Building Your Leadership Brand

Leadership Communication

A brand is what you are known for – your reputation, your image. It’s what people say about you. People make remarks about their team members, colleagues, clients and managers all the time. And these remarks can be positive or negative: “He’s a great guy". “She’s very ambitious." or “He’s very slow to get things done." “She’s over-meticulous." A person’s brand is also often reflected in how they are introduced to others, for example to new recruits or to stakeholders, or externally to clients or a conference audience. Examples

Indra Nooyi, former CEO of Pepsi Cola was introduced at the outset of an interview as follows:

“She’s a leader. Visionary. Competitive. Tough-minded. Caring. Indra makes things happen.”

Description of Dame Emma Walmsley, CEO of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)

“She’s a strong and dynamic leader who mixes a personable style with a steely focus. She inspires those around her with her work ethic and sets clear objectives, paying close attention to talent development while driving performance.”
Financial Times profile of her leadership at GSK

Description of Marc Benioff, Founder, Chairman & CEO of Salesforce 

“He’s a visionary leader in technology and innovation. Strategic in his thinking. Customerobsessed and relentlessly focused on growth. Marc Benioff inspires teams to push boundaries and drive positive impact at scale.”

So what do your colleagues say about you – and is it important?

What people say about you will frame how others see you. If you are trying to change attitudes, shape opinion, get buy-in, it will be easier – or more difficult – depending on people’s perception of you and your brand.

Your brand is known technically as your “situated ethos“, one of the three pillars of persuasive speaking (as defined by Aristotle in so-called ‘Art of Rhetoric’), along with Logos (the appeal to reason) and Pathos (the appeal to emotion).

In Aristotle’s view: “[the] ethos or character of the speaker is generally the most powerful form of persuasion.”. To put it simply, people have to buy in to YOU as well as your ideas. Your brand will help or hinder you in achieving your goals therefore it needs to be right for your role. 

So can you shape your brand and develop it? The answer is yes!

The Speaking as a Leader program will provide you with an audit of your brand in the context of your leadership communication and help you to:

• Understand potential brand ‘gaps’ and how to close them
• Develop a brand action plan to help you achieve your goals
• Project your target brand through your daily talk track, choice of vocabulary, personal anecdotes, stories, presentations and also in your written communications
• Project your target brand through your speaking style

It will help you to maximise opportunities in everyday business speaking contexts, to build your brand and extend your sphere of influence.

To discuss programs available, please contact Simon Cannon at Vocal Edge on: +44 (0)208 579 6662