Executive Career Development Includes Personal Branding * Incedo Group

Executive Career Development Includes Personal Branding

The subject of executive career development is everywhere: what skills leaders need, what companies in today’s economy require in their leaders, how we develop leaders, succession planning for leaders, and more. I don’t argue that these are important topics; I’ve written about them many times. Yet the one piece I think is missing from these discussions is personal branding for executives.

Branding for you, the executive, is just as important as branding is for a company. We think of branding for authors, consultants, artists and all kinds of other professions, but don’t recognize that personal branding for the executive is just as important, perhaps more so, than developing any other skills. You might be the Pied Piper of leaders or as brilliant as Jack Welch, but if no one knows about you it ain’t all that helpful.

Personal branding for executives gets at the heart of packaging your expertise so you become visible and well known to those both inside and outside your organization. Many jobs are secured because people know who you are even before you show up for the interview. Promotions happen because you are visible to others, not simply because you have talent. Branding is THE critical component of executive career development. Without it you might as well cross your fingers and toes and hope someone notices you.

Companies spend millions of dollars every year on branding. Obviously they believe they get ROI or they wouldn’t spend the dollars. Your investment isn’t money but it is taking the time to develop your personal branding and making it known to others. Don’t get me wrong, you can’t succeed without the requisite skills. No one is going to promote or hire you just because you’ve done a bang-up job of self-promotion. You need to have substance behind the packaging. All talk and no action becomes apparent to others sooner or later. Competition for key positions is keen. Why take the chance of losing the opportunity you want because you ignored personal branding as part of your executive career development?