The most important thing as a leader in your organization is your personal brand.
What do you stand for?
What are your values?
If someone says your name, what are the first three words that come to their mind?
What do they know you will do above all else?
What do they know you will never do?
Many times, when we get attached to an organization, our personal brand can get lost in the organization’s brand.
It becomes a reflection on us and not the other way around.
Your personal brand is everything.
When you have a bad personal brand, it will reflect long beyond your current position.
So, you must make sure your brand reflects positively.
To protect your personal brand, here are a few things you need to do every day.
1. Remain authentic.
If you focus on who you are and stop trying to be someone that you’re not, you can protect your personal brand.
Always remain true to who you are.
When things get tough, the real you will come out.
There’s no point in pretending to be someone else.
2. Make your values known.
Everyone should know your values.
My first value is service above self; I want to be valuable, useful and in service to other people.
My second is empowering people; using my resources to provide others with more resources.
My third is legacy. Legacy is understanding that success without a successor is a failure.
Those are my values, but what are yours?
What are the things that when people hear your name, they know you stand for?
To protect your personal brand, you’ve got to remain authentic and hone in on your values.
If you do this, you won’t ever have to worry about having a tainted brand.
