is so lies in the fact that the vast majority of top managers, entrepreneurs, and company owners live what Simon Sinek, one of today’s greatest business thinkers, would call a finite mindset. A finite mindset indicates that everything is focused on short-term goals, results, sales, crises (like COVID-19), solving immediate problems. By focusing entirely on that, unnecessarily delving into deep operations (like choosing music for the company’s advertisement), top management simply misses its role. This is not only not leadership, but it is also not good management. And so every year anew, from the beginning. Of course, finite goals are necessary for every company as a foundation for building up. Unlike the short-term ‘it’s all about me‘ finite mindset, true world leaders have adopted an infinite leadership mindset, where the approach ‘it’s all about us‘ dominates. They deal with long-term strategies, develop long-term advantages, create organizations that nothing can surprise. At the same time, the interest of the broader community is always one of the focuses.
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With personal branding, you want to become recognizable in your field. When someone sees or hears about you, they should immediately have a clear association of what you are an expert in. Those who want to publish at all costs on social media often go too broad, making them appear as experts in everything, and thus in nothing. It is very important to know who your audience is, to whom you are addressing
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If we return to self branding and the communication methods of infinite leaders, they are truly beacons, not only internally for their organization but also for a certain industry and/or country as a whole. True leaders understand the value of communication as a platform for addressing important national and global issues and initiating change. Through direct communication channels, they can promote inclusion, diversity, engage in substantive debates, connect with their employees, create trust, and build a shared vision of the future.
Many managers complain about younger generations. Perhaps they forget that young people need role models. Just as young athletes look up to Modrić, Verstappen, or Jokić, so too do young future managers need correct managerial role models. The role of top management is now much more complex than it used to be. Meeting results and goals is only part of the job. Doing good, changing the world for the better, being a visionary… all of these are obligations, but also a great honor and privilege of today’s top managers.
