Performance Branding for Leadership Effectiveness

Increase Your Effectiveness as a Leader

Align Your Brand into a Performance Brand

By Shelley Hammell

President, Sage Alliance, Inc.

When your car’s wheels are out of alignment, you can drive the car but it won’t be a steady, smooth ride for long. And it will need constant correction to stay on course. The same image comes to mind with alignment between a leader and the organization. Moving up in the organization takes a certain level of skill and focus. However, if you are out of alignment, you will need to make the necessary corrections to attain a steady, smooth climb.

While branding yourself is integral to moving up in any organization, it’s important to ensure your personal brand adds value to the organization. However, personal branding is focused on the individual. It’s about gaining clarity on individual strengths and building visibility for individual capabilities. This doesn’t address how your brand fits within the organizational value system. That’s where Performance Branding adds value.

Leaders who learn how to align their brand with the organization will strengthen their reputation, grow their influence and position themselves for upward mobility.

Let’s look at an example of what I mean. Let’s say you define your personal brand as someone who is a go-getter. You make things happen. That’s great, right? Well maybe, maybe not. Does your company value these attributes? Will these help you get to the next level? And how do you execute on themake things happen part? Is it in such a way that is in alignment with the corporate culture and value system?

Here’s the formula Sage Alliance uses with our coaching clients for Performance Branding;

Individual Strengths + Observable Contributions + Organizational Impacts = Your Performance Brand

It starts with gaining clarity on Individual Strengths and unique skills and abilities. It’s important to take the time to identify what you’re good at and how you want to be known by others. Refer to Top Tips for Powering Your Brand, available on www.thesagealliance.com/resources.

The Observable Contributions you make are the way in which you leverage and take action on your strengths. For example, if your strength is being a go-getter this may translate into never taking no for an answer as you make things happen. By connecting the dots between your strengths and contributions, you can determine which behaviors are valued in the organization to support its goals.

It’s essential to define your brand in the context of the Organizational Impacts to gain alignment with the corporate culture and value system. While a go-getter is viewed as positive in one corporate culture, it may be seen as overly aggressive in another. Does the never taking no for an answer mean people feel they can really count on you or that you overstep boundaries and aren’t trustworthy?

Performance Branding takes what you want to be known for to a whole new level. It not only defines who you are but how you are aligned within the organization and its value system. This is essential if you want a strong brand that resonates and positions you as an effective Leader. This is the essence of Performance Branding.

Visit us at www.thesagealliance.com. Email Shelley Hammell at shammell@thesagealliance.com. Call us at 404.680.6186.

Sage Alliance, Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.